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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.
Albert Barnes. Painted by George Edward Perine. The file is marked public domain. This site's record does not give the artist's death year, which is what settles the painting's own rights. The file record

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

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

Zechariah 1:1Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying:

In the eighth month - o. The date joins on Zechariah’s prophecy to those of Haggai. Two months before, “in the sixth month” Hag 1:1, had Haggai, conjointly with Zechariah Ezr 5:1-2, exhorted Zerubbabel and the people to resume the intermitted building of the temple.

Zechariah 1:3Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD…

Therefore say thou - Literally, “And thou sayest,” that is, this having been so, it follows that thou sayest or must say, “Turn ye unto Me.”

Zechariah 1:4Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’

Be ye not like your fathers - Strangely infectious is the precedent of ill. Tradition of good, of truth, of faith, is decried; only tradition of ill and error are adhered to.

Zechariah 1:5Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Your fathers, where are they? - The abrupt solemnity of the question seems to imply an unexpected close of life which cut short their hopes, plans, promises to self. “When they said, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them” 1Th 5:3.

Zechariah 1:7Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of…

On the twenty-fourth day - Exactly five months after the building of the temple was resumed Hag 2:15, and two months after Haggai’s last prophecy Hag 2:20.

Zechariah 1:9Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

“What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.”

What are these? - He asks, not who, but what they import. The angel that talked with me - Literally, “spake in me.”

Zechariah 1:11Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and…

Sitteth still and is at rest - At rest, as the word seems to express, from its accustomed state of tumult and war. Wars, although soon to break out again, were in the second year of Darius for the time suspended.

Zechariah 1:14Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Then the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion,

Cry thou - The vision was not for the prophet alone. What he saw and heard, that he was to proclaim to others.

Zechariah 1:15Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

I am sore displeased - literally “with great anger am I angered against the nations which are at ease.”

Zechariah 1:17Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Proclaim further that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”

Cry yet - A further promise; not only should Jerusalem be rebuilt, but should as we say, overflow with good ; and God, who had seemed to cast off His people, should yet comfort her, and should show in act that He had chosen her.

Zechariah 1:19Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

These are the horns which have scattered - o “The four horns which scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem, are four nations, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Romans; as the Lord, on the prophet’s enquiry, explains here, and Daniel unfolds most fully Dan.

Zechariah 2:1Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Then I lifted up my eyes and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.

A man with a measuring line in his hand - Probably the Angel of the Lord, of whom Ezekiel has a like vision.

Zechariah 2:5Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory within it.’”

And I, Myself in My own Being, will be to her a wall of fire - Not protection only, an inner circle around her, however near an enemy might press in upon her, but destructive to her enemies.

Zechariah 2:7Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

“Get up, O Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the Daughter of Babylon!”

Dwellest with the daughter of Babylon - The unusual idiom is perhaps chosen as expressive of God’s tenderness, even to the people who were to be destroyed, from which Israel was to escape.

Zechariah 2:9Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

I will surely wave My hand over them, so that they will become plunder for their own servants. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me.”

For behold I will shake My hand against them - As God promised of old against the enemies of His people , and they shall be a spoil to those who served them habitually.

Zechariah 2:11Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

“On that day many nations will join themselves to the LORD, and they will become My people.

And many nations shall join themselves - cleaving to Him by a close union. Isaiah had so spoken of single proselytes Isa 56:3-6; Jeremiah had used the word of Israel’s self-exhortation after the return from Babylon; “going and weeping,” they shall go and seek the…

Zechariah 2:13Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Be silent before the LORD, all people, for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.”

Be silent - Literally, “hush all flesh, before the Lord” (see at Hab 2:20, p. 207); man in his weakness Gen 6:3; 2Ch 32:8; Job 10:4; Psa 56:4; Psa 78:39; Isa 31:3; Jer 17:5, “flesh and blood” in the language of the New Testament Mat…

Zechariah 3:1Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

And He - God, (for the office of the attendant angel was to explain, not to show the visions) “showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord;” probably to be judged by him ; as in the New Testament, “to…

Zechariah 3:5Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So a clean turban was placed on his head, and they clothed him, as the angel of the…

And I said, let them set a fair mitre on his head - This seems to have been purposely omitted, in order to leave something, and that, the completion of all, to be done at the intercession of the prophet.

Zechariah 3:6Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Then the angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua:

And the angel of the Lord protested - Solemnly (etymologically, called God to witness) as in, “Did I not make thee swear by the Lord and protested unto thee” 1Ki 2:42, laying it as an obligation upon him.

Zechariah 3:7Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘If you walk in My ways and keep My instructions, then you will govern My house and will also have charge of…

If thou wilt walk in My ways and if thou wilt keep My charge - Both of these are expressions, dating from the Pentateuch, for holding on in the way of life, well-pleasing to God and keeping the charge given by God.

Zechariah 3:9Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

See the stone I have set before Joshua; on that one stone are seven eyes.

For behold the stone, that I hare laid before Joshua - This must be an expansion of what he had said, or the ground of it, being introduced by, for.

Zechariah 4:4Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

“What are these, my lord?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.

Osorius: “Awakened from his state of sleep, even thus the prophet seemed slowly to understand what was shown him. He asks then of the instructing angel.

Zechariah 4:7Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt be a plain - The words have the character of a sacred proverb; “Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased” Luk 14:11; Luk 18:14.

Zechariah 4:8Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

And the word of the Lord - Keil: “This word of the Lord is not addressed through ‘the interpreting angel,’ but direct from the Lord, and that through the ‘Angel of the Lord’ .