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
For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
“When a few years are come - I prefer Mr. Good’s version: - “But the years numbered to me are come. And I must go the way whence I shall not return.””
Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
“Are there not mockers with me? - This has been variously translated. The Vulgate: “I have not sinned, and yet my eye dwells upon afflictions.” Septuagint: “I conjure you, laboring under afflictions, what evil have I done? Yet strangers have robbed me of my substance.””
You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
“For thou hast hid their heart - This address is to God; and here he is represented as doing that which in the course of his providence he only permits to be done.”
He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
“He hath made me also a by-word - My afflictions and calamities have become a subject of general conversation, so that my poverty and affliction are proverbial.”
The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
“Upright men shall be astonied - In several of these verses Job is supposed to speak prophetically of his future restoration, and of the good which religious society should derive from the history of his original affluence, consequent poverty and affliction, and final restoration to…”
They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
“They change the night into day - These purposes and thoughts are so very gloomy, that they change day into night.”
and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
“I have said to corruption - I came from a corrupted stock, and I must go to corruption again. The Hebrew might be thus rendered: To the ditch I have called, Thou art my father. To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister.”
Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”
“They shall go down to the bars of the pit - All that I have must descend into the depths of the grave. Thither are we all going; and there alone can I rest.”
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
“Then answered Bildad - The following analysis of this speech, by Mr. Heath, is judicious: “Bildad, irritated to the last degree that Job should treat their advice with so much contempt, is no longer able to keep his passions within the bounds of decency.”
“How long until you end these speeches? Show some sense, and then we can talk.
“How long will it be ere ye make an end - It is difficult to say to whom this address is made: being in the plural number, it can hardly be supposed to mean Job only.”
You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?
“He teareth himself in his anger - Literally, Rending his own soul in his anger; as if he had said, Thou art a madman: thy fury has such a sway over thee that thou eatest thy own flesh.”
The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.
“The light shall be dark in his tabernacle - His property shall be destroyed, his house pillaged, and himself and his family come to an untimely end. His candle shall be put out - He shall have no posterity.”
He is torn from the shelter of his tent and is marched off to the king of terrors.
“His confidence shall be rooted out - His dwelling-place, how well soever fortified, shah now he deemed utterly insecure. And it shall bring him to the king of terrors - Or, as Mr. Good translates, “And dissolution shall invade him as a monarch.””
The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away.
“His roots shall be dried up - his branch be cut off - He shall be as utterly destroyed, both in himself, his posterity, and his property, as a tree is whose branches are all lopped off, and whose every root is cut away.”
Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.
“And be it indeed that I have erred - Suppose indeed that I have been mistaken in any thing, that in the simplicity of my heart I have gone astray, and that this matter remains with myself, (for most certainly there is no public stain…”
then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
“Know now that God hath overthrown me - The matter is between him and me, and he has not commissioned you to add reproaches to his chastisements.”
He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
“He hath fenced up my way - This may allude to the mode of hunting the elephant, described at the conclusion of the preceding chapter; or to the operations of an invading army. See under Job 19:11 (note).”
He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.
“Mine hope hath he removed like a tree - There is no more hope of my restoration to affluence, authority, and respect, than there is that a tree shall grow and flourish, whose roots are extracted from the earth.”
My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
“My bone cleaveth to my skin - My flesh is entirely wasted away, and nothing but skin and bone left. I am escaped with the skin of my teeth - I have had the most narrow escape.”
Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
“Why do ye persecute me as God - Are not the afflictions which God sends enough? Do ye not see that I have as much as I can bear? When the papists were burning Dr.”
by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.
“Iron pen and lead - Some suppose that the meaning of this place is this: the iron pen is the chisel by which the letters were to be deeply cut in the stone or rock; and the lead was melted into those cavities in order…”
Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
“And though after my skin worms destroy this body - My skin, which is now almost all that remains of my former self, except the bones; see Job 19:20. They destroy this - not body.”
If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’
“But ye should say - Or, Then ye shall say. Why persecute we him - Or, as Mr. Good, How did we persecute him! Alas! we are now convinced that we did wrong.”
“So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me.
“Therefore do my thoughts - It has already been observed that Zophar was the most inveterate of all Job’s enemies, for we really must cease to call them friends. He sets no bounds to his invective, and outrages every rule of charity.”
Do you not know that from antiquity, since man was placed on the earth,
“Knowest thou not this of old - This is a maxim as ancient as the world; it began with the first man: A wicked man shall triumph but a short time; God will destroy the proud doer.”