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
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
“Let the words of my mouth - He has prayed against practical sin, the sins of the body; now, against the sins of the mouth and of the heart.”
Then I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people.
“I will give thee thanks in the great congregation - I hope to be able to attend at the tabernacle with thy followers, and there publicly express my gratitude for the deliverance thou hast given me.”
May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.
“Let them be ashamed - This may be a prophetic declaration against Saul and his courtiers. They were ashamed, confounded, clothed with shame, and dishonored.”
Answer me, O LORD, for Your loving devotion is good; turn to me in keeping with Your great compassion.
“Thy loving-kindness is good - The word חסד chesed signifies exuberance of kindness, and the word רחמים rachamim, which we translate tender mercies, signifies such affection as mothers bear to their young: and in God, there is רב rob, a multitude, of such tender mercies…”
Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.
“Blessed be the Lord God - David foresaw all Solomon’s grandeur; his justice equity, and the happiness of the subjects under his government; and his soul has, in consequence, sensations of pleasure and gratitude to God, which even his own wondrous pen cannot describe.”
Thus conclude the prayers of David son of Jesse.
“The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended - This was most probably the last Psalm he ever wrote.”
And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
“That God was their rock - They recollected in their affliction that Jehovah was their Creator, and their Father; the Rock, the Source, not only of their being, but of all their blessings; or, that he was their sole Protector.”
He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
“He remembered that they were but flesh - Weak mortals. He took their feeble perishing state always into consideration, and knew how much they needed the whole of their state of probation; and therefore he bore with them to the uttermost. How merciful is God!”
He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.
“The border of his sanctuary - קדשו kodsho, “of his holy place,” that is, the land of Canaan, called afterwards the mountain which his right hand had purchased; because it was a mountainous country, widely differing from Egypt, which was a long, continued, and almost…”
They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.
“They were turned aside like a deceitful bow - The eastern bow, which when at rest is in the form of a [curved figure], must be recurved, or turned the contrary way, in order to be what is called bent and strung.”
He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.
“He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh - The Lord, offended with the people, and principally with the priests, who had profaned his holy worship, gave up his ark into the hands of the Philistines.”
His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.
“Their priests fell by the sword - Hophni and Phinehas, who were slain in that unfortunate battle against the Philistines in which the ark of the Lord was taken, 1Sa 4:11.”
He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame.
“He smote his enemies in the hinder part - This refers to the hemorrhoids with which he afflicted the Philistines. See the note on 1Sa 5:6-10 (note).”
Do not hold past sins against us; let Your compassion come quickly, for we are brought low.
“Remember not against us former iniquities - Visit us not for the sins of our forefathers. Speedily prevent us - Let them go before us, and turn us out of the path of destruction; for there is no help for us but in thee.”
Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.
“Before the mountains were brought forth - The mountains and hills appear to have been everlasting; but as they were brought forth out of the womb of eternity, there was a time when they were not: but Thou hast been ab aeternitate a parte ante…”
The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
“Threescore years and ten - See the note on the title of this Psalm 90 (note). This Psalm could not have been written by Moses, because the term of human life was much more extended when he flourished than eighty years at the most.”
So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.
“So teach us to number our days - Let us deeply consider our own frailty, and the shortness and uncertainty of life, that we may live for eternity, acquaint ourselves with thee and be at peace; that we may die in thy favor and live…”
to hear a prisoner’s groaning, to release those condemned to death,
“To hear the groaning - By sin, all the inhabitants of the earth are miserable. They have broken the Divine laws, are under the arrest of judgment, and all cast into prison, They have been tried, found guilty, and appointed to die; they groan under…”
Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.
“Judah was his sanctuary - He set up his true worship among the Jews, and took them for his peculiar people.”
I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
“I will delight myself - The word is very emphatical: אשתעשע eshtaasha, I will skip about and jump for joy. 14.”
The arrogant have dug pits for me in violation of Your law.
“The proud have digged pits - The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, translate this verse thus: “They have recited to me unholy fables, which are not according to thy law.””
I constantly take my life in my hands, yet I do not forget Your law.
“My soul is continually in my hand - נפשי naphshi, my life; that is, it is in constant danger, every hour I am on the confines of death. The expression signifies to be in continual danger. So Xenarchus in Athenaeus, lib. xiii., c.”
Ensure Your servant’s well-being; do not let the arrogant oppress me.
“Be surety for thy servant - ערב arob, give a pledge or token that thou wilt help me in times of necessity. Or, Be bail for thy servant. What a word is this!”
Therefore I admire all Your precepts and hate every false way.
“All thy precepts concerning all things to be right - There are too many supplied words here to leave the text unsuspected.”
Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
“I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child - On the contrary, I have been under the rod of others, and when chastised have not complained; and my silence under my affliction was the fullest proof that I neither murmured nor repined, but received…”