Excerpt from Critical and Exegetical Hand-Book to the Gospel of Matthew

These and all like criticisms need not detract from our estimate of the great merit of Dr. Meyer as an expositor of the New Testament. Fifty two years have elapsed since the publication of his first volume, and these years have only confirmed the first judgment of his great merit. He is independent, yet reverent acutely grammatical, yet clear-sighted in discerning the spiritual and utilizing the labors of his predecessors in all the past centuries, his work is rich with the spoils of time. Considering exegesis purely as a historical science, he seeks the sense of Scripture by the positive method of studying the grammar, the usus loguendi, and the connection in detail, as well as in its wider and widest sense. The result is an exemplar of exegetical tact and conscientious research applied to the elucidation of the New Tes tament. 'in one of his golden sentences he tells us that in the task of exegesis, we have always to receive what Scripture gives to us, and never to give it aught of our own. If he has not always succeeded in realizing his lofty ideal, this is no more than comes to all men, for supreme excellence is beyond our reach. But to have thoroughly mastered his commentary is itself an education in exegesis. It must not be forgotten, that when his exegetical works first appeared, myth and legend were, throughout Germany, as one might say, in the air. All history originates in myth, was the accepted dictum of scholars, and the application of the formula to the Old and New Testaments was fearlessly made. The gospel records were examined with an almost pre ternatural suspicion and the disposition to concede legendary admix tures with their history was strong, even among orthodox men. That Dr. Meyer should share to some extent in this wavering need not repel us from him. His exegetical integrity is conspicuous in his treat ment of those parts of Matthew which he thinks have had a legendary origin. For he first interprets them on sound principles, seeking for their exact meaning, and then expresses his doubts of their historical ao curacy. We see all through these volumes, into which such vast learn ing has been compressed, the working of an honest and thoroughly Christian mind.

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