Why A Commentary? -The Broadus Commentary was "begun" quite a while back and will continue until...? At present there are still many gaps in the "commentary" portion of this Commentary. Why? To answer this let me quote a famous Broadus, John A. Broadus, who wrote in the Preface of his <i>Commentary on Matthew</i>, "This work has been on hand more than twenty years, having been pushed forward at different periods,...". It is our intent to study and pray before writing the commentary for each and every verse. In other words, the Broadus Commentary is a layman's work in progress - hopefully not taking 20 years to complete. Please be sure to check the "Commentary Instructions" before moving into the Commentary chapters and verses to the right. There are many different viewpoints from which to write about the Scriptures. What is written in the pages of this Commentary come from over 50 years of hearing, reading, studying, and being taught the book most refer to as "The Holy Bible". In these writings it will be referenced also as "Scripture". If there is a need to distinguish between the "Old Testament" and the "New Testament", "Old Covenant" may be used at times for the "Old Testament" and "New Covenant" for the "New Testament".
The foudational belief on which this Commentary is begun is that the Scriptures are true from cover to cover and they were the "whispered" words of God to be "penned" by men so that we could know Him (God). The Commentary uses a 20th century King James Version (KJV) since the 1611 version of the KJV would be very difficult for the majority to read, much less understand; however, at times other translations and paraphrases may be quoted for clarification or emphasis. The KJV is the choice for three reasons: 1) it is the version this family "grew up with"; 2) it has a "musical quality" about it; and 3) it is our most trusted version since we are only Hebrew and Greek students, not scholars.
Throughout this Commentary you may find Scripture used to prove Scripture. There are two reasons for this: 1) we use the inductive manner of Bible study and 2) we have found no better proof on which to base any writing of this type than the Scriptures themselves. This is not meant to say that we will not use other "proofs", only that we will use Scripture to prove Scripture probably most often.