Bible Commentary - James

by Matthew Henry

This is another volume in the series of Bible Commentaries of Matthew Henry.In this Volume, the entire text of the Book of James is commented with notes of each chapter.This Commentary will help you better understand the God's word!Churches, theological seminaries and Bible schools will find an excellent aid in this biblical commentary on the Book of James.Henry was born at Broad Oak, Iscoyd, a farmhouse on the borders of Flintshire and Shropshire, Wales, United Kingdom. His father, Philip Henry, was a Church of England cleric and had just been ejected under the Act of Uniformity 1662. Unlike most of his fellow-sufferers, Philip possessed some private means, and was thus able to give his son a good education. Matthew went first to a school at Islington, at that time a village just outside London, and then to Gray's Inn, in the heart of the capital. He soon gave up his legal studies for theology, and in 1687 became minister of a Presbyterian congregation at Chester.While in Chester, Henry founded the Presbyterian Chapel in Trinity Street.He moved again in 1712 to Mare Street, Hackney. Two years later (22 June 1714), he died suddenly of apoplexy at the Queen's Aid House (41 High Street) in Nantwich, while on a journey from Chester to London.Matthew Henry's well-known six-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1708–10) or Complete Commentary, provides an exhaustive verse by verse study of the Bible, covering the whole of the Old Testament, and the Gospels and Acts in the New Testament. After the author's death, the work was finished (Romans through Revelation) by thirteen other nonconformist ministers, partly based upon notes taken by Henry's hearers, and edited by George Burder and John Hughes in 1811.Henry's commentaries are primarily exegetical, dealing with the scripture text as presented, with his prime intention being explanation, for practical and devotional purposes. While not being a work of textual research, for which Henry recommended Matthew Poole's Synopsis Criticorum, Henry's Exposition gives the result of a critical account of the original as of his time, with practical application. It was considered sensible and stylish, a commentary for devotional purposes.Famous evangelical Protestant preachers such as George Whitefield and Charles Spurgeon used and heartily commended the work, with Whitefield reading it through four times – the last time on his knees.Spurgeon stated, "Every minister ought to read it entirely and carefully through once at least." 

86 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Matthew Henry was an English non-conformist clergyman. Henry's well-known Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1708–1710) is a commentary of a practical and devotional rather than of a critical kind, covering the whole of the Old Testament, and the Gospels and Acts in the New Testament.

Reviews

[Benedict · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is rough; the author has a certain amount of historical data that’s more or less well organized in the side panels, but the text itself is about what you’d get in a freshman seminar, and it editorializes pretty frequently against contemporary society in a way that makes it seem like even its exegesis (learning from original contexts and providing more meaning from that) is in fact eisegesis (identifying an existing current issue or opinion with things that were not present originally). I feel like it presented enough material that I could read between the lines, but I was discouraged because other volumes in this series have been much stronger, and I wish I’d spent my time with something that presented more facts and scholarship and fewer opinions and modern doctrinal stances.

[Victoria Gaile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This is an excellent commentary. Talbert draws *heavily* on intertestamental and extra-canonical materials, including relatively recent discoveries such as the Qumran documents, and presents ample historical and cultural material, to give the reader a feel for the kind of context that Paul's audience would have had. The word studies are also excellent and accessible to those with no background in Greek. The approach to the text is contextual, structural, and topical: rather than proceeding strictly verse by verse, questions and issues are dealt with as they arise. The result is remarkably readable and accessible, considering how comprehensive it also is.

When there are differences of opinion among scholars, the various positions are presented and discussed before concluding that one of them is correct. Modern and contemporary as well as ancient sources are consulted, including respected writers from Christian traditions other than his own. Supplementary material is presented in sidebars, and includes art, illustrations, and poetry as well as historical background and quotations from patristic and Reformation writers. (This arrangement of the material is characteristic of the series of which this commentary is a part.)

Doctrinal and catechetical discussions, when they arise from the text, are generally collected in the sections marked "Connections", which is helpful both to the baptist reader who is looking for guidance and the non-baptist reader who wishes to read such material with a certain care.

I'm working with a dozen commentaries on Romans this summer, and this one is hands-down the best in terms of both in-depth background material and accessibility. (And I didn't even look at the CD it comes with!) If you're looking to understand Paul's letter to the Romans in the world of the text, get this commentary.