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
Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters.
“Athaliah’s destruction of the seed royal had left Joash without a natural successor, and his marriage at the earliest suitable age, was, therefore, a matter of state policy.”
So the workmen labored, and in their hands the repair work progressed. They restored the house of God according to its specifications, and they reinforced it.
“They set the house of God in his state - Some prefer, “they set up the house of God in its (old) measure” or “proportions.””
When Jehoiada was old and full of years, he died at the age of 130.
“An hundred and thirty years old - Most critics suppose the number in the text to be corrupt, and suggest 103 or 83 in its stead.”
After the death of Jehoiada, however, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.
“The nobles had taken part in the revolution which placed Joash on the throne 2Ch 23:2, 2Ch 23:13, 2Ch 23:20, but probably on political rather than on religious grounds.”
But they conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king, they stoned him in the courtyard of the house of the LORD.
“In the court of the house of the Lord - “Between the altar and the Temple,” or directly in front of the temple porch, if it be this Zechariah of whom our Lord speaks Mat 23:35.”
The accounts of the sons of Joash, as well as the many pronouncements about him and about the restoration of the house of God, are indeed written in the Treatise…
“The greatness of the burdens laid upon him - Or, “And the multitude of burdens uttered against him.” “Burdens” (2Ki 9:25 note) are prophetical denunciations of coming evil. The repairing - See the marginal rendering.”
Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem.
“This chapter is evidently taken to a large extent from the same document as Kings (see the marginal reference and the notes). At the same time it contains large and important additions; e. g. 2Ch 25:5-10, 2Ch 25:13-16.”
Then Amaziah gathered the people of Judah and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and of hundreds.
“Three hundred thousand - Asa’s army had been nearly twice as numerous, amounting to 580, 000 2Ch 14:8. The diminution was due, in part, to wars 2Ch 21:8, 2Ch 21:16; 2Ch 24:23-24; in part, to the general decadence of the kingdom.”
Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has power to help and power to overthrow.”
“If the present text is regarded as sound, this passage must be taken ironically. But most recent commentators supply a second negative, and render it: “But go thou alone, act, be strong for the battle - God shall then not make thee to fall.””
and the army of Judah also captured 10,000 men alive. They took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that all were dashed to pieces.
“The top of the rock - Rather, “the height of Selah” (or, Petra), near which the battle was probably fought. On the cruel features of the Edomite wars, see 1Ki 11:15; Eze 25:12; Oba 1:14.”
Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had dismissed from battle raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon.
“To revenge the insult 2Ch 25:10, the troops of Joash proceeded southward and ravaged all the Jewish towns and villages between the Israelite frontier and Bethboron. This invasion probably took place while Amaziah was still in Edom.”
When Amaziah returned from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the Seirites, set them up as his own gods, bowed before them, and burned sacrifices…
“The practice of carrying off the images of the gods from a conquered country, or city, as trophies of victory, was common among the nations of the East.”
While he was still speaking, the king asked, “Have we made you the counselor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?”
“Art thou made of the king’s counsel? - A subtle irony: “Have I made thee one of my council? If not what entitles thee to offer thy advice?” For the fulfillment of the prophecy, see 2Ch 25:22-24, 2Ch 25:27.”
From the time that Amaziah turned from following the LORD, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish.
“After the time ... - The writer means that the violent death of Amaziah followed on his apostasy, not closely in point of time - for it must have been at least 15 years after 2Ch 25:25 - nor as, humanly speaking, caused by it…”
All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
“Uzziah - This form of the name is found uniformly in Chronicles (except 1Ch 3:12) and in the prophets. The writer of Kings prefers the form Azariah. Uzziah has been regarded as a phonetic corruption of the real name used by the common people.”
He sought God throughout the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.
“Who had understanding in the visions of God - Another reading, supported by the Septuagint, and some ancient versions, is: “who instructed him in the fear of God.””
And in Jerusalem he made skillfully designed devices to shoot arrows and catapult large stones from the towers and corners.
“Uzziah’s engines seem to have corresponded respectively to the Roman balista and catapulta. The balista, which threw stones, was known to the Assyrians as early as the time of Sardanapalus I, the contemporary of Jehoshaphat.”
When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw his leprous forehead, they rushed him out.
“Death was denounced by the Law against those who invaded the office of the priest; and death had been the actual punishment of Korah and his company.”
So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham…
“A several house - See the marginal reference “q” note; and compare Ps. 88, which is supposed by some to refer to Uzziah.”
And Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in a field of burial that belonged to the kings; for the people said, “He was a leper.”
“In the field of the burial - i. e. in the same piece of ground, but in a separate sepulchre. As the Law separated off the leper from his fellows during life Lev 13:46, so Jewish feeling required that he should remain separate even in…”
Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD, and he worked extensively on the wall at the hill of Ophel.
“Ophel was the name given to the long, narrowish, rounded spur or promontory, which intervenes between the central valley of Jerusalem (the Tyropoeon) and the Kidron, or valley of Jehoshaphat.”
Jotham waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them, and that year they gave him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten…
“The Ammonites, who had submitted to Uzziah 2Ch 26:8, revolted against Jotham. This revolt he firmly repressed; and, to punish it, he exacted a high rate of tribute for the three years following the termination of the war.”
Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years.
“This chapter is supplemental in character, The writer seems to assume that the narrative of Kings (marginal reference) is known, and is mainly anxious to add points which the author of that narrative has omitted.”
Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even made cast images of the Baals.
“Images for Baalim - Or, to serve as Baalim, i. e as representatives of the different forms or characters of the chief Phoenician deity.”
So the LORD his God delivered Ahaz into the hand of the king of Aram, who attacked him and took many captives to Damascus.
“The two battles here mentioned, one with Rezin (king of Syria), and the other with Pekah (king of Israel) are additions to the narrative of the writer of Kings (marginal reference “g”). The events of the Syro-Israelite war were probably spread over several years.”