KJV Commentaries

About these commentaries

Ten commentaries on the King James Bible, to read beside it. Choose a book and chapter; Commentators chooses whose notes are shown. A reference inside a note opens the verse it points to, and Search looks through the notes themselves.

• Jamieson, Fausset and Brown. A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown (1871). 16,960 notes, about 1,700,000 words, on the whole Bible. From the CrossWire SWORD module JFB 3.0, whose text is that of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Folder kjv_commentaries_1.
• John Gill. An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, by John Gill (1746–1763). 30,455 notes, about 8,600,000 words. From the Open Christian Data copy of the HelloAO text. In that copy many notes stood on the wrong verse. Gill opens each note with the words of the verse, so each note has been put back on the verse whose words it opens with: about 9,100 were moved. A few hundred could not be checked that way and may still be a verse out. The copy has no notes on the verses of the Song of Solomon, only Gill’s summary of each chapter, and it lacks notes on about a thousand other verses. Folder kjv_commentaries_1.
• Albert Barnes. Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the New Testament, by Albert Barnes (from 1832). 7,456 notes, about 2,700,000 words, on the New Testament only. From the CrossWire SWORD module Barnes 1.1. That module has no introduction to Hebrews or to Revelation. Folder kjv_commentaries_1.
• Matthew Henry. An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, by Matthew Henry (1708–1710; Romans to Revelation finished by others after his death in 1714). 5,489 notes, about 6,500,000 words, on the whole Bible. Henry takes several verses together, so a note stands at the first verse of its passage. From the CrossWire SWORD module MHC 2.2, marked public domain, whose text is that of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The King James passage printed at the head of each section was left out, because the page shows the verses itself. Folder kjv_commentaries_2.
• Matthew Henry, concise. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, a later shortening of his Exposition. 4,906 notes, about 690,000 words: the same commentary cut down to about a tenth of its length by later hands, with an outline of each chapter. From the CrossWire SWORD module MHCC 2.0, marked public domain. Folder kjv_commentaries_2.
• Adam Clarke. The Holy Bible, with a Commentary and Critical Notes, by Adam Clarke (1810–1826). 22,147 notes, about 3,500,000 words, on the whole Bible, with a preface to each book and a summary of each chapter. From the CrossWire SWORD module Clarke 2.0, marked public domain; its makers took the text from the copy at Wikisource. The words Clarke explains were set in bold here where they are words of the verse. Folder kjv_commentaries_2.
• John Wesley. Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755) and upon the Old Testament (1765), by John Wesley. 16,901 short notes, about 890,000 words. From the CrossWire SWORD module Wesley 1.1, marked public domain (the electronic edition of Sulu Kelley and Bill Brown). That module has no notes on Judges, 1 Kings, Jonah or Philemon and none of Wesley’s introductions. Folder kjv_commentaries_2.
• John Calvin. Commentaries, by John Calvin, in the English of the Calvin Translation Society (Edinburgh, 1844–1856). 11,217 notes, about 5,800,000 words, on 48 books. From the CrossWire SWORD module CalvinCommentaries 1.1, marked public domain, made from the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Calvin wrote no commentary on Judges to Job, Proverbs to the Song of Solomon, 2 and 3 John or Revelation, and his Ezekiel stops at chapter 20. In this module the Psalms, Zechariah, Malachi, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are cut short: each chapter has only its argument and the comment on its first verse. The numbered notes in small print are those of the nineteenth-century translators. Their prefaces and the tables that set Calvin’s Latin beside the English were left out. Folder kjv_commentaries_3.
• C. I. Scofield. The notes of the Scofield Reference Bible, by C. I. Scofield (edition of 1917). 3,271 notes, about 130,000 words: an introduction to every book and notes on chosen verses. From the CrossWire SWORD module Scofield 2.1, marked public domain; its makers took the text from the copy at Wikisource. Folder kjv_commentaries_3.
• B. W. Johnson. The People’s New Testament, with Explanatory Notes, by B. W. Johnson (1891). 6,307 notes, about 380,000 words, on the New Testament, with a summary of each chapter. From the CrossWire SWORD module PNT 1.1, marked public domain. That module has no notes on Philemon. Folder kjv_commentaries_3.

All of these works are in the public domain. The Bible text is the King James Version. The notes are the writers’ own words; only the markup of the sources was removed and the references made into links.

The commentaries are kept in three folders, kjv_commentaries_1, kjv_commentaries_2 and kjv_commentaries_3, which belong side by side in the folder that holds KJV Bible Explorer Pro. This page reads from whichever of them are there. Do not rename the folders or the files in them.

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