Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V02950

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 19KB | 465 lines

02951
 # Joh 1:51
    \\The angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
 \\man.\\ Jacob, old Israel, in his dream at Bethel, saw the
 ladder that reached to heaven with the angels upon it.
 # Ge 28:12
 Christ is that ladder, the way from earth to heaven, the way
 heaven sends messages to the world and the way we must go to
 reach it. Nathanael would be permitted to see that Jesus was
 the Mediator, that through him the Father speaks to man; that
 through him there is intercommunication between earth and
 heaven.
 (PNT 329)
02952
 # Joh 2:1
  SUMMARY OF JOHN 2
  \\The First Miracle\\

  The Marriage at Cana
  The Water Made Wine
  The Passover
  Jesus at Jerusalem
  The Temple Cleansed
  The Resurrection Foretold

    \\And the third day.\\ After the conversation with Nathanael.
 Immediately after it he departed into Galilee.
 # 1:43
    \\A marriage in Cana.\\ The site of Cana is not certainly
 known. Dr. Robinson Giekie and other authorities place it at a
 ruin now called Kana, twelve miles north of Nazareth.
    \\The mother of Jesus was there.\\ Reasons are suggested from
 the narrative that follows for believing that Mary was related
 to the family. As Joseph is never mentioned as living after
 Jesus entered upon his ministry, he is supposed to have died
 before this time.
 (PNT 329)
02953
 # Joh 2:2
    \\Jesus also was invited, and his disciples.\\ He now had
 disciples, those called in the few days before; John, Andrew,
 Peter, Philip and Nathanael.
 (PNT 329)
02954
 # Joh 2:3
    \\And when they wanted wine.\\ "When the wine failed" (ASV).
 For some cause, perhaps from a large number of guests than was
 expected, the wine gave out. In the East, where hospitality is
 so lavish, this would cause great mortification.
    \\The mother of Jesus saith to him, They have no wine.\\ The
 solicitude of Mary could hardly be expected from one not a
 relative, but why she appeal to Jesus? In part, because it was
 natural speak to him in her perplexity, and in part, likewise,
 because she hoped he would meet the difficulty.
 (PNT 329-330)
02955
 # Joh 2:4
    \\Woman, what have I do to with thee?\\ These words in our
 language sound harsh and almost rude, but the term rendered
 "woman" \\[gune]\\ was respectful and gentle.
 # 19:25
 This language, partly a rebuke, to Mary, shows very plainly that
 the Catholic fiction of Mary being immaculate, the "Queen of
 Heaven," and "the Mother of God," is all nonsensical.
    \\My hour is not yet come.\\ The hour of his full
 manifestation, as the divine King of Israel.
 (PNT 330)
02956
 # Joh 2:5
    \\Whatever he saith to you, do [it].\\ She evidently
 understood from the manner, if not the words, of his reply that
 he would relieve the difficulty.
 (PNT 330)
02957
 # Joh 2:6
    \\There were set there six waterpots of stone.\\ These
 waterpots were to supply water for the washings usual at
 feasts. See
 # Mr 7:4
 The Jews were regarded ceremonially unclean if they did not wash
 both before and after eating.
 See note on "Mt 15:2"
 The pots each held about twenty gallons.
 (PNT 330)
02959
 # Joh 2:8
    \\He saith, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the
 \\feast.\\ "He that had made wine that day in those six water-
 pots does the same every year in the vines. For as what the
 servants put in the water-pots was changed into wine by the
 operation of the Lord, just so what the clouds pour forth is
 changed into wine by the operation of the same law."--Augustine.
 (PNT 330)
02960
 # Joh 2:9
    \\When the ruler of the feast had tasted.\\ The ruler of the
 feast, and the governor of the previous verse, are the same.
 # 2:8
 It was customary to choose, sometimes by lot, a president who
 regulated the whole order of festivities.
 (PNT 330)
02961
 # Joh 2:10
    \\Every man at the beginning serveth the good wine.\\ The
 language of the ruler is sportive, but still he states a custom.
 The best wine was offered when the appetite of the guests was
 sharpest and most critical.
    \\Have well drank.\\ Not intoxicated, but have drunk
 considerable. Satan gives his good wine first; so the drunkard
 finds it; so did the prodigal son. Afterwards he gives the
 bitter; red eyes, pain, hunger, wretchedness.
    \\Thou hast kept the good wine until now.\\ What meaneth
 Christ making wine? In Palestine there were three kinds of wine:
 (1) Fermented wines, which, however, were very unlike our fiery
     liquors, and contained only a small per cent of alcohol.
     These were mixed with two or three parts of water. The
     fermented wine was only intoxicating when used in enormous
     quantities.
 (2) The unfermented juice of the grape.
 (3) An intoxicating drink called "new wine" in
     # Ac 2:13
     Whedon says: "We see no reason for supposing that the wine
     of the present occasion was that upon which Scripture places
     its strongest interdict,
     # Pr 20:1 23:31 Isa 22:13
     rather than that eulogized as a blessing.
     # Ps 104:15 Isa 55:1
 Even adopting the view that it was fermented wine, it was
 totally unlike the fiery and undiluted drinks sold as wines in
 saloons, used in many families, offered at hotels and wine
 parties, and even poured out at communion tables. In the use of
 the usual wine of Palestine there is not the slightest apology
 for drinking as a beverage the alcoholic drinks which are the
 curse of our times. With regard to them the only safe rule is
 "to touch not, taste not, handle not."
 (PNT 330-331)
02962
 # Joh 2:11
    \\Revealed his glory.\\ This was the first supernatural
 manifestation of his divine power; that he by whom all things
 were made controlled the powers of nature.
    \\His disciples believed on him.\\ They already believed, but
 their faith was made firmer.
 (PNT 331)
02963
 # Joh 2:12
    \\After this he went down to Capernaum.\\ From the hilly
 region of Cana to the low-lying shore of the Sea of Galilee.
    \\His mother, and his brethren.\\ Catholics and some
 Protestants have held that these "brethren" were not brothers in
 the flesh, but kinsmen. The phrase, "his brethren," occurs nine
 times in the Gospels, and once in Acts. The natural
 interpretation is always that they were his brothers, sons of
 Mary. Two places mention his sisters.
 # Mt 13:55 Mr 6:3
 Had it not been for the dogma that Mary remained a virgin, a
 dogma that has no foundation in the Scriptures, it would never
 have been doubted that these "brethren" and "sisters" were her
 children.
 (PNT 331)
02964
 # Joh 2:13
    \\The Jews' passover was at hand.\\ For institution of the
 passover, see
 # Ex 12:1-28
 It was celebrated yearly at Jerusalem. This is the first that
 the Lord attended after he began his ministry, and of this
 attendance there is no mention in the other Gospels.
 (PNT 331)
02965
 # Joh 2:14
    \\Found in the temple.\\ In the Court of the Gentiles, which
 was within the temple walls.
    \\Those that sold oxen and sheep and doves.\\ These were for
 the sacrifices. The great crowds who came to Jerusalem at this
 time could not bring victims, and the traffic in oxen, sheep,
 kids and doves became enormous. It would have been proper enough
 if it had been conducted at stockyards, but the priests made a
 monopoly of it and installed it right in the temple. The Court
 of the Gentiles, "a house of prayer for all nations"
 # Mr 11:15-19
 was filled with cattle, ordure, and the din of traffic.
    \\The changers of money.\\ Every Jew paid a half-shekel
 annually to the support of the temple,
 # Ex 30:13
 but Gentile money was the coin in usual circulation, and this
 was refused at the temple. These money brokers, agents of the
 priests, furnished Jewish coin at a heavy charge. Edersheim says
 that this traffic alone cleared the priests what would be
 equivalent to about $300,000 a year.
 (PNT 331)
02966
 # Joh 2:15
    \\Made a scourge of small cords.\\ Rather as a symbol than
 for use.
    \\Drove them all out.\\ He had the right to cleanse his
 Father's house and here first asserts his authority. The
 traffickers fled before his glance, awed by a superhuman
 majesty.
 (PNT 331)
02967
 # Joh 2:16
    \\Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.\\ How
 often still the Father's house is so desecrated! This cleansing
 was a different one from that which occurred three years later
 at the close of his ministry.
 # Mt 21:12
 (PNT 331)
02968
 # Joh 2:17
    \\The zeal of thy house.\\ Quoted from
 # Ps 69:9
 (PNT 332)
02969
 # Joh 2:18
    \\What sign?\\ The Jewish officials demand some sign that
 would demonstrate that he had authority over the temple.
 (PNT 332)
02970
 # Joh 2:19-22
    \\Destroy this temple.\\ His own body. The sign that he would
 give the Jewish nation was his Resurrection. The Jews did not
 understand him, nor his own disciples, until after he rose from
 the dead.
 (PNT 332)
02971
 # Joh 2:20
    \\Forty and six years.\\ It had been forty-six years since
 Herod the Great began the reconstruction of the temple, and it
 was not yet entirely completed. When Jesus was on trial before
 the Sanhedrin, these words were brought up as blasphemy.
 (PNT 332)
02974
 # Joh 2:23
    \\Many believed.\\ The miracles wrought that they saw at this
 time are not recorded. They are alluded to again in 3:2. These
 believed that he was a man sent from God, but did not trust in
 him as the Christ. The nature of their belief is stated in
 # 3:2
 (PNT 332)
02977
 # Joh 3:1
  SUMMARY OF JOHN 3
  \\Christ and Nicodemus\\

  The Ruler Seeking Jesus by Night
  The Necessity of a New Birth of Water and of the Spirit
  The Son of Man to Be Lifted Up
  The Love of God for Man
  Condemnation for Unbelief
  John at Aenon
  John's Testimony

    \\There was a man . . . named Nicodemus.\\ Nicodemus is named
 only three times by John, and not elsewhere;
 (1) here,
 (2) where he protests against condemning Jesus unheard,
     # 7:50
 (3) where he aids Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of Jesus.
     # 19:38
    \\Of the Pharisees, . . . a ruler of the Jews.\\ He was a
 Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin (a ruler), and a rabbi.
 # 3:10
 (PNT 332)
02978
 # Joh 3:2
    \\The same came to Jesus by night.\\ He probably chose the
 night in order to escape observation. He did not dare encounter
 the hostility of the priests, filled with rage over the
 cleansing of the temple, and yet he wished to know more of one
 whom he believed to be sent from God.
    \\Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God.\\
 Nicodemus confesses, not only his belief, but that of his fellow
 Pharisees and rulers. The miracles of Jesus convinced them, even
 if they would not admit it, that he was a teacher sent from God.
 He came for information, and Jesus recognized it in what
 follows.
 (PNT 332-333)
02979
 # Joh 3:3
    \\Except a man be born again\\, etc. "Born anew" in the ASV.
 The great doctrine of Regeneration, a new birth, being made a new
 creature, spoken of in
 # 1:12-13
 Nicodemus supposed that natural descendants of Abraham would be
 children of God's kingdom.  Jesus declares that one must become a
 child of God in spirit by being born anew of the Spirit.  The
 doctrine of the new birth is foreshadowed in the OT.
 # Isa 1:18 Jer 31:33 Eze 11:19 36:26
 and taught in the NT.
 # Ro 6:8 8:3 12:2 2Co 5:17 Ga 6:15-16
 (PNT 333 edited)
02980
 # Joh 3:4

    \\How can a man be born again when he is old?\\ The question of
 Nicodemus indicates his surprise, scepticism and misapprehension of
 what Jesus meant.

 (PNT 333)
02981
 # Joh 3:5
 \\Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit\\, etc.
 Nicodemus had asked incredulously if one need re-enter his
 mother's womb in order to be "born again."  Jesus corrects him,
 noting that while the first birth is "of water" in the womb,
 the second birth Nicodemus needed was "of the Spirit."
 (PL)
02982
 # Joh 3:6
      \\That which is born of the flesh\\ etc.  Anyone born
 naturally "of the flesh" is a human being, but someone "born
 again" of God's Spirit is a new creature, a spiritual being
 capable of entering the Kingdom of God.
 (PL)
02983
 # Joh 3:7
    \\Ye must be born again.\\ The necessity is implied in the
 word "kingdom."
 # 3:5
 The kingdom of God has its naturalization laws, and there is no
 other way of entrance than to be born again of the Spirit.
 (PNT 333 edited)
02984
 # Joh 3:8
    \\The wind bloweth where it will\\, etc. Most commentators
 have held that this means: "As the wind moves mysteriously, so
 does the Spirit, and it breathes upon whom it will, effecting
 the inward change called the birth of the Spirit arbitrarily."
 This view I believe due to a wrong translation, sanctioned, not
 by Greek, but by current theology.
 Note that:
 (1) Exactly the same term \\[pneuma]\\ is rendered "wind" and
     "Spirit" in this verse. It is unusual that the same word
     should change meaning in the same sentence.
 (2) That the word \\pneuma\\ is not translated "wind" elsewhere,
     although it occurs scores of times in the NT, but is always
     rendered "Spirit."
 (3) Another word in the Greek, \\anemos\\, is usually used to
     represent "wind."
 (4) The erroneous idea creates a confusion of figures. It makes
     Christ to say: "The wind bloweth where it listeth; so is
     (not the Spirit, but) every one born of the Spirit." It
     affirms of him who is born just what is affirmed of the
     wind, a thing the Saviour never did.

    These facts are sufficient to show that the rendering "wind"
 is wrong. All we have to do is to translate \\pneuma\\ here, as
 is done in the latter part of the verse and elsewhere in the NT.
 The verse then reads: "The Spirit \\(pneuma)\\ breathes where it
 pleases and thou hearest the voice thereof, but canst not tell
 whence it comes nor whither it goes. So (by hearing its voice)
 is every one born of the Spirit" \\(pneuma)\\. The meaning is:
 The Spirit breathes where it wills and you recognize its
 manifestation by its voice; by the words spoken by men of God as
 the Holy Spirit gives them utterance. You cannot tell whence the
 Spirit comes to whither it goes, but you can hear its voice when
 it does come. So, by hearing the voice of the Spirit is every
 one born of the Spirit. He who receives by faith the
 communications of the Spirit is born of the Spirit.
    The birth of the Spirit is not the same thing as the gift of
 the Spirit. To those who are born of the Spirit is given.
 "\\Because\\ ye are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son
 into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
 # Ga 4:6
 Hence, in harmony with the above view, Peter says, "Being born
 again, not by corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the
 word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
 # 1Pe 1:23
 (PNT 333-334 edited)
02986
 # Joh 3:10
    \\Art thou a master of Israel?\\ The question implies that
 Nicodemus was one of the doctors of the law. These made very
 arrogant claims of superior knowledge.
 (PNT 334)
02987
 # Joh 3:11
    \\We speak that we know . . . ye receive not our testimony.\\
 "Ye" includes Nicodemus and all Jews who failed to confess him;
 "we" includes himself and those who should testify of him by the
 Spirit.
 (PNT 334)
02988
 # Joh 3:12
    \\If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not.\\ He
 had spoken of the things that belonged to the kingdom of God on
 earth, of the new birth. If Nicodemus could not understand and
 believe this, how would he receive testimony concerning the
 heavenly kingdom, God, and eternal glory?
 (PNT 334)
02989
 # Joh 3:13
    \\And no man hath ascended\\, etc. This implies:
 (1) That he existed before he appeared on earth.
 (2) That heaven was his true abode.
 (3) That, on earth, his spirit was in communication with heaven.
 (PNT 334)
02990
 # Joh 3:14-15
    \\As Moses lifted up the serpent\\, etc. The reference is to
 # Nu 21:4-9
 As the bitten Israelites were healed by looking upon the brazen
 serpent lifted on high, so the world in sin, is saved by looking
 to Jesus lifted up upon the cross.
 (PNT 334-335).
02992
 # Joh 3:16-17
    \\For God so loved the world\\, etc. There is no sweeter
 verse in the Bible. It declares:
 (1) That God is love.
 (2) That he loved the world instead of hating it.
 (3) That he \\so\\ loved that he gave his Son. The Son did not
     come to appease the Father's wrath, but the Father sent him
     because he loved so well.
 (4) That he came to keep men from perishing.
 (PNT 335)
02994
 # Joh 3:18
    \\He that believeth on him is not condemned.\\ "He that
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
 # Mr 16:16
 Faith in Christ is essential to salvation, because it is the
 power that leads to obedience to him.
    \\He that believeth not is condemned already.\\ "Shall be
 damned." The unbeliever condemns himself. He is lost and refuses
 to be saved by Christ.
 (PNT 335)
02995
 # Joh 3:19-20
    \\This is the condemnation.\\ That men refuse the light.
 Usually it is not evidence, but an honest heart and a sincere
 desire for truth, that are needed in order to have faith. All
 kinds of evil doers hate the light.
 (PNT 335)
02997
 # Joh 3:21
    \\He that doeth truth.\\ Truth has to be lived. He who lives
 it, lives an honest life sincerely desiring light, will come to
 the light.
 (PNT 335)
02998
 # Joh 3:22
    \\Came into the land of Judaea.\\ Left Jerusalem and went
 into the country districts.
    \\Tarried . . . and baptized.\\ The first intimation that
 Jesus administered the baptismal rite. He did it through his
 disciples.
 # 4:2
 (PNT 335)
02999
 # Joh 3:23
    \\And John was baptizing in Aenon near Salim.\\ The site was
 first identified by Lt. Conder, of the British Palestine
 Exploration. He found a village of Ainun near another named
 Salim, not far from the Jordan, northeast of Samaria, with, as
 he says ("Tent Work," p. 92), "the two requisites for the scene
 of baptism of a large multitude;--an open space and abundance of
 water." Prof. McGarvey, who visited it, says, "Pools, well
 suited for baptizing are abundant."
    \\Because there was much water there.\\ This explains, not
 why John preached at Aenon, but why he baptized there. "Much
 water" was essential to baptism in NT times.
 (PNT 335-336)