Bible Commentaries

2 Kings 3 overview — THE "THREE KINGS" AT WAR AGAINST MOAB The Moabite Stone (discovered in 1868) has a parallel account of events in this chapter from the viewpoint of Mesha (2 Kings 3:4), the Moabite king who authored the inscription on that stone. Dentan said of this stone that, "It is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time (it may be seen in the Louvre in Paris) and provides interesting confirmation

John 4:54 — … means the second fully recounted in John. This author presented seven great signs of the deity of Jesus Christ, and this is the second in that sequence. Jesus, even this early in his ministry, had already wrought countless miraculous deeds (12:23; 3:2; and 4:45). The evident purpose of including this wonder in the list of seven was to show that the physical presence of the Lord was not required in the performance of his signs, but that his holy will was effective from any distance whatever.

John 5:36 — Father hath sent me. John performed no miracle; and there was a strong opinion within the very group Jesus was addressing, an opinion stated by Nicodemus that "We know that no man can do the signs thou doest, except God be with him" (John 3:2). Also, God had spoken out of heaven in broad open daylight in the presence of thousands saying, "This is my beloved Son." The works of Jesus, empowered by God, were the most fantastically powerful deeds ever done on earth, nor has there ever

Acts 12:17 — … An angel, actually, had done this, but he had acted as God's servant; hence it was altogether correct to say that the Lord had done it. Unto James and the brethren … This is not James the son of Zebedee, already slain by Herod (Acts 12:2), but James the Lord's brother, one of the church leaders in Jerusalem, and the author of the book of James. The brethren … has reference to the Christians throughout the city, assembled in just such places as that in view here, and who were

Acts 5:40 — beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. They beat … There was nothing mild about such a punishment. They were brutally beaten with "forty stripes save one, a penalty inflicted upon Paul five times (2 Corinthians 11:24)." J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 825. The excuse for such punishment was the apostles' disobedience of the Sanhedrin's injunction against teaching in the name of Jesus, an injunction they issued once more in connection with the

Acts 9:17 — imposition of Ananias' hands; and, through the same instrumentality of Ananias who commanded him to be baptized, he received the Holy Spirit. The gift in view here is the same as that promised on Pentecost to all who repented and were baptized (Acts 2:38). That Saul did not receive the Holy Spirit before his baptism is implicit in the fact that the latter was necessary to the "washing away" of his sins (Acts 22:16).

Romans 3:13 — Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips. This progression to sins against fellow creatures was introduced by the last clause of Romans 3:12, quoted from Psalms 53:2. Paul did not invent this charge of wickedness, but only read it out of the Old Testament, the indictment being further detailed and stated in Psalms 5:9; Psalms 140:3. The figure of speech here shows how utterly repugnant to

Romans 5:5 — that the Christian's hope does not put to shame is because of the love of God in Christian hearts, shed abroad through the agency of the Holy Spirit which was (past tense) given to Christians upon the occasion of their being baptized into Christ (Acts 2:38 f), the true ground of that hope not being the glorying of people through various tribulations, nor even their love of God, but rather God's great love to them, the latter being proved by Paul's description of that love in the following verses. For

1 Corinthians 15:24 — cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. The end … means the end of the world, an event mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, as in Matthew 28:20; 2 Peter 3:10, etc. See my Commentary on Matthew, p. 527. He shall have delivered up the kingdom … The Second Advent will not be the beginning of the reign of Christ but the end of it. Millennial expectations predicated upon the supposition

1 Corinthians 3:13 — is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is. The day … according to McGarvey, and many others, is a reference to the judgment day when Jesus shall be revealed from heaven "in flaming fire" (2 Thessalonians 1:7); but some have understood it as a day of terrible persecutions such as the "fiery trial" (1 Peter 4:12) prophetically mentioned by both Paul and Peter. Despite the fact of there being an element of testing in times of great

2 Corinthians 4:14 — and had ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on High. With you … This has to mean that Paul also expected that all of the Corinthians would die before the Second Coming, because here he envisioned their being presented (see Colossians 1:28) with himself. This verse is reason No. 2. Paul knew that death itself would not rob him of the crown of life, nor would it rob his Corinthian converts, despite the fact that both he and his converts would pass through it.

1 Thessalonians 5:4 — to literal darkness and light, but to the state of rebellion against God (darkness) and to the state of obedience (light). Wesley's paraphrase of this is: But ye members of the church, living in the light, expecting the coming of your Lord (Matthew 25:10) cannot be surprised. Your knowledge and faith lead you to be always ready. John Wesley, One Volume New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1972), in loco. The ASV in this place follows the rendition in KJV and this is

2 Thessalonians 3:4 — each other, the same being an essential element of the spiritual environment surrounding the redeemed. The things which we command … It is considered deplorable that, following Hendriksen, many commentators have postulated plural authorship of 2 Thessalonians; Kelcy, for example, speaks repeatedly of "the writers" of this epistle. There was only one writer, the apostle Paul. The "we" in this place is editorial, or epistolary. Timothy and Silvanus had no right whatever to

1 Timothy 3:10 — … This requirement of having first to be tested was also mandatory in the case of the elders. As Lenski expressed it: The fact that such a testing was to be applied also to overseers is so self-evident from the conditions laid down in 1 Timothy 3:2-8, that "also" now refers to it. Paul states that the testing is likewise quite necessary in the case of the deacons. R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 597. This is a very important point to be noted, because in it lies the certainty that the

Hebrews 11:6 — it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him. Westcott noted that the faith described here has two elements: (1) the belief that God is, and (2) that he is morally active; in other words, it is a faith in the existence of God and in the moral government of God. Brooke Foss Westcott, op. cit., p. 356. Furthermore, the expression "seek after him" as in the English Revised Version (1885),

Hebrews 7:4 — line with the principle that the best belongs to God. The Jewish sacrifices were commanded to be "without blemish"; and the great king David was motivated by the principle that it would be wrong to offer to God that which cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). The existence of the tithe as it pertains to the worship of God Most High is therefore in this place established as antecedent to Judaism, of which more will be said under Hebrews 7:8.

1 Peter 3:4 — as Paul's "inner man" (Ephesians 3:16), meaning the actual person, the private being which every person knows himself to be. Paul described a real Jew as being a Jew who is one "inwardly," which stresses the same thought (Romans 2:28 f). Incorruptible apparel … "Paul assures us in this passage that moral characteristics gained in this life remain our characteristics in the next." <footnote A. J. Mason, op. cit., p. 413. All of this warning against outward

1 Peter 4:13 — it is better to understand it as a reference to the Second Advent, the general resurrection and judgment of the last day, and the visible revelation of Christ before all people as the Redeemer and Judge. Such a revelation is that mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.

2 Peter 1:4 — having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. Whereby … "This refers to the things mentioned in the previous verse, meaning that it was through those arrangements," Albert Barnes, Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, 2 Peter (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1953), p. 219. of the apostles being guided into all truth, etc., that all Christians have the privilege of partaking of the divine nature. Partakers of the divine nature … As Strachan put it,

2 Peter 2:8 — the depraved culture of his day, the true value of it is evident. He was displeased with the wickedness around him; he did not participate in it; he was thoughtful to entertain strangers, thereby entertaining angels unawares, as extolled in Hebrews 13:2; he was accounted righteous by Abraham who, in his great intercession for the doomed cities, evidently included Lot among the ten righteous persons who, he felt, were living there; and when God commanded him to leave Sodom, Lot did not hesitate to obey.