The People's New Testament Commentary

The People's New Testament with Explanatory Notes was written by Barton Warren Johnson (1833–1894), an Illinois farm boy who became a college president, editor, and preacher. It was published in two volumes, the Gospels and Acts first and then the Epistles and Revelation, and completed in 1891. As the title says, it was written for the people: Johnson set out to give the common reader enough help to understand every verse, and he kept his notes short and his language plain.

The printed edition set the King James text beside the Revised Version of 1881 with the notes underneath. In SwordSearcher the notes stand on their own, keyed to each verse, and the module covers all twenty-seven books in about 6,000 entries. Each chapter opens with a summary of its contents. Johnson's note on John 3:16 shows his manner:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, etc. There is no sweeter verse in the Bible. It declares: (1) That God is love. (2) That he loved the world instead of hating it. (3) That he so loved that he gave his Son. The Son did not come to appease the Father's wrath, but the Father sent him because he loved so well. (4) That he came to keep men from perishing.

Johnson was a graduate of Bethany College and a leading figure in the Restoration Movement associated with Alexander Campbell, and his notes reflect its convictions. Readers will notice this especially in his treatment of baptism: on Acts 2:38 he writes that "the terms of pardon under the New Covenant" are given for the first time, and that the sinner "is to repent and be baptized." Those who hold a different view of the ordinance will want to weigh those passages against Scripture, as with any commentary; the rest of the work is straightforward and useful.

J. W. McGarvey's Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts, from the same movement, is also in the SwordSearcher library, and the two are often consulted together. Abbott's New Testament Commentary is another set of brief notes written for the general reader.