Bible Commentaries

Exodus 20:1-6 — great commandment of God, having an expanded meaning as given by Christ, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" (Mark 18:29-30). "The Lord is one" Jewish scholars take this as a denial of the doctrine of the Trinity, but the word for "one" here is [~'echad], which means a compound unity, being used here and in such statements as "the people are one." The word for an absolute

Job 38:1-7 — GOD ANSWERS JOB FROM THE WHIRLWIND (Job 38-41)THE FIRST PORTION OF GOD'S RESPONSE: THE PROBLEM GOD ANSWERS JOB "Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel By words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; And I will demand of thee,

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 — reprint of the 1878 edition), Eccl., p. 95. Therefore, every human project should be initiated and pursued under the perpetual banner, "Deo Volente" (James 4:15). This amazing list of fourteen opposites must be interpreted in the light of Ecclesiastes 3:9. These opposites are cited for exactly the same purpose and in support of the same conclusion that marked Ecclesiastes 1:1-11. "In Ecclesiastes 1, he contemplated what he called the futility and vanity of life in the light of the repetitive cycle

Isaiah 42:1-4 — translates the first line here: `Behold, my servant, Messiah.' The apostle Matthew applied it directly to Jesus Christ; nor can the passage with any justice or propriety be applied to any other person or character whatsoever."Robert Lowth's Commentary, p. 323. In the New Testament, Matthew quoted this whole passage verbatim in Matthew 12:18-21, stating that the prophet Isaiah had written this, and applying every word of it to Jesus Christ. It is the unwavering conviction of this writer that the Gospel

Isaiah 62:1-2 — about that `name' which God promised his people appears in this passage: (1) it shall be a new name; (2) it will be given at a time when the Gentiles have been accepted into the family of God, and when kings have become aware of God's salvation, and (3) there is a repetition here of the fact that God Himself will give the name. These statements, added to those in Isaiah 56:5, make seven earmarks by which that New Name may be positively and unerringly identified. We shall discuss them in order, beginning

Isaiah 7:10-17 — the matter of a miraculous sign, God went ahead and gave him the sign of The Virgin anyway; but we shall explore that possibility later in our special notes on The Virgin. Notice the dramatic shift from "thy" God (Isaiah 7:11) to "my" God (Isaiah 7:13). Notice also that the same Isaiah 7:13 is the place where the prophet ceased from addressing King Ahaz and addressed, instead, the whole House of David. Notice also that the pronoun "he" in Isaiah 7:13 is a reference to Isaiah, not Ahaz. BEHOLD, THE

Numbers 21:4-9 — commentaries go out of their way here to insert comments such as the following: "This means Sea where the reeds grow! The word is [~Yam] [~Cuwph], or Reed Sea."Elmer Smick, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Old Testament, Vol. 1 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 139. Also J. A. Thompson, New Bible Commentary, Revised, Numbers (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), p. 189; and Merrill F. Unger, Unger's Commentary on the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981), p. 214; etc., etc. This is an

Deuteronomy 9:1-5 — from 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

Mark 12:1 — each other; but they are historical, independent accounts of the great truth revealed from God in the person and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were three of these great denunciatory parables: (1) that of the two sons, (2) this one, and (3) that of the marriage of the king's son; and Matthew has all three of them. Mark's use of the plural "parables" in Mark 12:1 shows that he knew all three. Cranfield's statement that the plural "does not necessarily imply that there were

Luke 11:29-32 — Nineveh, the ancient heathen city, responded in repentance. Jesus proclaimed God's message … the Jewish people of his day were responding not with repentance but with rejection.Ray Summers Commentary on Luke (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1973), p. 144. It is the first sentence which is in error. How a scholar can make Jonah's "preaching" the sign of Jonah is a mystery, in view of the fact that Jonah's preaching would never have been believed at all, except for the fact that Jonah's

Luke 12:57-59 — affairs, in the larger sphere of time and eternity it is God the judge of all who makes decisions. (2) All men are represented here as "on the way" to court, that is, moving inexorably to that moment when all shall stand before the Judge. (3) The man in the parable had an opportunity to settle before he got to court; and so do men have a chance to make peace with God now. (4) While it was the adversary who provided the occasion for a reconciliation in the parable, it is different spiritually.

Luke 13:20 — humanity. Barclay gives an outline of the teaching of this parable thus: 1.    God's kingdom starts from the smallest beginnings, a tiny pinch of leaven. 2.    The power of the kingdom works unseen, as leaven. 3.    The kingdom's power works from inside, as leaven. 4.    The power to change humanity (the lump) must come from outside itself, the leaven being a power not of the lump at all, but from without. It is not in

Luke 5:36-39 — and the skins will perish. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no man having drunk old wine desireth new; for he saith, The old is good. There are three comparisons: (1) new cloth on an old garment, (2) new wine in old wineskins, and (3) no man having drunk old wine desires new. The meaning is very similar in all three, and they stress Jesus' unwillingness to make the ceremonial fasts of the Old Testament a large feature of the new kingdom, the necessity of finding new "wineskins"

Romans 1:19 — version indicates. Whiteside noted that: The pronoun "it" is not in the Greek; and it would be more in harmony with Paul's argument to translate the last clause, "For God manifested himself to them." R. L. Whiteside, op. cit., p. 36. The information thus revealed in this verse is of the first magnitude of importance, because there are still people in the world who imagine that they have reason to be critical of God for his neglect of the pagan nations prior to the Christian era.

Romans 2:17-20 — associated in the mind of the Jew with all upon which he prided himself. Ibid., p. 82. "Judah" means "praised," being the name given by Leah to her fourth son, because, as she said, "Now will I praise the Lord" (Genesis 29:35). The same meaning of "praise" is therefore attached to the name Jew. The name had the highest status among the Hebrews. Even upon his death-bed, Jacob said, "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise" (Genesis 49:8), which

Romans 2:21-24 — fact of its being so generally true of that particular generation. Christ himself supported Paul's charge of theft thus: And he saith unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13). The persons charged in Jesus' indictment were none other than the social, religious, and political leaders of the nation. Paul's charge of adultery was supported by all the Old Testament prophets, especially Jeremiah, who wrote, (They) assembled themselves

1 Corinthians 14:34 — this passage has the effect of sending us back to the Old Testament, to which Paul appealed in this verse. Upon the occasion of the creation and fall, God said to Eve, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Genesis 3:16). Even prior to that, Eve was designated as a "help" suitable for man (Genesis 2:18). Thus, from the very beginning the authority of the family was vested in the man. The Corinthian women had violated that intention and Paul immediately

Joshua 1:5-9 — some little fraction of the Mosaic Law. There is no objective grounds whatever for such an obviously false maneuver. JUDGES: Like every other book in the Bible, the shadow and teaching of the Pentateuch lie over every word of it. Look at Judges 1:27-34, where it is recounted how various tribes of Israel did not "drive out the inhabitants of the land." But, indeed why were they expected to drive them out? It is in the teachings of the Pentateuch that they were commanded to drive them out. RUTH: Where

Joshua 10:12-15 — and the very next verse proves that such a meaning was not intended."Joseph R. Sizoo, op. cit., p. 605. (2)    Another explanation is that "There was a total eclipse of the sun,"Robert G. Boling and G. Ernest Wright, op. cit., p. 283. and this theory also accepts the corrupt translation that says Joshua pleaded for the sun "not to shine," or to be "dumb," a result which is attributed to the total eclipse! Any truth in this? No! How could there be a total eclipse of the sun when

Revelation 13 overview — This chapter has the two visions of the two remarkable beasts which rose out of the sea and out of the earth as allies and helpers of the dragon Satan. "He stood upon the sand of the sea" (Revelation 13:1) suggests the summoning of these beasts by Satan to aid his war against the saints of God; but it is incorrect to suppose that Satan, in any sense, either created or produced these monsters, called by Moffatt, "polycephalous brutes." James