Bible Commentaries

Matthew 10:42 — 42. τῶν μικρῶν ] To whom this applies is not very clear. Hardly (De Wette) to the despised and meanly-esteemed for Christ’s sake. I should rather imagine some children may have been present; for of such does our Lord generally use this term,

Matthew 2:13 — ( in the morning ), take .’ The command was immediate; and Joseph made no delay. He must be understood, on account of νυκτός below, as having arisen the same night and departed forthwith. The words ἐγερθεὶς παρέλαβεν are also used in Matthew 2:20-21 , where no haste is necessarily implied. Egypt, as near , as a Roman province and independent of Herod , and much inhabited by Jews , was an easy and convenient refuge. τοῦ ἀπολ . is not a Hebraism, but pure Greek, implying the purpose

Matthew 2:3 — 3. ἐταράχθη ] Josephus, Antt. xvii. 2. 4, represents these troubles as raised by the Pharisees, who prophesied a revolution. Ἡρώδῃ μὲν καταπαύσεως ἀρχῆς ὑπὸ Θεοῦ ἐψηφισμένης αὐτῷ τε καὶ γένει τῷ ἀπ ʼ αὐτοῦ . Herod, as a foreigner and usurper, feared one who was born King of the Jews: the

Matthew 5:5 — announcement, that the meek should inherit the earth, struck at the root of the temporal expectations of power and wealth in the Messiah’s kingdom. This meekness is not mere outward lowliness of demeanour, but that true πραΰτης of Ephesians 4:2 , whose active side (Stier) is ἀγάπη , and its passive side μακροθυμία . On the promise, compare Isaiah 57:13-15 ; Isaiah 60:21 ; 1 Corinthians 3:22 . That kingdom of God which begins in the hearts of the disciples of Christ, and is not ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου

Matthew 9:30 — , μετ ʼ αὐστηρότητος ἐπιτιμᾷν . The purpose of our Lord’s earnestness appears to have been twofold: (1) that He might not be so occupied and over-pressed with applications as to have neither time nor strength for the preaching of the Gospel: (2) to prevent the already-excited people from taking some public measure of recognition, and thus arousing the malice of the Pharisees before His hour was come. No doubt the two men were guilty of an act of disobedience in thus breaking the Lord’s

Acts 13:20 — 20 .] Treating the reading of [64] [65] [66] [67] (see var. readd.) as an attempt at correcting the difficult chronology of our verse, and taking the words as they stand, no other sense can be given to them, than that the time of the judges lasted 450

Acts 16:18 — grammar, whether the dat. τῷ πνεύματι is to be constructed with ἐπιστρέψας or with εἶπεν . But considering 1) that the spirit could hardly be the object of a bodily movement on the part of the Apostle, except as represented by the possessed damsel, and 2) that ἐπιστρέφω is never elsewhere found with a dative, but always with a preposition, εἰς or πρός or ἐπί , it is much the best to take τῷ πνεύματι with εἶπεν , and believe it to be thrown forward before its verb for the sake of emphasis.

Acts 20:31 — Paul. On the three years spoken of in this verse, see note, ch. Acts 19:10 . We may just remark here (1) that this passage being precise and definite, must be the master key to those others (as in ch. 19) which give wide and indefinite notes of time: and (2) that it seems at first sight to preclude the idea of a journey (as some think) to Crete and Corinth having taken place during this period. But this apparent inference may require modifying by other circumstances: cf. Prolegg. to 1 Cor. § Acts 20:4

Romans 16:26 — 26. ] See ch. Romans 1:2 . The prophetic writings were the storehouse out of which the preachers of the gospel took their demonstrations that Jesus was the Christ: see Acts 18:28 ; more especially, it is true, to the Jews , who however are here included

Romans 2:4 — 4. ] ἤ , or (introducing a new error or objection, see ch. Romans 3:29 ; Romans 6:3 ; Rom 11:2 ), ‘ inasmuch as God spares thee day by day (see Ecc 8:11 ), dost thou set light by His long-suffering, ignorant that His intent in it is to lead thee to repentance ?’ πλούτου , a favourite word with the Apostle

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 — 4 6. ] But (as contrasted to this absolute unity, in ground and principle, of all spiritual influence) there are varieties (in reff. 2 Chron. and Ezra, used of the courses or divisions of the priests) of gifts ( χαρίσματα = eminent endowments of individuals, in and by which the Spirit indwelling in them manifested Himself, the φανέρωσις τοῦ πνεύματος in each man: and these either

Galatians 3:3 — 3 .] Are ye so (to such an extent, emph.) foolish (as viz. the following fact would prove)? Having begun (see Philippians 1:6 , where the same two verbs occur together, and 2 Corinthians 8:6 , where προενήρξατο is followed by ἐπιτελέσῃ . Understand, ‘the Christian life’) in the Spirit (dative of the manner in which, reff. The Spirit, i.e. the Holy Spirit, guiding and ruling the spiritual life, as the ‘essence

Galatians 4:2 — 2 .] ἐπιτρόπους , overseers of the person; guardians: οἰκονόμους , overseers of the property, stewards . See Ellicott’s and Bagge’s notes. προθεσμία , the time (previously) appointed . The word (an adjective used substantively: scil.

Philippians 4:21 — 21 .] πάντα ἅγιον , every individual saint . The singular has love and affection, and should not be lost as in Conyb., ‘Salute all God’s people .’ ἐν χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ] belongs more probably to ἀσπάσασθε , see Romans 16:22 ; 1 Corinthians

1 Thessalonians 3:12 — 12 .] ὑμᾶς δέ emphatic ‘sive nos veniemus sivo minus,’ Bengel. ὁ κύριος may refer either to the Father, or to Christ. It is no objection to the former, that τ . θεοῦ κ . πατρ . ἡμ . is repeated below, any more than it is to the latter that

1 Timothy 4:15 — 15 .] These things (viz. the things enjoined 1Ti 4:12-14 ) do thou care for, in these things be ( employed ) (Wetst. cites Plut. Pomp. p. 656 b, ἐν τούτοις ὁ Καῖσαρ .… ἦν : Lucret. iii. 1093, ‘versamur ibidem, atque insumus usque:’ Hor. Ep. i. 1. 11, ‘quod verum atque decens curo et

Hebrews 12:1 — have not exhausted the meaning of μάρτυρες . It is improbable, as Delitzsch well observes, that the Writer should have used the word μάρτυρες so closely upon μαρτυρηθέντες , ch. Hebrews 11:39 , without any reference to that idea. See also Hebrews 11:2 ; Hebrews 11:4-5 . So that we can hardly help giving to ‘witnesses’ a sense not confined to their looking on upon us, but extending to their ethical condition of witnesses for the faith. But we may notice, that Delitzsch in contending for

2 Peter 1:11 — latent in the verb: and must therefore be interpreted in and with the interpretation of the verb: in which case it will indicate high degrees and fulness of glory) furnished to you (the verb seems expressly chosen in order to answer to ἐπιχορηγήσατε , 2 Peter 1:5 ; “furnish forth your own lives with these Christian graces, so shall be furnished to you” &c.) the [or, your ] entrance (which all Christians look for: not the fact of this entrance taking place, but the fact of its πλουσίως

1 John 4:1-6 — 1 6 .] Warning against, and criteria whereby to distinguish, false teaching . This passage takes up again, with reference to this portion of the Epistle, the similar warning given in the former portion, ch. 1 John 2:18 ff. It is intimately connected with what has immediately preceded. By brotherly love we are to know that we are of the truth, ch. 1 John 3:19 , and the token that He abideth in us is to be the Spirit which He gave us. This Spirit, the Spirit of Truth,

Revelation 1:3 — ἀναγινώσκων . Considering that no such transition is elsewhere found, we can hardly escape the inference that it was intended. And so the great majority of Commentators: so Andreas (“plures uno legente possunt audire,” Gloss. ord.), Bed [2] (“doctores et auditores”), Lyra (“ qui legit , quantum ad doctores: qui audiunt , quantum ad discipulos”), &c.: Bengel (“unus, ille primum, per quem Johannes librum ex Patmo in Asiam misit, legebat publice in ecclesiis,