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Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians - Enhanced Version
Calvin’s Commentaries are classics of the first order, essential reading for anyone studying a Bible text. Reading Calvin nearly always leads to new insights on a passage. Philip Schaff said of Calvin that he “was an exegetical genius of the first order. His commentaries are unsurpassed for originality, depth, perspicuity, soundness and permanent value. He combined in a very rare degree all the essential qualities of an exegete—grammatical knowledge, spiritual insight, acute perception, sound judgment, and practical tact.”Based on the Calvin Translation Society edition, this version of the Commentaries is optimized for use on a Kindle. Links to commentary on passages are represented compactly in the Table of Contents so you can find commentary on a passage with minimal paging.This edition features an artistic cover, a new promotional introduction, an index of scripture references, links for scripture references to the appropriate passages, and a hierarchical table of contents which makes it possible to navigate to any part of the book with a minimum of page turns.
549 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1548
26 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
John Calvin
1,697 books540 followersFrench-Swiss theologian John Calvin broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1533 and as Protestant set forth his tenets, known today, in
Institutes of the Christian Religion
(1536).
The religious doctrines of John Calvin emphasize the omnipotence of God, whose grace alone saves the elect.
* Jehan Cauvin
* Iohannes Calvinus (Latin)
* Jean Calvin (French)
Originally trained as a humanist lawyer around 1530, he went on to serve as a principal figure in the Reformation. He developed the system later called Calvinism.
After tensions provoked a violent uprising, Calvin fled to Basel and published the first edition of his seminal work. In that year of 1536, William Farel invited Calvin to help reform in Geneva. The city council resisted the implementation of ideas of Calvin and Farel and expelled both men. At the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg as the minister of refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and people eventually invited him back to lead. Following return, he introduced new forms of government and liturgy. Following an influx of supportive refugees, new elections to the city council forced out opponents of Calvin. Calvin spent his final years, promoting the Reformation in Geneva and throughout Europe.
Calvin tirelessly wrote polemics and apologia. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger. In addition, he wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as treatises and confessional documents and regularly gave sermons throughout the week in Geneva. The Augustinian tradition influenced and led Calvin to expound the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation.
Calvin's writing and preaching provided the seeds for the branch of Protestantism that bears his name. His views live on chiefly in Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, which have spread throughout the world. Calvin's thought exerted considerable influence over major figures and entire movements, such as Puritanism, and some scholars argue that his ideas contributed to the rise of capitalism, individualism, and representative democracy in the west.
The religious doctrines of John Calvin emphasize the omnipotence of God, whose grace alone saves the elect.
* Jehan Cauvin
* Iohannes Calvinus (Latin)
* Jean Calvin (French)
Originally trained as a humanist lawyer around 1530, he went on to serve as a principal figure in the Reformation. He developed the system later called Calvinism.
After tensions provoked a violent uprising, Calvin fled to Basel and published the first edition of his seminal work. In that year of 1536, William Farel invited Calvin to help reform in Geneva. The city council resisted the implementation of ideas of Calvin and Farel and expelled both men. At the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg as the minister of refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and people eventually invited him back to lead. Following return, he introduced new forms of government and liturgy. Following an influx of supportive refugees, new elections to the city council forced out opponents of Calvin. Calvin spent his final years, promoting the Reformation in Geneva and throughout Europe.
Calvin tirelessly wrote polemics and apologia. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger. In addition, he wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as treatises and confessional documents and regularly gave sermons throughout the week in Geneva. The Augustinian tradition influenced and led Calvin to expound the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation.
Calvin's writing and preaching provided the seeds for the branch of Protestantism that bears his name. His views live on chiefly in Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, which have spread throughout the world. Calvin's thought exerted considerable influence over major figures and entire movements, such as Puritanism, and some scholars argue that his ideas contributed to the rise of capitalism, individualism, and representative democracy in the west.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 9, 2014
I was not brought up in a religious household, and my parents weren't the strictest of disciplinarians. My childhood days were spent seeing how far I could explore the neighborhood before drawing my mother's ire or how often I could run off with my uncle's cigarette lighter before he blew his top. Thus a pattern of seeing just how ornery I could be and get away with it obtained through my early years and adolescence. And then I met Jesus. The Southern Baptists with their dispensational take on Scripture made the introduction, so my earliest exposure to the Mosaic Law was that it was in no sense binding on the believer. I had the duplicate influence of both nature and nurture working in tandem to ensure I was as unruly as possible. John Calvin was a challenge. I didn't realize how affected I was until I was exposed to the "Covenantal" perspective that the law, while certainly not able to save us, is nevertheless a rule of life for the Christian. Even as I read through Calvin's Institutes and his commentary on Galatians, I've struggled with the tension of these two outlooks.
It took me a while to put my finger on just what was bothering me about Calvin's take on Christian liberty. In the end, I was misinterpreting some key Bible passages, influenced by our libertine culture, and I do believe there is a subtle antipathy for the law within dispensational circles (in fairness, I've interviewed a number of dispensationalists, and none have copped to my description). I was ignoring the law altogether, but Calvin has won me to his way of thinking. I’ll learn to love God’s law. I’ll seek to better understand it so that I might better understand God. I’ll search it for ways to gladden my Savior. I’ll use it’s precepts as a perimeter, but I’ll never again use it to gain grace. That was fulfilled once for all in Christ. So as I'm riding my Big Wheel along those banned borders of my block, the thing that will hold me within them is not the letter of the law, but the love of my lord. In the same way that my affection for my mother delivered me home before dark, my devotion to Jesus obliges me to obey. It is a joy to study his law to learn how I might please him more.
It took me a while to put my finger on just what was bothering me about Calvin's take on Christian liberty. In the end, I was misinterpreting some key Bible passages, influenced by our libertine culture, and I do believe there is a subtle antipathy for the law within dispensational circles (in fairness, I've interviewed a number of dispensationalists, and none have copped to my description). I was ignoring the law altogether, but Calvin has won me to his way of thinking. I’ll learn to love God’s law. I’ll seek to better understand it so that I might better understand God. I’ll search it for ways to gladden my Savior. I’ll use it’s precepts as a perimeter, but I’ll never again use it to gain grace. That was fulfilled once for all in Christ. So as I'm riding my Big Wheel along those banned borders of my block, the thing that will hold me within them is not the letter of the law, but the love of my lord. In the same way that my affection for my mother delivered me home before dark, my devotion to Jesus obliges me to obey. It is a joy to study his law to learn how I might please him more.
February 18, 2024
The doctrine in these commentaries is helpful, and from an objective standpoint, I have few complaints. For myself, however, while I've read several of Calvin's commentaries over the years, I don't know how personally helpful I've found them for my own devotional life. They're good formulations of Reformed doctrine, but I think I more find commentaries useful when they help me apply the principles of Scripture to my daily life, and that isn't Calvin's particular strong suit in these commentaries (though he waxes beautifully on this elsewhere).
May 18, 2020
You’ll find Calvin’s comments erudite yet accessible.
You’ll find Calvin’s comments erudite yet accessible. His method and presentation is uniform and therefore easy to engage whether you are reading through the book or simply picking up his comments on certain passages. I view Calvin as a must have in regard to sermon preparation or other study as he can summarize and clarify difficult passages so well.
You’ll find Calvin’s comments erudite yet accessible. His method and presentation is uniform and therefore easy to engage whether you are reading through the book or simply picking up his comments on certain passages. I view Calvin as a must have in regard to sermon preparation or other study as he can summarize and clarify difficult passages so well.
March 12, 2020
It's Calvin. Get it.
July 26, 2020
Only read the Ephesians part. Really good!
July 22, 2025
Fine Wine
January 28, 2016
Calvin was an exceptional thinker and exegete. While I do not agree with all of his theology, his point of view is worth considering. This book raises lots of question marks, for example, from this quote.
"Besides, if a single man or a few persons be brought into comparison, how immensely must the church preponderate! It is a cruel kind of mercy which prefers a single man to the whole church. “On one side, I see the flock of God in danger; on the other, I see a wolf “seeking,” like Satan, “whom he may devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8.) Ought not my care of the church to swallow up all my thoughts, and lead me to desire that its salvation should be purchased by the destruction of the wolf? And yet I would not wish that a single individual should perish in this way; but my love of the church and my anxiety about her interests carry me away into a sort of ecstasy, so that I can think of nothing else.” With such a zeal as this, every true pastor of the church will burn."
This seems to directly contradict the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, etc. Calvin is worth reading, but with a grain of salt. He is too engaged in his theological struggle to be internally consistent.
"Besides, if a single man or a few persons be brought into comparison, how immensely must the church preponderate! It is a cruel kind of mercy which prefers a single man to the whole church. “On one side, I see the flock of God in danger; on the other, I see a wolf “seeking,” like Satan, “whom he may devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8.) Ought not my care of the church to swallow up all my thoughts, and lead me to desire that its salvation should be purchased by the destruction of the wolf? And yet I would not wish that a single individual should perish in this way; but my love of the church and my anxiety about her interests carry me away into a sort of ecstasy, so that I can think of nothing else.” With such a zeal as this, every true pastor of the church will burn."
This seems to directly contradict the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, etc. Calvin is worth reading, but with a grain of salt. He is too engaged in his theological struggle to be internally consistent.
January 26, 2009
Good work. Not this edition, and I just read Galatians.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews