Bible Commentaries

Exodus 13:17-22 — that that is the reason that God took them into Canaan by some other route settles the matter for Christians. Even Davies admitted that, "The early settlement of Philistines before their main invasion may account for the reference."G. Henton Davies, 20th Century Commentary (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1932), p. 135. Any premise that includes the proposition that there is available today anything more than a mere smattering of knowledge of ancient history known by modern man, is a monstrous misassumption!

Exodus 16:4-8 — USE. None of it to be left until the next day. A lesson against hoarding. It would be wonderful if it could be reported that Israel observed these rules regarding the manna, but the truth is: They failed at each point. They tried to hoard (Exodus 16:20). They went out to gather on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:27). They showed both disobedience and unbelief, for it had been distinctly said of the seventh day, "in it there shall be none" (Exodus 16:26)… God had miraculously supplied their wants, yet

Exodus 20:1-6 — and 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

Exodus 25:31-40 — to them, and all of the N.T. (from Acts to Revelation) pointing backward to the Gospels. This, of course leaves only three divisions of the O.T., which correspond exactly to Christ's divisions, i.e., "The Law, and the Psalms, and the Prophets" (Luke 24:44). The Jews, to whom God gave the custody of the O.T. (Romans 3:2), accepted this understanding of the divisions of the O.T., giving them the names of Torah (the Law), Nebiim (the Prophets), and Kethubhim (the Psalms).J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on

Psalms 97:8-12 — righteous; And give thanks to his holy memorial name." "Zion heard and was glad… daughters of Judah rejoiced" The Anchor Bible renders this, "Let Zion hear… let the daughters of Judah rejoice."Mitchell Dahood in The Anchor Bible, Vol. II, p. 362. It appears to us that the passage is true either way it reads, the "righteous remnant" alone being the portion of Zion that heard and obeyed God. "Daughters of Judah" is Hebraic for the towns and villages surrounding Jerusalem."Ibid. The big thought

Ezekiel 28:1-5 — PROPHECY AGAINST TYRE CONCLUDED; AGAINST TYRE'S RULER; AGAINST TYRE'S KING; AGAINST SIDON; AGAINST THE PRINCE OF TYRE (Ezekiel 28:1-10) "The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou

Ezekiel 36:25-31 — SPIRITUAL CLEANSING OF ISRAEL "Ye shall be clean from your filthiness… a new heart will I give you… I will put my Spirit within you" As Pearson analyzed this cleansing of Israel, it consisted of three steps: "(1) the forgiveness of sins; (2) regeneration; and (3) the reception of the Holy Spirit."Anton T. Pearson in Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 753. Significantly, none of these was available under the Law of Moses. Only under the gracious terms of the New

Daniel 1:1-2 — arguments. The more unbelievable their arguments are, the greater is the volume of them. Nothing could be any more certain than the historical accuracy of the passage before us, but reminding us of that "river" out of the serpent's mouth (Revelation 12:15), Biblical enemies have literally tried to wash this passage away with their denials. The first attack is based on the fact that Jeremiah placed this event in "the fourth year of Jehoiakim" (Jeremiah 25:1). "Daniel, however, evidently employed the

Numbers 35:1-5 — out in a perfect square? For that matter, where is the city today that is a perfect square? So much for the critical wisdom (?) of 1903. We have cited it here only for the purpose of demonstrating how much the critics have learned about this in the 82 years since Gray wrote. Wade declared in 1924 that, "In the delimitation of the pasture grounds of the cities, there is a curious oversight; and if these instructions were followed, the city within the square is reduced to a point."George Woosung Wade,

Jonah 4:11 — Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), p. 751. "No man has the right to question or resent the outpouring of God's love in saving man, any man, from sin and destruction."G. Herbert Livingston, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 850. "Sixscore thousand persons who cannot discern between their right and their left hand" Efforts to apply these words to the entire population of Nineveh are fruitless, being usually for the purpose of showing that Nineveh, after all, was not

Matthew 6:9-13 — is that this very prayer should have become the very thing it was designed to prevent, namely a rote prayer! Surely, the very mystery of iniquity is evident in such a development. And what is the "manner of this prayer"? It is: (1) short, (2) spontaneous, (3) God-oriented, the first three petitions being for things of God rather than for things of men, (4) extemporaneous, being given in two forms by Christ himself as evidenced by the Matthew and Luke accounts, (5) to the point, and (6)

Deuteronomy 16 overview — occasions of the year, i.e., the Feast of Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement are not mentioned here because they did not require the assembly of the whole nation. We have the Feast of the Passover (Deuteronomy 16:1-7), The Feast of Weeks (Deuteronomy 16:9-12), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16:13-15). Anticipating the scattering of the people in the occupation of Canaan, and discerning the need for more judges, "Moses here enacts that judges and officers were to be appointed by the people in

Deuteronomy 29:16-21 — Jehovah will blot out his name from under heaven. And Jehovah will set him apart unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law." Regarding the parenthesis in Deuteronomy 29:16-17, "These verses are not a parenthesis (as in the KJV and ASV). Deuteronomy 29:18 connects, not with Deuteronomy 29:15, but with Deuteronomy 29:17, and there should be a full stop at the end of Deuteronomy 29:15."W. L. Alexander, The Pulpit Commentary,

2 Corinthians 4:18 — unseen," even regarding the tiniest particles of it; and, in addition to that, the great fundamental laws controlling all things in space, such as gravity, centrifugal and centripetal forces, inertia, radiation, etc., are, all of them, invisible. 2.    Noah, acting upon God's instructions, preserved through the flood a new beginning for the human family. "Being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet" (Hebrews 11:7). Such a flood as God promised had never

2 Corinthians 9:7 — creation; and when man was introduced, he appeared, not as an owner, but as a gardener in Eden. Every beast of the forest, every bird of the mountains, and every beast of the field, even "the world and its fullness" belong to God (Psalms 50:10-12). Society's permission to certain people to occupy God's earth, or to hold its estates, does not contravene the divine ownership. Title deeds and legal grants always have regard to social custom, not divine authority. No man "owns" any of

Ephesians 1:22-23 — accept the implications of Paul's teaching on this subject, Bruce, for example, pointing out that "In those earlier epistles, Christ is not viewed as the head of the body … Paul compared an individual believer to the head (1 Corinthians 12:21)." F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 44. However, it was a physical body that Paul used as the basis of comparison in 1 Corinthians 12; and it is a spiritual body of which Paul is speaking here. It is an extra-literal, that is, not literal, body, like

Hebrews 11:17-20 — in the words of Albert Barnes, "It is the strongest illustration of faith, undoubtedly, which has ever been evinced in our world." Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1963), Vol. Hebrews, p. 272. Abraham, being tried is a reference to the remarkable test of his faith recorded in Genesis 22:1 ff. It is said there that God did "tempt" Abraham, but the word "tried" is the true meaning. Although the word here rendered "tried"

Hebrews 9:7-8 — access within the veil, could enter only under the strictest rules, and that upon only one day in the whole year, the Day of Atonement. Two points of emphasis appear in these verses: (1) the services of the high priest on the Day of Atonement, and (2) the great lesson so effectively taught by the Holy Spirit in such an arrangement. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT Leviticus 16 details the duties of the high priest in making the atonement. He appeared before the door of the tabernacle with no less than four

James 5:14-15 — inherently reasonable that the very ones usually endowed by the Holy Spirit with those special gifts would have been, of course, the elders of the church. The miraculous gift of healing was the fourth in Paul's list of nine such gifts (1 Corinthians 12:9). The understanding of this place is further illuminated by the words of Roberts: Since it is clearly demonstrated from the New Testament that such miraculous aid existed in the church of that age, and since this healing would be more certain to offer

Revelation 5:10 — believe this, but the dogmatic power of this verse refutes the unbelievers. The Christians in this current dispensation reign with Christ. Their reign is exactly in the same sense as that of the apostles "reigning with Christ" (Matthew 19:28), a reign which Jesus Christ himself affirmed would occur during "the times of the regeneration"; that is, the "times of the new birth," meaning the current gospel age. Now, for some of the problems. The KJV renders this passage: