A.D. 253 – 1849 6 witnesses
“Let us not suppose that this refers to our bodily enemies, but our ghostly. For the Lord Jesus came mighty in battle (Ps. 24:8) to destroy all our enemies, that He might deliver us from their snares and temptation.”
“Having first briefly said, He hath raised up a horn of salvation to us, he goes on to explain his words, adding, of salvation from our enemies. As if he said, He hath raised up to us a horn, i. e. He hath raised up to us salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us.”
“I hat we should he saved from our enemies. As God spake by the prophets, and promised salvation, i.e. the deliverance and salvation of Israel and the whole world from captivity to the devil, sin, death, and hell, so now hath He accomplished the same, by giving a horn of salvation, i.e. a strong Saviour, Jesus Christ Observe that Zacharias here interprets the ancient prophecies of the kingdom and salvation of Christ, not in a temporal but in a spiritual sense, as is clear from verse 73 and the following”
“That we should be saved from our enemies,.... This, and the two following verses, either contain and express the sum and substance of what God spake by the prophets; or point out the end or ends of his raising up an horn of salvation, or a Saviour for his people; namely, that they should be saved by him from their enemies: from sin, which wars against the soul, and threatens the destruction of it; from Satan, the avowed and implacable adversary of mankind; from the world, the seed of the serpent, which has always bore an enmity to the seed of the woman; from the law, the killing letter; and from death, the last enemy that is to be destroyed, and from the hand of all that hate us: which is only an illustration of the former sentence, or a repetition of it in other words; and designs the same as before.”
“That we should be saved (literally, a salvation) from our enemies - As Zacharias spoke by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the salvation which he mentions here must necessarily be understood in a spiritual sense. Satan, death, and sin are the enemies from whom Jesus came to deliver us. Sin is the most dangerous of all, and is properly the only enemy we have to fear. Satan is without us, and can have no power over us, but what he gets through sin. Death is only in our flesh, and shall be finally destroyed (as it affects us) on the morning of the resurrection. Jesus redeems from sin; this is the grand, the glorious, the important victory. Let us get sin cast out, and then we need, fear neither death, nor the devil.”
“That he would save us, &c. Literally, salvation from our enemies. The construction and sense is, that God, as he had declared by his prophets, would grant us salvation, or would save us. (Witham) — This is not to be understood of temporal, but of spiritual enemies. For the Lord Jesus, strong in battle, came to destroy all our enemies, and thus to deliver us from their snares and temptations. (Origen, hom. xvi.) — He is that King of Glory, the Lord strong and powerful, the Lord powerful in battle. (Psalm xxiii.)”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.