Bible Commentaries

Jeremiah 2:20-25 — Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), p. 15. As Feinberg put it, "It must not be forgotten that sexual immorality of the lowest order was always a part of this so-called worship."Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 393. There can be no doubt whatever that the basic attraction to the Hebrews of the Baalim cults was precisely this: they provided abundant gratification of sexual lust upon the payment of the usual fee of a cake of raisins. As Ash expressed it, "The

Micah 3:12 — already ascribed the whole prophecy to the Spirit of Jehovah, and to God's message, which "he saw." Furthermore, a century after Micah, and at a time yet significantly prior to the fulfillment of it, Jeremiah proclaimed the very words of this Micah 3:12 as the word of God. "Thus saith Jehovah" (Jeremiah 26:18). Thus, what the prophet said, all of it, whether he so designated a certain line of it or not, was from Jehovah, God's Word, a "thus saith Jehovah," not the simple word of Micah. (2)    Others

Luke 15:3-7 — oneself. (2)    The shepherd went himself; he did not merely send another. Men are wrong who suppose that they may merely send their minister or elder to seek out the lost. God has commanded: "Ye that are spiritual restore such a one" (Galatians 6:1). (3)    The shepherd stayed with the search until it was successfully concluded. Here is the divine pattern for perseverance in well-doing. The search can have only one desire, that of finding and recovering the lost; not till then did

John 3:36 — and hope for all are available in Christ; but it must be received and appropriated, and the penalty of rejecting the Son of God is the forfeiture of all hope. In this chapter appeared the principle that evil men love darkness and hate the light (John 3:19), and that principle is still the device of judgment for all who were ever born. As Bowman expressed it: The great obstacle to men's acceptance of the Bible is not intellectual. It is spiritual. It is not that the Bible is unreasonable. It is that

John 7:17 — If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself. As in John 3:19-21, Jesus here again made the ability to believe on himself to turn on a question of will, and not of intelligence alone; and these remarks are the equivalent of his saying, "Look, if you really want to do the will of God, you will recognize

Acts 11:25-26 — … The importance of this makes it imperative to study more fully both the name "disciples" and the name "Christian," which replaced it. CONCERNING DISCIPLES "Disciples" occurs 72 times in Matthew, 44 times in Mark, 38 times in Luke, 77 times in John, and 30 times in Acts — 261 times in the first five books of the New Testament; but it is not used even once in the last 22 books of the New Testament. The significance of this is further emphasized by the fact

Acts 21:38 — wilderness the four thousand men of the Assassins? Egyptian who led … four thousand men … Commentators like to speculate on the disparity between this chiliarch's attribution of only 4,000 men to the Egyptian seditionist as contrasted with the 30,000 attributed to him by Josephus; but it is exceedingly unlikely that the chiliarch's information would have been inadequate on such a subject. Josephus, unlike the sacred authors, has been proved wrong on many points. The evil genius of the critical

Acts 22:16 — Greek Dictionary, as well as many commentators, has given the meaning of this as "Get yourself baptized and your sins washed away." E. H. Trenchard, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 330. "We have here a noble testimony to the value which was assigned to holy baptism by the pure apostolic church." John Peter Lange, op. cit., p. 402. The present-day conceit that baptism has nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins, that

Acts 4:5-6 — demanded and received the crucifixion of Jesus. It was the historical successor to the board of judges appointed by Moses (Numbers 11:16-25). In Jerusalem … The council chamber in which they met was traditionally in the temple; but about A.D. 30, they changed their meeting place "to a court on the east side of the temple mount … the meeting at the palace of the high priest (Matthew 26:56 ff) was irregular." Robert Milligan, Analysis of the New Testament (Cincinnati, Ohio:

Acts 6:12-14 — deriving, in all probability, from the inroads the new faith had made upon their own party (Acts 6:7); (2) they directed their murderous purpose, not against the Twelve, but against a prominent new personality but recently elevated to popular esteem; (3) it was directed against a single individual, not against a group; (4) they stoned him on the spot, not bothering to procure a verdict; it was exactly the same kind of vicious murder they tried unsuccessfully to perpetrate against Christ himself. The

Acts 7:14-16 — been reckoned among the number going down into Egypt with Jacob. Thus there is logic in Stephen's following a different system of numbering; and another pseudocon bites the dust. Tomb that Abraham bought … This is said to contradict Joshua 24:32, where it is stated that "Jacob bought (a field) of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem." However, as DeHoff pointed out, there were three separate transactions. (1) Abraham bought a cave and field in which it stood (Genesis 23:17).

Acts 7:17-22 — the great lawgiver, some even claiming that he was the author of Egyptian civilization. The points here stressed are: (1) that Moses had been providentially incorporated into the royal family of Egypt, (2) that he was "exceeding fair," and (3) that he had been provided with the very best education possible. Exceeding fair … "This phrase is intensive, rather than a mere equivalent for the superlative, and means "fair unto God." John Peter Lange, Commentary on Acts (Grand

Romans 11:7 — approval, a thing which they did not truly seek at all, for if they had truly sought the Lord, they would have found him, as one of their great prophets said: And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13). Israel did not seek God in the sense of truly believing in him and walking as he commanded, but by the pursuit of their own righteousness (see under Romans 10:3). Thus, the "seeking" in this verse, as it pertained to the old Israel, is mentioned

Romans 16:12 — all honorable employment engaged in by Christians was actually work being done "unto the Lord," a thought somewhat differently expressed by him, thus: And whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17).

Romans 5:14 — and with the blood (1 John 5:6). Satan seduced and deceived the bride of Adam; and in the long, wretched story of the historical church, it is evident that Paul's fear of the same fate for the bride of Christ was more than justified (2 Corinthians 11:3). It is clear, therefore, that Adam is to be considered as a type of Christ, more in the instance of contrasts than in similarities. Adam's one sin contrasts with Christ's entire life of perfect holiness. Death for all which followed Adam's disobedience

1 Corinthians 10:1 — section of the epistle is a continuation of the argument in previous chapters. See in the chapter introduction. I would not have you ignorant … was a favorite expression with Paul. He used it in 1 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; Romans 1:13; Romans 11:25, and in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, as well as here. It is not likely that Paul thought his readers would have been ignorant of the history of Israel, but rather that they would not have been aware of the typical nature of that history. Our

1 Corinthians 11:4 — that Paul would have approved of the use of either in Christian worship. "For Paul such a covering probably symbolized that the Jewish male continued in spiritual darkness, from which Christians had been liberated." Paul W. Marsh, op. cit. p. 397. We may therefore interpret this verse as a simple admonition that it was a disgrace for any long-haired Christian male to participate in praying and prophesying; and this interpretation certainly harmonizes with verse 14. History has certainly vindicated

2 Corinthians 11:5 — "chiefest apostles" occur only twice in the New Testament; and, "As fresh light is thrown on the language of the New Testament, it is increasingly probable that Paul coined the word thus rendered." Philip E. Hughes, op. cit., p. 379. Tasker especially favored this view. R. V. G. Tasker, op. cit., p. 149. Only here and in 2 Corinthians 12:11 is it found. (2)    The pronouns in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 logically refer to "chiefest apostles"; and there

1 Timothy 1:1-2 — "Christ Jesus" three times in these three verses is not the Pauline proportion: it remains a mystery if it is assumed that Paul wrote these letters (the Pastorals). Fred D. Gealy, The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. VI (New York: Abingdon Press, 1955), p. 376. What has been attempted by such a criticism as this is to make Paul's preference for the expression "Christ Jesus" as exhibited in the Pastorals an excuse for denying that he wrote them at all, despite the fact that he used the same expression

Hebrews 6:4-6 — "The apostle does not mean that it is impossible for God to renew a second time an apostate; but that it is impossible for the ministers of Christ (to do so)." James Macknight, Apostolic Epistles (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1960), p. 532. Allow that God might indeed do what is here called impossible does no violence to truth, since all things are possible with God, except that he should lie or deny himself; and if the renewing of an apostate is not an action included in that exception,