Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• Israel's hardness of heart 2:29-37
  Israel deserved judgment, and this pericope shows why. Jeremiah presented a series of pictures of the nation's irresponsibility and corruption.2:29 The Lord wanted to know why His people were angry with Him. The difficulties ...
• Literary form and characteristics
  Malachi's style is quite different from that of any other writing prophet. Instead of delivering messages to his audience, he charged them with various sins, six times in all. His was a very confrontational style of address. ...
• Plan and Structure
  Matthew often grouped his material into sections so that three, five, six, or seven events, miracles, sayings, or parables appear together.27Jewish writers typically did this to help their readers remember what they had writt...
• Outline
  I. The introduction of the King 1:1-4:11A. The King's genealogy 1:1-17B. The King's birth 1:18-25C. The King's childhood 2:1-231. The prophecy about Bethlehem 2:1-122. The prophecies about Egypt 2:13-183. The prophecies about...
• 1. Jesus' forerunner 3:1-12 (cf. Mark 1:2-8; Luke 3:3-18)
  It was common when Jesus lived for forerunners to precede important individuals to prepare the way for their arrival. For example, when a king would visit a town in his realm his emissaries would go before him to announce his...
• 2. Jesus' baptism 3:13-17 (cf. Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-23)
  Jesus' baptism was the occasion at which His messiahship became obvious publicly. Matthew recorded this event as he did to convince his readers further of Jesus' messianic qualifications.3:13-14 John hesitated to baptize Jesu...
• 1. The setting of Jesus' ministry 4:12-16
  Comparison of John's Gospel and Matthew's shows that Jesus ministered for about a year before John the Baptist's arrest. John had criticized Herod Antipas for having an adulterous relationship with his brother Philip's wife (...
• Jesus' reply in view of the response 12:25-37
  12:25-26 Probably Jesus' knew His critics' thoughts as anyone else who had suffered such an attack would (cf. 9:4). Alternatively this may be a statement of Jesus' omniscience. Any kingdom, city, or household that experiences...
• The renewed demand for a sign 16:1-4 (cf. Mark 8:11-12)
  16:1 Matthew introduced the Pharisees and Sadducees with one definite article in the Greek text. Such a construction implies that they acted together. That is remarkable since they were political and theological enemies (cf. ...
• The seventh woe 23:29-36
  23:29-30 By building monuments to the prophets and other righteous people that their forefathers had martyred, the Pharisees were saying that they would not have killed them if they had been alive then. These construction pro...
• Bibliography
  Abbott-Smith, G. A. A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937.Albright, W. F. and Mann, C. S. Matthew. The Anchor Bible series. Garden City: Doubleday, 1971.Alford, Henry. The Greek Testa...
• 1. The ministry of John the Baptist 1:2-8 (cf. Matt. 3:1-6, 11-12; Luke 3:3-6; 15-18)
  The writer pointed out that the ministry of Jesus' forerunner fulfilled prophecy. It made a significant impact on those whom John contacted. Then Mark recorded the essence of John's message.1:2-3 Mark began with a quotation f...
• B. The witness of John the Baptist 1:6-8
  John the Apostle introduced John the Baptist because John the Baptist bore witness to the light, namely Jesus. John the Baptist was both a model evangelist pointing those in darkness to the light and a model witness providing...
• 2. Specific reasons 1:4-10
  1:4-5 Paul's favorite appellation for the Thessalonians was "brothers."He used it 15 times in this epistle and seven times in 2 Thessalonians. It emphasizes the equality of Christians in the family of God, Jews and Gentiles. ...
• 5. Keeping the faith reaffirmed 5:5-13
  Here John set out his fifth and final condition for living as children of God (cf. 2:18-29)."We canbelieve, and therefore we shouldmaintain the faith."162In the previous section (4:7-5:4) John wove together the themes of fait...
• G. The seventh trumpet judgment 11:15-19
  John's revelation continued to unfold future events as God revealed these to him in his vision. The scene John saw next was in heaven. The seventh trumpet judgment did not begin immediately (cf. 8:1-5), but John received info...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

• St. Matthew 1-8
  Matthew 1-8
• The Herald Of The King
  In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2. And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3. For this is He that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one ...
• I. The Son Who Follows And Surpasses The Servants.
  Our Lord here places Himself in the line of the prophets as coming for a similar purpose. The mission to Israel was the same. The mission of His life was the same.The last words of the lawgiver certainly point to a person (De...