Dake Annotated Reference Bible

     Finis Jennings Dake (1902-87) was a Pentecostal pastor, teacher, and author whose most influential work is the Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible. This study Bible, containing notes on the entire Old and New Testaments, was first published in 1963. The Dake Bible is considered the top "Pentecostal Study Bible" by many. In fact, the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements says, "His ‘notes’ became the ‘bread and butter’ of many prominent preachers and the ‘staple’ of Pentecostal congregations." Dake is very important within Pentecostal/Charismatic circles.

     Dake was a man devoted to the study of the Word of God. In fact, the back cover of one of his books says, "His supernatural ability to flawlessly quote Scripture earned him a reputation as the ‘Walking Bible.’" Dake himself claims a supernatural knowledge of the Bible that came soon after his conversion—even before he began to study the Word of God. Dake asserts:

I was immediately able to quote hundreds of Scriptures without memorizing them. I also noticed a quickening of my mind to know what chapters and books various verses were found in. Before conversion, I had not read one full chapter of the Bible. This new knowledge of Scripture was a gift to me, for which I give God the praise. From the time of this special anointing until now, I have never had to memorize the thousands of scriptures I use in teaching. I just quote a verse when I need it, by the anointing of the Spirit.

     It has been said that he put more than 100,000 hours into Scripture study during his career. The commentary notes in the Dake Annotated Reference Bible are certainly the main fruit of his work. The preface to this extensive study Bible states, "The purpose of this work is to give in ONE volume the helps a student of the Bible needs from many books—Bible commentaries, Atlas, Dictionary, complete Concordance, Dispensational Truth, Topical Text Book, Bible Synthesis, Doctrines, Prophetic Studies, and others." This volume certainly follows through with its promise. It is a massive collection of facts, figures, and encyclopedic findings contained in "nearly 9,000 informative headings . . . , 500,000 cross references throughout 35,000 notes and comments . . . , 3,400 note-columns—over 8,000 outlines on a great variety of subjects, and 2,000 illustrations."

     The fact is clearly seen that Mr. Dake put much work into this reference tool. However, there are severe problems with the theology contained in this work. For instance, heresies abound concerning subjects such as the nature and attributes of God, Soteriology, and Christology—just to name a few. Furthermore, many Word-Faith teachers, such as Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, have verifiably used Dake as a source of their quizzical doctrines. The scope of this paper, however, is not a complete, systematic analysis of the Dake Annotated Reference Bible, but an analysis of what it says about Jesus.

     It must be stated that Finis Jennings Dake and those who follow his teaching are not yet considered a cult. However, much of the teaching in Dake’s Bible is considered cultic because it falls far outside the walls of orthodox Christianity. To be sure, there are many heretical claims concerning Jesus found in this study Bible. And with about 30,000 Dake Bibles being sold each year, this is a subject that needs to be addressed. This exploration of Dake’s teaching on Jesus will be subsumed under two broad topics: Dake and the Trinity, which will exegete Dake’s teaching about the very nature of Jesus before He was Incarnated into a body of flesh, and Dake and the Incarnation, which will present Dake’s teaching about the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity.
» More