The Work
John Gill's An Exposition of the Old Testament (vols. 1-6, 1748-1763) and An Exposition of the New Testament (vols. 1-3, 1746-1748) together constitute the most comprehensive Baptist commentary on the entire Bible produced in the eighteenth century. The complete set runs to approximately nine volumes in modern printings and approximately four million words - one of the longest commentaries on the entire Bible in the English language. It provides verse-by-verse exposition of every passage from Genesis to Revelation with attention to the original languages, Rabbinic parallels, patristic and Reformed authorities, and consistent doctrinal application.
The work is freely available online through multiple platforms and integrated into major Bible software. Its public domain status and comprehensive coverage have made it one of the most widely accessed commentaries in the digital age, despite - or perhaps because of - its uncompromising Calvinist doctrinal framework.
Biblical Engagement
Romans 9:18 - 'Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth' - receives one of the most extensive treatments in Gill's commentary. His exposition of Romans 9 as a whole is the fullest statement of 'high Calvinism' (sometimes called hyper-Calvinism) in commentary form. Gill argues for unconditional double predestination - God's sovereign election of some to salvation and his sovereign passing over of others without reference to any foreseen faith or merit - with meticulous attention to every alternative interpretation. His treatment is both impressive in its scope and problematic in its pastoral consequences: it led Gill, in practice, to discourage urgent evangelistic invitations to the unconverted on the grounds that such invitations might presume upon the sovereignty of divine election.
John 6:37 - 'All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out' - is treated with characteristic Calvinist thoroughness. The 'all that the Father giveth me' is defined as the elect; their coming to Christ is the result of divine drawing (John 6:44, 'No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him') and is therefore certain and effectual. Gill uses this passage to establish the certainty of the final perseverance of every elect person, and his exposition of John 6 as a whole is among the most carefully argued passages in the work.
Ephesians 1:4 - 'According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world' - receives extended treatment as the foundational text for Gill's doctrine of eternal election. He distinguishes between conditional and unconditional election, rejects the Arminian reading that election is based on foreseen faith, and insists that the election is of particular persons (not merely of a condition or class). His treatment of Ephesians 1:3-14 as a whole is a systematic exposition of the Reformed soteriology of the Westminster Confession.
John 7:37-38 - 'In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water' - is treated with a remarkable apparatus of Rabbinic parallels. Gill cites the Talmud Tractate Sukkah at length to establish the ritual context of the water-drawing ceremony (Simchat Beit HaShoevah) on the last day of Tabernacles, providing a level of illumination from Jewish sources unusual in any eighteenth-century commentary. This use of Rabbinic material throughout the commentary - particularly in the treatment of the Gospels and the ceremonial law - is Gill's most enduring scholarly contribution.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) receives extended treatment. Gill's exposition of the Beatitudes identifies the 'poor in spirit' with the elect who know their spiritual bankruptcy, the 'meek' with those who have been humbled by election and regeneration. His treatment of the antitheses ('Ye have heard that it was said... but I say unto you') carefully distinguishes between Christ's fulfillment and abrogation of the Mosaic Law, following a Calvinist hermeneutic that distinguishes the moral, ceremonial, and judicial components of the Law.
Author and Context
John Gill (1697-1771) was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, into a Nonconformist family. He showed exceptional scholarly ability from childhood - he is said to have learned to read English from the Bible alone, and to have taught himself Greek and Hebrew as a teenager. He became pastor of the Particular Baptist congregation meeting at Horselydown, Southwark, London, in 1719, at the age of twenty-two, and served that congregation without interruption for fifty-one years until his death in 1771.
His congregation was Particular Baptist - committed to particular redemption (Christ died specifically for the elect, not for all humanity) and to the congregational polity that distinguished Baptists from Presbyterians. The London Particular Baptists were the theological descendants of the seventeenth-century Calvinist Baptists who had contributed to the Westminster Assembly debates.
Gill composed the commentary while simultaneously serving his congregation, writing theological treatises (The Cause of God and Truth, 1735-1738, defending Calvinism against Daniel Whitby's Arminianism), and corresponding with scholars across Britain and America. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Aberdeen University in 1748 - a rare honor for a Nonconformist. He was familiar with continental Reformed scholarship and with the Rabbinic literature that his Jewish neighbors in Southwark - it was the center of London's Jewish community - made accessible to him.
Scholarly Methods and Rabbinic Learning
Gill's most distinctive contribution was his systematic use of Rabbinic sources to illuminate the New Testament. He cites the Talmud, Midrash, Mishnah, Targums, and medieval Jewish commentators (Rashi, Maimonides, Ibn Ezra) throughout the commentary, drawing on them for information about Jewish customs, religious practices, and linguistic usage that illuminates Gospel and Epistle passages. This method anticipated by two centuries the systematic use of Rabbinic parallels that has become standard in twentieth-century New Testament scholarship (particularly in the work of Strack-Billerbeck's Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, 1922-1928).
Reception
Gill was praised and criticized in equal measure by his contemporaries. Whitefield admired his learning; Wesley (an Arminian) was hostile to his theology. The hyper-Calvinist consequences of his soteriology - particularly his discouragement of free offers of the gospel - were criticized by later Calvinist Baptists, including Spurgeon. Spurgeon famously said that Gill's commentary was 'a continent of mud,' but he also said it was 'a mine of wealth,' recommending that readers dig into it regularly while being selective about which ore to extract.
Legacy
Gill's legacy is complex. His scholarship - particularly his Rabbinic learning - was genuinely exceptional and has been permanently valuable. His hyper-Calvinist soteriology was a contributing factor in the spiritual decline of the Particular Baptist churches in the late eighteenth century, which Andrew Fuller's The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785) was designed to correct. The Fuller-Gill debate about free offers of the gospel was one of the most important theological controversies in Baptist history.
In the digital age, the commentary has experienced a remarkable revival: its availability as a free digital resource has made it the most widely accessed eighteenth-century Bible commentary in the world, and its verse-by-verse comprehensiveness gives it utility to readers seeking any perspective on any passage.
Reading Alongside Scripture
Readers should consult Gill on Romans 9 (election and predestination), John 6 (the doctrine of effectual calling), Ephesians 1 (eternal election), John 7:37-38 (the Feast of Tabernacles context), and Matthew 5-7 (the Sermon on the Mount). His treatment of Leviticus and the ceremonial law is also exceptionally thorough.
Further Reading
- George Ella, John Gill and the Cause of God and Truth (1995) - the most comprehensive scholarly biography. - Tom Nettles, By His Grace and for His Glory: A Historical, Theological, and Practical Study of the Doctrines of Grace in Baptist Life (1986) - the essential context for Gill's theology within Baptist history. - Andrew Fuller, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785) - the theological response to Gill's hyper-Calvinism, completing the picture of his influence.