Bible Commentaries

Acts 15:13-18 — Romans 11:1-5). Everett F. Harrison, Wycliffe Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 435. All of the Old Testament promises to Israel are fulfilled in Christ and the church. Christians are the "seed of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7; Galatians 3:29). He is a Jew who is one inwardly (Romans 2:28-29), etc. Gentiles upon whom my name is called … The Scripture to which James appealed in this is a free rendition of Amos 9:11, his purpose being to show that the Gentiles were prophetically included

Acts 19:21-22 — apostle. He said: Paul sought not to rest, but pressed on as if he had yet done nothing. He is already possessed of Ephesus and Asia; but he purposes for Macedonia and Achaia. He has his eye upon Jerusalem, then upon Rome, afterward on Spain (Romans 15:24). No Caesar, no Alexander the Great, no other hero comes up to the magnanimity of this little Benjamite. Faith and love to God and man had enlarged his heart, even as the sand of the sea. Ibid. Timothy and Erastus … Timothy frequently traveled

Acts 23:12-15 — Bruce, op. cit., p. 457. The spirit of Jezebel rested upon the temple fathers, for she made a similar vow: "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time" (1 Kings 19:2). Conspiracy … This word occurs "only here in the New Testament." A. C. Hervey, op. cit., p. 213. Amazingly, they "knew that many of the chief priests and elders would favor their murderous designs," Matthew Henry, Henry-Scott

Romans 2:12-13 — relative to God's intrinsic righteousness, was here concerned with showing how, under those diverse circumstances, God's judgments would still be fair and impartial. The two great facts with regard to the Gentiles were: (1) that they had sinned, and (2) they had not received the law of Moses. For good and righteous reasons, already set forth in chapter 1, the Gentiles perished anyway because of their dreadful rebellion against God. The Jews, on the other hand, did have God's law; but they never kept

Romans 6:15 — when or where or how the believer is declared to be justified should never be allowed to obscure or contradict this principle, which extends from the garden of Eden to the great white Throne, and, as Paul had already outlined in this letter (Romans 2:8-9), will comprise the basis of the final judgment itself. The latter half of this present chapter removes any doubt that this is true. Whomever people OBEY, whether Christ or Satan, that one whom they obey is their God. Oh, but we are justified by

1 Corinthians 1:12 — of many to the effect that the Christ party was a self-righteous little group insisting that they alone had the truth are as ridiculous as they are unsupported by any solid evidence whatever. Paul himself declared that he was "of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:7); and, indeed, the evidence is strong enough that he made such a declaration in this verse, the final "AND I OF CHRIST" being the words not of a faction at Corinth but of the blessed apostle himself. Guthrie admitted that

1 Corinthians 5:1 — they had looked upon so brazen a resurgence of the old morality. Fornication … is here used as a general term for all sexual vice, incest being the specific sin here. For further elaboration of this subject, see my Commentary on Hebrews, p. 325. "Shocked as Paul was at this sin, he was even more shocked by the attitude of the Corinthian church," William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), p. 49. which condoned it and went on being puffed

2 Corinthians 4:7 — not be accredited to its messengers as men, but unto the eternal God who inspired them. And, although it is true, as Lipscomb said, that any earthly body "is an unworthy receptacle for so glorious a message," David Lipscomb, op. cit., p. 62. yet there seems to be in view here the lowly earthly estate of the apostles. EARTHEN VESSELS In earthen vessels … The figure is possibly drawn from the "small pottery lamps, cheap and fragile, that could be bought in the shops of Corinth";

2 Corinthians 6:17-18 — not as a blundering effort of the apostle to quote the Old Testament, but as his own inspired words, which quite naturally, of course, used some of the terminology of previous holy writings. Come ye out … touch no unclean thing … Isaiah 52:11 has this: Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. However, as cited above, Paul was not "quoting Scripture" here; he was WRITING

Galatians 2:1 — ff), and that there is no need to identify it as the famine visit of Acts 11:30. McGarvey was in perfect agreement with this view; J. W. McGarvey, The Standard Bible Commentary, Galatians (Cincinnati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company, 1916), p. 256. and, as Harrison asked, "If the question of the admission of Gentiles into the church had been settled on the famine visit," Everett F. Harrison, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 698. why was another conference

Galatians 2:2 — And I went up by revelation; and I laid before them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles but privately before them who were of repute, lest by any means I should be running, or had run, in vain. By revelation … From Luke (Acts 15:2), it is clear that the church in Antioch commissioned Paul and Barnabas to go to Jerusalem; but from this it is learned that Paul went by "revelation." As Macknight said, "The church at Antioch was directed by divine revelation to send

Colossians 3:5 — themselves, belonging to their carnal nature. A number of very interesting comments on this place are: Members is perhaps suggested by our Lord's command to "cut off" right hand or "pluck out" right eye, if they cause offense (Matthew 5:29-30). Alfred Barry, op. cit., p. 113. These members are indeed those of the actual body. G. G. Findlay, op. cit., p. 149. Different from the views above is that of Ashby who said: "This is internal, not external, and means renunciation of propensities

Titus 3:12-13 — names derived from three of the most famous heathen deities. As Spence pointed out, "Artemas is from Artemis the famous tutelar goddess of Ephesus; Apollos is from the well-known sun god; and Zenas is from Zeus." H. D. M. Spence, op. cit., p. 266. Nothing is known of Zenas and Artemas except what appears here; but Apollos is mentioned a number of times in the New Testament. He came to Ephesus (Acts 18:24), teaching mightily in the Scriptures, but knowing only the baptism of John. Priscilla

Hebrews 1:4 — appealing rather to the Old Testament scriptures which the addressees received and conceded to be Messianic. If Paul was the author, and in view of the procedure here, this method of appeal would explain why he chose to identify with them (as in Hebrews 2:3-4), and to omit all reference to himself as an apostle, or even any personal reference at all. The appeal which the author made to the Jewish scriptures, recognized by that generation as Messianic prophecies, takes all the weight out of the arguments

Hebrews 11:3 — By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear. As was noted by Barmby, Commentators who perceive here a reference either to the formless void (Genesis 1:2) out of which the present creation was evolved, or a reference to the Platonic conception of eternal ideas in the divine mind, read into the text what is not there. J. Barmby, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Hebrews 8:8-9 — "covenant" Jeremiah had in mind, the one to be abrogated, see under Hebrews 8:1-7. Two basic reasons why the old covenant was abolished are: (1) God promised that he would make a new one, which he would not have done if the old one had been faultless. (2) Israel themselves had broken the old covenant by not continuing in it; and it is pertinent to observe that it was preponderantly the "moral" part of the covenant that Israel had so wantonly violated. The ceremonial was precisely the part

2 Peter 2:4 — pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; Peter with this verse cited some historical examples of God's judgment and condemnation of the wicked (noting also that the righteous were spared), these being: (1) the example of the sinning angels; (2) the case of Noah and his generation; (3) the example of Sodom and Gomorrah; and (4) the deliverance of Lot. It is an unqualified mystery to this writer why anyone should suppose that Peter found all this in the Book of Enoch, or some other apocryphal

1 John 3:19 — greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. In this verse, "heart" is used with the meaning of "conscience." "The heart in St. John's language is conscience; the word conscience is not found in his writings."Ibid., p. 912. "Opinion is much divided on whether these verses are meant to inspire awe, or afford consolation."J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1057. There does not seem to be any way of arriving

1 John 4:1 — every spirit … "The literal meaning of this is stop believing; evidently some of John's readers were being carried away by Gnostic teaching."Charles C. Ryrie, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 1022. Every spirit … means every false prophet, or every false teacher pretending, or seeming, to be inspired. It is a gross misinterpretation of this passage to understand John here as "speaking not of men, but of spirits."Amos N. Wilder,

Revelation 1:10 — of this state of being "in the Spirit"; but, evidently, all of the Scripture writers were in such a state when they received their divine revelation. Jesus said of David, "How then doth David in the Spirit call him Lord?" (Matthew 22:43). Many speculations about this have yielded little or no valuable information. On the Lord's day … This expression is found only here in the New Testament, "and beyond all reasonable doubt it means on Sunday." T. Randell, op. cit.,