And he suffered ° no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.

And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;

There were also women looking on afar off: among ° whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.

8:46 sinneth not. Solomon acknowledged here in his prayer that all men are sinners before God (note Romans 3:10,23; James 2:10; etc). Note also his testimony in Ecclesiastes 7:20.

17:1 not be dew nor rain. This remarkable prophecy was miraculously fulfilled. There was no rain in the land of Israel for 3½ years (note I Kings 18:1, and compare Luke 4:25 and James 5:17), until Elijah confronted and defeated all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:17-45). Yet James reminds us that Elijah was a man “of like passions as we” (James 5:17) and that this miracle was simply an answer to his fervent prayer.

17:18 the tribe of Judah only. Judah was the tribe of the Davidic kings, and so the nation was called Judah. However the tribes of Benjamin, Simeon and Levi had to a large extent been assimilated into Judah. Also, spiritually minded individuals from the northern tribes had filtered back into Judah. Note II Chronicles 11:16; Acts 26:7; James 1:1; etc., so that Judah eventually came to represent all twelve tribes. The ten tribes departed into Assyria never returned to the promised land in a tribal sense, and this fact has lent itself to many speculations about the present whereabouts of the “ten lost tribes.”

5:13 thou shalt labour. The word for “labour” in the ten commandments (Hebrew abad) does not necessarily mean some kind of demeaning toil. The basic meaning is “serve,” and it is so translated 214 times in the King James Translation. Further, the word for “work” (Hebrew melakah) really connotes “stewardship,” not servile labor. Every honest occupation, if rendered “as to the Lord” (Colossians 3:23) is in a real sense serving God. Note also that God has ordained a six-day work week, not four or five days. Finally, we should remember that those who belong to His family will continue to “serve Him” throughout eternity (Revelation 22:3).

27:15 answer and say, Amen. The series of twelve “Amens” answered by the people in response to the warning curses clearly indicate their acceptance of the criteria pronounced. “Amen” means simply “So be it.” Except for its use in Numbers 5:22, these constitute the first uses of “Amen” in the Bible. 27:26 all the words. The law is thus considered, even in all of its words, as a unit, no word of which could be broken without breaking the law as a whole. This both confirms its verbal inspiration and its impossible demands. Note the New Testament confirmations in Galatians 3:10; James 2:10. Thus the law in itself cannot save. God’s forgiving grace, by the redemptive work of Christ, is required for salvation, and is to be received solely by faith.

1:3 LORD of hosts. This the first of almost 240 references in the Bible to God as the “LORD of hosts” (Hebrew Jehovah Sabaoth). He is also called “the God of hosts” (e.g., Psalm 80:7, for example) about ten times, and “LORD God of hosts” some twenty-five times (e.g., II Samuel 5:10, for example). This unique name, used most often in the prophetical books, stresses the “innumerable” (Hebrews 12:22) company of angels under the command of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the “captain of the host of the LORD” (Joshua 5:14) and could easily have called on “twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53) to save Himself from the cross, had He been so minded. The name “Lord of Sabaoth” is used only once in the New Testament (James 5:4).

21:19 slew the brother of Goliath. Since the words “the brother of” are not in the original (and, therefore, are italicized in most printings of the King James Version), critics have alleged a contradiction here with the story of David and Goliath (I Samuel 17:4,7,50). It is more reasonable, however, to assume an ancient copyist omission here, especially in view of the more complete description given in the parallel passage, as follows: “And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver’s beam” (I Chronicles 20:5). Another (less likely) resolution would be the possibility that this Goliath was the son of the Goliath slain by David, and that both Goliath (Jr.) and his brother Lahmi were slain by Elhanan. In either case, there is no contradiction.

2:24 cursed them. Elisha did not curse “little children,” as the King James Version translates the phrase (II Kings 2:23). The Hebrew expression frequently connotes young, unmarried men of any age up to about thirty. This was evidently a gang of young hoodlums, instigated by the heathen priests of Baal to ridicule Elijah’s successor. The jeering exhortation to “go up, thou baldhead” (II Kings 2:23) was both a sarcastic reference to Elijah’s supposed ascension (which they disbelieved) and a personal insult to God’s chosen prophet. This challenge to Jehovah and the authority of His prophet could not be excused, so God made good on a warning issued long before: “And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me;...I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children” (Leviticus 26:21-22).

9:8 pisseth against the wall. This pronouncement of coming doom on the descendants of Ahab uses language that sounds vulgar to modern ears, and modern translations invariably use some euphemism instead of the literal translation as in the Authorized Version (if nothing else, this is a striking testimonial to the strong commitment to precise rendering by the King James translators). Nevertheless the actual words uttered by the prophet, quoting the words of the Lord Himself, were exactly as given in the King James, and it would seem there must be good reason why the Spirit-inspired Scriptures would use such explicit language—in this and several other instances—when it seems at first that “every adult male” would have done just as well. Wherever it is used (also in I Samuel 25:22,34; I Kings 14:10; 16:11; 21:21), it is used as a pejorative and in a context of judgment against evil. It was evidently a proverbial expression in Israel, probably applied to those men who were of such arrogant and evil temperament as to blatantly engage in public urination against the walls of those they disliked. Not only were such descendants of Ahab to be cut off, but even those who were “shut up” (i.e., too old or too young to engage in outside work or warfare, and thus kept at home) and “left in Israel.”

1:12 Wisdom and knowledge. God does honor our desire and prayers for divine wisdom (Proverbs 2:1-6; James 1:5-6).