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Kentish's Notes on Scripture.

E. . Gannett,

ART. IV. KENTISHI'S NOTES ON SCRIPTURE.*

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"ONCE on a time," as the story-books say, there lived men in this our country, readers of the Christian Examiner and contributors to its pages, who made sacred criticism a subject of diligent study. That few such men furnish contributions to our journal now is very plain, and the articles they might bestow on us, we strongly suspect, would find but tardy perusal. In plain English, and in the language of mournful confession, we are forced to say, that in no department of our editorial work have we met with such continual disappointment as in our attempts to procure papers illustrating the principles of Biblical interpretation or their application to the sacred volume. readers, as we have suggested, may not sympathize with us in this regret. Our disappointment they may account their relief. Still we cannot but think that the people are more ready to receive than the ministers to impart instruction of this kind. That the Bible is used as a text-book (in the most literal sense), that it is read as the greatest and best of books, that it is preached from, and lived from, — all this we stand ready to admit. But that it is not much preached on, nor a close examination of its language made a frequent employment of the clergyman's private hours, we infer from a large amount of direct and indirect testimony.

We are not going to discuss the question, whether the decline of interest in critical studies of which, notwithstanding the facts adduced by our friend who delivered the Address before the Alumni of the Divinity School the year before last, we entertain no more doubt than of the decrease of "steady habits" in our city of Boston-is a portentous evil. We regret it, but have no wish to inflict on our readers a tedious inquiry into the causes or probable effects of a change which they may not deplore as much as we. If any one of our contributors who can manage an unwelcome theme with the ability and grace which, if they were ours, we would expend on its treatment, will use our pages for the purpose, they are at his service. And still more cheerfully will we give admission to exegetical articles embracing sound and liberal criticism of the Scriptures. We have confessed some

Notes and Comments on Passages of Scripture. By JOHN KENTISH. Second Edition. London. 1846. 8vo. pp. x., 420.

↑ See Christian Examiner, for November, 1847, pp. 325 et seq.

of our private sorrows, by way of introduction to a few extracts from the volume of "Notes and Comments on Passages of Scripture " which Hes before us.

Mr. Kentish is still, we believe, minister of one of the Unitarian congregations in Birmingham. Having, some years ago, resigned to a colleague the principal portion of the labor incident to his office, he has devoted himself to a life of tranquil study and social enjoyment at his beautiful residence, a little removed from the noise and smoke of the town. Here, among other engagements, he has employed himself in revising his contributions to sacred literature, which had appeared in different periodical publications, particularly the "Monthly Repository" and the "Christian Reformer," and in collecting them, with additions, into a volume, which appeared in 1844, and a second edition of which is now in our hands. Mr. Kentish avoids the vice, so common with critics, of attempting to make discoveries. He affects no originality, and has added very little to the means of elucidating the sacred text which were in the possession of English readers before. His "principles of interpretation," he says in the Preface, are far from being new; however men may have neglected the faithful application of them. My aim has been, in the first instance, to ascertain what the original text is, and to alter nothing on conjecture; and then to explain passages by means of the subject and connection, and of parallel or kindred texts." These, often as they have been violated, are the only principles that will guide commentator or reader to a correct interpretation of the sacred volume. The references appended to the several notes furnish evidence of a habit to which he alludes, and in which he might be well taken as an example by every preacher or student. "In the course of my theological and of my miscellaneous reading," he remarks, "I have kept in view its bearings on an elucidation of the Scriptures." The consequence in this case, as it would be with any one who should adopt a similar practice, is an accumulation of passages, from both ancient and modern literature, and from writers on almost every subject, the pertinency of which, in many instances, as well as their constantly increasing amount, would surprise one who had never connected his general reading with such a purpose.

The effect of this study of the Bible upon his estimation of its contents is noticed by Mr. Kentish, and corresponds

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with what must always follow upon a candid and patient inquiry into its claims and character.

"In proportion," says he, "as I have attended to the pursuits out of which these notes arose, I have seen new reasons for admiring Christianity, as it is disclosed in the Scriptures, and for believing in its special Divine origin, as well as in that of Judaism ; I have, at the same time, gained a yet stronger persuasion that the sacred writings authenticate themselves; and that they inculcate truths and morals of unrivalled excellence, and breathe a spirit of the most exalted devotion, the most comprehensive charity, and the strictest purity."-p. ix.

We select a few of the illustrations of the meaning of the Scriptural writers, which strike us as most valuable.

Mr. Kentish adopts the view of Jephthah's conduct towards his daughter which is suggested by the Common Version, but for which many commentators have been anxious to substitute one more agreeable to the dictates of humanity. While he admits that it might "at first appear incredible that a Jew should sacrifice a human victim, and this victim his daughter, and hardly less astonishing that he should do so unchecked and unpunished by his countrymen," if "the period which the Book of Judges treats of had been one of regular and tranquil government, or had the religion and morals of the people exhibited no alarming degeneracy," he finds in "the actual state of things, the reverse of all this," a reason for adopting a literal interpretation of the passage. "The Jewish nation were now become, with few exceptions, semi-idolaters and barbarians; and Jephthah's rash and cruel vow harmonizes too well with the depravity of the times and the awful darkness of the scene." Inclined ourselves to adopt this exposition, we concur with Mr. Kentish in his remark, that "the Divine origin of the Jewish polity is unaffected by Jephthah's conduct; while the simple and ingenuous manner in which the historian records this example of disobedience to the letter and the spirit of the Mosaic law supports the authenticity of the narrative."

Mr. Kentish, also, we doubt not, gives the correct exposition of the language of Job, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," etc. (xix. 25, 26), so often cited, against all the considerations that determine its meaning, in proof of faith in immortality.

"The key to these verses is supplied, I think, by xvi. 19:

'Behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.' Though Job considered his disease as mortal, he was confident, nevertheless, that the Supreme Being would attest his innocence; and therefore he declares (xiii. 15), Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.' It is perfectly agreeable to the plan and object of the book, that the virtuous sufferer should expect a Divine appearance in his behalf: with this, however, the introduction of the doctrine of a future life would not have been consistent. With what propriety, too, could Job say, that, after the slumbers of the tomb, he should in his flesh see God?'

pp. 54, 55.

Of Proverbs xxvii. 19, "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man," Mr. Kentish adopts an explanation at least as probable as any other :

"As water [represents] the face to the face,

So the heart [represents] the man to the man.

Let any individual faithfully consult his heart, the state of his motives, his principles, his feelings, etc., and it will fully set before him his character; just as the true lineaments of his countenance are reflected from the pure and unagitated surface of water." — p. 83.

We copy a part of the note on John xviii. 38, for the manner in which it exposes a groundless cavil, while it exhibits in its true light the conduct of our Lord.

"Pilate had two interviews with Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak only of the former of them, which was public, and took place in the presence of the Jewish rulers. John limits himself to the latter interview, which was private, and within the judgment-hall. . . . . Here Jesus and Pilate were alone, and John represents at large the dialogue between the governor and his prisoner in private. The deportment of Jesus Christ, in his present, as in every other situation, was marked by consummate wisdom and propriety, by meekness united with fortitude, by dignity yet gentleness of soul. When his calumniators stood together with him before Pilate, he answered nothing. He was conscious of his innocence; he knew their falsehood and their malice; and was perfectly sensible that it became them to produce credible witnesses against him, yet that this was beyond their power. With such persons he could not, and would not, enter into any altercation, in the presence of the governor. On the other hand, when he was admitted to a private audience with Pilate, an audience, too, sought for by the judge himself, — the respect which he always showed and inculcated for the office of the civil magistrate would not suffer him to be silent; the less so,

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as the purpose of the Roman Procurator evidently was, to ascer tain, if possible, the nature of the accusation, the ground on which it rested, and the pretensions of the individual accused. Jesus accordingly unfolded his claims with his characteristic firmness and wisdom. By this conduct he strengthened the favorable impression which had already been left on Pilate's mind. The difficulty, therefore, that has occurred to some individuals, in respect to this part of the gospel-history, is only apparent."- pp.

196-198.

On Acts iii. 22, Mr. Kentish, after observing that "the fact of this quotation (Deut. xviii. 15) having been made by Peter and by Stephen shows the importance attached to it among the Jews," gives, we believe, the true explanation of the language of Moses," A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me." "It is, I think," he says, "an assurance that Divine prophecy and legislation should be continued to them; and it therefore includes Jesus Christ, without specifically and solely describing him."

The comment on Acts vi. 9-"Then there arose certain. . . . . of them of Cilicia . . . . ., disputing with Stephen" is worthy of Paley. Tarsus, it will be remembered, was in Cilicia.

"Is it not likely that Saul of Tarsus was of the number; and may not this circumstance explain the singular fury of the zeal with which he consented to the proto-martyr's death? The disputants with Stephen could not resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake; baffled in argument, they had recourse to brutal violence. No history more completely authenticates itself than that of the Acts of the Apostles; none is more faithful to human nature, or more prominently characterized by minute, undesigned coincidences." pp. 208, 209.

A similar example of critical sagacity is presented in the note on Philippians i. 14.

"The brethren in the Lord' were some of the Christians at Rome, whence this Epistle was written. It is evident from 2 Tim. iv. 16, that, on Paul's first appearance before the civil power, they timidly forsook him; the passage before us shows that his situation and his example had inspired them with courage. Now this information, presented, as it is, artlessly and incidentally, bespeaks truth; and, when read in connection with the three following verses, it adds strength to the opinion, that there was a Christian church, of no recent standing, in the metropolis of the world." - p. 309.