Speaker's Commentary (13 vols.) STALLED
The Speaker's Commentary (13 vols.) This massive work is not getting much more in the way of preorders, even though it covers all of the Bible and Apocrypha. Also even though this work is by Anglican's it is composed during the same time that saw famous converts to Catholicism like Cardinal Newman. And at $45 dollars for almost 8000 pages of commentary I don't see how one can go wrong.
From Logos page:
"Whilst the Word of God is one, and does not change, it must touch, at new points, the changing phases of physical, philological, and historical knowledge, and so the Comments that suit one generation are felt by another to be obsolete." These words begin The Speaker's Commentary, the collaborated efforts of a team of over 30 top Anglican scholars. The growing controversy concerning historical criticism, polygamy, and racism created a need for an authoritative response from trusted and capable men within the Church. Compelled to address this challenge, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Right Hon. J. Evelyn Denison, formed a committee with the task of writing a commentary on the entire Bible. Denison and his committee understood the seriousness of these challenges and so took up arms to guard the truth of the Word against their modern critics, such as Frederick Maurice and William Colenso. Through it all, they desired to make the Scriptures plain and clear for the Church - at a time when it was most needed.
Drawing upon the talents F. C. Cook as editor, an exceptionally skilled linguist and biblical scholar, The Holy Bible According to the Authorized Version (A.D. 1611), with an Explanatory and Critical Commentary—or as it is known popularly, The Speaker's Commentary, presents the best of 19th-century Anglican scholarship, having taken over 18 years to complete by a team of more than 30 scholars.
In addition to the complete commentary on the Old and New Testaments, The Speaker's Commentary includes a unique two-volume set on the Apocrypha, continuing the spirit and scholarship of the series to provide a complete commentary of the 1611 Authorized Version.
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I still feel this would be a valuable thing to have in Logos.
-Dan
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Think of this as worth $6 per volume to be in your Library and bid accordingly...
[:-*]
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You can see it online in a few places, at least some of the volumes….. Here is the treatment of the woman caught in adultery of john 8…… As you can see it is a bit between… I am mostly interested in it as a good source of traditional anglican interpretation and more importantly another commentary on the Apocrypha.
-Dan
Chap. VIII. 1. the mount of Olives'] The Mount of Olives is nowhere mentioned by name in St John's Gospel. It is mentioned several times in each of the other Gospels in connexion with the last scenes of the Life of the Lord.
2. early in the morning (opflpou)] Compare Luke xxi. 38 {•"pdpi(n).
he sat down'] assumed the position of the authoritative teacher. Compare Matt. v. r, xxiii. 2; Mark ix. 35.
3. the scribes and the Pharisees] This is a common title in the Synoptists for the body summarily described by St John as tlx Jews. Compare Luke v. 30, vi. 7, xi. 53, xv. a. St John never names "the scribes."
brought (bring) unto him] We may suppose that the guilty woman had been brought first to them as a preparatory step to her trial.
4. was taken] hath been taken. The original (noTfi'Xi/m-m) brings the present reality of guilt vividly before the reader (Vulg. modo deprehensa est").
5. Now Moses in the law . . . that such should b? stoned (to stone such)] Deut. xxii. 23 f. The punishment of stoning was specified in the case of a betrothed bride. The form of death in other cases was not laid down, and according to Talmudic tradition it was strangulation. It seems better therefore to suppose that this exact crime had been committed than to suppose any inaccuracy in the statement. It is said also that a priest's daughter was stoned if she committed adultery; but this was not a provision of the Law. Compare Lightfoot, ad loc.
but what] what therefore... Assuming this enactment as explicit, what conclusion canst thou draw for the guidance of our action in the present case? Thou claimest to speak with authority and to fulfil the Law*: solve our difficulty now.
6. This (And (6V) this) . .. tempting him] Compare Matt. xxii. 18. The dilemma corresponds to that in the question as to the tribute money. To affirm the binding validity of the Mosaic judgment would Be to counsel action contrary to the Roman law. To set the Mosaic judgment aside would be to give up the claim to fulfil the Law. In either case there was material for accusation, practically fatal to the assumption of the Messiahship to which the Lord's teaching evidently pointed. He might be carried away into a premature declaration of His claims, and fall under the civil power; or he might disparage Moses, and lose the favour of the people. The "temptation" lay in the design to lead the Lord to one of these two answers.
wrote] Both here (naT(ypa(piv), and in v. 8 (typa<p(v), the tense in the original presents the action as going on before the witnesses. It is quite vain to conjecture what was written, if indeed we are to understand anything more than the mere mechanical action of writing. The attitude represents one who follows out his own thoughts and is unwilling to give heed to those who question him. The very strangeness of the action marks the authenticity of the detail. The words added in italics in A. V. represent a gloss found in many MSS. (jirj jrpocrjrotovptvot).
But Jesus stooped down, and with bis finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, *He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard »'f, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at
the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
12 H Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying,c I am the light of the "'5'
7. So when ...] But when...
He that is without sin...] The colour of the word "sinless" is caught from the context Though it would be unnatural to assume that all in the group of accusers were actually guilty of adultery, there is nothing unnatural in supposing that each could feel in himself the sinful inclination which had here issued in the sinful act. In this way the words of the Lord revealed to the men the depths of their own natures, and they shrank in that Presence from claiming the prerogative of innocence. At the same time the question as to the woman's offence was raised at once from a legal to a spiritual level. The judges were made to feel that freedom from outward guilt is no claim to sinlessness. And the offender in her turn was led to see that flagrant guilt does not bar hope. The Law as in a figure dealt with that which is visible; the Gospel penetrates to the inmost soul.
first] taking, as it were, the place of the witness; Deut. xvii. 7. For here the guiltless was required to take the place of a witness in a higher sense. There is nothing in the words which disparages legal punishment. These men were not the appointed instruments of the law.
8. again he stooped down , and with his finger <wrote...~] as unwilling to speak more.
9. And they which heard.. conscience, went out one iy one] And the y when they heard went out one byone, as they felt the power of Christ's sentence. The interpolated clause (being convicted by thsir ownconscience) is a true explanation of the sense.
beginning at the eldest... (the elders!] whose sorrowful experience of life was the fullest The word is not a title of office, but simply of age.
the unman standing (being) in the midst"] She still remained bound as it were by her sin in the presence of Christ. "Two persons were left," Augustine says (ad loc), "the unhappy woman and Compassion Incarnate"(Rtlicti sunt duo, misera et misericordia).
10. When Jesus had...unto her] And Jesus lifting himself up said unto her.
Woman ... thine accusers f hath ... thee t] Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn thee 7 The question marks the interval during which the Lord had waited for the effect of His words.
11. She said... And Jesus said unto her] And she said... And Jesus said.
Neither do I condemn thee] though I am truly sinless. The words are not words of forgiveness (Luke vii. 48), but simply of one who gives no sentence (comp. Luke xii. 14). The condemnation has reference to the outward punishment and not to the moral guilt: that is dealt with in the words which follow. "Ergo et Dominus damnavit, sed peccatum non hominem" (Aug. ad /or.).
go, and sin no more] go thy way: from henceforth sin no more. Comp. v. 14.
4. The after teaching (viii. i»—ao).
The Lord had applied to Himself one of the typical miracles of the Exodus (vii. 37 ff.): in this section He seems to apply to Himself that of the fiery pillar. As "the light of the world" He is'self-attested (t\ 11 f.). But for the apprehension of His nature sympathy is needed (14, Ij). At the same time even as the Lord's judgment was an expression of the divine will, so His witness included that of the Father (w. 16—18). who could be recognised by those who truly knew Christ (v. 19).
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You can see it online in a few places, at least some of the volumes….. Here is the treatment of the woman caught in adultery of john 8…… As you can see it is a bit between… I am mostly interested in it as a good source of traditional anglican interpretation and more importantly another commentary on the Apocrypha.
Thanks for the info Dan. I'm in.
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Anglican's ?!!! Every time I see this sort of punctuation I wince. Should be just Anglicans.
Apostrophes are for possessives and contractions.
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BUMP
The finish line is still very far off....
-Dan
Thanks for that. I placed a bit as a result.
I'm concerned (from the quietness of the Anglican forum here and from the seeming lack of Anglican/Episcopalian users of Logos) that it will take a long time to gain momentum.
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It very well might but even though this is a product written by Anglicans, I think it would have a wider appeal.. Anyone who wants to explore the Apocrypha more this series gives a good chance inexpensively, and Catholics will appreciate it too.
I opened up one of the volumes on the Apocrypha online (Apocrypha, vol. 2) and the quality of the book introductions alone are superb. Yes we can have access to this work online but it would be so much better as a Logos book if for no other reason than I have reading roman numerals (fortunately they are never as complex as reading a modern date but still annoying)...
From the introduction to the Prayer of Manasseh:
" Said R. Johanan : Whoso saith, ' Manasseh hath no part in the world to come,' discourageth the penitent." Sanlmir. 103 A, line I.
IN 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1 seq. we are told that Manasseh, the son and successor of Hezekiah, king of Judah, zealously- restored the polytheism abolished by his father, even setting up " the graven image of the idol which he had made in the house of God" at Jerusalem (v. 7). " And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people [by prophets] ; but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh with the hooks [Amos iv. 2 ; Isa. xxxvii. 29], and bound him with the double chain of copper, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in afflic- tion, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him : and he vouchsafed him grace, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was Go<l" {vv. 10-13). The narrative then describes the amends made by the re- stored sovereign, and concludes with an explicit reference to the sources of the story : " Now the rest of the history of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are written in the History of the Kings of Israel. And his prayer, and the grace vouchsafed him, and all his sin and his treachery (to God), and the places wherein he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the graven images, before he was humbled : behold, they are written in the History of the Seers " [or Hozai = Hozaiah ; a par- ticular seer. In any case a section of the great History of the Kings of Israel]. Eminent scholars and critics, like De Wette, Graf, and Noldeke, * have thrown suspicion upon this account. basing their objections partly on the silence of the Book of Kings, and partly upon supposed internal evidence. The former argument is hardly worth noticing. As to the latter, it was asserted that his- tory was against the implied supremacy of Assyria in Western Asia at the period in question (the first half of the 7th cent. B.C.) ; exception was taken to the state- ment that the officers of an Assyrian king had carried their captive to Babylon, and not to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital ; and, apart from these supposed errors of fact, it was declared to be wholly impro- bable that Manasseh should first have been loaded with chains and treated with such indignity as the text represents, and then restored to his former kingly state. But these difficulties, which used to be asserted with such confidence by assail- ants of the Chronicler's historical vera- city, have disappeared in the light unexpectedly contributed by cuneiform discovery. We now know that Ashiira- hiddin (Esarhaddon), the son of Sana- hirib or Sennacherib, king of Assyria (681-668 B.C.), rebuilt Babylon, which his father had razed to the ground (b.c. 691), and held his court there during six months of the year. 2 Further than this, " Manasseh, king of the land (or city) of Judah "Menasi {Minse) shar mat (or at) Ya'udi is actually mentioned in a list of twenty-two kings of Phoenicia-Palestine and Cyprus, who, as vassals of Esar-
1 See Schenkel's ' Bibellexicon,' s. v. Manass. According to Noldeke, the story is an edifying fiction, intended to moderate the impression produced by the otherwise unbroken prosperity of so wicked a king. - Vid. Sayce, 'Herod.' App. ii. p. 382.
And a section from the commentary itself:
In the Greek the heading is " Prayer of Manasses, son of Ezekias." Lord, Almighty God, <&>Y.J The stop- ping is wrong. The comma should follow the word "Almighty." The words "O Lord, Almighty, &c. . . . importable" con- stitute the opening address or invocation of the prayer. (The following "but " should be cancelled.) "Lord Almighty" is the Gk. equivalent of Iahn.veh Sabaotb. Cod. III. adds iirovpavu, " Heavenly One ! " Cf. Dan. iv. 23. The term renders " Shaddai," Ps. lxviii. 14; cf. also Matt, xviii. 35. The "fathers" are named, because their merits were and are supposed by Jews to be efficacious for their descendants. and of their righteous seed.'] An advanced theological idea, according to which Jehovah is not the God of the Jews in general, but only of the righteous remnant. Below, He is addressed as." God of the just" or "righte- ous." Cf. also Rom. ix. 6-8 ; Ecclus. x. 19. ivith all the ornament thereof?^ Gk. avv 7TLIVTI TO) KO(TfXO) aVTtitV, " with all the order of them;" an equivalent of the Heb. "with all the host of them" (Gen. ii. 1). KoV/xo? re- presents X2V, the ordered host of heaven (i.e. the stars) in Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3; Isa. xxiv. 21, xl. 26. The Ethiopic has "world," which indicates a Greek original. who hast bound the sea.] Or, "fettered," Job xxxvi. 8 ("IDX). It was done with a mere word: Job xxxviii. 8-1 1 ; Gen. i. 9 (Ps. civ. 9). Ethiopic : " rebuked." the deep.] ttjv ilj3v(raov = Dinn (Gen. i. 2, vii. 11, viii. 2). The Gk. term seems to answer to the Assyrian Apsu, as Dinn to Assyr. Tidmtii" or Tidmat. According to the Heb. conception, the earth rests on the fa- thomless deep : see Ps. xxiv. 2, xxxiii. 7, cxxxvi. 6 ; Job xxxviii. 6. The " sealing " of the deep signifies that its bounds are firmly secured, or inviolable. Cf. Rev. xx. 3, " Cast him into the bottomless pit (ttjv afSvo-crov) and shut him up, and set a seal upon him ;" Dan. vi. 17; Matt, xxvii. 66; Bel 14; Job ix. 7, " which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not ; and sealeth up the stars." God sealed up the deep " with his terrible and glorious name;" in connexion with which, it may be remembered that a magical efficacy was at- tributed by the later Jews to the Divine Name or Tetragrammaton (nirp)- Solomon especially was credited with working many wonders by means of it. His seal was graven with the Ineffable Name. In the Talmud {Gittin, 68 A) it is said that Ashmedai (Zend. Aeshmadaeva),the king of the demons (*TE5>), lived on a mountain, where was a well full of water, which was covered with a stone and sealed with his seal. " And every day he goeth up to the firmament. And the session (school) of the firmament endeth, and he comes down to the earth. And the session of the earth endeth, and he cometh and in- spected his seal, and uncovereth it, and drinketh, and covereth it, and sealeth it, and departeth." Solomon having obtained this information from demons, " sent Benaiah ben Jehoiada, having given him a chain whereon was engraven the name, and a seal-ring (Snpty) whereon was engraven the Name, and fleeces of wool, and skins of wine. He went and digged a cistern below, poured into it water, and concealed it with the fleeces of wool ; and he dug a cistern above, and poured into it wine, and hid it. Then he went up and sat in the tree. When he (the demon) came, he inspected the seal, removed it, found the wine, said : It is written, ' Wine is a mocker,' &c, and it is written, ' Whoredom, wine, and new wine take away the heart :' I will not drink, for my thirst is not great. He drank, became drunk, and fell asleep. Benaiah came down (from the tree), and went and threw upon him the chain and sealed it.
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-Dan
PS: I grabbed this since it is one of the more obscure books covered and thought it did well to display the quality of the work even though both snippets were relatively small and not formatted overly well. But too my knowledge and at least not in my library, there is virtually nothing on this minor work... the UBS handbook deals with it as well as several one volume commentaries but not a serious look at the work itself beyond the rather technical and rather brief look in the Lange commentary.0 -
Might it be worth a push in the main forum??
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The imminent closing of the full JFB lead me to revisit this CP gem languishing. For only $4 more than the expected close of JFB you could have a classic commentary of the era covering the Bible and Apocrypha. Interesting not only Anglicans, Lutherans and Catholics but anyone who wants a better understanding of the intertestamental time period to better understand the Jewish faith as it was when Jesus came to us.
-dan
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Thanks for bringing this up again, Dan. I increased my bid.
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Since I saw someone else longing for this work too I thought maybe it was time to bump it again.
-dan
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I‘ve been in since Dec 2011....Maybe it‘s time FL included it in an Anglican collection for L8 to get it over the line.
Since I saw someone else longing for this work too I thought maybe it was time to bump it again.
-dan
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Maybe it‘s time FL included it in an Anglican collection for L8 to get it over the line.
I would like that very much..... Not sure if there is much traction with the idea with Bob though. I mean two major CP works made it in only because of that but I suspect they made it in that way because Bob or someone else high in FL really wanted them. I can see much value in this being added to the Anglican collections and even more so could be argued with all verbum collections getting the Catholic Encyclopedia. I suppose there is always hope since I am fairly sure "A New Commentary on Holy Scripture: Including the Apocrypha, ed. Charles Gore, Henry Leighton Goudge, and Alfred Guillaume" only made it in by being added to the last set of Anglican Libraries but it was a smaller work and may have been seen as a more economical item to add in verses this larger 13 volume work.
-dan
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Dan, agree completely, thanks for keeping this visible.
I bought TSB (then sold as 'Cook's Commentary") many years ago when a new Christian, and was never disappointed.Three thoughts:
1) TSB contains a very broad (fascinating that one of the Logos review quotes is praise from from The Non-Conformist), practical, and accessible scholarship. While the 30 contributors include well-known scholars of the time such as B.F. Westcott, F.W. Farrar, J.S. Howson, George Rawlinson, and Alfred Edersheim, the entire group are excellent, and TSB has a uniquely pastoral tone from the variety and duration of service to God's people of the group as a whole. F.C. Cook (once chaplain-in-ordinary to the Queen) was himself a scholar-pastor most of his career.
2) TSB has a consistent apologetic tone, since (as you document in your opening post) TSB was proposed and commissioned specifically as an apologetic work.
3) The two volumes on the Apocrypha were added several years after (under separate editorship of Henry Wace), and are a wonderful, almost 1,200 page bonus!
Is TSB dated at points? Surely...but as in so many similar cases, the careful, evenhanded scholarship of that age pays us back with overall depth. TSB is worth owning.
Grace and peace. <><
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Thank you for bringing this up, I put in my bid.
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Thank you for bringing this up, I put in my bid.
William, thank you!
Grace and peace. <><
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