3:4; 7:13-14. “…Clothed in white…”
“In the chamber Gazith sat the council of Israel, and judged concerning the priests. Whosoever was found touched with any spot was clothed in black, and was veiled in black, and went away. Whoever was without spot, being clothed and veiled in white, went into the court, and ministered with his brethren.” [I:70-71]. [Quoting Talmud Book Joma, folio 19.1. See also vol. 2, p. 330. The Gazith was the place in the Temple where the Sanhedrin sat in judgment.
Lightfoot notes concerning Gen. 3:21, where God made coats for Adam and his wife, that: “…’In the law of R. Meir they found written…garments of light,” instead of “garments of skin.” This change only required the change of the letter aleph, to the letter ayin, as is often found. [2:396]
3:5. “…blot out his name….”
This phrase may be the equivalent of “cutting off” so often mentioned in the law. Lightfoot says:
“…cutting off, speaks vengeance by the hand of God. They are very much deceived who understand…and…cutting off, of which there is very frequent mention in the Holy Bible, concerning the cutting off from the public assembly by ecclesiastical censure, when as it means nothing else than cutting off by divine vengeance. There is nothing more usual and common among the Hebrew canonists, than to adjudge very many transgressions to cutting off, in that worn phrase…If he shall do this out of presumption, he is guilty of cutting off; but if he shall do it out of ignorance, he is bound for a sacrifice for sin.’ When they adjudge a thing or a guilty person to cutting off, they deliver and leave him to the judgment of God; nevertheless, a censure and punishment from the Sanhedrim sometimes is added, and sometimes not.” [2:111-112]
3:5. “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15)
“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither [whatsoever] worketh abomination, or [maketh] a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27 See also: Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 20:12; 22:19.)
The traditions concerning the ‘times of the Messias’ included the saying: “…’Whosoever shall be left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called Holy, every one being written in the book of life.’ As the Holy (God) liveth for ever, so they also shall live for ever….” [2:310]
3:7. “…the key of David…”
“….The son of David.] That is, ‘the true Messias.’ For by no more ordinary and more proper name did the Jewish nation point out the Messiah than by …The son of David….” [2:10]
“…We read in the evangelists of two families, that were of the stock and line of David; and the Talmudic authors mention a third. The family of Jacob the father of Joseph, the family of Eli the father of Mary, and the family of Hillel the president of the Sanhedrim…who was of the seed of David,….” [3:35]
“…’He that educateth the child is called a father, not he that beget it.’ Note that: Joseph, having been taught by the angel, and well satisfied in Mary, whom he had espoused, had owned Jesus for his son from his first birth; he had redeemed him as his first-born, had cherished him in his childhood, educated him in his youth: and therefore, no wonder if Joseph be called his father, and he was supposed {thought} to be his son.“ [3:53]
Jesus was clearly the Heir of the household of David, and as such He held ‘the Key’, that is, authority. In Matt. 26:19-20, He gave this ‘Key’ to Peter and the Apostles. He gave them authority to bind and loose.
“…he granted Peter here, and to the rest of the apostles, chap. xviii.18, a power to abolish or confirm what they thought good, and as they thought good, being taught this and led by the Holy Spirit: as if he should say, ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind in the law of Moses, that is, forbid, it shall be forbidden, the Divine authority confirming it; and whatsoever ye shall loose, that is, permit, or shall teach, that it is permitted and lawful, shall be lawful and permitted.” [2:236-241]
“The word for key being in their language אחתפמ brings to mind the word חתפ, which was so very much in use amongst them for one that was teaching. Instances of this are endless:… The openings of the wise; where (as indeed almost everywhere else), it is so frequently said,… R. such a one ‘opened;‘… it is used when any Rabbin produceth any text of Scripture, and either glosseth or discourseth upon it by way of exposition, allusion, or allegory ….” [3:129]
“…I do not question but St. Peter … had an eye to that saying of our Saviour, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, viz. that ‘thou mayest first open the door of the gospel to the Gentiles.’ Then it was that the Lord chose him, that by his mouth first, the Gentiles might hear the word of the gospel, and might believe.‘” [4:126]
3:10. “…which shall come upon all the world, to try those who dwell upon the earth/[land]…” (See also 2:26, ‘nations.’)