Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 32:29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed…
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,…
Judges 13:6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 13:15-23
We have here an account,
I. Of what further passed between Manoah and the angel at this interview. It was in kindness to him that while the angel was with him it was concealed from him that he was an angel; for, had he known it, it would have been such a terror to him that he durst not have conversed with him as he did (Jdg 13:16): He knew not that he was an angel. So Christ was in the world, and the world knew him not. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself. We could not bear the sight of the divine glory unveiled. God having determined to speak to us by men like ourselves, prophets and ministers, even when he spoke by his angels, or by his Son, they appeared in the likeness of men, and…
Manoah said unto the angel . . ., What is thy name?--Manoah's request elicited the most unequivocal proofs of the divinity of his supernatural visitor--in his name "secret" (in the Margin, "wonderful"), and in the miraculous flame that betokened the acceptance of the sacrifice.
John Gill on Judges 13:18
And the angel of the Lord said unto him,.... Being so importunate, and pressing upon him:
why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? and not to be known; as his nature and essence as a divine Person, which may be meant by his name, is what passes knowledge, is infinite and incomprehensible; see Proverbs 30:4 or "wonderful" (p); which is one of the names of Christ, and fitly agrees with him, who is wonderful in his person, as God and man; in his incarnation, in his offices and relations, in his love to his people, and in all he is unto them, and has done for them; See Gill on Isaiah 9:6.
(p) Sept. "mirabile", V. L. Montanus; "mirificus", Junius & Tremellius.
Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 13:18
The angel replied, "Why askest thou then after my name? truly it is wonderful." The Kethibh פלאי is the adjectival form פּלאי from פּלא, for which the Keri has פּלי, the pausal form of פּלי (from the radical פּלה = פּלא). The word therefore is not the proper name of the angel of the Lord, but expresses the character of his name; and as the name simply denotes the nature, it expresses the peculiarity of his nature also. It is to be understood in an absolute sense, - "absolutely and supremely wonderful" (Seb. Schmidt), - as a predicate belonging to God alone (compare the term "Wonderful" in Isa 9:6), and not to be toned down as it is by Bertheau, who explains it as signifying "neither easy to…
The Church Fathers
And so, too, the word that was spoken to Manoah shows the fact that the Divinity is not comprehensible by the significance of His name, because, when Manoah asks to know His name, that, when the promise has come actually to pass, he may by name glorify his benefactor, He says to him, "Why askest thou this? It also is wonderful"; so that by this we learn that there is one name significant of the Divine Nature—the wonder, namely, that arises unspeakably in our hearts concerning It.
On the name Catholic I answered fully and with calmness. For I said, that it mattered to neither, what the other was called. And if you demanded the meaning of the name, I said that, whatever it might be, it was wonderful, whether it was 'one in all,' or 'one over all,' or (an interpretation which I have not mentioned before,) 'the king's son,' that is, 'the Christian people.' Certainly too that was no accessory name which endured through so many ages. And indeed I am glad for thee that although thou mayest have preferred others, yet thou agreest that the name attaches to us. What, should you deny? Nature would cry out. But and if you still have doubts, let us hold our peace. We will both be that which we shall be named, witness the antiquity of the name. If, however, thou perseverest in asking, beware lest that man of might exclaim, Why askest thou thus after My Name, seeing it is wonderful? I next added, that we need not consider, whence Catholics derived this name, because neither was it wont to be any imputation against the Valentinians, if they were called after Valentinus, nor the Phrygians, if from Phrygia, nor the Novatians, if after Novatian.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Manoah — Rest, a Danite, the father of Samson (Judg. 13:1-22, and 14:2-4).
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Samson — Of the sun, the son of Manoah, born at Zorah. The narrative of his life is given in Judg. 13-16. He was a “Nazarite unto God” from his birth, the first Nazarite mentioned in Scripture (Judg. 13:3-5;…
Angel (Holy Trinity) · . — .
Conception · .Manoah’s wife — .Manoah’s wife
Curiosity · .Of Manoah, to know the name of an angel — .Of Manoah, to know the name of an angel
Manoah · A Danite of Zorah and the father of Sam — A Danite of Zorah and the father of Sam
Titles And Names Of Christ · Angel of the Lord — Angel of the Lord
Wonderful · See — See
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
When it is mystical. It is concealed. It changes constantly,4According to the angel’s mission at that particular time. Cf. Rashi to Bereishis, 32:30. so that its identity remains unknown on any given day.
