Matthew Poole (1624-1679), English Nonconformist theologian, was born at York, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and from 1649 till the passing of the Act of Uniformity (1662) held the rectory of St Michael le Querne, London. Subsequent troubles led to his withdrawal to Holland, and he died at Amsterdam in 1679.
The work with which his name is principally associated is the Synopsis criticorum biblicorum (5 vols. fol., 1669-1676), in which he summarizes the views of one hundred and fifty biblical critics. He also wrote English Annotations on the Holy Bible, as far as Isaiah chapter 53 - a work which was completed by several of his Nonconformist brethren, and published in 2 folio volumes in 1683. It has been subsequently published as Matthew Pooles' Commentary on the Holy Bible in 3 volumes.
C. H. Spurgeon said of Poole's commentary: "If I must have only one commentary, and had read Matthew Henry as I have, I do not know but what I should choose Poole. He is a very prudent and judicious commentator... not so pithy and witty by far as Matthew Henry, but he is perhaps more accurate, less a commentator, and more an expositor." [1]
- Adapted in part from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica - public domain
Resources[]
- Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible, 3 Vols., Hendrickson Publishers; New edition (1985) ISBN 0917006283