Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 44 overview — restore Israel to his favor and to their homeland. Their posterity would turn to God and actually receive the Spirit of the Lord. 2.    (Isaiah 44:6-20) The most powerful and effective condemnation of idolatry to be found anywhere. 3.    (Isaiah 44:24-26) God will confound the wisdom of the astrologers, the soothsayers and the diviners and at the same time confirm the word of his servants the holy prophets by bringing about the delivery of Israel from captivity

Hosea 12:5 — lost. That loss came about because the Jews took a very strict and almost fanatical view of the third commandment (Exodus 20:7), and decided not to pronounce the name at all. That way they could keep from taking God's name in vain! This occurred about 300 B.C. When they came to that word in reading, they pronounced the word "[~'Adonay]," meaning Lord; and thus when the Septuagint (LXX) was translated, they rendered it "Lord," which is the rendition found in the AV. The American Standard Version renders

Zephaniah 3:9 — Messianic passages in the whole Bible. "From this point forward, there is a new note of victory in Zephaniah."John T. Carson, op. cit., p. 780. Like all the true prophets of God, Zephaniah bore his witness to the coming Christ and his blessed kingdom (Acts 3:18; Acts 3:20). Carson went on to characterize this dramatic change in the tone of the prophecy as "so marked that some commentators insist that this section must belong to a much later period";Ibid. but all such reasonings appear to be grounded in

Haggai 1:9 — Nevertheless, the judgments are general and abundant enough to allow any perceptive soul to get the message, whether the judgment falls upon him individually, or upon another. The judgments are clearly of God, being a part of the primeval curse (Genesis 3:17-22), and they are very much in the world until this very hour. The great impact from this verse is the truth that God simply will not bless a people determined not to do his will. The returnees were having a very hard time; the message of the Lord

Zechariah 1:2-3 — Rapids: Baker Book House, 1926), p. 150. Some have professed surprise that Zechariah called for repentance from the same group of people that Haggai, only two months previously, had assured by the promise of the Lord that, "I am with you" (Haggai 1:13). But, as Leupold observed: "Every repentance is imperfect at best. A godly life, in a sense, consists of perfecting repentance. Thus what Zechariah claimed was also true. Israel needed to return with more sincere devotion if God's promises for the

Matthew 1:1-2 — the Son of David, a popular designation for the Messiah; and he does so in the very first verse of his gospel. The son of Abraham. Jesus was the "son of Abraham" in the following senses: (1) He was the "seed" of promise (Galatians 3:16). (2) He was the legal son and heir through Isaac, son of the free woman, as distinguished from Ishmael, son of the slave woman. (3) He was literally descended from Abraham through Mary and her ancestors. (4) He was the antitype of Isaac. As in the

Matthew 8:20 — Psalms 8:4, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him; And the son of man, that thou visitest him?" In the New Testament, Christ is called:The Son of DavidMatthew 1:1The Son of AbrahamMatthew 1:1The Son of GodMatthew 16:16The Son of AdamLuke 3:38The Son of JosephLuke 3:23The Son of MaryMatthew 13:55The Son of ManMatthew 8:20 Each one of these seven designations is true and proper in its own frame of reference. Why, then, did Jesus lean so heavily upon "Son of man" as a title for

Luke 11:15 — either as "the original." We may be very sure that every word recorded in the Gospels was truly spoken by Jesus, and that every event related is truly grounded in a historical occurrence. All three synoptics are similar at this point. See Mark 3:20-30. In Matthew's record, the slander that Jesus' power was derived from Beelzebub followed the suggestions of the multitude that Jesus indeed was the Messiah; but here it would seem that the campaign of the Pharisees had succeeded in dimming this

Luke 12:4-5 — …" The one to be feared in not Satan, as some have supposed, but Almighty God. "The power to cast into hell belongs to God, not to Satan."Ibid., p. 519. The usage here is similar to "the condemnation of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6), which has reference not to any condemnation the devil may bestow, but to the condemnation which God has pronounced against him. This is also the view of Harrison, "This refers to God and not to Satan, for Satan cannot determine the destiny

John 6:52 — The Jews therefore strove with one another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? How … ? This is the usual question of unbelief; see under John 3:9. What Jesus meant by this was the soul's appreciating and assimilating the benefits derived from his death upon the cross. Christ is to the soul what food and drink are to the body. Without food and drink, the body dies; without Christ the soul dies.

John 8:19 — therefore unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye know neither me, nor my Father: if ye knew me, ye would know my Father also. From John 7:27, it is clear that the leaders claimed to know "whence" Jesus came; and both Matthew (Matthew 13:55) and Luke (Luke 3:23) mention the supposition that Joseph was Jesus' father. In this light, Jesus' declaration here that they did not know the Father is eloquent testimony of his virgin birth. If ye knew me, ye would know my Father … This

1 Corinthians 16:20 — one another with a holy kiss. A holy kiss … Why did this lovely custom, which certainly prevailed in those times, disappear? As Barclay said: "(1) It was liable to abuse, and (2) it was liable to misinterpretation by heathen slanders, and (3) the church itself became less and less of a fellowship." Ibid., p. 188. This custom is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 13:12; Romans 16:16, and in 1 Peter 5:14; and the feeling persists that the third reason cited by Barclay, above, is the principal

1 Thessalonians 3:12 — and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you: In 1 Thessalonians 3:10, Paul had mentioned what might be lacking in their faith, and here is a hint of one area in which they were not perfect. They no doubt loved one another, but Paul prayed that they might "abound and increase, but Paul prayed that they might "abound

1 Thessalonians 3:3 — antagonism between light and darkness is such that the upright, moral behavior of Christians is alone sufficient to incur the world's displeasure and hatred. Cain hated Abel, and why? "Because his own works were evil and Abel's righteous" (1 John 3:12). Paul and his co-workers had fully warned and prepared the Thessalonians for that eventuality, as indicated by the words, "yourselves know." Be moved … The word thus translated is [@sainesthai]; and the comment by Morris is that: This

1 Thessalonians 5:8 — But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For extended comment on Paul's famed triad of "faith, hope and love," see under 1 Thessalonians 1:3, above. Amazingly, Paul here switched metaphors in the middle of a train of thought, a style characteristic of the blessed apostle and absolutely impossible of forgery or imitation. Only Paul could have done a thing like this. As Paul was familiar with

Hebrews 12:9 — Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits and live? Hebrews 12:7-11 are actually commentary on Proverbs 3:11-12; and coming from the pen of inspiration, the light shed on this subject is most helpful. In this verse, the contrast is between the fathers of our bodies and the Father of our spirits; and, as Barmby noted, If a dutiful child submits patiently

Hebrews 9:6 — would mean that the Herodian temple was yet standing and certainly dating Hebrews prior to 70 A.D. Here is a partial list of services performed by the priests: (1) They lighted the lamps each evening and trimmed them every morning. (Exodus 27:21; Exodus 30:8). (2) Each sabbath day they renewed the loaves on the table of showbread (Leviticus 24:5). (3) They burned twice daily the incense on the golden altar, this coinciding with the morning and evening sacrifices, and with the trimming and lighting of

1 Peter 1:14 — lusts … A noble principle is in view here. Through the practice of wickedness, people fashion themselves in the likeness of the sins they commit; and thus they become "sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6), the very opposite of what Peter required for Christians here. In the time of your ignorance … The very nature of the Christless life is that it is controlled by lust, grounded in ignorance, and destined to end in futility.

1 John 2:6 — who is really such has least to tell of experiences and special visitations."A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, 1 John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 21. In him … These words in 1 John 2:3, at a glance, seem to refer to being "in God"; but as Morris noted: The reference to walking in this verse shows that "in him" means Jesus Christ. In any case John regularly associates the two in the closest possible fashion, and

Revelation 21:22 — the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof. No temple … All devices for communicating with God will be unnecessary in the glorified state. In a sense, the entire eternal city will be the dwelling place of God (Revelation 21:3). A very interesting fact revealed from the Dead Sea Scrolls is that, "A prominent Jewish sect rejected the established temple," George Eldon Ladd, op. cit., p. 283. a position fully in harmony with the view we have taken of it throughout