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
But if you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go into the streets and declare,
“But into whatsoever city ye enter,.... On the other hand Christ here directs how to behave towards other cities they should come to, and be rejected: and they receive you not; refuse to admit them into their houses, or provide in any shape for them…”
I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
“But I say unto you,.... The same that he said to the twelve apostles, when he sent them out, Mat 10:15, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.”
But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.
“But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment,.... Or "in the day of judgment", as read the Syriac, Persic, Ethiopic, and Gothic versions; and as it is in Mat 11:22 than for you; the inhabitants of Chorazin and Bethsaida, who…”
And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades!
“And thou Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven,.... Referring either to the situation of it, which was on a very high hill; or to its privileges, through the ministry and miracles of Christ; or the phrase may be expressive of the pride and loftiness of…”
Then Jesus turned to the disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
“And he turned him unto his disciples,.... Both to the twelve apostles, and seventy disciples; and said privately; or to them apart: the phrase "privately" is wanting in the Vulgate Latin version: blessed are the eyes that see the things that ye see; the person…”
For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear…
“For I tell you that many prophets and kings,.... As Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who were prophets, as well as patriarchs, and David, Solomon, and others: have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which…”
“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”
“What is written in the law?.... Christ, with great propriety, sends him to the law, to see and observe what was written there, what are the terms and conditions of life, as fixed there; partly, because this man, by his office and character, was an…”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor…
“And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God,.... This was part of their phylacteries, which they recited every day; See Gill on Mat 22:37, Mat 22:39, Mar 12:28, Mar 12:29.”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”
“And he said unto him, thou hast answered right,.... It is so written, and read; and this, as if he should say, is the sum and substance of the law, and what that requires men should do; wherefore, do this, and thou shalt live; for…”
Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
“And by chance there came down a certain priest that way,.... Who had been at Jerusalem, to take his turn in the courses, and was now returning to Jericho, where the stationary men were, to which he belonged: for it is said (t), that "the…”
As they traveled along, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.
“Now it came to pass as they went,.... As Christ and his disciples went from Jerusalem, having been at the feast of tabernacles, Joh 7:2 or at the feast of dedication, Joh 10:22 to some other parts of Judea: that he entered into a certain…”
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations to be made.
“But Martha was cumbered about much serving,.... "Or was drawn off", from hearing the word, from attending on Christ; being taken up in providing for him, and those that came with him; in dressing food, or in ordering her servants, how she would have every…”
And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
“And forgive us our sins,.... Beza's most ancient copy reads "debts", as in See Gill on Mat 6:12; and which best agrees with the phrase "indebted", after mentioned: for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation…”
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
“Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion.... Of which there are three sorts; some are terrestrial, or land scorpions, scorpions of the earth, a kind of serpents, very venomous and mischievous, to whom the wicked Jews are compared, Eze…”
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who…
“If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children,.... See Gill on Mat 7:11. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
One day Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. And when the demon was gone, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowds were amazed,
“And he was casting out a devil,.... At a certain time, either the same that is recorded in Mat 9:32 or in Mat 12:22 for both of them were attended with the same effect upon the people, and with the same calumny of the Pharisees…”
but some of them said, “It is by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons, that He drives out demons.”
“But some of them said,.... The Pharisees, Mat 9:34 Mat 12:24 who could not bear that he should be thought to be the Messiah, and therefore put an ill construction on the miracle: he casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of devils; in several…”
And others tested Him by demanding a sign from heaven.
“And others tempting him,.... Others of the Scribes and Pharisees, or Sadducees: sought of him a sign from heaven; See Gill on Mat 12:38, Mat 16:1.”
If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? After all, you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.
“And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?.... This is the accommodation of the above parables, or proverbial sentences; suggesting, that Satan must be against himself, if what the Pharisees said was true; and consequently, his kingdom and government, could…”
And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
“And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils,.... Which is what the Pharisees charged him with; in the Greek copies, and so in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions it is read, "by Beelzebul", and so in the preceding verses; See Gill on Mat 10:”
But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“But if I with the, finger of God,.... The power of God, referring to Exo 8:19 and so the Cabalistic Jews (r) explain it, "the finger is one of the five in the hand, and is that finger which works by the power of Elohim;''…”
When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man,.... That is, the devil, who is in, and works in the children of disobedience, whether under a profession of religion or not; whose hearts are unclean like himself, wherefore there he delights to dwell; and…”
On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.
“And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. In Matthew it is also said to be "empty"; and so it is read here in the Arabic version; and in the Ethiopic version, "empty of men": but rather the sense is, that he found…”
As the crowds were increasing, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.
“And when the people were gathered thick together,.... Upon this woman's lifting up her voice, and saying the things she did; or rather to see what sign he would give, which some had desired Luk 11:16 he began to say, this is an evil generation.”
No one lights a lamp and puts it in a cellar or under a basket. Instead, he sets it on a stand, so those who enter can see the light.
“No man when he hath lighted a candle,.... These words are often repeated by Christ on different occasions; see Gill on Mat 5:15 and See Gill on Luk 8:16 and here seem to design the free, open, and clear ministry of Christ, who excelled Solomon…”