Proof Sheets of John Wesley's New Testament with Commentary

John Wesley (1703–1791). Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. Corrected proof sheets.
[London: William Bowyer, 1755]. (Prothro B-127)

John Wesley (1703–1791).
Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament.
London: William Bowyer, 1755. (Prothro B-127)

Shortly before 1755, during a period of poor health that forced him to rest from itinerant preaching, John Wesley began to prepare a revision of the King James Version of the New Testament with commentary. He based his revision of the English text on the Greek edition with commentary by Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1753) of Tübingen. The copies of Wesley’s Explanatory Notes exhibited here represent two distinct phases in the evolution of the author’s principal work of biblical scholarship. On the bottom is the finished edition as it appeared in print in 1755. On the top are the printer’s proof sheets, annotated and corrected by John Wesley, his colleagues, and the publisher. Some of Wesley’s notes, such as those at Luke 23, verse 43 (note V. 43), show the final stages of his developing theological thought on this passage.