Bible Commentaries

Acts 11:24 — purity, it is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, and fidelity in his affections and passions. In a word, it has sovereign sway in his heart; it governs all passions, and is the motive and principle of every righteous action.3. He was full of faith. He implicitly credited his Lord; he knew that he could not lie-that his word could not fail; he expected, not only the fulfilment of all promises, but also every degree of help, light, life, and comfort, which God might at any

Acts 18:27 — copy of the Itala, and in some of the fathers. But this omission might have been the effect of carelessness in the writers of those copies from which the foregoing were taken: the words convey the same idea that is expressed by St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:6: Paul planted, and Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. Though this eminent man became the instrument of mightily helping the believers in Corinth, yet he was also the innocent cause of a sort of schism among them. For some, taken by his commanding

Acts 20:1 — CHAPTER XX. Paul retires to Macedonia, 1. He goes into Greece, where he tarries three months and, purposing to sail to Syria, he returns through Macedonia, 2, 3. Several persons accompany him into Asia, and then go before and tarry for him at Troas, 4, 5. Paul and Luke sail from Philippi, and in five days reach Troas, where they meet their brethren from Asia, and abide there seven days, 6. On the first day

Acts 20:30 — Verse 30. Also of your own selves, c.] From out of your own assembly shall men arise, speaking perverse things, teaching for truth what is erroneous in itself, and perversive of the genuine doctrine of Christ crucified.To draw away disciples — To make

Acts 26:1 — CHAPTER XXVI. Paul answers for himself before Agrippa, to whom he pays a true compliment, in order to secure a favourable hearing, 1-3; gives an account of his education from his youth up, 4, 5; shows that the Jews persecuted him for his maintaining the hope of the resurrection, 6-8; states his persecution of the Christians, 9-11; gives an account of his miraculous conversion, 12-16;

Acts 27:1 — CHAPTER XXVII. It being determined that Paul should be sent to Rome, he is delivered to Julius, a centurion, 1. They embark in a ship of Adramyttium, and come the next day to Sidon, 2, 3. They sail thence, and pass Cyprus, Cilicia, and Pamphylia, and come to Myra, 4, 5. They are transferred there to a ship of Alexandria going to Italy; sail past Cnidus, Crete, Salmone, and come to the Fair Havens, 6-8. Paul predicts a disastrous voyage,

Acts 8:5 — Acts 8:5. Then Philip — One of the seven deacons, Acts 6:5, called afterwards, Philip the Evangelist, Acts 21:8.The city of Samaria — At this time there was no city of Samaria existing: according to Josephus, Ant. lib. xiii. cap. 10, sect. 3, Hyrcanus had so utterly demolished it as to leave no vestige of it remaining. Herod the Great did afterwards build a city on the same spot of ground; but he called it σεβαστη i.e. Augusta, in compliment to the Emperor Augustus, as Josephus tells us,

Acts 9:27 — open roads, and no regular posts, except those between military stations.2. Though there were many Jews in Damascus, and several Christians, yet the city was heathen, and under a heathen king, with whom the Jews at Jerusalem could have little commerce.3. Though Herod had married the daughter of Aretas, yet, as he had put her away, there were great animosities between the two courts, which at last broke out into an open war; this must have prevented all social and commercial intercourse.4. The Christians

Romans 4:5 — different acceptations cited in Clarke's note on "Romans 1:17", and particularly under No. 7. It is also necessary to observe, that our translators render the verb λογιζομαι differently in different parts of this chapter. It is rendered counted, Romans 4:3; Romans 4:5; reckoned, Romans 4:4; Romans 4:9-10; imputed, Romans 4:6; Romans 4:8; Romans 4:11; Romans 4:22-24. Reckoned is probably the best sense in all these places.

Romans 9:23 — Verse 23. And that he might make known — God endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath:1. To show his wrath, and to make his power known. And also,2. That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy.Which he had afore

2 Corinthians 1:23 — Verse 23. I call God for a record upon my soul — The apostle here resumes the subject which he left 2 Corinthians 1:16, and in the most solemn manner calls God to witness, and consequently to punish, if he asserted any thing false, that it was through

2 Corinthians 11:1 — CHAPTER XI. The apostle apologizes for expressing his jealousy relative to the true state of the Corinthians; still fearing lest their minds should have been drawn aside from the simplicity of the Gospel, 1-3; From this he takes occasion to extol his own ministry, which had been without charge to them, having been supported by the Churches of Macedonia while he preached the Gospel at Corinth, 4-11. Gives the character of the false apostles, 12-16. Shows

2 Corinthians 3:7 — Verse 2 Corinthians 3:7. The ministration of death — Here the apostle evidently intends the law. It was a ministration, διακονια or service of death. It was the province of the law to ascertain the duty of man; to assign his duties; to fix penalties for transgressions,

2 Corinthians 4:6 — Verse 2 Corinthians 4:6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness — The apostle refers here to Genesis 1:3. For when God created the heavens and the earth DARKNESS was on the face of the deep; and God said, Let THERE BE LIGHT; and there was light. Thus he caused the light to shine out of darkness.Hath shined in our hearts — He has given our hearts

Ephesians 2:1 — CHAPTER II. The character of the Ephesians previously to their conversion to Christianity, 1-3. By what virtue they were changed, and for what purpose, 4-7. They were saved by faith, 8, 9. And created unto good works, 10. The apostle enters into the particulars of their former miserable state, 11, 12. And those of their present happy state, 13.

Ephesians 4:18 — degradation of the Gentiles. Having no means of knowledge, the heart, naturally dark, became more and more so by means of habitual transgression; every thing in the Gentile system having an immediate tendency to blind the eyes and darken the whole soul.3. Being alienated from the life of God — The original design of God was to live in man; and the life of God in the soul of man was that by which God intended to make man happy, and without which true happiness was never found by any human spirit:

Ephesians 5:27 — Verse 27. That he might present it to himself — It was usual to bring the royal bride to the king in the most sumptuous apparel; and is there not here an allusion to Psalms 45:13; Psalms 45:14: The king's daughter (Pharaoh's) is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold; she shall be brought unto the king (Solomon) in raiment of needlework? This presentation here spoken of by the apostle will take place on the last

1 Timothy 6:1 — CHAPTER VI. Of the duty of servants, 1, 2. Of false teachers, who suppose gain to be godliness, 3-5. Of true godliness, and contentment, 6-8. Of those, and their dangerous state, who determine to be rich; and of the love of money, 9,10. Timothy is exhorted to fight the good fight of faith, and to keep the charge delivered to him, 11-14. A sublime

2 Timothy 3:17 — Verse 2 Timothy 3:17. That the man of God — The preacher of righteousness, the minister of the Gospel, the person who derives his commission from God, and always appears as his herald and servant.May be perfect — αρτιος. From αρω, to fit or adapt. It properly

Titus 2:12 — purified in the world to come that is not cleansed in this. The three words above evidently include our duty to God, to our neighbour, and to ourselves. 1. We are to live soberly in respect to ourselves. 2. Righteously in respect to our neighbour. And 3. Godly, or piously, in respect to our Maker.