Voices and influences
Albert Barnes
The Philadelphia pastor who rose at four every morning to write Bible notes for his own Sunday school, and sold a million volumes of them.
Summary
This site quotes Albert Barnes 8,265 times across 66 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived 1798 to 1870.
- Quoted here most in Isaiah: 746 of 8,265.
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Albert Barnes
- Lived
- 1798 to 1870
- Tradition
- Presbyterian
5 of 8,265 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Albert Barnes died in 1870 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts - Interpreters have differed in regard to the connection of this verse with the preceding.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
It is evident, I think, that it is properly connected with the subject of pardon; and the sense must be, that the plans and purposes of God in regard to forgiveness are as far above those of people as the heavens are higher than the earth, Isa 55:
Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. BSB
He hath shewed thee - Micah does not tell them now, as for the first time; which would have excused them. He says, “He hath shewed thee;” He, about whose mind and will and pleasure they were pretending to enquire, the Lord their God.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
He had shewn it to them. The law was full of it. He shewed it to them, when He said, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and to serve the Lord, thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command thee this day for thy good?” Deu 10:12-13. They had asked, “with what outward thing shall I come before the Lord;” the prophet tells them, “what thing is good,” the inward man of the heart, righteousness, love, humility. And what doth the Lord require (search, seek) of thee? - The very word implies an earnest search within. He would say (Rup.), “Trouble not thyself as to any of these things, burnt-offerings, rams, calves, without thee. For God seeketh not thine, but thee; not thy substance, but thy spirit; not ram or goat, but thy heart.” : “Thou askest, what thou shouldest offer for thee? Other thyself. For what else doth the Lord seek of thee, but thee? Because, of all earthly creatures, He hath made nothing better than thee, He seeketh thyself from thyself, because thou hadst lost thyself.” To do judgment - are chiefly all acts of equity; “to love mercy,” all deeds of love. Judgment, is what right requires; mercy, what love. Yet, secondarily, “to do judgment” is to pass righteous judgments in all cases; and so, as to others, “judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” Joh 7:24; and as to one’s self also. Judge equitably and kindly of others, humbly of thyself. […]
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? BSB
(Compare Exo. 39:1-31.) Moses is now commanded to commit all that pertains to the offerings made to the Lord in the sanctuary to the exclusive charge of the members of a single family, who were to hold their office from generation to generation.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
In the patriarchal times, the external rites of worship had generally been conducted by the head of the tribe or family, in accordance with the principle involved in the dedication of the firstborn Exo 13:2; Num 3:12-
Exodus 28:1 “Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests. BSB
The leper was to carry about with him the usual signs of mourning for the dead. Compare Lev 10:6 and margin reference.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
The rest of the quotation
The leper was a living parable in the world of the sin of which death was the wages; not the less so because his suffering might have been in no degree due to his own personal deserts: he bore about with him at once the deadly fruit and the symbol of the sin of his race. Exo 20:
Leviticus 13:45 A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ BSB
Chambers - (Margin, floors). Rather, a lean-to, which completely surrounded three sides of the building, the north, the west, and the south.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Undated in the archive this site cites.
1 Kings 6:5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Albert Barnes 8,265 times across 66 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Albert Barnes was born at Rome, New York, on December 1, 1798. He was headed for the law. At Hamilton College he was converted, changed direction, and went to Princeton Theological Seminary instead, graduating in 1824. His first pastorate was Morristown, New Jersey, from 1825 to 1830. In 1830 he was called to the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he preached until 1867 — thirty-seven years in one pulpit. The habit that made him famous was the alarm clock. Barnes rose at four every morning and wrote until nine, before the day's pastoral work began. What he wrote were notes on the Bible for his own Sunday school teachers and Bible class — plain explanations, verse by verse, aimed at people with no Greek and no library. He published them, beginning with the Gospels in 1832. They did not stop. Notes, Explanatory and Practical eventually covered the whole New Testament and much of the Old — Job, the Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel — and sold more than a million volumes in his lifetime, an astonishing number for the period. Generations of American laymen learned their Bible out of Barnes. He was also tried for heresy. His 1829 sermon The Way of Salvation, and then his notes on Romans in 1835, were charged with departing from the Westminster Confession on original sin and the atonement; Barnes taught that Christ's death was a provision made for all rather than a payment restricted in advance to the elect. The Presbytery of Philadelphia suspended him from the ministry in 1835, and the General Assembly reversed the suspension in 1836. He was acquitted, but the fight was one of the fuses of the Old School–New School division that split the American Presbyterian church in 1837. Barnes stood on the New School side. He fought slavery hard and early. An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery (1846) took up the biblical arguments the Southern churches used and dismantled them one at a time; The Church and Slavery followed in 1857. The books were read widely in the North during the years the country came apart. His eyesight failed badly in later life, and he kept working with help. He resigned the pulpit in 1867 and died in Philadelphia on December 24, 1870, at seventy-two. What he left is unusual for a scholar. Not a monument — a tool. A working pastor's commentary, written before breakfast for people who had no one else to explain the text, still in print and still free more than a century and a half later. Sources: Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the New Testament and An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery; the published minutes of the Presbyterian General Assembly, 1835–1837; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church; George Marsden, The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience.
8,265 quotations across 66 books
Where this voice is quoted
Now King David was old and well along in years, and though they covered him with blankets, he could not keep warm.
“Now - Rather, “and.” The conjunction has here, probably, the same sort of connecting force which it has at the opening of Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, etc., and implies that the historian regards his work as a continuation of a preceding history.”
At that time Adonijah, David’s son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, “I will be king!”
“The narrative concerning - Abishag, the Shunammite (see the margin reference “a”), is introduced as necessary for a proper understanding of Adonijah’s later history (see 1Ki 2:13-25.)”
(His father had never once reprimanded him by saying, “Why do you act this way?” Adonijah was also very handsome, born next after Absalom.)
“Had not displeased him - i. e. “His father had never checked or thwarted him all his life.” A very goodly man - Here, too, Adonijah resembled Absalom 2Sa 14:25.”
So Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, who supported him.
“Joab’s defection on this occasion, after his faithful adherence to David during the troubles caused by Absalom 2 Sam.”
But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s mighty men would not join Adonijah.
“There is some difficulty in understanding how Zadok and Abiathar came to be both “priests” at this time, and in what relation they stood to one another.”
And Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fattened calves near the stone of Zoheleth, which is next to En-rogel.
“Adonijah’s feast was probably of a sacrificial character, and intended to inaugurate him as king. Compare the “sacrifices” of Absalom 2Sa 15:12. Zoheleth - No satisfactory explanation has been given of this name.”
Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king, and our lord David does not know it?
“The son of Haggith - Compare the margin reference. This expression was well chosen to touch the pride of Bath-sheba. “Adonijah; not thy son, but the son of thy rival, Haggith.””
Then, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”
“Confirm thy words - “Establish” them, by giving a second testimony. Nathan thinks it best to move David’s affections first through Bath-sheba, before he comes in to discuss the matter as one of state policy, and to take the king’s orders upon it.”
So Bathsheba went to see the king in his bedroom. Since the king was very old, Abishag the Shunammite was serving him.
“Into the chamber - The “bed-chamber” or “inner chamber.” Abishag was a disinterested witness present, who heard all that Bath-sheba said to David.”
And Bathsheba bowed down in homage to the king, who asked, “What is your desire?”
“Bath-sheba bowed, like the woman of Tekoah 2Sa 14:4, with the humble prostration of a suppliant. Hence, the king’s question, “What wouldest thou?””
Otherwise, when my lord the king rests with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be counted as criminals.”
“Shall sleep - This euphemism for death, rare in the early Scriptures - being found only once in the Pentateuch (margin reference.), and once also in the historical books before Kings 2Sa 7:12 - becomes in Kings and Chronicles the ordinary mode of speech (see…”
And just then, while Bathsheba was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived.
“Nathan came into the palace, not into the chamber, where he might not enter unannounced. Bath-sheba retired before Nathan entered, in accordance with Oriental ideas of propriety. So, when Bath-sheba was again sent for 1Ki 1:28, Nathan retired (compare 1Ki 1:32).”
“My lord the king,” said Nathan, “did you say, ‘Adonijah will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne’?
“Hast thou said - Thou hast said. In the original no question is asked. Nathan assumes, as far as words go, that the king has made this declaration. He wishes to draw forth a disclaimer.”
And the king swore an oath, saying, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,
““As the Lord liveth” was the most common form of oath among the Israelites (e. g. Jdg 8:19; 1Sa 14:39; 1Sa 19:6).”
Bathsheba bowed facedown in homage to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”
“A lower and humbler obeisance than before 1Ki 1:16. In the Assyrian sculptures ambassadors are represented with their faces actually touching the earth before the feet of the monarch.”
Then King David said, “Call in for me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” So they came before the king.
“The combination of the high priest, the prophet, and the captain of the bodyguard (the Cherethites and Pelethites, 1Ki 1:38), would show the people that the proceedings had the king’s sanction.”
“Take my servants with you,” said the king. “Set my son Solomon on my own mule and take him down to Gihon.
“Mules and horses seem to have been first employed by the Israelites in the reign of David, and the use of the former was at first confined to great personages 2Sa 13:29; 2Sa 18:9.”
There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet are to anoint him king over Israel. You are to blow the ram’s horn and declare, ‘Long live King Solomon!’
“Anoint him - Inauguration into each of the three offices (those of prophet, priest, and king) typical of the Messiah or Anointed One, was by anointing with oil.”
Then you shall go up with him, and he is to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place.
“Over Israel and over Judah - There is no anticipation here of the subsequent division of the kingdom; the antithesis between Judah and Israel already existed in the reign of David 2Sa 2:9; 2Sa 19:11.”
Just as the LORD was with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon and make his throne even greater than that of my lord King David.”
“As the Lord hath been with my lord - This phrase expresses a very high degree of divine favor. It occurs first in the promises of God to Isaac Gen 26:3, Gen 26:24 and Jacob Gen 28:13. See further margin reference.”
Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, “Long live King Solomon!”
“The tabernacle - Probably that which David had made for the ark of the covenant on Mount Zion 2Sa 6:17. For the holy oil, see the margin reference. That it was part of the regular furniture of the tabernacle appears from Exo 31:11; Exo 39:38.”
As he was speaking, suddenly Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest arrived. “Come in,” said Adonijah, “for you are a man of valor. You must be bringing good news.”
“Jonathan had acted in a similar capacity, as a carrier of intelligence, in the time of Absalom’s attempt 2Sa 15:36; 2Sa 17:17; but at that time, like his father, he was faithful to David, and “a valiant man,” “a virtuous man,” or “a man of…”
The king’s servants have also gone to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon more famous than your own name, and may He…
“The king bowed himself - The king worshipped God and prayed that it might be so. Compare Gen 47:31, with margin reference, Heb 11:21.”
And keep the charge of the LORD your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as is written in the Law of…
“The “statutes” have been explained to be the positive ordinances of the Law; the “commandments” the moral precepts, not to steal, etc.; the “judgments” the laws belonging to civil government; and the “testimonies” the laws directing the commemoration of certain events. Compare Psa 19:7-8.”
Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of…
“In his directions with respect to certain important persons, David, anxious for the security of his young successor’s kingdom, allows old animosities to revive, and is willing to avenge himself indirectly and by deputy, though he had been withheld by certain scruples from taking vengeance…”