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.
The rest of the quotation
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
because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.
“Because I delivered the poor that cried - This appears to be intended as a refutation of the charges produced by Eliphaz, Job 22:5-10, to confute which Job appeals to facts, and to public testimony.”
I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.
“The cause which I knew not I searched out - When any thing difficult occurred, I did not give it a slight consideration; I examined it to the bottom, whatever pain, time, and trouble it cost me, that I might not pronounce a hasty judgment.”
My glory is ever new within me, and my bow is renewed in my hand.’
“My glory was fresh in me - My vegetative power was great; my glory - my splendid blossom, large and mellow fruit, was always in season, and in every season. My bow was renewed - I was never without means to accomplish all my wishes.”
If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious.
“I laughed on them, they believed it not - Similar to that expression in the Gospel, Luk 24:41: And while they believed not for joy, and wondered, he said - .”
What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
“The strength of their hands profit me - He is speaking here of the fathers of these young men. What was the strength of their hands to me? Their old age also has perished.”
They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
“Who cut up mallows by the bushes - מלוח malluach, which we translate mallows, comes from מלח melach, salt; some herb or shrub of a salt nature, sea-purslane, or the salsaria, salsola, or saltwort.”
A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
“Children of fools - Children of nabal; children without a name; persons of no consideration, and descendants of such. Viler than the earth - Rather, driven out of the land; persons not fit for civil society.”
The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
“Upon my right hand rise the youth - The word פרחח pirchach, which we translate youth, signifies properly buds, or the buttons of trees. Mr. Good has younglings. Younkers would be better, were it not too colloquial.”
They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
“They came upon me as a wide breaking in - They storm me on every side. In the desolation they rolled themselves - When they had made the breach, they rolled in upon me as an irresistible torrent.”
With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
“Is my garment changed - There seem to be here plain allusions to the effect of his cruel disease; the whole body being enveloped with a kind of elephantine hide, formed by innumerable incrustations from the ulcerated surface.”
I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
“I cry unto thee - I am persecuted by man, afflicted with sore disease, and apparently forsaken of God. I stand up - Or, as some translate, “I persevere, and thou lookest upon me.””
You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.
“Thou liftest me up to the wind - Thou hast so completely stripped me of all my substance, that I am like chaff lifted up by the wind; or as a straw, the sport of every breeze; and at last carried totally away, being dissipated…”
Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
“He will not stretch out his hand to the grave - After all that has been said relative to the just translation and true meaning of this verse, is it not evident that it is in the mouth of Job a consolatory reflection?”
I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
“I went mourning without the sun - חמה chammah, which we here translate the sun, comes from a root of the same letters, which signifies to hide, protect, etc., and may be translated, I went mourning without a protector or guardian; or, the word may…”
My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
“My skin is black - By continual exposure to the open air, and parching influence of the sun. My bones are burned with heat - A strong expression, to point out the raging fever that was continually preying upon his vitals.”
then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
“Let me sow, and let another eat - Let me be plagued both in my circumstances and in my family. My offspring be rooted out - It has already appeared probable that all Job’s children were not destroyed in the fall of the house mentioned…”
then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.
“Let my wife grind unto another - Let her work at the handmill, grinding corn; which was the severe work of the meanest slave. In this sense the passage is understood both by the Syriac and Arabic.”
though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—
“This is a very difficult verse, and is variously translated. Take the following instances: - For from his youth he (the male orphan) was brought up with me as a father. Yea, I have guided her (the female orphan) from her mother’s womb - Heath.”
if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,
“If his loins have not blessed me - This is a very delicate touch: the part that was cold and shivering is now covered with warm woollen. It feels the comfort; and by a fine prosopopoeia, is represented as blessing him who furnished the clothing.”
then may my arm fall from my shoulder and be torn from its socket.
“Let mine arm fall - Mr. Good, as a medical man, is at home in the translation of this verse: - “May my shoulder-bone be shivered at the blade, And mine arm be broken off at the socket.””
if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,
“If I beheld the sun when it shined - In this verse Job clears himself of that idolatrous worship which was the most ancient and most consistent with reason of any species of idolatry; viz., Sabaeism, the worship of the heavenly bodies; particularly the sun…”
this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.
“For I should have denied the God that is above - Had I paid Divine adoration to them, I should have thereby denied the God that made them.”
but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler—
“The stranger did not lodge in the street - My kindness did not extend merely to my family, domestics, and friends; the stranger - he who was to me perfectly unknown, and the traveler - he who was on his journey to some other district…”
because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—
“Did I fear a great multitude - Was I ever prevented by the voice of the many from decreeing and executing what was right?”
Surely I would carry it on my shoulder and wear it like a crown.
“Surely I would take it upon my shoulder - I would be contented to stand before the bar as a criminal, bearing upon my shoulder the board to which the accusation is affixed.”