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.
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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.
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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.
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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
‘Master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
“And they said unto him,.... The bystanders; Lord, he hath ten pounds; which they say either through envy, at his superior gifts, and usefulness; for it is generally the lot of the most eminent and useful servants of Christ to be envied by others; or…”
He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more; but the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
“For I say unto you,.... And it may be depended on as truth, and what will be found matter of fact: that unto every one that hath, shall be given; greater and larger gifts, fitting him for greater usefulness: he that has gifts, and makes…”
saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat.
“Saying, go ye into the village over against you,.... What village this was, is not said by any of the evangelists; it seems to be either Bethany, or Nob; and rather the latter, since the village of Bethany was fifteen furlongs, or near two miles…”
If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
“And if any man ask you, why do ye loose him?.... As our Lord, being God omniscient, knew this question would be asked by the owners, and therefore prepares his disciples with an answer to it: thus shall ye say unto him, because the Lord…”
So those who were sent went out and found it just as Jesus had told them.
“And they that were sent went their way,.... The two disciples that were sent by Christ, were obedient to him, and went, as he directed them, and did as he ordered them; and found, even as he had said unto them.”
“The Lord needs it,” they answered.
“And they said, the Lord hath need of him. Or, our Lord, as the above versions in verse 31 (Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic).”
Then they led the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks over it, and put Jesus on it.
“And they brought him to Jesus,.... That is, the colt: and they cast their garments upon the colt; that is, the disciples, who brought him to Jesus; the Persic version here, as in Mat 21:7 renders it very wrongly, "Jesus put his own garment on…”
As He rode along, the people spread their cloaks on the road.
“And as he went,.... Riding on the colt towards Jerusalem: they spread their clothes in the way; not the disciples, for they had put their garments upon the colt; but the multitude, which either came with him from Jericho, and other parts, or that met…”
And as He approached the descent from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully in a loud voice for all the miracles they…
“And when he was come nigh,.... To the city of Jerusalem, and which was then in sight, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives; being come to the foot of that mount, which lay to the east of Jerusalem, and was about…”
As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it
“And when he was come near, he beheld city,.... Of Jerusalem; being now nearer, and in a situation to take a full view of it, he lift up his eyes, and looking wistfully on it, and beholding the grandeur and magnificence of it, the number…”
Then Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling there.
“And he went into the temple,.... Being come into the city, he alighted from the colt he rode on, and having committed it to the care of a proper person to return it to the owner, he went up directly to the temple, of which…”
He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be a house of prayer.’ But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
“Saying unto them, it is written,.... In Isa 56:7 my house is the house of prayer; built and devoted for that service: but ye have made it a den of thieves; which clause is not written in the above prophecy, but are the words of…”
Yet they could not find a way to do so, because all the people hung on His words.
“And could not find what they might do,.... The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and so Beza's most ancient copy, add, "to him"; they could not find an opportunity of seizing him, nor any advantage against him; they knew not what steps to take…”
“Tell us,” they said, “by what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”
“And spoke unto him, saying, tell us by what authority doest thou these things?.... The Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, "this thing"; as if the sanhedrim only referred to his preaching the Gospel, which is mentioned in the preceding verse, and was what he was…”
John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?”
“The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? This was a new ordinance, and John must have his authority for administering it either from God, or from men; and Christ is desirous to know from which he derived it in their opinion…”
But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
“But and if we say of men,..... Which they had a good will to, against the dictates of their own consciences: all the people will stone us; meaning the common people, that were then in the temple about Christ, hearing him preach; who would be…”
So they answered that they did not know where it was from.
“Whether from heaven, or of men; in this, no doubt, they told an untruth: but they chose rather to sacrifice their consciences than their interest, and pretend ignorance rather than profess the truth, when they saw they should be put to confusion, or be exposed…”
And Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
“And Jesus said unto them,.... Since they would not give him a direct answer to his question: neither tell I you by what authority I do these things; nor was there any need of it; they might easily perceive by what he had said, from…”
Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time.
“Then began he to speak to the people this parable,.... According to the other evangelists it seems to be spoken to the chief priests, Scribes, and elders; and certain it is, that they looked upon themselves as struck at in it; it might be spoken…”
So he sent another servant, but they beat him and treated him shamefully, sending him away empty-handed.
“And again he sent another servant,.... Or set of prophets in after times, and yet before the Babylonish captivity: and they beat him also; as they had done the other; they continued in their malpractices, yea increased in them: and entreated him shamefully; putting him…”
Then he sent a third, but they wounded him and threw him out.
“And again he sent the third,.... Perhaps after the return of the Jews from captivity, and between that time and the coming of Christ, in which interval many good men were used in a very inhuman manner, Heb 11:37 and they wounded him also; by…”
‘What shall I do?’ asked the owner of the vineyard. ‘I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’
“Then said the Lord of the vineyard,.... Who planted it, and let it out to husbandmen, and expected fruit from it, and sent his servants from time to time for it: what shall I do? or what can be done more than has been done?”
But when the tenants saw the son, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
“But when the husbandmen saw him,.... In human nature, heard him preach, and observed the miracles done by him: they reasoned among themselves; as the Scribes and Pharisees, and elders of the people often did: saying, this is the heir; the heir of God, being…”
“Teacher,” they inquired, “we know that You speak and teach correctly. You show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
“And they asked him, saying, master,.... Rabbi, or doctor; hoping, by this flattering title, and the flattering words used by them, to work him up to an openness and freedom of conversation with them: we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly; rightly dividest the…”
Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
“Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no? The Syriac and Persic versions here, as in the other evangelists, render it, "head money".”