J. N. Darby Books: A Reading Guide to His Bible Studies

Bible Study Commentary Prophecy Devotional

John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) was the leading teacher of the early Plymouth Brethren. He wrote a great deal: the five-volume Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, Bible translations in English, French and German, hymns, letters, and more than thirty volumes of collected writings. Nearly all of it is about the Bible. TheWay Library has four of his books, all free to read, each on one book of Scripture: the Psalms, Luke, Daniel and 1 John. For his life story, see who was J. N. Darby.

Where to start

Start with Practical Reflections on the Psalms. It's the warmest of the four, it reads cleanly, and you can take it one psalm at a time alongside your Bible.

After that, choose by what you're studying:

For prophecy: Studies on the Book of Daniel.
For a Gospel: Notes on the Gospel of Luke.
For assurance and the love of God: Nine Lectures on the First Epistle of John.

Every quotation below is checked against the book it comes from. For more, see our collection of J. N. Darby quotes.

Devotional commentary

Practical Reflections on the Psalms

This is a set of devotional papers on the whole Book of Psalms, from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150. In his introduction Darby says he isn't trying to interpret the Psalms here, which he had done elsewhere, but to draw out food for the soul. Some psalms get a paragraph; Psalm 16 and Psalm 119 get many pages.

He still keeps his own way of reading in view. The Psalms, he says, speak of God's government on the earth, of a godly remnant of Israel in coming trials, and above all of Christ, the dependent Man who trusted God perfectly. So he urges Christians, who already have peace with God through the cross, to read them carefully. Psalm 16 shows Christ walking the path of life in a world of sin; Psalm 22 shows the Forsaken One who still says "My God"; Psalm 23 shows the Shepherd's care. Along the way come lessons on trusting God when the wicked prosper, confession, waiting on God and praise.

Nature has circumstances between itself and God; faith has God between the heart and circumstances.
Practical Reflections on the Psalms, Psalm 16

Read Practical Reflections on the Psalms.

Gospels and Epistles

Notes on the Gospel of Luke

Chapter-by-chapter notes on Luke. Darby gives his key at the start: in Luke the Savior is the Son of man, showing the grace of God among men. The Gospel begins among the godly in Israel, but grace keeps reaching further, to sinners and Gentiles. He follows that line through the birth stories, the woman who was a sinner in Luke 7, the disciples asking to be taught to pray, the parables of Luke 15 and 16, and on to the cross and the risen Christ. It pairs well with Arthur W. Pink's Why Four Gospels?, which reads Luke the same way.

From the manger to the cross, all in Christ was simple obedience.
Notes on the Gospel of Luke, Luke 2

Read Notes on the Gospel of Luke.

Nine Lectures on the First Epistle of John

Nine talks Darby gave in London on 1 John, taken down by a reporter and printed in 1882, more than thirty years after he gave them. A note at the front says he never saw or revised the report, so they read like a Bible study you're sitting in on. He starts with God's purpose in grace: to bring each believer into fellowship with the Father and the Son through the eternal life shown in Christ. Then he takes up walking in the light, the fathers, young men and little children of chapter 2, the warnings about antichrists, the new nature, the Holy Spirit as the power of that life, and the love of God shown in sending His Son.

The great purpose of God in all His dealings in grace is to bring us individually into fellowship with Himself.
Nine Lectures on the First Epistle of John, Lecture I

Read Nine Lectures on the First Epistle of John.

Prophecy

Studies on the Book of Daniel

Nine lectures first given to a small group of friends who wanted help with Daniel. The preface says plainly that they don't claim to explain the whole book. Darby's key is that Daniel covers the "times of the Gentiles," when God's throne has left Jerusalem and power has passed to the nations. He takes Daniel's faithfulness in Babylon and the great image, the fiery furnace and the lions' den (where faith is owned by God in spite of circumstances), the four beasts, the ram and the goat, Daniel's prayer of confession in chapter 9 and the seventy weeks, and the closing visions of the wilful king and the time of the end.

Darby's reading of Daniel shaped the prophecy teaching of many who came after him. Even if you don't follow every detail, his lectures on Daniel's prayer are worth reading for anyone who prays for God's people.

The essential point, however, is the spirit in which Daniel identifies himself with the people of God, confessing all their sin as his own, before God.
Studies on the Book of Daniel, Lecture V

Read Studies on the Book of Daniel. For more on the Lord's return, see our guide to the best Christian books on the second coming.

A note on these editions

These texts were restored from scans of old printings. Practical Reflections on the Psalms and Studies on the Book of Daniel read fairly cleanly. Notes on the Gospel of Luke and Nine Lectures on the First Epistle of John have many misread words, such as "Grod" for "God," and the 1 John lectures also carry the roughness of unrevised spoken notes. They're still readable, but go slowly.

Reading Darby today

Darby can be dense. He writes the way he talked, with long sentences and his own terms, and he takes for granted a framework of dispensations and of Israel and the church that not every reader shares. But the devotion underneath is real. He wants you to see Christ in every page and to lean on God alone. Begin with Practical Reflections on the Psalms, then go to the volume for the book you're reading. If you'd like to read his fellow Brethren teacher and editor, see our guide to William Kelly's books. All four of Darby's books are on the J. N. Darby author page.