Bible Commentaries

Job 1:6-12 — nature of divinity."The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 3, p. 910. Rowley enunciated the same error, "Sons of God means superhuman, or celestial beings."H. H. Rowley, Job, in the New Century Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970). "To interpret these words thus is to suppose that the very same words in Genesis 6:1-3 teach that angels intermarried with men producing a race of giants, despite the fact that the Christ himself declared that angels "Neither marry nor are given

Ezekiel 36:8-15 — scarcity; (4) freedom from reproach; and (5) the security and prosperity of the nation in a degree even surpassing their former estate' and the time of their `beginnings.'"Anton T. Pearson in Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 753. We agree with Cook that these great promises of material blessings in their ultimate meaning were typical of the spiritual blessings in the times of Messiah; "But we may not doubt that the prophecy had as its first objective the return of prosperity

Daniel 11:1-21 — hardly any of this is actually in the prophecy! "A mighty king" Alexander the Great (333:322 B.C.)." "The partition of Alexander's empire is described."A. R. Millard, The New Layman's Bible Commentary, Daniel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), p. 921. (Daniel 11:4) "The king of the south" "This is Ptolemy I (Sorer), the first Egyptian king." "One of his princes" is Seleucus I (Nicator), the first Syrian king. "The king's daughter of the south" is a reference to Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy

Amos 5:23 — worshipper's violation of the rights of the poor; (3) suggested that instruments of music were a part of the regularly established Hebrew worship; or (4) affirmed that, "There is no hint that the ritual was irregular."James Luther Mays, op. cit., p. 107. (5) Barnes thought that the thing God condemned here was the fact that, "Their melody, like much church-music was for itself and ended in itself."Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 300. Thorogood summed up the generally accepted opinions on this verse as,

Amos 9:11 — this place is exemplified by this: "The tabernacle of David is the Davidic dynasty, and these words presuppose that it had come to an end; they must therefore have been written later than the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C."Henry McKeating, op. cit., p. 70. Such a view would, of course, remove the passage far from the days of Amos. It should be perfectly obvious to any discerning student that there is no possible reference here to "David's dynasty." That had not fallen when Amos wrote, but the "tabernacle"

Nahum 1:2 — commentators boldly criticize what they call "the religious inadequacy of his teachings." Graham said, "Nahum provides an outstanding example of arrested religious development!"William C. Graham, Abingdon Bible Commentary (New York: Abingdon Press, 1929), p. 799. THE WRATH OF GOD A search of current sermonic literature reveals no single sermon devoted to "The Wrath of God"; and in sermon topics in preachers' manuals and even the most extensive commentaries, it is mentioned, if at all, in the most casual and

Malachi 3:1 — messenger of the covenant whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts." Homer Hailey provided this accurate interpretation of what is actually stated here: "Jehovah's response to their question, "Where is the God of justice?" (Malachi 2:17), is that He himself will come, and suddenly. But before he comes, he will send his messenger to prepare the way before him. This promise of a messenger rests on Isaiah 40:3-5: The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah;

Malachi 4:2 — Suffice it to say, that as the sun is the light and source of life to all the earth, so the Christ is the light and giver of life to the true worshipper."Clinton R. Gill, Commentary on the Minor Prophets, Malachi (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1971), p. 403. "The Sun of Righteousness was understood by the fathers, from Justin downwards, and nearly all the earlier commentators to be Christ, who is supposed to be described as the rising sun.C. F. Keil, Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 10 (Grand

Matthew 25:1-13 — favorite term in Scripture for the unsaved is precisely this, "foolish." It is the "fool" who says in his heart there is no God (Psalms 14:1). The man who built on sand is described not as vicious but as "foolish" (Matthew 7:26). The rich man who mistook his body for his soul was denominated by the Lord, "thou fool!" (Luke 12:20). Those unfortunate bridesmaids of this parable were in no sense reprobate or immoral, but "foolish." One sees their counterpart

Matthew 28:19-20 — membership. 4.    Of all nations … Here is the world-wide missionary program of the church. Here is the world-wide brotherhood of all nations and races in Christ. God made of "one" all the families of the earth (Acts 17:26), and that universal kinship and brotherhood appear in the Great Commission. No limitation or abridgment is permitted. All the nations … not merely all "the English-speaking nations" or "all the white nations," but all

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 — Deuteronomy (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1966), pp. 63,64. but as Cousins pointed out, "Singular and plural pronouns (thou and you) are used apparently at random in this very section, Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Deuteronomy 6:13-14; Deuteronomy 6:16-17."Peter E. Cousins, op. cit., p. 290. This recent scholar also pointed out that, "K. A. Kitchen shows that such a variation (in pronouns) is not an uncommon feature of semitic style."Ibid. Like many another false crutch of the critics, this one also

Deuteronomy 9:1-5 — God. Some of the things one reads in the commentaries about this unmerited blessing are not true. For example, Scott wrote: "All is due to God's grace alone."D. R. Scott, Abingdon Bible Commentary, Deuteronomy (New York: Abingdon Press, 1929), p. 327. It is the word alone which is incorrect and improper. Not even the salvation of the N.T. is by grace or faith only (James 2:24). It is true, of course, that both here and in the N.T. God's grace and mercy are exalted above any human merit, but there

John 2:10 — its way to a uniform heat sink with no potential for doing useful work. It is the second law of thermodynamics.Moody Lee Coffman, The Origin of the Inanimate (Atlanta, Georgia: Religion, Science, Communication Research and Development Corporation, 1972), p. 75. This profound observation is but the scientific way of saying, "afterward, that which is worse." The apostles of Jesus warned people to live lives founded upon spiritual principles and unhesitatingly predicted the end of the physical

Romans 1:1 — Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), p. 14. It was common among the Jews to mark some outstanding event in a person's life with a change of his name, as in the case of Abraham (Genesis 17:5), Jacob (Gen. 32:38), and Peter (John 1:42); and thus it appears that even in such a detail as this, Paul was "not a whit behind the chiefest apostles" (2 Corinthians 11:5). The first use of the name PAUL for this apostle is recorded in

Romans 1:19 — should have been worshipped, and through the patriarchs were in direct communication with the Almighty. "Lamech, Noah's father, was born before Adam died." R. C. Bell, Studies in Romans (Austin, Texas: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1957), p. 12. This means that no generation of history had any better knowledge of God than those generations from Adam to the deluge. Once again, in the family of Noah, the human race descended in a new beginning from a single source; and again the entire

Romans 13:1 — and threatening by their attrition to break up and disappear altogether. Sir Stanley Baldwin, Address: Truth and Politics, delivered at Edinburgh University, November 6, 1925. Modern Essays of Various Types (New York: Charles E. Merrill Company, 1927), p. 213. Thus, Stanley Baldwin described the disastrous effects which always accompany the dissolution of states and the breakdown of authority. Paul's revelation that the state is "ordained of God" and an effective instrument of the holy

Ephesians 2:8-9 — George Howard of the University of Georgia disclose that the usual meaning of "faith" in the New Testament is not sinner's trust/faith at all, but fidelity. George Howard, article: "The Faith of Christ" in Expository Times, Vol. 7, pp. 212-214, April, 1974. "Faith" as used in the vocabulary of current theological jargon to mean sinner's trust/faith experienced inwardly and subjectively is not a New Testament concept at all. Also, it is impossible to reconcile such a

Joshua 1:5-9 — of good courage; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed: for Jehovah thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." "Be strong and of good courage" The recurrence of these words, almost like the refrain of a song, should be noted in Joshua 1:6-7; Joshua 1:9; Joshua 1:18. It was indeed an incredibly daring and dangerous thing that God called upon Joshua to do. "According to all the law" Yes, indeed, according to this testimony, even in the days of Joshua, there was a "Law of Moses," containing

James 2:26 — For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead. See under James 2:17, above, for elaboration of the meaning of the comparison here. Ward warned against "pressing the parallelism too far"; Ronald A. Ward, op. cit., p. 1229. but it is not apparent to this student how that would be possible. Certainly all of the

1 Samuel 2:1-10 — far later time than that of Samuel. However, Abraham, the ancestor of all Israel, believed in the resurrection, that being the sole and absolute reason for his obedience when God commanded him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice on mount Moriah (Hebrews 11:17-19). The inspired author of Hebrews could not have been wrong about that. The critical dictum that faith in the resurrection belongs to a later period than that of Abraham is merely a prejudiced and ignorant falsehood! So much for critical efforts to