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By Joseph S. Exell · 1887 · 1,353 illustrations
The Biblical Illustrator is a 56-volume reference work compiled by Joseph S. Exell in the late 19th century. Each passage of Scripture is illuminated with historical anecdotes, biographical sketches, analogies from nature, and homiletical observations drawn from ancient and contemporary sources. These illustrations have been carefully restored from the original public-domain text and rewritten for clarity and accessibility — preserving the historical depth while removing Victorian OCR artifacts.
This passage illuminates redemption as God's exclusive work, accomplished contrary to human intention.
The Reformers—men like Tyndale and Cranmer—evinced through their very deaths an unwavering commitment that *euangelion* (the gospel) would survive intact for posterity.
The Preacher calls this the Epicurean gospel, named after the Greek philosopher Epicurus, though the impulse predates him as old as human nature itself.
Joshua, the great military commander who had led the tribes to countless victories, now felt mortality approaching.
The Divine response cut through panic: "Wherefore criest thou unto Me?
Tow—the coarse, broken refuse of flax or hemp—becomes the metaphor for those whom sin has hollowed from within.
This blessing represents a profound debt owed to godly parenthood.
In the prophet's day, the Jewish leaders had cast off their wives for heathen women, then taught their followers this transgression was no sin.
Such an errand would contradict God's character—He cannot morally compel His messenger toward wickedness.
Two forms exist: assertory oaths affirm or deny past and present facts; promissory oaths pledge future action, becoming vows when made directly to Elohim, or covenants when between persons.
A Christian's duty, while dwelling as a citizen of this world, is to engage its concerns actively.
The seer of Patmos drew this imagery from his island circumstances, much as Peter's rooftop vision at Joppa arose from hunger and his lodging with a tanner.
They studied the law with meticulous precision, yet remained practical strangers to its transformative power.
King Hezekiah's near-death experience reveals what many never discover: the difference between mere existence and genuine life.
This Hebrew rebuke strikes at a weakness of human nature: we minimize the commonplace and exalt the distant.
Paul (Galatians 3:19) and Stephen (Acts 7:53) explicitly affirm angelic agency in law-giving, yet the Pentateuch itself remains ambiguous.
Yahweh commanded His people to bind blue thread upon the borders of their garments—not for ornament, but as a *zikaron* (remembrance).
With the remaining timber, he carves a god and falls before it in worship.
The Acts of the Apostles overflows with language of "disputation," "conference," and "reasoning." The apostles "came together to consider the matter"; "It pleased the apostles and elders and the whole Church"; they assembled "with one accord." This pattern reveals how...
Joseph Exell identified five corrupted standards by which multitudes measure duty, each leading toward *thanatos* (death).
The proverb reads: "As he that throweth a stone at an idol, so is he that giveth honour to a fool." Colonel Conder first identified the true translation, revealing the comparison's power.
The nineteenth-century expositors recognized that merchants alone possess the *ptocheia* (faculty) to sharpen their wits through calculated risk and distant vision.
The "wheel" is not primarily an instrument of torture, but a threshing tool.
Israel shall be borne away from her land suddenly and violently, as by the winds of heaven.