Bible Commentaries

Exodus 6:2 — be understood that the patriarchs DID know God by the name Jehovah. When Abraham offered Isaac and God provided a ram as the sacrifice, Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh (Genesis 22:14). Moses' own mother was named Jochebed (Exodus 6:20), which means "Jehovah is glory!"International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p. 1688. Abraham knew Jehovah in the land of Ur, for God told him, "I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur" (Genesis 15:7), and Abraham used "Jehovah" in addressing God:

Isaiah 2:1-4 — Micah and Isaiah is such that there cannot possibly be any wonder that God gave the same message twice. In the first place, this teaching is not talking about the earthly Jerusalem at all, but the "heavenly Jerusalem" which is our mother (Galatians 4:26). God simply was not speaking of the literal Jerusalem, nor of the Law of Moses in any sense whatever in this passage. Moses' law never went forth from Jerusalem, but from Sinai; and "many peoples" have never flowed unto the literal Jerusalem, but unto

Jeremiah 23:5-8 — Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972) p. 489. Messiah is here called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, because he is Jehovah; and he is our righteousness because he justifies us by his merits.Barnes' Notes (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House), p. 206. As a title, BRANCH traces the human and divine ancestry of Messiah and focuses upon the kingly and priestly natures of the Messianic task.The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 641. In Jeremiah 23:5-8, we have the promise of Messiah.J. R. Dummelow's

Malachi 4:2 — fathers, from Justin downwards, and nearly all the earlier commentators to be Christ, who is supposed to be described as the rising sun.C. F. Keil, Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 10 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Company) p. 468. … At least as early as the time of Coverdale (1535), the sun of righteousness was understood to be Jesus. This interpretation is continued in "The Translators to the Readers" of the King James Version: "But when the fullness of time drew near,

Matthew 24:1-2 — Jesus with such evident admiration were fully entitled to praise. Josephus' description of Herod's temple states that the front of it was covered with heavy golden plates, that it was constructed of green and white marble blocks of immense dimensions, 67' x 5' x 6' in size, and that it appeared like a mountain covered with snow, the ungilded parts being exceedingly white. The golden facade reflected the rising sun with fiery splendor; and, in the words of the rabbis, "He who has not seen the temple

Deuteronomy 34:1-8 — this; but certainly this is a lot better guess than the arbitrary suggestion of Watts that, "Deuteronomy 34:9-12 here connect directly with Numbers 27:23,"John D. W. Watts, Beacon Bible Commentary, Deuteronomy (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1970), p. 296. and the dogmatic guess of Von Rad that the first paragraph here (Deuteronomy 34:1-8), "is the immediate continuation of Deuteronomy 32:48-52."Gerhard Von Rad, Deuteronomy (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966), p. 209. Pisgah and Nebo appear here

Mark 16:15-16 — dramatic shift to singular pronouns in these verses; although addressed to THEM and YE, that is the eleven, there is not a plural word afterward in these verses, this no doubt being designed by the Holy Spirit in order to thwart any application of Mark 16:17-20 to any persons whomsoever except the eleven. Matthew's account of the great commission is loaded with plurals, but there is not one in Mark's account. Go ye into all the world … Christ's assignment to the apostles was that of the universal

Luke 8:9-15 — this passage. Some are simply incredulous that Jesus would have used a device specifically to blind and harden some of his hearers; but such was undoubtedly the case. The explanation is in Matthew, where that sacred author quoted at length from Isaiah 6:9-10, thus explaining the use of parables as God's means of bringing about the hardening of Israel, the parables, of course, not being the cause of the hardening, but the occasion of it. The real reason of the blindness and unbelief of Israel lay in

John 4:6 — recent date have found it dry and gradually filling up from the habit of throwing stones into it to hear the reverberation when they strike the bottom.J. W. McGarvey, The Fourfold Gospel (Cincinnati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company, 1914), p. 56. Jesus, being wearied with his journey … The perfect humanity of Jesus is very evident in John. He alone recorded the saying from the cross, "I thirst!" and it appears that the apostle was particularly impressed with the bone-tired

John 9:30-33 — moral government of the universe. Herein is the marvel … Unerringly, he fingered the greatest marvel in the structure of the day's events, that being the obstinate unbelief of the Pharisees. (See "The Marvel of Unbelief" under John 6:30). We know that God heareth not sinners … This great premise deserves further attention. ON GOD'S HEARING SINNERS A remarkable body of teaching in the Old Testament affirms the truth of what the blind man said here of God's not hearing sinners.

Romans 13:11 — tremendous weight of material in Paul's writings that shows he did not fall into the common error of confusing the two events as to their simultaneous occurrence. He knew, for example, that his own death would precede the final judgment (2 Timothy 4:6), that a space of time sufficient to allow the revelation of the man of sin would intervene before it (2 Thessalonians 2:3 ff), and that the fullness of the Gentiles would come in first (Romans 11:25), all of which knowledge on Paul's part made it impossible

Romans 5:18 — knowing good and evil, and disobeyed God. In the desire to be like God, Adam transgressed the limits of his creaturely existence. … On the other hand, Christ who did not count "equality with God a thing to be grasped" (Philippians 2:6), emptied himself and assumed the form of man the creature and servant. Richard A. Batey, The Letter of Paul to the Romans (Austin, Texas: R. B. Sweet Company, 1969), p. 75. Pride always has been and always will be the great temptation of man. It was

Romans 8:4 — Thus, to walk in the Spirit is to fulfill the will of God. Who walk not after the flesh … This is an appropriate place to note Paul's use of the term "flesh." For three separate senses in which Paul employs this term, see under Romans 7:6. Paul did not teach that all flesh is by nature and from birth sinful. As Whiteside observed: Human flesh is not sinful in and of itself; if so, the flesh of Jesus was sinful. … Christ had in his nature all that the word "man" implies.

Romans 8:7 — 287. But, of course, the expressions cited by Murray refer to man's mind, not as it was by the endowment of birth, but as it became through his rebellion against God. Paul's teaching here corresponds exactly with that of Jesus regarding two masters (Matthew 6:24). If one decides to serve one, he cannot serve the other; but in the teaching both of Paul and of Jesus, the question of the soul's right to decide is never for an instant doubted. The impossibility of serving the other master cannot derive from

Galatians 1:1 — churches were thoroughly devoted to him, he dropped it altogether, as in the salutations in Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1937), p. 946. Of course, false teachers who were stealing the Galatians away from the truth were challenging Paul's apostleship, making it most appropriate that he should have so vigorously stressed it here. "An apostle is a minister plenipotentiary."

Hebrews 6:4-6 — meaning can be exaggerated to the point of distortion when he is understood to say that for sins committed after baptism there can be no repentance. F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 122. The most difficult word in this passage is "impossible," which seems to perplex most of the writers. Macknight wrote that "The apostle does not mean that it is impossible for God to renew a second time an apostate; but that

James 2:26 — the noun Solifidianism is derived, means "one who maintains that faith alone, without works, is the one requisite to salvation (from Latin "solus", alone plus "fides", faith)." Britannica World Dictionary. Under James 2:26 it was explained that Solifidianism is founded upon an altogether inadequate understanding of the true ground of justification, that ground being neither human faith nor obedience nor both of them together. The one and only true grounds are the perfect

1 Peter 1:1-2 — the outstanding things about this passage is that it takes words and conceptions which had originally applied only to Jews and applies them to Christians." William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 165. These are elect, Chosen, Dispersion, and sojourners. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ …" Peter was the beloved name that Jesus himself had bestowed upon this apostle, and is the Greek form of the Aramaic name meaning "stone"

Revelation 17 overview — "But this is exactly what happened to the Catholic Church, and not only to her but to many Protestant churches." <footnote Ibid., p. 252. This is a very strong argument. 3.    The astonishment of the apostle (Revelation 17:6) would be impossible to understand if it merely meant that a pagan city was in league with the devil. On the other hand, it would indeed be grounds for astonishment if Apostate Christianity itself was so revealed. 4.    The glorified

Revelation 8:1 — derive from this interpretation; but first, we shall give the interpretation of this verse as found in the writings of others: It is a silence of fearful apprehension. Ralph Earle, Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. 10 (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1967), p. 551. The silence is transitional. Ray Summers, Worthy is the Lamb (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1961), p. 153. It introduces a new series of symbols (the trumpets). W. S. Thompson, Comments on Revelation (Memphis, Texas: Southern Church Publications,