William Kelly (Bible scholar)

William Kelly (1821- March 27 1906) was born in Millisle, County Down, Ulster. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and secured a post as governor to the Seigneur of Sark in 1841. He married in Guernsey and in the 1870s moved to Blackheath, London. Kelly became a prominent member of the Plymouth Brethren amongst whom he was a prolific writer. His writings also enjoyed the respect of scholars such as Henry Alford, Heinrich Ewald and George Anthony Denison.

Biography

Being left fatherless at a young age, Kelly was already supporting himself by being engaged in teaching the family of Mr. Cachemaille, Rector of Sark. In 1840 Kelly made the Christian confession, and he shortly afterwards embraced the views of, and became a member of the Plymouth Brethren. He retained a close connection with the Channel Islands for thirty years, residing chiefly in Guernsey, but for the latter half of his Christian career his home was at Blackheath.

Kelly was a graduate in classical honours of Trinity College, Dublin, and was recognised as not merely a sound, erudite scholar, but a controversialist of formidable calibreFact|date=September 2008. Besides aiding Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles in his investigations as a Biblical textual critic, Kelly himself published, in 1860, a critical edition of the Book of Revelation, which Professor Heinrich Ewald of Goettingen, declared was the best piece of English work of the kind that he had seenFact|date=September 2008.

Such studies were carried on concurrently with the editing of a periodical entitled "The Prospect". He took up the editorship of "The Bible Treasury" in 1857, and continued till his death. As editor of the latter he was brought into correspondence with such men as Dean Henry Alford, Dr Scott the lexicographer (whom he convinced of his own interpretation of the word rendered in the Authorised Version of 2 Thessalonians 2: 2, as "is at hand"), Principal Edwards (who confessed to Mr Kelly his conversion to the pre-millennial standpoint), with William Sanday of Oxford, and other living theologians.

After the capitulation of younger ecclesiastical associates to the Higher Criticism, Archdeacon Denison spoke of Kelly's periodical as the only religious magazine any longer worth readingFact|date=September 2008 — so steadfast was the editor in his rejection of what he believed to be Christ-dishonouring views of the Bible.

The last prominent survivor of the first generation of the Plymouth Brethren died on 27 March, 1906. Shortly before his death, Kelly said "There are three things real — the Cross, the enmity of the world, the love of God." An aged clergyman, who had long resorted to him for counsel, on hearing of his death, wrote: "He was pre-eminently a faithful man, and feared God above many"Fact|date=September 2008

Ministry and Publications

Kelly's chief interest was in ministering spiritually to those whom he described as the "few despised ones of Christ's flock."Fact|date=September 2008 To such service he gave untiring energy, until two months before his death. He identified himself whole-heartedly with the body of doctrine developed by John Nelson Darby, whose right-hand man he was for many years until he severed his connection, and formed a faction which bore his name.

The "Collected Writings" of John Nelson Darby were edited by Kelly, who has done much by his own expositions to give currency to the views enshrined in them. Kelly also edited the writings of John Gifford Bellett. The large amount of Kelly's own writing contains lectures or notes on all the books of the Bible. The title-pages of Kelly's works generally bore only the initials "W. K.". Several of his best-known expositions appeared during the last fifteen years of his life. Within Darby's lifetime, Kelly was already well known to outsiders by his lectures on the Pentateuch, the Gospel of Matthew, the Revelation of John, the Church of God, and the New Testament doctrine of the Holy Spirit, besides notes on Romans. After 1890 he issued "In the Beginning", commended by Archbishop Benson and expositions of the prophecies of Isaiah, of the Gospel of John, of the epistle to the Hebrews, of the epistles of John; a volume of 600 pages on "God's Inspiration of the Scriptures" and his last words on "Christ's Coming Again," in which he vindicates the originality of Darby's teaching in regard to the Secret Rapture.

Biography and Criticism

His biography, based on Turner's and others biographies, has been compiled by Edwin N Cross [http://www.chaptertwobooks.org.uk] . W G Turner and Heyman Wreford also wrote short biographical sketches about Kelly.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 -1892), wrote about Kelly and said that he was "a leading writer of the exclusive Plymouth School;" "an eminent Divine of the Brethren School who sometimes expounds ably, but with a twist towards the peculiar dogmas of his party;" "We are sorry to see such a mind as Mr. Kelly's so narrowed by party bounds;" "It is a pity that a man of such excellence should allow a very superior mind to be so warped;" and finally, adapting Pope's well-known words, he says, "Kelly is a man who, born for the universe, has narrowed his mind by Darbyism."

External links

* [http://www.chaptertwobooks.org.uk The Chapter Two Trust] are publishers and distributors of the works of William Kelly.
* [http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/kelly/ Complete writings of William Kelly]
* [http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/kelly/biography.html Biography of William Kelly]