Bible Commentaries

Job 22:12-16 — "Whose foundation was overflown with a flood"; and the RSV has, "Their foundation was washed away." Kline,Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 478. DeHoffGeorge DeHoff's Commentary, Vol. 3, p. 51. and DriverInternational Critical Commentary, Job, p. 196. interpreted this as a reference to the flood; and Driver gave the literal meaning as, "The foundations of whose houses were carried away by the Deluge."Ibid. However, Pope disputed this interpretation, stating that, "Many interpreters incorrectly take

Psalms 55:16-19 — rampant rebellion. "Jehovah will save me" Why was David so confident? The answer is simple enough: God specifically said to David, "Thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure forever before thee; thy throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:16). These words of God to David through the prophet Nathan were known throughout Israel, to Ahithophel and to Absalom particularly; and their conspiracy to dethrone David was an action directed squarely against the will of God. No wonder David expressed

Proverbs 16:8 — "Better is a little, with righteousness, Than great revenues, with injustice." Many of the proverbs touch this admonition that men should be satisfied with `little,' and that they should restrain their greed for more. "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content" (1 Timothy 6:8).

Proverbs 22:9 — "He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; For he giveth his bread to the poor." God Himself blesses the liberal giver, as anyone who ever practiced liberality already knows. See 2 Corinthians 9:6-13, where this promise is elaborated for Christians.

Leviticus 5 overview — (Leviticus 5:1); (2)    incurring uncleanness by touching an unclean object or an unclean person (Leviticus 5:2-3); (3)    making a rash vow (Leviticus 5:4). The required sin-offering is outlined (Leviticus 5:5-6). Leviticus 5:7-13 are a kind of appendix in which special provisions were given for the benefit of persons wishing to comply with the law but who, through poverty, were unable to bring the prescribed offerings. The trespass-offering is presented in

John 6:41-42 — the time he wrote the enmity had become adamant and unyielding. He no longer identified himself as a Jew, thus exhibiting the new identity in Christ, of which Paul said, "In Christ … there can be neither Jew nor Greek" (Galatians 3:26-28). John's acceptance of the new identity for himself cannot be made the grounds of an allegation that one not a Jew wrote this Gospel. Murmuring … implies a malignant and reprehensible opposition. Most commentators detect a break in these verses

Acts 22:10 — And I said, What shalt I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. See under Acts 22:8, also under Acts 9:6.

Romans 6:15 — What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Sinning, persisted in, dethrones the Christ from the heart, as set forth under Romans 6:4; and, far from being an encouragement to sin, grace is the most effective ground ever revealed for the discouragement of it. But Paul here dealt with a slightly different problem from the similar question confronted in Romans 6:1. There it was a question

1 Corinthians 10:7 — Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. The Scriptural quotation here is Exodus 32:6; and thus the idolatry Paul mentioned was that of Israel's worshipping the golden calf. The mention of idolatry almost in the same breath with "lust" (v. 6) shows the close connection, the one leading to the other, indicating that idolatry

1 Corinthians 7:18-19 — obey the law of Moses." Ibid. Circumcision is nothing … Three times Paul made this statement, each time concluding with a powerful statement of that which is everything; here it is "keeping the commandments of God." In Galatians 5:6, it is "faith working through love"; and in Galatians 6:15, it is "a new creation." Any reconciliation of these epic pronouncements with the Protestant heresy of salvation "by faith alone" is impossible. As the apostle

2 Corinthians 4:16 — inward man is renewed day by day. Wherefore we faint not … has the meaning of "For the four reasons just cited, he was able to endure." Our outward man is decaying … This is not a reference to the "old man" (Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9), having the simple meaning that his physical body, with all of its powers, was moving inexorably to its dissolution. All of the powers and glory of mortal life are like a flower that blooms and then crumbles into dust;

2 Corinthians 6:14 — have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion hath light with darkness? This apostolic order has at least two anchors in what Paul had just written: (1) He had just warned them against receiving the grace of God "in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1); and (2) he had just touched upon a truth which undoubtedly had superlative impact upon his emotions, that being the loss of love for Paul on the part of the Corinthians. It was the encroachment of paganism against the holy faith which was the ground

Galatians 5 overview — Paul in this summarized his teaching of the last three chapters preceding this (Galatians 5:1-5), and then distinguished between the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit, appealing to the Galatians to live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:6-26).

Galatians 6:3 — For if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. This appears to be addressed to any of the "spiritual" in Galatians 6:1 who might consider themselves above "sinners" and thus under no obligation to restore them.

1 Timothy 6:10 — For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. The thought of this verse is parallel with 1 Timothy 6:9; and again, it is not the possession of money, but the love of it and the pursuit of it, which are condemned. The old King James Version, of course, rendered this "root of all evil"; but the American Standard Version (1901) has hardly improved

Hebrews 11:24 — Moses, David, Daniel, and Jesus. Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; David refused Saul's armor (1 Samuel 17:39); Daniel refused the king's meat (Daniel 1:8) and Jesus refused the popular efforts to make him an earthly king (John 6:15). Are these the four great refusals in history? Due to the conditions surrounding each of these great crisis decisions, and to the epic results that flowed out of each one of them, they must be hailed as decisive victories of the human soul over

1 Peter 2:17 — better than himself' (Philippians 2:3). See comment on this under that reference in my Commentary on Philippians. Every man is entitled to honor because of one trait or another. Love the brotherhood … Paul also commanded the same thing (Galatians 6:10). The Greek term for "brotherhood" which Peter used here and in 1 Peter 5:9 occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. C. J. Polkinghorne, op. cit., p. 591. Fear God … The beginning of all spiritual wisdom is in this (Proverbs 6:7);

1 Peter 4 overview — The visible divisions in this chapter are: (1) the security of the faithful in judgment (1 Peter 4:1-6); (2) the destruction of Jerusalem prophesied (1 Peter 4:7-11); (3) special instructions to the Christians as the approaching terror develops (1 Peter 4:12-19).

1 John 2:9 — by Jesus nearly a whole generation previously. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said: "If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness" (Matthew 6:23). Thus, the metaphor of light and darkness goes back to Christ himself. Paul likewise received and used the same metaphor, his message in Ephesians 4:17-18 reading thus: "For they live blindfolded in a world of illusion, and are cut off from

Revelation 1:4 — Moffatt said, "(This is) a deliberate violation of grammar to preserve the immutability and absoluteness of the divine name." James Moffatt, Expositor's Greek New Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 337. There are many examples of such awkward grammar in this prophecy; but "(They) are not due to ignorance of Greek construction, as shown by the predominantly correct uses in the book." Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 424. This title