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 the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced a time of peace.
“Then had the churches rest - That is, the persecutions against Christians ceased. Those persecutions had been excited by the opposition made to Stephen Act 11:19; they had been greatly promoted by Saul Act 8:3; and they had extended doubtless throughout the whole land of…”
and all who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
“And all - The mass, or body of the people. The affliction of the man had been long, and was probably well known; the miracle would be celebrated, and the effect was an extensive revival of religion.”
At that time, however, she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upper room.
“Whom, when they had washed - Among most people it has been customary to wash the body before it is buried or burned. They prepared her in the usual manner for interment. In an upper chamber - See the notes on Act 1:13.”
So Peter got up and went with them. On his arrival, they took him to the upper room.
“Then Peter arose - See the notes on Luk 15:18. And all the widows - Whom Dorcas had benefited by her kindness.”
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was called the Italian Regiment.
“In Cesarea - See the notes on Act 8:40. Cornelius - This is a Latin name, and shows that the man was doubtless a Roman.”
When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among his attendants.
“A devout soldier - A pious man. This is an instance of the effect of piety in a military officer.”
The next day at about the sixth hour, as the men were approaching the city on their journey, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
“Peter went up ... - The small room in the second story, or on the roof of the house, was the usual place for retirement and prayer. See the notes on Mat 6:6; Mat 9:2.”
He saw heaven open and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
“And saw heaven opened - Act 7:56. See the notes on Mat 3:16. This language is derived from a common mode of speaking in the Hebrew Scriptures, as if the sky above us was a solid, vast expanse, and as if it were opened to…”
The voice spoke to him a second time: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
“What God hath cleansed - What God has pronounced or declared pure. If God has commanded you to do a thing, it is not impure or wrong.”
While Peter was puzzling over the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house and approached the gate.
“Doubted in himself - Doubted in his own mind. He was perplexed, and did not know how to understand it. Behold, the men ... - We see here an admirable arrangement of the events of Providence to fit each other.”
As Peter continued to reflect on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.
“The Spirit - See the notes on Act 8:29. Compare Isa 65:24, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer,” etc.”
So Peter invited them in as his guests. And the next day he got ready and went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.
“And lodged them - They remained with him through the night. Four days were occupied before Peter met Cornelius at Caesarea. On the first the angel appeared to Cornelius. On the second the messengers arrived at Joppa, Act 10:9.”
As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him.
“Fell down at his feet - This was an act of profound regard for him as an ambassador of God. In Oriential countries it was usual for persons to prostrate themselves at length on the ground before men of rank and honor.”
You yourselves know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee with the baptism that John proclaimed:
“That word - Greek: ῥῆμα rēma - a different word from that in the previous verse. It may be translated “thing” as well as “word.” Which was published - Greek: which was done.”
We are witnesses of all that He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
“And we are witnesses - We who are apostles. See the notes on Luk 24:48. In the land of the Jews - In the country of Judea. Whom they slew ...”
not by all the people, but by the witnesses God had chosen beforehand, by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.
“Not to all the people - Not to the nation at large, for this was not necessary in order to establish the truth of his resurrection. He, however, showed himself to many persons. See the Harmony of the Accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus.”
All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”
“To him give ... - See the notes on Luk 24:27, Luk 24:44. That through his name ... - This was implied in what the prophets said. See Rom 10:11.”
All the circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
“And they of the circumcision - Who had been Jews. Were astonished - Were amazed that Gentiles should be admitted to the same favor as themselves.”
“Can anyone withhold the water to baptize these people? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have!”
“Can any man forbid water ... - They have shown that they are favored in the same way as the Jewish converts. God has manifested himself to them as he did to the Jews on the day of Pentecost.”
The apostles and brothers throughout Judea soon heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
“And the apostles and brethren - The Christians who Were in Judea. Heard ... - So extraordinary an occurrence as that at Caesarea, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles, and their reception into the church, would excite attention, and be likely to…”
So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”
“What was I - What power or right had I to oppose the manifest will of God that the Gentiles should be received into the Christian church. Withstand God - Oppose or resist God.”
Meanwhile those scattered by the persecution that began with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message only to Jews.
“Now they ... - This verse introduces a new train of historical remark; and from this point the course of the history of the Acts of the Apostles takes a new direction.”
The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
“And the hand of the Lord - See the notes on Luk 1:66. Compare Psa 80:17. The meaning is, that God showed them favor, and evinced his power in the conversion of their hearers.”
When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.
“Had seen the grace of God - The favor, or mercy of God, in converting sinners to himself. Was glad - Approved of what had been done in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, and rejoiced that God had poured down his Spirit on them.”
Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
“Then departed ... - Why Barnabas sought Saul is not known. It is probable, however, that it was owing to the remarkable success which he had in Antioch. There was a great revival of religion, and there was need of additional labor.”