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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.
Joseph Exell preserved two Victorian illustrations of this principle in action.
First, we must awake fully to the importance of Yahweh's commands: give them intelligent and reverent examination, store them in memory, and study their beneficent operation.
Property exists for four essential purposes: to increase the earth's produce; to preserve that produce to maturity; to cultivate and develop human nature; and to advance intellectual development.
This distinction matters profoundly: true wisdom must manifest in *phronesis* (practical wisdom) and conduct, not remain abstract knowledge.
The events of human life are mixed and conflicting, yet all remain under the direction of the Great Father.
The Baptist rebuked Herod without provoking his anger, which reveals he spoke with gravity, temperance, sincerity, and genuine goodwill toward the king.
The Husbandman planted a choice vine on a fruitful hill, fenced it carefully, built a watchtower, and hewn a winepress—yet it brought forth wild grapes (*beushim*, worthless fruit) instead of the expected harvest of righteousness.
Exell (1887) offers this Victorian meditation: We are not to expect permanence in our acquisitions.
The rich man perverse in his ways lacks this wisdom entirely.
Some suppose we must love our neighbour with the same *selfish* affection we naturally direct toward ourselves, yet such self-love is sinful and cannot be our model.
Melancthon mourned in his day the divisions among Protestants, and sought to bring them together by the parable of wolves and dogs.
The word carries an evil connotation—recalling the serpent's cunning in Genesis 3—yet here Solomon redeems it to mean discernment rather than deception.
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom.—Piety a peculiar ornament to the aged. I. Who may properly be called old people? Old and young are relative terms admitting different significations. Children always think their parents are old. Those who...
This is no superficial cleanliness but a composition free from wrong admixture.
When a wild, offensive tree grows in a garden and the gardener cuts its top, if it sends forth sprouts as bad as before, he digs up the root itself.
Exell's Victorian commentary examines this through the lens of labour justice, tracing how Elohim transformed Adam's punishment into humanity's greatest dignity.
Delitzsch observed that holiness means separation from worldly corruption, superior in character.
The prophet diagnoses a spiritual pathology rooted in poor leadership.
They have beaten me and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. (Proverbs 20:35) Joseph S. Exell's 1887 illustration draws a striking parallel between surgical anaesthesia and moral corruption. Just as modern medicine...
This rule is no external constraint imposed upon the believer; rather, it emerges from the new creature itself, the regenerate inner man transformed by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17).
First, by way of excellency: wisdom itself surpasses the fairest woman in the world in beauty and worth.
The wisest person must contemplate two humbling truths: his knowledge against what remains unknown, and his knowledge against what he ought to have learned.
This creature of supreme power teaches four vital lessons, as expounded by R.
This vision announces the ultimate cessation of warfare through a coming Prince of Peace.