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…
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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
who will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise again.”
“And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him,.... The Gentiles, as the Roman soldiers did; the one at the connivance, and the other by the order of their governor: and shall spit upon him; on his face, as the Syriac and Persic versions render…”
“What do you want Me to do for you?” He inquired.
“And he said unto them,.... And also to their mother, and to them by her, what would ye that I should do for you?”
But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
“But so shall it not be among you,.... Or "so let it not be", as in many copies; or as the Persic version renders it, "it ought not to be so among you"; such a lordly spirit does not become you; this is heathenish: but…”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man. “Take courage!” they said. “Get up! He is calling for you.”
“And Jesus stood still,.... Hearing his voice, and knowing what charges and reproofs were given him to be silent: and commanded him to be called and led and brought unto him: this order was given; either to his disciples, or to some of the multitude…”
Throwing off his cloak, Bartimaeus jumped up and came to Jesus.
“And he casting away his garment,.... His upper garment, and which no doubt was little worth; though this he did, that he might make the quicker dispatch to Christ: rose; from off the bank, or ground, whereon he sat, in an instant: and "sprung up"…”
“What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “Rabboni,” said the blind man, “let me see again.”
“And Jesus answered and said unto him,.... Being come to him, and standing before him: what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? What means this vehement cry? what is it thou designest by mercy?”
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent out two of His disciples
“And when they came nigh to Jerusalem,.... The Syriac and Ethiopic versions read, "when he came nigh"; that is, Jesus; though not without his disciples, nor the multitude: unto Bethphage and Bethany; two places so called, near Jerusalem: Bethphage began where Bethany ended, and reached…”
and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has…
“And saith unto them, go your way into the village,.... Either of Bethany or of Nob. The Ethiopic version renders it "the city", and so reads a copy of Stephens's: some have thought the city of Jerusalem is intended, but without any reason; See Gill…”
Then they led the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, and He sat on it.
“And they brought the colt to Jesus,.... Where he was, and cast their garments on him; their clothes to be instead of a saddle, for Christ to sit upon: and he sat upon him; or "Jesus rode on him", as the Syriac version renders it.”
Many in the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut from the fields.
“And many spread their garments in the way,.... Instead of carpets to ride on, and in honour to him as a king: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way; in token of joy, as at the feast of…”
The ones who went ahead and those who followed were shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“And they that went before, and they that followed,.... They that came from Jerusalem to meet him, and they that followed him from Jericho and other parts; which two bodies, the one went before him, and the other followed after him: and cried, saying, Hosanna…”
The next day, when they had left Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
“And on the morrow,.... The next day early in the morning, when they were come from Bethany; Christ, and his twelve disciples.”
Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again.” And His disciples heard this statement.
“And Jesus answered and said unto it,.... The fig tree; a Jewish way of speaking, often used when nothing before is said; the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, leave out the word "answered", as they do also the word "Jesus"; and which is likewise omitted…”
And when evening came, Jesus and His disciples went out of the city.
“And when even was come, he went out of the city. Of Jerusalem, as he did the evening before, and for the same reasons: probably he went to Bethany, where he had lodged the last night, with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary; or to the Mount…”
Peter remembered it and said, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree You cursed has withered.”
“And Peter, calling to remembrance,.... Not so much the tree, and its spreading leaves, and the greatness of it, and the flourishing condition it was in, the other day, as the imprecation of Christ upon it: saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which…”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them.
“And Jesus answering, saith unto them,.... To all the disciples; for what Peter said, he said in the name of them all; and according to Matthew, the disciples said, "how soon is the fig tree withered away?"”
After their return to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking in the temple courts, and the chief priests, scribes, and elders came up to Him.
“And they come again to Jerusalem,.... The Persic and Ethiopic versions read, "he came", which must be understood with his disciples; for they never parted from him till he was apprehended in the garden.”
“By what authority are You doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave You the authority to do them?”
“And say unto him, by what authority dost thou do these things?.... Enter into the temple, as if he was Lord of it; and correct in such a magisterial way every thing he thought an abuse in it; do the miracles he did, as healing…”
“I will ask you one question,” Jesus replied, “and if you answer Me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
“And Jesus answered and said unto them,.... Being not in the least intimidated by such a body of men: I will also ask of you one question; or "one word", or "one thing"; λογος, here answers to the Hebrew word דבר, which signifies both "word"…”
But if we say, ‘From men’...” they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John truly was a prophet.
“But if we shall say, of men,.... That John's baptism was an human invention, and he had no authority from God to preach and administer it, they feared the people; lest being enraged thereby they should, at once, rise up, and destroy them: for all…”
Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower.
“And he began to speak unto them by parables,.... As of the two sons the father bid go to work in the vineyard; and of the planting of a vineyard, and letting it out to husbandmen, as here; though the latter is only related by…”
At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard.
“And at the season he sent unto the husbandman a servant,.... The Evangelist Matthew says, "when the time of the fruit drew near", Mat 21:34; and so the Persic version here reads.”
But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
“And they caught him,.... This clause is left out in the Syriac and Persic versions, though it seems proper to be retained; and denotes the rudeness and violence with which the prophets of the Lord were used by the Jewish nation: and beat him: either…”
He sent still another, and this one they killed. He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed.
“And again he sent another,.... That is, another servant, or set of men, it may be in the times of the Maccabees, who were used in a very inhuman manner; see Heb 11:37; and him they killed; either with the sword, or by inflicting some…”
So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
“And they took him, and killed him, and cast him, out of the vineyard. They sent their officers and servants, and apprehended him in the garden; they delivered him to the Gentiles, who were without the vineyard, and by whom, at their instigation, he was…”