6 

6:14 But God forbid that I should glory - Should boast of anything I have, am, or do; or rely on anything for my acceptance with God, but what Christ hath done and suffered for me. By means of which the world is crucified to me - All the things and persons in it are to me as nothing. And I unto the world - I am dead to all worldly pursuits, cares, desires, and enjoyments.

6:15 For neither circumcision is anything, nor uncircumcision - Neither of these is of any account. But a new creation - Whereby all things in us become new.

6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule -

1. Glorying only in the cross of Christ.
2. Being crucified to the world. And,
3. Created anew.

6:17 From henceforth let none trouble me - By quarrels and disputes.For I bear - And afflictions should not be added to the afflicted.In my body the marks of the Lord Jesus - The scars, marks, and brands of my sufferings for Him.

27 

27:1 In the morning - As the sanhedrim used to meet in one of the courts of the temple, which was never opened in the night, they were forced to stay till the morning before they could proceed regularly, in the resolution they had taken to put him to death. Mar 15:1; Luk 22:66; Luk 23:1; Joh 18:28.

27:2 Having bound him - They had bound him when he was first apprehended. But they did it now afresh, to secure him from any danger of an escape, as he passed through the streets of Jerusalem.

27:3 Then Judas seeing that he was condemned - Which probably he thought Christ would have prevented by a miracle.

27:4 They said, what is that to us? - How easily could they digest innocent blood! And yet they had a conscience! It is not lawful (say they) to put it into the treasury - But very lawful to slay the innocent!

27:5 In that part of the temple where the sanhedrim met.

27:7 They bought with them the potter's field - Well known, it seems, by that name. This was a small price for a field so near Jerusalem. But the earth had probably been digged for potters' vessels, so that it was now neither fit for tillage nor pasture, and consequently of small value. Foreigners - Heathens especially, of whom there were then great numbersin Jerusalem.

27:9 Then was fulfilled - What was figuratively represented of old, was now really accomplished. What was spoken by the prophet - The word Jeremy, which was added to the text in latter copies, and thence received into many translations, is evidently a mistake: for he who spoke what St. Matthew here cites (or rather paraphrases) was not Jeremy, but Zechariah. Zec 11:12.

27:10 As the Lord commanded me - To write, to record.

27:11 Art thou the king of the Jews? - Jesus before Caiaphas avows himself to be the Christ, before Pilate to be a king; clearly showing thereby, that his answering no more, was not owing to any fear.

27:15 At every feast - Every year, at the feast of the passover. Mar 15:6; Luk 23:17; Joh 18:39.

27:18 He knew that for envy they had delivered him - As well as from malice and revenge; they envied him, because the people magnified him.

27:22 They all say, Let him be crucified - The punishment which Barabbas had deserved: and this probably made them think of it.But in their malice they forgot with how dangerous a precedent they furnished the Roman governor. And indeed within the compass of a few years it turned dreadfully upon themselves.

27:24 Then Pilate took water and washed his hands - This was a custom frequently used among the heathens as well as among the Jews, in token of innocency.

27:25 His blood be on us and on our children - As this imprecation was dread. fully answered in the ruin so quickly brought on the Jewish nation, and the calamities which have ever since pursued that wretched people, so it was peculiarly fulfilled by Titus the Roman general, on the Jews whom he took during the siege of Jerusalem. So many, after having been scourged in a terrible manner, were crucified all round the city, that in a while there was not room near the wall for the crosses to stand by each other.Probably this befell some of those who now joined in this cry, as it certainly did many of their children: the very finger of God thus pointing out their crime in crucifying his Son.

27:26 He delivered him to be crucified - The person crucified was nailed to the cross as it lay on the ground, through each hand extended to the utmost stretch, and through both the feet together. Then the cross was raised up, and the foot of it thrust with a violent shock into a hole in the ground prepared for it. This shock disjointed the body, whose whole weight hung upon the nails, till the persons expired through mere dint of pain. This kind of death was used only by the Romans, and by them inflicted only on slaves and the vilest criminals.

27:27 The whole troop - or cohort. This was a body of foot commanded by the governor, which was appointed to prevent disorders and tumults, especially on solemn occasions. Mar 15:16 Joh 19:2, .

27:28 They put on him a scarlet robe - Such as kings and generals wore; probably an old tattered one.

27:32 Him they compelled to bear his cross - He bore it himself, till he sunk under it, Joh 19:17.

27:33 A place called Golgotha, that is, the place of a skull - Golgotha in Syriac signifies a skull or head: it was probablycalled so from this time; being an eminence upon Mount Calvary, not far from the king's gardens. Mar 15:22; Luk 23:33; Joh 19:17

27:34 They gave him vinegar mingled with gall - Out of derision: which, however nauseous, he received and tasted of. St. Mark mentions also a different mixture which was given him, Wine mingled with myrrh: such as it was customary to give to dying criminals, to make them less sensible of their sufferings: but this our Lord refused to taste, determining to bear the full force of his pains.

27:35 They parted his garments - This was the custom of the Romans.The soldiers performed the office of executioners, and divided among them the spoils of the criminals. My vesture - That is, my inner garment. Psa 22:18.

27:38  Mar 15:27; Luk 23:32.

27:44  Mar 15:32; Luk 23:33.

27:45 From the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the earth unto the ninth hour - Insomuch, that even a heathen philosopher seeing it, and knowing it could not be a natural eclipse, because it was at the time of the full moon, and continued three hours together, cried out, "Either the God of nature suffers, or the frame of the world is dissolved." By this darkness God testified his abhorrence of the wickednesswhich was then committing. It likewise intimated Christ's sore conflicts with the Divine justice, and with all the powers of darkness.

27:46 About the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice - Our Lord's great agony probably continued these three whole hours, at the conclusion of which be thus cried out, while he suffered from God himself what was unutterable. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? - Our Lord hereby at once expresses his trust in God, and a most distressing sense of his letting loose the powers of darkness upon him, withdrawing the comfortable discoveries of his presence, and filling his soul with a terrible sense of the wrath due to the sins which he was bearing. Psa 22:1.

27:48 One taking a sponge, filled it with vinegar - Vinegar and water was the usual drink of the Roman soldiers. It does not appear, that this was given him in derision, but rather with a friendly design, that he might not die before Elijah came. Joh 19:28.

27:50 After he had cried with a loud voice - To show that his life was still whole in him. He dismissed his spirit - So the original expression may be literally translated: an expression admirably suited to our Lord's words, Joh 10:18: No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.He died by a voluntary act of his own, and in a way peculiar to himself. He alone of all men that ever were, could have continued alive even in the greatest tortures, as long as he pleased, or have retired from the body whenever he had thought fit. And how does it illustrate that love which he manifested in his death? Insomuch as he did not use his power to quit his body, as soon as it was fastened to the cross, leaving only an insensible corpse, to the cruelty of his murderers: but continued his abode in it, with a steady resolution, as long as it was proper. He then retired from it, with a majesty and dignity never known or to be known in any other death: dying, if one may so express it, like the Prince of life.

27:51 Immediately upon his death, while the sun was still darkened, the veil of the temple, which separated the holy of holies from the court of the priests, though made of the richest and strongest tapestry, was rent in two from the top to the bottom: so that while the priest was ministering at the golden altar (it being the time of the sacrifice) the sacred oracle, by an invisible power was laid open to full view: God thereby signifying the speedy removal of the veil of the Jewish ceremonies the casting down the partition wall, so that the Jews and Gentiles were now admitted to equal privileges, and the opening a way through the veil of his flesh for all believers into the most holy place.And the earth was shaken - There was a general earthquake through the whole globe, though chiefly near Jerusalem: God testifying thereby his wrath against the Jewish nation, for the horrid impiety they were committing.

27:52 Some of the tombs were shattered and laid open by the earthquake, and while they continued unclosed (and they must have stood open all the Sabbath, seeing the law would not allow any attempt to close them) many bodies of holy men were raised, (perhaps Simeon, Zacharias, John the Baptist, and others who had believed in Christ, and were known to many in Jerusalem,) And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, went into the holy city (Jerusalem) and appeared to many - Who had probably known them before: God hereby signifying, that Christ had conquered death, and would raise all his saints in due season.

27:54 The centurion - The officer who commanded the guard; and they that were with him feared, saying, Truly this was the Son of God - Referring to the words of the chief priests and scribes, Mat 27:43: He said, I am the Son of God.

27:56 James - The less: he was so called, to distinguish him from the other James, the brother of John; probably because he was less in stature.

27:57 When the evening was come - That is, after three o'clock; the time from three to six they termed the evening. Mar 15:42; Luk 23:50; Joh 19:38.

5 

5:6 How can we now doubt of God's love? For when we were without strength - Either to think, will, or do anything good.In due time - Neither too soon nor too late; but in that very point of time which the wisdom of God knew to be more proper than any other. Christ died for the ungodly - Not only to set them a pattern, or to procure them power to follow it. It does not appear that this expression, of dying for any one, has any other signification than that of rescuing the life of another by laying down our own.

5:7 A just man - One who gives to all what is strictly their due The good man - One who is eminently holy; full of love, of compassion, kindness, mildness, of every heavenly and amiable temper. Perhaps - one - would - even - dare to die - Every word increases the strangeness of the thing, and declares even this to be something great and unusual.

5:8 But God recommendeth - A most elegant expression.Those are wont to be recommended to us, who were before either unknown to, or alienated from, us. While we were sinners - So far from being good, that we were not even just.

5:9 By his blood - By his bloodshedding. We shall be saved from wrath through him - That is, from all the effects of the wrath of God. But is there then wrath in God? Is not wrath a human passion? And how can this human passion be in God? We may answer this by another question: Is not love a human passion? And how can this human passion be in God? But to answer directly: wrath in man, and so love in man, is a human passion. But wrath in God is not a human passion; nor is love, as it is in God.Therefore the inspired writers ascribe both the one and the other to God only in an analogical sense.

5:10 If - As sure as; so the word frequently signifies; particularly in this and the eighth chapter. We shalt be saved - Sanctified and glorified. Through his life - Who "ever livethto make intercession for us."

5:11 And not only so, but we also glory - The whole sentence, from the third to the eleventh verse, may be taken together thus: We not only "rejoice in hope of the glory of God," but also in the midst of tribulations we glory in God himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.

15 

15:16 Praetorium - The inner hall, where the praetor, a Roman magistrate, used to give judgment. But St. John calls the whole palace by this name. Mat 27:27; Joh 19:2.

15:17 Purple - As royal robes were usually purple and scarlet, St. Mark and John term this a purple robe, St. Matthew a scarlet one. The Tyrian purple is said not to have been very different from scarlet.

15:20  Mat 27:31; Joh 19:16.

15:21 The father of Alexander and Rufus - These were afterward two eminent Christians, and must have been well known when St. Mark wrote.

15:22  Mat 27:33; Luk 23:33; Joh 19:17.

15:24 St. Mark seems to intimate, that they first nailed him to the cross, then parted his garments, and afterward reared up the cross.

15:25  See note Mar 15:24

15:28  Isa 53:12.

15:29  Mat 27:39.

15:33  Mat 27:45; Luk 23:44.

15:34 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me - Thereby claiming God as his God; and yet lamenting his Father's withdrawing the tokens of his love, and treating him as an enemy, while he bare our sins.

15:37  Mat 27:50; Luk 23:46; Joh 19:30.

15:41 Who served him - Provided him with necessaries.

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.

23 

23:34 Then said Jesus - Our Lord passed most of the time on the cross in silence: yet seven sentences which he spoke thereon are recorded by the four evangelists, though no one evangelist has recorded them all. Hence it appears that the four Gospels are, as it were, four parts, which, joined together, make one symphony. Sometimes one of these only, sometimes two or three, sometimes all sound together. Father - So he speaks both in the beginning and at the end of his sufferings on the cross: Forgive them - How striking is this passage! While they are actually nailing him to the cross, he seems to feel the injury they did to their own souls more than the wounds they gave him; and as it were to forget his own anguish out of a concern for their own salvation. And how eminently was his prayer heard! It procured forgivenessfor all that were penitent, and a suspension of vengeance even for the impenitent.

23:35 If thou be the Christ; Luk 23:37.If thou be the king - The priests deride the name of Messiah: the soldiers the name of king.

23:38  Mat 27:37; Mar 15:26; Joh 19:19.

23:39 And one of the malefactors reviled him - St. Matthew says, the robbers: St. Mark, they that were crucified with him, reviled him.Either therefore St. Matthew and Mark put the plural for the singular (as the best authors sometimes do) or both reviled him at the first, till one of them felt "the overwhelming power of saving grace."

23:40 The other rebuked him - What a surprising degree was here of repentance, faith, and other graces! And what abundance of good works, in his public confession of his sin, reproof of his fellow criminal, his honourable testimony to Christ, and profession of faith in him, while he was in so disgraceful circumstances as were stumbling even to his disciples! This shows the power of Divine grace. But it encourages none to put off their repentance to the last hour; since, as far as appears, this was the first time this criminal had an opportunity of knowing any thing of Christ, and his conversion was designed to put a peculiar glory on our Saviour in his lowest state, while his enemies derided him, and his own disciples either denied or forsook him.

23:42 Remember me when thou comest - From heaven, in thy kingdom - He acknowledges him a king, and such a king, as after he is dead, can profit the dead. The apostles themselves had not then so clear conceptions of the kingdom of Christ.

23:43 In paradise - The place where the souls of the righteous remain from death till the resurrection. As if he had said, I will not only remember thee then, but this very day.

23:44 There was darkness over all the earth - The noon - tide darkness, covering the sun, obscured all the upper hemisphere. And the lower was equally darkened, the moon being in opposition to the sun, and so receiving no light from it. Mat 27:45.

23:45  Mar 15:38.

23:46 Father, into thy hands - The Father receives the Spirit of Jesus: Jesus himself the spirits of the faithful.

23:47 Certainly this was a righteous man - Which implies an approbation of all he had done and taught.

23:48 All the people - Who had not been actors therein, returned smiting their breasts - In testimony of sorrow.

10 

10:19 Having finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, the apostle now proceeds to exhortation deduced from what has been treated of Heb 5:4, which he begins by a brief recapitulation. Having therefore liberty to enter, -

10:20 By a living way - The way of faith, whereby we live indeed.Which he hath consecrated - Prepared, dedicated, and established for us. Through the veil, that is, his flesh - As by rending the veil in the temple, the holy of holies became visible and accessible; so by wounding the body of Christ, the God of heaven was manifested, and the way to heaven opened.

10:22 Let us draw near - To God. With a true heart - In godly sincerity. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience - So as to condemn us no longer And our bodies washed with pure water - All our conversation spotless and holy, which is far more acceptable to God than all the legal sprinklings and washings.

10:23 The profession of our hope - The hope which we professed at our baptism.

10:25 Not forsaking the assembling ourselves - In public or private worship. As the manner of some is - Either through fear of persecution, or from a vainimagination that they were above external ordinances.But exhorting one another - To faith, love, and good works.And so much the more, as ye see the day approaching - The great day is ever in your eye.

10:26 For when we - Any of us Christians. Sin wilfully - By total apostasy from God, termed "drawing back," Heb 10:38.After having received the experimental knowledge of the gospel truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins - None but that which we obstinately reject.

10:28 He that, in capital cases, despised (presumptuously transgressed) the law of Moses diedwithout mercy - Without any delay or mitigation of his punishment.

10:29 Of how much sorer punishment is he worthy, who - By wilful, total apostasy. It does not appear that thispassage refers to any other sin. Hath, as it were, trodden underfoot the Son of God - A lawgiver far more honourable than Moses. And counted the blood wherewith the better covenant was established, an unholy, a common, worthless thing. By which he hath been sanctified - Therefore Christ died for him also, and he was at leastjustified once. And done despite to the Spirit of grace - By rejecting all his motions.

10:30 The Lord will judge his people - Yea, far more rigorously than the heathens, if they rebel against him. Deu 32:35, etc

10:31 To fall into the hands - Of his avenging justice.

18 

18:28 They went not into the palace themselves, lest they should be defiled - By going into a house which was not purged from leaven, Deu 16:4. Mat 27:2; Mat 15:1; Luk 23:1.

18:31 It is not lawful for us to put any man to death - The power of inflicting capital punishment had been taken from them that very year. So the sceptre was departed from Judah, and transferred to the Romans.

18:32 Signifying what death he should die - For crucifixion was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment. So that had he not been condemned by the Roman governor, he could not have been crucified. Joh 3:14.

18:36 My kingdom is not of this world - Is not an external, but a spiritual kingdom; that I might not be delivered to the Jews - Which Pilate had already attempted to do, Joh 18:31, andafterward actually did, Joh 19:16.

18:37 Thou sayest - The truth. To this end was I born - Speaking of his human origin: his Divine was above Pilate's comprehension.Yet it is intimated in the following words, I came into the world, that I might witness to the truth - Which was both declared to the Jews, and in the process of his passion to the princes of the Gentiles also. Every one that is of the truth - That is, a lover of it, heareth my voice - A universal maxim. Every sincere lover of truth will hear him, so as to understand and practise what he saith.

18:38 What is truth? - Said Pilate, a courtier; perhaps meaning what signifies truth? Is that a thing worth hazarding your life for?So he left him presently, to plead with the Jews for him, looking upon him as an innocent but weak man.

19 

19:1  Mat 27:26; Mar 15:15.

19:7 By our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God - Which they understood in the highest sense, and therefore accounted blasphemy.

19:8 He was the more afraid - He seems to have been afraid before of shedding innocent blood.

19:9 Whence art thou? - That is, whose son art thou?

19:11 Thou couldst have no power over me - For I have done nothing to expose me to the power of any magistrate. Therefore he that delivered me to thee, namely, Caiaphas, knowing this, is more blamable than thou.

19:13 Pilate sat down on the judgment seat - Which was then without the palace, in a place called, in Greek, the pavement, on account of a beautiful piece of Mosaic work, with which the floor was adorned: but in Hebrew, Gabbatha - Or the high place, because it stood on an eminence, so that the judge sitting on his throne might be seen and heard by a considerable number of people.

19:14 It was the preparation of the passover - For this reason both the Jews and Pilate were desirous to bring the matter to a conclusion.Every Friday was called the preparation, (namely, for the Sabbath.) And as often as the passover fell on a Friday, that day was called the preparation of the passover.

19:17 Bearing his cross - Not the whole cross, (for that was too large and heavy,) but the transverse beam of it, to which his hands were afterward fastened. This they used to make the person to be executed carry. Mat 27:31; Mar 15:20; Luk 23:26.

19:19 Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews - Undoubtedly these were the very words, although the other evangelists do not express them at large.

19:20 It was written in Latin - For the majesty of the Roman empire; in Hebrew - Because it was the language of the nation; and in Greek - For the information of the Hellenists, who spoke that language,and came in great numbers to the feast.

19:22 What I have written, I have written - That shall stand.

19:23 The vesture - The upper garment.

19:24 They parted my garments among them - No circumstance of David's life bore any resemblance to this, or to several other passages in the 22d Psalm. So that in this scripture, as in some others, the prophet seems to have been thrown into a preternatural ecstacy, wherein, personating the Messiah, he spoke barely what the Spirit dictated, without any regard to himself. Psa 22:18.

19:25 His mother's sister - But we do not read she had any brother.She was her father's heir, and as such transmitted the right of the kingdom of David to Jesus: Mary, the wife of Cleopas - Called likewise Alpheus, the father, as Mary was the mother of James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas.

19:27 Behold thy mother - To whom thou art now to perform the part of a son in my place, a peculiar honour which Christ conferred on him. From that hour - From the time of our Lord's death.

19:29 A stalk of hyssop - Which in those countries grows exceeding large and strong. Psa 69:21.

19:30 It is finished - My suffering: the purchase of man's redemption.He delivered up his spirit - To God, Mat 27:50.

19:31 Lest the bodies should remain on the cross on the Sabbath - Which they would have accounted a profanation of any Sabbath,but of that in particular. For that Sabbath was a great day - Being not only a Sabbath, but the second day of the feast of unleavened bread (from whence they reckoned the weeks to pentecost:) and also the day for presenting and offering the sheaf of new corn: so that it was a treble solemnity.

19:34 Forthwith there came out blood and water - It was strange, seeing he was dead, that blood should come out; more strange, that water also; and most strange of all, that both should come out immediately, at one time, and yet distinctly. It was pure and true water, as well as pure and true blood. The asseveration of the beholder and testifier of it, shows both the truth and greatness of the miracle and mystery.

19:35 His testimony is true - Valid, unexceptionable. And he knoweth - And his conscience beareth him witness, that he testifieth this for no other end, than that ye may believe.

19:36 A bone of it shall not be broken - This was originally spoken of the paschal lamb, an eminent type of Christ. Exo 12:46.

19:37 They shall look on him whom they have pierced - He was pierced by the soldier's spear. They who have occasioned his sufferings by their sins (and who has not?) shall either look upon him in this world with penitential sorrow: or with terror, when he cometh in the clouds of heaven, Rev 1:7. Zec 12:10.

1 

1:18 To them that perish - By obstinately rejecting the only name whereby they can be saved. But to us who are saved - Now saved from our sins, and in the way to everlastingsalvation, it is the great instrument of the power of God.

1:19 For it is written - And the words are remarkably applicable to this great event. Isa 29:14

1:20 Where is the wise? etc - The deliverance of Judea from Sennacherib is what Isaiah refers to in these words; in a bold and beautiful allusion to which, the apostle in the clause that follows triumphs over all the opposition of human wisdom to the victorious gospel of Christ. What could the wise men of the gentiles do against this? or the Jewish scribes? or the disputers of this world? - Those among both, who, proud of their acuteness, were fond of controversy, and thought they could confute all opponents. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world - That is, shown it to be very foolishness. Isa 33:18

1:21 For since in the wisdom of God - According to his wise disposals, leaving them to make the trial. The world - Whether Jewish or gentile, by all its boasted wisdom knewnot God - Though the whole creation declared its Creator, and though he declared himself by all the prophets; it pleased God, by a way which those who perish count mere foolishness, to save them that believe.

1:22 For whereas the Jews demand of the apostles, as they did of their Lord, more signs still, after all they have seen already; and the Greeks, or gentiles, seek wisdom - The depths of philosophy, and the charms of eloquence.

1:23 We go on to preach, in a plain and historical, not rhetorical or philosophical, manner, Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumblingblock - Just opposite to the "signs" they demand. And to the Greeks foolishness - A silly tale, just opposite to the wisdom they seek.

1:24 But to them that are called - And obey the heavenly calling. Christ - With his cross, his death, his life, his kingdom. And they experience, first, that he is the power, then, that he is the wisdom, of God.

1:25 Because the foolishness of God - The gospel scheme, which the world judge to be mere foolishness, is wiser than the wisdom of men; and, weak as they account it, stronger than all the strength of men.

1:26 Behold your calling - What manner of men they are whom God calls. That not many wise men after the flesh - In the account of the world. Not many mighty - Men of power and authority.

1:28 Things that are not - The Jews frequently called the gentiles, "Them that are not," Ezd2 1:56-57. In so supreme contempt did they hold them. The things that are - In high esteem.

1:29 That no flesh - A fit appellation. Flesh is fair, but withering as grass. May glory before God - In God we ought to glory.

1:30 Of him - Out of his free grace and mercy. Are ye Engrafted into Christ Jesus, who is made unto us that believe wisdom, who were before utterly foolish and ignorant.Righteousness - The sole ground of our justification, who were before under the wrath and curse of God. Sanctification - A principle of universal holiness, whereas before we were altogether dead in sin. And redemption - That is, complete deliverance from all evil, and eternal bliss both of soul and body.

1:31 Let him glory in the Lord - Not in himself, not in the flesh, not in the world. Jer 9:23-24

2 

2:1 And I accordingly came to you, not with loftiness of speech or of wisdom - I did not affect either deep wisdom or eloquence. Declaring the testimony of God - What God gave me to testify concerning his Son.

2:2 I determined not to know anything - To wave all my other knowledge, and not to preach anything, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified - That is, what he did, suffered, taught. A part is put for the whole.

19 

19:31 Lest the bodies should remain on the cross on the Sabbath - Which they would have accounted a profanation of any Sabbath,but of that in particular. For that Sabbath was a great day - Being not only a Sabbath, but the second day of the feast of unleavened bread (from whence they reckoned the weeks to pentecost:) and also the day for presenting and offering the sheaf of new corn: so that it was a treble solemnity.

19:34 Forthwith there came out blood and water - It was strange, seeing he was dead, that blood should come out; more strange, that water also; and most strange of all, that both should come out immediately, at one time, and yet distinctly. It was pure and true water, as well as pure and true blood. The asseveration of the beholder and testifier of it, shows both the truth and greatness of the miracle and mystery.

19:35 His testimony is true - Valid, unexceptionable. And he knoweth - And his conscience beareth him witness, that he testifieth this for no other end, than that ye may believe.

19:36 A bone of it shall not be broken - This was originally spoken of the paschal lamb, an eminent type of Christ. Exo 12:46.

19:37 They shall look on him whom they have pierced - He was pierced by the soldier's spear. They who have occasioned his sufferings by their sins (and who has not?) shall either look upon him in this world with penitential sorrow: or with terror, when he cometh in the clouds of heaven, Rev 1:7. Zec 12:10.