John Brown (theologian)
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John Brown (1722 – 19 June 1787), was a Scottish divine and author. His works include “The Self-Interpreting Bible”, “The Dictionary of the Bible”, and “A General History of the Christian Church”.
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[edit] Career
John Brown was born at Carpow in the parish of Abernethy, in Perthshire, Scotland, the son of a self-educated weaver and river-fisherman, also called John Brown.. His own formal education was scant, but it awakened his desire for learning. Both of his parents died when he was about twelve, and he had to support himself by work as a shepherd. After a teenage marked by ill health and religiosity he had a Christian conversion, best described in his own words - “But thanks be to God, He passed by me, and looked upon me, and said unto me, ’LIVE’”.
Induced by his fervent desire for learning he taught himself Greek, Latin and Hebrew by comparing texts and scripts. In 1738 he walked to St Andrews to buy a Greek New Testament - but one of the professors, amazed that a teenage country lad could read Greek, gifted it to him. But his learning led to controversy among the members of the Secession Church which he belonged to, as some asserted that he got his learning from the devil. Only with difficulty was he able to free himself of this charge.
The next few years saw him work as a pedlar and a schoolmaster, with an interlude as a volunteer soldier in defence against the Jacobites in the 45 rebellion.
Following division in the Secession Church there was a need for preachers in the Burgher branch, and Brown was the first new divinity student. He was ordained as a minister at Haddington, East Lothian, on 4 July 1751, and that was his home for the rest of his life. He gained a just reputation for learning and piety.
He was called to occupy the position of Moderator of the Synod for the year from November 1753, a remarkable tribute to the talents of someone ordained so recently. His first publication was in 1758, and he published regularly from that date until the end of his life.
He also, while continuing his duties as a minister, took up the position of professor of divinity by the unanimous agreement of the Synod from 1768. One student reported later, "He was among us as a father among his children; he loved them and studied their good; they loved him, and regarded his counsel".
From 1768 until the year of his death he also had the permanent post of clerk of the synod.
His contacts with three famous contemporaries have been recorded.
In 1771 he commenced a long an animated correspondence with Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, which encouraged then mutually in their Christian endeavour.
In 1772 Brown was walking in Haddington Cemetery when he met Robert Fergusson, the poet, in a dark mood. His biographer, Robert Mackenzie, says that his counsel awoke for a time the spiritual fires in Fergusson; Robert Louis Stevenson was less complimentary: both however were writing many years after the event.
And the philosopher David Hume commented that he preached “as if he were conscious that Christ was at his elbow”.
His most notable work, the Self Interpreting Bible, was published in 1778.
Brown died at his home in Haddington on 19 June 1787. He had six sons, from two marriages, of whom four became ministers, and another the provost of Haddington. Other members of the family were notable, particularly his great-grandson John Brown (Physician and Essayist) who wrote, “Rab and his Friends”.
[edit] Works
John Brown wrote numerous books, of which the most notable are:
The Dictionary of the Bible
Only one dictionary of the Bible, by then long out of print, had preceded this. It therefore met a need and after the initial edition published in 1769 numerous editions, variously amended, were issued until 1868.
A General History of the Christian Church
This was issued in two volumes in 1771.
The Self Interpreting Bible
This was Brown’s most significant work, and it remained in print (edited by others), until well into the twentieth century. The objective of providing a commentary for ordinary people was very successful. The idea that the Bible was “self-interpreting” involved copious marginal references, especially comparing one scriptural statement with another. Brown also provided a substantial introduction to the Bible, and added an explication and “reflections” for each chapter.
A measure of its popularity is its appearance in Robert Burns’s “Epistle to James Tennant”,
- “My shins, my lane, I sit here roastin’
- Perusing Bunyan, Brown and Boston,”
and that it was translated into Welsh.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] John Brown’s works
- 1758 A Help for the Ignorant
- 1765 The Christian Journal
- 1766 An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Secession
- 1767 Letter on the Constitution, Government, and Discipline of the Christian Church
- 1768 Sacred Typology
- 1769 A Dictionary of the Bible
- 1771 A General History of the Christian Church
- 1778 The Self-interpreting Bible
- 1780 The Duty of Raising up Spiritual Children to Christ
- 1782 The Young Christian
- 1783 Practical Piety exemplified in the Lives of Thirteen Eminent Christians
- 1784 A Compendious History of the British Churches
[edit] Others
- John Brown of Haddington Robert Mackenzie 1918 (Paperback 1964 The Banner of Truth Trust)
- Memoir of the Rev. John Brown Rev. J Brown Patterson
[edit] Quotation
Reflections on 1 Corinthians 13 from the Self Interpreting Bible:
Men may make splendid and pompous appearances in the church, and yet be destitute of real principles of grace. No gifts, however miraculous; no liberality, however extensive; no sufferings for the cause of Christ, can avail, unless they be connected with a principle of saving faith in Christ, and love to Him and to His people. Marvellous is the excellency and usefulness of true evangelical love. What benevolence, meekness, patience, humility, forbearance, candour, willingness to believe and hope the best; what disinterested sympathy and generosity; what tender and friendly care it produces! It is much more durable than all spiritual gifts, and, in some sense, than its sister graces of faith and hope, which are so useful in the world. And thrice happy will it be when saints arrive at a perfect knowledge of God; and when love, for the promoting of which faith and hope were but means, shall eternally flame in all our breasts to JEHOVAH, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as our ALL and IN ALL, and towards our fellow-sharers in happiness on his account.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
