Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Idolatry - Worshipping of idols; frequenting idol festivals; all the rites of Bacchus, Venus, Priapus, etc., which were common among the Gentiles.
Witchcraft - , from a drug or poison; because in all spells and enchantments, whether true or false, drugs were employed. As a drug, , might either be the means of removing an evil, or inflicting one, etymologists have derived it from , bringing ease, or , bringing pain. So spells and incantations were used sometimes for the restoration of the health; at others, for the destruction of an enemy. Sometimes, these were used to procure love; at other times, to produce hatred.
Hatred - · Aversions and antipathies, when opposed to brotherly love and kindness.
Variance - · Contentions, where the principle of hatred proceeds to open acts; hence contests, altercations, lawsuits, and disputes in general.
Emulations - · Envies or emulations; that is strife to excel at the expense of another; lowering others to set up one' s self; unholy zeal, fervently adopting a bad cause, or supporting a good one by cruel means. Inquisitions, pretending to support true religion by torturing and burning alive those who both profess and practice it.
Wrath - · Turbulent passions, disturbing the harmony of the mind, and producing domestic and civil broils and disquietudes.
Strife - · Disputations, janglings, logomachics, or strife about words.
Seditions - · Divisions into separate factions; parties, whether in the Church or state.
Heresies - ̔· Factions; parties in the Church separating from communion with each other, and setting up altar against altar. The word, which is harmless in itself, is here used in a bad sense. In stead of ̔ the Slavonic has , scandals, offenses or stumbling-blocks.
DISCLAIMER: Church of the Great God (CGG) provides these resources to aid the individual in studying the Bible. However, it is up to the individual to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). The content of these resources does not necessarily reflect the views of CGG. They are provided for information purposes only.
E-mail this page
