Bible Commentaries

Job 33 overview — "Job had never accused God of dishonesty or injustice; although his words might have seemed to Job's friends that he had indeed done so."Ibid. The Bible, however, makes it clear that Job had never spoken anything about God that was not right (Job 42:7).

Deuteronomy 2 overview — of scholars believe that Josiah's law book contained (at least) the whole Book of Deuteronomy (and possibly also the entire previous books of Moses) `in its original form!'"E. W. Nicholson, Deuteronomy and Tradition (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), p. 7.

Luke 22:71 — that garbled quote about destroying the temple; and the only reason the leaders had for demanding Jesus' death came into view, not merely here, but in every one of the four gospels, that being that "he made himself the Son of God" (John 19:7). That was the issue that Jesus chose to seal with the blood of the cross; and the fury of the Sanhedrin at being forced to face the issue became apparent in their deceitful conduct before Pilate. This, of course, was the death penalty, pronounced by

John 11:47 — eyewitnesses of it; and the community knew all about it. When Satan is unable to answer an argument, his response has always been to kill the witness; that was his response here, and another example of the same is found in the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:58). John is in full harmony with the synoptics, indicating that the chief priests (the Sadducees) led the cabal against Christ. They did so, not in opposition to the doctrine of the resurrection; for, if they had founded their opposition on that, the

John 14:27 — word may be condensed the love of a lifetime. Christ does but pour through these common words the fire of his eternal and infinite love. H. R. Reynolds, op. cit., II, p. 230. Peace … This is the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7). Let not your heart be troubled … These were the opening words of the chapter, and they are appropriately repeated here. Neither let it be afraid … Literally, this means "neither let it be terrified," suggesting that Jesus saw

Acts 2:21 — and overthrow of the world itself, Peter's message applied not merely to Israel who first heard it but to all men, as stated in Acts 2:39. Call upon … The word thus translated denotes far more than merely pronouncing the Lord's name (Matthew 7:21-22; Luke 6:46). It is used of being declared to be a dedicated person, as to the Lord, Acts 15:17…to invoke, to call upon for oneself (that is, on one's behalf)…and to call upon by way of adoration, making use of the Name of the Lord,

Romans 14:2 — they were wrong in making such a dietary thing into a religious matter; but they had evidently done so. Paul taught that "every creature of God is" good for food (1 Timothy 4:1-5), and Jesus himself had made "all meats clean" (Mark 7:19). The nature of the weakness of those brethren is thus inherent in the fact that, either through ignorance or prejudice, they had not received the teaching of Christ and his apostles on the matters in question. This was a serious weakness; but, in

Romans 16:21 — most illustrious in the Bible. The last three names in this verse are those of Paul's kin, of whom practically nothing is known. Regarding these three, Greathouse thought: Lucius may be the one mentioned in Acts 13:1. Jason was once Paul's host (Acts 17:5-9) in Thessalonica. "Sosipater" may be the longer form of "Sopater" mentioned in Acts 20:4. William M. Greathouse, op. cit., p. 286. The objection of some commentators to Paul's not mentioning all of his kinsfolk in the same sentence

Romans 2:5 — impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The day of … Thus Paul followed the teaching of the Saviour who made repeated reference to "the day of judgment" (Matthew 7:22; Matthew 11:22-24, etc.). Impenitent heart … shows the wrong response to God's goodness, the purpose of which was to lead men to repent, but which had been perverted by some who had accepted it as tacit approval of THEIR wickedness, and with

1 Corinthians 14:9 — So also ye, unless ye utter by the tongue speech easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye will be speaking into the air. The force of 1 Corinthians 14:7-9 is that the false tongues of Corinth were unintelligible nonsense, having no meaning whatever, being nothing more than jabberings of orgiastic demonstrators; and here was the delicate part of the whole situation, the UNINTERPRETED manifestations of

Galatians 3:8-9 — meaning of the word "faith" has been grossly distorted by post-Reformation theologians. "Its meaning in the New Testament is most often faithfulness," George Howard, Article: "The Faith of Christ," in Expositor Times, Vol. 7, pp. 212-214, April, 1974. which is the normal meaning of the word in the LXX, where the word never means trust/faith in the sense of the current usage of it. Ibid. "The normal meaning of faith in the Greek language is not trust/faith, but reliability,

Ephesians 2:20 — and prophets … There are five foundations of the Christian faith mentioned in the New Testament: (1) The foundational teaching is composed of the teachings of Christ delivered through the apostles and prophets of the new dispensation (Matthew 7:24-26). (2) The foundational fact is that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:13-20). (3) The foundation person is Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 3:11). (4) The foundational personnel was made up of the apostles and prophets

Ephesians 5:15-16 — evil. Christ himself divided the whole human family along this fundamental line of cleavage, "the wise and the foolish," the wise being those who "hear the sayings of Jesus and do them," the foolish being those who hear and do not (Matthew 7:24 ff). Paul here referred to that same basic division of mankind, showing that Christians themselves are in no manner exempt from doing God's will. Redeeming the time … "This does not carry the idea of paying a particular price, but of

Philippians 1:20 — Montgomery Boice, op. cit., p. 80. God is not magnified in political movements, earthly cathedrals, temples or church houses, but in the bodies of Christians. "Ye are the temple of the Holy Spirit?' God did not dwell even in the temple of Solomon (Acts 7:47-48). "Solomon in the prayer of dedication acknowledged that heaven and earth could not contain God, much less a building he had constructed. Ibid., p. 81. As Boice stressed: Throughout history this truth has been perverted over and over. Men

1 Timothy 4:5 — is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. Sanctified … or "consecrated …" Ward pointed out the value of this verse in another connection: Paul says the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife (1 Corinthians 7:14). It cannot mean that the husband is saved because he has a Christian wife. But what does it mean? … He is not to be regarded as unclean, and therefore divorced; he can continue to be the husband of a Christian. Ronald A. Ward, op. cit., p.

Hebrews 10:10 — being baptized into Christ, the person so doing is thereby accounted a part of the spiritual body of Christ and becomes a beneficiary of the perfect obedience of the Son of God. Once for all is another instance of the use of [@hapax]. See under Hebrews 7:27. How are we sanctified, or made holy? Westcott answered the question thus: The clause contains an answer to the question that naturally rises, "How are we sanctified in the will of God?" That will was realized in the perfect life of the

Hebrews 10:15 — light it sheds on the witness of the Holy Spirit. Thomas accurately read the implications of this verse, thus, Here again, with great significance, the Holy Spirit is mentioned. Not only is he the source and author of the divine message in Psalms 3:7, and of the true meaning of the tabernacle (Hebrews 9:8); but he is shown to be witnessing through the statements of Scripture to the reality and power of the new covenant. This is the true witness of the Spirit, not something dependent upon our own

Hebrews 11:27 — who is invisible. Here is another instance of the recurring theme of this chapter, "the invisible." Even the creation was made of things "invisible" (Hebrews 11:3); Noah was warned of "things not seen as yet" (Hebrews 11:7); Abraham's inheritance was invisible at the time he went out (Hebrews 11:8); the eternal city is invisible (Hebrews 11:10). So it was also for the blessings of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, as conveyed in succession to their sons, and always with regard

Hebrews 2:2 — clearly, saying that the Law "was ordained through angels in the hands of a mediator" (Galatians 3:19); and Stephen also made reference to it, speaking of them "who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not" (Acts 7:53). The argument is that God's word, although received second or third hand through Moses and angels, was despite that a sacred and binding obligation, not to be despised or set at naught, and was sternly enforced by the imposition of drastic penalties

3 John 1:4 — walking in the truth. Greater joy have I none … The word "greater" here, in the Greek is, "a double comparative as betterer would be in English."J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1062. Paul frequently used such expressions, as in Ephesians 3:8; and Shakespeare has, "How much more elder art thou than thy looks!"William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, IV, 1. My children walking in the truth … Some