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
This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
“The beginning of the gospel - The word “gospel” literally signifies good news, and particularly the good tidings respecting the way of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
“The time is fulfilled - That is, the time for the appearance of the Messiah, the time so long foretold, has come. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” See the notes at Mat 3:2.”
Then Jesus and His companions went to Capernaum, and right away Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.
“See also Luk 4:31-37. Mar 1:21 And they went into Capernaum - For the situation of Capernaum see the notes at Mat 4:13. Straightway - Immediately. On the following Sabbath. The synagogue - See the notes at Mat 4:23.”
That evening, after sunset, people brought to Jesus all who were sick and demon-possessed,
“See the notes at Mat 8:16-17. And at even, when the sun did set - See the notes at Mat 8:16. Mar 1:33 All the city - A great part of the city. A great multitude from the city.”
Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and slipped out to a solitary place to pray.
“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day - Luke says Luk 4:42, “when it was day.” The passage in Mark means, in the original, not literally “a great while before day,” but very early, or while there was yet “much appearance…”
A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum. And when the people heard that He was home,
“Into Capernaum - See the notes at Mat 4:13. After some days - The number of days is not known. Jesus probably remained long enough in the desert to heal the sick who were brought to him, and to give instructions to the multitudes who…”
While Jesus was dining at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples—for there were many who followed Him.
“Sat at meat in the house - The words “at meat” are not in the original. The phrase means “as he reclined at his meal,” or “as he was eating.” This feast was made by Matthew in honor of the Saviour. See Luk 5:29.”
One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.
“See Mat 12:1-8. The cornfields - The fields sown with wheat or barley. The word “corn,” in the Bible, refers only to grain of that kind, and never to “maize” or “Indian corn.” To pluck the ears of corn - They were hungry, Mat 12:1.”
At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
“Straightway - Immediately, or as soon as possible. Took counsel - Laid a plan. Consulted with them. Literally, “made a consultation.” The Harridans - See the notes at Mat 22:16.”
So Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, accompanied by a large crowd from Galilee, Judea,
“To the sea - The Sea of Galilee, or to the lonely regions which surrounded the sea, where he might be in obscurity, and avoid their designs against his life.”
Jesus asked His disciples to have a boat ready for Him so that the crowd would not crush Him.
“A small ship - Rather a “boat.” There were properly speaking, no “ships” on the Sea of Tiberias. This was probably a small boat that belonged to the disciples, in which he could draw off from the shore, and teach the people without being pressed…”
And when the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!”
“Unclean spirits - Persons who were possessed of evil spirits. Thou art the Son of God - The Son of God, by way of eminence. In this place it is equivalent to the Messiah, who was, among the Jews, called the Son of God.”
Then Jesus went up on the mountain and called for those He wanted, and they came to Him.
“For an account of the appointment of the apostles, see the notes at Mat 10:1-4. And calleth unto him whom he would - Those whom he chose; whom he was about to appoint to the apostleship. See the notes at Joh 15:16.”
Then Jesus went home, and once again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples could not even eat.
“They could not so much as eat bread - Their time and attention were so occupied that they were obliged to forego their regular meals.”
When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind.”
“When his friends - Greek, “they who were of him.” Not the apostles, but his relatives, his friends, who were in the place of his nativity.”
And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons.”
“And the scribes ... - See the notes at Mat 12:24-32. The occasion of their saying this was, that he had healed a man possessed with a devil.”
Jesus also said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp to put it under a basket or under a bed? Doesn’t he set it on a stand?
“Is a candle brought ... - A candle is not lit up to be put immediately under a measure or a bed, where it can give no light. Its design is to give light.”
Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how.
“And should sleep, and rise night and day - Should sleep in the night and rise by day, for so the expression is to be understood. That is, should live in his usual way, without exerting any influence over the growing grain.”
And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
“Immediately he putteth in the sickle - This is the way with the farmer. As soon as the grain is ripe it is cut down. So it is often with the Christian. As soon as he is prepared for heaven he is taken there.”
With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, to the extent that they could understand.
“Spake he the word - The word of God. The doctrines of his gospel. As they were able to hear it - As they could comprehend it.”
After they had dismissed the crowd, they took Jesus with them, since He was already in the boat. And there were other boats with Him.
“See the notes at Mat 8:18-27. Mar 4:36 Even as he was in the ship - They took him without making any preparation for the voyage; without providing any food or raiment. He was sitting in a ship, or boat, instructing the people.”
Though he was often bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and shattered the shackles. Now there was no one with the strength to subdue him.
“See this account of the demoniacs fully explained in the notes at Mat 8:28-34. Mar 5:4 He had been often bound with fetters and chains - Efforts had been made to confine him, but his great strength - his strength increased by his malady -…”
Then Jesus called the Twelve to Him and began to send them out two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits.
“And he called unto him the twelve - See the notes at Mat 10:1. And began to send them forth by two and two - In order that they might “support” and “encourage” each other in their work.”
So they set out and preached that the people should repent.
“Preached that men should repent - See the nature of repentance explained in notes at Mat 3:2. They were now called upon to repent and reform their lives because sin was evil, because the Messiah had come to preach forgiveness to the penitent, and because…”
They also drove out many demons and healed many of the sick, anointing them with oil.
“Cast out many devils - See the notes at Mat 4:24. And anointed with oil ... - Anointing with oil was in common use among the Jews in cases of sickness. It was supposed to have a mild, soothing, and alleviating effect on the body.”