THE

HOLY BIBLE

ACCORDING TO THE AUTHORIZED VERSION (A.D. 1611),

WITH AN EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL

Commentary

AND

A Revision of the Translation,

BY BISHOPS AND OTHER CLERGY

OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.

EDITED

By F. C. COOK, M.A., CANON OF EXETER.

VOL. I.-PART I.

GENESIS-EXODUS.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1871.

[All Rights are reserved.]

PREFACE.

T is about seven years since the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Right Hon. J. Evelyn Denison, conceived the idea of the present Commentary, and suggested its execution.

It appeared to him that in the midst of much controversy about the Bible, in which the laity could not help feeling a lively interest, even where they took no more active part, there was a want of some Commentary upon the Sacred Books, in which the latest information might be made accessible to men of ordinary culture. It seemed desirable that every educated man should have access to some work which might enable him to understand what the original Scriptures really say and mean, and in which he might find an explanation of any difficulties which his own mind might suggest, as well as of any new objections raised against a particular book or passage. Whilst the Word of God is one, and does not change, it must touch, at new points, the changing phases of physical, philological, and historical knowledge, and so the Comments that suit one generation are felt by another to be obsolete.

The Speaker, after mentioning this project to several prelates and theologians, consulted the Archbishop of York upon it. Although the difficulties of such an undertaking were very great, it seemed right to the Archbishop to make the attempt to meet a want which all confessed to exist; and accordingly he undertook to form a company of divines, who, by a judicious distribution of the labour amongst them, might expound, each the portion of Scripture for which his studies might best have fitted him.

The difficulties were indeed many. First came that of

treating a great and almost boundless subject upon a limited scale. Let any one examine the most complete Commentaries now in existence, and he will find that twenty or thirty ordinary volumes are not thought too many for the exhaustive treatment of the Scripture text. But every volume added makes a work less accessible to those for whom it is intended; and it was thought that eight or ten volumes ought to suffice for text and notes, if this Commentary was to be used by laymen as well as by professed divines. Omission and compression are at all times difficult; notes should be in proportion to the reader's needs, whereas they are more likely to represent the writer's predilections. The most important points should be most prominent; but the writer is tempted to lay most stress on what has cost him most labour.

Another difficulty lay in the necessity of treating subjects that require a good deal of research, historical and philological, but which could not be expected to interest those who have had no special preparation for such studies. In order to meet this, it was resolved that subjects involving deep learning and fuller illustration should be remitted to separate essays at the end of each Chapter, Book or division; where they can be found by those who desired them.

The general plan has been this. A Committee was formed to select the Editor and the Writers of the various sections. The Rev. F. C. Cook, Canon of Exeter, and Preacher of Lincoln's Inn, was chosen Editor. The work has been divided into Eight Sections, of which the present volume contains the Pentateuch. Each book has been assigned to some writer who has paid attention to the subject of it. The Editor thought it desirable to have a small Committee of reference, in cases of dispute; and the Archbishop of York with the Regius Professors of Divinity of Oxford and Cambridge agreed to act in this capacity. But in practice it has rarely been found necessary to resort to them.

The Committee were called upon, in the first place, to consider the important question, which has since received a