The Lutheran Commentary (12 vols.)

by John A. W. Haas; H. Louis Baugher; Adolph Spaeth; Henry Eyster Jacobs

and

8 more

Publisher:

Christian Literature Company

, 1895–1898

Overview

“The name ‘Lutheran’ ought always, in the sphere of scholarship, to designate first of all devotion to exegetical study.” —from the introduction

Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz, while being theologians, were above all else exegetes, drawing the mysteries of Christianity prayerfully and resourcefully forth from the Holy Scriptures. Their calling as expounders of the Scriptures is a time-honored tradition in ecclesiastical Lutheran heritage that still proves itself today. The Lutheran Commentary is a product of that tradition, reverently exegeting the biblical text—not for the sake of generating more systematic theologies and dogmatic treatises, but for a closer devotion to the God who gave us the Scriptures. The rich and lively expositions contained in this commentary were written to stimulate the mind, challenge the conscience, and grow the heart—of Christians of any creed or confession.

In Logos, these commentaries join the preaching and Bible study tools in your library. See the notes relevant to the verse you’re studying as you explore the Passage Guide or the Sermon Starter Guide. Take the study with you on your mobile device—in the split-screen format, you can study the Scripture and see commentary notes side-by-side.

Key Features

• Verse-by-verse commentary on the entire New Testament
• Scholarship in the tradition of Lutheran exegesis and exposition
• Written with lay churchgoers, pastors, and Bible students in mind
• Clear and concise textual, pastoral, and hermeneutic insights to the Scriptures

Contributors

• Vol. 1. Matthew 1-15. Charles F. Schaeffer
• Vol. 2. Matthew 16-28. Charles F. Schaeffer
• Vol. 3. Mark. John A. W. Haas
• Vol. 4. Luke. Henry Louis Baugher
• Vol. 5. John. Adolph Spaeth
• Vol. 6. Acts. F. W. Stellhorn
• Vol. 7. Romans, 1 Corinthians 1-6. Henry Eyster Jacobs
• Vol. 8. 1 Corinthians 7–16, 2 Corinthians, Galatians. Henry Eyster Jacobs, George Frederick Spieker, Carl A. Swensson
• Vol. 9. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians. Edward T. Horn. A. G. Voigt
• Vol. 10. Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, Philemon. Edmund J. Wolf, Edward T. Horn
• Vol. 11. James, Peter, John, Jude. Franklin Weidner
• Vol. 12. Revelation. Franklin Weidner

Endorsements

A good commentary on a book of Holy Scripture is an achievement of the highest order, a work toward which great natural endowments, a variety of literary accomplishments, profound and extensive Christian experience, thorough soundness of doctrine, and patient application, must contribute to make it what it should be. . . . and if a Lutheran commentary is to be specifically such, its distinctive features should be not only full doctrinal conformity with the confessional standards of the Lutheran church, but also a vindication of all its distinctive doctrines exhibited in the book of which the commentary is to be an exposition. . . . Viewed in the light of these general remarks, the volumes before us are worthy of honorable mention in modern exegetical literature.

—Theological Quarterly, vol. 2

The purpose of this work is to furnish a plain exposition of the New Testament Scriptures for the benefit of intelligent Christians generally. . . . the object of the different commentators is to give results rather than the methods of obtaining them.

—The Reformed Church Review

Product Details

• Title: The Lutheran Commentary
• Series Editor: Henry Eyster Jacobs
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Volumes: 12
• Pages: 4,885

Annotations on the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Part 1: 1–15

• Author: Charles F. Schaeffer
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1895
• Pages: 426

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The first volume of The Lutheran Commentary gives the first half of the Gospel of Matthew, written in the conservative approach taken by Charles F. Schaeffer.

Charles Frederick Schaeffer (1807–1879) was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of a distinguished Lutheran clergyman: Rev. F. D. Schaeffer, DD. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and served pastorates throughout New England before going on as a professor of theology at several universities in Pennsylvania. He served as the chairman of the faculty at the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia from 1864 until his death. He was known for his strictly conservative approach to Lutheran theology, advocating adherence to all the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. He is known for his translations of Kurtz’s Sacred History and of Lange’s Commentary on Acts.

Annotations on the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Part 2: 16–28

• Author: Charles F. Schaeffer
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1895
• Pages: 432

Charles Schaeffer continues his conservative, traditional exegesis of Matthew in the second volume of The Lutheran Commentary.

Charles Frederick Schaeffer (1807–1879) was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of a distinguished Lutheran clergyman: Rev. F. D. Schaeffer, DD. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and served pastorates throughout New England before going on as a professor of theology at several universities in Pennsylvania. He served as the chairman of the faculty at the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia from 1864 until his death. He was known for his strictly conservative approach to Lutheran theology, advocating adherence to all the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. He is known for his translations of Kurtz’s Sacred History and of Lange’s Commentary on Acts.

Annotations on the Gospel according to St. Mark

• Author: John A. W. Haas
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1895
• Pages: 352

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Notable Lutheran theologian John A. W. Haas presents his exposition of the Gospel of Mark. This volume is slightly more scientific and technical than is the aim of the series; Haas focuses more on archaeological, geographical, philological, and historical commentary than the authors of the rest of The Lutheran Commentary.

John Augustus William Haas (1862–1937) was the president of Muhlenberg College. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Mt. Airy Theological Seminary, and the University of Leipzig. He pastored at Grace Lutheran Church in New York City for eight years, and served another eight years as pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New York. He frequently contributed to a number of religious periodicals and is remembered as a forceful orator and leader in Lutheran thought in nineteenth-century America.

Annotations on the Gospel according to St. Luke

• Author: Henry Louis Baugher
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1896
• Pages: 451

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The commentary on the Gospel of Luke serves to appeal to a wider audience while providing practical application and scholarly inquiry into the text. Despite having much in common with the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Luke has much of its own material to merit the majority of the volume specifically appealing to Lukan studies.

Henry Louis Baugher (1804–1868) was an American Lutheran clergyman and scholar. He was president of Gettysburg College from 1850 to 1868. His presidency was noted by stern disciplinary practices and very high standards. At the ceremony opening the National Soldiers’ Cemetery, he gave the benediction following up after Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address.

Annotations on the Gospel according to St. John

• Author: Adolph Spaeth
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1896
• Pages: 351

The most organic of the Gospels, John provides a towering literary importance in the New Testament, one in which The Lutheran Commentary aims to draw attention to. Adolph Spaeth sets forth his commentary on the Gospel of John as one continuous argument—evidenced by his style and language—based on homiletic exposition rather than hermeneutic.

Philipp Friedrich Adolph Theodor Spaeth (1839–1910) was a pastor in Philadelphia from 1864 to 1873, when he took up the role as professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary until his death. He was the president of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church from 1880 to 1888. He was known as a gifted preacher and a scholar of liturgy and hymnology. He is also known for his biography, Charles Porterfield Krauth.

Annotations on the Acts of the Apostles

• Author: F. W. Stellhorn
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1896
• Pages: 420

F. W. Stellhorn aims to make a plain, intelligible commentary out for public use in his exposition of the Acts of the Apostles. Special note is given to ethical and practical application of the Word of God in Stellhorn’s commentary.

Frederick William Stellhorn (1841–1919) was born in Brüninghorstedt, Germany, in 1841, and moved to the United States in 1854. He was a pastor at numerous Lutheran churches before taking the role as professor at Northwestern University in Watertown, Wisconsin. His other writings include other New Testament commentaries and a New Testament Greek lexicon.

Annotations on the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and 1 Corinthians 1–6

• Author: Henry Eyster Jacobs
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1896
• Pages: 403

In researching Paul’s longest and best-known letters—Romans and 1 Corinthians—the editor of The Lutheran Commentary, Henry Eyster Jacobs, starts with the history of the early church and the writings of the early church fathers. This well-referenced commentary includes references to the impressive commentaries of Poole, Lange, Chrysostom, Stuart, Schaff, and many others.

Henry Eyster Jacobs (1844–1932) was an American educator and a Lutheran theologian born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1865. He took up the position of professor at Pennsylvania College in 1870, and then appointed professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mt. Airy in 1894. In 1920, he became president of the seminary. He published several histories of Lutheranism and commentaries on the New Testament, and, with John A. W. Haas, published The Lutheran Cyclopedia in 1899.

Annotations on the Epistles of Paul to 1 Corinthians 7–16, 2 Corinthians, and Galatians

• Authors: Henry Eyster Jacobs, George Frederick Spieker, and Carl A. Swensson
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1897
• Pages: 404

In researching Paul’s longest and best-known letters—Romans and 1 Corinthians—the editor of The Lutheran Commentary, Henry Eyster Jacobs, starts with the history of the early church and the writings of the early church fathers. This well-referenced commentary includes references to the impressive commentaries of Poole, Lange, Chrysostom, Stuart, Schaff, and many others.

Henry Eyster Jacobs (1844–1932) was an American educator and a Lutheran theologian born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1865. He took up the position of professor at Pennsylvania College in 1870, and then appointed professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mt. Airy in 1894. In 1920, he became president of the seminary. He published several histories of Lutheranism and commentaries on the New Testament, and, with John A. W. Haas, published The Lutheran Cyclopedia in 1899.

George Frederick Spieker (1844–1913) was a graduate of Baltimore City College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary. He received his ordination in 1867, and 20 years later received his doctorate of divinity. He was a professor of German and of Hebrew at multiple schools at various points of his life, and later became pastor of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Carl Aaron Swensson (1857–1904) was an American Lutheran clergyman and founder and president of Bethany College. His parents emigrated from Sweden, his father a minister of the Swedish Lutheran Church. Carl Swensson studied at Augustana College, received his PhD from the University of Upsala in 1893, and then his DD from Thiel College. He served on the General Council of the Lutheran Church in North America, on the Kansas Legislature in the Kansas House of Representatives, and on the Kansas Teachers’ Association. He was also a member of the State Historical Society, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the Building Committee for Sweden’s Building at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition; he was also a delegate to the Republican Convention in 1896.

Annotations on the Epistles of Paul to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians

• Authors: Edward T. Horn and A. G. Voigt
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1896
• Pages: 382

Edward T. Horn and Andrew G. Voigt contribute a high level of scholarship and research on these essential Pauline epistles, demonstrating the distinctiveness of Lutheran doctrine expounded by Lutheran scholarship in the New Testament.

Edward Traill Horn (1850–1915) was pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Philadelphia (1872–1876), St. John’s Church in Charleston (1876–1897), and Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading (1897–1915). He also wrote numerous articles and books, including The Evangelical Pastor, The Christian Year, and Outlines of Liturgies.

Andrew George Voigt was professor of systematic theology and dean of the Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. He also authored A Primer of Lutheranism, Why We Are Lutherans, and Distinctive Doctrines of Lutheranism.

Annotations on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews, and on Philemon

• Authors: Edmund J. Wolf and Edward T. Horn
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1897
• Pages: 519

This volume expounds the Pastoral Epistles in a unique way: “Mindful of the Lutheran impress which this commentary is to bear, I freely acknowledge that to this end my indebtedness to Lutherans, pre-eminently Huther and Delitzsch, is no greater than my obligations to the Anglicans Ellicott and Westcott and to the Reformed Van Oostersee and Ebrard. . .” The character of this commentary is thus more ecumenical and general in nature, providing insights to be cherished interdenominationally.

Edmund J. Wolf was professor of biblical and ecclesiastical history and New Testament exegesis at the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. During the invasion of Pennsylvania by Confederate troops during the Civil War, he enlisted as a non-commissioned officer in the 26th Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia. He pursued his education at Tübingen and Erlangen Universities in Germany. He served as an editor for the Quarterly Review of the Lutheran Church and wrote numerous articles and publications for a number of encyclopedias, magazines, and reference works.

Edward Traill Horn (1850–1915) was pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Philadelphia (1872–1876), St. John’s Church in Charleston (1876–1897), and Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading (1897–1915). He also wrote numerous articles and books, including The Evangelical Pastor, The Christian Year, and Outlines of Liturgies.

Annotations on the General Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude

• Author: Franklin Weidner
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1897
• Pages: 380

Weidner’s contribution to The Lutheran Commentary was both the most-anticipated and the longest-remembered of the series. His commentary notes on the General Epistles and Revelation approach the subject with an appreciation for the writings of the early church and an eye for the textual discrepancies between surviving Greek manuscripts. His references to numerous commentaries of his day attest to the research supporting (and sometimes challenging) his verse-by-verse exposition.

Revere Franklin Weidner (1851–1915) was educated at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where he both graduated and was ordained in 1873. In 1887, he received his doctorate of divinity from Carthage College in Illinois, and became a tutor at Muhlenberg College in 1868. He went on to pastor Phillipsburg Lutheran Church from 1873 to 1878, and then taught English language and history at Muhlenberg College from 1875 to 1877. He was director of the Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1882 and frequently served as delegate on the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was a member of the American Philological Association, the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, and the American Oriental Society, and in his last years, served as professor of systematic theology and exegesis at Augustana Swedish-English Theological Seminary.

Annotations on the Revelation of St. John the Divine

• Author: Franklin Weidner
• Series: The Lutheran Commentary
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1898
• Pages: 365

Weidner’s contribution to The Lutheran Commentary was both the most-anticipated and the longest-remembered of the series. His commentary notes on the General Epistles and Revelation approach the subject with an appreciation for the writings of the early church and an eye for the textual discrepancies between surviving Greek manuscripts. His references to numerous commentaries of his day attest to the research supporting (and sometimes challenging) his verse-by-verse exposition.

Revere Franklin Weidner (1851–1915) was educated at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where he both graduated and was ordained in 1873. In 1887, he received his doctorate of divinity from Carthage College in Illinois, and became a tutor at Muhlenberg College in 1868. He went on to pastor Phillipsburg Lutheran Church from 1873 to 1878, and then taught English language and history at Muhlenberg College from 1875 to 1877. He was director of the Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1882 and frequently served as delegate on the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was a member of the American Philological Association, the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, and the American Oriental Society, and in his last years, served as professor of systematic theology and exegesis at Augustana Swedish-English Theological Seminary.

About the Series Editor

Henry Eyster Jacobs (1844–1932) was an American educator and a Lutheran theologian born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1865. He took up the position of professor at Pennsylvania College in 1870, and then was appointed professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mount Airy in 1894. In 1920, he became president of the seminary. He published several histories of Lutheranism and commentaries on the New Testament, and, with John A. W. Haas, published The Lutheran Cyclopedia in 1899.