Bible Commentaries

Matthew 24:30 — 30. ] This τότε , so emphatically placed and repeated, is a definite declaration of time , not a mere sign of sequence or coincidence, as e.g. in Matthew 24:23 : when these things shall have been somewhile filling men’s hearts with fear, THEN shall, &c. It is quite uncertain what the σημεῖον shall be: plainly, not the Son of Man Himself , as Some explain it (even Bengel, generally so valuable in

Matthew 25:31-46 — reality of which is proved by the passages of Scripture cited in the notes above, and during which all Christians shall be judged. We now come to the great and universal judgment at the end of this period, also prophesied of distinctly in order in Rev 20:11-15 in which all the dead , small and great, shall stand before God. This last great judgment answers to the judgment on Jerusalem, after the Christians had escaped from it: to the gathering of the eagles (ministers of vengeance) to the carcase.

Matthew 26:26-29 — 26 29. ] INSTITUTION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER. Mark 14:22-25 .Luke 22:19-20; Luke 22:19-20 . 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 . We may remark on this important part of our narrative, (1) That it was demonstrably our Lord’s intention to found an ordinance

Matthew 26:73 — the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are: A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us א -corr 1 ; B (cited as א 2 ), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; C a (cited as א 3a ) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading

Luke 2:35 — 35. ] This prophecy I do not believe to have its chief reference to the deep sorrows of the mother of our Lord on beholding His sufferings (Euthym [27] , alli [28] .), much less to her future death by martyrdom (Epiphan., Lightf.); least of all to the Crucifixion, which by shedding the blood of her Son, would also pierce her heart and drain it of its life-blood and make it childless, as Bp. Wordsw.

Luke 22:24-30 — 24 30. ] DISPUTE FOR PRE-EMINENCE. OUR LORD’S REPLY. Without attempting to decide the question whether this incident is strictly narrated in order of time, or identical with one of those strifes on this point related Matthew 18:1 ; Matthew 20:20

John 16:26 — 26. ] “The more knowledge, the more prayer in the name of Jesus,” Lücke. “Cognitio parit orationem,” Bengel. The approaching the Father through Him shall be a characteristic of their higher state under the dispensation of the Spirit.

John 4:24 — 24. ] πνεῦμα ὁ θεός was the great Truth of Judaism, whereby the Jews were distinguished from the idolatrous people around them. And the Samaritans held even more strongly than the Jews the pure monotheistic view. Traces of this, remarks Lücke (from Gesenius),

John 7:39 — ἔλεγεν , Οὔπω γὰρ ἦν πνεῦμα ἅγιον , τουτέστι δοθέν , ἐπεὶ Ἰησοῦς οὔπω ἐδοξάσθη · δόξαν καλῶν τὸν σταυρόν . It is obvious that ἦν cannot refer to the essential existence of the Holy Spirit, as this would be not only in flat contradiction to ch. John 1:32-33 ; John 3:5 ; John 3:8 ; John 3:34 , but to the whole O.T., in which the agency of the Spirit in the outward world is recognized even more vividly than in the N.T. The ἦν implies not exactly δεδομένον , but rather ἐνεργοῦν , or some similar word:

Acts 1:13 — 13. εἰσῆλθ .] ‘into the city;’ see reff. τὸ ὑπερῷ .] The idea that this was a chamber in the Temple has originated in low literal-harmonistic views, Luke having stated ( Luk 24:53 ) that they were διὰ παντὸς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ . As if such an expression could be literally understood, or taken to mean more than that they were there at all appointed times (see ch. Act 3:1 ). It is in the highest degree improbable that the disciples

Acts 15:22 — 22. ] ἐκλεξαμένους must not (with Kuin., al.) be taken for ἐκλεχθέντας ; the 1 aor. middle can never have a passive signification: see Lobeck’s note on Phrynichus, p. 319: where he gives a collection of seeming instances of such usage and explains

Acts 26:8 — by this hope , in my own case, my believing it accomplished in the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth.’ Then, this being acknowledged, he goes on to shew how his own view became so changed with regard to Jesus; drawing, by the μὲν οὖν ( Act 26:9 ), a contrast in some respects between himself , who was supernaturally brought to the faith, and them , who yet could not refuse to believe that God could and might raise the dead. All this he mainly addresses to Agrippa ( Act 26:26 ), as being

Acts 6:1 — divisions , which from this time onward disquieted her. ἐν τ . ἡμ . τ . ] See ch. Acts 1:15 : but not necessarily as there, ‘within a very few days:’ the expression is quite indefinite. Some time must have elapsed since ch. Acts 4:32 . Ἑλληνιστῶν Ἑβραίους ] The Hellenists (from ἑλληνίζειν ) were the Grecian Jews : not only those who were themselves proselytes, nor only those who came of families once proselytized, but all who, on account of origin or habitation, spoke Greek

Romans 11:8 — are not, as Beza, E. V., Griesb., Knapp, to be separated from the citation, and joined to ἐπωρώθησαν : they belong to the words in Deut. and are adduced by St. Paul as applying to the day then present, as they did to the day when Moses spoke them: see 2 Corinthians 3:15 .

Romans 4:1 — but a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith being yet uncircumcised ( Rom 4:11 ), and by the whole course of the argument in the present place, which is not to disprove the exclusive privilege of the Jew (that having been already done, chs. 2. 3.), but to shew that the father and head of the race himself was justified not by works, but by faith . Doubtless, in so far as circumcision was a mere work of obedience , it might be in a loose way considered as falling under that category: but

1 Corinthians 6:1 — Dares …, Bengel remarks, “Grandi verbo notatur læsa majestas Christianorum.” τις , no particular individual, but any one : for he proceeds in the plur., 1Co 6:4 ; 1 Corinthians 6:7 . πρᾶγμα ] So ref. and Demosth. κατὰ Στεφ . α . p. 1120, τῷ μὲν υἱεῖ τῷ τούτου πολλῶν πραγμάτων ὄντων οὐ παρέστη πώποτε οὐδ ʼ ἐβοήθησεν ; κρίνεσθαι , reff., to go to law . So Eur. Med. 609, ὡς οὐ κρινοῦμαι τῶνδε σοὶ τὰ πλείονα , and Anthol. ii. 30, δυσκώφῳ δύσκωφος ἐκρίνετο , καὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἦν ὁ κριτὴς

1 Corinthians 7:36-38 — Grot., al.) take ἀσχημονεῖν passively, ‘thinks that he is (likely to be) brought into disgrace as regards his daughter ,’ viz. by her seduction, or by her being despised as unmarried. But this would require (1) the future ἀσχημονήσειν . (2) ἐπί with a dative , the acc . shewing that the verb is one of action : Meyer compares ἀσχημονεῖν εἴς τινα , Dion. Hal. ii. 26. And (3) the active sense of the verb is found in this Epistle (ref.), the only other place where it occurs in the N. T.

2 Corinthians 11:24-25 — 24, 25. ] are parenthetical, explaining some of the foregoing expressions: the construction is resumed, 2 Corinthians 11:26 . At the hands of the Jews five times received I forty save one (in Deuteronomy 25:3 , it is prescribed that not more than forty

2 Corinthians 12:14 — 14. ] τρίτον (the τοῦτο , though so strongly attested, can hardly have been omitted , had it ever been in the text, and therefore has probably been inserted from ch. 2Co 13:1 ) ἑτ . ἔχω ἐλθ ., must, from the context , mean, I am ready to come the third time ; not, ‘ I am the third time ready to come ,’ i.e. ‘this is the third time that I have been ready to come to you.’ This latter

2 Corinthians 5:11 — Domini,’ better than the right one: Chrys., Theodoret, Theophyl., ‘ of our own integrity ,’ and so in the main, Estius, Bengel, Olsh., De Wette, and Meyer, though he seems to object to it, for he connects the words with the φιλοτιμία of 2 Corinthians 5:9 : Erasm., Luther, Wolf, Hammond, al., understand πείθομεν of the endeavour to make ourselves acceptable to men ; Cornel.-a-Lapide, Le Clerc, al., ‘ eundem hunc timorem hominibus suademus.’ But from the context, it must