Keil was a great German Protestant exegete and theologian who wrote with liberal F. Delitzsch a full commentary on the Old Testament. He was born and died in Saxony Germany. He studied theology in Berlin but he labored for twenty-five years on the theological faculty in Dorpat Germany teaching Old and New Testament exegesis and Oriental languages.
A great shock even to present-day premillennialists, Keil taught in his commentaries the coming reign of Christ over Israel in the end-times. Great premillennial passages he interprets and exegetes just as dispensationalists do today. He clearly believed in the restoration of the Jews and the reign of Christ over the millennial kingdom. He saw the nations punished for their mistreatment of the Jewish people.
Faithfully he educated a generation of preachers who adhered to the confession of the orthodox and conservative Lutheran Church in the northern Baltic provinces. In 1859 he settled in Leipsic Germany and devoted himself to literature work and the practical work of the Lutheran Church. Keil belonged to the strictly orthodox and conservative school of thinking of the great Hengstenberg. He ignored almost entirely the modern criticism of the Bible of his day. He considered Scripture to be the revealed Word of God. Even up until his death, he thought German higher criticism of the Bible was but a passing phase of error that would someday disappear. Unfortunately, he was wrong.
Besides his work in the Old Testament, he also wrote commentaries on Mark, Luke, Peter, Jude, and Hebrews. His greatest and most lasting contribution will be the fact that he held faithfully to the normal and literal interpretation of prophecy, though today we may not agree with all of his opinions. As well, he faithfully upheld the fact of a coming world-wide tribulation, the premillennial return of Christ, and the truth about the literal restoration of Israel to her land. He was a faithful Christian scholar ahead of his times in Germany. He was not into Replacement Theology!
Below are selected statements from his commentary on Jeremiah 30-31:
“The Lord will vouchsafe to His people Israel in the future, and will gather together the promises regarding the restoration and glorious condition of Israel and Judah, so as to give a full deliverance intended for all the covenant Jewish people under the scepter of the future king David. In prophetic language, there is here a renewed promise that Jerusalem and Judah would be restored with the blissful arrangements connected with the Davidic monarchy.
“The main elements of Jeremiah’s prophecies are given here for the first time—the idea of the great day of judgment to come on all nations, and by which the Lord will perfect His kingdom on earth. This day is for Jacob also, i.e. for all Israel, a time of distress; for the judgment falls not merely on the pagan nations, but also on the godless members of the covenant people, that they may be destroyed from among the Jewish congregation of the Lord. Then Israel will no longer serve strangers, i.e. foreign rulers who are heathen, but their God Jehovah, and David the king who will be raised up to them, i.e. the Messiah, the righteous sprout that Jehovah will raise up to David, see 23:5.
“For Jehovah will make a complete end of all the nations among whom Israel has been scattered; Israel, on the other hand, He shall certainly chastise. The enemies of Zion will now meet the fate which they have prepared for Zion. Those who, like rapacious animals, would devour Israel shall be devoured, and all his oppressors shall go into captivity. His ruler will proceed him. The meaning is, that the people will no longer be ruled or subdued by foreign masters, but be ruled by glorious princes, i.e. leaders endowed with princely glory, and these out of the midst of themselves. Herein is contained the truth, that the sovereignty of Israel, as restored, culminates in the kingdom of the Messiah. The ruler could be none else but the Messiah. In the messianic period, Israel is to become a holy people and attain its destiny of being a nation of priests. No one by himself would draw near to God but only the Messiah. No sinful man can come—he would be destroyed before the holiness of the Divine Being—the Lord! When the Messiah comes the Lord shall be their God; thus the end of their divine calling shall be attained, and the salvation of Israel shall be complete, see 7:23.
“Jeremiah 31 gives the prophecy of the New Covenant. This sets forth the greatness of the salvation which the Lord will prepare for Israel, so long outcast, Israel is commanded to make loud jubilation, and exhorted to approach the Lord with entreaties for the fulfillment of His purpose of grace. The summons of the nations in verse 10 is simply a command to make known God’s purpose regarding the deliverance of Israel. This high honor of Israel which seems to be taken from him by his being delivered over to the power of pagan nations, is now to appear again. Israel is a peculiar people of God. They are to receive their full share in the messianic salvation of the whole people and are to be delivered out of the hand of Gentile oppression, out of the hand of ‘Pharaoh.’”
A great shock even to present-day premillennialists, Keil taught in his commentaries the coming reign of Christ over Israel in the end-times. Great premillennial passages he interprets and exegetes just as dispensationalists do today. He clearly believed in the restoration of the Jews and the reign of Christ over the millennial kingdom. He saw the nations punished for their mistreatment of the Jewish people.
Faithfully he educated a generation of preachers who adhered to the confession of the orthodox and conservative Lutheran Church in the northern Baltic provinces. In 1859 he settled in Leipsic Germany and devoted himself to literature work and the practical work of the Lutheran Church. Keil belonged to the strictly orthodox and conservative school of thinking of the great Hengstenberg. He ignored almost entirely the modern criticism of the Bible of his day. He considered Scripture to be the revealed Word of God. Even up until his death, he thought German higher criticism of the Bible was but a passing phase of error that would someday disappear. Unfortunately, he was wrong.
Besides his work in the Old Testament, he also wrote commentaries on Mark, Luke, Peter, Jude, and Hebrews. His greatest and most lasting contribution will be the fact that he held faithfully to the normal and literal interpretation of prophecy, though today we may not agree with all of his opinions. As well, he faithfully upheld the fact of a coming world-wide tribulation, the premillennial return of Christ, and the truth about the literal restoration of Israel to her land. He was a faithful Christian scholar ahead of his times in Germany. He was not into Replacement Theology!
Below are selected statements from his commentary on Jeremiah 30-31:
“The Lord will vouchsafe to His people Israel in the future, and will gather together the promises regarding the restoration and glorious condition of Israel and Judah, so as to give a full deliverance intended for all the covenant Jewish people under the scepter of the future king David. In prophetic language, there is here a renewed promise that Jerusalem and Judah would be restored with the blissful arrangements connected with the Davidic monarchy.
“The main elements of Jeremiah’s prophecies are given here for the first time—the idea of the great day of judgment to come on all nations, and by which the Lord will perfect His kingdom on earth. This day is for Jacob also, i.e. for all Israel, a time of distress; for the judgment falls not merely on the pagan nations, but also on the godless members of the covenant people, that they may be destroyed from among the Jewish congregation of the Lord. Then Israel will no longer serve strangers, i.e. foreign rulers who are heathen, but their God Jehovah, and David the king who will be raised up to them, i.e. the Messiah, the righteous sprout that Jehovah will raise up to David, see 23:5.
“For Jehovah will make a complete end of all the nations among whom Israel has been scattered; Israel, on the other hand, He shall certainly chastise. The enemies of Zion will now meet the fate which they have prepared for Zion. Those who, like rapacious animals, would devour Israel shall be devoured, and all his oppressors shall go into captivity. His ruler will proceed him. The meaning is, that the people will no longer be ruled or subdued by foreign masters, but be ruled by glorious princes, i.e. leaders endowed with princely glory, and these out of the midst of themselves. Herein is contained the truth, that the sovereignty of Israel, as restored, culminates in the kingdom of the Messiah. The ruler could be none else but the Messiah. In the messianic period, Israel is to become a holy people and attain its destiny of being a nation of priests. No one by himself would draw near to God but only the Messiah. No sinful man can come—he would be destroyed before the holiness of the Divine Being—the Lord! When the Messiah comes the Lord shall be their God; thus the end of their divine calling shall be attained, and the salvation of Israel shall be complete, see 7:23.
“Jeremiah 31 gives the prophecy of the New Covenant. This sets forth the greatness of the salvation which the Lord will prepare for Israel, so long outcast, Israel is commanded to make loud jubilation, and exhorted to approach the Lord with entreaties for the fulfillment of His purpose of grace. The summons of the nations in verse 10 is simply a command to make known God’s purpose regarding the deliverance of Israel. This high honor of Israel which seems to be taken from him by his being delivered over to the power of pagan nations, is now to appear again. Israel is a peculiar people of God. They are to receive their full share in the messianic salvation of the whole people and are to be delivered out of the hand of Gentile oppression, out of the hand of ‘Pharaoh.’”
