Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke (1760?-1832) was a Wesleyan preacher, Biblical commentator, theologian, linguist, and scholar. After his conversion to Methodism in 1778, John Wesley sent Clarke to the Kingswood School (near Bristol) for training, after which he was assigned to the Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, circuit in 1782, followed by a stint in Cornwall and the Channel Islands (he could speak French fluently). Later he was sent to Liverpool, where he served from 1793 to 1795. In 1795 he left Liverpool for London, where he would spend the majority of the rest of his life, becoming proficient in such languages as Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Sanscrit, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopic, as well as Greek and Latin. He was a regular contributor to the Eclectic Review, and worked often with the British and Foreign Bible Society. He received an M.A. from King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1807. He was elected president of the Wesleyan Conference in 1806, 1814, and 1822. He also composed and published extensive bibliographies of classical literature, as well as works on missions and his celebrated Bible . . . with Commentary and Critical Notes (8 vols; 1810-1825).