Bible Commentaries

Genesis 28:10 — the wrath of a brother, but one cannot flee beyond the watchful eye of the Lord. No more could Jacob than Jonah, run away from God. Every man must discover (soon or late) that "Surely God is in this place (every place)" whether men know it or not. (3)    The ladder is also a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The ladder was "the way" between earth and heaven; and Christ affirmed that he is indeed "The Way" (John 14:6); and, as Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and descending

Genesis 30:1-42 — The last paragraph of the preceding chapter and most of this one relate the birth of the Twelve Patriarchs. The last section of this chapter (Genesis 30:24-43) relates Jacob's preparations to leave Laban and return to Canaan. As the birth of the antediluvian patriarchs was discussed earlier and presented by means of a chart, the Twelve Patriarchs of Israel will now be presented in much the same manner.

Psalms 149 overview — of the Maccabean wars."International Critical Commentary, Vol. II, p. 542. Barnes placed it, "After the return from the captivity."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), Vol. III, p. 335. Rawlinson declined to date it at all. Ballard wrote that, "The date is late";The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IV, p. 757. but he admitted that, "We must allow that the psalm may have reference to some earlier event in Jewish history."Ibid., IV, p. 758.

Leviticus 18:6-18 — life-time." With minor exceptions, the stipulations here are clear enough and hardly need any comment. "Uncover the nakedness of" This, as used here, simply means "to marry."J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 96. However, in the extended meaning, it has reference to sexual intercourse, which by implication is also included in the prohibitions here. Here is a list of the prohibited marriages: The all-embracing injunction was simply this: that all marriages

Isaiah 9:1-7 — passage should not be confusing. "These tenses are factitive, or prophetic tenses,"T. K. Cheyne's Commentary, p. 58. or, as McGuiggan stated it, "The language is in the present or the past because of the certainty of the prophecy."Jim McGuiggan, p. 103. "As in the day of Midian" This brings up a question as to why that particular deliverance was the one selected for mention here. Rawlinson has the best explanation of this we have seen. The great deliverance promised under the reign of Messiah in this

Amos 9:8 — was also their rejection of their own status as "God's chosen people," a term that henceforth would apply to the "righteous remnant" and not to Israel as a whole. McKeating interpreted this and the preceding verse 7 as "a formal contradiction of Amos 3:2, `For you alone have I cared among all the nations of the world.'"Henry McKeating, Cambridge Bible Commentary, Amos (Cambridge: University Press, 1971), p. 67. However, these verses are not speaking of the same thing. God's solicitous care for "you,"

Numbers 1:1-54 — sacred text of Numbers has suffered little or no damage from transition throughout the millenniums through which it has descended to us in its present form.George Buchanan Gray, International Critical Commentary, Numbers (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1903), p. xxxix. Allegations protesting the "lack of unity" in Numbers are based on blindness to the fact that a definitive account of any forty-year period of any nation's history would of necessity carry many items impossible of being fitted into any schematic

Numbers 26:1-65 — shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun." Here is a graphic summary of this census and that of the first chapter, showing the changes during the intervening 38 years. GRAPHIC SUMMARYFirstSecondNet%%TribeFamiliesCensusCensusChangeGainLossREUBEN446,50043,7302,2706%SIMEON559,30022,20037,10063%GAD745,65040,5005,15011%JUDAH574,60076,5001,9002 1/2%ISSACHAR454,40064,3009,90018%ZEBULUN357,40060,5003,1005 1/2%EPHRAIM440,50032,5008,00020%MANASSEH832,20052,70020,50063%BENJAMIN735,40045,60010,20029%DAN162,70064,4001,7002

Numbers 31:1-12 — usually begin their analysis here by shouting that the size of the victory makes it impossible that such a great triumph was achieved by only 12,000 men. First, it was God's triumph, not that of the 12,000! Their status was exactly the same as that of the 300 helpers of Gideon to whom God also gave a great victory. Secondly, the word rendered "thousand" here is actually [~'eleph]; "This word is here and elsewhere translated `a thousand,' but more likely means contingent or unit."W. Gunther Plaut, Torah,

Malachi 1:2-3 — does this mean? Does it carry the affirmation mentioned by Lewis? "The prophet writes to encourage the people by affirming that GOD STILL LOVES ISRAEL (caps added)."Jack Lewis, The Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1968), p. 83. In these verses, "The prophet shows that Jehovah still loves Israel."George I. Robinson, The Twelve Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1926), p. 163. "The tense of the verb indicates not only a love that has operated in the past,

John 1:29 — from sin. In this world's terrible night of darkness and despair, how grandly do the words go marching in the gloom: ransomed, redeemed, propitiated, bought with a price, saved by the blood of Christ (1 Timothy 2:6; 1 John 4:10; 1 John 2:1-2; Romans 3:25; 1 Peter 1:18-19; and 1 Corinthians 6:20). C.    Christ removes sin far away. He takes away the guilt, the penalty and the practice of sin. He is the sin-bearer for all humanity. God "laid upon him the iniquity of us all"

John 1:51 — earthly visitation. (See Genesis 28:12.) The emphasis upon "Son of man" here, rather than upon "Son of God" was probably due to Jesus' purpose of reserving emphasis on the latter until the time of Peter's confession (Matthew 16:13 f). The meaning of both titles carries the implication of Christ's deity; but "Son of God," in the popular mind, was too closely associated with "King of Israel," in the exact manner of Nathaniel's confession; and it was not time

John 10:34-36 — others, did not believe it. C. The apostate church did not believe it. D. Faithless Christians of all ages have not believed it. E. So-called "modernists" who explain away the Scriptures do not believe it. F. The world does not believe it (John 3:19). III.    And yet the text is true. For generations, men believed the earth was flat, but their belief did not alter the truth; and so it is with the unbreakable word of God. If every man on earth disbelieved and repudiated the

Romans 2:28-29 — done, is an error. These words, "in the spirit not in the letter" do not mean that the external rite of circumcision was not necessary under the law, any more than Peter's "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh" (1 Peter 3:21) means that the outward ceremony of baptism was to be omitted, but only that there was an inward meaning designed to accompany the outward act. The legitimate deduction is that: just as there was an absolute necessity under the law of Moses to combine

1 Peter 2:6-8 — usually called by that name today. "It was the stone at the extremity of the angle which controls the design of the edifice and is visible." Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 109. In the church, Christ is both the foundation stone (1 Corinthians 3:11) and the cornerstone. CHRIST, THE CORNERSTONE In Christ, the Law of Moses ended; and the gospel began. In Christ, the Old Testament culminated; and the New Testament began. In Christ, all history split into B.C. and A.D. In Christ, the wicked find

1 Peter 4:7 — things is at hand: be ye therefore of sound mind, and be sober unto prayer: DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM Such a verse as this, along with many others similar to it, is a problem to some people. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:12), "The Lord is at hand" (Philippians 4:5), "The coming of the Lord is at hand" (James 5:8), "It is the last hour" (1 John 2:18), "The time is near" (Revelation 1:3). What is actually meant by all such expressions

1 John 1:1 — as well as the thundering echoes of the gospel prologue with which this passage has close affinity convince us that Roberts' firm comment on this is correct: John is referring to Christ and to his existence with the Father from eternity. In 1 John 2:13, he will speak of Christ as "one who was from the beginning." Compare John 1:1-2; John 1:14; John 17:5.J. W. Roberts, The Letters of John (Austin, Texas: R. B. Sweet Company, 1968), p. 20. That which we have heard … Who are the "we"

Revelation 17:11 — refers to Nero who was reigning when John wrote, who died, and came alive again (redivivus) and became the eighth emperor after the death of the seventh emperor who had succeeded to the throne after Nero's death! See our introduction to Revelation 13, above, under "The Mortal Wound that did not Heal," for a very perceptive quotation from Albertus Pieters who declared that the acceptance of this interpretation (of Nero redivivus) denies the book of Revelation as "a genuine prophecy."

Revelation 18 overview — and his vassal kings, a long section on the same theme depicts in greater detail the destruction of the once proud city. George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), p. 235. Thus, both Revelation 17 and Revelation 18 are successive "close-ups" of the great judgment of Revelation 16:20. At the end of these (Revelation 18:21), the final judgment is again symbolized by the hurling of the mighty boulder into the

Revelation 7:4-8 — 1900), pp. 405,406. The blindness of this view is identical with that of the Pharisees who claimed to be sons of Abraham (and, literally, they were); but Jesus said, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham" (John 8:39). John's .calling the church the twelve tribes of Israel came directly from the lips of Jesus (Matthew 19:28); and therefore "fleshly Israel," called by Jesus himself "the children of the devil" (John 8:44), simply cannot fit into