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
Then Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel—the heads of the families.
“The narrative here corresponds with 1Ki 3:4; but is very much fuller. We learn from the present passage: (1) that Solomon’s sacrifice at Gibeon was a great public festivity, to which he collected vast numbers of the people; (2) that it was made upon the…”
That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”
“The verbal differences between this passage and the corresponding one of Kings 1Ki 3:5-14 are very considerable, and indicate the general truth that the object of the sacred historians is to give a true account of the real bearing of what was said: not ordinarily…”
So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place in Gibeon before the Tent of Meeting, and he reigned over Israel.
“From his journey - These words are not in the original text, which is thought to be corrupt. It is best to correct the text, and then simply to translate: “And Solomon came from the high place that was at Gibeon to Jerusalem.””
Then Solomon sent word to Hiram king of Tyre: “Do for me as you did for my father David when you sent him cedars to build himself a house to…
“Huram, the form used throughout Chronicles (except 1Ch 14:1) for the name both of the king and of the artisan whom he lent to Solomon 2Ch 2:13; 2Ch 4:11, 2Ch 4:16, is a late corruption of the true native word, Hiram (marginal note and reference).”
Behold, I am about to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God to dedicate to Him for burning fragrant incense before Him, for displaying the showbread…
“The symbolic meaning of “burning incense” is indicated in Rev 8:3-4. Consult the marginal references to this verse. The solemn feasts - The three great annnual festivals, the Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of tabernacles Lev. 23:4-44; Deut. 16:1-17.”
The house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
“See 1Ki 6:2 note. In Jewish eyes, at the time that the temple was built, it may have been “great,” that is to say, it may have exceeded the dimensions of any single separate building existing in Palestine up to the time of its erection.”
Send me, therefore, a craftsman skilled in engraving to work with gold and silver, with bronze and iron, and with purple, crimson, and blue yarn.
“See 1Ki 5:6, note; 1Ki 7:13, note. Purple ... - “Purple, crimson, and blue,” would be needed for the hangings of the temple, which, in this respect, as in others, was conformed to the pattern of the tabernacle (see Exo 25:4; Exo 26:1, etc.).”
I will pay your servants, the woodcutters, 20,000 cors of ground wheat, 20,000 cors of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of olive oil.”
“Beaten wheat - The Hebrew text is probably corrupt here. The true original may be restored from marginal reference, where the wheat is said to have been given “for food.” The barley and the wine are omitted in Kings.”
Then Hiram king of Tyre wrote a letter in reply to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves His people, He has set you over them as king.”
“Josephus and others professed to give Greek versions of the correspondence, which (they said) had taken place between Hiram and Solomon. No value attaches to those letters, which are evidently forgeries. Because the Lord hath loved his people - Compare the marginal references.”
And Hiram added: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth!
“The Lord ... that made heaven and earth - This appears to have been a formula designating the Supreme God with several of the Asiatic nations. In the Persian inscriptions Ormazd is constantly called “the great god, who gave” (or made) “heaven and earth.””
So now I am sending you Huram-abi, a skillful man endowed with creativity.
“Of Huram my father’s - A wrong translation. Huram here is the workman sent by the king of Tyre and not the king of Tyre’s father (see 1Ki 5:1 note).”
Solomon numbered all the foreign men in the land of Israel following the census his father David had conducted, and there were found to be 153,600 in all.
“The strangers are the non-Israelite population of the holy land, the descendants (chiefly) of those Canaanites whom the children of Israel did not drive out.”
Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.
“On the numbers, see the 1Ki 5:16 note. To set the people a work - Or, “to set the people to work” - i. e., to compel them to labor.”
Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David.
“Where the Lord appeared unto David - The marginal rendering, or “which was shown to David,” is preferred by some; and the expression is understood to point out to David the proper site for the temple by the appearance of the Angels and the command…”
The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, according to the old standard.
“The marginal “founded” gives a clue to another meaning of this passage, which may be translated: “Now this is the ground-plan of Solomon for the building, etc.” Cubits after the first measure - i. e., cubits according to the ancient standard.”
He paneled the main room with cypress, which he overlaid with fine gold and decorated with palm trees and chains.
“The greater house - i. e., the holy place, or main chamber of the temple, intervening between the porch and the holy of holies (so in 2Ch 3:7). He cieled with fir tree - Rather, “he covered,” or “lined.””
The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also overlaid the upper area with gold.
“The upper chambers - Compare 1Ch 28:11. Their position is uncertain. Some place them above the holy of holies, which was ten cubits, or fifteen feet lower than the main building (compare 1Ki 6:2, 1Ki 6:20); others, accepting the height of the porch 120 cubits…”
In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of sculptured work, and he overlaid them with gold.
“The word translated “image work,” or, in the margin, “moveable work,” occurs only in this passage, and has not even a Hebrew derivation. Modern Hebraists find an Arabic derivation, and explain the word to mean “carved work.””
So the total wingspan of these cherubim was twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main room.
“Their faces were inward - literally, as in the margin. Instead of looking toward one another, with heads bent downward over the mercy Seat, like the cherubim of Moses Exo 37:9, these of Solomon looked out from the sanctuary into the great chamber (“the house”).”
He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim woven into it.
“This is an important addition to the description in Kings, where the veil is not mentioned. It was made of exactly the same colors as the veil of the tabernacle Exo 26:31.”
In front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits high, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits.
“Of thirty and five cubits - See 1Ki 7:15 note. Some suppose that there has been a corruption of the number in the present passage.”
He made interwoven chains and put them on top of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork.
“As in the oracle - This passage is probably corrupt. Our translators supposing that a single letter had fallen out at the beginning of the word translated “in the oracle,” supplied “as.””
He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
“The supplementary character of Chronicles is here once more apparent. The author of Kings had omitted to record the dimensions of the brass altar. It stood in the great court 2Ch 6:12-13.”
Below the rim, figures of oxen encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.
“For “oxen” we find in 1Ki 7:24, “knops” or “gourds.” An early copyist, not comprehending the comparatively rare word here used for “gourd,” and expecting to hear of oxen, as soon as the molten sea was mentioned, changed the reading.”
It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold three thousand baths.
“Three thousand baths - See 1Ki 7:23 note. It is quite possible that either here or in Kings the text may have been accidentally corrupted.”