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
- 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.
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…
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:
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.
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.
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
This site quotes John Gill 5,991 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
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
When you bring to the LORD the grain offering made in any of these ways, it is to be presented to the priest, and he shall take it to the…
“And thou shalt bring the meat offering, that is made of these things, unto the Lord,.... Either to the tabernacle, the house of the Lord, or to the Lord's priest, as it follows: and when it is presented to the priest; by the owner of…”
“If one’s offering is a peace offering and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he must present it without blemish before the LORD.
“And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering,.... The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render it, the "sacrifice of holinesses", or "sanctifications"; so called, not because they were more holy than other sacrifices; for they were what the Jews (c) call the lighter…”
If he is presenting a lamb for his offering, he must present it before the LORD.
“If he offer a lamb for his offering,.... Which was of the flock, and must be of the first year; this is a rule laid down by Maimonides (i), that where ever this word is used in the law, it signifies one of the first…”
He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Meeting.
“And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds here, as before,"his right hand with strength:" and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation; in the court, in any part of it; for, as Gersom says…”
Then the priest is to burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
“And the priest shall burn it upon the altar,.... The fat of the tail, of the inwards, the two kidneys, and the caul of the liver: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord; or "bread"; this part of the…”
Now if the whole congregation of Israel strays unintentionally and the matter escapes the notice of the assembly so that they violate any of the LORD’s commandments and incur guilt…
“And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance,.... That is, all Israel, or the greatest part of them, as Gersom interprets it, through the ignorant teaching of the judges, who by their instruction cause the people to err, and commit sins of ignorance…”
when they become aware of the sin they have committed, then the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the Tent of Meeting.
“When the sin which they have sinned against it,.... Any of the commandments of the Lord forbidding such a thing to be done: is known; is made known to them by the priest, or any other, so that they are convinced that what has been…”
The elders of the congregation are to lay their hands on the bull’s head before the LORD, and it shall be slaughtered before the LORD.
“And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the Lord,....”
When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is prohibited by any of the commandments of the LORD his God, he incurs guilt.
“When a ruler hath sinned,.... Or "prince", the "nasi", one that is lifted up above others in honour, power, and authority, or that bears the weight of government: the word comes from one which signifies to lift up, or to bear; it may be understood…”
He is to lay his hand on the head of the goat and slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the LORD.
“And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat,.... His right hand, as the Targum of Jonathan; See Gill on Lev 1:4.”
He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering.
“And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering,.... His right hand, as the Targum of Jonathan; not the priest that shall offer it, but the man that has sinned, that brings it, thereby confessing his sin, and transferring it to…”
If, however, he brings a lamb as a sin offering, he must bring an unblemished female.
“And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering,.... As he might if he would; the Jews observe, that in all places a lamb is put before a goat, as being more excellent in its kind; but here it is mentioned after, which shows…”
And he is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it as a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered.
“He shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering,.... On the head of the lamb, as on the head of the goat, even his right hand, as the above Targum, as before: and slay it for a sin offering, in the place…”
Or if he touches human uncleanness—anything by which one becomes unclean—even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty.
“Or if he touch the uncleanness of man,.... The dead body of a man, or the bone of a dead body, or a grave, or any profluvious or menstruous person: whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal: not morally, but ceremonially…”
then he is to sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, while the rest of the blood is drained out at the…
“And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar,.... Or "wall" (c) it is asked (d),"what is the wall at which the rest of the blood is wrung out?”
It shall be prepared with oil on a griddle; you are to bring it well-kneaded and present it as a grain offering broken in pieces, a pleasing aroma to the…
“In a pan it shall be made with oil,.... With oil olive, as the Targum of Jonathan; the pan in which it was made was a vessel that had no covering, nor hollow in the middle, nor any lip or edge, but was a plane…”
The guilt offering must be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and the priest shall sprinkle its blood on all sides of the altar.
“In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering,.... See Lev 1:11, and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar; on the upper part of it.”
And all the fat from it shall be offered: the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails,
“And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof,.... To the Lord, that being claimed by him, as in the peace offerings of the herd, and of the flock, whether a bullock or cow, a lamb or a goat, Lev 3:3, &c.”
As for the priest who presents a burnt offering for anyone, the hide of that offering belongs to him.
“And the priest that offereth any man's burnt offering,.... In which the flesh was wholly burnt, and nothing of it remained to requite the priest for his trouble, as in other offerings: even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering…”
But any meat of the sacrifice remaining until the third day must be burned up.
“But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day,.... What remained of it uneaten on the second day, and was kept till the third: shall be burnt with fire; that it might neither corrupt, nor be put to superstitious uses, nor…”
Then the LORD said to Moses,
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... The following section or paragraph, relating to the consecration of Aaron and his sons, was delivered, according to Jarchi, seven days before the setting up of the tabernacle; but to me it seems to have been delivered after the…”
He also poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.
“And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head,.... Which ran down to his beard, and to the collar of his coat, the robe of the ephod, but not to the skirts of his garments, as we wrongly render it, Psa 133:”
But the bull with its hide, flesh, and dung he burned outside the camp, as the LORD had commanded him.
“But the bullock and his hide, his flesh, and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp,....”
Then Moses presented the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.
“And he brought the ram for the burnt offering,.... One of the two he was ordered to take, Lev 8:2.”
Moses slaughtered the ram and sprinkled the blood on all sides of the altar.
“And he killed it,.... That is, Moses killed the ram, as the Septuagint version expresses it: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about; as he did the blood of the bullock, Lev 8:15.”