Galatians is Now Complete

Writing a commentary is like eating an elephant. It takes a while. Some Bible commentators never finish.

You may be familiar with Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary. Did you know that he died before he had written entries for Romans to Revelation? Those bits were compiled posthumously by his friends.

Which means we have just done something Matthew Henry never did – we have finished Galatians!

We have just boosted the amount of commentary for Galatians by 500 percent. Which means there is now grace-based commentary for the entire epistle.

Before: 100 entries covering 79 verses
Now: 650 entries covering all 149 verses

I don’t know how Matthew Henry wrote his commentary – book by book? – but the Grace Commentary is growing in two directions at the same time: it is growing in the quantity of verses covered, and in the quality of entries for those verses.

When we first started, the emphasis was on quantity (no. of verses). But increasingly, the emphasis is on quality (no. of entries/per verse).

A graph of our progress would look something like this:

At the start of this year, we had just one or two entries for half of the verses in Galatians. Now we have an average of four entries for all of them.

As you can see, there has been a big jump in quality and quantity, at least for Galatians. But what about the rest of the New Testament? When am I going to finish the commentary? Will I get it done or will I be another Matthew Henry?

By the grace of God I am going as fast as I can. It helps that I have few of the limitations that Matthew Henry faced. (He wrote with a quill pen!)

But it is important to remember that we are doing something new. There has never been a verse-by-verse grace-based Bible commentary. We’re blazing a trail through the wilderness of works and there is a long way to go.

This is why it is important to celebrate the milestones – Galatians is done! – and take the time to thank those of you who support the work.

Thank you for sharing the journey.
Paul

PS: Can’t find an entry for a specific verse? Let me know and I’ll add it to the top of the queue.

PPS: People sometimes ask me about quoting or translating the Grace Commentary. I have set up a new Permissions page that answers common questions.

PPPS: Don’t miss out on our next exciting update: