PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Word Studies in the New Testament — Volume 2
Vincent, Marvin R., 1834-1922 · 194,770 words · 521 reading sections
410 Word Studies In The New Testament. ’
4. John. Note the absence of all official titles, such as are found in Paul; showing that John writes as one whose position is recognized. Seven. Among every ancient people, especially in the East, a religious significance attaches to numbers. This grows out of the instinctive appreciation that number and proporti…
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sake rather than for Egypt’s. Seven times pass over Nebu- chadnezzar, that he may learn that the God of his Jewish cap- tives is king over all the earth (partly quoted and partly con- densed from Trench’s “ Epistles to the Seven Churches”). Seven also occurs as a sacred number in the New Testament. There are seven…
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ch. ii. 7. Seven being the number of the covenant, we have in these seven a representation of the Church universal. In Asia. See on Acts ii. 9. Grace—peace. For grace (dps), see on Luke i. 30. Both words are used by Paul in the salutations of all his Epistles, ex- cept the three Pastorals. From Him which is, and …
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Further, the name does not emphasize so much God’s abstract existence, as it does His permanent covenant relation to His people. Hence the phrase whch ts to come, is to be explained in accordance with the key-note of the book, which is the sec- ond coming of the Son (ch. i. 7; xxii. 20). The phrase which 2s to com…
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(1 Cor. xii. 4). Not the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit are meant, but the divine Personality who imparts them; the one Spirit under the diverse manifestations. Richard of St. Victor (cited by Trench, “Seven Churches”) says: “And from the seven Spirits, that is, from the sevenfold Spirit, which indeed is simple in …
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and salvation to the elect. A faithful witness, because He con- firmed by miracles the truth which He taught in words. A faithful witness, because He denied not, even in death, the Fa- ther’s testimony to Himself. A faithful witness, because He will give testimony in the day of judgment concerning the works of the…
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Washed (Aovcav7s). Read Xbcavrs loosed. Trench remarks on the variation of readings as having grown out of a play on the words Aoutpor, a bathing, and rAwTpov a ransom, both of which express the central benefits which redound to us through the sacrifice and death of Christ. He refers to this play upon words as inv…
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holy and profane (Zech. xiv. 20, 21)—nearer and more remote from God—throngh all being henceforth holy, all being brought to the nearest whereof it is capable, to Him ” (Trench). Unto God and His Father (t® @c@ kal carpi avrod). Lit., to the God and Father of Him. Hence Rev., correctly, Lis God and Father. For the…
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turn, this is better, for it is adoration.” Dr. John Brown in his Memoir of his father, one of the very finest biographical sketches in English literature, records a formula used by him in closing his prayers on specially solemn occasions: “ And now unto Thee,O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the one Jehovah and our …
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Appropriate here as indicating the quickened spiritual discern- ment engendered by the Lord’s appearing, in those who have rejected Him, and who now mourn for their folly and sin. They which (oftwes). The compound relative describes a class. See on Matt. xiii. 52; xxi. 41; Mark xii. 18. Pierced (efexévrncav). See …
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The Almighty (6 ravtoxparwp). Used only once outside of the Apocalypse, in 2 Cor. vi. 18, where it is a quotation. Con- stantly in the Septuagint. 9, | John. Compare Dan. vii. 28; ix. 2; x. 2. Who am also your brother (6 xal ddeApos tpar). Omit xai, also, and render as Rev., John your brother. Companion (cuykowwv…
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with the sovereignty of Christ here upon earth, likewise links it with the consummation of Christ’s kingdom in heaven. Through faith and patience the subjects of that kingdom in- herit the promises. “Rightly he says first ‘in the tribula- tion’ and adds afterwards ‘in the kingdom,’ because, if we suffer together w…
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heaven of a Grecian sky; sometimes bright with its ‘white cloud’ (Apoe. xiv. 14), sometimes torn with ‘lightnings and thunderings,’ and darkened by ‘ great hail,’ or cheered with ‘a rainbow like unto an emerald’ (Apoc. iv. 33 vill. 7; xi. 19; xvi. 21). Over the high tops of Icaria, Samos, and Naxos rise the mounta…
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a connection with the invisible world takes place” (Ebrard). “A divine release from the ordinary ways of men” (Plato, “ Pheedrus,” 265). “You ask, ‘How can we know the infinite?’ I answer, not by reason. It is the office of reason to distinguish and define. The infinite, therefore, cannot be ranked among its objec…
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away. The spirit is joined to the Lord, and, one with Him, transcends itself and all the limitations of human thought. Sufism is the mystical asceticism of Mohammedanism. The ecstasy of a Sufi saint is thus described : ‘¢ My tongue clave fever-dry, my blood ran fire, My nights were sleepless with consuming love, …
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That I should upward look ; but I already Was of my own accord such as he wished ; Because my sight, becoming purified, Was entering more and more into the ray Of the High Light which of itself is true. From that time forward what I saw was greater Than our discourse, that to such vision yields, And yields the m…
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Ephesus, etc. Five out of the seven cities here named appear in a passage in Tacitus’ “ Annals ” (iv., 55), in which is described a contention among eleven of the cities of proconsu- Jar Asia for the privilege of erecting a statue and a temple to Tiberius. Laodicea is passed over as unequal in wealth and dignity t…
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merely as a very precious article of commerce, and was weighed. In the Scriptures it is the symbol of great value, duration, in- corruptibility, strength (Isa. xiii. 12; Lam. iv. 2; 2 Tim. ii. 20; Job xxxvi. 19). It is used metaphorically of Christian character (Apoce. iii. 18). In the Earthly Paradise, Dante descr…
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xi. 5). Compare Eph. vi. 14, where the girdle of the Christian panoply is ¢ruth, which binds together the whole array of graces as the girdle does the upper and lower parts of the armor. The girdle suits equally Christ’s kingly and priestly office. The gir- dle of the High-Priest was not golden, but only inwrought …
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word for sword see on Luke ii. 35. Two-edged is, literally, two- mouthed. See on edge, Luke xxi. 24. Homer speaks of poles for sea-fighting, “clad on the éip (croua, mouth) with brass.” Countenance (dys). Used by John only, and only three times: here, John vii. 24; xi. 44. Not general appearance. Shineth (gaiver).…
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balances; the intense, inexorable purpose with which they drive on over the prostrate forms at their feet ; but the fourth rider, Death on the pale horse, followed by Hell, portrayed as the wide-opened jaws of a monster into which a crowned head is sinking, degenerates into a ghastly caricature of the most of- fen…
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so that the symbols of the Apocalypse are to be read from the Jewish and not from the Heathen stand-point. But to say that these symbols jar upon the esthetic sense, is not to detract from their value as symbols, nor to decry them as violations of the fitness of things. It may be fairly asked if, with all their ap…
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feet like shining brass, and holding seven stars in His hand, would result as satisfactorily as the attempt to picture the mysterious combination of eyes and wheels and wings in Eze- kiel’s vision. If, on the other hand, we frankly admit the impossibility of this, and relegate this symbolism toa higher region, as …
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And | was dead (kai éyevdunv vexpds). Strictly, I became. So Rev., in margin. Compare Philip. ii. 8, “decame obedient unto death.” For evermore. See on ver. 6, Amen. Omit. The keys of Hell and Death. Rev., correctly, of Death and of Hades. Conceived as a prison-house or a walled city. See on Matt. xvi. 18. The k…
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1. The officials known as angels or messengers of the syna- gogue, transferred to the Christian Church. These were mere clerks or readers; so that their position does not answer to that of the angels presiding over the churches. There is, besides, no trace of the transfer of that office to the Christian Church. 9.…
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person, bearing a patriarchal relation to the congregation, and responsible in an eminent sense for the spiritual condition of the whole. . . . But even in this case we must insist on an important distinction between the ‘angels’ of the Book of Revelation and the later diocesan Bishops. For aside from the very lim…
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the time of Paul it was the metropolis of the province of Asia. It was styled by Pliny the Light of Asia. Its harbor, though partly filled up, was crowded with vessels, and it lay at the junction of roads which gave it access to the whole interior continent. Its markets were the “ Vanity Fair” of Asia. He- rodotus…
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of Praxiteles and Phidias and Scopas and Polycletus. Paint- ings by the greatest of Greek artists, of which one—the like- ness of Alexander the Great by Apelles—had been bought for a sum equal in value to £5,000 of modern money, adorned the inner walls. The roof of the temple itself was of cedar-wood, supported by…
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Them which are evil («axovs). Trench observes that “ it ig not a little remarkable that the grace or virtue here ascribed to the angel of the Ephesian Church (compare ver. 6) should have a name in classical Greek: pucotovnpia hatred of evil ; the person of whom the grace is predicated being pcomovnpos hater of evi…
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Will remove thy candlestick. ‘Its candlestick has been for centuries removed out of his place; the squalid Moham- medan village which is nearest to its site does not count one Christian in its insignificant population; its temple is a mass of shapeless ruins; its harbor is a reedy pool; the bittern booms amid its …
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Churches”), who says: “The Nicolaitans are the Balaamites; no sect bearing the one name or the other; but those who, in the new dispensation, repeated the sin of Balaam in the old, and sought to overcome or destroy the people of God by the same temptations whereby Balaam had sought to overcome them before.” The na…
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and employ of, from, by, with, on, at, because of, by reason of, Jrom among. See, for instance, ch. ii. 7, 21, 22; vi. 4, 10; viii. 11; ix. 18; xiv. 13; xv. 2; xvi. 21. Compare John iii. Siva ioe ylelos oO) OL F Vili 23044 ise Oxi ey xi. 3, 27, 32; xvii. 15. Tree, lit., wood. See on Luke xxiii. 81; 1 Pet. iii. 24.…
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Death, its trunk reaching to heaven, and its boughs spread over the whole universe. At its foot, in the kingdom of Death, sit three Nornas or Fates, the Past, the Present, and the Future, watering its roots from the sacred well. Compare ch. xxii. 2, 14,19. Virgil, addressing Dante at the completion of the ascent o…
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in the stadium of the city, a.v. 166. It is argued with some plausibility that Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna at the time of the composition of the Apocalypse, and was the person ad- dressed here. This question, however, is bound up with that of the date of composition (see Trench, “ Epistles to the Seven Churches”…
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addressed by the Church of Smyrna to the churches in the Christian world, it is related that Jews joined with heathen in clamoring that Polycarp should be cast to the lions or burned alive, and were foremost os &os avdrots (as was their wont) in bringing logs for the pile, and in the endeavor to prevent the remain…
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446 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 11. Be hurt (aducn37). Strictly, wronged. Second death. An expression peculiar to the Apocalypse. See xx. 6, 14; xxi. 8. In those two passages it is defined as the lake of fire. The death awaiting the wicked after judgment. 12. Pergamos. The proper form of the name is Pergamu…
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the worshippers of Diana at Ephesus, vewxdpou temple-sweepers or sacristans. The sharp sword with two edges. See on ch. i. 16. 13. Dwellest (xaroixe?s). See on Luke xi. 26; Acts ii. 5. Seat (Spovos). Rev., rightly, zhrone, which is a transcript of the Greek word. Better than seat, because it is intended to repres…
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are offered in sacrifice unto idols (1 Cor. viii. 4); and as here. Rev., uniformly, things sacrificed to adols. The eating of idol meats, which was no temptation to the Jewish Christian, was quite otherwise to the Gentile. The act of sacrifice, among all ancient nations, was a social no less than a religious act. …
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the possibility of a blameless participation in a banquet, even in the idol-temple, he dissuades from it on the ground of its dangerous consequences to weak consciences, and as involving a formal recognition of the false worship which they had re- nounced at their baptism. “In the Epistle to the Romans we see the …
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17%. To eat. Omit. Of the hidden manna (rod pdvva Tod Kexpuppévov). The allusion may be partly to the pot of manna which was laid up in the ark in the sanctuary. See Exod. xvi. 32-34; compare Heb. ix. 4. That the imagery of the ark was familiar to J ohn appears from ch. xi. 19. This allusion however is indirect, f…
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tabernacle in the wilderness (xi. 1, 19; vi. 9; viii. 3; xi. 19; iv. 6). The song of the redeemed is the song of Moses (xv. 3). The plagues of Egypt appear in the blood, tire, thunder, dark- ness and locusts (ch. viii.) “The great earthquake of ch. vi. is taken from Haggai; the sun becoming black as sackcloth of h…
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A white stone (Widov Aeve7v). See on counteth, Luke xiv. 98; and white, Luke ix. 29. The foundation of the figure is not to be sought in Gentile but in Jewish customs. “White is everywhere the color and livery of heaven” (Trench). See ch. i914. ail Ds vileOs xiv xix. 8, 11,14; xx. 11. It is the bright, glistering …
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A new name. Some explain the new name of God or of | Christ (compare ch. iii. 12); others, of the recipient’s own name. “A new name however, a revelation of his everlasting title as a son of God to glory in Christ, but consisting of and revealed in those personal marks and signs of God’s peculiar adoption of Azmse…
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of Sidon (1 Kings xvi. 31), formerly a priest of Astarte, and who had made his way to the throne by the murder of his pre- decessor Pheles. Ahab’s marriage with her was the first instance of a marriage with a heathen princess of a king of the northern kingdom of Israel. This alliance was a turning-point in the mor…
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tained representations of the Sun-god on small pillars, while a large statue of the same deity was set up in front. At these sanctuaries Ahab in person offered sacrifices. Expositors are divided as to the symbolic import of the name in this passage, some referring it toa single person—“ some single wicked woman in…
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meaning expressing the rebellion and idolatry of Israel (Jer. iii. 8; v.7; Ezek. xvi. 32). With her (wer avras). Not with her as the conjua adulterit, but who share with her in her adulteries. Of their deeds (é« Tav épywv avtav). Read adris her (deeds). Repent out of (éx) as in ver. 21. 23. Children (réxva). Emph…
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And which («ai ofrives). Omit xal and.. The compound relative, whzch, classifies ; which are of those who know not, ete. The depths of Satan (7a Ba9y rod Haravd). The reference is, most probably, to the Gnostic sect of the Ophites (d¢us @ ser- pent), or, in Hebrew, Naasenes (naash a serpent), serpent-wor- shippers…
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Gnostics was their knowledge of the depths of divine things. In this they were probably perverting and caricaturing the words of Paul (Rom. xi. 33; 1 Cor. ii. 10). As they speak. Rev., as they say. The questions are, 1st, What is the phrase alluded to? Is it the familiar formula of these heretics, “the depths,” or…
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burden” (Acts xv. 28). The meaning accordingly will be, ‘1 put upon you no other burden than abstinence from and pro- test against these abominations.” 25. Hold fast (xpatijcare). See on Mark vii. 3; Acts iii. 11. Till | come (aypus od av HEw). The conditional particle dv marks the time of His coming as uncertain.…
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on Mark v. 4, and bruesing, Luke ix. 39. The ovy together gives the picture of the fragments collapsing into a heap. 28. The morningsstar (Tov dorépa rév mpaivev). The star, that of the morning. One of John’s characteristic construct- ions. See on 1 John iv. 9. The reference is, most probably, to Christ himself. S…
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Sardis was in very early times an important commercial city. Pliny says that the art of dyeing wool was invented there, and it was the entrepét of the dyed woollen manufactures, carpets, etc., the raw material for which was furnished by the flocks of Phrygia. It was also the place where the metal electrwm was proc…
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Garments. See the same figure, Jude 23. The meaning is, have not sullied the purity of their Christian life. In white (€v Aevxois). With iuarious garments understood. See on ch. ii. 17, and compare Zech. iii. 3, 5. ‘ White colors are suitable to the gods” (Plato, “Laws,” xii., 956). So Virgil, of the tenants of El…
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tiquity has been often noticed as reminding beholders of the words in ch. iii. 12: ‘Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.” He that is holy (6 dyos). See on Acts xxvi.10. Christ is called holy, Acts ii. 27; xiii. 35; Heb. vii. 26; in all which passages the word, however, is dovos, which …
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8. I have set (Sédwxa). Lit. J have given. For a similar phrase see Luke xii. 51. An open door (Svpav dvewypévnv). Rev., more literally, a door opened. This is variously explained. Some refer it to the entrance into the joy of the Lord; others to the initiation into the meaning of scripture; others again to the op…
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plain more generally, of the bowing down of the Church’s ene- mies at her feet. ‘Trench refers to a passage in the Epistle of Ignatius to this Philadelphian church, implying the actual presence in the midst of it of converts from Judaism, who preached the faith which they once persecuted. Of Satan. See on ch. ii. …
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His friend, perceiving that he was sad, asked him the reason ; and on being told of Abdallah’s insult, said, “Treat him gently ; for I swear that when God sent thee to us, we had already strung pearls to crown him, and he seeth that thou hast snatched the kingdom out of his grasp.” For crown, see on ch. ii. 10. Th…
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Matthew, the holy city (iv. 5); by Paul, Jerusalem which is above (Gal. iv. 6); by the writer to the Hebrews, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. xii. 22). Plato calls his ideal city Oallipolis, the facr city (“ Republic,” vii., 527), and the name Ouranopolis, heavenly city, was applied to Rome…
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seat of large money transactions and of an extensive trade in wood. ‘The citizens developed a taste for Greek art, and were distinguished in science and literature. Laodicea was the seat of a great medical school. During the Roman period it was the chief city of a Roman conventus or political district, in which co…
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“The stress laid in the Epistle to the Colossians on the inferi- ority of those to whom the self-same name of apxal beginnings, principalities was given . . . to the One who was the true beginning, or, if we might venture on an unfamiliar use of a familiar word, the true Principality of God’s creation, may account…
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Iwill (wé\Xw). ZL am about or have in mind. Not a declar- ation of immediate and inexorable doom, but implying a pos- sibility of the determination being changed. Spue (€uécar). Only here in the New Testament. Com- pare Lev. xviii. 28; xx. 29. 17. Because thou sayest. Connect, as A. V. and Rev., with what follows…
259 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical edition (1887); scan/OCR from Internet Archive.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.