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DR. ADAM CLARKE'S

COMMENTARY

ON

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

VOLUME I.

CONTAINING

THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, AND JOHN.

THE

NEW TESTAMENT,

OF

OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST;

CONTAINING

THE TEXT,

TAKEN FROM THE MOST CORRECT COPIES OF THE PRESENT

Authorised Translation,

INCLUDING THE

MARGINAL READINGS AND PARALLEL TEXTS,

WITH A

COMMENTARY AND CRITICAL NOTES.

DESIGNED AS A HELP TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING

OF

THE SACRED WRITINGS.

BY ADAM CLARKE, LL.D. F. A. S.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. BUTTERWORTH & SON, FLEET-STREET.

SOLD BY T. BLANSHARD, No. 14, CITY ROAD; AND AT THE BOOK-ROOM,
No. 13, WHITE-FRIARS STREET, DUBLIN.,

1817.

J. AND T. CLARKE, PRINTERS, 38, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON.

PREFACE TO THE GOSPEL

OF

ST. MAT THE W.

νεαν,

καινην,

THE general title of this latter collection of Sacred Books, which, as well as the former, all Christians acknowledge to have been given by immediate inspiration from God, is in the Greek H KAINH AIA@HKH, which we translate THE NEW TESTAMENT: but which should rather be translated THE NEW COVENANT; or, if it were lawful to use a periphrasis, The New Cove nant, including a Testamentary Declaration and Bequest: for this is precisely the meaning of this system of justice, holiness, goodness, and truth. St. Paul, 2 Cor. iii. 14. calls the Sacred Books before the time of Christ, н ПAAAIA AIA@HKH, THE OLD COVENANT; which is a very proper, and descriptive title of the grand subject of those Books. This Apostle evidently considers the Old Testaments and the New, as two Covenants, Gal. iv. 24. and in comparing these two together, he calls one waxaav diabnany, the old covenant, the other xam, the new; one рwTM, the first, the other veav, that which is recent; in opposition to the old covenant, which was to terminate in the new, he calls this xpaTTova, better, more excellent, Heb. vii. 22. viii. 6. and RIOV, everlasting, Heb. xiii. 20. because it is never to be changed, nor terminate in any other; and to endure endlessly itself. The word Covenant, from con together, and venio, I come; signifies a contract or agreement made between two parties; to fulfil the conditions of which, they are mutually bound. The Old Covenant, in its essential parts, was very simple. I WILL BE YOUR GOD. YE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE-the spirit of which was never changed. The people were to take Jehovah as the sole object of their religious worship, put their whole trust and confidence in Him; serve Him in his own way, according to the prescribed forms which he should lay before them. This was their part. On His side, God was to accept them as his people, give them his spirit to guide them, his mercy to pardon them, his providence to support them, and his grace to preserve them unto eternal life. But all this was connected with the strict observance of a great variety of rites and ceremonies, at once expressive of the holiness of God, the purity of the Divine Justice, and the exceeding sinfulness and utter helpless state of man. A great part of the four latter Books of Moses, is employed in prescribing and illus

B

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