John Calvin, Commentary on Zechariah
Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets by John Calvin.
Now first translated from the original Latin, by the Rev. John Owen,
vicar of Thrussington, Leicestershire.
Volume Fifth. Zechariah and Malachi
WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, 1950, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
This volume completes Calvin's Commentaries on the Twelve Minor
Prophets,--a Work which, had he written no other, would have been
sufficient to have rendered him illustrious as a faithful, lucid,
and practical expounder. In course of time, when his Comments shall
be carefully read, his high merits will no doubt be duly
acknowledged. The Translator can bear this testimony, that before he
read Calvin on the Minor Prophets, it was to him one of the least
interesting and the least instructive portions of the ancient
Scriptures; but that he finds it now one of the most interesting. It
practically exhibits to us especially two things, which it greatly
concerns us all to know,--what God is, and what man is. It sets
before us manifest facts which prove the wonderful mercy and
forbearance of God, and also the amazing tendency of man to
superstition, and his persistency in his course notwithstanding all
the powerful means adopted for his restoration.
Zechariah began to prophesy two months after Haggai, as we find
by comparing Hag. i. 15, with Zech. i. 1. Ezra mentions them as the
two Prophets who encouraged the rebuilding of the Temple. Ezra v.1;
vi. 14.
The greatest part of ZECHARIAH was written, according to LOWTH,
in prose; but adds that "some parts about the end of his Prophecy
(ch. ix. x. and the beginning of xi) are poetical and highly
embellished, and that they are sufficiently perspicuous, though
written by a Prophet, who of all is perhaps the most obscure." The
testimony of JEROME, as to his obscurity, is the same; he says that
he is "the most obscure as well as the longest of the Twelve Minor
Prophets." MARCKIUS concedes a majestic elegance to his diction, and
says, that "his enigmatical symbols may be fitly compared with those
of AMOS, EZEKIEL, DANIEL, and of JOHN, the Prophet of the New
Testament." "His prose," according to HENDERSON, "resembles most
that of EZEKIEL; it is diffuse, uniform and repetitious. His
prophetic poetry possesses much of the elevation and dignity to be
found in the earlier Prophets, with whose writings he appears to
have been familiar."
The Book contains FOUR parts: the FIRST is a short message to
the Jews, ch. i. 1-6; the SECOND includes the rest of the first six
chapters, which record a series of eight visions confined to one
single night, and vouchsafed to the Prophet three months after the
first message; the THIRD contains two chapters, the seventh and the
eighth; and the FOURTH, the six remaining chapters.
Since the days of Calvin a dispute has arisen, originated by
MEDE, respecting this last portion. Owing especially to a quotation
in Matt. xxvii. 9, 10, where Jeremiah, and not Zechariah, is
mentioned, many since the time of MEDE, such as HAMMOND, NEWCOME,
and several German divines, have adopted the notion, that these
chapters have somehow been misplaced, and that they belong to the
book of Jeremiah. This view has been strongly opposed by BLAYNEY and
others, who, together with SCOTT, ADAM CLARKE, and HENDERSON,
consider that there is no sufficient ground for such a supposition,
and who for various reasons think that there is a typographical
mistake in Matthew.
"It is alleged," observes BLAYNEY, "that the Evangelist St.
Matthew, ch. xxvii. 9, cites a passage found in Zech. xi. 13, as
spoken, not by Zechariah, but by the Prophet Jeremiah. But is it not
possible, nay, is it not much more probable, that the word ( ) may
have been written by mistake by some transcribers of Matthew's
Gospel, that that those of the Jewish Church, who settled the Canon
of Scripture, of whom Zechariah himself is supposed to have been
one, should have been so grossly ignorant of the right author of
those chapters as to place them under a wrong name? It is not, I
think, pretended that these chapters have been found in any copy of
the Old Testament otherwise placed than as they now stand. But in
the New Testament there are not wanting authorities for omitting the
word Ieremiou."
The other arguments urged by MEDE and others are successfully
combated by BLAYNEY as well as by HENDERSON. This first is, that
many things are mentioned in these chapters which correspond not
with Zechariah's time; the second, that the prophecy in ch. xi.
concerning the destruction of the Temple and of the people, is not
suitable to the scope of Zechariah's commission, which was to
encourage the people to build the Temple; and the third, that the
style of these chapters is different from that of the preceding
ones. These reasons, especially the two last, are justly said to be
easily accounted for by the supposition that Zechariah wrote the
former portions while he was young, (Ch. ii. 4,) and these chapters
in his advanced years. And BLAYNEY thinks that he is the ZECHARIAH
mentioned by our Saviour in Matt. xxii. 35, and that he was slain by
the Jews on account of these prophecies which he announced in his
old age.
The last of the Old Testament Prophets, as admitted by all, was
Malachi. Who and what he was, we are left without any knowledge.
Some have supposed him to have been Ezra under another name, or
under the name of his office, as Malachi means a messenger. But most
think that he lived near a century after Haggai and Zechariah. USHER
places him in the year 416 before Christ, and BLAIR in 436. It
appears certain from ch. iii. 10, that his time was after the
building of the Temple. It is most probable that he was contemporary
with Nehemiah, especially after his second return from Persia, as
the same things are condemned by both,--foreign marriages and the
neglect of paying tithes. The Jews are wont to call him the seal
(chotam) of the Prophets.
It is observed by LOWTH that Malachi wrote "in a middle sort of
style, and evidently in such a style as seems to prove that Hebrew
poetry had declined since the Babylonian exile, and that being now
in advanced age it was somewhat verging towards senility." But
HENDERSON speaks in a higher strain, "Considering the late age in
which he lived, the language of Malachi is pure; his style possesses
much in common with the old Prophets, but is distinguished more by
its animation than by its rhythmus or grandeur."
The interesting character of the Commentary will be found to be
in no degree diminished in the Volume, but on the contrary
increased, though some of the subjects had been before discussed.
The same thoughts, no doubt, sometimes occur, but their different
connections ever introduce some variety. The Commentator follows his
text, and very seldom deviates from what it strictly requires, and
the application of it to present circumstances is generally natural
and obvious, and for the most part confined to a few sentences; so
the reader's attention is not diverted from the passage that is
explained. The main object throughout seems to be to interpret God's
Word and to impress it on the mind and heart, and so to apply it as
to render it the rule of our life and support of our hopes.
The curious reader, fond of novelties, and enamoured with
speculative and fanciful notions, or one whose chief delight is in
dry criticisms, will not find much in Calvin to gratify him: but
those who possess a taste for Divine Truth, who seek to understand
what they read, and desire to be fed by "the sincere milk of the
Word," will, through a blessing from above, be abundantly
compensated by a careful perusal of his Comments. This is not said
merely as a matter of inference from the character of their
contents, but as the result of personal experience. The testimony
which the Translator can fully bear is similar to that of Bishop
Horne, when he finished his Commentary on Psalms, that the labour
has been attended with so much pleasure and enjoyment, that the
completion of his work occasions regret as well as joy; for the time
during which he has been engaged in translating Calvin has been the
happiest period of his life.
As to the Indices, added to the Volume, the most important is
that to the subjects: and it is more useful than general readers may
perhaps consider it to be. The very reading of it may convey no
small measure of information. The variety of subjects handled in
these Volumes is very great, so that they include almost everything
in the wide range of Theology, not indeed discussed at large, but
briefly touched upon and explained.
But as an illustration of the usefulness of this Index, let the
word FAITH be taken; and almost everything connected with it will be
found mentioned and referred to. Turn again to the word FAITHFUL,
which some of my co-workers have rendered BELIEVERS, and perhaps in
some instances more appropriately; and hardly anything belonging to
the character, spirit, life, and trials of God's people, will be
found wanting. If there be a wish to know what Popery is, what is
found under the word PAPISTS will disclose almost the whole
character of the system; and by referring to the Comment at all its
main lineaments will be found clearly exhibited in the character of
the superstitions and idolatries of the Jews. The real features of
errors are the same in every age, only somewhat modified by a change
of circumstances: but an enlightened observer can read Popery in the
history of the ancient Jews as clearly as in its own history. This
of course cannot be done by the spiritually blind and the deluded;
and yet so striking and palpable is the likeness in not a few
instances, that it is impossible for any not to see it, except they
be totally blind, and their judgement wholly perverted.
There have been many Commentators before and after the time of
Calvin, but it may be doubted whether any of them possessed his
combined excellencies, especially the capacity of being so plain as
to be understood by common readers, and of being at the same time so
profound as to be interesting and instructive to the most learned;
so that his Comments do in this respect retain, in a measure, the
character of the book he interprets and explains. Of his superiority
over his predecessors we have the striking testimony of the learned
ARMINIUS, who, as he differed from him on several points of no small
importance, may justly be considered to have been an impartial
witness. His words are remarkable, --"Next to the reading of
Scripture, which I strongly recommend, I advise you to read the
Commentaries of Calvin, on whom I bestow higher eulogies than
Helmichius did; for I consider that he is INCOMPARABLE in
interpreting Scripture, and that his Commentaries are of more value
than all that the library of the Fathers transmits to us; so that I
concede to him even a spirit of prophecy superior to that of most,
yea, of all others."
As to posterior Commentators, his comparative merits cannot
indeed be rated so high, as there have been in later years Writers
in this department of no ordinary character. Not to mention Foreign
Divines, our own might with advantage be referred to, such as HENRY,
LOWTH, DODDRIDGE, SCOTT, and ADAM CLARKE. And yet none of these can
be regarded as in all respects equal to Calvin as a Commentator.
Some of them excel him as Critics, and others in the number of their
practical deductions; but he surpasses them all in pointing out and
illustrating the main drift of a passage, in catching as it were its
very spirit, and in the power he possessed of impressing on the mind
in a few words both its meaning and its practical lessons. The
Comment never diverts us from the Text, it never occupies as it were
its place; but the Text itself, expounded and illustrated, is left
fixed and riveted on the mind.
J.O.
Thrussington, July 1849.
CALVIN'S PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH
The Prophecies of Zechariah come next. He was a fellow-helper and
colleague of Haggai, and also of Malachi, as it will presently
appear. These three, then, were sent by God nearly at the same time,
that they might assist one another, and that they might thus by one
consent and one mouth confirm what God had committed to them. It was
indeed of great service that several bore their testimony: their
prophecies gained thus greater authority; and this was needful, for
the people had to contend with various and most grievous trials.
Satan had already raised up great opposition to them; but there were
still greater evils at hand. Hence, to prevent them from despairing,
it was necessary to encourage them by many testimonies.
But what our Prophet had especially in view was, to remind the
Jews why it was that God dealt so severely with their fathers, and
also to animate them with hope, provided they really repented, and
elevated their minds to the hope of true and complete deliverance.
He at the same time severely reproves them; for there was need of
much cleansing, as they still continued in their filth. For though
the recollection of their exile ought to have restrained them, and
to have made them carefully to fear and obey God, yet it seemed to
have been otherwise; and it will appear more fully as we proceed,
that being not conscious of having been punished for their sins,
they were so secure, that there was among them hardly any fear of
God, or hardly any religion. It was therefore needful to blend
strong and sharp reproofs with promises of favour, that they might
thus be prepared to receive Christ. This is the substance of the
whole. I shall now proceed to the words.
(Calvin... on Zechariah)
Continued in Part 1...
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