Barnes' Notes: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, & Ezekiel
Overview
Albert Barnes and James Murphy wrote this verse-by-verse commentary on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Published in the 1800s, it is still well-loved and well-read by evangelicals who appreciate Barnes' pastoral insights into the Scripture. It is not a technical work, but provides informative observations on the text, intended to be helpful to those teaching Sunday School. Today, it is ideally suited to anyone teaching or preaching the Word of God, whether a professional minister or layperson.
Top Highlights
“Let each man sigh for, i.e. because of, his sins. Instead of murmuring because God sends him sorrow, let him rather mourn over the sins which have made punishment necessary. The sense of the A.V. is, Why does a man … murmur for his sins? i.e. for the necessary results of them in chastisement.” (Page 292)
“Not in acts of solemn worship or great crises only, but ‘in all thy ways;’ and then God will make the ‘path’ straight and even.” (Page 20)
“The rare word translated ‘season’ means emphatically ‘fitting time’” (Page 96)
“when we think of ourselves as the arbiters of our own fortunes” (Page 20)
“The fury is to rest upon them, abide, So as not to pass away. The accomplishment of the Divine anger is not the completion in the sense of bringing it to a close, but in the sense of carrying it out to the full.” (Page 318)
- Title: Barnes' Notes: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, & Ezekiel
- Authors: Albert Barnes and James Murphy
- Publisher: John Murray
- Publication Date: 1879
- Pages: 423
Albert Barnes graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1820, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1823. Barnes was ordained as a Presbyterian minister by the presbytery of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in 1825, and was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Morristown, New Jersey (1825–1830), and of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia (1830–1867).
He held a prominent place in the New School branch of the Presbyterians during the Old School-New School Controversy, to which he adhered on the division of the denomination in 1837. In 1836, he had been tried (but not convicted) for heresy, mostly due to the views he expressed in Notes on Romans of the imputation of the sin of Adam, original sin and the atonement; the bitterness stirred up by this trial contributed towards widening the breach between the conservative and the progressive elements in the church. He was an eloquent preacher, but his reputation rests chiefly on his expository works, which are said to have had a larger circulation both in Europe and America than any others of their class. Of the well-known Notes on the New Testament, it is said that more than a million volumes had been issued by 1870. The Notes on Job, the Psalms, Isaiah and Daniel were also popularly distributed. The popularity of these works rested on how Barnes simplified Biblical criticism so that new developments in the field were made accessible to the general public.