ELLICOTT'S NEW 'TESTAMENT COMMENTARY.* ENGLISII readers who do not care
to see the refined gold of Holy Writ gilded by homiletic exegesis, and who do not feel that the difficulties which beset their faith are smoothed by exhaustive descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Holy Land, will be grateful for this new Commentary. It is written by clergy- men, and it must be confessed that clergymen have no easy task at the present day, when they attempt to satisfy the uneasi- ness of intelligent doubters in their flocks, without at the same time disturbing the susceptibilities of contented believers. The comparative failure of the Speaker's Commentary is a warning proof of the danger of such an attempt. The writers of that Commentary were afraid of incurring the charge of heterodoxy by treating their subject boldly from the stand-point of historical criticism, and the effects of their timidity were not counter- balanced by the untrammelled piety of their intentions. Bishop Wordsworth, again, although undoubtedly a man of great abilities, finds his critical acumen sadly hampered by that theory of direct Inspiration, which he uses so freely as a solvent for all difficulties, and a cement for all dis- crepancies. Jlis argument, if argument it can be called, is briefly this :—The Holy Ghost cannot be at variance with himself—here are two statements which, humanly speaking, contradict each other—both (it would be a sin to doubt it) were dictated by the Holy Ghost—both therefore are absolutely true somehow or other, and contradiction here or contradiction there, both must be implicitly believed. With such a solvent all difficulties are splintered, as the Alps were by Hannibal's vinegar ; and prophetic utterances of a doubtful char- acter, or still more doubtful fulfilment, present no obstacles to a faith provided with a talisman like that. But neither timidity nor credulity can be justly imputed to Bishop Ellicott's New Commentary. Its aim is to keep back nothing which honest doubt may fairly ask to know. It affects to be candid and critical, and it is both critical and candid. It is written, as it pro- fesses to be, in the interests of the truth, and under the strong conviction that piety alone is no substitute for logic. As an editor of Scripture, Bishop Ellicott has already given us a taste of his quality, in his excellent critical and grammatical commentaries on some of the Pauline Epistles, and he displays the same unwearied care and patience in super- intending the lab_ urs of others that he displayed in doing his own. He cannot indeed bring his subject out with the brief and luminous touches that distinguish Professor Lightfoot's works on the Galatians and Philippians, but his scrupulous conscientious- ness omits nothing that by any possibility can make his meaning clearer. The latter strives to reach the mind of his reader by lucid conciseness, the former by elaborate exposition. Pro- fessor Lightfoot is content to lay before us the result of his toil, Bishop Ellicott is careful to mark every step in the process which leads him to his conclusion, and is always laudably prompt to notice when no conclusion can be reached, j and when the question must be left open. In this respect he differs advantageously from Dean Burgon, whose Plain Com- • A New Testament Commentary, for Enolish Readers. By Various Writers. Edited by C. J. Ellicott, D.D., Lord Biebop of Gloucester and Bristol. London: Cassell, Patter, and Galpin. men tarp is more concerned with deciding what ought to be be- lieved, than with providing intelligent students with reasons for believing it. Moreover, if Bishop Ellicott's style is not so good as Professor Lightfoot's, it is eloquent enough in its way, and is not disfigured by the exuberant and Asiatic rhetoric which mars the lucubrations of Canon Farrar. For these and other reasons, therefore, Bishop Ellicott is an editor who will justly in- spire confidence in the English reader's mind, and his name will of itself go far to recommend this Commentary to a large and appreciative circle. He speaks with no bated breath in his preface, and rightly asserts that if the New Testament be what he believes it to be, it must have a message to every age and every generation. His endeavour, he adds, is to set forth this message to the present age, fully, candidly, and unreservedly. When we think what the tendencies of the present age are, and without mentioning names, reflect upon the able pens which are explaining and expounding this message in a very different sense from that which Bishop Ellicott adopts, it must be admitted that the task before him is a gigantic one.
We by no means feel inclined to depreciate the success which, we believe, has crowned his efforts, so far as the Gospels are concerned. We venture to think, however, that the entire independence which is left to each contributor in this work is not quite so satisfactory as it appears to be to the Bishop. Individual freedom is an excellent thing, in its proper place, but in a Commentary on the New Testament, edited by a scholar- and theologian of Bishop Ellicott's calibre, occasions are per- petually arising when a casting vote from the editor might be given with great effect, and serve to remove difficulties and dispel doubts which, without that casting-vote, must perforce- remain undispelled and unremoved. Granted that " without per- fect independence on the part of the responsible writers no good result could be looked for," we still feel that the result obtained by that independence should have been weighed and judged by the- responsible editor. It is only fair to add that the following im- portant promise is faithfully carried out :—" Free and candid thoughts will be found in these pages, difficulties will not be- passed over ; if they cannot as yet be explained, the avowal will be made, in all Christian simplicity. Candour and candid seeking after truth the reader will find ; and with it, that sympathy of spirit in difficulties which alone makes the writer and reader to be at one." Of the need of an able commentary conceived and executed in such a spirit as this it is superfluous to speak. It is not uncommon to find the same clergyman who speaks in the pulpit with as much confidence as if, to use
words, "he had swallowed the Holy Ghost, feathers and all," display exasperating diffidence when consulted out of the pulpit. And as to the flocks, it is by no means going too far to say that many among them will be almost shocked to learn that " not a single autograph original of any book of the Bible is known to exist now, nor does any writer of the second or third century say that be has seen such an original." We are afraid, too, that some of the remarks on the " Text of the New Testament " will disturb rather than convince the ordinary English reader. He will be left, we fear, with the disagreeable impression that the term " inspiration " is a very vague one, and will not readily understand the certainty with which practised scholars are able to judge which readings are• genuine and which are not. Perhaps, therefore, this Com- mentary, in trying to satisfy two distinct classes of readers,—viz., intelligent doubters eager to learn, and warm believers anxious to be edified, will be found to have attempted too much. We trust, however, that such is not the case. " Laudatur ab his, cul- patur ab illis," is the common fate of an honest book upon theology,—and this Commentary is an honest book. In any case, the account of the " Origin of the First Three Gospels " is most valuable. The internal evidences of authenticity from references• in the Epistles to the Gospel documents as already in existence is admirably brought out, and will be as readily understood by an unlearned reader as by a professional scholar. The short essays, too, on the threshold of each Gospel are what they profess to be, real introductions to the several Evangelists. The mutual relations existing between the different narratives are ably discussed, and give the student a clear sense of the unity which underlies the quadruple biography of Christ. The Excursuses also are excellent. From that on the "Doctrine of the Word" we have extracted the following passage, as a fair specimen of the way in which confessedly difficult points are handled in this work :-
" We have to think, then, of St. John as trained in the knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the paraphrases which explained them, and accustomed from childhood to hear of the Metnra da-Yeya, the Word of the Lord, as the representative of God to man. Through the teaching of the Baptist he is led to the Christ, and during the whole of Christ's ministry learns the truth that he only had seen the Father, and was the Apostle of God to the world. After Christ's death, the Resurrection strengthens every conviction and removes every doubt. The presence of the Spirit at Pentecost brings back the words he had given them as a revelation from God, and quickens the soul with the inspiration that gives the power to understand them. Then the Apostle goes forth to his work as a witness of what he had seen and heard, and for half a century fulfils this work. Then ho writes what he so many times had told of Christ's words and Christ's works. He is living in the midst of men round whom and in whom that current of Judteo-Alexandrine thought has been flowing for two generations. He hears men talking of the Beginning, of Logos, of Light, of Pleroma, of Shekinah, of Only Begotten, of Grace, of Truth, and he prefixes to his Gospel a short preface, which declares to them that all these thoughts of theirs were but shadows of the true. There was a Being from all eternity face to face with God, and that Being was the true Logos ; and ho was not only with God, but was God. By him did the universe come into existence. In him was life and the light of men,—the true ideal light which lighteth every man. And not only was that Logos truly God, but he was truly man ; the Incarnation was the answer to the problem which their systems of thought had vainly tried to fathom. The Logos, on the spiritual side, from eternity God ; on the material side, in time becomes flesh ; this was the answer which Philo had dimly forecast. He was the Shekinah tabernacled amongst men, manifesting the glory of the Only Begotten. In him was the Pleroma. By Jesus Christ came grace and truth. No man had over seen the brightness of the glory of the presence of God, but the Only Begotten was the true Interpreter, declaring the fatherhood of God to
man."
Professor Plumptre has skilfully performed the task of har- monising the first three Gospels, without adopting overstrained methods of cunningly devised agreement such as Mr. Greswell would have admired ; and he is not afraid to avow the truth, where statements are hopelessly at variance. His treatment of the genealogies in St. Matthew and St. Luke is an example of this, and his explanation of our Lord's Temptation is sober and rational. If we think, on the whole, that Professor Watkins's work is rather better done than that of his coadjutor, it is, per- haps, because St. John's Gospel is so much the hardest of the four to deal with. We have no wish whatever to insinuate an invidious comparison. Both of these scholars have done their work extremely well, and we have already expressed our opinion about Bishop Ellicott as an editor. In conclusion, we may re- mark that the book itself is admirably printed, and its contents so arranged as to be thoroughly and easily accessible to the student, and a greater boon to students of the New Testament than this Commentary has never, we believe, been published in England. We heartily recommend it, and sincerely hope that the rest of the work will be finished in the same admirable manner.
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