Family Bible Notes

Family Bible Notes is the commentary from The Family Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, With Brief Notes and Instructions, published by the American Tract Society. The notes were begun by Justin Edwards (1787–1853), a New England Congregational pastor, one of the founders of the American Tract Society, and for six years president of Andover Theological Seminary. Edwards died in 1853 with the Old Testament unfinished, and Elijah Porter Barrows (1807–1888), professor of Hebrew at Andover, completed the work. The SwordSearcher module is taken from the 1861 edition, which names both men on its title page.

As the title says, the notes are brief. Edwards wanted a family to be able to read a chapter at the table, glance at the notes, and understand what they had read. He explains a word or phrase in a few plain words, adds a cross-reference, and then, where the text calls for it, a sentence of doctrine or application. The notes on Genesis 1:1 are a fair sample of the whole:

The beginning; of the creation here spoken of. Created; brought into being out of nothing. The heaven and the earth; the matter out of which these were afterwards formed. The existence, wisdom, and greatness of God are shown by the things which he has made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that those who see these things and yet do not adore him, are without excuse. Ro 1:20

And on Psalm 23:1:

My shepherd; to feed, guide, and protect him. Compare Joh 10:10-16. Those who have Jehovah to protect and provide for them, will not want any good thing.

The module covers all sixty-six books in more than 13,000 entries. It makes no attempt at the depth of Barnes or Gill, and that is its usefulness: it is a commentary for family devotions and for the first reading of a passage, written from a plain evangelical standpoint. The Society's Bible Dictionary, published two years earlier, is also in the library.