1007 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands,.... Such an one as Solomon's was; he did indeed dwell in his temple, but he was not confined to it, nor included in it, or circumscribed by it; and so much Solomon himself suggests, when he expresses his wonder at his dwelling on earth, seeing the heaven of heavens could not contain...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Heaven is my throne,.... There is the seat of the divine Majesty; there his glory is most conspicuous; there he keeps his court, that is his palace; and there are his attendants, the angels; and from thence are the administrations of his regal power and government, over the whole world: and earth is my footstool; which is under his feet, is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hath not my hand made all these things? The heaven, and the earth, and all that is in them; the Arabic version renders it, "all these creatures"; and therefore what can be made for God? or what house built for him? in Isaiah the words are read without an interrogation, and affirm that his hand had made all these things, and therefore nothing could...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye stiffnecked,.... Or "hard necked", the same with קשה עורף, which is a character frequently given of this people, Exodus 32:9 and elsewhere, and is expressive of their obstinacy, stubbornness and refractoriness; who would not submit their necks to the yoke of God's law, and be obedient to his commands: and uncircumcised in heart and ears; for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?.... Either by reviling and speaking all manner of evil of them, Matthew 5:11 or by killing them, Matthew 23:31 and they have slain them; as Isaiah, Zachariah, and others: which showed before of the coming of the just one; of Jesus the Messiah, whose character in the prophecies of the Old...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Who have received the law, by the disposition of angels,.... Who attended the angel that spake to Moses on Mount Sinai, Acts 7:38 who is the head of all principality and power, and whom he might make use of in giving the law to Moses: hence the law is said to be ordained by angels, in the hand of a Mediator, and is called the word spoken by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
When they heard these things,.... How that Abraham, the father of them, was called before he was circumcised, or the law was given to Moses, or the temple was built, which they were so bigoted to, and charged with speaking blasphemously of; and how that Joseph and Moses were very ill treated by the Jewish fathers, which seemed to resemble the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But he being full of the Holy Ghost,.... That is, Stephen, as Beza's ancient copy, and some others express it; and so the Ethiopic version; the Syriac version reads, "full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost", as in Acts 6:5 and so some copies; being under the influences of the Spirit of God, and filled with his divine comforts, and strong in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And said, behold, I see the heavens opened,.... As they were at the baptism of Christ, [See comments on Matthew 3:16]: and the son of man standing at the right hand of God; he calls Jesus "the son of man"; a name by which he often called himself in his state of humiliation; and that though he was now glorified, it being the name of the Messiah in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then they cried out with a loud voice,.... These were not the sanhedrim, but the common people; the Ethiopic version reads, "the Jews cried out"; which, they did, in a very clamorous way, either through rage and madness, or in a show of zeal against blasphemy; and cried out, either to God to avenge the blasphemy, or rather to the sanhedrim to pass...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And cast him out of the city,.... Of Jerusalem; for the place of stoning was without the city. The process, when regular, according to the sentence of the court, was after this manner (p); "judgment being finished, (or the trial over,) they brought him out (the person condemned) to stone him; the place of stoning was without the sanhedrim, as it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God,.... As he was praying, and putting up the following petition; and saying, Lord Jesus receive my Spirit; from whence we learn, that the spirit or soul of man sleeps not, nor dies with the body, but remains after death; that Jesus Christ is a fit person to commit and commend the care of the soul unto...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he kneeled down,.... It seems as if he stood before while they were stoning him, and while he was commending his soul to Christ, but now he kneeled down; prayer may be performed either kneeling or standing: and cried with a loud voice; not only to show that he was in good spirits, and not afraid to die, but chiefly to express his vehement and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Saul was consenting unto his death,.... This clause, in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic versions, stands at the close of the preceding chapter, and which seems to be its proper place; and so it does in the Alexandrian copy: that Saul consented to the death of Stephen, and approved of that barbarous action, is evident from his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial,.... These men were not Jewish proselytes, but members of the Christian church; who were eminent for their religion and piety, and who had courage enough, amidst this persecution, to show a respect to the dead body of this holy martyr; which they took from under the stones, washed it, and wound it up in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church,.... Did evil to the saints, destroyed them that called upon the name of Christ, Acts 9:13 and persecuted and wasted the church of God, as he himself says, Galatians 1:13 and now did Benjamin, of which tribe Saul was, ravine as a wolf, Genesis 49:27 Entering into every house; where the saints dwelt: and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore they that were scattered abroad,.... By reason of the persecution in Jerusalem: the seventy disciples, and other ministers of the word; or the hundred and twenty, excepting the apostles, went every where; or went through the countries of Judea and Samaria, as far as Phenice, Cyrus, and Antioch: preaching the word; the Vulgate Latin,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria,.... The city which was formerly called Samaria, but now Sebaste; it had been destroyed by Hyrcanus, and was rebuilt by Herod; and called by him, in honour of Augustus, by the name of Sebaste (d); and so R. Benjamin says (e), that "from Luz he came in a day to Sebaste, היא שומרון, "this is Samaria";...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the people with one accord,.... The inhabitants of the city of Samaria, as one man, came to hear the word: and gave heed to those things which Philip spake; they listened to them, took notice of them, gave their ascent to them, believed and embraced them; being induced thereunto, not only upon the evidence by which these things came, but by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For unclean spirits,.... Devils, so called because they were unclean themselves, defiled others, add delighted in impure persons and places; [See comments on Matthew 10:1] crying with loud voice; showing their unwillingness to remove, and the irresistibleness of divine power they could not withstand: came out of many that were possessed with them;...