AuthorPatrick Fairbairn (1805-1874)

Patrick Fairbairn (1805–1874) was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and was twice Moderator of the General Assembly. He was Professor of Church History and Exegesis, and Principal of the Free Church College until his death. Although married three times, little is known about the private life of Fairbairn. This is because Fairbairn expressly asked his friends not to allow his biography to be written. He also destroyed letters and other documents which might have led them to disregard his wish.

He produced a series of works of biblical commentaries (Jonah, 1849; Ezekiel, 1851; The Pastoral Epistles, 1874). In addition, he wrote many important books, including three that dealt with principles of biblical interpretation: The Typology of Scripture (1845); The Interpretation of Prophecy, and his Hermeneutical Manual (both 1856). In 1869 he published The Revelation of Law in Scripture, considered a classic, and in 1874 he published his Pastoral Theology.

The Marriage Relation and the Sabbatical Institution

Excerpted from The Typology of Scripture
T
The formation of a partner for Adam out of a portion of his own frame, and the junction of the two under the direct sanction of their Maker, so as to form in a manner one flesh, however important in a social and economical respect, however fitted also to bear indirectly on the higher interests of the world, was still not formally of a religious nature. For the world’s secular well-being alone, there were reasons amply sufficient to account for its Divine author resorting to such a method, when bringing into being the first family pair, and in them laying the foundations of the world’s social existence.

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