Ellicott's Bible Commentary for English Readers

Charles John Ellicott (1819–1905) was Bishop of Gloucester for more than forty years and, before that, a Cambridge professor of divinity known for his commentaries on Paul's epistles. He also chaired the company of scholars that produced the Revised Version New Testament of 1881. A Bible Commentary for English Readers was his largest editorial project: a commentary on the whole Bible by a company of contributors, among them E. H. Plumptre, F. W. Farrar, and H. D. M. Spence, co-editor of the Pulpit Commentary.

The New Testament appeared first, in three volumes, and the Old Testament followed in five. The SwordSearcher module is taken from the eight-volume edition published by Cassell and Company in 1905. It covers all sixty-six books in more than 23,000 entries, with an introduction to each book.

The preface states plainly who the commentary was written for:

It was stated that the Commentary was designed for that large and increasing class of cultivated English readers who, believing the Holy Scriptures not only to contain God's Word, but to be God's Word, do earnestly desire to realise that Word, and to be assisted in applying it to their own spiritual needs, and to the general circumstances and context of daily life around them. It was further stated that its object was also to meet some of the deep needs of the present time, especially of that large, and—as we fear it must again be said—increasing class of readers, who are conscious that chilling doubts have crept into the soul, and that modern criticism has seemed to them to make it doubtful whether Scripture is what it claims to be.

The notes explain the English text phrase by phrase, bringing in the Greek or Hebrew only where it helps, and they are generally careful and restrained. The note on John 3:16 begins:

Perhaps no verse in the Bible has been so much explained as this; perhaps no verse can be so little explained. Most young preachers have sermons upon it; older men learn that its meaning must be felt and thought rather than spoken.... God so loved the world.—Familiar as the words are to us, they were uttered to Nicodemus for the first time. They are the revelation of the nature of God, and the ground of our love to God and man.

Because many hands were involved, the quality and the standpoint vary from book to book. The contributors were Church of England scholars of the late Victorian period, and although the stated aim was to answer the criticism of the day, a reader will occasionally find a contributor making room for it. Weigh what you read against the text itself.