“ TO GIVE SUBTILTY TO THE SIMPLE, TO THE YOUNG MAN KNOWLEDGE AND DIS- CRETION. A WISE MAN WILL HEAR, AND WILL INCREASE LEARNING; AND A MAN OF UNDERSTANDING SHALL ATTAIN UNTO WISE COUNSELS.” — PROV. 1. 4, 5.
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CONTAINING THE COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES OF JAMES, I. PETER, II. PETER, I. JOHN, II. JOHN, III. JOHN, JUDE, AND THE APOCALYPSE.
In the name of my fellow-translators and myself, I desire to thank the literary and religious public for the favourable reception -which they have given to the two volumes of the Translation of Bengel’s Gnomon already published. In sending forth to the world the three remaining volumes, it is only necessary to repeat, that no pains have been spared to make the Translation throughout worthy of the well- deserved reputation of the original.
Of course it is not possible to reproduce in our more diffuse English language the terse brevity of Bengel’s Latin ; but this loss is in some measure counterbalanced by the greater gain in clearness, wdiich the Translation in many passages will be found to possess, when compared with the original Latin. Many readers of ordinary scholarship, often meet in the Latin Gnomon sentences, which, in order to be understood, require more patience and thought than they have time to bestow. They will be tempted to pass by such passages, and say, u Si non vis intelligi, debes negligi.” Bengel’s friend Martliius warned him of this tendency to obscurity through the ex- cessive brevity of his style ; 66 Let me beg of you,” wrote Marthius to Bengel, 66 not to give your critical annotations too concisely, under the idea that your readers will take the trouble to think out all the meaning, which you intend to convey in some two or three words.” I have tried to make such passages intelligible to the reader by brief explanations, sometimes inserted in the text in brackets, sometimes appended as footnotes. There are also explained in the notes of this Translation allusions of Bengel to remote facts, usages, and persons, which to many readers would otherwise be obscure. The quotations from the Hebrew and lxx. Old Testament have been carefully col- lated, and corrected where it was necessary.
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