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
But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did in the past,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
“And now - The words imply a contrast of God’s dealings, rather than a contrast of time. “I am not to the remnant of this people.””
As you have been a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing.
“As ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you - The ten tribes bore the name of Israel, in contrast with the two tribes with the name of Judah, not only in the…”
For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Just as I resolved to bring disaster upon you when your fathers provoked Me to anger, and I did not relent,”…
“As I thought to punish you - (Literally, to do evil to you) “and repented not.” In like way God says in Jeremiah, “I have purposed and will not repent.” Jer 4:28.”
“so now I have resolved to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid.
“So have I turned and purposed in these days to do well unto Jerusalem - Dionysius: “God, to be better understood, speaketh with the feelings and after the manner of men, although, in the passionless and unchangeable God, there is no provocation to anger, nor…”
These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another, render true and sound judgments in your gates,
“These are the things that ye shall do - He exhorts them to the same duties, to which the former prophets had exhorted their fathers, Zec 7:9-10, and, as before, first positively to truth and peace; then to avoid everything contrary to it.”
do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely, for I hate all these things,” declares the LORD.
“For all these things do I hate - Literally, emphatic, “For they are all these things which I hate.” This is the sum of what I hate; for they comprise in brief the breaches of the two tables, the love of God and of man.”
“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts…
“The fast of the fourth month - On the ninth day “of the fourth month” of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, Jerusalem, in the extremity of famine, opened to Nebuchadnezzar, and his princes sat in her gate; in the “tenth month” of his ninth year Nebuchadnezzar began…”
and the residents of one city will go to another, saying: ‘Let us go at once to plead before the LORD and to seek the LORD of Hosts.
“The inhabitants of one city shall go to another - It is one unresting extension of the fairly, the restlessness of faith and love.”
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue will tightly grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us…
“Ten men of all languages of the nations - Ten is the symbol of a whole, all the numbers before it meeting in it and starting again from it.”
This is the burden of the word of the LORD against the land of Hadrach and Damascus its resting place—for the eyes of men and of all the tribes of…
“The burden - o of the word of the Lord in (or, upon) the land of Hadrach The foreground of this prophecy is the course of the Victories of Alexander, which circled round the holy land without hurting it, and ended in the overthrow of…”
Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.
“And Tyre did build herself a stronghold - She built it for herself, not for God, and trusted to it, not to God, and so its strength brought her the greater fall.”
Ashkelon will see and fear; Gaza will writhe in agony, as will Ekron, for her hope will wither.
“Ashkelon shall see and fear - The words express that to see and fear shall be as one. The mightiest and wealthiest, Tyre, having fallen, the neighbor cities of Philistia who had hoped that her might should be their stay, shall stand in fear and…”
I will remove the blood from their mouths and the abominations from between their teeth.
“And I will take away his blood out of his mouth - The “abominations” being idol-sacrifices , the “bloods” will also be, the blood mingled with the wine of sacrifices, of which David says, “Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer” Psa 16:4; and…”
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem!
“From the protection, which God promised to His people and to His House, the prophet passes on to Him who was ever in his thoughts, and for whose sake that people and temple were preserved.”
As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.
“As for thee also - The prophet turns from the deliverance of the whole world to the former people, the sorrows which they should have in the way, and the protection which God would bestow upon them for the sake of Him, who, according to…”
For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece.
“When - or For I have bent Judah for me As a mighty bow which is only drawn at full human strength, the foot being placed to steady it. It becomes a strong instrument, but only at God’s Will. God Himself bends it.”
The LORD of Hosts will shield them. They will destroy and conquer with slingstones; they will drink and roar as with wine.
“The Lord of hosts, shall defend them - As God says, “I will defend this city to save it, for Mine own sake and for My servant David’s sake” .”
How lovely they will be, and how beautiful! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine, the young women.
“For how great is His goodness - For it is unutterable! As the Psalmist said, “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth!” Psa 8:1, and Jacob, “How awful is this place!””
Ask the LORD for rain in springtime; the LORD makes the storm clouds, and He will give everyone showers of rain and crops in the field.
“Ask ye of the Lord rain - “Ask and ye shall receive” our Lord says. Zechariah had promised in God’s name blessings temporal and spiritual: all was ready on God’s part; only, he adds, ask them of the Lord, the Unchangeable, the Self-same not of…”
“My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders.
“Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds - As Ezekiel continued, “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand” Eze 34:10.”
They will be like mighty men in battle, trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets.
“And they - (the house of Judah , of whom he had said, He hath made them as the goodly horse in the battle) shall be as mighty men, trampling on the mire of the streets Micah had said, “she shall be a trampling, as…”
Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their hearts will be glad as with wine.
“And Ephraim, they shall be like a mighty man - Prophecy, through the rest of the chapter, turns to Ephraim, which had not yet been restored.”
Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember Me in distant lands; they and their children will live and return.
“And I will sow them among the nations - Such had been the prophecy of Hosea; “I will sow her unto Me in the earth,” as the prelude of spiritual mercies, “and I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy, and I…”
They will pass through the sea of distress and strike the waves of the sea; all the depths of the Nile will dry up.
“And He - that is, Almighty God, shall pass through the sea, affliction As He says, “When thou walkest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not oveflow thee.”
Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may consume your cedars!
“Open thy doors, O Lebanon - Lebanon, whose cedars had stood, its glory, for centuries, yet could offer no resistance to him who felled them and were carried off to adorn the palaces of its conquerors (see above at Zep 2:14, and note 2. p.”