Alleged quotation from John Owen regarding the return of the Jews

[PeterR]

The following quotation has been attributed by various people to John Owen (including once on this board):

"The Jews shall be gathered from all parts of the Earth where thay are now scattered, and brought home in their own Land"

- with slight variations in the various locations in which it has been printed.

I have not looked into anything else Owen may have said on the specific matter of the return of the Jews to their previous homeland, but I believe I have found an explanation as to how this specific statement may have become attributed to Owen entirely inadvertently.

Here is the statement:

An usefull concordance ... 1693 : Powell, Vavasor. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

An usefull concordance ... 1693..Digitized from IA40310611-37.Next issue: bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_long-lasting-newes_powell-walter_1655.

archive.org

And here is the title page of "An Usefull Concordance" - the book in which it appears:

An usefull concordance ... 1693 : Powell, Vavasor. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

An usefull concordance ... 1693..Digitized from IA40310611-37.Next issue: bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_long-lasting-newes_powell-walter_1655.

archive.org

As you can see the name of JOHN OWEN (whose two page recommendation appears at the front of the book) is printed much more clearly on the title page than the actual attribution of authorship:

"Begun by the Industrious Labour of Mr. Vavasor Powel, and Finish'd by Mr N.F. and Mr J. F."

 

[Phil D.]

Interesting... Powel was of course a well-known Fifth Monarchist. I suppose the question then becomes, would that specific sentiment have been included within Owen's broader endorsement... In it he notes, "Sundry things that are singularly advantageous, especially to the ordinary sort of Christians, and peculiar to this Collection, are marked out in the prefixed Advertisement..." Mark 4 of that Advertisement states, "Since the greater part of Scripture-Prophesies is about the Calling of the Jews, and the glory of Christ, and of his Church in the latter day, there is therefore annexed a brief Collection of all the principle Texts which relate unto that time..." Still, in full context of both, my initial sense of it would be that Owen probably more generally had in mind some of the concordantial apparatuses that this volume apparently introduced. Nevertheless, quite intriguing...

 

[chicagophil]

His 10th assertion in Exercitation 18 in the commentary on Hebrews is very similar:

here are my notes with only the tail end being an actual quotation:
asserts there will be a time during the continuance of the kingdom of the Messiah in this world, wherein the generality of the nation of the Jews, all the world over, shall be called and effectually brought unto the knowledge of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ; “with which mercy they shall also receive deliverance from their captivity, restoration unto their own land, with a blessed, flourishing, and happy condition therein.”

 

[Phil D.]

“with which mercy they shall also receive deliverance from their captivity, restoration unto their own land, with a blessed, flourishing, and happy condition therein.”

Full context here (point 10)...