《Poole’s English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis》(Matthew Poole)
Commentator
Matthew Poole (1624 - 1679) was an English Nonconformist theologian.
He was born at York, the son of Francis Pole, but he spelled his name Poole, and in Latin Polus; his mother was a daughter of Alderman Toppins there. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from 1645, under John Worthington. Having graduated B.A. at the beginning of 1649, he succeeded Anthony Tuckney, in the sequestered rectory of St Michael le Querne, then in the fifth classis of the London province, under the parliamentary system of presbyterianism. This was his only preferment. He proceeded M.A. in 1652. On 14 July 1657 he was one of eleven Cambridge graduates incorporated M.A. at Oxford on occasion of the visit of Richard Cromwell as chancellor.
Poole was a jure divino presbyterian, and an authorised defender of the views on ordination of the London provincial assembly, as formulated by William Blackmore. After the Restoration, in a sermon of 26 August 1660 before the lord mayor Sir Thomas Aleyn at St Paul's Cathedral, he made a case for simplicity of public worship. On the passing of the Uniformity Act 1662 he resigned his living, and was succeeded by R. Booker on 29 August 1662.
Perhaps the only true rival to Matthew Henry! A standard for more than 400 years, Poole's insightful commentary continues to be a trusted resource for pastors and laypeople. Offering verse-by-verse exposition, he also includes summaries for each chapter and book, questions and answers, information on cultural context, historical impact, and cross-references. Practical, readable, and applicable.
Though he occasionally preached and printed some tracts, Poole made no attempt to gather a congregation. He had a patrimony of £100 a year, on which he lived.
He was one of those who presented to the king 'a cautious and moderate thanksgiving' for the indulgence of 15 March 1672, and were offered royal bounty. Gilbert Burnet reports, on Edward Stillingfleet's authority, that Poole received for two years a pension of £50. Early in 1675 he entered with Richard Baxter into a negotiation for comprehension, promoted by John Tillotson, which came to nothing. According to Henry Sampson, Poole made provision for a nonconformist ministry and day-school at Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
In his depositions relative to the alleged Popish plot (September 1678), Titus Oates had represented Poole as marked for assassination, because of his tract (1666) on the Nullity of the Romish Faith. Poole gave some credit to this, reportedly after a scare on returning home one evening near Clerkenwell with Josiah Chorley. Poole left England, and settled at Amsterdam. Here he died on 12 October 1679 (N.S.), and was buried in a vault of the English Reformed Church, Amsterdam. His wife was buried on 11 August 1668 at St Andrew Holborn, Stillingfleet preaching the funeral sermon. He left a son, who died in 1697.
In 1654 Poole published a tract against John Biddle. In 1658 he put forward a scheme for a scholarship for university courses, for those intending to enter the ministry. The plan was approved by Worthington and Tuckney, and had the support also of John Arrowsmith, Ralph Cudworth, William Dillingham, and Benjamin Whichcote. Money was raised, and supported William Sherlock at Peterhouse. His Vox Clamantis gives his view of the ecclesiastical situation after 1662.
The work with which his name is principally associated is the Synopsis criticorum biblicorum (5 vols fol., 1669-1676), in which he summarizes the views of one hundred and fifty biblical critics. On the suggestion of William Lloyd, Poole undertook the Synopsis as a digest of biblical commentators, from 1666. It took ten years, with relaxation often at Henry Ashurst's house. The prospectus of Poole's work mustered of eight bishops and five continental scholars. A patent for the work was obtained on 14 October 1667, and the first volume was ready for the press, when difficulties were raised by Cornelius Bee, publisher of the Critici Sacri (1660); the matter was decided in Poole's favour. Rabbinical sources and Roman Catholic commentators are included; little is taken from John Calvin, nothing from Martin Luther. The book was written in Latin and is currently being translated into English by the Matthew Poole Project.
Poole also wrote English Annotations on the Holy Bible, a work which was completed by several of his Nonconformist brethren, and published in 2 vols fol. in 1683. The work was continued by others (last edition, three volumes, 1840). This work has chapter outlines which are among the best available.
00 Introduction
The First Book of Moses called Genesis
THE ARGUMENT.
This Book is called GENESIS, i.e. generation, or birth, giving an account of passages during 2300 years and upwards, viz. from the creation of all things, to the death of Joseph. In which history Moses, by Divine inspiration, treats of the creation of the world, with all the parts and uses in it, and of it, but chiefly of man, who alone was made after God's image; where he lays down God's concessions and prohibitions to him; and man's transgression, together with the woeful effects, and the remedy of them in the promise of a Saviour; the original, progress, and preservation of the true church, springing from Abel, and carried on by Seth, Enoch, &c.; and the ground and rise of apostacy, begun in Cain, and carried on by his posterity, separating themselves from the holy seed, till by their monstrous provocations they had brought a universal deluge to destroy all mankind from off the earth, excepting only Noah and his family; out of which, as the church did again spring forth, so another cursed race carrying on the former enmity to a greater height, not only fell into idolatry, after it had continued a considerable time in Sem's race, but breaking out into all outrages, and tyrannical oppressions, it was almost extinct among those numerous nations that Noah's posterity sprang out into. But God calling Abraham into the Land of Promise, who was an idolater in Chaldea, and giving him temporal and spiritual promises, and especially that of the Messiah coming out of his loins, and assuring it by a special covenant sealed by circumcision, the church began now to take root, and to be embodied in Jacob's family under the name of Israel; and here God undertook the protection of his people and worship, by the visible presence of Christ her Head, that Angel of the covenant, going continually with them, comforting and defending them, till they came into Egypt, where the church continued until Joseph's death; where this Book ends.
01 Chapter 1
Introduction
GENESIS CHAPTER 1
The whole visible creation asserted in general, Genesis 1:1. Showed in particular the condition of the rude matter of it, Genesis 1:2. The formation of the several creatures on the several days.
(1.) Light produced by the powerful word of God, Genesis 1:3; approved and separated from the darkness, Genesis 1:4; named, and the first day declared, Genesis 1:5.
(2.) The firmament formed, its use, name, and time, Genesis 1:6-8.
(3.) The waters separated from the earth; sea and dry land named and approved, Genesis 1:9-10. The earth brings forth grass, herbs, and trees; approved, and time declared, Genesis 1:11-13.
(4.) The firmament furnished with sun, moon, and stars; their uses assigned, their names, with approbation, and time of doing, declared, Genesis 1:14-19.
(5.) Waters and air furnished, approved, blessed, and time of it declared, Genesis 1:20-23.
(6.) The earth furnished with living creatures sensitive, and approved, Genesis 1:24-25. Rational man in both sexes created upon consultation, according to God's image, with dominion over the other creatures; and blessed, Genesis 1:26-28. Food appointed for man, Genesis 1:29; for beasts, Genesis 1:30: the whole approved on the sixth day.
Verse 1
BC 4004
In the beginning, to wit, of time and things, in the first place, before things were distinguished and perfected in manner hereafter expressed. Or the sense is this, The beginning of the world was thus. And this phrase further informeth us, that the world, and all things in it, had a beginning, and were not from eternity, as some philosophers dreamed.
God created the heaven and the earth; made out of nothing, either,
1. The heaven and earth as now they are with their inhabitants. So this verse is a summary or brief of what is particularly declared in the rest of this chapter. Or,
2. The substance and common matter of heaven and earth. Which seems more probably by comparing this verse with the next, where the earth here mentioned is declared to be without form, and the heavens without light; as also with Genesis 2:1, where the heavens and the earth, here only said to be created, are said to be finished or perfected. Yet I conceive the third heaven to be included under the title of the heaven, and to have been created and perfected the first day, together with its blessed inhabitants the holy angels, as may be collected from Job 33:6-7. But the Scripture being written for men, and not for angels, the Holy Ghost thought it sufficient to comprehend them and their dwelling-place under that general term of the heavens, and proceedeth to give a more particular account of the visible heavens and earth, which were created for the use of man. In the Hebrew it is, the heavens and the earth. For there are three heavens mentioned in Scripture: the aerial; the place of birds, clouds, and meteors, Matthew 26:64 Revelation 19:17 Revelation 20:9. The starry; the region of the sun, the moon, and stars, Genesis 22:17. The highest or third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12:2; the dwelling of the blessed angels.
Verse 2
The same confused mass or heap is here called both
earth, from its most solid and substantial part; and the
deep, from its vast bulk and depth; and waters, from its outward face and covering. See Psalms 104:6 2 Peter 3:5.
Without form and void; without order and beauty, and without furniture and use.
Upon the face, the surface or uppermost part of it, upon which the light afterward shone. Thus not the earth only, but also the heaven above it, was without light, as is manifest from the following verses.
The Spirit of God; not the wind, which was not yet created, as is manifest, because the air, the matter or subject of it, was not yet produced; but the Third Person of the glorious Trinity, called the Holy Ghost, to whom the work of creation is attributed, Job 26:13, as it is ascribed to the Second Person, the Son, John 1:3 Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 1:3, and to the First Person, the Father, every where.
Upon the face of the waters, i.e. upon the waters, to cherish, quicken, and dispose them to the production of the things after mentioned. It is a metaphor from birds hovering and fluttering over, and sitting upon their eggs and young ones, to cherish, warm, and quicken them.
Verse 3
He commanded, not by such a word or speech as we use, which agreeth not with the spiritual nature of God; but either by an act of his powerful will, called the word of his power, Hebrews 1:3 or, by his substantial Word, his Son, by whom he made the worlds, Hebrews 1:2 Psalms 33:6, who is called: The Word, partly, if not principally, for this reason,
John 1:1-3,, John 1:10.
There was light; which was some bright and lucid body, peradventure like the fiery cloud in the wilderness, giving a small and imperfect light, successively moving over the several parts of the earth; and afterwards condensed, increased, perfected, and gathered together in the sun.
Verse 4
He observed with approbation that it was pleasant and amiable, agreeable to God’s purpose and man’s use; and made a distinction or separation between them in place, time, and use, that the one should succeed and shut out the other, and so by their vicissitudes make the day and the night.
Verse 5
It is acknowledged by all, that the
evening and the morning are not here to be understood according to our common usage, but are put by a synecdoche each of them for one whole part of the natural day. But because it may be doubted which part each of them signifies, some understand by
evening, the foregoing day; and by
the morning, the foregoing night; and so the natural day begins with the morning or the light, as it did with the ancient Chaldeans. Others by
evening understand the first night or darkness which was upon the face of the earth, Genesis 1:2, which probably continued for the space of about twelve hours, the beginning whereof might fitly be called
evening; and by
morning the succeeding light or day, which may reasonably be supposed to continue the other twelve hours, or thereabouts. And this seems the truer opinion,
1. Because the darkness was before the light, as the
evening is put before the
morning, Genesis 1:5,, Genesis 1:8, and afterwards.
2. Because this best agrees both with the vulgar and with the Scripture use of the terms of
evening and morning.
3. Because the Jews, who had the best opportunity of knowing the mind of God in this matter by Moses and other succeeding prophets, begun both their common and sacred days with the evening, as is confessed, and may be gathered from Leviticus 23:32.
Were the first day; did constitute or make up the first day; day of being taken largely for the natural day, consisting of twenty-four hours: these were the parts the first day; and the like is to be understood of the succeeding days. Moreover, God, who could have made all things at once, was pleased to divide his work into six days, partly to give us occasion more distinctly and seriously to consider God's works, and principally to lay the foundation for the weekly sabbath, as is clearly intimated, Genesis 2:2-3 Exodus 20:9-11.