Bible Commentaries

2 Chronicles 24:1-3 — END OF THE REIGN OF JOASH "Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah, of Beersheba. And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters." These three verses are parallel with 2 Kings 12:1-4. (See our comments there.)

Proverbs 14:21 — "He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth; But he that hath pity upon the poor, happy is he." The great glory of Christianity is that it regards and honors the poor, who, alas, constitute the vast majority of mankind. "Blessed are ye poor! Blessed are the poor in spirit!" These are the words of Christ, who, "Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Proverbs 21:20 — "There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise; But a foolish man swalloweth it up." This is the common viewpoint of Proverbs that the wise are wealthy and the fool is in poverty. There is a limited sense in which this is true; "But in the spiritual warfare, earthly wisdom avails nothing at all (1 Corinthians 1:5-16 and 2 Corinthians 10:4)."Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, op. cit., p. 145.

Isaiah 64:1-4 — from Babylon. At any rate, that is exactly what he requested here. "That the mountains might quake" This is a reference to what happened at Sinai. "When thou didst terrible things" The last two words here are, "A standing phrase, as in Deuteronomy 10:21, 2 Samuel 7:23, and Psalms 106:22, for the wonders of the Exodus."T. K. Cheyne's Commentary, Vol. II, p. 111. Isaiah 64:4 stresses the unique nature of God's care for Israel and the scope of the wonders God wrought upon her behalf. "Nowhere else among

Zephaniah 2:15 — scornful and deprecatory conduct really occurred during the generations that knew the proud Nineveh would appear to have been certain, as attested by the traditions that survived into the times of Xenophon. (See quotation from Smith under Zephaniah 2:13, above.) "I am, and there is none besides me" "Thus, in effect, Nineveh claimed for herself the attributes of Almighty God. In this, she stands alone, mistress among nations, a type of the powers of this world which deify themselves and defy the

Matthew 11:10 — This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, Who shall prepare the way before thee. Christ's selection of this prophecy from Malachi 3:1 and application of it to John proves two things: (1) that John the Baptist is that first messenger mentioned in that passage, and (2) that Jesus Christ is the Lord, "the messenger of the covenant" who even then had suddenly come to his temple.

Deuteronomy 9:1-5 — receive from God. Some of the things one reads in the commentaries about this unmerited blessing are not true. For example, Scott wrote: "All is due to God's grace alone."D. R. Scott, Abingdon Bible Commentary, Deuteronomy (New York: Abingdon Press, 1929), p. 327. It is the word alone which is incorrect and improper. Not even the salvation of the N.T. is by grace or faith only (James 2:24). It is true, of course, that both here and in the N.T. God's grace and mercy are exalted above any human merit,

Luke 5:14 — And he charged him to tell no man: but go thy way, and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. Offer for thy cleansing … Old Testament passages detailing the specific offering for such a sacrifice are Leviticus 13:40 and Leviticus 14:2 ff. In honoring such regulations, Christ made clear his intention not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.

John 9:25 — Whether he is a sinner, I know not: but one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. This return of the healed man to the facts of the wonder was the last thing the Pharisees wanted; and his words are construed as an opposition to their designs. The miracle was proof that Jesus was no sinner; and the Sanhedrin knew this, as one of their own members had admitted (John 3:2).

Acts 17:8-9 — said: This probably meant that Paul had to leave the city and that his friends guaranteed that he would not come back — at least during the present magistrates' term of office. It is probably to this situation that Paul referred in 1 Thessalonians 2:18 … that he greatly desired to go back, but "Satan hindered us." F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, Publishers, 1954), p. 345. It was indeed one of Satan's victories. Paul could have gone back,

Romans 15:15 — desired to refresh their memory of those things. The same device was employed by Peter who wrote: This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I have written unto you and in both of them I stir up your pure mind by putting you in remembrance, etc. (2 Peter 3:1 f). In some measure … is capable of two meanings: (1) that of declaring such portions of the epistle as that dealing with weak brethren (14:1-15:15) were bold, and (2) that of suggesting that he had boldly gone beyond the information

Romans 15:8-9 — be included with Israel among the people of God. As the Jews glorify God for his faithfulness, so the Gentiles will glorify him for his mercy. C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1957), p. 273. The Old Testament quotation Paul used here is found twice, in 2 Samuel 22:50 and Psalms 18:49, and shows that the Gentiles, the heathen, or nations, as non-Jews were variously described, were certainly included in God's ultimate purpose of redemption,

1 Corinthians 11:30 — likely is that Paul was speaking of those who had become spiritually weak and sickly, some no doubt having perished spiritually. If that was meant, then the condition of those asleep was terminal and irrevocable, being the same as that evident in Mark 3:29; Hebrews 6:6; 1 Timothy 5:6; 2 Peter 2:20; 1 John 5:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:19. For a dissertation on the unpardonable sin, see my Commentary on Mark, pp. 65-67. The condition of those asleep was no different from that of Ananias and Sapphira; and therefore

1 Corinthians 12:9 — continues here. "Faith" is the endowment of all Christians, but more than faith ordinary is meant here. It has a special meaning here. It must mean a faith that has special, visible results, a faith that enables one to do miracles (Matthew 17:20; 1 Corinthians 13:2). F. W. Grosheide, The New International Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1953), p. 286. Lipscomb identified faith here as "that which enabled one to remove mountains, as Jesus said, enabling

1 Corinthians 15:3 — all … This means "First in importance, not in time, the doctrine of the resurrection being primary, cardinal, central and indispensable." David Lipscomb, Commentary on First Corinthians (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1935), p. 221. That which I also received … Wesley was no doubt correct in the conviction that this meant "I received from Christ himself; it was not a fiction of my own." John Wesley, One Volume New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan:

1 Corinthians 16:5 — But I will come unto you, when I shall have passed through Macedonia; for I pass through Macedonia. This evidently indicates a change in Paul's plans to visit Corinth; because in 2 Corinthians 1:15 ff, there seems to be a critical attitude accusing the apostle of vacillating; but his postponement of his visit was founded in the highest wisdom. He would give them a little time to get their house in order before he came.

1 Corinthians 2:8 — was the lawful heir of the temple, the promised Messiah, a holy and righteous prophet of God, and also the undisputed heir to the throne of David. What they did not know was that the "fullness of the Godhead" dwelt in him bodily (Colossians 2:9). In Matthew 21:38, the Jewish leaders, under the figure of wicked husbandmen, said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance." Had the human wisdom of the world's leaders been capable of recognizing God in Christ,

2 Corinthians 8:18 — the third Gospel (which is by no means an impossibility). However, whether or not this was Luke (and no one really knows), one thing is positively evident: there was a written gospel even at this early date, a fact confirmed by Luke's introduction (2 Corinthians 1:1-5). Through all the churches … The brother mentioned was known "through all" the churches. It is amazing that the same scholars who pin so much faith in the absolute superlatives of 2 Corinthians 7:13-15 are here very

Joshua 2:1-7 — are still found in that area."J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 143. "Two men as spies secretly" The critics insult this passage as being "redundant,"Joseph R. Sizoo, The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 2 (New York: Abingdon Press, 1956), p. 559. That type of cavil is based on the proposition that the word "spies" automatically means "secretly," such a cliche being itself untrue. When Joshua himself went out as a spy forty years earlier, all Israel knew

2 Peter 2:7 — and delivered righteous Lot, sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked Peter injected this to show that whatever judgments may be executed upon the wicked, God will acknowledge and preserve the righteous. Sore distressed … "The corruption of Sodom was open and shameless; and as Lot was compelled to see much of it, his heart was pained." Albert Barnes, Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, 2 Peter (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1953), p. 244.