Spurgeon's Advice Regarding Consulting the Commentaries
The "prince of
preachers" Charles Haddon Spurgeon in his work "Commenting
and Commentaries" declared to his
students that...
"we should heartily
subscribe to the declaration, that more expository preaching (Type of preaching in which an extended passage of the Scripture,
especially a book, is explained and interpreted over a number of weeks) is
greatly needed, and that all preachers would be the better if they were
more able expounders (implies a careful often elaborate
explanation to make something clear and understandable) of the inspired
Word.
To render such a
result more probable, every inducement to search the Holy Scriptures
should be placed in the way of our ministers, and to the younger brethren
some guidance should be offered as to the works most likely to aid them
in their studies. Many are persuaded that they should expound the Word,
but being unversed (unfamiliar,
unstudied) in the original tongues
(Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) they can only fall back upon
the help of their English Concordances, and are left floundering about,
when a sound comment would direct their thoughts. True, the Holy Spirit
will instruct the seeker, but He works by means. The Ethiopian eunuch
might have received divine illumination, and doubtless did receive it, but
still, when asked whether he understood the Scripture which he read, he
replied, "How can I unless some man shall guide me?" The guiding man is
needed still. Divines who have studied the Scriptures have left us great
stores of holy thought which we do well to use. Their expositions can
never be a substitute for our own
meditations, but as water poured down a
dry pump often sets it to work to bring up water of its own, so suggestive
reading sets the mind in motion on its own account. Here, however, is the
difficulty. Students do not find it easy to choose which works to buy (nor
which of an endlessly and rapidly proliferating list of offerings on the
internet to make good use of), and
their slender stores are often wasted on books of a comparatively
worthless kind. If I can save a poor man from spending his money for that
which is not bread, or, by directing a brother to a good book, may enable
him to dig deeper into the mines of truth, I shall be well repaid. For
this purpose I have toiled, and read much, and passed under review some
three or four thousand volumes. From these I have compiled my catalogue,
rejecting man, yet making a very varied selection. Though I have carefully
used such judgment as I possess, I have doubtless made many errors; I
shall certainly find very few who will agree with all my criticisms, and
some persons may be angry at my remarks. I have, however, done my best,
and, with as much impartiality as I can command, I have nothing extenuated
nor set down aught in malice. He who finds fault will do well to execute
the work in better style; only let him remember that he will have my
heifer to plough with and therefore ought in all reason to excel me.
I have used a degree of pleasantry in my remarks on the Commentaries, for
a catalogue is a dry affair, and, as much for my own sake as for that of
my readers, I have indulged the mirthful vein here and there. For this I
hope I shall escape censure, even if I do not win commendation.
To God I commend this labour, which has been undertaken and carried out
with no motive but that of honoring his name, and edifying his Church by
stimulating the study of his Word. May He, for His Son's sake, grant my
heart's desire." (and this
writer humbly agrees)...
It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit
reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to
others. My chat this afternoon is not for these great originals, but for
you who are content to learn of holy men, taught of God, and mighty in the
Scriptures. It has been the fashion of late years to speak against the use
of commentaries...A respectable acquaintance with the opinions of the
giants of the past, might have saved many an erratic thinker from wild
interpretations and outrageous inferences. Usually, we have found the
despisers of commentaries to be men who have no sort of acquaintance with
them; in their case, it is the opposite of familiarity which has bred
contempt. It is true there are a number of expositions of the whole Bible
which are hardly worth shelf room; they aim at too much and fail
altogether; the authors have spread a little learning over a vast surface,
and have badly attempted for the entire Scriptures what they might have
accomplished for one book with tolerable success...who can pretend to
biblical learning who has not made himself familiar with the great writers
who spent a life in explaining some one sacred book?
Spurgeon comments on specific
writers beginning with Matthew Henry...
First among the mighty for general
usefulness we are bound to mention the man whose name is a household word,
Matthew Henry. He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive
and sober, terse and trustworthy. You will find him to be glittering with
metaphors, rich in analogies, overflowing with illustrations,
superabundant in reflections. He delights in apposition and alliteration;
he is usually plain, quaint, and full of pith; he sees right through a
text directly; apparently he is not critical, but he quietly gives the
result of an accurate critical knowledge of the original fully up to the
best critics of his time. He is not versed in the manners and customs of
the East, for the Holy Land was not so accessible as in our day; but he is
deeply spiritual, heavenly, and profitable; finding good matter in every
text, and from all deducing most practical and judicious lessons.
(Ed note: Matthew Henry was a
nonconformist Presbyterian pastor, a master of biblical languages and a
diligent Bible student who ransacked the old commentary material of his
day to pass the meat along to us. He had a lovely gift for organizing and
expressing his thoughts. It is notable that Henry died having finished his
comments only through the book of Acts. The comments on Romans through
Revelation were supplied by 14 contemporary preachers of his day, and all
were dissenters from the Church of England. The unabridged edition of
Henry's commentary is generally considered superior to the "concise"
versions available today.)
Spurgeon goes on to add that...
It would not be possible for me too
earnestly to press upon you the importance of reading the expositions of
that prince among men, John Calvin!...
A very distinguished place is
due to Dr. Gill. Beyond all controversy, Gill was one of the most
able Hebraists of his day, and in other matters no mean
proficient...Probably no man since Gill's days has at all equalled him in
the matter of Rabbinical learning. Say what you will about that lore, it
has its value: of course, a man has to rake among perfect dunghills and
dust heaps, but there are a few jewels which the world could not afford to
miss. Gill was a master cinder sifter among the Targums, the Talmuds, the
Mishna, and the Gemara. Richly did he deserve the degree of which he said,
"I never bought it, nor thought it, nor sought it. He was always at work;
it is difficult to say when he slept, for he wrote 10,000 folio pages of
theology...
Adam Clarke is the great annotator of our Wesleyan
friends; and they have no reason to be ashamed of him, for he takes rank
among the chief of expositors. His mind was evidently fascinated by the
singularities of learning, and hence his commentary is rather too much of
an old curiosity shop, but it is filled with valuable rarities, such as
none but a great man could have collected. Like Gill, he is one sided
(Arminian - believed you could lose your salvation), only in the opposite
direction to our friend the Baptist....If you have a copy of Adam
Clarke, and exercise discretion in reading it, (Click
critique of Adam Clarke) you will derive immense advantage from
it, for frequently by a sort of side light he brings out the meaning of
the text in an astonishingly novel manner. I do not wonder that Adam
Clarke still stands, notwithstanding his peculiarities, a prince among
commentators. (from
Commenting
and Commentaries)
In other writings Spurgeon had
some interesting thoughts...
Regarding Matthew Henry - You
will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich in analogies,
overflowing with illustrations, superabundant in reflections. Every
minister ought to read Matthew Henry entirely and carefully through once
at least. You will acquire a vast store of sermons if you read with your
note-book close at hand; and as for thoughts, they will swarm around you
like twittering swallows around an old gable towards the close of autumn."
Regarding John Gill - “He is
always worth consulting...for good, sound, massive, sober sense in
commenting, who can excel Gill?”
Regarding Jamieson, Fausset and
Brown's commentary - We consult it continually, and with growing
interest. It contains so great a variety of information that if a man had
no other exposition he would find himself at no great loss if he possessed
this and used it diligently.
Regarding Matthew Poole's
(Puritan who lived from 1624-1679) Commentary (published about
1685) - If I must have only one commentary, and had read Matthew Henry as
I have, I do not know but what I should choose Poole. He is a very prudent
and judicious commentator... not so pithy and witty by far as Matthew
Henry, but he is perhaps more accurate, less a commentator, and more an
expositor.
