Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

P R E F A C E.

AFTER

much expectation, and many enquiries, the last volume of the late

reverend Mr. Henry’s Exposition now appears in the world. The common

disadvantages that attend posthumous productions will doubtless be

discerned in this; but we hope, though there are diversities of gifts,

there will be found to be the same spirit. Some of the relations and

hearers of that excellent person have been at the pains of transcribing

the notes they took in short-hand of this part of the holy scripture,

when expounded by him in his family or in the congregation; they have

furnished us with very good materials for the finishing of this great

work, and we doubt not but that the ministers who have been concerned

in it have made that use of those assistances which may entitle this

composure to the honour of Mr. Henry’s name; and, if so, they can very

willingly conceal their own.

The New Testament may be very properly divided into two parts, the one

historical the other epistolary. It is the exposition of

the latter we now recommend, and shall offer some thoughts on the

epistolary way of writing in general, and then proceed to observe the

divine authority of these epistles, together with the style, matter,

method, and design of them, leaving what might be said concerning the

several inspired penmen to the prefaces appertaining to the particular

epistles.

As to the epistolary way of writing, it may be sufficient to observe

that it has usually three properties:–It may in some things be more

difficult to be understood, but then it is very

profitable, and very pleasant; these will be found to be

the properties of these sacred letters. We shall meet with things not

easy to be understood, especially in some parts of them, where we

cannot so well discover the particular occasions on which they were

written or the questions or matters of fact to which they refer; but

this is abundantly compensated by the profit which will accrue to those

that read them with due attention. They will find the strongest

reasoning, the most moving expostulations, and warm and pressing

exhortations, mixed with seasonable cautions and reproofs, which are

all admirably fitted to impress the mind with suitable sentiments and

affections. And how much solid pleasure and delight must this afford to

persons of a serious and religious spirit, especially when they wisely

and faithfully apply to themselves what they find to suit their case!

Thus they will appear to be as truly written to them as if their names

were superscribed on them. It is natural for us to be very much pleased

in perusing a wise and kind letter, full of instruction and comfort,

sent to us by an absent friend: how then should we prize this part of

holy scripture, when we consider herein that our God and Saviour has

written these letters to us, in which we have the great things

of his law and gospel, the things that belong to our peace! By these

means not only the holy apostles, being dead, yet speak, but the

Lord of the prophets and apostles continues to speak and write to us;

and while we read them with proper affections, and follow them with

suitable petitions and thanksgivings, a blessed correspondence and

intercourse will be kept up between heaven and us, while we are yet

sojourners in the earth.

But it is the divine inspiration and authority of these epistles we are

especially concerned to know; and it is of the last importance that in

this our minds be fully established. And we have strong and clear

evidence that these epistles were written by the apostles of our Lord

Jesus, and that they (like the prophets of the Old Testament) spoke and

wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. These epistles have

in all ages of the church been received by Christians as a part of

those holy scriptures that are given by inspiration of God, and are

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for

instruction in righteousness, and are able to make us wise to salvation

through faith which is in Jesus Christ; they are part of that

perpetual universal rule of faith and life which contains doctrines and

revelations we are bound to believe with a divine faith, as coming from

the God of truth, and duties to be practised by us in obedience to the

will of God, acknowledging that the things written therein are the

commandments of God,
1 Cor. xiv. 37.

And, for the same reasons that lead us to acknowledge the other parts

of the Bible to be the word of God, we must own these to be so too. If

there is good reason (as indeed there is) to believe that the books of

Moses were written by inspiration of God, there is the same reason to

believe that the writings of the prophets were also from God, because

the law and the prophets speak the same things, and such things as none

but the Holy Ghost could teach; and, if we must with a divine faith

believe the Old Testament to be a revelation from God, we cannot with

any good reason question the divine authority of the New, when we

consider how exactly the histories of the one agree with the prophecies

of the other, and how the dark types and shadows of the law are

illustrated and accomplished in the gospel. Nor can any person who

pretends to believe the divine authority of the historical part of the

New Testament, containing the Gospels and the Acts, with good reason

question the equal authority of the epistolary part; for the

subject-matter of all these epistles, as well as of the sermons of the

apostles, is the word of God

(Rom. x. 17;

1 Thess. ii. 13; Col. i. 25),

and the gospel of God

(Rom. xv. 16; 2 Cor. xi. 7),

and the gospel of Christ,

2 Cor. ii. 12.

We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus

Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; and, as Moses wrote of

Christ, so did all the prophets, for the Spirit of Christ in them did

testify of him. And the apostles confirmed what Christ himself began to

teach, God also bearing them witness with signs, and wonders, and

divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his

will,
Heb. ii. 3, 4.

The manifestation of God in the flesh, and the things he began both

to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up, together

with his sufferings unto death, and his resurrection (which things are

declared to us, and are firmly to be believed, and strictly regarded by

us), do give us an ample account of the way of life and salvation by

Jesus Christ; but still it was the will of our blessed Lord that his

apostles should not only publish his gospel to all the world, but also

that, after his resurrection, they should declare some things more

plainly concerning him than he thought fit to do while he was here on

earth, for which end he promised to send his Holy Spirit to teach

them all things, to bring all things to their remembrance which he had

spoken unto them,
John xiv. 26.

For he told them

(John xvi. 12, 13),

I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now;

but when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall lead you into all

truth, and shall show you things to come. Accordingly we find there

was a wonderful effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles (who in

these epistles are called the servants, ambassadors, and

ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God),

under whose infallible guidance they preached the gospel, and declared

the whole counsel of God, and that with amazing courage and success,

Satan every where falling down before them like lightning from heaven.

That in preaching the gospel they were under the influence of the

infallible Spirit is undeniable, from the miraculous gifts and powers

they received for their work, particularly that gift of tongues so

necessary for the publication of the gospel throughout the world to

nations of different languages; nor must we omit that mighty power that

accompanied the word preached, bringing multitudes to the obedience of

faith, notwithstanding all opposition from earth and hell, and the

potent lusts in the hearts of those who were turned from idols to

serve the living God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he

raised from the dead, even Jesus, that delivered us from the wrath to

come. Now that they were under the same mighty influence in writing

these epistles as in preaching cannot be denied. Such infallible

assistance seems to be as needful at least to direct their writing as

their preaching, considering that these epistles were written to keep

in memory those things that had been delivered by word of mouth

(2 Pet. i. 15),

and to rectify the mistakes that might arise about some expressions

that had been used in preaching

(2 Thess. ii. 2),

and were to remain as a standing rule and record to which believers

were to appeal, for defending the truth and discovering error, and a

proper means to transmit the truths of the gospel to posterity, even to

the end of time. Besides, the writers of these epistles have declared

that what they wrote was from God: now they must know whether they had

the special assistance of the divine Spirit or no, in their writing as

well as preaching; and they in all things appear to have been men of

such probity that they would not dare to say they had the Spirit of God

when they had it not, or if they so much as doubted whether they had it

or not; yea, they are careful, when they speak their own private

opinion, or only under some common influence, to tell the world that

not the Lord, but they, spoke those things, but that in

the rest it was not they but the Lord,

1 Cor. vii. 10, 12,

&c. And the apostle Paul makes the acknowledgment of this their

inspiration to be a test to try those that pretended to be prophets or

spiritual: Let them (says he) acknowledge that the things I

write unto you are the commandments of the Lord,
1 Cor. xiv. 37.

And the apostle Peter gives this as the reason of his writing, that

those he wrote to might after his decease have those things always

in remembrance

(2 Pet. i. 15),

which afterwards he calls the commandment of the apostles of the

Lord

(ch. iii. 1, 2),

and so of the Lord himself. And the apostles John declareth

(1 John iv. 6),

We are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God

heareth not us; by this we know the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of

error.

As to the style of these epistles, though it be necessary we should

believe a divine influence superintending the several writers of them,

yet it is not easy to explain the manner of it, nor to determine

whether and in what particulars the words they wrote were dictated to

them by the Holy Spirit, as mere amanuenses, or how far their

own memories, and reasoning faculties, and other natural or acquired

endowments, were employed under the inspection of the Spirit. We must

believe that these holy men spoke and wrote as they were moved by

the Holy Ghost, that he put them on and assisted them in this work.

It is very probable that sometimes he not only suggested the very

thoughts in their minds, but put words into their mouths, and always

infallibly guided them into all truth, both when they expounded the

scriptures of the Old Testament and when they gave rules for our faith

and practice in the gospel church state. And yet perhaps it may be

allowed, without any diminution to the authority of these epistles,

that the penmen of them made some use of their own reasoning powers and

different endowments in their manner of writing, as well as of their

different sorts of chirography; and that by this we are to account for

that difference of style which has been observed between the writings

of Paul, who was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and those of Peter

and John, who were fishermen. The like difference may be discerned

between the style of the prophet Isaiah, who was educated in a court,

and that of Amos, who was one of the herdsmen of Tekoa. However, the

best way to understand these scriptures aright is not to criticise too

nicely upon the words and phrases, but to attend carefully to the drift

and design of these inspired writers in them.

The subject-matter of these epistles is entirely conformable to

the rest of the scriptures. In them we find frequent reference to some

passages of the Old Testament, and explanations of them: in the epistle

to the Hebrews we have the best exposition of the Levitical law. Indeed

the New Testament refers to, and in a manner builds upon, the Old,

showing the accomplishment of all the ancient promises and prophecies

concerning the Messiah, and explains all the antiquated types and

shadows of the good things that were then to come. But, besides

these references to the preceding part of holy writ, in some of these

epistles there are contained prophecies, either wholly new or at least

more largely and plainly revealed, as that in the Revelation

concerning the rise, reign, and fall of antichrist, of which great

apostasy we have some account in

2 Thess. ii. 3, 4,

and in

1 Tim. iv. 1-3.

And in these epistles we have several of the great doctrines of the

gospel more fully discussed than elsewhere, particularly the doctrine

of original sin, of the sin that dwells in the regenerate, and of

justification by the righteousness of Christ, of the abolishing of the

Jewish rites and ceremonies, of the true nature and design of the seals

of the new covenant, the obligations they bring us under, and their

perpetual use in the Christian church.

The general method of these epistles is such as best serves the end or

design of them, which is indeed the end of the whole

scripture–practical godliness, out of a principle of divine love, a

good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Accordingly most of the epistles

begin with the great doctrines of the gospel, the articles of the

Christian faith, which, when received, work by love, purify the

conscience, and produce evangelical obedience; and, after these

principles have been laid down, practical conclusions are drawn and

urged from them. In taking this method there is a regard paid to the

nature and faculties of the soul of man (where the understanding is to

lead the way, the will, affections, and executive powers, to follow

after), and to the nature of religion in general, which is a reasonable

service. We are not to be determined by superstitious fancies, nor by

blind passions, but by a sound judgment and good understanding in the

mind and will of God. By this we are taught how necessary it is that

faith and practice, truth and holiness, be joined together, that the

performance of moral duties will never be acceptable to God, nor

available to our own salvation, without the belief of the truth, since

those who make shipwreck of the faith seldom maintain a good

conscience, and the most solemn profession of the faith will never save

those that hold the truth in unrighteousness.

The particular occasions upon which these epistles were written do not

so evidently appear in them all as in some. The first to the

Corinthians seems to have taken its rise from the unhappy divisions

that so early rose in the churches of Christ, through the emulation of

the ministers and personal affections of the people; but it does not

confine itself to that subject. That to the Galatians seems directed

chiefly against those judaizing teachers that went about to draw the

Gentile converts away from the simplicity of the gospel in doctrine and

worship. The epistle to the Hebrews is manifestly calculated to wean

the converted Jews from those Mosaical rites and ceremonies for which

they retained too great a fondness, and to reconcile them to the

abolition of that economy. Those epistles that are directed to

particular persons more evidently carry their design in them, which he

that runs may read. But this is certain, none of these epistles are of

private interpretation. Most of the psalms and of the prophecies of the

Old Testament were penned or pronounced on particular occasions, and

yet they are of standing and universal use, and very instructive even

to us upon whom the ends of the world have come. And so are those

epistles that seem to have been most limited in the rise and occasion

of them. There will always be need enough to warn Christians against

uncharitable divisions, against corrupting the faith and worship of the

gospel; and, whenever the case is the same, these epistles are as

certainly directed to such churches and persons as if they had been

inscribed to them.

These general observations, we suppose, may be sufficient to introduce

the reader into the book itself; let us now take a short view of the

whole work, of which this posthumous piece is the conclusion. It is now

about fourteen years since the first part of this exposition of the

Bible was made public. In five years’ time the Old Testament was

finished in four volumes. The first volume of the New Testament was

longer in hand; for though the ever-memorable author was always fully

employed in the ordinary work of his ministry, yet those last years of

his life, in which he drew up the exposition upon the historical part

of the New Testament, were less at his own command than any other had

been. His removal to Hackney, his almost continual preaching from day

to day, his journeys to Chester, and the necessity of more frequent

visits to his friends in and about London, together with a gradual

sensible decay of health, will more than excuse the three years’ time

that passed before that was finished. And under such difficulties none

but a man of his holy zeal, unwearied industry, and great sagacity,

could have gone through such a service in that space of time. He lived

not to see that volume published, though left by him ready for the

press. The church of God was suddenly deprived of one of the most

useful ministers of the age. We have been gathering up the fragments of

those feasts with which he used to entertain his family and friends, in

his delightful work of opening the scriptures. What remains is that we

recommend the whole of this work to the acceptance and blessing of our

God and Saviour, to whose honour and interest it was from the first

directed and devoted. We need not be very solicitous about the

acceptance it may meet with in the world: what has been before

published has been received and read with great pleasure and advantage

by the most serious experienced Christians in Great Britain and

Ireland; and the many loud calls there have been for the publishing of

this supplement, and reprinting the whole, leave us no room to doubt

but that it will meet with a hearty welcome. Though it must be

acknowledged that we live in an age which by feeding upon ashes and the

wind, has very much lost the relish of every thing that is spiritual

and evangelical, yet we persuade ourselves there will still be found

many who, by reason of use, have, their senses exercised to discern

both good and evil. Those that may think the expository notes too

long, especially for family worship, may easily relieve themselves,

either by reading a less part of the chapter at one time, or by

abridging the annotations, and perusing the rest when they have more

leisure; for, though it must be owned they are somewhat copious, yet we

are persuaded that those who peruse them seriously will find nothing in

them superfluous or impertinent; and, if any where some things in the

comment do not seem to flow so naturally and necessarily from the text,

we believe when they are well considered and compared it will appear

they come under the analogy and general reason of the subject, and

truly belong to it. If there be any that think this exposition of the

Bible is too plain and familiar, that it wants the beauties of oratory

and the strength of criticism, we only wish that they will read it over

again with due attention, and we are pretty confident they will find

the style natural, clear, and comprehensive; and we think they will

hardly be able to produce one valuable criticism out of the most

learned commentators but they will have it in this exposition, though

couched in plain terms, and not brought in as of a critical nature. No

man was more happy than Mr. Henry in that useful talent of making dark

things plain, while too many, that value themselves upon their

criticising faculty, affect rather to make plain things dark.

But we leave this great and good work to speak for itself, and doubt

not but it will grow in its use and esteem, and will, through the

blessing of God, help to revive and promote family religion and

scriptural knowledge, and support the credit of scripture commentaries,

though couched in human expressions. These have been always accounted

the great treasures of the church, and when done with judgment, have

been so far from lessening the authority of the Bible that they have

greatly promoted its honour and usefulness.

The following are the ministers by whom the Exposition on the

Epistolary writings, and the Revelation, was completed, as given by J.

B. Williams, Esq., LL.D.,F.S.A., in his Memoirs of the Life,

Character, and Writings, of the Rev. Matthew Henry, 8vo. p.

308.

Romans		Mr. [afterwards Dr.] John Evans.
1 Corinthians		Mr. Simon Browne.
2 Corinthians		Mr. Daniel Mayo.
Galatians		Mr. Joshua Bayes.
Ephesians		Mr. Samuel Rosewell.
Philippians	}	Mr. [afterwards Dr.] William Harris.
Colossians	}	Mr. [afterwards Dr.] William Harris.
1 Thessalonians	}	Mr. Daniel Mayo.
2 Thessalonians	}	Mr. Daniel Mayo.
1 Timothy	}	Mr. Benjamin Andrews Atkinson.
2 Timothy	}	Mr. Benjamin Andrews Atkinson.
Titus	}	Mr. Jeremiah Smith.
Philemon	}	Mr. Jeremiah Smith.
Hebrews		Mr. William Tong.
James		Dr. S. Wright.
1 Peter		Mr. Zec. Merrill.
2 Peter		Mr. Joseph Hill.
1, 2, and 3 John		Mr. John Reynolds, of Shrewsbury.
Jude		Mr. John Billingsley.
Revelation		Mr. William Tong.