Bible Commentaries

Genesis 16:1 — CHAPTER XVI Sarai, having no child, gives Hagar her maid to Abram for wife, 1-3. She conceives and despises her mistress, 4. Sarai is offended and upbraids Abram, 5. Abram vindicates himself; and Hagar, being hardly used by her mistress, runs away, 6. She is met by an angel, and counselled to return to her mistress, 7-9. God promises greatly to multiply her seed, 10. Gives

Genesis 9:1 — CHAPTER IX God blesses Noah and his sons, 1. The brute creation to be subject to them through fear, 2. The first grant of animal food, 3. Eating of blood forbidden, 4. Cruelty to animals forbidden, 5. A man-slayer to forfeit his life, 6. The covenant of God established between him and Noah and the whole brute creation, 8-11. The rainbow given as the sign and pledge of this covenant, 12-17. The three sons of Noah

Acts 15:12 — speech may be thus analyzed:1. Circumcision is a sign of the purification of the heart.2. That purification can only be effected by the Holy Ghost.3. This Holy Spirit was hitherto supposed to be the portion of those only who had received circumcision.4. But the Gentiles, who were never circumcised, nor kept any part of the law of Moses, have had their hearts purified by faith in Christ Jesus.5. As God, therefore, has given them the thing signified, he evidently does not intend that the sign should

Romans 1:5 — nations the necessity of believing in it, in order to their salvation. Here is:1. The Gospel of the Son of God.2. An apostle divinely commissioned and empowered to preach it.3. The necessity of faith in the name of Jesus, as the only Saviour of the world.4. Of obedience, as the necessary consequence of genuine faith. And,5. This is to be proclaimed among all nations; that all might have the opportunity of believing and being saved.

Romans 10:1 — CHAPTER X. The apostle expresses his earnest desire for the salvation of the Jews, 1. Having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, they sought salvation by works, and not by faith in Christ, 2-4. The righteousness which is of the law described, 5. That which is by faith described also, 6-10. He that believes and calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, 11-13. What is necessary to salvation, believing, hearing, preaching, a Divine mission,

Romans 13:4 — Verse Romans 13:4. For he is the minister of God to thee for good — Here the apostle puts the character of the ruler in the strongest possible light. He is the minister of God-the office is by Divine appointment: the man who is worthy of the office will act in

Romans 4:9 — Verse Romans 4:9. Cometh this blessedness - upon the circumcision only] The word μονον, only, is very properly supplied by our translators, and indeed is found in some excellent MSS., and is here quite necessary to complete the sense. The apostle's question is very

1 Corinthians 10:8 — Verse 1 Corinthians 10:8. Fell in one day three and twenty thousand. — In Numbers 25:9, the number Isaiah 24:0; and, allowing this to be the genuine reading, (and none of the Hebrew MSS. exhibit any various reading in the place,) Moses and the apostle may be thus reconciled: in Numbers 25:4, God commands Moses to take all the heads (the rulers) of the people,

1 Corinthians 2:9 — Verse 1 Corinthians 2:9. But, as it is written — The quotation is taken from Isaiah 64:4. The sense is continued here from verse seven, and λαλουμεν, we speak, is understood-We do not speak or preach the wisdom of this world; but that mysterious wisdom of God, of which the prophet said: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered

Ephesians 2:20 — upon the foundation — Following the same metaphor, comparing the Church of Christ to a city, and to the temple, the believing Ephesians are represented as parts of that building; the living stones out of which it is principally formed, 1 Peter 2:4-5, having for foundation-the ground plan, specification, and principle on which it was builded, the doctrine taught by the prophets in the Old Testament, and the apostles in the New. Jesus Christ being that corner stone, or ακρογωνιαιος, the chief angle

Ephesians 4:27 — irritate your spirit; watch and pray that he may not get any place in you, or ascendancy over you.As the word διαβολος is sometimes used to signify a calumniator, tale-bearer, whisperer, or backbiter; (see in the original, 1 Timothy 3:11; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 3:3, and Titus 2:3;) here it may have the same signification. Do not open your ear to the tale-bearer, to the slanderer, who comes to you with accusations against your brethren, or with surmisings and evil speakings. These are human devils;

Ephesians 6:1 — CHAPTER VI. Children should obey their parents, that they may live long and be happy, 1-3. Parents should be tender towards their children, 4. Servants should show all obedience and fidelity to their masters, 5-8. And masters should treat their servants with humanity, 9. All should be strong in the Lord, and be armed with his armour, because of their wily, powerful, and numerous foes, 10-13.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 — Verse 13. 14. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, &c.] In your calling, God has shown the purpose that he had formed from the beginning, to call the Gentiles to the same privileges with the Jews, not through circumcision, and the observance

2 Timothy 4:1 — that several had forsaken him, that others were gone to different districts, and that he had only Luke with him, 9-12. Desires him to bring the cloak, book, and parchments, which he had left at Troas, 13. Of Alexander the coppersmith's opposition, 14, 15. Tells Timothy how he was deserted by all when obliged to make his first defence before Nero; how God supported him, and the confidence with which he was inspired, 16-18. Salutations to different persons at Ephesus, and from different persons at

2 Timothy 4:3 — Verse 2 Timothy 4:3. For the time will come — There is a time coming to the Church when men will not hear the practical truths of the Gospel, when they will prefer speculative opinions, which either do no good to the soul, or corrupt and destroy it, to that wholesome

Hebrews 13:4 — Verse Hebrews 13:4. Marriage is honourable in all — Let this state be highly esteemed as one of God's own instituting, and as highly calculated to produce the best interests of mankind. This may have been said against the opinions of the Essenes, called Therapeutae,

Hebrews 4:6 — Verse Hebrews 4:6. It remaineth that some must enter therein — Why our translators put in the word must here I cannot even conjecture. I hope it was not to serve a system, as some have since used it: "Some must go to heaven, for so is the doctrine of the decree;

James 4:3 — Verse James 4:3. Ye ask, and receive not — Some think that this refers to their prayers for the conversion of the heathen; and on the pretence that they were not converted thus; they thought it lawful to extirpate them and possess their goods.Ye ask amiss —

1 Peter 2:24 — Verse 24. Who his own self — Not another in his place, as some anciently supposed, because they thought it impossible that the Christ should suffer.Bare our sins in his own body — Bore the punishment due to our sins. In no other sense could Christ

Revelation 2:24 — Verse 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest — "But unto the rest, c. This is the reading of the Complutensian, and seems preferable to the common one, as it evidently shows that the rest of the epistle wholly concerns the faithful, who have not received