The English Nonconformist minister Matthew Henry wrote his Commentary over 300 years ago; he began writing in November 1704.
Before he died at the age of 52 in 1714, he had completed volume 6 up to Acts. After his death, the New Testament Letters and Revelation were prepared by 13 Nonconformist ministers. He wrote in his journal, on November 12 1704, soon after he began his Commentary: ‘I set about it, that I may endeavour something and spend my time to some good purpose and let the Lord make what use he pleaseth of me’.
Matthew Henry’s original work has had a significant influence on many ministers and individual Christians in the last 300 years, and so, when the publishers approached me in 2002 about editing a version in contemporary English, I immediately felt humbled at the sheer privilege of the task. The work itself was immense: the original text contained over eight million words: on average, Matthew Henry’s comments take up more than 200 words on every verse of the Bible.
