Bible Commentaries

Matthew 12:1-8 — 1 8. ] THE DISCIPLES PLUCK EARS OF CORN ON THE SABBATH. OUR LORD’S ANSWER TO THE PHARISEES THEREON. Mark 2:23-28 . Luke 6:1-5 . In Mark and Luke this incident occurs after the discourse on fasting related Mat 9:14 sq.; but in the former without any definite mark of time: St. Mark has ἐγένετο παραπορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς σάββασιν κ . τ . λ .: St. Luke ἐγέν

Matthew 24:40-41 — 40, 41. ] From this point (or perhaps even from Matthew 24:37 , as historic resemblance is itself parabolic) the discourse begins to assume a parabolic form, and gradually passes into a series of formal parables in the next chapter. These verses set forth that, as in the times of Noah, men and women shall

Matthew 5:40-41 — 40, 41. ] See note on Matthew 5:39 . κριθῆναι imports legal contention only , and is thus distinguished from the violence in Matthew 5:39 . (Meyer, against Tholuck (but not in edn. 3) and De Wette.) λαβεῖν , i.e. in pledge for a debt: see Exodus 22:26 . χιτῶνα , the inner and less costly garment; ἱμάτιον , the outer and more valuable, used also by the poor as a coverlet by night (Exod. ubi supra). In Luk 6:29 the order is inverted, and appears to be that in which the two garments would be

Matthew 8:3 — of the leper, Leviticus 5:3 . It was an act which stood on the same ground as the healing on the Sabbath, of which we have so many instances. So likewise the prophets Elijah and Elisha touched the dead in the working of a miracle on them (1 Kings 17:21 ; 2Ki 4:34 ). The same almighty power which suspends natural laws, supersedes ceremonial laws. Here is a noble example illustrating His own precept so lately delivered, ‘Give to him that asketh thee.’ Again, we can hardly forbear to recognize,

Mark 9:12 — 12. ] Meyer and others place the interrogation after τοῦ ἀνθρώπου , and regard ἵνα πολ .… as its answer. But not to mention that such a sentence would be without example in our Lord’s discourses, the sense given by it is meagre in the extreme.

Luke 11:41 — Erasmus, Lightfoot, Kuinoel, Schleiermacher, &c., understands this as ironical ‘ but ye give alms of their contents, and behold, all things are clean (in your estimation) to you .’ But (1) this is inconsistent with the imperative δότε . (2) It would require ἐκ τῶν ἐνότων , for the Pharisees did not give τὰ ἐνόντα in this sense. (3) It would be altogether irrelevant to the matter in hand, which was reproof to the Pharisees for their care about outward cleanliness, when the inside was

Luke 12:1-12 — 1 12. ] WARNING AGAINST HYPOCRISY. A discourse spoken immediately or very soon after the former, and in connexion with it; consisting for the most part of sayings repeated from other occasions, and found nearly verbatim in Matt. It is impossible that there

Luke 24:13 — 13. ] ἐξ αὐτῶν , not of the Apostles the last-mentioned were οἱ ἕνδεκα καὶ πάντες οἱ λοιποί , Luke 24:9 : see also Luke 24:22 , ἐξ ἡμῶν . One of them, Luke 24:18 , was called Kleopas (= Κλεόπατρος , probably a different name from Κλωπᾶς , John 19:25 ( חלפי ): see note on Mat 10:3 ). Who the other was, is idle to conjecture. Origen, in several places,

Luke 4:25 — 25. ] Our Lord brings forward instances where the two greatest prophets in Israel were not directed to act in accordance with the proverb , ‘Physician heal thyself:’ but their miraculous powers exerted on those who were strangers to God’s

Luke 9:46 — εἴη μ . meaning that each one thought “Who is greater than I?” (Meyer, in loc.) is absurd enough. Still more absurd however is the harmonistic attempt of Greswell, to make two distinct events out of (1) the incident in Mark and Luke, and (2) that in Matthew; one, ‘ absente Petro ,’ the other ‘ reverso Petro, discipuli sponte contentionem suam ad Jesum referunt; de qua Ille uti prius, sed uberius, disserit .’ (Harmony, p. 192, 3.) He has been led into this partly

John 1:14 — ref. 1 John. The expression is not guarded against the interpretation of the Apollinarian heretics, who held that the Lord had not a human soul ( ψυχή ); but this error was not in the Apostle’s view, and is abundantly refuted elsewhere (see Mat 26:38 and note on 36 46, and the references there made to John’s Gospel). ἐσκήνωσεν , ‘ sojourned ,’ or ‘ tabernacled ,’ in us. There is no reference to the flesh being the tabernacle of the Spirit; but the word is

John 14:17 — ‘the true Spirit,’ but ‘THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH;’ the Spirit Who is truth , 1 John 5:6 , of Whom all truth comes, and who alone leads into the whole truth , the truth of God, ch. John 16:13 . ὁ κόσμος = οἱ ψυχικοί , 1 Corinthians 2:14 , those who live according to the desires of the flesh and the mind, and have no receptivity of the things of God. θεωρεῖ sometimes = γινώσκει , but not here, as being separated from it by οὐδέ : ‘ recognizes not in His operations (obj.)

John 17:6 — verse particularizes John 17:4 , and forms the transition to the intercessory prayer. σου τὸ ὄνομα ] Thy Name of FATHER, which was so constantly on the lips of our Lord; and which derived its living meaning and power from His teaching: see Exodus 23:21 . No especial emphasis on σου : it carries on the strain of address, and points to the emphatic σοί which follows, and the equally emphatic παρὰ σοῦ in John 17:7 . οὓς δέδ . ] The Father gave them to Christ, by leading them to Christ, see

John 3:21 — 21. ] Who is this ποιῶν τ . ἀλήθ . ? the end of ch. 1 will best explain to us, ἐν ᾧ δόλος οὐκ ἔστιν , see also Luke 8:15 , and Psalms 15:0 . The πράσσων πονηρά is crooked and perverse; he has a light, which he does not follow; he knows the light,

John 5:21 — 21. ] It is very important to observe the distinction here between the working of the Eternal Son (in creation, e.g.) as He is ἐν οὐρανῷ , with God, and His working in the state of His humiliation in which the Father should by degrees advance Him to exaltation

John 7:37-38 — 37, 38. ] It is not certain what is meant by this ἡ ἐσχ . ἡμ . ἡ μεγ . The command, Leviticus 23:34-35 , was to keep the feast seven days; the first to be a solemn assembly and a feast-sabbath, then on the eighth day another solemn assembly and a feast-sabbath: so also ib. Leviticus 23:39 . (But in Deu 16:13 nothing is said of the eighth day.)

John 9:1 — concluding words of ch. 8. in the rec [141] . are genuine, would appear to have happened on the same day [as the incidents there related], which is hardly likely, for we should thus have the whole incidents from ch. John 7:37 (omitting ch. Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:12 ), belonging to one day, and that day a sabbath ( Joh 9:14 ). And besides, the circumstances under which Jesus here appears are too usual and tranquil to have succeeded immediately to His escape in ch. John 8:59 . I would rather therefore suppose that

Acts 5:29 — 29. ] Peter, by word of mouth; the Apostles, as a body, by assent , implied in his own utterance and their silence . There is no ellipse of ἄλλοι before ἀπόστ . This defence of Peter divides itself into the propositions of an ordinary syllogism (1)

Hebrews 12:27 — 27 .] But (now) this yet once (more) (Hengstenberg’s idea that the Writer lays no stress on ἔτι ἅπαξ , but, in citing these words, means in fact the whole of the prophecy (“this, ἔτι ἅπαξ κ . τ . λ .”), is evidently absurd. It is

1 John 5:13 — 13 .] This verse seems, as John 20:30 f., like an anticipatory close of the Epistle: and its terms appear to correspond to those used in ch. 1 John 1:4 . This view, which is maintained by Düsterd., is far more probable than that it should refer only to what has occurred since 1 John