Bible Commentaries

Genesis 25:5-8 — ingenious denials that the sacred author used the correct word. Of course, he did. Thus it appears that Abraham had three classes of children: (1)    The highest class was composed of Isaac, the head of the Messianic line after Abraham. (2)    This second class was made up of the sons of secondary wives such as Hagar was and as we believe Keturah to have been. The singling out of Hagar for so much more attention was due to her having been the personal maid of Sarah

Genesis 9:20 — state, otherwise Noah could not possibly have known of it upon recovering from his drunkenness. That action of Canaan was the second offense against Noah. As many able scholars have pointed out that offense was almost certainly some form of sexual sin. (2)    But is not such a view nullified by the statement of what Noah's "youngest son" did to him? No. To begin with, Ham was not his youngest son; and the use of "son" instead of "grandson" is a common Biblical habit. All of the scholarly

Exodus 13:11-16 — evident that the Israelites were not required to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread until they were brought into the promised land."Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 1, (New York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), p. 362. "The land of the Canaanite" There were actually six races of those peoples supplanted by Israel, but in Exodus 13:5, above, only five were listed, the Perizzites, a minor group, being omitted. Here, they were all referred to as Canaanites, there being,

Exodus 31:1-5 — to impart to helpers and assistants who might have been needed. "I have called by name Bezalel" On occasion, when God especially needed a man for important assignments, he called him by name. Thus, on the Damascus road, he called, "Saul, Saul" (Acts 22:7). When Samuel was a child, God called "Samuel" three tinges (1 Samuel 3 and God even called "Cyrus," the ruler of Medo-Persia, generations before he was born (See Isaiah 45:1-7). God's thus calling certain persons "by name" seems to have been rare

Exodus 7:14-18 — occurrence. Even critical scholars like Noth have affirmed that, "Any connection with the yearly rise of the Nile seems quite impossible … Rather we have here a unique divine wonder."Martin Noth, Exodus (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1962), p. 74. We can only marvel at the comment of Keller who rejected the Exodus account of the part played by the plagues in the exodus of Israel, declaring that such, "can neither be affirmed nor denied, since no contemporary evidence on the subject has

Ezekiel 34 overview — dynasty of successive rulers is intended, is forever decided by the Apostle Peter who applied all intimations of some descendent of David "sitting upon his throne," to "the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his elevation to the right hand of God" (Acts 2:30-32), who was universally known by all the Jews of that generation as "The Son of David." Furthermore, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, was the total fulfillment; he would never be succeeded by any other. It was not a "line of Davidic kings," but

Numbers 14:20-25 — people and refrained from destroying them; however, he at once swore with an oath that the punishment of their "ten rebellions" would not be withheld. Smick pointed out that the words, "As I live," introduced a formal oath that reaches through Numbers 14:23. He gave this paraphrase of it: "Surely as I live and as the earth shall be full of the glory of the Lord, none of the men who saw my glory and my signs which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, but who have tried me now tenfold, and have not hearkened

Matthew 18:23-34 — incredible. ANALOGIES IN THE PARABLE OF THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT (It will be noted that this is the first of the parables in which God is represented under the analogy of a king). 1.    God is represented by the king in this parable. 2.    All men are servants of the king. 3.    The servant with the enormous debt stands for every unredeemed sinner on earth whose debt is so large that it is impossible for him to pay it. 4.    The

Deuteronomy 16:9-12 — shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes." The exact time for beginning of the calculation of the seven weeks was already given in Leviticus 23:16, where the exact day of beginning was tied to the Passover celebration. There have been many disputes about the exact manner of calculating the Pentecost. (For those who would like to explore the matter thoroughly, reference is made to Vol. 5 in

Luke 3:1-2 — 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 1. It is now

John 1:1 — either of the two preceding clauses, but the apostle left nothing to chance, categorically affirming in this third clause that the Word was indeed God, a truth reaffirmed at the end of the prologue (John 1:18), and again by the apostle Thomas (John 20:28). John's estimate of the deity of Christ does not exceed that of other New Testament writers. For a detailed study of ten New Testament passages that call Jesus "God," see my Commentary on Hebrews, John 1:8. The apostle's doctrine of the

Acts 8:22-24 — would have been different. Thou art in the gall of bitterness … bond of iniquity … This is the sentence which many commentators abuse with reckless abandon, thus: Simon at this time was an unconverted sinner. Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 142. He was STILL attached to the bitter "gall-root" of superstition and magic; he was STILL held fast in the bond of iniquity. F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 184. He showed that he never had his heart truly humbled. Thomas Scott, The Henry-Scott Commentary

Romans 1:23 — birds, and four-looted beasts, and creeping things. As Barmby observed: Scripture ever presents the human race as having fallen and become degraded, and not as having risen gradually to any intelligent conceptions of God at all. J. Barmby, op. cit., p. 12. The obfuscation of man's intellect was inflicted upon men punitively by God as a divine judgment against their failure to glorify and give thanks to God, and the execution of that penalty propelled them ever farther into Satan's service. The idol worship

Romans 7:20 — for naught, as long as sin dwells in human hearts. This verse, far from being a statement of the way it is with Christians, is the way it is with everyone on earth EXCEPT Christians. In the unregenerated man, sin reigns in his mortal body (Romans 6:12); and, until that sin is washed away and the man stands justified in Christ Jesus, this verse is the divine sentence against his life. Sure, the unregenerated has certain nobilities pertaining to all men created in the image of God, effaced and eroded

1 Corinthians 13:13 — op. cit., p. 140. not its permanence which was treated in 1 Corinthians 13:8 in this paragraph. "Now" in this verse meant that Paul had returned to the present situation after the digression to speak of eternal things in 1 Corinthians 13:12, which should be treated, actually, as a parenthesis. Shore and many others insist that "NOW is not here temporal, but logical"; T. Teignmouth Shore, op. cit., p. 339. but this viewpoint should be rejected, as James Macknight declared: The

Joshua 11:1-5 — seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And all these kings met together; and they came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight with Israel." "Jabin king of Hazor" The name Jabin, "means the intelligent one!"Ibid., p. 219. The city of Hazor, a metropolis at that time of some 40,000 inhabitants occupied a fortified site of about 200 acres and was in the times of Joshua, "by far the largest and most famous city in Palestine."Ibid. It is of interest that another king

Hebrews 3:13 — another" is variously translated in the New Testament, as in "be at peace AMONG YOURSELVES" (1 Thessalonians 5:14); "Fervent in your love AMONG YOURSELVES" (1 Peter 4:8); "And be ye kind ONE TO ANOTHER" (Ephesians 4:32); and "Forbearing ONE ANOTHER and forgiving EACH OTHER" (Colossians 3:13). Thus the persons so strongly commanded in this place to "exhort" and the persons to be exhorted can be none other than the Christian membership itself, and

Revelation 12:12 — 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 might add that this is the only

Revelation 9:1 — he receives power to incite men to evil. William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 145. Isaiah said of Satan, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning" (Isaiah 14:12). It seems therefore that Satan himself is here referred to under this symbol. A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950, p. 262. The star is Satan Edward A. McDowell, The

2 Samuel 7:18-29 — the earth "before the Lord" until, in the fullness of time, the terminal heir to David's throne, namely, Joseph the son of Jacob, was able to pass it on to Christ the Messiah, who was the legal heir of Joseph, but not his literal son (Matthew 1:16). (2)    The other way consisted in the continuity of David's personal descendants through his son Nathan, until Jesus Christ was born miraculously of the Virgin Mary (whose husband Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli, Mary's father. See