Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 35:8-10 — wrote: "Attention has often been called to the numerous parallels between Isaiah 35 and those found in Isaiah 40-66. The themes shared in common include: (1) the transformation of the desert into a lush oasis at the appearance of God, which appears also in Isa. 41:17-20; 43:19-21; 51:3,10,11; 55:12:13; (2) the coming of God as a source of comfort and strength, found also in Isaiah 40:9-11; Isaiah 52:7-10; (3) the restoration to health of the weak and infirm, appearing again in Isaiah 42:16; Isaiah 61:1; (4) the

Micah 5:2 — that Micah was here prophesying the birth of Israel's king David who succeeded Saul centuries earlier! "It refers to the time when David was being called to the kingship."Rolland E. Wolfe, The Interpreter's Bible, Vol VI (New York: Abingdon Press, 1957), p. 931. It would be difficult indeed to cite a clearer example of the stubborn and determined blindness of men determined not to believe in any prophecy. They make no appeal here to what they suppose Micah "thought," for it is a foregone certainty

Zephaniah 1:7 — forbidden fruit. All of the prophets spoke of the final judgment as "at hand." "Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice" "This sacrifice is the Jewish nation; those who are invited to the sacrificial meal are not beasts and birds of prey, as in Ezekiel 39:17, but the nations which God has consecrated to war that they may consume Jacob (Jeremiah 10:25)."C. F. Keil, op. cit., p. 130. God's ownership and employment of the destroying nations called to punish Judah is the same here as in Matthew 22:7 where Jesus

Zechariah 11:13 — who cannot identify this potter! There might not have been any. Zechariah was speaking, through the power of the Holy Ghost, of an incident that would not occur until centuries had rolled by. If one wishes to find the potter let him turn to Matthew 27:7 and to Acts 1:17-19. Having already eliminated the glorious fulfillment of this passage from any consideration, it occurs to the critic that the text here should read differently: "It is pretty generally agreed that the text needs emendation! The

Zechariah 14:6-7 — shall come to pass that at evening time there shall be light." Scholars complain that the text here "appears to be damaged and is very puzzling";David J. Ellis, The New Layman's Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), p. 1049. but we are sure that the best chance of understanding it lies in the acceptance of what has descended to us through so many centuries, and not in the acceptance of the wild guesses of those who subjectively try to imagine what the prophet

Zechariah 7:11-12 — Babylon, God said, "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead"… It is thought that Jehovah referred to the diamond, harder than flint."Homer Hailey, Commentary on the Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1972), p. 358, There is no sin greater than that of inordinate stubbornness manifested in an adamant refusal to hear God's holy word, through which men have the right to live, if only they will. The ancient Israel indeed had exceeded all permissible levels

Zechariah 9:3-4 — remarkable detail would have had no trouble at all foretelling the rise of Alexander the Great who would destroy Tyre such a long time after the prophecy was given. After all, he was not the only prophet of God who foretold that event, for Ezekiel 26:7-14 also foretold it. Significantly, Ezekiel predicted the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, which indeed occurred; but he did not destroy the place, Therefore, Ezekiel again prophesied the destruction of Tyre, saying, "They shall bring thee down to the

Mark 12:1 — to the climax reached in the marriage of the king's son, see my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 21:28 ff. The arrangement here in Mark is absolutely incompatible with the Markan theory. In these words, as Turlington noted: The allusions to Isaiah 5:1-7 are unmistakable. The vineyard so completely tended was the "house of Israel" and the "men of Judah." The Lord himself was owner and provider.Henry E. Turlington, Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: The Broadman Press, 1946), p.

Mark 13:3-4 — that Jesus' answer commingles the reply to all three. Sanner said, "At least two themes are interwoven: prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and warnings concerning the second coming of Christ."A. Elwood Sanner, op. cit., p. 379. In fact, Jesus did far more than commingle the replies; he actually made the reply applicable to both of the two major events in view, requiring us to understand that the destruction of Jerusalem is a type of the destruction of the cosmos, the "coming

Mark 2:26 — derivation from New Testament teaching concerning this incident; but it is due to a failure to take account of Matthew's more complete narrative of it, that writer quoting Jesus as denying all guilt of his apostles. Expositors who ignore Matthew 12:7, set aside the Lord's statement of the apostles' innocence, accept the crooked charge of the Pharisees that they broke the sabbath, and then make our Lord's alleged approval of it the basis of a deduction that men may set aside God's laws whenever they

Luke 12:57-59 — an agreement now, while you are "on the way." Even of yourselves … "Why, even without signs, do you not judge rightly of me and of my doctrine by the natural light of reason and of conscience?"J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 755. The analogies in this teaching are: (1) Just as the human system of courts decides human affairs, in the larger sphere of time and eternity it is God the judge of all who makes decisions. (2) All men are represented here as "on the way"

Luke 13:34 — forever. Blessed is he that cometh … etc. Some have seen in this verse, especially with reference to "until that day," a promise referring to "far future, to the day of the penitence of Israel."H. D. M. Spence, op. cit., p. 7. However, despite the fact that "until" "could have" such meaning, there can be no certainty of it. It was apparently by design that the Holy Spirit uses a word which is, by definition, indefinite and ambiguous. Likewise, Paul in

Luke 15:8-10 — causing the loss of precious souls. I.    Note the coin as the type of a man. (1)    Both are from the earth, silver being refined from earthly ore, and man having been created of the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). (2)    Both are valuable. Silver coins have ever been recognized as items of value, but sometimes men have been accounted as cheap in the eyes of their fellows. Earth's warlords have ever looked upon men as mere pawns in the struggle

Luke 16:31 — resurrection, there was no appearance to the Pharisees; and this leads us to reject the comment of Geldenhuys that "the last words of this parable were uttered by Jesus with a view to his own resurrection."Norval Geldenhuys, op. cit., p. 427. No. Lazarus was the one Jesus had in mind here. Regarding his own resurrection, Jesus did not appear "to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before God," even to the apostles, "who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead"

John 6:54 — it cannot be said that those who do not receive the sacrament shall perish everlastingly; and (3) nor can it be supposed that all who do receive it are necessarily eternally saved.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Whole Bible (London: Mason and Lane, 1837), Vol. V, p. 563. Clarke's objections have no weight, because: (1) John spoke mysteriously of the Holy Spirit long before he was given (see John 7:39 and comment). This prophesies the supper. (2) Clarke's objection here refutes the interpretation that

John 9:2 — souls), or more probably as an infant before birth. To the Jews who attributed intelligence to unborn children (Genesis 25:22-26; Luke 1:41), this last was a natural idea.J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 790. According to Hendriksen, the Jewish Rabbis held that Esau had tried to kill Jacob in the womb, before either was born.William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel according to John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1961), II, p.

Romans 4:5 — — both done by the subject. The person baptized gives himself up into the hands of the administrator, and is buried out of self, to be raised up in Christ, and, as a servant of God, to "walk in the light as he is in the light" (1 John 1:7). When a man dies, and his friends take his body and bury it, no one would call it a work of the man buried. This is the true type of him who is baptized. Baptism is a work of God performed upon the man baptized through God's servant to bring him dead

Romans 7:14 — mutiny. In such a presentation, the first person present tense cannot indicate the present time at all; and we are certain that Paul's present condition when he wrote Romans was absolutely not indicated by his use of first person present tense in Romans 7:14 ff. But there is an even stronger reason for rejecting the application of this latter part of Romans 7 to the Christian and the construing of these words as a description of the Christian's inner struggle over sin. That reason is grounded in the

Galatians 3:29 — because, being clothed with Christ, they share his position. "Heirs …" They are heirs, not of Abraham, but of God; for the idea connects to that of the sonship to God (Galatians 3:26), of believers in Christ. E. Huxtable, op. cit., p. 147. NOTE 1: ON COMMENTS REGARDING Galatians 3:27 Observations under Galatians 3:27 are not intended as a presumption that any mortal knows the mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:16), or the ultimate judgment of the Almighty regarding any man's destiny; for God

Revelation 12:7-9 — the human creation itself, is absolutely certain. No other possible understanding of it is either intellectually or theologically tenable. As Beckwith affirmed, "That the Apocalyptist thinks of it as past is evident." Ibid. It (Revelation 12:7-8) is included here to account for the relentless hostility of the devil towards God and his church. It relates to the period anterior to the Creation, concerning which we have a slight hint in Judges 1:6. A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 312. Inasmuch as this