Bible Commentaries

Matthew 10:26 — 26. μὴ οὖν ] The force of this is: ‘Notwithstanding their treatment of Me your Master, Mine will be victory and triumph; therefore ye, My disciples, in your turn, need not fear.’ Compare Romans 8:37 . οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστιν ] This solemn truth

Matthew 25:20 — 20. ] The faithful servant does not take the praise to himself μοι παρέδωκας is his confession and ἐπ ʼ αὐτοῖς the enabling cause of his gain; ‘without Me, ye can do nothing,’ John 15:5 . This is plainer in Luke ( Luk 19:16 ), ἡ μνᾶ σου δέκα προσηργάσατο μνᾶς . See 1 Corinthians 15:10 ; and on the joy and alacrity of these faithful servants in the day of reckoning, 1 Thessalonians 2:19 ; 2 Corinthians 1:14 ; Philippians 4:1 .

Matthew 25:21 — 21. ] In Luke ═ ὅτι ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ πιστὸς ἐγένου , ἴσθι ἐξουσίαν ἔχων ἐπάνω δέκα πόλεων where see note. (I cannot imagine with Meyer that εὖ is to be taken with ἐπὶ ὀλίγα ἦς π ., or that it will not bear the sense of ‘Well done!’ Although εὖγε

Matthew 9:4 — 4. ἰδών ] By the spiritual power indwelling in Him. See John 2:24-25 . No other interpretation of such passages is admissible. St. Mark’s expression, ἐπιγνοὺς τῷ πνεύματι αὐτοῦ , is more precise and conclusive. So we have ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι , John 11:33 , synonymous with ἐμβριμώμενος ἐν ἑαυτῷ , ibid.

John 10:17 — 17. ] The λαλεῖν ἐν παροιμίαις is now over, and He speaks plainly , My Father. In this wonderful verse lies the mystery of the love of the Father for the Son; because the Son has condescended to the work of humiliation, and to earn the crown through the cross (see Philippians 2:8-9 , διό ). The ἵνα here is strictly τελικόν , in order that. “Without this purpose in view,” says Stier (iv. 504, edn. 2), “the Death of Christ would neither be lawful nor possible.”

Acts 16:2 — 2. ] Some of these testimonies were probably intimations of the Spirit respecting his fitness for the work ; for Paul speaks, 1 Timothy 1:18 , of τὰς προαγούσας ἐπὶ σὲ προφητείας (see ch. Acts 13:1 ; Act 13:3 ). He was set apart for the work by the laying on of the hands of Paul and of the presbytery, 1 Timothy 4:14 ; 2 Timothy 1:6 , after he had made a good confession before many witnesses, 1 Timothy 6:12 .

Romans 2:27 — 27. ] I prefer with De Wette (and Erasm.), Luth., Bengel, Wetst., Knapp, and Meyer, to regard this verse not as a continuation of the question, but as a separate emphatic assertion, and as leading the way to the next verse. κρινεῖ , ‘shall rise

1 Corinthians 10:4 — without doing violence to the words and construction, to deny that the Apostle has adopted the tradition current among the Jews, that the rock followed the Israelites in their journeyings, and gave forth water all the way. Thus Rabbi Solomon on Numbers 20:2 ; “Per omnes quadraginta annos erat iis puteus” (Lightf.): and Schöttgen cites from the Bammidbar Rabba, “Quomodo comparatus fuit ille puteus (de quo Num 21:16 )? Resp. Fuit sicut petra, sicut alveus apum, et globosus, et volutavit

1 Corinthians 2:8 — 8. ] ἥν is in apposition with the former ἥν , and does not refer to δόξαν , as Tert [1] contra Marc [2] 1 Corinthians 2:6 , vol. ii. p. 483, “subjicit de gloria nostra, quod eam nemo ex principibus hujus ævi scierit …,” for this would be departing from the whole sense of the context, which is, that the wisdom of God was hidden from men.

1 Corinthians 6:2 — 2. ] οὐκ οἴδατε (reff.) appeals to an axiomatic truth. οἱ ἅγιοι τ . κ . κριν . ] that the saints shall judge the world? i.e. as assessors of Christ, at His coming: so Daniel 7:22 (Theod.), ἦλθεν ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμερῶν , καὶ τὸ κρίμα ἔδωκεν ἁγίοις

2 Corinthians 1:17 — of the result, but of the design: ‘ do I plan like the worldly, that I may shift and waver as suits me ?’) the Yea, yea, and the Nay, nay (i.e. both affirmation and negation concerning the same thing)? Chrys, Theodoret, Theophyl., Œc [2] , Calv., Bengel, Billroth, Winer, al., take it thus: ‘ Or those things which I plan, do I plan after the flesh (as fleshly men do), so that my yea must (at all events) be yea, and my nay, nay ?’ i.e. as worldly men who perform their

2 Corinthians 11:30 — 30. ] partly refers back to what has passed since 2 Corinthians 11:23 . The ἀσθένεια not being that mentioned in a different connexion in 2 Corinthians 11:29 , but that of 2 Corinthians 11:21 , to which all since has applied. But the words are not without a forward reference likewise. He will boast of

2 Corinthians 4:1 — 1 .] διὰ τοῦτο refers to the previous description of the freeness and unvailedness of the ministry of the Gospel, and of the state of Christians in general (ch. 2Co 3:18 ). ἔχοντες τ . δ . ταύτ . further expands and explains διὰ τοῦτο . καθὼς ἠλεήθ .] even as we received mercy (from God, at the time of our being appointed; cf. ἠλεήθην , 1Ti 1:16 ): belongs to ἔχ . τ . δ . ταύτ ., not to what follows,

2 Corinthians 5:14 — subjective, as most Commentators; as shewn in His Death , which is the greatest proof of love, see Romans 5:6-8 . Meyer remarks that the gen. of the person after ἀγάπη is with Paul always subjective, Romans 5:5 ; Romans 5:8 ; Romans 8:35 ; Romans 8:39 ; ch. 2 Corinthians 8:24 ; 2 Corinthians 13:13 ; Ephesians 2:4 ; Php 1:9 al. (but see his own note on 2 Thessalonians 3:5 , where he maintains the objective sense), whereas with John it is not always so, 1 John 5:3 . Paul usually expresses love of , i.e.

2 Corinthians 5:4 — 4. ] Confirmation and explanation of 2 Corinthians 5:2 . For also (a reason, why we ἐπιποθοῦμεν ἐπενδύσασθαι .… as in ver.2) we who are in the tabernacle (before spoken of, i.e. of the body), groan, being burdened (not by troubles and sufferings , nor by the body itself , which would

2 Corinthians 9:12 — 12. ] Explanation of the last clause . Because the ministration (not on our part who distribute, though it might at first sight seem so: the next verse decides διακονία to mean, ‘ your administering by contribution ,’ as in 2Co 9:1 ) of

1 Timothy 4:1 — the Holy Spirit of prophecy, speaking in the Apostle himself, or in others, or, which is most probable, in both in the general prophetic testimony which He bore throughout the church: cf. γίνωσκε , spoken from the same point of prophetic foresight, 2 Timothy 3:0 .]. Some (even Wiesinger) have supposed the Apostle to refer to some prophetic passage of the O. T., or to the general testimony of the O. T. prophecies (Daniel 7:25 ; Daniel 8:23 ; Dan 11:30 ), or those of our Lord (Matthew 24:4 ff., Mat

Titus 2:11 — 11 .] For (reasons for the above exhortations from Titus 2:1 ; not as Chrys., al., only for Titus 2:9-10 . The latter clause of Titus 2:10 , it is true, gives occasion to this declaration; but the reference of these verses is far wider than merely to slaves) the grace of God (that divine favour to men, of

Hebrews 12:22 — 22 .] but ye have drawn near (both congregations drew near, cf. Deuteronomy 4:11 , καὶ προσήλθετε καὶ ἔστητε ὑπὸ τὸ ὄρος : the difference is in that, to which. So that Chrys. misses the mark, when he says, ἐκεῖνοι οὐ προσῆλθον , ἀλλὰ πόῤῥωθεν εἱστήκεισαν

1 Peter 4:17 — time is come,” as E. V.) of the judgment (nouns in - μα and - σις became very much confounded in later Greek: witness καύχημα , sometimes hardly distinguishable from καύχησις , even in the passages where we have maintained the concrete meaning, 2 Corinthians 5:12 ; 2 Corinthians 9:3 . And κρῖμα must very often be simply rendered “judgment,” “act of judging:” cf. reff.) beginning at ( ἀπό , reff.: and proceeding onward from) the house of God (explained in the next clause