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Voices and influences

John Gill

The self-taught Baptist Hebraist who pastored one London congregation for fifty-one years and wrote a comment on every verse in the Bible.

Summary

This site quotes John Gill 5,991 times across 66 books, and lists 0 works.

  • Lived 1697 to 1771.
  • Quoted here most in Psalms: 639 of 5,991.
John Gill. Painted by George Vertue. 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

John Gill

Lived
1697 to 1771
Tradition
Reformed Baptist

5 of 5,991 quotations

Own words

Quoted in full, because John Gill died in 1771 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.

A bruised reed shall he not break,.... Various are the thoughts of interpreters, about what is meant by this, and by the smoking flax shall he not quench.

Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)

Undated in the archive this site cites.

The rest of the quotation

Some think the Scribes and Pharisees are designed, whose power Christ could easily crush, and their wrath and fury restrain, but would not, till the time of his vengeance was come. Others that the publicans and sinners are intended, of whose conversion and salvation there were more hope than of the Scribes and Pharisees; and which Christ greatly sought after, and therefore cherished and encouraged them in his ministry and conversation.

Matthew 12:20 A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory. BSB

And Cain talked with Abel,.... Or "said", or "spoke unto" him (l); either what the Lord God said to him in the foregoing verses, as Aben Ezra; or he spoke to him in a kind and friendly manner, and thereby got him to take a…

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

Undated in the archive this site cites.

The rest of the quotation

walk in the field with him.

Genesis 4:8 Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. BSB

And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord,.... This, as Ben Gersom observes, is distinguished from a burnt offering; for though it was to be perfect, and without blemish, yet not obliged to be a male as that, Lev 3:

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

Undated in the archive this site cites.

Leviticus 22:21 When a man presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without blemish or defect to be acceptable. BSB

So David and Abishai came to the people by night,.... Josephus (l) wrongly says, that he took with him both Abishai and Ahimelech; he chose to have but one, for the greater secrecy.

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

Undated in the archive this site cites.

1 Samuel 26:7 That night David and Abishai came to the troops, and Saul was lying there asleep in the inner circle of the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the troops were lying around him. BSB

Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam,.... Calamities, destruction, and ruin: and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall; not leave a dog of his, or rather a male, see 1Sa 25:22.

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

Undated in the archive this site cites.

The rest of the quotation

and him that is shut up and left in Israel; in garrisons or in prisons, in cities or in fields, or in whatsoever situation or circumstances they may be.

1 Kings 14:10 Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone! BSB

Influence, on the record

The life, in order

The life told as one accountfrom this site's record

John Gill was born at Kettering in Northamptonshire on November 23, 1697, the son of a wool merchant who served as a deacon in the dissenting congregation there. Because the family were Nonconformists, the local grammar school effectively closed to him around the age of eleven. So he taught himself. What he taught himself was languages. He worked through Latin and Greek on his own, then Hebrew — and then kept going, into the Targums, the Talmud, and the medieval rabbis. Almost no English Christian of his century read Jewish sources as widely as Gill did, and he read them in the original. He was baptized in 1716, began preaching, and in 1719 was called to a small Particular Baptist congregation at Horsleydown in Southwark, south London. He stayed fifty-one years, until his death. That pulpit had a long life ahead of it: the congregation later moved and eventually became the church that called Charles Spurgeon a century afterward, and Spurgeon spoke of Gill as one of his predecessors. The work he is remembered for is the commentary. Gill wrote an exposition of the entire Bible, verse by verse, book by book — the New Testament first, in three volumes (1746–1748), then the Old Testament in six (1748–1763). It was the first complete verse-by-verse commentary on the whole Bible written by a Baptist, and it is thick with rabbinic material nobody else was bringing to English readers. He also wrote The Cause of God and Truth (1735–1738), a four-part defense of Calvinist doctrine against the Arminian arguments of Daniel Whitby, and late in life A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity (1767–1770), the first full systematic theology produced by an English Baptist. The University of Aberdeen gave him a doctorate in divinity in 1748; he remarked that he had neither asked for it nor deserved it. His theology was high Calvinism, and he pressed it further than most. Gill held to eternal justification and was reluctant to make a free offer of Christ to all who heard him — a position later called hyper-Calvinism, and one that Andrew Fuller and then Spurgeon worked hard to undo among the Baptists. Historians still argue about exactly how far he went. Robert Hall's jab has followed the commentary ever since: it was, he said, a continent of mud. But the mud kept getting reprinted. Augustus Toplady defended him fiercely. Spurgeon kept him on the shelf and praised his learning in Commenting and Commentaries, while rejecting outright his restraint about inviting sinners to come. He preached his last sermon in 1771 and died at Camberwell on October 14 of that year, aged seventy-three. Fifty-one years in one pulpit, a comment on every verse in the Bible, and a body of theology his own denomination has been arguing with ever since. Sources: John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments and A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity; John Rippon, A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late Rev. John Gill, D.D.; C. H. Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries; Timothy George and David Dockery, eds., Baptist Theologians.

5,991 quotations across 66 books

Where this voice is quoted

1 Chronicles 28:7Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

I will establish his kingdom forever, if he resolutely carries out My commandments and ordinances, as is being done this day.’

Moreover, I will establish his kingdom for ever,.... The same is said in 2Sa 7:13. if he be constant to do my commandments, and my judgments, as at this day; if he continued in the observance of them, as he had begun, and went on…

1 Chronicles 28:10Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

Consider now that the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it.”

Take heed now,.... Of offending God by forsaking him; or see, consider, and observe now what he was further about to say to him, concerning the building of the temple, as follows: for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary…

1 Chronicles 28:12Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

The plans contained everything David had in mind for the courts of the house of the LORD, for all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the house of God…

By the Spirit of God, who gave him the whole form of the temple, and all things relative to it; just as God showed to Moses the pattern of the tabernacle in the mount; the Targum is, by the spirit of prophecy that was with…

1 Chronicles 28:17Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

the weight of the pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls, and pitchers; the weight of each gold dish; the weight of each silver bowl;

Also pure gold for the flesh hooks,.... To take the pieces of flesh out of the pots, in which they were boiled: and the bowls and the cups; and for the golden basins he gave gold by weight for every basin; which were vessels made…

1 Chronicles 29:8Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

Whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD, under the care of Jehiel the Gershonite.

And they with whom precious stones were found,.... Such as are mentioned 1Ch 29:2. gave them to the treasure of the house of the Lord; to be laid up there: by the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite; who, and his sons, had the care of…

1 Chronicles 29:23Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

So Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king in place of his father David. He prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.

Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord,.... Who had given it to him, and established him on it, and whose vicegerent he was, and over whose people he ruled: as king instead of David; he was viceroy to him in his life time…

1 Chronicles 29:25Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

The LORD highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him royal majesty such as had not been bestowed on any king in Israel before him.

And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly before all Israel,.... By giving him such a large share of wisdom and understanding in government: and bestowed upon him such royal majesty; not only such wealth and riches, but such honour and reverence: as had not been on…

1 Chronicles 29:28Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

He died at a ripe old age, full of years, riches, and honor, and his son Solomon reigned in his place.

And he died in a good old age,.... Being seventy years of age: full of days, riches, and honour; had as much of either of them as he could wish for; and having enough, he sought after, and was taken to the possession of, eternal…

1 Chronicles 29:30Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

together with all the details of his reign, his might, and the circumstances that came upon him and Israel and all the kingdoms of the lands.

With all his reign and his might,.... The whole of it, and the mighty valiant acts done by him, the battles he fought, and the victories he obtained: and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and all the kingdoms of the countries…