Understanding Barnes Notes: Making Sense of Who Wrote What in Light of Unprofessional Printing, Poor Documentation, and Mass Misattribution, and Being Aware of Barnes’ Doctrinal Error

Understanding Barnes Notes: Making Sense of Who Wrote What in Light of Unprofessional Printing, Poor Documentation, and Mass Misattribution, and Being Aware of Barnes’ Doctrinal Error (copyright December 3, 2024 by Ancient Heritage Foundation)

Dr. Albert Barnes (1798-1870) was born in Rome, New York state, and was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. He served as minister for 38 years of First Presbyterian in Pennsylvania (after having been pastor of a Presbyterian church in Morristown, NJ, for 5 years), and was president of the Pennsylvania Bible Society.  Barnes ran into controversy and a heresy trial within the Presbyterian church in 1830, but was acquitted in 1835.  The issues were liberal-leaning doctrines or heresies concerning his belief in an “unlimited” atonement (which is a denial of the Calvinistic and Protestant and Reformed teaching of the Founder of the Protestant Church, Scotsman, John Knox; and which is Arminianism / humanism, believing that Jesus died for everyone, not just the elect; which means the greater portion of His Blood and Body was wasted, which itself violates even the symbolism of Passover and Communion).  He also (as Arminianist / humanists) rejected the Presbyterian and Calvinist and Reformed Biblical doctrine of the total depravity of man (that all from Adam are born in sin, inheriting the sin nature and guilt from birth).  His trial resulted in the split of the Presbyterian Church in the United States into the Calvinist Old School and New School Revivalist Presbyterians in American, in 1837 (they were mostly re-united in 1870, despite differences in doctrine).  Barnes was on the “New School” side.  His commentary is generally as good as any other conservative commentary, if one realizes his error and liberal leanings.  However, Barnes did not write commentary for each book of the Bible, despite his dedicated, time-consuming study and writing.  Therefore, starting around 1950, in many printings to 1978 and beyond, Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, Michigan) printed what was called Barnes’ Notes, albeit, with commentaries added by other authors, to fill in for books of the Bible for which Barnes did not write notes, to produce a complete commentary.  However, the printing was rather unprofessional, in the regard that it did not produce a clear bibliographic history as I have produced here (which took a LOT of time to hunt down and figure out), giving proper credit to all involved, and so the reader (or author thinking that he is quoting Barnes, when in reality, over half the time he is quoting someone else) properly understands who wrote what.  Since Baker Book House knew what it was printing, they should have given the name of the commentary and date and author for each volume added to Barnes’ actual Notes.  Not doing so was irresponsible and unprofessional (and it would have saved me MANY hours of work; it would have prevented thousands of other authors and websites and booksellers from falsely attributing the works to those who did not write them, and it would have prevented any error that may actually be in my investigation attempting to make sense of it all).
 

In what is called Barnes’ Notes, the volume that contains Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the volume that contains Exodus to Ruth, and the volume that contains I Samuel to Esther, the title page for each of these volumes says, “The Bible Commentary”* — it does not say Barnes’ Notes (which means that these volumes were not written by Albert Barnes and they were not contained in Barnes’ original Notes because he did not write them), and those title pages list “F. C. Cook (Editor)”, and that it was “abridged and edited by J. M. Fuller”.
 

[* This seems to be The Student’s Commentary on the Holy Bible, which was based upon The Speaker’s Commentary, with notes by Cook (published at Cambridge, 1871-1888); which was edited and abridged a few years later by F. M. Fuller. 

Frederic Charles Cook (1810-1889) was an English Anglican churchman, linguist acquainted with 52 languages; the editor of The Speaker’s Commentary (1871).  

John Mee Fuller (1834-1893) Anglican clergyman (son of Rev. Thomas Fuller), author, editor of the Student’s Commentary (1884) based / founded upon the Speaker’s Commentary. He was a first-class Cricketer player; he was also professor of Ecclesiastical History at King’s College, London (1883-1893); chaplain to Archbishop of Canterbury Edward White Benson, (1889-1893).]
 

To make matters even more confusing, various online or digital copies of Barnes’ Notes (such as by Ages Software / Ages Digital Library) under the title heading of various volumes, simply displays, “by A. Fuller”, which seems to be in complete error of the facts (it does not indicate whether he was an editor or an author, if not the author, who the author was, and in reality the editor was J. M. Fuller, not “A. Fuller”; or if their information is actually somehow correct, they have no documentation to support it).  This is very unprofessional.  Though it is good that they make such study tools available, they need to be conscientious to give proper credit, without which, anyone quoting from it is then also in error (in both his own mind and in his documentation).
 

The notes of the two volumes on Genesis, added to Barnes’ Notes, were written by H. C. Leupold, D.D. (Professor of Old Testament Exegesis, Capital University Seminary, Columbus, Ohio) — although dozens of sources claim that they were written by Barnes and James G. Murphy.  The copyright page clearly says that the Genesis Commentary was written by Leupold.  Many other online sources say that Barnes’ Notes were written by Albert Barnes and James G. Murphy, but I find Murphy’s name NOWHERE in the volumes attributed to him by online sources, in the 1978 hardback set by Baker Book House that I have.
 

Albert Barnes wrote New Testament Commentaries (published 1832-1848) for: Volume 1: Matthew and Mark (1832); Volume 2: Luke and John (1832); Volume 3: Acts (1834); Volume 4: Romans (1834); Volume 5: I Corinthians; Volume 6: II Corinthians and Galatians; Volume 7: Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians; Volume 8: Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; Volume 9: Hebrews; Volume 10: James, Peter, John, and Jude; Volume 11: Revelation.  Barnes wrote 8 Old Testament Commentaries (published 1870) for: Job (1 volume); Psalms (3 volumes); Isaiah (2 volumes); Daniel (2 volumes). These were edited by Robert Frew, D.D., (presumably of) United Presbyterian Church, St. Ninians (a United Free Church of Scotland congregation in Stirling, Scotland).
 

This “James G. Murphy” whom many sources claim helped to write Barnes’ Notes, (whatever part, if any, that he had in Barnes’ Notes) was presumably (?) James G(racey). Murphy, LL.D., D.D., T.C.D. (1808-1896), professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Assembly’s College.* 

[* Union Theological College (not to be confused with Union Theological Seminary, New York City), founded in 1853 as the Assembly’s College, is the theological college for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Merle d’Aubigné of Geneva participated in the opening ceremony.  The Parliament of Northern Ireland met at the College (1921-1932) while Stormont was being built: the Commons met in the Gamble Library; the Senate in the college chapel.  From 1941 to 1948 the city police used the college after police headquarters were bombed in the Belfast Blitz.  In 1926 the college became a recognized institution of of Queen’s University.]
 

Murphy wrote: A Grammar of the Latin Language (1847); The Elements of Hebrew Grammar (1857); Science and Religion Before the Flood (1857); A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Genesis (1863), on Exodus (1866), on Leviticus (1872), and on Psalms (1875); Sacrifices as set forth in Scripture (1889), and other books.  He also translated from the Hebrew and published (presumably, with notes): The Book of Revelation (1882) and The Book of Daniel or The Second Volume of Prophecy (1884); and he also translated from the German and published (presumably, with notes): The Book of the Chronicles (1877) by Zöckler, (with Martin) Commentary on the Books of Kings and Chronicles (1857) by Keil and Bertheau, and (with A. C. Murphy), The Prophecies of the Prophet Ezekiel Elucidated (1869) by Hengtensberg.
 

Edward Bouverie Pusey, D.D. (1800-1882) was a non-Roman, but Catholic Anglican, who had studied under, among others, under the polluted thought of the German philosopher and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher*...!  His notes cover the 2 volumes of the Minor Prophets in what is improperly called Barnes’ Notes.  It should have been titled, “A Barnyard of Commentaries of the Complete Old and New Testaments, including Notes by Rev. Albert Barnes, D.D.”.
 

[* See my, Does God Repent...? Can God Change His Mind...? [And an Utter Demolishment of the Humanistic Myth of Man’s “Free Will” and Arminianism], 506pp., 25.00 + P&H.   Lively, profound, revealing, thought provoking, convincing thought, logic, Scripture.  Exposes subversion of true Christian faith in counter reformation re-introducing false theology of Origen and Pelagius; corruption of modern church by Jesuits, crypto-jews & terribly deceived humanists (Schleiermacher, Kant, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Barth, Schweitzer, Erasmus of Rotterdam, etc.); undermining of Puritan church by Solomon Stoddard, and much more; dissects false theology from 1 chapter of 2 different books (1 by Dr. Norman Geisler and 1 by Brother Andrew).   Dovetails nicely with my God and Evil, and also my The Sovereignty of God, Predestination, “Free” Will, and the Protestant Reformation (and my highly annotated editions of Arthur W. Pink’s, The Attributes of God, and The Sovereignty of God (inquire).

- Calvinism: Pure and Mixed—Reloaded: False Doctrine Exposed: Subtle and Blatant; entire text (re-typeset) of Wm. G.T. Shedd’s 1893 work Calvinism: Pure and Mixed: A Defence of the Westminster Standards (originally c.161pp. pocket size) w/ c.200pp. of additional / corrective theological notes (& illustrations) added by R.A.B., 338pp., 6x9 pb., 22.50 + P&H.  a “high Calvinist”, but after reading & editing the error, I don’t see how he can be called such;

- Salvation Results From God Bestowing Free Grace Upon His Elect not from the Erroneous Notion of Man Having “Free Will” To Choose To Be Saved — The Charles H. Spurgeon Election, Predestination, and Calvinism Collection, 299pp., pb., 17.50 + P&H; containing Spurgeon’s sermons: Sovereign Grace and Man’s Responsibility, The Agreement of Salvation by Grace with Walking in Good Works, All of Grace, Human Inability, Human Responsibility, Sovereignty and Salvation, Predestination and Calling, Election, Election and Holiness, Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls, A Defense of Calvinism, & Free Will — A Slave; extensive notes by R.A.B.]
 

Pusey was an English Anglican cleric, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University for over 50 years (so prominent, he was caricatured by Vanity Fair); and he was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement...! (which was pro-Catholic and part of the Counter-Reformation).
 

[* See this title that I reprint: The Secret History of the Oxford Movement (1898) Walter Walsh, 480pp., pb., 24.00 + P&H; The Oxford Movement was a “scholarly” confederation at Oxford University, a method by which the Catholic Church infiltrated the Protestant Church and sought to undermine the work of the Reformation; 
For more information, see these other titles that I reprint:
- Foxe’s Christian Heroes and Martyrs of the World, a.k.a. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: Being a History of the Persecution of the Protestants from the first century onward, by John Foxe and other Eminent Authorities, abbreviated edition, Newly Revised and Updated (1907) [originally published as “The Acts and Monuments of the Church Containing the History and Sufferings of the Martyrs” in 1564 in 1,800 pages by John Foxe] 60 full-page illustrations + Memoir of the author from an earlier edition by Walter Scott Publ. Co.; c.620pp., 6x9, quality pb., 24.00 + P&H.
- Heroes of the Reformation (1951) Hagstotz, Ph.D., 310pp. pb., + photos added by modern publisher (me) of each of the 43 different reformers, 18.00 + P&H.

- Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel / Historical Collections of Accounts of Revival (1754 / revised 1845, updated by Horatius Bonar) Gillies, pb., 8.5x11, 600+pp., 35.00 + P&H. print was small, book 7x10; expanded to 8.5x11 enlargeed print 19%.
- History of the Reformed Church, Dutch; The Reformed Church, German and the Moravian Church in the United States (1895) Corwin / Dubbs / Hamilton, 548pp., pb., 22.50 + P&H; the Reformed Church was separate from the Lutheran, the work of Swiss Reformer Zwingli, later refined by Calvin.
- Leaders of the Lutheran Reformation (1917) Steinhaeuser, D.D., 172pp., pb., 18.50 + P&H.
- The Moravians (2nd Ed., 1913) Bishop E.R. Hasse, 142pp., pb., 16.00 + P&H; rare (illustrations + notes by modern publ.); outflow / result of Czech / Bohemian / Moravian Reformation.
- The Mountain Boy of Wildhaus: A Life of Ulric Zwingli (1884; 1900 printing) Rev. David van Horne, D.D., 192pp., Zwingli was a leader of the Swiss Reformation; 16.50 + P&H.
- Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560 (1897) Rev. George Wilson, 166pp., pb., 14.00 + P&H. (Luther’s right-hand man)
- Protestant Reformation Pioneers: John Hus: The Martyr of Bohemia - A Study of the Dawn of Protestantism (1915) W. N. Schwarze, 152pp., Martin Luther (1897) Freytag & Heinemann, 130pp., John Calvin (1868) F. Guizot, 160pp., illustrations added by Modern Publisher; 3-in-1, 470pp. pb., 24.00 + P&H.
- Protestant Reformation Pioneers: John Knox and the Scottish Reformation (1895) G. Barnett Smith, 160pp., William Tyndale and the Translation of the English Bible (1899) G. B. Smith, 160pp. & Patrick Hamilton: First Scottish Martyr of the Reformation (1929) Alex. Cameron, 100pp., 3 in 1 pb., 436pp., 24.00 + P&H.
- Stories From Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1903) Foxe/W. S. Martin, 8.5x11, 440pp., paperback, well-illustrated (companion vol. to Story of Light) 30.00 + P&H.
- Stories of Great Revivals with Contributions on Revival Work (1906) H. Johnson, Canon Aitken, F.B. Meyer, Stuart Holden, Gipsy Smith; c.420pp., pb., 25.00 + P&H. Chapters: Evangel. Revival of 18th Century England; Evangel. Revival of 18th Century Scotland; Evangel. Revival of 18th Century Wales; Evangel. Revival of 18th Cent. Ireland; Awakenings of 1858-1862 England, of 1858-1862 Scotland, of 1858-1862 Wales, of 1858-1862 North of Ireland; Work of Moody & Sankey 1873 - 1875; 1881-1884; Revival in Wales, 1904-1905; Torry-Alexander Mission, 1903-1905.
- The Story of the Light That Never Went Out: A History of English Protestantism For Young Readers (1903) W.S.M. and Augusta Cook; 586pp., 8.5x11, hundreds of illustrations, excellent; pb., 45.00 + P&H. One person who ordered this book, who is an older gentleman who has long been an avid reader, said this was one of the best and most important 5 books he has ever read. Another person saw original at library of Bob Jones Univ. and ordered a copy from me, and could not believe the quality, being far better than the original; he took his new copy to BJU and showed it to them, and they ordered a copy so they could “retire” to the archives the original.
- Twelve Reformation Heroes (1960) Neilson, 96pp., pb., 12.50 + P&H. A MUST!
- Ulrich Zwingli: The Patriotic Reformer: A History (1868) Rev. W. M. Blackburn, 324pp., pb., 22.00 + P&H.
- Young Folks’ History of The Netherlands (Holland and Belgium) (1878) Alex. Young, 672pp., pb., 36.00 + P&H; excellent; must for all students of our history... tied to Reformation & eventually American Revolution. Highly recommended. Not on child’s level by any means; collegiate level by today’s standards. 
See also the upcoming titles to be printed:
- Quaint Sayings and Doings Concerning Luther (1858 / 1887 ed.) John Gottlieb Morris, DD., LL.D., 287pp. pb., a mini-biography of Luther, from birth to death, based upon things that he said / wrote or what others said / wrote about him + Photo of and “About the Author” and many photos and illustrations of Luther and his family added by modern publisher; 17.50 + P&H.
- Luther At Wartburg Castle: A Reformation Story of 1521 (1822) by John Gottlieb Morris & Luther At Coburg [from the German of Pfeilschmidt with Additions by J. G. Morris] (1882) & Catharine de Bora or Social and Domestic Scenes in the Home of Luther (1856) by John Gottlieb Morris; 3 books in one pb., 380 pp., total., 20.00 + P&H. 
- Theomachia Autexousiastike or A Display of Arminianism [The Humanistic Battle for Demi-Godhood / Quasi Self-Deification Rendered Powerless or A Vanquishing of Arminianism] by Rev. John Owen, D.D. (1642) - A New Edition, Revised and Corrected, by Rev. Samuel Burder, M.A. (1809) & Predestination Calmly Considered from the Principles of Reason . . . and the Scriptures . . . by William Tucker (1835), 8x10 pb., 343pp., 27.50 + P&H.]