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"TO GIVE SUBTILT7 TO THE SIMPLE, TO THE YOUNG MAN KNOWLEDGE AND DIS CRETION. A WISE MAN WILL HEAR, AND WILL INCREASE LEARNING; AND A MAN OP UNDERSTANDING SHALL ATTAIN UNTO WISE COUNSELS." — PROV. I. 4, ,3.
EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
rs
7
H03S9 JAN 2 2 1993
M, EfiNEST BENGEL;
CONTAINING THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE, THE NOTES ON ST MATTHEW, TRANSLATED BY
EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
IT is quite superfluous to write in praise of the Gnomon of Bengel. Ever since the year in which it was first published, A.D. 1742, up to the present time, it has been growing in esti mation, and has been more and more widely circulated among the scholars of all countries. Though modern criticism has furnished many valuable additions to our materials for New Testament exegesis, yet, in some respects, Bengel stands out still " facile princeps" among all who have laboured, or who as yet labour, in that important field. He is unrivalled in felicitous brevity, combined with what seldom accompanies that excel lence, namely, perspicuity. Terse, weighty, and suggestive, he often, as a modern writer observes, u condenses more matter into a line, than can be extracted from pages of other writers."
This condensation of style requires that the reader should have his attention always on the alert, and never presume that any remark is without point. Bengel' s parallel references to Scripture are never common-place and superficial, and ought to be in all cases looked for, as being often eqiiivalent to an able and lengthened comment. His use of italics, for the most part, has relation to the ipsissima verba of the text or context. Deeply imbued with a holy reverence for all the Written Word, he em ploys quotations of it in a way which opens out to the diligent student new and rich mines of thought in the Sacred Volume. The notes are not to be read isolated from their connection : they form a continuous thread, guiding the earnest and prayerful reader through the pleasant pastures of the Word, and by the still waters of comfort.
vi EDITOR S PREFACE.
In the passages which form the subject of controversy be tween Calvinists and Arminians, Bengel takes the view adopted by the latter, and in this respect I do not concur with him. But whilst he thus gives an undue prominence, as it would seem to me, to the responsibility and freedom of man in these passages, yet, in the general tenor of his work, there breathe such a holy reverence for God's sovereignty, and such spiritual unction, that the most extreme Calvinist would, for the most part, be unable to discover to what section of opinions he at tached himself, and as to the controverted passages would feel inclined to say, " Quum talis sis, utinam noster esses."
If all were able to read Latin notes fluently, it would not be desirable that Bengel's powerful language should be diluted by transfusion into another tongue. But as there are many who read Latin imperfectly, to whom much of Bengel's meaning is lost, — and as there are still more who cannot read Latin notes at all, and yet are diligent Bible-students, — I trust that the re ligious public will consider that a debt is due to the spirited publishers of the present work. Three able scholars — Rev. J. Bandinel,1 M.A., of Wadham College, Oxford, Rev. James Bryce, late of Aberdeen, and Rev. Dr Fletcher, Head Master of the Grammar School, Wimborne, Dorsetshire, — have, along with myself, executed the translation with all possible pains and accuracy. The Rev. James Bandinel has translated the Preface, and Notes on St Matthew ; Rev. J. Bryce has trans lated from Romans to Hebrews inclusive ; and Rev. Dr Fletcher from James to Revelation inclusive ; and my portion of translation has been from Mark to Acts inclusive. I have revised carefully and edited the whole, and hold myself respon sible for the substance of all that is in the present work, even in those parts not translated by me, but only corrected, and where the language is, generally speaking, that of my fellow-translators.