Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 40:5 — (5) The glory of the Lord shall be revealed.—Did the prophet think of a vision of a glory-cloud, like the Shechinah which he had seen in the Temple? or had he risen to the thought of the glory of character and will, of holiness and love? (John 1:14.) All

Isaiah 50:11 — (11) All ye that kindle a fire.—The words obviously point to any human substitute for the Divine light, and thus include the two meanings which commentators have given them: (1) Man’s fiery wrath, that worketh not the righteousness of God; and (2) man’s

Jeremiah 12:6 — (6) Thy brethren.—It is not certain whether we are to think actually of the sons of the same father, or only of the men of Anathoth (Jeremiah 11:23), as belonging to the same section of the priesthood. The language of Jeremiah 9:5 favours the more literal

Ezekiel 17:24 — (24) All the trees of the field shall know.—As the cedar represents the kingdom of Israel, so the other trees represent all other earthly powers who shall ultimately acknowledge the work of the Lord in the redemption of mankind through His Son. Have

Matthew 19:16 — (16) Behold, one came and said . . .—The vagueness with which a man who must have been conspicuous is thus introduced, without a name, is every way significant. He was, like Nicodemus, “a ruler of the Jews” (Luke 18:18), i.e., probably, a member of

Matthew 26:21 — (21) One of you shall betray me.—The words would seem to have been intentionally vague, as if to rouse some of those who heard them to self-questioning. They had not, it is true, shared in the very guilt of the Traitor, but they had yielded to tendencies

Matthew 26:57 — (57) To Caiaphas the high priest.—St. John alone, probably from the special facilities which he possessed as known to the high priest, records the preliminary examination before Annas (John 18:13; John 18:19-24). It was obviously intended to draw from

Luke 1:26 — (26) And in the sixth month.—The time is obviously reckoned from the commencement of the period specified in Luke 1:24. A city of Galilee, named Nazareth.—The town so named (now en-Nazirah) was situated in a valley among the hills that rise to a height

Luke 17:28 — (28) Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot.—The illustration does not occur in the otherwise parallel passage of Matthew 24:26-27, but was naturally suggested by our Lord’s frequent reference to the Cities of the Plain (Luke 10:12; Matthew 10:15;

Luke 17:5 — (5) The apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.—The form in which the fragment that thus commences is brought before us suggests, as has been stated before (see Notes on Luke 7:13; Luke 10:1), that it was a comparatively late addition to the

Luke 21:25-33 — (25-33) And there shall be signs in the sun.—See Notes on Matthew 24:29-35, Mark 13:24-31, where the “signs” are defined as the “sun being darkened, and the moon not giving her light.” Distress of nations.—The Greek for the first noun means literally,

Luke 21:28 — (28) Look up.—The Greek word, literally, bend up, or turn up, meets us here and in Luke 13:11, and nowhere else in the New Testament, except in the doubtful passage of John 8:7; John 8:10. Redemption.—The word, familiar as it is to us, is, in the special

Luke 24:31 — (31) And he vanished out of their sight.—Literally, He became invisible. The adjective does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. In the order of time this is the first example of the new conditions of our Lord’s risen life. It was not that He rose

Luke 8:24 — (24) Master, master.—We note another characteristic feature of Luke’s phraseology. The Greek word (epistatès) which he, and he only, uses in the New Testament, is his equivalent, here and elsewhere, for the “Rabbi” or “Master” (didaskalos), in the sense

John 17:2 — (2) As thou hast given him power over all flesh.—Better, According as thou gavest Him . . . This is the ground on which the prayer in John 17:1 is based. (Comp. John 10:36; John 13:3.) The glory for which He asks is in accordance with the decree which

John 19:7 — (7) We have a law, and by our law he ought to die.—The better reading is,. . . . and by the law He ought to die. (Comp. Leviticus 24:16.) They feel the bitter sarcasm of Pilate’s taunt, and appeal to their own law, which, in accordance with the general

John 4:4 — (4) He must needs go through Samaria—i.e., following the shortest and most usual road, and the one we find Him taking from Galilee to Jerusalem (Luke 9:52; see Note there). Josephus spoke of this as the customary way of the Galileans going up during

1 Corinthians 15:5 — (5) That he was seen of Cephas.—From the indications of sequence here given we may conclude that the appearances here grouped together are arranged in chronological order. We have these appearances:—(1) To Cephas (see Luke 24:34). (2) To the Twelve—the

Hebrews 7:14 — (14) Evident.—That is to say, manifest before the eyes of all. Sprang.—Better, hath arisen out of Judah. In every other place in the New Testament this word is applied to the rising of the sun, the light, the day-star (2 Peter 1:19), or the clouds (Luke

2 Peter 2:18 — (18) Great swelling words of vanity.—Exaggeration, unreality, boastfulness, and emptiness are expressed by this phrase. It carries on the same idea as the waterless wells and the driven mists—great pretensions and no results. The rebuke here is not