Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V00450

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 22KB | 546 lines

00450
 # Mt 13:55
    \\Is not this the carpenter's son?\\ Joseph. Jesus was a
 carpenter also.
 # Mr 6:3
    \\His mother called Mary?\\ She is named. Joseph is indicated
 by his trade.
    \\His brethren, James, and Joses, Simon, and Judas?\\ Sons of
 Joseph and Mary. For a full discussion of their relationship,
 see note on "Joh 2:12"
 (PNT 81-82)
00452
 # Mt 13:57
    \\And they were offended in him.\\ Made to stumble. Led into
 error. They could not see how one so humble, and of so humble a
 family, could be so great a teacher.
    \\A prophet is not without honour,\\ etc. A proverb that is
 quoted and applied.
 (PNT 82)
00453
 # Mt 13:58
    \\He did not many mighty works,\\ etc. Faith was the usual
 condition of his miracles. Where there is persistent, obstinate
 unbelief, Christ works no mighty moral works now.

    THE SYNAGOGUE is so often named in the NT that one ought to
 clearly understand its character. It corresponded to the
 Christian congregation. Wherever ten Jews were found it was
 their duty to form a synagogue. It had elders, of whom the
 president was called the "ruler" of the synagogue. The ruler
 presided over the worship, and all the elders sat on raised
 seats. These were "the chief seats" that the Pharisees liked to
 sit it. There was a set lesson from the Scriptures for each
 Sabbath, for they were read in order. The reader was appointed
 by the ruler and might be any member. On one occasion we learn
 that Jesus was the reader. After the reading and prayers, there
 was an opportunity for any Jewish theological teacher to speak.
 Of this opportunity Jesus, and later, Paul often availed
 themselves. The service of the synagogue in our times is, in
 many respects, similar to that of the time of Christ. The
 officers of the synagogue had the power of scourging, of
 suspending, or of excommunicating (casting out) offenders.
 (PNT 82)
00454
 # Mt 14:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 14
  \\The Miracles Beyond and Upon the Sea of Galilee\\

  Herod's Opinion of Christ
  The Death of John the Baptist
  Jesus Crosses the Sea
  The Vast Multitude That Follows
  The Miracle of the Five Loaves and Two Fishes
  The Multitude Wishing to Make Jesus a King Is Dismissed
  The Disciples Sent Upon the Sea While Jesus Retires to Pray
  The Storm on the Sea
  Christ on the Waters
  The Failure of Peter's Faith

    \\Herod the tetrarch.\\ Compare
 # Mr 6:14-29 Lu 9:7-9
 Herod Antipas, one of the sons of "Herod the King."
 See note on "Mt 2:1"
 for information of the Herods. Called the "tetrarch," or ruler
 of a fourth part, because he inherited one-fourth of the kingdom
 of his father.
    \\Heard of the fame of Jesus.\\ Absent much of the time from
 Galilee in campaigns against Areta, king of Arabia, he probably
 did not hear much until his return home.
 (PNT 82)
00455
 # Mt 14:2
    \\This is John the Baptist.\\ Herod claimed to be a Sadducee,
 and hence held that there was no life whatever after death, but
 under the terrors of a guilty conscience his creed undergoes a
 change. Hence his first thought when he hears of the deeds of
 Jesus is that the murdered John has risen from the dead.
    \\Therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.\\
 During his life John wrought no miracles.
 # Joh 10:41
 Herod supposed that his resurrection had clothed him with new
 power. This opinion was shared by others.
 # 16:14 Mr 8:28
 (PNT 82)
00456
 # Mt 14:3
    \\For Herod had laid hold on John.\\ This arrest of John the
 Baptist had taken place a year previous, shortly before our
 Lord's second visit to Galilee,
 # 4:12 Mr 1:14
 the events of which are given by John.
 # Joh 4:43-54
 The prison was the castle of Machaerus.
 See note on "Mt 11:2"
    \\For the sake of Herodias.\\ Antipas had been, while at
 Rome, the guest of his brother Herod Philip. Here he became
 entangled by the snares of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife;
 and he repaid the hospitality he had received by carrying her
 off. He had himself long been married to the daughter of Aretas,
 king of Arabia. This Herodias was the granddaughter of "Herod
 the King," and, hence, the niece of both her lawful husband and
 of Herod Antipas, who now had her.
 (PNT 82-83)
00457
 # Mt 14:4
    \\It is not lawful for thee to have her.\\ The marriage was
 unlawful for these three reasons:
 (1) The former husband of Herodias (Philip) was still living.
 (2) The former wife of Antipas was still living.
 (3) Besides, the Jewish law did not permit a man to marry his
     niece.
 (PNT 83)
00458
 # Mt 14:5
    \\He feared the multitude.\\ Mark says he feared John also.
 # Mr 6:20
 He no doubt feared John's influence with the multitude.
 (PNT 83)
00459
 # Mt 14:6
    \\When Herod's birthday was kept.\\ In imitation of the Roman
 emperors, the Herodian princes kept their birthdays with
 feasting and revelry and magnificent banquets. We learn from
 Mark that he made a supper, or banquet feast.
    \\The daughter of Herodias.\\ Her name, according to
 Josephus, was Salome, a daughter by Philip, Herod's brother. She
 was afterwards married to her uncle Philip, the tetrarch of
 Iturea.
 # Lu 3:1
    \\Danced.\\ It was not customary for the ladies of high rank
 to dance beyond the limit of the harem. The Oriental dance of a
 libertine character. But her wicked mother induced her own
 daughter thus to degrade herself in order to accomplish her
 revengeful purpose.
 (PNT 83)
00460
 # Mt 14:7
    \\He promised with an oath to give her whatever she would
 \\ask.\\ Herod confirms his promise by an oath. It was a common
 custom to reward a dancer or actor, on a great occasion like
 this, who pleased, and to ask what they wished. Herod knew that
 Salome danced because she had a request to make.
 (PNT 83)
00461
 # Mt 14:8
    \\Give me John the Baptist's head on a platter.\\ Mark tells
 us that she went to consult her mother before she made her
 request.
 # Mr 6:24
 That vile woman was prepared with an answer. Indeed, she had
 manipulated the whole affair so as to secure Herod's consent to
 the murder of John.
 (PNT 83)
00462
 # Mt 14:9
    \\The king was sorry.\\ The Greek word thus translated is
 very strong, and denotes a very great grief, and sorrow.
    \\For the sake of the oath, and them who sat eating with
 \\him.\\ It was not so much his regard for the oath which he had
 taken, but his shrinking from the taunt of the guests, if they
 should see him draw back from his plighted word.
 (PNT 83)
00463
 # Mt 14:10
    \\He sent, and beheaded John in the prison.\\ The executioner
 did his work in the dark dungeon; the wicked Herodias had
 triumphed.
 (PNT 83)
00464
 # Mt 14:11
    \\She brought [it] to her mother.\\ The first Elijah had his
 Jezebel, who sought his life; the second Elijah had his Jezebel,
 the not less inhuman Herodias, who obtained his life.
 (PNT 83)
00465
 # Mt 14:12
    \\His disciples.\\ John's.
 (PNT 83)
00466
 # Mt 14:13
    \\When Jesus heard [of it].\\ When he heard of the fate of
 John the Baptist and of Herod's conjectures concerning himself.
 It was a busy time. The twelve had just returned from a highly
 successful ministry and his own popularity was at its greatest
 height. The crowds, anxious to see, converse with him, or to be
 healed, pressed on him so as to give no leisure for reflection,
 or even to eat.
 # Mr 6:31
 It was but natural that he should wish a quiet season on
 receiving the tidings of the death of one related to him like
 John.
    \\Into a desert place.\\ Not a sandy, barren spot, but one
 uninhabited and lonely. They crossed the Sea of Galilee,
 # Joh 6:1
 and proceeded in the direction of Bethsaida-Julias, as its
 northeastern corner,
 # Lu 9:10
 just above the entrance of the Jordan into it. To the south of
 it was the green and narrow plain of El-Batihah, "with abundant
 grass, and abundant space for the multitude to have sat down."
    \\They followed him on foot out of the cities.\\ The
 multitudes, seeing the course of the boat that bore the Saviour
 and the twelve from Capernaum, rushed along the shore in order
 to reach its landing place in advance. The country west of the
 Sea of Galilee was, at that period, according to Josephus,
 wonderfully populous. Capernaum alone had 30,000 inhabitants,
 and there were twelve other cities upon or near its shores.
 (PNT 84)
00467
 # Mt 14:14
    \\And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude.\\ When he
 disembarked from the boat, the multitude was waiting. That it
 was great is shown by the fact that the men numbered 5,000,
 apart from the women and children.
    \\Was moved with compassion.\\ He seems, from John, to have
 retired to the mountain for a short time, but then, filled with
 compassion, returned to the multitude.
 # Joh 6:3
 This is the only miracle of which there is an account in each of
 the four gospels. The parallel accounts are in
 # Mr 6:30-44 Lu 9:10-17 Joh 6:1-14
 (PNT 84)
00468
 # Mt 14:15
    \\When it was evening.\\ It was the "first evening" which
 began at the decline of day about three o'clock in the
 afternoon. The second evening, according to Jewish customs,
 began at sunset. The day had already been spent in teaching and
 healing.
    \\This is a desert place.\\ And hence there would be no
 hamlets dotting it, in which the multitudes could get provisions
 for themselves. There are no farm houses in Palestine. The whole
 population lives in towns or villages, and often the farmers go
 many miles to their fields.
 (PNT 84)
00469
 # Mt 14:16
    \\Give ye them to eat.\\ We learn from the parallel accounts
 that the disciples did not understand how this could be done,
 though they cheerfully obeyed.
 (PNT 84)
00470
 # Mt 14:17
    \\We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.\\ It was
 Andrew who spoke.
 # Joh 6:8
    The loaves here were of barley meal made into small, thin
 cakes, baked hard on the side of the oven, so as to be broken.
 (PNT 84)
00472
 # Mt 14:19
    \\He commanded the multitude to sit down.\\ We learn from
 Mark that they sat down in companies.
 # Mr 6:39
    \\On the grass.\\ John says, "there was much grass there."
 # Joh 6:10
 It was in the spring season, in Nisan, "the month of flowers,"
 and the slopes were rich with the spring grass.
    \\Looking up to heaven.\\ In prayer we should use such
 outward gestures as may most fitly serve to express the inward
 disposition and holy affections of our heart and soul.
    \\He blessed.\\ He either gave thanks or asked the Father's
 blessing on the food.
 (PNT 84-85)
00473
 # Mt 14:20
    \\Twelve baskets full.\\ Baskets were taken by the Jews on
 journeying, to carry their provisions, etc., that they might not
 have to depend on Gentiles, and so incur the risk of ceremonial
 pollution.
 (PNT 85)
00474
 # Mt 14:21
    \\Five thousand men.\\ Thus there was one loaf to every
 thousand men. Christ is the bread if life, satisfying the hunger
 of the soul for love, forgiveness, immortality, usefulness,
 progress, knowledge. He gives that bread to his disciples and
 bids them to distribute it to the multitude. Such is its blessed
 and divine nature that the more they distribute to hungry,
 famishing souls, the more they have remaining for themselves.
 (PNT 85)
00475
 # Mt 14:22
    \\Immediately.\\ After satisfying to the full the wants of
 the multitude. Compare
 # Mr 6:45-56 Joh 6:15-21
    \\Jesus constrained his disciples.\\ They were loath to go
 without their Master. Yet he wished to be alone. He had come to
 the "desert place" for retirement; the multitude followed, and
 sought after the miracle to proclaim him King. His disciples
 probably sympathized. Hence he sent them, too, away, and stayed
 to pray and reflect alone.
    \\To go before him to the other side.\\ John says, toward
 Capernaum.
 # Joh 6:17
 (PNT 85)
00476
 # Mt 14:23
    \\When he had sent the multitudes away.\\ They were in an
 excited condition; hence, great prudence, perhaps an exercise of
 some constraining power, was necessary.
    \\Ascended a mountain privately to pray.\\ The refuge of
 Christ in every great crisis was lonely prayer.
 (PNT 85)
00477
 # Mt 14:24
    \\In the midst of the sea.\\ About twenty-five or thirty
 furlongs, or three and a half miles from the shore, about the
 middle of the lake.
 # Joh 6:19
    \\For the wind was contrary.\\ The wind came rushing down
 from the mountains, and in attempting to make land at Bethsaida,
 where the Lord had directed, it was in their faces. Sudden gusts
 are common on the Sea of Galilee. Thompson says he encountered
 one of such fury that no rowers could row a boat across the
 lake. There had now arisen one of those sudden and violent
 squalls to which all inland waters, surrounded by lofty hills
 intersected with deep gorges, are liable.
 (PNT 85)
00478
 # Mt 14:25
    \\In the fourth watch.\\ The Jews, who used to divide the
 night into three watches, latterly adopted the Roman division
 into four watches, as here; so that, at the rate of three hours
 to each, the fourth watch, reckoning from six p.m., would be
 three o'clock in the morning.
    \\Jesus went to them.\\ The Lord saw their trouble from his
 mountain-top, and through the darkness of the night, for his
 heart was all with them; yet would he not go to their relief
 till his own time came.
 (PNT 85)
00479
 # Mt 14:26
    \\A ghost.\\ An apparition, an unreal appearance of a real
 person. The word [\\phantasma\\] is not that unusually rendered
 "spirit" [\\pneuma\\]. He would appear to them at first like a
 dark, moving speck upon the waters, then as a human figure; but
 in the dark, tempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be
 their Lord, they take it for a spirit.
 # Lu 24:37
    \\Cried out.\\ In fright.
 (PNT 86)
00480
 # Mt 14:27
    \\It is I; be not afraid.\\ How often has he to speak this
 word of encouragement, even to his own! almost always when they
 are brought suddenly, or in an unusual way, face to face with
 him. See
 # Ge 15:1 21:17 Jud 6:23 Mt 28:5 Lu 2:10
    \\It is I.\\ Literally, "I am." The same language used by
 Jesus in Jerusalem,
 # Joh 8:58
 for which the Pharisees would have stoned him, and in the OT
 to designate Jehovah.
 # Ex 3:14
 Here I should prefer to give it this meaning: Christ says not
 merely, "It is I, your Friend and Master"; he says, at least
 implies, it is the "I AM," who is coming to you, the Almighty
 One who rules wind and waves, who made them, and whom they obey.
 (PNT 86)
00481
 # Mt 14:28
    \\Bid me come to thee.\\ Peter is led by no praiseworthy
 motives, but rather by vain glory.
 (PNT 86)
00482
 # Mt 14:29
    \\And he said, Come.\\ I suppose the Lord bade Peter to come
 in order to teach him a lesson.
 (PNT 86)
00483
 # Mt 14:30
    \\When he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.\\ He
 stepped into the water, but the roaring winds and rushing
 billows were too much for his faith.
 (PNT 86)
00484
 # Mt 14:31
    \\O thou of little faith.\\ Peter's act did not exemplify his
 faith, but his doubts. True faith never attempts wonders merely
 for the sake of doing them. It is a fact that ought to be noted
 that the Gospels narrate the failures in miraculous power on the
 part of the apostles as well as their success. No book of myths
 would do this. At the same time it is always made plain why they
 failed.
 (PNT 86)
00485
 # Mt 14:32
    \\The wind ceased.\\ They were safe, for the Lord was with
 them. Under his arms there is always safety.
 (PNT 86)
00486
 # Mt 14:33
    \\They that were in the boat came and worshipped him.\\ Not
 only did they approach him with an outward unforbidden gesture
 of worship, "but they avowed him, for the first time
 collectively, to be the Son of God."
 (PNT 86)
00487
 # Mt 14:34
    \\They came into the land of Gennesaret.\\ A small district
 four miles long and two or three wide, on the west side of the
 Sea of Galilee, to which it gave one of its names. Josephus
 describes it as the garden of the whole land, and possessing a
 fertility and loveliness almost unparalleled.
 (PNT 86)
00488
 # Mt 14:35
    \\And brought to him all that were diseased.\\ His fame was
 so well known in that region that his coming at once caused a
 commotion. In a country where there are no skilled physicians
 and little known of sanitary laws, there is great need of a
 Healer. Geikie, who travelled through this same region with a
 medical friend, says that crowds would gather with their sick as
 soon as they knew there was a physician. Hence the importance of
 medical missions.
 (PNT 87)
00489
 # Mt 14:36
    \\The hem of his garment.\\ The numbers that pressed upon him
 seemed almost too large for him to be able to heal them singly
 by laying his hands upon them, therefore many begged that they
 might be allowed to touch "if it were but the border of his
 garment." Soon after followed the ever-memorable discourse, so
 strikingly in accordance with the present passover season, in
 the synagogues of Capernaum, respecting the "Bread of Life."
 # Joh 6:22-65
 (PNT 87)
00490
 # Mt 15:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 15
  \\Christ and the Pharisees. The Woman of Canaan.\\

  Eating with Unwashed Hands
  Keeping the Traditions of Men
  What Defileth a Man
  The Blind Leaders of the Blind
  In the Bounds of Tyre and Sidon
  The Appeal of the Woman of Canaan
  Great Faith and Its Results
  Feeding the Four Thousand

    \\Scribes and Pharisees . . . of Jerusalem.\\ Representatives
 of these bodies, not doubt to counteract the influence of
 Christ. Compare
 # Mr 7:1-13
 These were always bitter opposers of Jesus.
 (PNT 87)
00491
 # Mt 15:2
    \\Why do thy disciples transgress?\\ Not the law of Moses,
 but the tradition of the elders, which had as much authority
 with the Pharisees as the written law.
    \\The tradition of the elders.\\ Purported to be precepts
 never written in the Scriptures, but handed down from the times
 of Moses and the elders by oral means. These precepts were
 spoken of the "law upon the lip," and have been embodied in the
 Talmud. They were additions to the written word. See
 # Ga 1:14
    \\For they wash not their hands.\\ The orthodox Jews insisted
 on washing the hands before eating, not to remove the filth, but
 less they might have touched something ceremonially unclean.
 This commandment was purely traditional, but so rigidly did they
 insist upon observing it that the Rabbi Akiba, imprisoned by the
 Romans and with scarcely water to sustain life, preferred to use
 all provided for his ceremonial ablutions, and to die of thirst.
 (PNT 87)
00492
 # Mt 15:3
    \\Why do ye also transgress?\\ The Lord does not deny their
 charge, but strikes at the evil by showing that their human
 traditions led them to break God's written law.
 (PNT 87)
00493
 # Mt 15:4
    \\For God said.\\ See
 # Ex 21:17
    \\He that curseth\\, etc. The Ten Commandments promised long
 life to those who honoured father and mother. Here the Lord
 quotes the punishment of dishonouring them. On nothing did Moses
 insist more than respect for parents.
 (PNT 87)
00494
 # Mt 15:5
    \\Ye say.\\ Following tradition, you say one thing while God
 says in the law just the opposite.
 # Mr 7:11
 The scribes taught that a Jew by calling his possessions
 "Corban" (a gift to God) was absolved from the duty of caring
 for his parents, even though he did not afterward devote his
 property to sacred uses. Thus, by an artifice, the law with
 respect to parents could be set aside. The Talmud furnishes a
 curious illustration of this perversion of the command. The
 Mishna says: "He that curses his father or his mother is not
 guilty, unless he curses them with an express mention of the
 name of Jehovah."
 (PNT 88)
00495
 # Mt 15:6
    \\Thus have ye made the commandment of God of no effect.\\
 Modern Pharisaism does the same. Church tradition leads to
 dogmas that set aside God's commands. The corruption of the
 simplicity of early Christianity is due to following human
 tradition.
 (PNT 88)
00496
 # Mt 15:7
    \\[Ye] hypocrites.\\ The world so rendered might mean one
 self-deceived as well as a deceiver, but was always a rebuke.
    \\Well did Isaiah prophesy of you.\\
 # Isa 29:13
 (PNT 88)
00497
 # Mt 15:8
    \\This people.\\ The Jews. Quoted from
 # Isa 29:13
    \\Their heart is far from me.\\ The essential of true worship
 is that the heart be wholly given to God. Even the forms
 commanded by God are worthless unless they are obeyed from the
 heart.
 (PNT 88)
00498
 # Mt 15:9
    \\In vain do they worship me.\\ Quoted from
 # Isa 29:13
 This worship is all idle, empty, and without profit, because
 they
    \\teach as doctrines the commandments of men.\\ This rebuke
 to the Pharisees, who had added to the law of Moses many
 traditional human precepts, applies equally to all modern
 religionists who have modified or added to the Christianity of
 Christ and the apostles. Whatever one cannot find in the NT is
 of such a character; observance of saints' days, of Christians,
 of Lent, the removal of the cup in the Lord's Supper from the
 laity, infant sprinkling, party creeds and party shibboleths,
 are all of men and not of God. The devout worshipper should go
 right to the NT for his religion, and reject every ordinance or
 precept that is not to be found there.
 (PNT 88)
00499
 # Mt 15:10
    \\He called the multitude.\\ In order to show them that the
 Pharisaical expounders of the law did not understand its real
 sense.
 (PNT 88)