The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

III. Commentary and Dictionary Reprints Mold Views on Prophecy

Bible commentaries, Bible dictionaries, and family Bibles with marginal notations occupy a unique place in religious life and literature. They constitute handbooks, reference volumes, tools for the constant use of every religious worker. They are consulted by speaker and writer alike, and are commonly regarded as authoritative—or at least as drawn from the writings of experts in their given fields. If not followed as authorities, they are nevertheless constantly consulted for comparison and suggestion. And in such capacities they exerted an unusually wide influence upon religious views and writings. And this is rightly so, for usually commentators have in turn read widely from the ablest scholars and have largely coordinated their findings, so that their commentaries are really compendiums, reflecting the views of a large group of trained minds. So it was in the period we are studying. PFF4 116.2

1. COMMENTARIES POPULAR IN AMERICA

There were practically no original American commentaries at the dawn of the nineteenth century. But aside from imported volumes, which were always available, there were American reprints of leading British commentaries, which had the same force and influence as indigenous American products. Among these favorites were the commentaries of Matthew Henry, Thomas Scott, Adam Clarke, and John Wesley, and theological dictionaries, such as that by Charles Buck. In addition, such standard works as Prideaux, Home, and Faber all exerted their weight of influence. Their leading positions are all noted on the tabular charts ²⁰ Note the caliber of these expositors and their diversity of church affiliation. PFF4 116.3

But before turning to British commentaries, we must notice one published in America by an Englishman who fled from his homeland to escape persecution. PFF4 117.1

2. PRIESTLEY (UNITARIAN): SHIFTS FROM POST—TO PRE-MILLENNIALISM

Although a Nonconformist minister and author of several religious works, JOSEPH PRIESTLEY ²¹ a is best known as a noted English experimental scientist and the discoverer of oxygen. He was welcomed in America as a great scientist by such leading citizens as Thomas Jefferson. At his home in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, he wrote most of his religious books, including the latter part of his General History of the Christian Church (4 vols., 1790-1803); Unitarianism Explained and Defended (1796); and Notes on All the Books of Scripture (4 vols., 1803-04) ²² Priestley was not, however, welcomed by the New England Unitarians (who at that time were still merely a liberal wing in the Congregational Church), for he had already moved farther away from “orthodoxy” than they were prepared to go at that early date. He was a “humanitarian” Unitarian—that is, he disbelieved the divinity as well as the deity of Christ. But he acknowledged miracles as the proofs of Christianity and accepted the validity of prophecy. (See illustration on p. 104.) PFF4 117.2

His interpretations of prophecy were in the main orthodox. And by the time he wrote his Notes on All the Books of Scripture, he had changed his view from postmillennialism to premillennialism. He now affirmed the literal, visible return of Christ and the literal resurrection of the righteous at the beginning of the millennial kingdom on earth, during which Christ will reign over restored Israel and the world for a long and unknown period, followed by the general resurrection and judgment, with probably the annihilation of the wicked, and finally the renovation of the earth ²³ He presented the standard historical interpretations of the four empires, with the Papacy as the great persecuting power, applying the year-day principle to the time prophecies, although he did not try to pin down the periods to exact dates. Allowing for the figurative nature of the predictions, he was satisfied with approximate dates and intervals ²⁴ PFF4 118.1

Priestley’s commentary is less well known than its English contemporaries, but was periodically cited. Its influence was probably limited by the fact that, as Adam Clarke says in the General Preface to his own commentary, Priestley “keeps his own creed (Unitarianism) continually in view, ... yet his work contains many invaluable notes and observations, especially on the philosophy, natural history, geography, and chronology of the Scriptures: and to these subjects, few men in Europe were better qualified to do justice.” PFF4 118.2

In the 1830’s came another American exposition of the Scriptures—Jenks’s Comprehensive Commentary, which had wide circulation. But his was a compilation, chiefly from Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott. Hence these British commentaries, which were also reprinted in America before Jenks published, will be taken up first that Lloyd’s prediction of the fulfillment of the “hour, day, month, and year” (of Revelation 9:15) as ending in 1672. Although disagreeing with Lloyd’s interpretation of the prophecy, he points out that there were 391 years between the taking of Katahi by the Turks in 1281 and their taking Kaminice in 1672, after which, he says, it is acknowledged that the Turkish power has been on the decline. (Ibid., vol. 4, p. 601.; PFF4 118.3