The Annotated Bible (9 vols.)

Arno C. Gaebelein, one of America’s truly great Bible teachers, published The Annotated Bible in 1922. This deeply insightful nine-volume commentary set is praised and respected by legions of devoted seekers. This impassioned author writes with enthusiasm and knowledge, whether he is answering destructive criticisms or defending the traditional authorship of the books of the Bible.

Gaebelein’s biblical reflection was informed by his exposure to the atrocities of two world wars, and his zeal stemmed from a desire to make the Bible accessible to a generation in need of comfort and a world marred by suffering. He cautioned his readers against misidentifying the war as Armageddon and exhorted them to trust God and turn to the Bible for comfort and guidance. In the years after World War I, Gaebelein became a vocal and prolific defender of fundamentalism, inerrancy, and premillennialism. He engaged critics from the pulpit and in print and always did so with a firmly irenic spirit. In 1933, he published a book which portrayed the entirety of human history as conflict between God and Satan. In it he addressed current events and focused especially on the threat of Communism.

In the 1930s, the dangers of Communism gave way to the threat of Nazism, which Gaebelein abhorred. In 1937, he sailed to Germany to witness first-hand the Nazi regime, and he denounced it continuously in the pages of Our Hope. Both before and during World War II he meticulously documented and published accounts of Nazi atrocities to the Jews. Throughout his ministry, Gaebelein shunned prophetic date-setting and those who practiced it, arguing that our hope and interest must not be in the Antichrist but, rather, in Jesus Christ.

This commentary on the whole Bible has been a standard reference work for most of a century, and the strident words of A. C. Gaebelein still ring with timeless truth.