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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.
Acts 3:14 records their speechlessness: they "could say nothing against it." The miracle's reality was incontrovertible; the man stood before them whole.
Of all species of deception, self-deception proves most detrimental; it is like having a traitor within the fortress who betrays his country to the enemy.
The vast region of human sorrow appears to most a dark and dreary desert.
Man suffers equally under two extremes: subjected without redress to another's passions, or abandoned to the dominion of his own.
Exell observed a profound perversity in human judgment.
First, the wicked man takes deliberate pains to devise evil, much as a miner searches for treasure in concealed depths.
The flattery here is not gentle commendation but *kelalah* (curse)—a loud, vaunting display that intrudes itself on all occasions with busy, demonstrative energy.
Gaze not on beauty overmuch, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee.
The proverb's geography matters—the north wind's effect depends on terrain, just as righteous anger's effect depends on its proper object.
Exell's Victorian commentary on Proverbs 25:15 illuminates what seemed paradoxical to ancient minds: that meekness, courteousness, and kindness possess greater persuasive force than harshness, bitterness, or clamour.
The prophet identifies hands and knees as the body's most visible registers of fear and despair.
Exell's Victorian scholarship illuminates this reciprocal dynamic across four dimensions.
1887, when the printing press has become the mightiest agency for good or evil ever unleashed upon civilization.
Our Lord Himself uttered these same words when His soul was overwhelmed with grief in the prospect of His agonies, bloody sweat, and sacrificial death (John 12:27).
Titus Vespasian, the Roman general, claimed he stood above false reports; if accusations were true, he had more reason for anger with himself than with the relator.
Beneath apparent severity lies the spirit of true kindness.
Joseph Exell's 1887 exposition reveals three vital truths about the present moment.
The cultivated tree is the joint product of human care and earth's fertility.
Acts 12:12 reveals that some believers retained their property, maintaining households with children and servants as before.
Returning from his cousins' home, young Joseph carried a pin.
Exell notes the critical distinction: it is not the place itself, but the way to it.
Yet Christians must judge timidity differently than the world does.
Consider two grave consequences: First, pride subjects a man to the imputation of folly.
The ruined city in Solomon's metaphor depicts precisely this condition.