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
I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers.
“I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers - Paul reckoned among his forefathers the patriarchs and the holy men of former times, as being of the same nation with himself, though it may be that he also included his more immediate ancestors, who…”
I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced is in you as well.
“When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee; - notes, 1Ti 1:5. On the faith of Timothy, see the notes at 1Ti 4:6.”
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear - A timorous and servile spirit. This is said in order to encourage Timothy, who was not improbably modest and diffident.”
He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ…
“Who hath saved us; - See the notes at Mat 1:21. He has brought us into a state in which salvation is so certain, that Paul could speak of it as if it were already done.”
Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
“Hold fast the form of sound words; - see the notes at 1Ti 1:3. On the Greek word here rendered “form,” see the notes at 1Ti 1:16, where it is rendered pattern. The word means a form, sketch, or imperfect delineation - an outline.”
You know that everyone in the Province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
“This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me - That is, in that part of Asia Minor of which Ephesus was the capital.”
Indeed, when he arrived in Rome, he searched diligently until he found me.
“But when he was in Rome - What was the employment of Onesiphorus is not known. It may have been that he was a merchant, and had occasion to visit Rome on business.”
You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
“Thou therefore - In view of the fact stated in the previous chapter, that many had turned away from the apostle, and had forsaken the paths of truth. Be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus; - compare the notes at Eph 6:10.”
Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ - Such hardships as a soldier is called to endure.”
Likewise, a competitor does not receive the crown unless he competes according to the rules.
“And if a man also strive for masteries - As in the Grecian games. See this favorite illustration of Paul explained in the notes at 1Co 9:24 ff.”
Consider what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all things.
“Consider what I say; - see the notes at 1Ti 4:15. The sense is “Think of the condition of the soldier, and the principles on which he is enlisted; think of the aspirant for the crown in the Grecian games; think of the farmer, patiently…”
for which I suffer to the extent of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained!
“Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil-doer - as if I were a violator of the laws. That is, I am treated as if I were a criminal.”
This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
“It is a faithful saying - Or, rather, that which he was about to say was worthy of entire credence and profound attention; see the notes at 1Ti 1:15. The object is to encourage Timothy to bear trials by the hope of salvation.”
if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him - The meaning is, that the members will be treated as the Head is.”
if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
“If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful - This cannot mean that, if we live in sin, he will certainly save us, as if he had made any promise to the elect, or formed any purpose that he would save them; whatever might be…”
Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God - Give diligence 2Pe 2:10, or make an effort so to discharge the duties of the ministerial office as to meet the divine approbation. The object of the ministry is not to please men.”
and the talk of such men will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
“And their word - The word, or the discourses of those who love vain and idle disputations. Will eat as doth a canker - Margin, “gangrene.” This word - γάγγραινα gangraina - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.”
Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”
“Nevertheless the foundation of God is sure - Margin, “steady.” The meaning is, that though some had been turned away by the arts of these errorists, yet the foundation of the church which God had laid remained firm; compare Eph 2:20, “And are built upon…”
So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.
“If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour - If a man “cleanse” or “purify” himself; compare the notes on Joh 15:2.”
But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.
“But foolish and unlearned questions avoid; - see the notes at 2Ti 2:16; compare the notes at 1Ti 1:4, 1Ti 1:6; 1Ti 4:7. The word “unlearned,” here, means “trifling; that which does not tend to edification; stupid.””
And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.
“And the servant of the Lord - Referring here primarily to the Christian minister, but applicable to all Christians; for all profess to be the servants of the Lord.”
He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves - That is, those who embrace error, and array themselves against the truth. We are not to become angry with such persons, and denounce them at once as heretics.”
But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come.
“This know also - The “object” of this reference to the perilous times which were to occur, was evidently to show the necessity of using every precaution to preserve the purity of the church, from the fact that such sad scenes were to open upon…”
unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,
“Without natural affection - see the notes at Rom 1:31. Trucebreakers - The same word in Rom 1:31, is rendered “implacable;” see the notes at that verse. It properly means “without treaty;” that is, those who are averse to any treaty or compact.”
having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!
“Having a form of godliness - That is, they profess religion, or are in connection with the church.”