Joseph Samuel Exell (J.S. Exell; 1849–1910) was a British Anglican clergyman, preacher, and prolific editor of large-scale biblical and homiletical reference works in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Life and Ministry

Born in 1849, Exell was the son of Joseph Exell (1819–1887), an ordained Methodist minister. He pursued Anglican ministry, serving as a curate at Weston-super-Mare before becoming Vicar of Townstal with St. Saviour’s in Dartmouth. In 1890 he became Rector of Stoke Fleming (near Dartmouth, Devon), a position he held until his sudden death on 2 April 1910 at age 61. He was remembered as an eloquent preacher of considerable talent and was twice married (widowed at the time of his death). He joined the Devonshire Association in 1900.

Editorial Work and Major Publications

Exell is best known not primarily as an original author but as a skilled compiler and editor of massive, multi-volume resources designed for preachers and Bible students. His most important projects include:

• The Biblical Illustrator (his signature work) — A vast 56-volume (sometimes counted differently in later reprints) compilation of anecdotes, similes, emblems, illustrations, expositions, scientific notes, geographical and historical material, and homiletic comments arranged verse-by-verse across the entire Bible. It runs to tens of thousands of pages and remains one of the most extensive illustration and sermon-help collections ever produced.

• Co-editor (with others, notably H.D.M. Spence) of The Pulpit Commentary — A major multi-volume exegetical and homiletical commentary series still widely used.

• Editor or contributor to related series such as The Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary / Preacher’s Homiletic Library, The Men of the Bible, and various other homiletical helps.

• Editor of periodicals including Clerical World, The Homiletical Quarterly, and The Monthly Interpreter.

These works reflect the Victorian-era demand for practical, illustration-rich resources that combined scholarly notes with ready material for sermons and teaching.

Legacy

Exell’s compilations, especially The Biblical Illustrator, continue to be reprinted, digitized, and used by pastors, teachers, and students of Scripture. They are valued for their breadth of sourced material (drawing from a wide range of earlier writers) rather than for original theological innovation. His work sits firmly in the tradition of 19th-century evangelical Anglican preaching aids that aimed to make the Bible accessible and applicable for congregational ministry.

J.S. Exell was a hardworking parish clergyman whose lasting contribution was the organization and publication of some of the most comprehensive homiletical and illustrative Bible resources of his era.