Bible Commentaries

Matthew 4:1 — 1. ἀνήχθη εἰς τ . ἔ . ] The Spirit carried Him away, (see Acts 8:39 ,) αὐτὸν ἐκβάλλει , Mark 1:12 ; compare Chrysostom’s excellent remarks on this agency of the Holy Spirit, in the opening of his 13th homily, p. 167. Had St. Luke’s ἤγετο ἐν τῷ πν . been our only account, we might have supposed what took place to have been done in a

Matthew 6:22-23 — 22, 23. ὁ λύχνος ] as lighting and guiding the body and its members: not as containing light in itself. Similarly the inner light, the conscience, lights the spirit and its faculties, but by light supernal to itself. ἁπλοῦς , clear, untroubled in

Mark 16:2 — 2. ἀνατείλαντος τ . ἡλ . ] This does not agree with Matt., τῇ ἐπιφωσκ . εἰς μίαν σαβ .; Luke, ὄρθρου βαθέος : or John, σκοτίας ἔτι οὔσης : nor indeed with λίαν πρωΐ of our narrative itself. If the sun was up, it would be between 6 and 7 o’clock;

John 7:22 — 22. ] διὰ τοῦτο is variously placed; either at the end of John 7:21 , so as to come after θαυμάζετε , (Cod. [98] , lat. q , Theophyl., Beza, and many of the moderns, Lücke, De Wette, Stier, Lachmann, &c.,) or at the beginning of this verse (Codd. [99]

John 8:56 — His second coming , 1 Corinthians 1:8 , &c. &c. But this, as well as the day of His Cross (Euthym, alli [138] .), is out of the question here; and the word Rabbinically was used for the time of the Messiah’s appearance. So we have it, Luke 17:22 ; Luke 17:26 ; but here as there, the expression must not be limited exclusively to the former appearance. From the sense it is evident that Abraham saw by faith and will see in fact, not the first coming only, but that which it introduces and implies,

Acts 7:4 — 4. μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν τὸν πατ . αὐτ . ] In Genesis 11:26 , we read that Terah lived 70 years and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; in Genesis 11:32 , that Terah lived 205 years, and died in Haran; and in Genesis 12:4 , that Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. Since then cir. 70 + 75 = cir. 145, Terah

Romans 5:14 — to Moses ( μέχρι Μωυς . = ἄχρι νόμου above): i.e. although the full ἐλλογισμός of sin did not take place between Adam and Moses, the universality of death is a proof that all sinned , for death is the consequence of sin: in confirmation of Romans 5:12 . καὶ ἐπὶ τ . μὴ ἁμ . ] even (notwithstanding the different degrees of sin and guilt out of, and under, the law) over those who sinned not according to the similitude (reff.) of the TRANSGRESSION of Adam. (1) ἐπὶ τῷ ὁμ . belongs to ἁμαρτ .

Romans 7:25 — 25 .] The rec. εὐχαριστῶ has but slender authority, and in the great variety of readings, it is not easy to determine, ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ is evidently a correction to answer to τίς above; so that our choice lies between χάρις τῷ θ . and χάρις δὲ θ . The

Romans 7:5-6 — with Christ) sinful passions which were by the Law worked in us and brought forth fruit to death: but now that we are dead to the law, we are no longer servants in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit . The Law (ch. Romans 5:20 , alluded to again Rom 6:14 ) was the multiplier of sin To this thought, and the inferences from it, the Apostle now recurs, and contrasts the state under the law in this respect, with that of the believer in Christ. For when we were in the flesh

Romans 8:16 — (not ‘ idem Spiritus ,’ as Erasm. and similarly Luth., Reiche, al.: the αὐτό expresses the independence, and at the same time, as coming from God, the preciousness and importance of the testimony) testifies to our spirit (see ch. Romans 2:15 , and note: not ‘ una testatur :’ the σύν in composition does not refer to τῷ πν . ἡμ ., but to agreement in the fact , as in ‘contestari’ ‘confirmare’) that we are children of God . What is this witness of

2 Corinthians 8:10 — 10. ] 2Co 8:9 was parenthetic: he now resumes the οὐ κατ ʼ ἐπιταγὴν λέγω … And I give my opinion [not ‘ judgment ,’ as rendered in the Version of the Five Clergymen, which is objectionable here, as conveying the very idea which the Apostle wishes

Ephesians 5:1-2 — 1, 2. ] These verses are best taken as transitional, the inference from the exhortation which has immediately preceded, and introduction to the dehortatory passage which follows. Certainly Stier seems right in viewing the περιπατεῖτε as resuming περιπατῆσαι

Philippians 3:18 — . Chrys.), the enemies (the article designates the particular class intended) of the cross of Christ (not, as Thdrt., Luth., Erasm., all., of the doctrine of the Cross: nor is there any reason to identify these with those spoken of Philippians 3:2 . Not Judaistic but Epicurean error, not obliquity of creed but of practice, is here stigmatized. And so Chrys., ἐπειδή τινες ἦσαν ὑποκρινόμενοι μὲν τὸν χριστιανισμόν , ἐν ἀνέσει δὲ ζῶντες κ . τρυφῇ · τοῦτο δὲ ἐναντίον τῷ σταυρῷ ), of whom perdition

1 Thessalonians 4:6 — life. How such Commentators as De Wette and Lünem. can have entertained this view, I am at a loss to imagine. For (1) the sense is carried on from 1 Thessalonians 4:4-5 , without even the repetition of ἕκαστον ὑμῶν to mark the change of topic: and (2) when the Apostle sums up the whole in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 , he mentions merely impurity, without the slightest allusion to the other. To say that more than one kind of sin must be mentioned because of περὶ πάντων τούτων , is mere trifling: the πάντα

Hebrews 10:10 — “Hæc voluntas est Christi , sanctificatio vestra”), Schöttgen, and Carpzov. But clearly this cannot be so) we have been sanctified (see on the word ἁγιάζω , and on the use of the present and past passive participles of it, note on ch. Hebrews 2:11 . Here the perfect part. is used, inasmuch as it is the finished work of Christ in its potentiality, not the process of it on us, which is spoken of: see Hebrews 10:14 , τετελείωκεν εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς τοὺς ἁγιαζομένους : which final completion is here

Hebrews 6:3 — omnino:’ so Hom. I1. ψ . 97, μίνυνθά περ ἀμφιβαλόντε ἀλλήλους , “brevi omnino amplexu fruentes.” See this well worked out, and its relation to περί , πέρας , &c. established, in Hartung’s chapter on the particle, Partikellehre i. 327 344. The effect of this meaning in hypothetical sentences like the present, is to assume the hypothesis as altogether requisite to the previous position: so Soph. Œd. C. 999, εἴπερ ζῆν φιλεῖς , “if, that is, thou lovest life:” Æsch. Ag.

2 Peter 2:15 — often, to be rendered by our English perfect; the English bare past not involving any present consequence, but rather leaving it to be inferred that the state predicated is over now), following out (this seems to be all that the ἐξ - implies; see on ch. 2 Peter 1:16 . It is noticeable, that in [17] Jude the expression is ἐξεχύθησαν ) the way of Balaam ( τῇ ὁδῷ , not merely figuratively, the way (of life), but literally, seeing that it was by a journey that Balaam displeased God: cf. the frequent repetition

1 John 3:4 — iniquitates quædam et legi divinæ alicui repugnant, et ab ingressu regni cœlestis ac similitudine Christi participanda remorantur, donec expurgata fuerint”), or notorious and unrepented sins, or sins against brotherly love (as Luther, and Aug [42] on 1Jn 3:9 ): “peccare contumaciter,” Aret.: “peccato dare operam,” Beza, Piscator: “peccare scientem et volentem,” Seb.-Schmidt, Spener. The assertions are all perfectly general, and regard, in the true root and

Jude 1:9 — sumere:” the blasphemy is not one spoken by , but against , the devil), but said, The Lord rebuke thee (the source of the tradition to which St. Jude here refers as familiar to his readers, is not known with any certainty, Origen, περὶ ἀρχῶν , iii. 2. 1, vol. i. p. 138, says, “primo quidem in Genesi serpens Evam seduxisse describitur: de quo in Adscensione Mosis, cujus libelli, meminit in Epistola sua Apostolus Judas, Michael archangelus cum diabolo disputans de corpora Mosis, ait …”

Revelation 16:4-7 — making ὅσιος belong to ὁ ὢν κ . ὁ ἦν , and not in apposition with δικαιος . And that which moves me to it is, 1) the extreme improbability of two epithets, δίκαιος and ὅσιος , both being predicated in such an acknowledgment of an act of justice: and 2) that as I have taken it, it best agrees with the ὅσιος in ch. Revelation 15:4 , where it is predicated of God not as the result of any manifested acts of His, but as an essential attribute confined to Him alone), because Thou didst judge thus (lit.,