Bible Commentaries

Genesis 21:8-10 — this handmaid shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." "The child grew, and was weaned" "This occurred in his second or third year, as is usual among Orientals."J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 29. The apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees has an account of a mother pleading with her son and saying, "My son, have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto

Genesis 27:18-29 — And blessed be every one that blesseth thee." Of interest here are the number of falsehoods attributable to Jacob: (1)    He said, "I am your first-born." (2)    "I have brought the venison, as you commanded." (3)    "I did it so quickly because `your God' gave me good speed." (4)    He wore Esau's clothes. (5)    He wore goat hair on his neck and hands. (6)    He answered his father's

Exodus 13:11-16 — redeem. And it shall be for a sign upon thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt." "When Jehovah shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanite" This provison, already given in Exodus 13:4 and repeated here, indicates that the regulations pertaining to Unleavened Bread and the Consecration of the First-born were to be observed after the Israelites were settled in Canaan. "It is pretty evident that the Israelites were not required to

Exodus 16:21-30 — follows: 1.    There is no sabbath commandment in Genesis. Some cite Genesis 29:7 as such, but "sabbath" is not in the passage. 2.    The very first occurrence of the word "sabbath" in the entire Bible is right here in Exodus 16:23.David F Payne op. cit., p. 189. 3.    Furthermore, in this passage, the sabbath is not introduced as The Sabbath, but merely as a rest. Misunderstanding of this has come about because of an unfortunate rendition in the King James

Exodus 19:1-3 — understanding this appears to us to be absolutely accurate. Jamieson fixed the time of their arrival at 45 days after the Passover,Robert Jamieson, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Reprint 1982), p. 349. basing this upon the meaning ascribed by the Jews to the phrase, "the same day of the month, i.e., the first day of the month. If that is the case, then two days elapsed in: (1) making the encampment; and (2) returning the people's answers to God;

Exodus 20:17 — crimes. He who feels the force of the law that prohibits all inordinate desire for anything that is the property of another, can never make a breach in the peace of society."Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Whole Bible (New York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), p. 405. It can be seen how nearly to the root of all man's difficulties this Tenth Commandment is directed. It is the most comprehensive of the commandments, forbidding ALL unlawful desire of every kind. Happy indeed is that individual who has learned

Exodus 4:14-17 — warned us, "Such theories wind up by contradicting the idea that Moses wrote Exodus."Wilbur Fields, op. cit., p. 115. Keil explained why the plural for signs is used in Exodus 4:17, despite the fact that only one sign was wrought with it in Exodus 4:3-4. "The plural in Exodus 4:17 points to the penal wonders (against Egypt),"C. F. Keil, op. cit., p. 452. the Ten Great Plagues, the record of which dominates the next several chapters, all of them making prominent and repeated mention of "the rod,"

Mark 4:26-29 — cit., p. 168. Barnes, with reservations, made it the death of Christians: "As soon as he is prepared for heaven, he is taken there."Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1955), Mark-Luke, p. 344. McMillan viewed the harvest as then present at the time Christ spoke: "Harvest has come. The seed which God planted in Israel many generations past has now come to full fruit and is waiting to be gathered."Earle McMillan, The Gospel according

Mark 7:14-16 — had practical as well as symbolical value to the chosen people; and the words of Christ in this place are not to be understood as any kind of denial of the validity of the Law of Moses, which Christ equated with "the word of God" in Mark 7:13, immediately preceding. Christ here did for the law concerning defilement exactly what he did with regard to the Decalogue itself in the Sermon on the Mount, claiming his own authority as sufficient right to extend, change, and modify God's ancient

Mark 8:31 — suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PASSION, THE RESURRECTION, AND THE SECOND COMING This paragraph beginning with Mark 8:31 and continuing through Mark 9:1 is characteristic of Mark in that several unrelated things are gathered together in it, as in Mark 5:21-25. Scholars have a custom of formalizing three definite announcements of Jesus' approaching death, resurrection,

Luke 2:6 — House, 1966), p. 50.. Both Mark and Matthew named four sons called "brothers" of Jesus; and there was utterly no indication by either sacred writer that "brothers" was to be construed otherwise than in the ordinary sense. (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). This writer feels no compulsion toward accommodation with the superstitions that arose with reference to Mary's perpetual virginity. Strong agreement is felt with Childer's comment: Commentators who accept the Roman Catholic view that

Luke 3:1-2 — the wilderness. The fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius … On Sept. 17, 14 A.D., this ruler ascended the throne of the Roman Empire.Jack P. Lewis, Historical Backgrounds of Bible History (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1971), p. 143. Luke 3:23 of this chapter states that Jesus, very near this time, was "about thirty years of age." This was the consideration that led to the mistake in our present calendar of dating Jesus' birth at the beginning of our era in the year

John 1:1 — being another creative act of the same Word which was active in the first. A bolder beginning cannot be imagined. Was the Word … The Greek word [logos] from which Word is translated was widely known in the world of John's day, being found some 1,300 times in the writings of Philo,William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1961), p. 69. a Hellenistic Jew of Alexandria (30 B.C. to 40 A.D.). However, John owed nothing to Philo, who taught that "the

Romans 1:1 — 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 Acts 13:9 upon the

Romans 1:23 — by falsely representing God in the image of a man, Satan could fraudulently advertise the debacle in Eden as a victory over God also. (2) After Satan's victory over Adam and Eve, God promised that the seed of woman would bruise Satan's head (Genesis 3:15), and that the serpent should go on his belly henceforth forever. How striking, therefore, is the direction taken by human idolatry. As Quimby expressed it, They got God down on two legs, then down on all-fours, and then down on his belly! Chester

1 Corinthians 11:16 — mantle which the woman wrapped around her head and face, leaving only the eyes visible, and sometimes only one eye. The word "veil" used by our translators is extremely misleading. Ruth's veil, for example, held six measures of barley! (Ruth 3:15). Although Hebrew women did not always wear veils, they seem to have done so for harvesting, as in the case of Ruth. Was the mantle (veil) a symbol of modesty and submission? It came in time to be so considered; but there was certainly a time when

1 Corinthians 3:16 — to have such a house (temple), stating emphatically that after David's death, David's son would build God a house, that his kingdom would be established for ever in the person of that "seed" (which was Christ, of course). See 2 Samuel 7:1-13. Concerning the Greater Son of David, who is Christ, it was prophesied that he would build a house (temple) for God's name and that his throne would be established for ever. From the remarkable teachings in this passage from Samuel it is absolutely

Jude 1:24-25 — "great day" of Judges 1:6, the judgment day, when all nations shall be assembled before the White Throne. Without blemish … Payne, with others, identifies this as a metaphor "from the Old Testament sacrificial system (Leviticus 1:3, etc.)";David F. Payne, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 628. but there may also be in it another glimpse of the perfection commanded in Matthew 5:48, and promised to Christians as an actual

Revelation 12:12 — misfortunes are related to that cosmic struggle going on in a theater of far greater dimensions than those of mortal life alone. They are part of what Barclay called the "sleepless vigil of evil against good." William Barclay, op. cit., p. 83. The vision of Revelation 12:7-12 was given to afford Christians a glance of the broader conflict of which their own trials are a part. Because the devil is gone down unto you … Here is the explanation of the whole phenomenon of evil, and we

2 Samuel 23:20-39 — gave David, "Strong support in his kingdom" (1 Chronicles 11:10). "He smote two ariels of Moab" The meaning of ariels is unknown; the common guesses suppose that it might mean lions or lion-like men. THE NAMES OF THE MIGHTY MEN OF THE THIRTY (2 Samuel 23:24-39) "Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty" He was one of the three sons of Zeruiah, David's sister, who lost his life when he tried to kill Abner (2 Samuel 2:18-23). Joab avenged Asahel's death by murdering Abner (2 Samuel 3:26-30). "Elhanan