Voices and influences
Adam Clarke
The self-taught Irish Methodist orientalist who rode preaching circuits for fifty years and spent forty of them writing a commentary on the whole Bible.
Summary
This site quotes Adam Clarke 9,015 times across 66 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived 1762 to 1832.
- Quoted here most in Genesis: 673 of 9,015.
Adam Clarke
- Lived
- 1762 to 1832
- Tradition
- Methodist
5 of 9,015 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Adam Clarke died in 1832 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
The earth was without form and void - The original term תהו tohu and בהו bohu, which we translate without form and void, are of uncertain etymology; but in this place, and wherever else they are used, they convey the idea of confusion and disorder.
The rest of the quotation
From these terms it is probable that the ancient Syrians and Egyptians borrowed their gods, Theuth and Bau, and the Greeks their Chaos.
Genesis 1:2 Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. BSB
Even a fool - He is counted wise as to that particular. He may know that he cannot speak well, and he has sense enough to keep from speaking. He is, as to that particular, a wise fool.
The rest of the quotation
A man may be golden-mouthed and silver-tongued in eloquence; but to know when and where to speak and to be silent, is better than diamonds. But who that thinks he can speak well can refrain from speaking? His tongue has no rest.
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue. BSB
Thoughts of peace - Here God gives them to understand, 1. That his love was moved towards them. 2. That he would perform his good word, his promises often repeated, to them. 3. That for the fulfillment of these they must pray, seek, and search.
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4. That he would hearken, and they should find him; provided, 5. They sought him with their whole heart, Jer 29:10-13.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. BSB
Let your light so shine - Or more literally, Thus let your light shine, Ουτω λαμψατω το φως.
The rest of the quotation
As the sun is lighted up in the firmament of heaven to diffuse its light and heat freely to every inhabitant of the earth; and as the lamp is not set under the bushel, but placed upon the lamp-stand that it may give light to all in the house; Thus let every follower of Christ, and especially every preacher of the Gospel, diffuse the light of heavenly knowledge, and the warmth of Divine love through the whole circle of their acquaintance.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. BSB
A bruised reed shall he not break - A reed is, in Scripture, the emblem of weakness, Eze 29:6; and a bruised reed must signify that state of weakness that borders on dissolution and death. And smoking flax shall he not quench - Λινον τυφομενον.
The rest of the quotation
Λινος means the wick of a lamp, and τυφομενον is intended to point out its expiring state, when the oil has been all burnt away from it, and nothing is left but a mere snuff, emitting smoke.
Matthew 12:20 A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Adam Clarke 9,015 times across 66 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Adam Clarke was born at Moybeg, in County Londonderry, Ireland, about 1760 — his father said 1762, and the exact year has never been settled. His father was a schoolmaster; the family was poor. As a boy Clarke was thought slow. He learned to read late, and then read everything he could reach. He was converted among the Methodists in 1778, and in 1782 John Wesley himself sent him to the Bradford circuit in England. He was about twenty-two, with almost no formal schooling and a horse. He spent the rest of his life as a travelling preacher, moving circuits every few years as Methodist rules required — Bradford, Norwich, the Channel Islands, Dublin, Manchester, Liverpool, London. He was elected president of the British Methodist Conference three times, in 1806, 1814, and 1822, an honor almost never repeated in that era. And all along he studied. Clarke taught himself Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Arabic, Persian, Samaritan, Coptic, and more, and became one of the finest oriental scholars in Britain without ever holding a university chair. The government hired him: for years he worked for the Records Commission on Rymer's Foedera, the great collection of English state papers, and he catalogued manuscripts for private libraries. He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy and the Society of Antiquaries. The work he is known for took forty years. The Holy Bible... with a Commentary and Critical Notes was published in eight volumes between 1810 and 1826. It is enormous, digressive, and packed with material nobody else was supplying to English readers — Hebrew and Arabic parallels, ancient customs, natural history, textual notes, and long excursions on whatever caught his eye. It became the standard theological resource of Methodism for the better part of two centuries, and it is still consulted. He was open about where he broke ranks. Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ: he held the Son to be fully and eternally divine, but taught that the title "Son" describes the incarnation rather than an eternal relation. Methodists argued with him about it in his lifetime and long after, and Methodist doctrine did not follow him there. He also read the tempter of Genesis 3 as a creature more like an ape than a serpent — a reading nearly everyone else rejected. The commentary carries these views plainly, and readers have always had to weigh them. He gave himself away in other directions too. He worked for the early Bible society movement, championed the Sunday school, organized mission work in the Shetland Isles, and gave away most of what he earned. He died of cholera in London on August 26, 1832, during the epidemic that swept Britain that year, still working. Sources: Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible... with a Commentary and Critical Notes; J. B. B. Clarke, ed., An Account of the Infancy, Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, LL.D.; Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley; the Dictionary of National Biography (1887), "Clarke, Adam."
9,015 quotations across 66 books
Where this voice is quoted
Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
“Ye are the temple of God - The apostle resumes here what he had asserted in 1Co 3:9: Ye are God’s building.”
Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.
“If any man among you seemeth to be wise - Ει τις δοκει σοφος ειναι· If any pretend or affect to be wise.”
And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
“The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise - They are always full of schemes and plans for earthly good; and God knows that all this is vain, empty, and unsatisfactory; and will stand them in no stead when he comes to take away their…”
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,
“Whether Paul, or Apollos - As if he had said: God designs to help you by all things and persons; every teacher sent from him will become a blessing to you, if you abide faithful to your calling.”
My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.
“For I know nothing by myself - Ουδεν γαρ εμαυτῳ συνοιδα· I am not conscious that I am guilty of any evil, or have neglected to fulfill faithfully the duty of a steward of Jesus Christ.”
Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us, you have become kings.
“Now ye - Corinthians are full of secular wisdom; now ye are rich, both in wealth and spiritual gifts; (1Co 14:26): ye have reigned as kings, flourishing in the enjoyment of these things, in all tranquillity and honor; without any want of us: and I…”
We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.
“We are fools for Christ’s sake - Here he still carries on the allusion to the public spectacles among the Romans, where they were accustomed to hiss, hoot, mock, and variously insult the poor victims.”
We work hard with our own hands. When we are vilified, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;
“Working with our own hands - They were obliged to labor in order to supply themselves with the necessaries of life while preaching the Gospel to others.”
I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.
“I write not these things to shame you - It is not by way of finding fault with you for not providing me with the necessaries of life that I write thus; but I do it to warn you to act differently for the time…”
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
“Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me - It should rather be translated, Be ye imitators of me; μιμηται, from which we have our word mimic, which, though now used only in a bad or ludicrous sense, simply signifies an imitator of another…”
Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.
“Some are puffed up - Some of your teachers act with great haughtiness, imagining themselves to be safe, because they suppose that I shall not revisit Corinth.”
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
“For the kingdom of God - The religion of the Lord Jesus is not in word - in human eloquence, excellence of speech, or even in doctrines; but in power, εν δυναμει, in the mighty energy of the Holy Spirit; enlightening, quickening, converting, and sanctifying…”
And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?
“Ye are puffed up - Ye are full of strife and contention relative to your parties and favourite teachers, and neglect the discipline of the Church.”
When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus,
“In the name of our Lord Jesus - Who is the head of the Church; and under whose authority every act is to be performed.”
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
“Your glorying is not good - You are triumphing in your superior knowledge, and busily employed in setting up and supporting your respective teachers, while the Church is left under the most scandalous corruptions - corruptions which threaten its very existence if not purged away.”
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.
“Therefore let us keep the feast - It is very likely that the time of the passover was now approaching, when the Church of Christ would be called to extraordinary acts of devotion, in commemorating the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; and of this…”
I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
“For then must ye needs go out of the world - What an awful picture of the general corruption of manners does this exhibit!”
What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
“For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? - The term without, τους εξω, signifies those who were not members of the Church, and in this sense its correspondent term: החיצונים hachitsonim, those that are without, is generally understood in…”
Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
“The saints shall judge the world? - Nothing can be more evident than that the writers of the New Testament often use ὁ κοσμος, the world, to signify the Jewish people; and sometimes the Roman empire, and the Jewish state; and in the former sense…”
So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church?
“Things pertaining to this life - They could examine all civil cases among themselves, which they were permitted to determine without any hinderance from the heathen governments under which they lived.”
Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!
“Brother goeth to law with brother - One Christian sues another at law! This is almost as great a scandal as can exist in a Christian society.”
Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers!
“Nay, ye do wrong - Far from suffering, ye are the aggressors; and defraud your pious, long-suffering brethren, who submit to this wrong rather than take those methods of redressing their grievances which the spirit of Christianity forbids.”
“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.
“All things are lawful unto me - It is likely that some of the Corinthians had pleaded that the offense of the man who had his father’s wife, as well as the eating the things offered to idols, was not contrary to the law, as…”
Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
“He that is joined to a harlot is one body - In Sohar Genes., fol. 19, we have these remarkable words: Whosoever connects himself with another man’s wife, does in effect renounce the holy blessed God, and the Church of the Israelites.”
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
“Flee fornication - Abominate, detest, and escape from every kind of uncleanness. Some sins, or solicitations to sin, may be reasoned with; in the above cases, if you parley you are undone; reason not, but Fly!”