New Testament

Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary on John by Alfred Plummer

by
lfred Plummer [1841-1926], The Gospel According to John with Maps, Notes and Introduction

The Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary series was written for students learning Greek in Schools and Colleges in the United Kingdom. I plan to make the rest of the series available as I get access to hard copies. The notes on the Greek text in this volume are by Alfred Plummer. Plummer wrote commentaries on most of the books of the New Testament, including the International Critical Commentaries on Luke and 2 Corinthians. A list of other books by this author hosted on this site can be found here.

My thanks to Book Aid for providing a copy of this public domain title for digitisation. The maps at the end of the commentary are particularly nice.

Alfred Plummer [1841-1926], The Gospel According to John with Maps, Notes and Introduction. Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913. Hbk. pp.382. [Click to visit the download page for this book]

Table of Contents

  • Preface by the General Editor
  • On the Greek Text
  • Introduction
    1. The Life of S. John
    2. The Authenticity of the Gospel
    3. The Place and Date
    4. The Object and Plan
    5. The Characteristics of the Gospel
    6. Its Relation to the Synoptic Gospels
    7. Its Relation to the First Epistle
    8. The Text of the Gospel
    9. The Literature of the Gospel – Analysis of the Gospel in Detail
  • Text and Notes
  • Appendices
  • Maps

The Life of St John

The life of S. John falls naturally into two divisions, the limits of which correspond to the two main sources of information respecting him. (1) From his birth to the departure from Jerusalem after tho Ascension; the sources for which are contained in N.T. (2) From the departure from Jerusalem to his death; the sources for which are the traditions of the primitive Church. In both cases the notices of S. John are fragmentary, and cannot be woven together into anything like a complete whole without a good deal of conjecture. But the fragments are in the main very harmonious, and contain definite traits and characteristics, enabling us to form a portrait, which though imperfect is unique.

(i) Before the Departure from Jerusalem.

The date of S. John’s birth cannot be determined. He was probably younger than his Master and than the other Apostles. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, who was probably the older of the two. Zebedee was a fisherman of the lake of Galilee, who seems to have lived in or near Bethsaida (i. 44), and was well enough off to have hired servants (Mark i. 20). He appears only once in the Gospel-narrative (Matt. iv. 21, 22; Mark i. 19, 20), but is mentioned frequently as the father of S. James and S. John. Salome (see on xix. 25) was probably the sister of the Virgin, and in that case S. John was our Lord’s first cousin. This relationship harmonizes well with the special intimacy granted to the beloved disciple by his Lord, with the fact of S. James also being among the chosen three, and with the final committal of the Virgin to S. John’s care. Salome was one of those women who followed Christ and ‘ministered to Him of their substance’ (Mark xv. 40; comp. Matt. xxvii. 55 ; Luke viii. 3). This was probably after Zebedee’s death. S. John’s parents, therefore, would seem to have been people of means; and it is likely from xix. 27 that the Apostle himself was fairly well off, a conclusion to which his acquaintance with the high-priest (xviii. 15) also points.

pp.xi-xii

Commentary on St Matthew by M.F. Sadler

by
Michael Ferrebee Sadler [1819-1895], The Gospel to St Matthew with Notes Critical and Practical, 2nd edn.

Rev Michael Ferrebee Sadler [1819-1895] provides a fairly detailed commentary on the English text of Matthew’s Gospel.

My thanks to Book Aid for making available a copy of this public domain title for digitisation.

Michael Ferrebee Sadler [1819-1895], The Gospel to St Matthew with Notes Critical and Practical, 2nd edn. London: George Bell & Sons, 1901. Hbk. pp.494. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Table of Contents

  1. Preface to Second Edition
  2. Introduction
  3. Commentary
  4. Excursus I. The Genealogies
  5. Excursus II. The Star of the Magi
  6. Excursus III. The Primacy of St. Peter

Introduction. 1. The Origin and Sources of the Four Gospels

The account of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has come down to us in the Four Gospels, was not at the first given to the Church in a. written form, but was taught orally by the preaching of the Apostles. Thus in the notice of the first Church-that which was founded in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost-it is said of those who belonged to it, that they “continued stedfastly in the Apostles’ teaching,” or “doctrine,” though no Gospel was written till many years afterwards.

Throughout the history of the planting of the Christian Church in various cities and countries, which we have in the Acts of the Holy Apostles-an account covering at least thirty years-we have no mention of any book from which the first Christians were taught respecting the Son of God.

That book of the New Testament which almost all agree in considering the first put into writing is the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, and throughout that Epistle it is taken for granted that the members of the local Church, for whose sake it was written, had been instructed in all needful truth, and only required to be reminded of what they had learnt.

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Brooke Foss Westcott’s Commentary on the Epistles of John

by
Brooke Foss Westcott [1825-1901], The Epistles of John. The Greek Text with Notes and Essays, 2nd edn.

This is the fourth of Bishop Westcott’s commentaries that I have been able to digitise. You can find the full list here. My thanks to Book Aid for making this public domain title for digitisation.

Brooke Foss Westcott [1825-1901], The Epistles of John. The Greek Text with Notes and Essays, 2nd edn. Cambridge & London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1886. Hbk. pp.378. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Table of Contents

  • Introduction to the First Epistle
  • Introduction to the Second and Third Epistles
  • First Epistle: Text and Notes
  • Second Epistle: Text and Notes
  • Third Epistle: Text and Notes
  1. The Two Empires: The Church and the World
  2. The Gospel of Creation
  3. The Relation of Christianity to Art

Preface

In the present Commentary I have endeavoured to follow the plan which I sketched in the notes on the Gospel of St John in The Speaker’s Commentary. It formed no part of my design to collect and discuss the conflicting opinions which have been held on the structure of the writings or on the interpretation of separate passages. Such a labour is indeed of the deepest interest and utility; but it appeared to me that I might help the student more by giving the results at which I have arrived, and by indicating the lines of inquiry by which they have been reached. In pursuing this end it has been my main desire to call attention to the minutest points of language, construction, order, as serving to illustrate the meaning of St John. I do not venture to pronounce that any variation is trivial or unimportant. The exact words are for us the decisive expression of the Apostle’s thought….

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