Bible Commentaries

Luke 15:1 — CHAPTER XV. Publicans and sinners draw near to hear our Lord, at which the Pharisees are offended, 1, 2. Christ vindicates his conduct in receiving them by the parable of the lost sheep, 3-7. The parable of the lost piece of money, 8-10; and the affecting parable of the prodigal son, 11-32. NOTES ON CHAP. XV.Verse Luke 15:1. Publicans and sinners — τελωναι και αμαρτωλοι, tax-gatherers and heathens; persons who neither believed in

Luke 18:3 — Verse Luke 18:3. Avenge me of mine adversary. — The original, εκδικησον με απο του αντιδικου μου, had better be translated, Do me justice against, or vindicate me from, my adversary. If the woman had come to get revenge, as our common translation intimates, I

Luke 24:18 — Verse Luke 24:18. Cleopas — The same as Alpheus, father of the Apostle James, Mark 3:18, and husband of the sister of the virgin. John 19:25.Art thou only a stranger — As if he had said, What has been done it Jerusalem, within these few days, has been so public, so awful, and so universally known, that, if thou hadst been but

Luke 7:3 — Verse Luke 7:3. Elders of the Jews — These were either magistrates in the place, or the elders of the synagogue which the centurion had built, Luke 7:5. He sent these, probably, because he was afraid to come to Christ himself, not being a Jew, either by nation or religion. In the parallel place in Matthew, he is represented as coming to Christ himself; but it is a usual form of speech in all nations, to attribute the act to a person which is done not by himself, but by his authority.

John 3:4 — Verse John 3:4. How can a man be born when he is old? — It is probable that Nicodemus was pretty far advanced in age at this time; and from his answer we may plainly perceive that, like the rest of the Jews, and like multitudes of Christians, he rested in the letter, without paying proper attention to the spirit: the shadow, without the thing signified, had hitherto satisfied him. Our Lord knew him to be in this state, and this was the cause of his pointed address to him.

John 9:3 — Verse John 9:3. Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents — That is, the blindness of this person is not occasioned by any sin of his own, nor of his parents, but has happened in the ordinary course of Divine providence, and shall now become the instrument

Acts 3:12 — Verse Acts 3:12. As though by our own power — δυναμει, Miraculous energy.Or holiness — Η ευσεβεια, Meaning religious attachment to the worship of God. Do not think that we have wrought this miracle by any power of our own; or that any supereminent piety

Acts 3:18 — Verse Acts 3:18. But those things - he hath so fulfilled. — Your ignorance and malice have been overruled by the sovereign wisdom and power of God, and have become the instruments of fulfilling the Divine purpose, that Christ must suffer, in order to make

Acts 3:8 — Verse Acts 3:8. Walking and leaping, and praising God. — These actions are very naturally described. He walked, in obedience to the command of the apostle, rise up and walk: he leaped, to try the strength of his limbs and to be convinced of the reality of the cure: he praised God, as a testimony of the gratitude he felt for the cure he had received. Now was fulfilled, in the most literal manner, the words of the Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 35:6: The lame man shall leap as a hart.

Acts 9:3 — Verse Acts 9:3. Suddenly there shined round about him — This might have been an extraordinary flash of the electric fluid, accompanied with thunder, with which God chose to astonish and confound Saul and his company; but so modified it as to prevent it from

1 Corinthians 3:2 — Verse 1 Corinthians 3:2. I have fed you with milk. — I have instructed you in the elements of Christianity-in its simplest and easiest truths; because from the low state of your minds in religious knowledge, you were incapable of comprehending the higher truths of

2 Corinthians 3:11 — Verse 2 Corinthians 3:11. For if that which is done away, c.] Here is another striking difference between the law and the Gospel. The former is termed τοκαταργουμενον, that which is counterworked and abolished the latter τομενον, that which continues, which is not for a

2 Corinthians 3:13 — Verse 2 Corinthians 3:13. And not as Moses — The splendour of Moses' countenance was so great that the Israelites could not bear to look upon his face, and therefore he was obliged to veil his face: this, it appears, he did typically, to represent the types and shadows

2 Corinthians 9:13 — Verse 2 Corinthians 9:13. By the experiment of this ministration — In this, and in the preceding and following verses, the apostle enumerates the good effects that would be produced by their liberal almsgiving to the poor saints at Jerusalem.1. The wants of the saints

2 Corinthians 9:3 — Verse 2 Corinthians 9:3. Yet have I sent the brethren — Titus and his companions, mentioned in the preceding chapter.That, as I said, ye may be ready — And he wished them to be ready, that they might preserve the good character he had given them: this was for their honour; and if they did not take care to do so, he might be reputed a liar; and thus both they and himself be ashamed before the Macedonians, should any of them at this time accompany him to Corinth.

2 Thessalonians 1:3 — Verse 2 Thessalonians 1:3. Your faith groweth exceedingly — The word υπεραυξανει signifies to grow luxuriantly, as a good and healthy tree planted in a good soil; and if a fruit tree, bearing an abundance of fruit to compensate the labour of the husbandman. Faith is one

Hebrews 11:38 — Verse 38. Of whom the world was not worthy — Yet they were obliged to wander by day in deserts and mountains, driven from the society of men, and often obliged to hide by night in dens and caves of the earth, to conceal themselves from the brutal rage

Hebrews 9:3 — Verse Hebrews 9:3. And after the second veil — The first veil, of which the apostle has not yet spoken, was at the entrance of the holy place, and separated the temple from the court, and prevented the people, and even the Levites, from seeing what was in the holy

1 John 4:19 — Verse 19. We love him because he first loved us. — This is the foundation of our love to God. 1. We love him because we find he has loved us. 2. We love him from a sense of obligation and gratitude. 3. We love him from the influence of his own love; from his love shed abroad in our hearts, our love to him proceeds. It is the seed whence our love springs. The verse might be rendered, Let us therefore love him, because he first loved us: thus the Syriac and Vulgate.

Revelation 3:14 — Epistle to the Church of the Laodiceans.Verse Revelation 3:14. These things saith the Amen — That is, He who is true or faithful; from אמן aman, he was tree; immediately interpreted, The faithful and true witness. See Revelation 1:5.The beginning of the creation of God — That is, the head and governor