POOLE, MATTHEW, a learned and laborious nonconformist divine, was born at York, in 1624, of parents in affluent circumstances. Having studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he after wards became minister of Mary le Querne, Lon don, from which he was ejected in 1662 for non conformity. Deprived of his cure, he devoted himself to Biblical labours, especially to the great work of his life, just now to be mentioned. He engaged in many controversies, published many works of great merit, and died in 1679 at Amsterdam, whither he had retired to enjoy the toleration denied him in his native land. His greatest work is : Synopsis Criticorum Aliorum que Scripture Sacra. Interpretuvi et Commenta torum, etc., London, 5 vols. folio, 1669-1674. To the completion of this voluminous work he devoted ten years. It was reprinted at Utrecht 1684, 5 vols. folio, and at Frankfort 1694, 5 vols. large 4to ; followed, at the same place, in 1712, by another edition, 5 vols. folio. These two Frankfort editions have been unjustly depreciated by Home (Manual of Bibliography, p. 249)
The work must have been peculiarly valuable when it first appeared. Briefer and more accessible than the Critici Saeri, it has the additional advantage of exhibiting the views of other noted authors besides those in the work just named. It is a storehouse of interpretation and criticism ; and notwithstand ing the progress of Biblical science since its first appearance, which has necessarily lessened its value, it may still be consulted with profit.
Besides the Synopsis he also wrote Annotations upon the Holy Bible, wherein the Sacred Text is inserted, and various readings annexed, etc., the more difficult terms explained, etc., London, 2 vols., I683 ; Edinburgh, 4 vols. 4to, 1803. This work, however, he did not live to complete. From the 58th chapter of Isaiah it is the joint production of several other hands.—I. I.