2 In this and the two following chapters the apostle sub - joins an exhortation, answering each head of the preceding chapter.

2:11 For - They are nearly related to each other.He that sanctifieth - Christ, Heb 13:12.And all they that are sanctified - That are brought to God; that draw near or come to him, which are synonymous terms.Are all of one - Partakers of one nature, from one parent, Adam.

2:12 I will declare thy name to my brethren - Christ declares the name of God, gracious and merciful, plenteous in goodness and truth, to all who believe, that they also may praise him. In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee - As the precentor of the choir. This he did literally, in the midst of his apostles, on the night before his passion. And as it means, in a more general sense, setting forth the praise of God, he has done it in the church by his word and his Spirit; he still does, and will do it throughout all generations. Psa 22:22.

2:13 And again - As one that has communion with his brethren in sufferings, as well as in nature, he says, I will put my trust in him - To carry me through them all. And again - With a like acknowledgment of his near relation to them, as youngerbrethren, who were yet but in their childhood, he presents all believers to God, saying, Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me. Isa 8:17-18

2:14 Since then these children partake of flesh and blood - Of human nature with all its infirmities. He also in like mannertook part of the same; that through his own death he might destroy the tyranny of him that had, by God's permission, the power of death with regard to the ungodly. Death is the devil's servant and serjeant, delivering to him those whom he seizes in sin.That is, the devil - The power was manifest to all; but who exerted it, they saw not.

2:15 And deliver them, as many as through fear of death were all their lifetime, till then, subject to bondage - Every man who fears death is subject to bondage; is in aslavish, uncomfortable state. And every man fears death, more or less, who knows not Christ: death is unwelcome to him, if he knows what death is. But he delivers all true believers from this bondage.

2:16 For verily he taketh not hold of angels - He does not take their nature upon him. But he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham - He takes human nature upon him. St. Paul says the seed of Abraham, rather than the seed of Adam, because to Abraham was the promise made.

2:17 Wherefore it behoved him - It was highly fit and proper, yea, necessary, in order to his design of redeeming them. To be made in all things - That essentially pertain to human nature, and in all sufferings and temptations. Like his brethren - This is a recapitulation of all that goes before: the sum of all that follows is added immediately. That he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest - Merciful toward sinners; faithful toward God. A priest or high priest is one who has a right of approaching God, and of bringing others to him.

• Faithful is treated of, Heb 3:2, etc , with its use;
• merciful, Heb 4:14, etc , with the use also;
• High Priest, Heb 5:4, etc , Heb 7:1, etc The use is added from Heb 10:19.

2:18 For in that he hath suffered being tempted himself he is able to succour them that are tempted - That is, he has given a manifest, demonstrative proof that he is able so to do.

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1:24 Hid herself - She retired from company, that she might have the more leisure to rejoice and bless God for his wonderful mercy.

1:25 He looked upon me to take away my reproach - Barrenness was a great reproach among the Jews. Because fruitfulness was promised to the righteous.

1:26 In the sixth month - After Elisabeth had conceived.

1:27 Espoused - It was customary among the Jews, for persons that married to contract before witnesses some time before. And as Christ was to be born of a pure virgin, so the wisdom of God ordered it to be of one espoused, that to prevent reproach he might have a reputed father, according to the flesh.

1:28 Hail, thou highly favoured; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women - Hail is the salutation used by our Lord to the women after his resurrection: thou art highly favoured, or hast found favour with God, Luk 1:30, is no more than was said of Noah, Moses, and David.The Lord is with thee, was said to Gideon, Jdg 6:12; and blessed shall she be above women, of Jael, Jdg 5:24.This salutation gives no room for any pretence of paying adoration to the virgin; as having no appearance of a prayer, or of worship offered to her.

1:32 He shall be called the Son of the Highest - In this respect also: and that in a more eminent sense than any, either man or angel, can be called so. The Lord shall give him the throne of his father David - That is, the spiritual kingdom, of which David's was a type.

1:33 He shall reign over the house of Jacob - In which all true believers are included.

1:35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee - The power of God was put forth by the Holy Ghost, as the immediate Divine agent in this work: and so he exerted the power of the Highest as his own power, who together with the Father and the Son is the most high God.Therefore also - Not only as he is God from eternity, but on this account likewise he shall be called the Son of God.

1:36 And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth - Though Elisabeth was of the house of Aaron, and Mary of the house of David, by the fathers side, they might be related by their mothers. For the law only forbad heiresses marrying into another tribe.And so other persons continually intermarried; particularly the families of David and of Levi.

1:38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord - It is not improbable, that this time of the virgin's humble faith, consent, and expectation, might be the very time of her conceiving.

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2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God - The apostle here anticipates an objection, Why did God suffer such a person to be so treated? Did he not know what wicked men intended to do? And had he not power to prevent it? Yea. He knew all that those wicked men intended to do. And he had power to blast all their designs in a moment.But he did not exert that power, because he so loved the world!Because it was the determined counsel of his love, to redeem mankind from eternal death, by the death of his only - begotten Son.

2:24 Having loosed the pains of death - The word properly means, the pains of a woman in travail. As it was not possible that he should be held under it - Because the Scripture must needs be fulfilled.

2:25  Psa 16:8.

2:27 Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades - The invisible world.But it does not appear, that ever our Lord went into hell. His soul, when it was separated from the body, did not go thither, but to paradise, Luk 23:43. The meaning is, Thou wilt not leave my soul in its separate state, nor suffer my body to be corrupted.

2:28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life - That is, Thou hast raised me from the dead. Thou wilt fill me with joy by thy countenance - When I ascend to thy right hand.

2:29 The patriarch - A more honourable title than king.

2:30  Psa 89:4, etc

2:32 He foreseeing this, spake of the resurrection Of Christ - St.Peter argues thus: It is plain, David did not speak this of himself. Therefore he spake of Christ's rising. But how does that promise of a kingdom imply his resurrection? Because he did not receive it before he died, and because his kingdom was to endure for ever, Act 7:13.

2:33 Being exalted by the right hand of God - By the right hand; that is, the mighty power of God. Our Lord was exalted at his ascension to God's right hand in heaven.

2:34 Sit thou on my right hand - In this and the following verse is an allusion to two ancient customs; one, to the highest honour that used to be paid to persons by placing them on the right hand, as Solomon did Bathsheba, when sitting on his throne, Ki1 2:19; and the other, to the custom of conquerors, whoused to tread on the necks of their vanquished enemies, as a token of their entire victory and triumph over them.

2:35 Until I make thine enemies thy footstool - This text is here quoted with the greatest address, as suggesting in the words of David, their great prophetic monarch, how certain their own ruin must be, if they went on to oppose Christ. Psa 110:1.

2:36 Lord - Jesus, after his exaltation, is constantly meant by this word in the New Testament, unless sometimes where it occurs, in a text quoted from the Old Testament.

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1:37 They followed Jesus - They walked after him, but had not the courage to speak to him.

1:41 He first findeth his own brother Simon - Probably both of them sought him: Which is, being interpreted, the Christ - This the evangelist adds, as likewise those words in Joh 1:38, that is, being interpreted, Master.

1:42 Jesus said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah - As none had told our Lord these names, this could not but strike Peter.Cephas, which is Peter - Moaning the same in Syriac which Peter does in Greek, namely, a rock.

1:45 Jesus of Nazareth - So Philip thought, not knowing he was born in Bethlehem. Nathanael was probably the same with Bartholomew, that is, the son of Tholomew. St. Matthew joins Bartholomew with Philip, Mat 10:3, and St. John places Nathanael in the midst of the apostles, immediately after Thomas, Joh 21:2, just as Bartholomew is placed, Act 1:13.

1:46 Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? - How cautiously should we guard against popular prejudices? When these had once possessed so honest a heart as that of Nathanael, they led him to suspect the blessed Jesus himself for an impostor, because he had been brought up at Nazareth. But his integrity prevailed over that foolish bias, and laid him open to the force of evidence, which a candid inquirer will always be glad to admit, even when it brings the most unexpected discoveries. Can any good thing - That is, have we ground from Scripture to expect the Messiah, or any eminent prophet from Nazareth? Philip saith, Come and see - The same answer which he had received himself from our Lord the day before.

1:48 Under the fig tree I saw thee - Perhaps at prayer.

1:49 Nathanael answered - Happy are they that are ready to believe, swift to receive the truth and grace of God. Thou art the Son of God - So he acknowledges now more than he had heard from Philip: The Son of God, the king of Israel - A confession both of the person and office of Christ.

1:51 Hereafter ye shall see - All of these, as well as thou, who believe on me now in my state of humiliation, shall hereafter see me come in my glory, and all the angels of God with me.This seems the most natural sense of the words, though they may also refer to his ascension.