Bible Commentaries

John 20:1 — Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb. (John 20:1) On the first day of the week … Sunday here comes into the prominence it was to have through the ages, being mentioned here and in John 20:19 and John 20:26. The custom of Christian assemblies on Sunday received initiation and continuity from

Acts 15:19-20 — James here did not announce the findings of the council but his own judgment, also refraining from issuing any such thing as a command or an order regarding the proposed restrictions, the latter resting upon the authority of the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:28), not upon any legislative authority of the council. That James' judgment was inspired is proved by Acts 15:28. Despite the fact of the Greek language having many verbs of commanding, F. J. A. Hort pointed out that none of them is used here: The independence

Acts 4:33-35 — interpreters have fancied. There was no uniform distribution of the property of all among the members; neither was the property of all held and administered by the apostles. Ibid. Upon Luke's first mention of this matter of "all things common". (Acts 2:43), the comment was made that it was the result of no clear commandment of either Christ or the apostles; and while this is true enough, there yet remains the overwhelming impact of this generosity of the first Christians as an example for the church

Acts 8:15-17 — Spirit. That they might receive the Holy Spirit … has reference to receiving the Holy Spirit in miraculous measure, because, having been baptized, they had already received the gift ordinary of the Holy Spirit as Peter promised on Pentecost (Acts 2:38). Fallen upon none of them … means that none of them had received such miraculous powers as had been conferred upon the Twelve on Pentecost. As Don DeWelt noted, "Luke used the term `fallen upon' to describe the reception of the special

Romans 10:21 — But as to Israel he saith, All day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. This quotation of Isaiah 65:2 summarizes Isaiah's whole paragraph at that place (through the 7th verse), where it is plain that God's anger with Israel was not due merely to their disobedience, but also to the high-handed and arrogant manner of it. Their conduct was called "gainsaying"

Romans 4:16 — conviction that Paul designedly avoided such, and it is equally certain that the quality of Abraham's obedience entered into and formed a part of the consideration on God's part when Abraham was selected to be the "father of the faithful." (2) The second consideration is this: The obedient nature of Abraham's faith appears in the twelfth verse where those who shall inherit are described as those who will "walk in the steps of" Abraham's faith, the same being an inspired statement

Romans 5:12 — in Christ, and all who have received life from him are sharers in the blessings procured by his cross and secured by his life at God's right hand. H. A. Ironside, Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans (Neptune, New Jersey: Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., 1928), p. 69, For that all have sinned … does not mean that every person ever born commits sin in exactly the same way as Adam. The heathen, the innocent, and the incompetent suffer the penalty of death, because the entire status of earthly life

Romans 5:20 — to reign in the system of his patient. Lyth in Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., p. 431. Irenaeus was probably the first to use that illustration, thus: The law is a poultice to bring sin to a head. Irenaeus, quoted by Wm. M. Greathouse, op. cit., p. 123. Greathouse observed that, The law's intrusion was not without divine point. It was introduced to increase consciousness of wrongdoing (Galatians 3:19). Men will never see their sin or feel their need of a Saviour until their sin becomes transgression.

1 Corinthians 14:27-28 — church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. There are a number of rules in these two verses which must be observed whenever tongues may be used. These are: 1.    No more than three may speak in a tongue on any given occasion. 2.    All tongue-speaking must be done "in turn," that is, by persons speaking one at a time. 3.    On no occasion may tongues be used unless an interpreter is standing by to tell the audience every word

Galatians 5:6 — House, 1969), p. 108. There was also another consideration: "From Paul's speaking so much against circumcision, some might have believed that there was something meritorious in uncircumcision." James MacKnight (on Galatians), op. cit., p. 192. As Howard correctly summarized it, "For salvation, circumcision had no value; and for salvation, uncircumcision had no value." R. E. Howard, op. cit., p. 83. But faith working through love … Contrasted with things of no value, here

Ephesians 1:1 — to the saints that are in Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus. Paul, an apostle … Although the word "apostle" was sometimes used in a secondary sense to include such faithful missionaries as Timothy, Silvanus, (1 Thessalonians 2:6) and Barnabas (Acts 14:14), Paul's use of the title for himself was always in the highest sense of a plenary representative of Christ who in harmony with the will of God had personally commissioned him; and as in the instance of the Twelve (Luke 6:13)

Colossians 2:1 — not address a letter to Hierapolis. This can be logically explained only on the premise that Paul was well acquainted in two of these cities and unacquainted in Hierapolis. Added to this, there is the omission of the name of Hierapolis in Colossians 2:1. Nielson concurred in this explanation, as follows: The strife in which Paul finds himself involved concerns both those whom he knows at Colossae and Laodicea, the neighboring town, and those whom he does not know. John B. Nielson, Colossians in Beacon

1 Timothy 3:1 — anywhere in the New Testament, Bishops were elders, presbyters, overseers, pastors, shepherds and stewards; but all of these titles are descriptive of one office only, that of an elder of a local congregation. Paul used these titles synonymously (Acts 20:17; Acts 20:28, etc.). Furthermore, it is wrong to see this chapter as Paul's commissioning Timothy to set up any organization or to initiate and define the duties of those whom he was expected to appoint. As Lenski put it: Paul is not telling Timothy

1 Timothy 3:11 — Women in like manner must be grave, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Hervey summarized the three possible meanings of this verse, making it applicable to: (1) the wives of the deacons; (2) the wives of the elders and deacons; or (3) the women deacons. A. C. Hervey, op. cit., p. 53. Hervey, like so many present-day commentators opted for the third meaning, but this commentator is certain that the third meaning is wrong. If the women in

1 Timothy 4:3 — to name, because every child on five continents already knows it. To mention the Therapeutae (as in Spence, above), offers little that is tangile … We may safely say that no sect that bore this name ever existed. R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 622. It is only among the more recent commentators that the phenomenal blindness to the historical fulfillment of the apostasy is observed; and therefore we are doubly thankful for comments like the following: The whole monastic system that developed,

Hebrews 10:1 — Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 304. Likewise, Bruce said, "Within the New Testament itself, we have Paul's repeated description of Christ as the [@eikon] (image) of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15). F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 227. It would be wrong, however, to attribute any lack of efficacy to the new covenant, wherein Christians

Hebrews 11:12 — promise, gave them strength for the birth of Isaac, it was plainly through the intervention of the divine will. If that was the case, the question arises, how then could Abraham have later married Keturah and have fathered by her numerous sons (Genesis 25)? The explanation is that Moses, in giving a history of Keturah and her sons, did not do so chronologically; but, as the best historians do, he dealt with the primary line of Isaac first, though Isaac was the last of Abraham's sons. Keturah was probably

Hebrews 11:28 — circumstances linking the passover lamb slain by the Israelites on that dark night of the Exodus with that "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," even the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the following: (1) the perfection of the lamb (1 Peter 1:19); (2) that no bone was broken (Psalms 34:20); (3) that it was slain at 3:00 p.m., the hour Christ died; (4) that it was eaten with unleavened bread (1 Corinthians 5:7-8); and (5) that there was no safety for them not under the protection of the blood. Thus

Hebrews 12:27 — eternal, but a THING, created by Almighty God to serve a purpose, and certain to be removed when that purpose is fulfilled. Thus, as he nears the end of his epistle, the author again emphasizes the great truth he stated in the first chapter (Hebrews 1:10-12), namely, that the world will wear out and be removed, like a garment, rolled up; it "shall perish." Bruce said: When, in accordance with the divine promise, this cosmic convulsion, takes place — when (in Dryden's words) the last and

1 Peter 3:19 — went and preached." "No particular stress should be laid on the clause he went." Ibid. Speaking of the preaching of the apostles themselves, Paul said that Christ "came and preached peace to you that were afar off" (Ephesians 2:17); but Christ preached to the Ephesians through human instruments, nevertheless it is said that he "came and preached" to them. Therefore, "If Christ is said by Paul to go and do, what he did by his apostles, Christ may with equal propriety