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
These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:
“Preacher - literally, Convener. No one English word represents the Hebrew קהלת qôheleth adequately. Though capable, according to Hebrew usage, of being applied to men in office, it is strictly a feminine participle, and describes a person in the act of calling together an assembly…”
What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?
“What profit ... - The question often repeated is the great practical inquiry of the book; it receives its final answer in Ecc 12:13-14. When this question was asked, the Lord had not yet spoken Mat 11:28.”
All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow.
“The place - i. e., The spring or river-head. It would seem that the ancient Hebrews regarded the clouds as the immediate feeders of the springs (Pro 8:28, and Psa 104:10, Psa 104:13). Gen 2:6 indicates some acquaintance with the process and result of evaporation.”
And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven.
“Wisdom - As including both the powers of observation and judgment, and the knowledge acquired thereby (1Ki 3:28; 1Ki 4:29; 1Ki 10:8, ...). It increases by exercise. Here is noted its application to people and their actions.”
I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!” But it proved to be futile.
“Solomon’s trial of God’s second gift, namely, riches, and the enjoyment which riches supply; this brought him to the sane result (compare Ecc 1:12).”
I sought to cheer my body with wine and to embrace folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven…
“I sought ... - Rather, I resolved (literally “I turned in my heart”) to draw my flesh with wine (see the margin), my heart guiding me with wisdom.”
I made gardens and parks for myself, where I planted all kinds of fruit trees.
“Orchards - literally, “paradises,” i. e., parks or pleasure-grounds (compare Neh 2:8 note). Indications of at least three of these have been pointed out; one at Jerusalem near the pool of Siloam, called “the king’s garden” Neh 3:15; Jer 52:7; a second near Bethlehem (compare…”
I acquired menservants and maidservants, and servants were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me,
“I got - Rather, I bought, in distinction from those born in the house. The “children of Solomon’s servants” (compare Ezr 2:55, Ezr 2:58) were more probably of Canaanite origin 1Ki 9:20-21; 1Ki 5:15 than Hebrews 1Ki 9:22.”
To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
“Everything - More particularly, the actions of people (e. g. his own, Ecc 2:1-8) and events which happen to people, the world of Providence rather than the world of creation.”
a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
“Stones may be regarded either as materials for building, or as impediments to the fertility of land (see 2Ki 3:19, 2Ki 3:25; Isa 5:2).”
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning…
“Rather, He hath made all (the travail, Ecc 3:10) beautiful (fit, in harmony with the whole work of God) in its time; also He hath set eternity in their heart (i. e., the heart of the sons of men, Ecc 3:10).”
What exists has already been, and what will be has already been, for God will call to account what has passed.
“Rather, What has been - what was before, and what shall be has been before. The word “is” in our the King James Version is erroneously printed in Roman letters: it does not exist in the Hebrew (it should have been italicized); and the word…”
The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.
“Foldeth his hands - The envious man is here exhibited in the attitude of the sluggard (marginal references). Eateth his own flesh - i. e., “Destroys himself:” compare a similar expression in Isa 49:26; Psa 27:2; Mic 3:3.”
Again, I saw futility under the sun.
“The spectacle of a prosperous man whose condition is rendered vain by his brotherless, childless isolation. Ecc 4:8 A second - Any one associated or connected with him.”
Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take a warning.
“These verses set forth the vanity of earthly prosperity even on a throne. Opinion as to their application is chiefly divided between considering them a parable or fiction like that of the childless man in Ecc 4:8: or as setting forth first the vicissitudes of…”
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do…
“Keep thy foot - i. e., Give thy mind to what thou art going to do. The house of God - It has been said that here an ordinary devout Hebrew writer might have been expected to call it “the house of Yahweh;” but to…”
The produce of the earth is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
“The king himself is served by the field - Rather, the king is subject to the field, i. e., is dependent on its cultivation. The higher ranks, if they oppress the lower, lose thereby their own means of subsistence.”
All a man’s labor is for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.
“Connect these verses with Ecc 6:2-3: “All labor is undertaken with a view to some profit, but as a rule the people who labor are never satisfied.”
For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?
“Things - Namely, the various circumstances detailed in the foregoing chapters, from the Preacher’s personal experience, and his observation of other people, ending with the comprehensive declaration in Ecc 6:10 to the effect that vanity is an essential part of the constitution of creation as…”
Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.
“Sorrow - Rather, Seriousness. The heart is made better - i. e., is made bright and joyful (compare 2Co 6:10). The mind which bears itself equally in human concerns, whether they be pleasant or sorrowful, must always be glad, free, and at peace.”
Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
“Rather, oppression (or extortions) maketh a wise man foolish; and a bribe etc. If a wise man, being in a high position, exercises oppression (see Psa 62:10), or practices extortion, he becomes a fool in so doing.”
Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, and it benefits those who see the sun.
“And by it there is profit ... - literally, And is profitable to the living. The same word as in Ecc 6:11, to the question in which it looks like an answer.”
Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent?
“The work of God - The scheme of Divine Providence, the course of events which God orders and controls (compare Ecc 3:11). It comprises both events which are “straight,” i. e., in accordance with our expectation, and events which are “crooked,” i.”
In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
“The days of my vanity - This does not imply that those days of vanity were ended (see Ecc 1:12 note). The meaning may be best explained by a paraphrase.”
All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me.
“I will be - Or, I am. There was a time when Solomon thought himself wise enough to comprehend the work of God, and therefore needed for himself the self-humbling conviction declared in this verse. It - i. e. Wisdom. Compare Ecc 8:17.”