Chapter 4:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Lightfoot
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGarvey Pendleton
| McGee
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Matthew Luke
Mark 4
Verse 1. Matt. xiii, 1; Luke viii, 4.
Verse
2. He taught them many things by parables - After the usual
manner of the eastern nations, to make his instructions more
agreeable to them, and to impress them the more upon attentive
hearers. A parable signifies not only a simile or comparison, and
sometimes a proverb, but any kind of instructive speech, wherein
spiritual things are explained and illustrated by natural, Prov. i, 6.
To understand a proverb and the interpretation - The proverb is
the literal sense, the interpretation is the spiritual resting in the
literal sense killeth, but the spiritual giveth life.
Verse
3. Hearken - This word he probably spoke with a loud voice, to
stop the noise and hurry of the people.
Verse
10. When he was alone - That is, retired apart from the multitude.
Verse
11. To them that are without - So the Jews termed the heathens: so
our Lord terms all obstinate unbelievers: for they shall not enter
into his kingdom: they shall abide in outer darkness.
Verse
12. So that seeing they see and do not perceive - They would not
see before now they could not, God having given them up to the
blindness which they had chosen.
Verse
13. Know ye not this parable? - Which is as it were the foundation
of all those that I shall speak hereafter; and is so easy to be
understood?
Verse
19. The desire of other things choke the word - A deep and
important truth! The desire of any thing, otherwise than as it leads
to happiness in God, directly tends to barrenness of soul. Entering
in - Where they were not before. Let him therefore who has
received and retained the word, see that no other desire then enter
in, such as perhaps till then he never knew. It becometh unfruitful
- After the fruit had grown almost to perfection.
Verse
21. And he said, Is a candle - As if he had said, I explain these
things to you, I give you this light, not to conceal, but to impart it
to others. And if I conceal any thing from you now, it is only that
it may be more effectually manifested hereafter. Matt. v, 15; Luke
viii, 16; xi, 33.
Verse
22. Matt. x, 26; Luke viii, 17.
Verse
24. Take heed what ye hear - That is, attend to what you hear, that
it may have its due influence upon you. With what measure you
mete - That is, according to the improvement you make of what
you have heard, still farther assistance shall be given. And to you
that hear - That is, with improvement.
Verse
25. He that hath - That improves whatever he has received, to the
good of others, as well as of his own soul. Matt. xiii, 12; Luke
viii, 18.
Verse
26. So is the kingdom of God - The inward kingdom is like seed
which a man casts into the ground - This a preacher of the Gospel
casts into the heart. And he sleeps and rises night and day - That
is, he has it continually in his thoughts. Meantime it springs and
grows up he knows not how - Even he that sowed it cannot
explain how it grows. For as the earth by a curious kind of
mechanism, which the greatest philosophers cannot comprehend,
does as it were spontaneously bring forth first the blade, then the
ear, then the full corn in the ear: so the soul, in an inexplicable
manner, brings forth, first weak graces, then stronger, then full
holiness: and all this of itself, as a machine, whose spring of
motion is within itself. Yet observe the amazing exactness of the
comparison. The earth brings forth no corn (as the soul no
holiness) without both the care and toil of man, and the benign
influence of heaven.
Verse
29. He putteth in the sickle - God cutteth down and gathereth the
corn into his garner.
Verse
30. Matt. xiii, 31; Luke xiii, 18.
Verse
33. He spake the word as they were able to hear it - Adapting it to
the capacity of his hearers; and speaking as plain as he could
without offending them. A rule never to be forgotten by those
who instruct others.
Verse
35. Matt. viii, 23; Luke viii, 22.
Verse
36. They take him as he was in the vessel - They carried him
immediately in the same vessel from which he had been preaching
to the people.
Verse
38. On the pillow - So we translate it, for want of a proper English
expression, for that particular part of the vessel near the rudder, on
which he lay.
Verse
39. Peace - Cease thy tossing: Be still - Cease thy roaring;
literally, Be thou gagged.
Chapter 4:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Lightfoot
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGarvey Pendleton
| McGee
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Matthew Luke
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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