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I LIBRARY j

THE EXPOSITOR'S

GREEK TESTAMENT

EDITED BY THE REV.

W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.

EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITOR," "THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE," ETC.

VOLUME I.

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

THE EXPOSITOR'S

GREEK TESTAMENT

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

BY THE REV.

ALEXANDER BALMAIN BRUCE, D.D.

PROFESSOR OF APOLOGETICS, FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW

THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN

BY THE REV.

MARCUS DODS, D.D.

PROFESSOR OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY, NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE

The Expositors Greek Testament is intended to do for
the present generation the work accomplished by Dean
Alford's in the past. Of the influence of Dean Alford's
book there is no need to speak. It is almost impossible
to exaggerate the success and usefulness of Dean Alford's
commentary in putting English-speaking students into
possession of the accumulated results of the labours of
scholars up to the time it was published. He made the
best critical and exegetical helps, previously accessible only
to a few readers, the common privilege of all educated
Englishmen. Dean Alford himself would have been the
first to say that he undertook a task too great for one
man. Though he laboured with indefatigable diligence,
twenty years together, from 1841 to 1861, were occupied
in his undertaking. Since his time the wealth of material
on the New Testament has been steadily accumulating,
and no one has as yet attempted to make it accessible
in a full and comprehensive way.

In the present commentary the works have been
committed to various scholars, and it is hoped that the
completion will be reached within five years from the
present date, if not sooner. As the plan of Alford's
book has been tested by time and experience, it has been
adopted here with certain modifications, and it is hoped
that as the result English-speaking students will have a
work at once up to date and practically useful in all
its parts.

GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE

It remains to add that the commentators have been
selected from various churches, and that they have in
every case been left full liberty to express their own
views. The part of the editor has been to choose them,
and to assign the limits of space allowed to each book.
In this assignment the judgment of Dean Alford has
appeared to be sound in the main, and it has been generally
followed.

W. ROBERTSON NICOLL.

PREFACE

In this Commentary on the Synoptical Gospels I give to the
public the fruit of studies carried on for many years. These
Gospels have taken a more powerful and abiding hold of me
than any other part of the Scriptures. I have learnt much
from them concerning Christ in the course of these years ;
not a little since I began to prepare this work for the press.
1 have done my best to communicate what I have learned to
others. I have also laid under contribution previous com-
mentators, ancient and modern, while avoiding the pedantic
habit of crowding the page with long lists of learned names.
I have not hesitated to introduce quotations, in Latin and
Greek, which seemed fitted to throw light on the meaning.
These, while possessing interest for scholars, may be passed
over by English readers without much loss, as their sense is
usually indicated.

In the critical notes beneath the Greek Text I have aimed
at making easily accessible to the reader the results of the
labours of scholars who have made the text the subject of
special study ; especially those contained in the monu-
mental works of Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort.
Readers are requested to peruse what has been stated on
that subject in the Introduction, and, in using the com-
mentary, to keep in mind that I have always made what I
regard as the most probable reading the basis of comment,
whether I have expressly indicated my opinion in the critical
notes or not.

In these days one who aims at a competent treatment
of the Evangelic narratives must keep in view critical

viii PREFACE

methods of handling the story. I have tried to unite some
measure of critical freedom and candour with the reverence
of faith. If, in spite of honest endeavour, I have not suc-
ceeded always in realising this ideal, let it be imputed to the
\ack of skill rather than of good intention.

I rise from this task with a deepened sense of the wisdom
and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. If what I have written
help others to a better understanding of His mind and heart,
I shall feel that my labour has not been in vain.

I enjoyed the benefit of Mr. MacFadyen's (of the Free
Church College, Glasgow) assistance in reading the proofs
of the second half of the work, and owe him earnest thanks,
not only for increased accuracy in the printed text, but for
many valuable suggestions.

The works of Dr. Gould on Mark and Dr. Plummer on
Luke, in the International Critical Commentary, appeared too
late to be taken advantage of in this commentarv.

A. B. BRUCE.

Glasgow.

THE GOSPELS

ACCORDING TO

MATTHEW, MARK AND LUKE

INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS,
Section I. The Connection.

I . The three first Gospels, bearing the names of Matthew, Mark
and Luke, have, during the present century, been distinguished by
critics from the fourth by the epithet synoptical. The term implies
that these Gospels are so like one another in contents that they can
be, and for profitable study ought to be, viewed together. That such
is the fact is obvious to every reader. A single perusal suffices to
shew that they have much in common in contents, arrangement and
phraseology ; and a comparison with the fourth Gospel only deepens
the impression. There everything appears different — the incidents
related, the thoughts ascribed to Jesus, the terms in which they are
expressed, the localities in wh.ch ihe Great Personage who is the
common subject of all the four narratives exercised His remarkable
teaching and healing ministries.

2. Yet while these three Gospels present obtrusive resemblances,
they also exhibit hardly less obtrusive differences. The differences
are marked just because the books are on the whole so like one
another. One cannot help asking : Seeing they are so like, why are
they not more like ? Why do they differ at all ? Or the question
may be put the other way : Seeing there are so many idiosyncrasies
in each Gospel, how does it come about that notwithstanding these
they all bear an easily recognisable family likeness ? The idiosyn-
crasies, though not always so obvious as the resemblances, are un-
mistakable, and some of them stare one in the face. Each Gospel,
e.g., has some matter peculiar to itself; the first and the third a
great deal. Then, while in certain parts of their narratives they
follow the same order, in other places they diverge widely. Again,
one cannot but be struck with the difference between the three
records in regard to reporting the words of Jesus. Mark gives com-

4 INTRODUCTION

paratively few : Matthew and Luke very many, and these for the
most part very weighty and remarkable, insomuch that one wonders
how any one undertaking to write a history of Christ's life could
overlook them. Matthew and Luke again, while both giving much
prominence to the words of Jesus, differ very widely in their manner
of reporting them. The one collects the sayings into masses,
apparently out of regard to affinity of thought ; the other disperses
them over his pages, and assigns to them distinct historical occasions.

3. These resemblances and differences, with many others not
referred to, inevitably raise a question as to their cause. This is the
synoptical problem, towards the solution of which a countless num-
ber of contributions have been made within the last hundred years.
Many of these have now only a historical or antiquarian interest,
and it would serve no useful purpf-se to attempt here an exhaustive
account of the literature connected with this inquiry. While not in-
sensible to the fascination of the subject, even on its curious side, as
an interesting problem in literary criticism, yet I must respect the
fact that we in this work are directly concerned with th2 matter
only in so far as it affects exegesis. The statement therefore now to
be made must be broad and brief.

4. All attempts at solution admit of being classified under four
heads. First may be mentioned the hypothesis of oral tradition.
This hypothesis implies that before our Gospels there were no
written records of the ministry of Jesus, or at least none of which
they made use. Their only source was the unwritten tradition of
the memorabilia of that ministry, having its ultimate origin in the
public preaching and teaching of the Apostles, the men. who had
been with Jesus. The statements made by the Apostles from time
to time, repeated and added to as occasion required, caught up by
willing ears, and treasured up in faithful memories : behold all that
is necessary, according to the patrons of this hypothesis, to account
for all the evangelic phenomena of resemblance and difference. The
resemblances are explained by the tendency of oral tradition,
especially in non-literary epochs and peoples, to become stereotyped
in contents and even in phraseology, a tendency much helped by the
practice of catechetical instruction, in which the teacher dictates
sentences which his pupils are expected to commit to memory. 1
The differences are accounted for by the original diversity in the
memorabilia communicated by different Apostles, by the measure of

1 On the function of catechists as helping to stereotype the evangelic tradition
vide Wright, The Composition of the Four Gospels, 1890. Mr. Wright is a
thorough believer in the oral tradition.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 5

fluidity inseparable from oral tradition due to defective memory,
and of course in part also by the peculiar tastes, aims and indi-
vidualities of the respective evangelists. This hypothesis has been
chiefly in favour among English scholars, though it can likewise
boast of influential supporters among continental critics, such as
Gieseler and Godet. It points to a vera causa, and cannot be
wholly left out of account in an endeavour to explain how written
records of the evangelic tradition arose. There was a time doubt-
less when what was known of Jesus was on the lip only. How
long that primitive phase lasted is matter of conjecture ; some say
from 30 to 60 a.d. It seems probable that the process of trans-
ferring from the lip to the page began considerably sooner than the
later of these dates. When Luke wrote, many attempts had been
made to embody the tradition in a written form (Luke i. 1). This
points to a literary habit which would naturally exert its power
without d<Jay in reference to any matter in which men took an
absorbing interest. And when this habit prevails writers are not
usually content to remain in ignorance of what others have done in
the same line. They want to see each other's notes. The pre-
sumption therefore is that while oral tradition in all probability was
a source for our evangelists, it was not the only source, probably
not even the chief source There were other writings about the
acts, and words, and sufferings of Jesus in existence before they
wrote ; they were likely to know these, and if they knew them they
would not despise them, but rather use them so far as serviceable.
In Luke's case the existence of such earlier writings, and his
acquaintance with them, are not mere presumptions but facts ; the
only point on which there is room for difference of opinion is how
far he took advantage of the labours of his predecessors. That he
deemed them unsatisfactory, at least defective, may be inferred from
his making a new contribution ; that he drew nothing from them is
extremely improbable. Much can be said for the view that among
these earlier writings known to Luke was our Gospel of Mark, or a
book substantially identical with it in contents, and that he used it
very freely.

5. The last observation naturally leads up to the second hypo-
thesis, which is that the authors of the synoptical Gospels used each
other's writings, each successive writer taking advantage of earlier
contributions, so that the second Gospel (in time) borrowed from
the first, and the third from both first and second. Which borrowed
from which depends of course on the order of time in which the
three Gospels appeared. Six permutations are possible, and every

6 INTRODUCTION

one of them has had its advocates. One of the most interesting, in
virtue of the course it ran, is : Matthew, Luke, Mark. This arrange-
ment was contended for by Griesbach, and utilised by Dr. Ferdinand
Christian Baur in connection with his famous Tendency-criticism.
Griesbach founded on the frequent duality in Mark's style, that is to
say, the combination of phrases used separately in the same connec-
tion in the other synoptical Gospels : e.g., "at even when the sun did
set " (i. 32). In this phenomenon, somewhat frequently recurring,
he saw conclusive proof that Mark had Matthew and Luke before
him, and servilely copied from both in descriptive passages. Baur's
interest in the question was theological rather than literary. Accept-
ing Griesbach's results, he charged Mark not only with literary
dependence on his brother evangelists, whence is explained his
graphic style, but also with studied theological neutrality, eschewing
on the one hand the Judaistic bias of the first Gospel, and on the
other the Pauline or universalistic bias of the third ; both charac-
teristics, the literary dependence ana the studied neutrality, implying
a later date. Since then a great change of view has taken place.
For some time the prevailing opinion has been that Mark's Gospel
is the earliest not the latest of the three, and this opinion is likely to
hold its ground. Holtzmann observe^ that the Mark hypothesis is
a hypothesis no longer, 1 mean.ng that it is an established fact. And
he and many others recognise in Mark, either as we have it or in an
earlier form, a source for both the other synoptists, thereby acknow'
ledging that the hypothesis of mutual use likewise has a measure of
truth.

6. The third hypothesis is that of one primitive Gospel from
which all three synoptists drew their material. The supporters of
this view do not believe that the evangelists used each other's
writings. Their contention is that all were dependent on one original
document, an Urevangelium as German scholars call it. This
primitive Gospel was, ex hypothesi, comprehensive enough to cover
the whole ground. From it all the three evangelists took much in
common, hence their agreement in matter and language in so many
places. But how about their divergencies ? How came it to pass
that with the same document before them they made such diverse
use of it ? The answer is : it was due to the fact that they used, not
identical copies of one document, but different recensions of the
same document. By this flight into the dark region of conjectural
recensions, whereof no trace remains, the Urevangelium hypothesis

* Hand-Commentar, p. 3.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 1

was self-condemned to oblivion. With it are associated the honour-
able names of Lessing and Eichhorn.

7. The fourth and last hypothesis was propounded by Schleier-
macher. He took for his starting-point the word Sit^o-is in the intro-
duction of Luke's Gospel, and found in it the hint that not in one
primitive Gospel of comprehensive character was the source ex-
ploited by our Gospels to be found, but rather in many Gospelets con-
taining a record of some words or deeds of Jesus with which the
writer had become acquainted, and which he specially desired to
preserve. Each of our evangelists is to be conceived as having so
many of these diegeses or Gospelets in his possession, and construct-
ing out of them a larger connected story. In so far as they made
use of copies of the same diegesis, there would be agreement in con-
tents and style ; in so far as they used Gospelets peculiar to their
respective collections, there would be divergence ; and of course
diversity in the order of narration was to be expected in writings
compiled from a handful of unconnected leaflets* of evangelic tradition.
In spite of the great name of its author, this hypothesis has found
little support as an attempt to account for the whole phenomena of
the Gospels. As a subordinate suggestion to explain the presence
in any of the synoptists of elements peculiar to himself, it is
worthy of consideration. Some of the particulars, e.g., peculiar to
Luke may have been found by him not in any large collection, but in
a leaflet, as others may have been derived not fron. witten sources
large or small, but from a purely oral source in answer to local
inquiries.

8. None of the foregoing hypotheses is accepted by itself as a
satisfactory solution of the synoptical problem by any large number
of competent critics at the present time. The majority look for a
solution in the direction of a combination of the second and third
hypotheses under modified forms. To a certain extent they recog-
nise use of one Gospel in another, and there is an extensive agree-
ment in the opinion that for the explanation of the phenomena not
one but at least two primitive documents must be postulated. In
these matters certainty is unattainable, but it is worth while making
ourselves acquainted with what may be called the most probable
working hypothesis. With this view I offer here a brief statement
as to the present trend of critical opinion on the subject in question.

9. It is a familiar observation that, leaving out of account the
reports of the teaching of Jesus contained in the first and third
Gospels, the matter that remains, consisting of narratives of actions
and events, is very much the same in all the three synoptists. Not

8 INTRODUCTION

only so, the remainder practically consists of the contents of the
second Gospel. It seems as if Matthew and Luke had made Mark
the framework of their story, and added to it new material. This
accordingly is now believed by many to have been the actual fact.
The prevailing idea is that our Mark, or a book very like it in
contents, was under the eye of the compilers of the first and third
Gospels when they wrote, and was used by both as a source, not
merely in the sense that they took from it this and that, but in the
sense of adopting it substantially as it was, and making it the basis
of their longer and more elaborate narratives. This crude statement
of course requires qualification. What took place was not that the
compters of the first and third Gospels simply transcribed the
second, page by page, as they found it in their manuscript, reproduc-
ing its contents in the original order, and each section verbatim. If
that had been the case the synoptical problem would have been
greatly simplified, and thefj would hardly have been room for
difference of opinion. As the case stands the order of narration is
more or less disturbed, and there are many variations in expression.
The question is thus raised: On the hypothesis that Mark was a
source for Matthew and Luke, in respect of the matter common to
all the three, how came it to pass that -he writers of the first and
third Gospels deviated so much, and in different ways, from their
common source in the order of events and in style ? The general
answer to the question, so far as order is concerned, is that the
additional matter acted as a disturbing influence. The explanation
implies that, when the disturbing influence did not come into play,
the original order would be maintained. Advocates of the hypothesis
try to show that the facts answer to this view ; that is to say, that
Mark's order is followed in Matthew and Luke, except when
disturbance is explicable by the influence of the new material. One
illustration may here be given from Matthew. Obviously the
"Sermon on the Mount" exercised a powerful fascination on the
mind of the evangelist. From the first he has it in view, and he
desires to bring it in as soon as possible. Therefore, of the incidents
connected with the commencement of the Galilean ministry reported
in Mark, he relates simply the call of the four fisher Apostles, as if
to furnish the Great Teacher with disciples who might form an
audience for the great Discourse. To that call he appends a general
description of the Galilean ministry, specifying as its salient
features preaching or teaching and healing. Then he proceeds to
illustrate each department of the ministry, the teaching by the
Sermon on the Mount in chapters v.-vii., the healing by a group of

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 9

miracles contained in chapters viii. and ix., including the cure of
Peter's mother-in-law, the wholesale cures on the Sabbath evening,
and the healing of the leper, all reported in the first chapter of Mark.
Of course, in regard neither to the sermon nor to the group of
miracles can the first Gospel lay claim to chronological accuracy.
In the corresponding part of his narrative, Luke follows Mark closely,
reporting the cure of the demoniac in the synagogue of Capernaum,
of Peter's mother-in-law, of many sick people on the Sabbath
evening, and of the leper in the same order. There is only one
deviation. The call of Peter, which in Luke replaces that of the
four, Peter and Andrew, James and John, comes between the
Sabbath evening cures and the cure of the leper.

The variations in style raise a much subtler question, which can
only be dealt with adequately by a detailed comparative exegesis,
such as that so admiraHy exemplified in the great work of
Dr. Bernhard Weiss on the Gospel of Mark and its synoptical
parallels. 1 Suffice it to say here th?* it is not difficult to suggest
a variety of causes which might lead to literary alteration in the use
of a source. Thus, if *he style of the source was peculiar, markedly
individualistic, colloquial, faulty in gvamma") one can understand a
tendency to replace these characteristics by smoothness and elegance.
The style of Mark is of the character described, and instances of
literary correction in the parallel accounts can easily be pointed out.
Another cause in operation might be misunderstanding of the mean-
ing of the source, or disinclination to adopt the meaning obviously
suggested. Two illustrative instances may be mentioned. In
reporting the sudden flight of Jesus from Capernaum in the early
morning, Mark makes Him say to the disciples in connection with
the reason for departure, "to this end came I forth," i.e., from the
'own. In Luke this is turned into, "therefore was I sent," i.e., into
ihe world.* In the incident of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem,
Mark makes Jesus bid the two disciples say to the owner of the colt,
4 straightway He (Jesus) will send it back," i.e., return it to its owner
when He has had His use of it. In Matthew this is turned into,
" straightway he (the owner) will send them (the ass and her colt) ". s
Yet another source of verbal alteration might be literary taste acting
instinctively, leading to the substitution of one word or phrase for
another, without conscious reason.

10. Thus far of the matter common to the three Gospels, or what
may be called the triple tradition. But Matthew and Luke contain

1 Das Marcusevangelium und seine synoptischen Parallelen, 1872.
» Mark i. 38, Luke iv. 43. * Mark xi. 3, Matthew xxi. 3.

IO INTRODUCTION

much more than this, the additional matter in both consisting mainly
of words and discourses of Jesus. Each Gospel has not a little
peculiar to itself, but there is a large amount of teaching material
common to the two, and though this common element is very
differently reproduced as to historic connection and grouping, yet
there is such a pervading similarity in thought and expression as to
suggest forcibly the hypothesis of a second source as its most
natural explanation. Assuming that the first and third evangelists
borrowed their narrative of events from Mark, and that what needs
accounting for is mainly the didactic element, it would follow that
this hypothetical second source consisted chiefly, if not exclusively,
of sayings spoken by the Lord Jesus. Whether both evangelists
possessed this source in the same form, and had each his own way
of using it, as dictated by his plan, or whether it came into their
hands in different recensions, formed under diverse influences, and
meant to serve distinct purposes, are questions of subordinate
moment. The main question is : Did there exist antecedent to the
composition of our first and third Gospels a collection of the words
of Christ, which both evangelists knew and used in compiling their
memoirs of Christ's public ministry? Modern critics, such as
Weiss, Wendt, Holtzmann, Julicher, concur in answering this
question in the affirmative. /he genera* result is that for the
explanation of the phenomena presented by the synoptical Gospels,
modern criticism postulates two main written sources : a book like
our canonical Mark, if not identical with it, as the source of the
narratives common to the three Gospels, and another book contain-
ing sayings of Jesus, as the source of the didactic matter common to
Matthew and Luke.

11. These conclusions, which might be reached purely by internal
inspection, are confirmed by the well-known statements of Papias,
who flourished in the first quarter of the second century, concerning
books about Christ written by Mark and Matthew. They are to this
effect : " Mark, being the interpreter of Peter, wrote carefully,
though not in order, as he remembered them, the things spoken or
done by Christ". "Matthew wrote the Logia in the Hebrew
language, and each one interpreted these as he could." l The state-
ments point to two books as the fountains of evangelic written tradi-
tion, containing matter guaranteed as reliable as resting on the author-
ity of two apostles, Peter and Matthew. The first of the two books is
presumably identical with our canonical Mark. It is not against this

1 Eusebii, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. iii., c. 39.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS II

that Papias represents Mark's work as including things spoken as
well as done by Christ. For this is true of canonical Mark. Though,
by comparison with Matthew and Luke, Mark is extremely meagre
in the didactic element, yet he does report many very remarkable
sayings of Jesus. But what of the other book ? Is it to be identi-
fied with our Matthew ? Prima facie one would say no, because
the Matthew of Papias is a book of Logia, which we naturally take
to mean a book of oracles, or weighty words spoken by the Lord
Jesus. But, on the other hand, it might be argued that Logia is
simply a designation from the more prominent or characteristic part,
and by no means excludes such narratives of events as we find in
canonical Matthew. Indeed, it might be said that it would be diffi-
cult to compile a collection of sayings that should be interesting or
even intelligible without the introduction of more or less narrative,
if it were only by way of preface or historical setting. Granting that
the leading aim was to report words, a minimum amount of narrative
would still be necessary to make the report effective. And it might
be added that it is, in many instances, only a minimum of narrative
that we find in canonical Matthew, his historic statements being
generally meagre in comparison with those in Mark and Luke.
Hence, not a few cri'ics and apologists still hold by the old tradi-
tion which practically 'dentifieu the Logia of Papias with the
Matthew of the New Testament. But the Logia, according to
Papias, was written in Hebrew, and our canonical Matthew is in
Greek which does not wear the aspect of a translation. This diffi-
culty defenders of the old v : yav do not find insurmountable. Yet
the impression left on one's mind by such apologetic attempts is that
of special pleading, or perhaps, one ought to say, of an honourable
bias in favour of a venerable tradition, and of a theory which gives
us, in canonical Matthew, a work proceeding directly from the hand
of an apostle. If that theory could be established, the result would
be highly satisfactory to many who at present stand in doubt.
Meantime we must be content to acquiesce, provisionally, in a hypo-
thesis, according to which we have access to the apostle Matthew's
contribution only at second hand, in a Gospel from another unknown
author which has absorbed a large portion, if not the whole, of the
apostolic document. Even on this view we have the satisfaction of
feeling that the three synoptists bring us very near to the original
eye and ear witnesses. The essential identity, amid much diversity
in form, of the words ascribed to our Lord in the two Gospels which
draw upon the Logia, inspires confidence that the evangelic reports
of these words, though secondary, are altogether reliable.

Tl INTRODUCTION

12. We cannot but wonder that a work so precious as the Logia
of Matthew was allowed to perish, and earnestly wish that, if
possible, it might even yet be restored. Attempts at gratifying this
natural feeling have recently been made, and conjectural reconstruc-
tions of the lost treasure lie before us in such works as that of
Wendt on the Teaching of Jesus, 1 and of Blair on the Apostolic
Gospel.* A critical estimate of these essays cannot here be given.
Of course they are tentative ; nevertheless they are interesting, and
even fascinating to all who desire to get behind the existing records,
and as near to the actual words of our Lord as possible. And,
though an approach to a consensus of opinion may never be reached,
the discussion is sure to bear fruit in a more intimate acquaintance
with the most authentic forms of many of our Lord's sayings. As
another aid to so desirable a result, one must give a cordial welcome
to such works as that of Resch on Extracanonical Parallel Texts to
the Gospels. 6 Resch believes it possible, through the use of Codex
Bezae, the old Latin and Syriac versions, and quotations from the
Gospels in the early fathers, to get behind the text of our canonical
Gospels, and to reach a truer reflection in Greek of the Hebrew
original in the case of many sayings recorded in the Logia of
Matthew. There will be various estimates of the intrinsic value of
his adventurous attempt Personally, I am not sanguine that much
will come out of it. But one cannot be sorry that it has been made,
and by one who thoroughly believes that he is engaged in a fruitful
line of inquiry. It is well to learn by exhaustive experiment how
much or how little may be expected from that quarter.

13. Among those who accept the hypothesis of the two sources
a difference of opinion obtains on two subordinate points, viz., first,
the relation between the two sources used in Matthew and Luke,
and, second, the relation between these two Gospels. Did Mark
know and use the Logia, and did Matthew know Luke, or Luke
Matthew ? Dr. Bernhard Weiss answers the former question in the
affirmative and the latter in the negative. From certain pheno-
mena brought to light by a comparative study of the synoptists, he
thinks it demonstrable that in many parts of his narrative Mark leans

1 Wendt, Die Lehre fesu, Erster Theil. This part of Wendt's work has not
been translated. His exposition of Christ's words has been translated by Messrs.
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh.

8 The Apostolic Gospel, with a Critical Reconstruction of the Text, by J. Fulton
Blair, 1896. Mr. Blair's critical position differs widely from Wendt's, and his
Apostolic Gospel contains much more besides sayings.

• Aussercanonische Paralleltexte xu den Evangelien.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 13

on an older written source, whose accounts of evangelic incidents are
reproduced in a more faithful manner in the companion Gospels, and
especially in Matthew. This source he takes to be the Logia of the
apostle Matthew. It follows from this, of course, that the Logia
was not a mere collection of sayings, but a book containing histories
as well, such narratives, e.g., as those relating to the palsied man,
the feeding of the 5000, and the blind man at Jericho. The pheno-
mena on which Weiss rests his case are of two kinds. One group
consists of minute agreements between Matthew and Luke against
Mark in narratives common to the three, as, e.g., in the use of the
words ISoii and em icXi^s in the opening sentence of the story of the
palsied man. The inference is that these phrases are taken from the
Logia, implying of course that the story was there for those who
chose to use it. The other group consists of sayings of Jesus found
in Mark's Gospel, and reproduced also in Mstthew and Luke in
nearly identical form, yet not taken, it is held, from Mark, but from
the Logia. The contention is that the close similarity can be
accounted for only by the assumption that Mark, as well as his
brother evangelists, took the words from the Logia. An instance in
point may be found in the respective accounts of the reply of Jesus
to the charge of being in league with Beelzebub. Wendt dissents
from the inference of Weiss in boCi classes of cases. The one group
of facts he explains by assuming that Luke had access to the first
canonical gospel ; in the second group he sees simply accidental
correspondences between independent traditions preserved respec-
tively in the Logia and in Mark. 1

Section II. Historicity.

1. The Gospels prima facie wear the aspect of books aiming
at giving a true if not a full account of the life, and more especially
of the public career, of Jesus Christ, the Author of the Christian
faith. For Christians, writings having such an aim must possess
unique interest. There is nothing an earnest believer in Christ
more desires to know than the actual truth about Him : what He
said, did, and experienced. How far do the books, the study of
which is to engage our attention, satisfy this desire ? To what
extent are they historically reliable ?

2. The question has been recently propounded and discussed:

1 Die Lehre Jesu, Erster Theil, pp. 191-3. On the question whether the third
evangelist used canonical Matthew, vide the Abhandlung of Edward Simons,
Bonn, 1880.

U INTRODUCTION

What interest did the apostolic age take In the evangelic history?
and the conclusion arrived at that the earthly life of Jesus inter-
ested it very little. 1 Now, there can he no doubt that, comparing
that age with the present time, the statement is true. We live in an
age when the historical spirit is in the ascendant, creating an insati-
able desire to know the origins of every movement which has affected,
to any extent, the fortunes of humanity. Moreover, Christianity
has undergone an evolution resulting in types of this religion which
are, on various grounds, unsatisfactory to many thoughtful persons.
Hence has arisen a powerful reaction of which the watchword is —
" Back to Christ," and to which additional intensity has been given
by the conviction that modern types of Christianity, whether eccle-
siastical, philosophical, or pietistic, all more or less foster, if they do
not avow, indifference to the historic foundations of the faith. We
have thus a religious as well as a scientific reason for our desire to
know the actual Jesus of history. In the primitive era, faith was
free to follow its native tendency to be content with its immediate
object, the Risen Lord, and to rely on the inward illumination of the
Holy Spirit as the source of all knowledge necessary for a godly life.
This indifference might conceivably pass into hostility. Faith might
busy itself \n transforming unwelcome farts so as t"> make the his-
tory serve its purpose. For the historic interest and the religious
are not identical. Science wants to know the actual facts ; religion
wants facts to be such as will serve its ends. It sometimes idealises,
transforms, even invents history to accomplish this object. We are
not entitled to assume, a priori, that apostolic Christianity entirely
escaped this temptation. The suggestion that the faith of the primi-
tive Church took holti of the story of Jesus and so transfigured it
that the true image of Him is no longer recoverable, however scepti-
cal, is not without plausibility. The more moderate statement that
the apostolic Church, while knowing and accepting many facts about
Jesus, was not interested in them as facts, but only as aids to faith,
has a greater show of reason. It might well be that the teaching of
Jesus was regarded not so much as a necessary source of the know-
ledge of truth, but rather as a confirmation of knowledge already
possessed, and that the acts and experiences of Jesus were viewed
chiefly in the light of verifications of His claim to be the Messiah.
It does not greatly matter to us what the source of interest in the
evangelic facts was so long as they are facts ; if the primitive
Church in its traditions concerning Jesus was simply utilising and

1 Vide Von Soden's essay in the Theologische Abhandlungen, Carl von Weit-
tacker Gewidmet, 1892.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 15

not manufacturing history. There is good reason to believe that in
the main this is the true state of the case. Not only so, there are
grounds for the opinion that the historic spirit — interest in facts as
facts — was not wanting even amid the fervour of the apostolic age.
It may be worth while to mention some of these, seeing they make
for the historicity of the main body of the evangelic tradition con-
cerning the words, deeds, and sufferings of Jesus as these are re-
corded, e.g., in the Gospel of Mark.

3. In this connection it deserves a passing notice that there
existed in the primitive Church a party interested in the fact-know-
ledge of Jesus, the knowledge of Christ " after the flesh " in Pauline
phrase, a Christ party. From the statement made by St. Paul in
the text from which the phrase just quoted is taken, it has been in-
ferred that the apostle was entirely indifferent to the historical
element. 1 The inference seems to me hasty ; but, be this as it may,
what I am now concerned to point out is that, if St. Paul under-
valued the facts of the personal ministry, there were those who did
not. There was a party who made acquaintance with these facts a
necessary qualification for the apostleship, and on this ground denied
that St. Paul was an apostle. The assumption underlying the Tubin-
gen tendency-criticism is that there were two parties in the apostolic
Church interested in misrepresenting Jesus in different directions,
one virtually making Him a narrow Judaist, the other making Him a
Pauline universalist, neither party being worthy of implicit trust.
This hypothesis presents a somewhat distorted view of the situation.
It would be nearer the truth to say that there was a party inter-
ested in facts and another interested chiefly in ideas. The one
valued facts without seeing their significance; the other valued
ideas without taking much trouble to indicate the fact-basis. To the
bias of the former party we might be indebted for knowledge of many
facts in the life of Jesus, the significance of which was not under-
stood by the transmitters of the tradition.

4. Even within the Pauline party there were those who were
interested in facts and in some measure animated by the historical
spirit. So far from regarding Paulinists in general as idealists, we
ought probably to regard St. Paul, in his passion for ideas and
apparent indifference to biographic detail, as an exception ; and to
think of the majority of his followers as men who, while sympathising
with his universalism, shared in no small measure the common
Jewish realism. Of this type was Luke. The absence from his

1 2 Corinthians v. 16.

16 INTRODUCTION

Gospel of even the rudiments of a doctrine of atonement, so con-
spicuous a topic in the Pauline epistles, will be remarked on here-
after ; meantime I direct attention simply to its opening sentence.
That prefatory statement is full of words and phrases breathing the
fact-loving spirit : neTr\T)po<|>opT]p.^i'WK TrpayfxdTwf, dir' dpxfjs auToirrai icai
fiTrupcTai, dKpi{3ws, dff<J>dXciaf. The author wants to deal with facts
believed ; he wishes, as far as possible, to be guided by the testimony
of eye-witnesses ; he means to take pains in the ascertainment of the
truth, that the friend for whose benefit he writes may attain unto
certainty. The question here is not how far he succeeded in his
aim ; the point insisted on is the aim itself, the historical spirit
evinced. Luke may have been unconsciously influenced to a con-
siderable extent by religious bias, preconceived opinion, accepted
Christian belief, and therefore not sufficiently critical, and too easily
satisfied with evidence ; but he honestly wanted to know the historic
truth. And in this desire he doubtless represented a class, and
wrote to meet a demand on t.ie part of Christians who felt a keen
interest in the memorabilia of the Founder, and were not satisfied
with the sources at command on account of their fragmentariness,
or occasional want of agreement with each other. 1

5. The peculiar character of the apostle who stood at the head
of the primitive Jewish Church has an important bearing on the
question of historicity. For our knowledge of Peter we are not
wholly dependent on the documents whose historicity is in question.
We have a rapid pencil-sketch of him in the epistles of St. Paul,
easily recognisable as that of the same man of whom we have a
more finished picture in the Gospels. A genial, frank, impulsive,
outspoken, generous, wide-hearted man ; not preoccupied with
theories, illogical, inconsistent, now on one side, now on the other ;
brave yet cowardly, capable of honest sympathy with Christian
universalism, yet under pressure apt to side with Jewish bigots.
A most unsatisfactory, provoking person to deal with for such a man
as St. Paul, with his sharply defined position, thorough-going
adherence to principle, and firm resolute will. Yes, but also a very
satisfactory source of first-hand traditions concerning Jesus; an
excellent witness, if a weak apostle. A source, a copious fountain of
information he was bound to be. We do not need Papias to tell us
this. This disciple, open-hearted and open-mouthed, must speak
concerning his beloved Master. It will not be long before everybody
knows what he has to tell concerning the ministry of the Lord.

1 Von Soden, in the essay above referred to, takes no notice of Luke's preface,

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 1 7

Papias reports that in Mark's Gospel we have the literary record of
Peter's testimony. The statement is entirely credible. Peter would
say more than others about Jesus; he would say all in a vivid way,
and Mark's narrative reflects the style of an impressionable eye-
witness. If it be a faithful report of Peter's utterances the general
truth of its picture of Jesus may be implicitly relied on. For Peter
was not a man likely to be biassed by theological tendency. What
we expect from him is rather a candid recital of things as they
happened, without regard to, possibly without perception of, their
bearing on present controversies ; a rough, racy, unvarnished story,
unmanipulated in the interest of ideas or theories, which are not in
this man's line. How far the narratives of the second Gospel bear
out this character will appear hereafter.

6. The other fact mentioned by Papias, viz., that the apostle
Matthew was the source of the evangelic tradition relating to the
words of Jesus, has an important bearing on historicity. Outside
the Gospels we have no information concerning this disciple such as
we have of Peter in the Pauline letters. But we may safely assume
the truth of the Gospel accounts which represent him as having been
a tax-gatherer before he was called to discipleship. The story of his
call, under the name of Matthew or Levi, is told in all the three
synoptists, as is also the significant incident of the feast following at
which Jesus met with a large company of publicans. There is
reason to believe that in calling this disciple our Lord had in view
not merely ultimate service as an apostle, but immediate service in
connection with the meeting with the publicans ; that, in short, Jesus
associated Matthew with Himself that He might use him as an
instrument for initiating a mission to the class to which he had
belonged. But if the Master might call a fit man to discipleship for
one form of immediate service, He might call him for more than
one. Another service the ex-publican might be able to render was
that of secretary. In his old occupation he would be accustomed to
writing, and it might be Christ's desire to utilise that talent for
noting down things worthy of record. The gift would be most in
demand in connection with the teaching of the Master. The
preservation of that element could not be safely trusted to memories
quite equal to the retention of remarkable healing acts, accompanied
by not less remarkable sayings. The use of the pen at the moment
might be necessary. And of all the members of the disciple-circle
the ex-publican was the likeliest man for that service. We are not
surprised, therefore, that the function assigned to Matthew in con-
nection with the evangelic tradition is the preservation of the Logia.

1 8 INTRODUCTION

That is just the part he was fitted to perform. As little are we
surprised that Mark's Gospel, based on Peter's recollections, contains
so little of the teaching. Peter was not the kind of man to take
notes, nor were discourses full of deep thought the kind of material
he was likely to remember. What would make an indelible impres-
sion on him would be, not thought, but extraordinary deeds,
accompanied by striking gestures, original brief replies to embarrass-
ing questions and the like ; just such things as we find reported in
the second Gospel.

From Matthew the publican might be expected not only a record
of Christ's teaching as distinct from His actions, but an impartial
record. We should not suspect him any more than Peter of
theological bias; least of all in the direction of Judaism. As a
Galilean he belonged to a half-Gentile community, and as a pub-
lican he was an outcast for orthodox Jews. It was probably the
humane spirit and wide sympathies of Jesus that drew him from the
receipt of custom. If, therefore, we find in the Logia any sayings
ascribed to Jesus of a universalistic character we do not feel in the
least tempted to doubt their authenticity. If, on 'he other hand, we
meet with words of an apparently opposite character we are not
greatly startled and ready to exclaim, Behold the hand of an inter-
polator ! We rather incline to see in the combination of seemingly
incongruous elements the evidence of candid chronicling. It is the
case of an honest reporter taking down this and that without asking
himself whether this can be reconciled with that. That a deep,
many-sided mind like that of Jesus might give birth to startling
paradoxes is no wise incredible. Therefore, without undertaking
responsibility for every expression, one may without hesitation en-
dorse the sentiment of Jiilicher, " that Jewish and anti-Jewish,
revolutionary and conservative, new and old, freedom and narrow-
ness in judgment, sensuous hopes and a spiritualism blending
together present and future, meet together, by no means weakens
our impression that Jesus really here speaks ". 1

7. The mere fact of the preservation of Mark's Gospel is not
without a bearing on the question of historicity. In its own way it
testifies to the influence of the historic as distinct from the religious
spirit in the early period of the Christian era. It would not have
been at all surprising if that Gospel had fallen out of existence,
seeing that its contents have been absorbed into the more compre-
hensive Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Assuming the correctness

1 Einleitung in das Neue Testament, p. 231.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 19

of modern critical views, the Logia of the Apostle Matthew has dis-
appeared ; how did it come about that the second Gospel did not
disappear also, especially in view of its defects, as they would be re-
garded, comparing it with the longer narratives of the same type ?
Whether the authors of the first and third Gospels aimed at super-
seding the Logia and Mark is a question that need not be discussed.
From Luke's preface it might plausibly be inferred that he did
aspire at giving so full and satisfactory an account of the life of
Jesus as should render earlier attempts superfluous. If he did, he
was not successful. The Gospel without the story of the infancy,
and the Sermon on the Mount, and the detailed appearances after the
resurrection, survived. It might be undervalued. There is evidence
of preference and partiality for one Gospel as against another in
Patristic literature. Clement of Alexandria, true to his philosophy,
undervalued all the synoptists as compared with the fourth Gospel,
because they showed merely the body of Jesus, while the fourth
Gospel showed His spirit. Augustine regarded Mark as a mere
pedissequus to Matthew, en laquais, as D'Eichthal irreverently but
not incorrectly renders the word. 1 Still Mark held his place, mere
lackey to Matthew though some supposed him to be. The reason
might be in part that he had got too strong a hold before the com-
panion Gospels appeared, to be easily dislodged, and had to be
accepted in spite of defects and apparent superfluousness. But I
think there was also a worthier reason, a certain diffused thankful-
ness for every scrap of information concerning the Lord Jesus,
especially such as was believed to rest on apostolic testimony.
Mark's Gospel passed for a report of St. Peter's reminiscences of
the Master ; therefore by all means let it be preserved, though it
contained no account of the childhood of Jesus, and very imperfect
reports of His teaching and of the resurrection. It was apostolic,
therefore to be respected; as apostolic it was trustworthy, there-
fore to be valued. In short, the presence of the second Gospel in
the New Testament, side by side with Matthew and Luke, is a wit-
ness to the prevalence in the Church of the first century of the
historical spirit acting as a check on the religious spirit, whose in-
stinctive impulse would be to obliterate traces of discrepancy, and to
suppress all writings relating to the Christian origins which in their
presentation of Jesus even seemed to sink below the level of the
Catholic faith.

8. The foregoing five considerations all tend to make a favour

* Vide his work Les Evangiles> p. 66.

20 INTRODUCTION

able impression as to the historicity of the evangelic tradition in
generali More special considerations are needful when the tradition
is broken up into distinct divisions. The tradition consists of three
layers. Faith would make three demands for information concern-
ing its object : what did He teach ? what did He do ? how did
He suffer ? Some think that the first and most urgent demand
would be for information concerning the teaching, and that only in
the second place would there grow up a desire for narratives of facts
and experiences. According to Holtzmann the order was : first the
Logia, then the passion-drama, then the anecdotes of memorable
acts. 1 I should be inclined to invert the order of the first two items,
and to say : the Passion, the Logia, the memorable incidents. But
the more important question is : how far can the evangelic records
concerning these three departments of the tradition be trusted ?
Only a few hints can be given by way of answer here.

9. The narratives of the Passion, given in all the four Gospels
with disproportionate fulness, have lately been subjected to a
searching analysis in a sceptical spirit rivalling that of Strauss.
Dr. Brandt, 2 after doing his utmost to shake our faith in the trust-
worthiness of these pathetic records, still leaves to us eight par-
ticulars, which even he is constrained to recognise as historical.
These are : betrayal by one of the twelve ; desertion by all of them ;
denial by Peter; death sentence under the joint responsibility of
Jewish rulers and Roman procurator; assistance in carrying the cross
rendered by Simon of Cyrene ; crucifixion on a hill called Golgotha ;
the crime charged indicated by the inscription, " King of the Jews " ;
death, if not preceded by a prayer for the murderers, or by the
despairing cry, " My God, my God," at least heralded by a loud
voice. In these particulars we have the skeleton of the story, all that
is needful to give the Passion tragic significance, and even to form
a basis for theological constructions. The items omitted, the
process before the Sanhedrim, the interviews with Pilate and
Herod, the mockery of the soldiers, the preferential release of
Barabbas, the sneers of passers-by, the two thieves, the parting of the
raiment, the words from the cross, the preternatural accompaniments
of death, are all more or less of the nature of accessories, enhancing
greatly the impressiveness of the picture, suggesting additional
lessons, but not altering the character of the event as a whole.

But even accessories are important, and not to be lightly given

1 Vide Hand-Commentar, pp. 13-17.

* Die Evangdische Geschichte und der Ursprung des Christenthums, 1893.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 21

over to the tender mercies of sceptical critics. The reasons assigned
for treating them as unhistoric are not convincing. They come
mostly under three heads: The influence of Old Testament prophecy,
the absence of witnesses, and the bias manifest in the accounts of
the trial against the Jews and in favour of the Gentiles. By
reference to the first a whole group of incidents, including the cry,
" Eli, Eli," are summarily disposed of. Texts taken from Psalm xxii.
and Isaiah liii. created corresponding facts. This is a gratuitous
assumption. The facts suggested the prophecies, the prophecies did
not create the facts. The facts were there, and the primitive
disciples looked out for Messianic oracles to suit them, by way of
furnishing themselves with an apologetic for the thesis, Jesus is the
Christ. In some cases the links of proof are weak; no one could
have thought of the texts unless the facts had been there to suggest
them. The plea of lack of witnesses applies to what took place
between Jesus and the various authorities before whom He appeared :
the High Priests, Pilate, Herod. Who, it is asked, were there to
see or hear? Who likely to be available as witnesses for the
evangelic tradition ? We cannot tell ; yet it is possible there was
quite sufficient evidence, though also possible, doubtless, that the
evangelists were not in all cases able to give exact verifiable informa-
tion, but were obliged to give simply the best information obtainable.
This, at least, we may claim for them, that they did their best to
ascertain the facts. As to the alleged prejudice leading to unfair
distribution of blame for our Lord's death between the Jewish
authorities and the Roman governor, we may admit that there were
temptations to such partiality, arising out of natural dislike of the
Jews and unequally natural desire to win the favour of those who
held the reins of empire. Yet on the whole it may be affirmed that
the representation of the evangelists is intrinsically credible as in
harmony with all we know about the principal actors in the great
tragedy.

10. With regard to the teaming, it is of course obvious that all
recorded sayings of Jesus do not possess the same attestation. Some
words are found in all three synoptists, some in two, and not a few
in only one. Yet in many instances we can feel as sure of the
authenticity of sayings found in a single Gospel as of that of sayings
occurring in all the three. Who can doubt, e.g., that the word, " the
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," emanated
from the great Master ? It is well in this connection to have before
our minds the rules by which judgment should be guided. The
following canons may legitimately be relied on : —

22 INTRODUCTION

(a) Sayings supported by full synoptical attestation may be
regarded as in substance authentic.

(b) Sayings unsupported by full synoptical attestation may be
regarded as authentic when their absence from a particular Gospel
can be explained by its plan, or by the idiosyncrasy of its author.
This covers not a few omissions by Luke.

(c) Sayings found only in a single Gospel may be accepted as
authentic when they sympathise with and form a natural complement
to other well-attested sayings. This remark applies to the sayings in
Luke vii. 47, xv. 7, concerning the connection between little forgive-
ness and little love, and about the joy of finding things lost, which
are complementary to the saying in all three synoptists : "the whole
need not a physician ; " the three sayings together constituting a full
apology for the relations between Jesus and the sinful.

(d) All sayings possess intrinsic credibility which suit the general
historical situation. This applies to Christ's antipharisaic utterances,
an element very prominent in Matthew, and very much restricted in
Luke.

(e) All sayings may be accepted as self-attested and needing no
other attestation which bear the unmistakable stamp of a unique
religious genius, rise above the capacity of the reporters, and are
reported by them simply as unforgettable memories of the great
Teacher handed down by a faithful tradition.

The chief impulse to collecting the sayings of Jesus was not a
purely historical interest, but a desire to find in the words of the
Master what might serve as a rule to believers for the guidance of
their life. Hence may be explained the topical grouping of sayings
in Matthew and Luke, especially in the former, e.g., in the tenth
chapter, whose rubric might be : a directory for the mission work of
the church ; and in the eighteenth, which might be headed : how
the members of the Christian brotherhood are to behave towards
each other. The question suggests itself, Would the influence of
the practical aim be confined to grouping ? Would it not extend to
modifications, expansions, additions, even inventions, that the words
of the Master might cover all present requirements and correspond
fully to present circumstances and convictions ? On this topic
Weizsacker makes the following statement : " From the beginning
the tradition consisted not in mere repetition, but in repetition
combined with creative activity. And from the nature of the case
this activity increased as time went on. Elucidations grew into text.
The single saying was multiplied with the multiplication of its uses,
or the words were referred to a definite case and correspondingly

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 23

modified. Finally, words were inserted into the text of Jesus'
sayings, especially in the form of instances of narrative, which were
only meant to make His utterances more distinct." 1 This may
seem to open a door to licence, but second thoughts tend to allay our
fears. The aim itself supplied a check to undue freedom. Just
because disciples desired to follow the Master and make His words
their law, they would wish to be sure that the reported sayings gave
them the thoughts of Jesus at least, if not His ipsissima verba.
Then there is reason to believe that the process of fixing the
tradition was substantially completed when the memory of Jesus was
recent, and the men who had been with Him were at hand to guide
and control the process. Weizsacker remarks that very little of the
nature of accretion originated elsewhere than in the primitive church,
and that the great mass of the evangelic tradition was formed under
the influence of the living tradition. 8 That is to say, the freedom of
the apostolic age was controlled by knowledge and reverence. It
was known what the Master had taught, and great respect was
cherished for His authority. If there was no superstitious concern
as to literal accuracy, there was a loyal solicitude that the meaning
conveyed by words should be true to the mind of Christ.

11. The incidents of the Healing Ministry, which form the bulk
of the narrative of events, are complicated with the question of
miracle. Those for whom it is an axiom that a miracle is impossible
are tempted to pronounce on that ministry the summary and sweep-
ing verdict, unhistorical. This is not a scientific procedure. The
question of fact should be dealt with separately on its own grounds,
and the question of explicability taken up only in the second place.
There are good reasons for believing that the healing ministry, mir-
aculous or not miraculous, was a great fact in the public career of
Jesus. Healing is associated with teaching in all general notices of
our Lord's work. Nine acts of healing, some of them very remark-
able, are reported in all the synoptical Gospels. The healing element
in the ministry is so interwoven with the didactic that the former
cannot be eliminated without destroying the whole story. This is
frankly acknowledged by Harnack, who, if he does not doubt the
reality of miracles, attaches very little apologetic value to them. 8
The occasional notices in the Gospels of contemporary opinions,
impressions, and theories regarding Christ's actions speak to some-
thing extraordinary over and above the preaching and teaching.

» The Apostolic Age, voL ii., p. 62. * Ibld -

» History of Dogma, vol. }., p. 65, note 3.

24 INTRODUCTION

Mark's graphic report of the impression produced by Christ's first
appearance in the synagogue of Capernaum may be cited as an
instance. " What is this? A new teaching !— with authority He
commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him." 1 This
is a veritable reminiscence, and it points to a double surprise created
by an original style of preaching, and by an unprecedented power.
Still more significant are the theories invented to explain away
the power. The Pharisees accounted for it, as displayed in the
cure of demoniacs, by the suggestion of an alliance with Beelzebub.
Herod said: " It is John whom I beheaded risen from the dead and
exercising the power of the spirit world ". The one theory was
malevolent, the other absurd, but the point to be noticed is the
existence of the theories. Men do not theorise about nothing.
There were remarkable facts urgently demanding explanation of
some 6ort.

The healing acts of Jesus then, speaking broadly, were to begin
with facts. How they are to be explained, and what they imply as
to the Person of the Healer, are questions for science and theology.
It is not scientific to neglect the phenomena as unworthy of notice.
As little is it scientific to make the solution easy by under-statement
of the facts to be explained, as, e.g., by viewing demoniacal possession
as an imaginary disease. Demoniacal possession might be an
imaginary explanation of certain classes of diseases, but the dis-
eases themselves were serious enough, as serious as madness and
epilepsy, which appear to have formed the physical basis of the
malady.

Finally, it is not to be supposed that these healing acts, though
indubitable facts, have no permanent religious value. Their use in
the evidences of Christianity may belong to an antiquated type of
apologetic, but in other respects their significance is perennial.
Whether miraculous or not, they equally reveal the wide-hearted
benevolence of Jesus. They throw a side light on His doctrine of
God and of man, and especially on His conception of the ideal of
life. The healing ministry was a tacit but effective protest against
asceticism and the dualism on which it rests, and a proof that
Jesus had no sympathy with the hard antithesis between spirit and
flesh.

12. Before leaving the topic of historicity, it may be well here to
refer to a line of evidence which, though not worked out, has been
suggestively sketched by Professor Sanday in his Bampton Lectures

1 Mark i. 27.

CONCERNING THE THREE GOSPELS 25

on Inspiration. The thesis to be proved is " that the great mass of
the narrative in the first three Gospels took its shape before the
destruction of Jerusalem, i.e., within less than forty years of the
events "- 1 " Was there ever," asks Dr. Sanday, " an easier problem
for a critic to decide whether the sayings and narratives which lie
before him came from the one side of this chasm or the other ? "
Among the instances he cites are such as these : " If, therefore,
thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and then rememberest that
thy brother hath aught against thee," etc. " Woe unto you, ye blind
guides, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing,'
etc. " See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the
priest," etc. That is to say, the altar, the temple, the priesthood
are still in existence. This is not decisive as to the date of our Gos-
pels, but it is decisive as to much of the material contained in them
having assumed fixed shape, either in oral or in written form, before
the great crisis of Israel.

13. Historicity, be it finally noted, is not to be confounded with
absolute accuracy, or perfect agreement between parallel accounts.
Harmonistic is a thing of the past. It was a well-meant discipline,
but it took in hand an insoluble problem, and it unduly magnified the
importance of a solution, even if it had been possible. Questions as
to occasions on which reported words and acts of Jesus were spoken
or done, as to the connections between sayings grouped together in
one Gospel, dispersed in the pages of another, as to the diverse
forms of sayings in parallel reports, are for us now secondary. The
broad question we ask as to the words of Jesus is : have we here, in
the main, words actually spoken by Jesus, once or twice, now or
then, in this connection or in that, in separate aphorisms or in con-
nected discourse, in the form reported by this or that evangelist, or
in a form not exactly reproduced by any of them, yet conveying a
sense sufficiently reflected in all the versions ? Is the Lord's prayer
the Lord's at whatever time given to His disciples ? Is the "Sermon
on the Mount" made up of real utterances of Jesus, whether all
spoken at one time, as Matthew's report seems to imply, or on
various occasions, as we should infer from Luke's narrative ? Did
Jesus actually say : " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,"
whether with the addition, " to repentance," as it stands in Luke, or
without, as in the genuine text of the same Logion in Matthew and
Mark? Did He speak the parable of the lost sheep— whether in
Matthew's form or in Luke's, or in a form differing verbally from

1 Page 283.

26 INTRODUCTION

both — to disciples, to Pharisees, or perhaps to neither, but to publi-
r.ms, yet conveying in some form and to some audience the great
thought that there was a passion in His heart and in the heart of
God for saving lost men? It is greatly to be desired that devout
readers of the Gospels should be emancipated from legal bondage to
the theological figment of inerrancy. Till this is done, it is impos-
sible to enjoy in full the Gospel story, or feel its essential truth and
reality.

CHAPTER II.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK.
Section I. Contents,

i. The second Gospel has no account of the birth and infancy of
Jesus. The narrative opens with the prelude to the public ministry,
the preaching and baptism of the prophet John ; and the sequel
consists of a rapid sketch of that ministry in a series of graphic tab-
leaux from its commencement in Galilee to its tragic close in Jerusa-
lem. This fact alone raises a presumption in favour of Mark's claim
to be the earliest of the three synoptical Gospels. Other considera-
tions pointing in the same direction are its comparative brevity and
the meagreness of its account of Christ's teaching. This Gospel
wears the aspect of a first sketch of the memorable career of one
who had become an object of religious faith and love to the circle of
readers for whose benefit it was written. As such it is entitled to
precedence in an introduction to the three synoptists, though, in our
detailed comments, we follow the order in which they are arranged in
the New Testament. It is convenient to take Mark first for this
further reason, that from its pages we can form the clearest idea of
the general course of our Lord's history after He entered on His
Messianic calling. In none of the three Gospels can we find a
definite chronological plan, but it is possible from any one of them to
form a general idea of the leading stages of the ministry, and most
easily and clearly from the second.

2. The first stage was the synagogue ministry. After His bap-
tism in the Jordan and His temptation in the wilderness, Jesus
returned to Galilee and began to preach the " Gospel of the King-
dom of God". 1 The synagogue was the scene of this preaching.
The first appearance of Jesus in a synagogue was in Capernaum,
where He at once made a great impression both by His discourse
and by the cure of a demoniac. 2 This was simply the commence-

1 Mark i. 14- 2 Mark i. 27.

2 8 INTRODUCTION

ment of a preaching tour in the Bynagogues of Galilee. Jesus made
no stay in Capernaum. He left the town the day after He preached
in its synagogue, very early in the morning. 1 He left so early in
the day because He feared detention by the people. He left in such
haste because He knew that He could preach in the synagogues
only by the consent of the authorities, which might soon be with-
held through sinister influence. This synagogue preaching naturally
formed the first phase in Christ's work. The synagogue presented
a ready opportunity of coming into contact with the people. Any
man might speak there with the permission of the ruler. But he
could speak only so long as he was a persona grata, and Jesus, con-
scious of the wide cleavage in thought and feeling between Himself
and the scribes, could not but fear that He would not remain such
long. It was now or never, at the outset or not at all, so far as the
synagogue was concerned.

3. How long this synagogue ministry lasted is not expressly in-
dicated. A considerable period is implied in the statement : " He
preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee ". a It is not
necessary to take this strictly, especially in view of the populousness
of Galilee and the multitude of its towns large and small, as indi-
cated by Joseph us. 3 But the statement must be taken in earnest
so far as to recognise that Jesus had a deliberate plan for a
synagogue ministry in Galilee, and that He carried it out to a con-
siderable extent. It is not improbable that it was interrupted by the
influence of the scribes, whom we find lying in wait for Him on His
return from the preaching tour to Capernaum. 4

4. With the anecdote in which the scribes figure as .captious
critics of Jesus a new phase in the story begins. The keynote of
the first chapter is popularity ; that of the next is opposition. In
this juxtaposition the evangelist is not merely aiming at dramatic
effect, but reflecting in his narrative a real historical sequence. The
popularity and the opposition were related to each other as cause
and effect. It is true that having once entered on this second topic,
he groups together a series of incidents illustrating the hostile atti-
tude of the scribes, which have a topical rather than a temporal
connection, in this probably following the example of his voucher,
Peter. These extend from chap. ii. 1 to chap. iii. 6, constituting the

1 Mark i. 35. 2 Mark i. 39.

• Josephus gives the number of towns at 204, the smallest having 15,000 inhabi-
tants. Vide his Vita, chap. xlv. , and Bell. Jud., iii., 2, 3.

* Chap. ii. 1.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK 29

second division of the story, chap. i. 14-45 being the first. The two
together set before us the two forces whose action and interaction
can be traced throughout the drama, and whose resultant will be
the cross : the favour of the people, the ill-will of their religious
leaders.

5. Within the second group of anecdotes illustrating the hos-
tility of the scribes, a place is assigned to an incident which ought
not to be regarded as a mere subordinate detail under that general
category, but rather as pointing to another phase of our Lord's
activity co-ordinate in importance with the preaching in the
synagogues. I refer to the meeting with the publicans, and in con-
nection with that the call of Levi or Matthew. 1 That action of
Jesus had a decisive effect in alienating the scribes, but meantime
this is not the thing to be emphasised. We have to recognise in
this new movement a second stage in the ministry of Jesus. First,
preaching in the synagogues to the Jews of respectable character
and good religious habit ; next, a mission to the practically excom-
municated, non-synagogue-going, socially outcast part of the com-
munity. Mark, more than his brother evangelists, shows his sense
of the importance and significance of this new departure, especially
by the observation : " there were many (publicans and sinners), and
they followed Him ". a That is to say, the class was large enough to
demand special attention, and they were inviting attention and
awakening interest in them by the interest they on their side were
beginning to take in Jesus and His work. Without doubt this
mission to the publicans bulked much larger in fact than it does in
the pages of the evangelists or in the thoughts of average readers of
the Gospels, and it must be one of the cares of the interpreter to
make it appear in its true dimensions. 3 There is nothing in the
Gospels more characteristic of Jesus, or of deeper, more lasting sig-
nificance as to the nature and tendency of the Christian faith.

6. The third stage in the ministry of Jesus was the formation of
a disciple-circle. Of the beginnings of this movement Mark gives us
a glimpse in chap. i. 16-20, where he reports the call of the four
fishermen, Peter and Andrew, James and John ; and in the words
Jesus is reported to have spoken to the first pair of brothers there
is a clear indication of a purpose to gather about Him a band of men
not merely for personal service but in order to training for a high
calling. Levi's call, reported in chap, ii., is another indication of

1 Chap. ii. 13-17. ' Chap. ii. 15.

8 Vide notes on this section in Matthew and in Mark.

JO INTRODUCTION

the Bame Uind. But it is in the section of the Gospel beginning at
chap. iii. 7, and extending to chap. vi. 13, that the disciples pro-
perly come to the front. An intention on the part of the evangelist
to give them prominence is betrayed in the pointed way in which he
refers to them in iii. 7 : " And Jesus with the disciples withdrew
towards the sea ". l A little further on in the same chapter we read
of the retirement of Jesus to the mountain with a band of disciples,
out of which He selects an inner circle of twelve* And at various
points in this division of the Gospel the disciple-band is referred to
in a way to indicate that they are assuming a new importance to the
mind of Jesus. 8

7. This importance was due in part to dissatisfaction with the
result of the general ministry among the people. Jesus had preached
often, and healed many, in synagogue and highway, and had become
in consequence ihe idol of the masses who gathered in increasing
numbers from all quarters, and crowded around Him wherever He
went, as we read in chap. iii. 7-12. But this popularity did not
gratify Him ; it rather bored Him. He did not weary in well-doing,
but He was disappointed with the outcome. This disappointment
found expression in the parable of the sower, which was really a
critical estimate of the synagogue ministry to this sad effect : much
seed sown ; little fruit. From this comparatively fruitless ministry
among the many, Jesus turned with yearning to the susceptible few
in hope to find in them a good soil that should bring forth ripe fruit,
thirty, sixty, or even an hundred fold. After a long enough time had
elapsed to make it possible to form an estimate of the spiritual
situation, He judged that in a disciple-circle lay His only chance of
deep permanent influence. Hence He naturally sought to extricate
Himself from the crowd, and to get away from collisions with un-
sympathetic scribes, that He might have leisure to indoctrinate the
chosen band \r the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Leisure,
quiet, retirement — that more and more was His aim.

8. This desire for opportunity to perform the functions of a
master is made more apparent by Mark than by the two other
synoptists. He comes far short of them in his report of Christ's
teaching, but he brings out much more clearly than they Christ's
desire for undisturbed intercourse with the twelve, the reasons for
it, and the persistent efforts of the Master to accomplish His object.
It is from his pages we learn of the escapes of Jesus from the crowds

1 ft.€ra ruy fiaOTjrur stands before wtx'^PV< rf >' in th e best texts.
a Chap. iii. 13. * Vide iii. 31-35 ; iv. 10-25 I **• 7- r 3-

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK 31

and from the scribes. These escapes, as reported by Mark, take
place in all directions possible for one whose work lay on the
western shore of the Sea of Galilee : towards the hill behind,
towards the eastern shore, towards the northern borderland. Five
in all are mentioned: one to the hill; 1 two to the eastern shore,
first in an eastward, 2 then in a northerly direction ; s two to the
north, first to the borders of Tyre and Sidon, 4 next to the neigh-
bourhood of Caesarea Philippi. 5 All had the same end in view : the
instruction of the disciples. It was in connection with the first that
the " Sermon on the Mount," or the Teaching on the Hill, though
not mentioned by Mark, was doubtless communicated. The second
and third attempts, the flights across the lake, were unsuccessful,
being frustrated in the first case by an accidental meeting with a
demoniac, and in the second by the determination of the multitude
not to let Jesus get away from the> ". Therefore, to make sure, the
Master had to retire with His lisciples to the northern limits of the
land, and even beyond them, into Gentile territory, that there He
might, undisturbed, talk to His disciples about the crisis that He
now clearly perceived to be approaching.

9. These last flights of Jesus take us on to a point in the story
considerably in advance of the end of the third section, chap. vi. 13.
The material lying between this place and chap. viii. 27 shows us the
progress of the drama under the ever-intensifying influence of the
two great forces, popularity and hostility. The multitude grows
ever larger till it reaches the dimensions of 5000, 6 and the enmity of
the scribes becomes ever more acute as the divergence of the ways
of Jesus from theirs becomes increasingly manifest, and His ab-
horrence of their doctrines and spirit receives more unreserved
expression. 7 After the encounter with the scribes occasioned by
the neglect of the disciple-circle to comply with Rabbinical customs
in the matter of ceremonial ablutions, Jesus felt that it was a mere
question of time when the enmity of His foes would culminate in an
effort to compass His death. What He had now to do therefore
was to prepare Himself and His disciples for the end. Accord-
ingly, Mark reports that after that incident Jesus went thence
into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, desiring that no one should
know. 8 He could not be hid even there, and so to make sure
of privacy He seems to have made a wide excursion into heathen
territory, through Tyre and Sidon, possibly across the moun-

1 Chap. iii. 13. 2 Chap. iv. 35. * Chap. vi. 30. * Chap. vii. 24.

* Chap. viii. 27. * Chap. vi. d4- 7 Chap. vii. 1-23. * Chap. vii. 24.

j2 INTRODUCTION

tains towards Damascus, and so through Decapolis back to
Galileo. 1 Then followed, after an interval, the excursion to
Caesarea Philippi, for ever memorable as the occasion on which
Peter confessed his belief that his Master was the Christ, and the
Master began to tell Mis disciples that He was destined ere long to
suffer death at the hands of the scribes. 2

10. From that point onwards Mark relates the last scenes in
Galilee, the departure to the south, with the incidents on the way,
the entry into Jerusalem, with the stirring incidents of the Passion
Week, and, finally, the tragic story of the crucifixion. Throughout
this later part of his narrative it is evident that the one great theme
of conversation between Jesus and His disciples was the cross: His
cross and theirs, the necessity of self-sacrifice for all the faithful,
the rewards of those who loyally bear their cross, and the penalties
appointed for those whose ruling spirit is ambition. 8

Section II. Characteristics.

1. The outstanding characteristic of Mark is realism. I have in
view here, not the graphic, descriptive, literary style which is gene-
rally ascribed to Mark, but the unreserved manner in which he pre-
sents the person and character of Jesus and of the disciples. He
states facts as they were, when one might be tempted not to state
them at all, or to exhibit them in a subdued light. He describes
from the life, avoiding toning down, reticence, generalised expression,
or euphemistic circumlocution. In this respect there is a great con-
trast between the second Gospel and the third, and it is only when
we have made ourselves acquainted with the peculiarities of the two
Gospels that we are able fully to appreciate those of either. The
difference is this. Luke's whole style of presentation is manifestly
influenced by the present position of Jesus and the disciples : Jesus
the risen and exalted Lord, the disciples Apostles. For Mark Jesus
is the Jesus of history, and the disciples are simply disciples. Luke
writes from the view-point of reverential faith, Mark from that of
loving vivid recollection. It is impossible by rapid citation of in-
stances to give an adequate idea of these distinguishing features ;
all that can be done is to refer to a few examples in explanation of
what I mean. In Mark's pages, Jesus before He begins His public
career is a carpenter} At the temptation He is driven by the Spirit

1 Chap. vii. 31. a Chap. viii. 27-33.

* Vide chap. ix. 33-50 ; x. 23-45. * Chap. vi. 3.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK 33

into the wilderness. 1 His first appearance in the synagogue of
Capernaum is so remarkable that people say to each other: "What
is this ? A new teaching 1 With authority commandeth He even
unclean spirits, and they obey Him." 2 Early the following morning
He makes what has the aspect of an unaccountable and undignified
flight from Capernaum. s By-and-by, when He is fully engrossed
in His teaching and healing ministries, His relatives come to
rescue Him from His enthusiasm, deeming Him beside Himself. 4
On the day of the parable-discourse from the boat He makes
another flight, He saying to the disciples : Let us go over to the other
side ; they promptly obeying orders suddenly given and carrying
Him off from the crowd, even as He was. 5 Towards the end, on the
ascent to Jerusalem, Jesus goes before the disciples, and His
manner is such that those who follow are amazed." When He
sends for the colt on which He rides into the Holy City, He bids
the two disciples promise to the owner that the colt will be re-
turned when He has had His use of it. 7

2. The realism of Mark makes for its historicity. It is a
guarantee of first-hand reports, such ^s one might expect from
Peter. Peter reverences his risen Lord as much as Luke or any
other man. But he is one of the men who have been with Jesus,
and he speaks from indelible impressions made on his eye and
ear, while Luke reports at second-hand from written accounts for
the most part. The same realism is a strong argument in favour of
Mark's priority. It speaks t'i an early date before the feeling of de-
corum had become controlling as it is seen to be in Luke's Gospel.
Mark is the archaic Gospel, written under the inspiration not of
prophecy like Matthew, or of present reverence like Luke, but of
fondly cherished past memories. In it we get nearest to the true
human personality of Jesus in all its originality and power, and as
coloured by the time and the place. 8 And the character of Jesus
loses nothing by the realistic presentation. Nothing is told that
needed to be hid. The homeliest facts reported by the evangelist
only increase our interest and our admiration. One who desires to
see the Jesus of history truly should con well the pages of Mark
first, then pass on to Matthew and Luke.

3. By comparison with the companion Gospels Mark lacks a
conspicuous didactic aim. The purpose of the writer seems to be

1 Chap. i. 12. 2 Chap. i. 27. s Chap. i. 35-38. 4 Chap. Hi. 21.

6 Chap. iv. 35. s Chap. x. 32. 7 Chap. xi. 3.

3 Vide Holtzmann, HandCommentar, p. 7.

34 INTRODUCTION

mainly just to tell what he knows about Jesus. Some have tried
to show that this Gospel is an endeavour to read into the evangelic
history the ideas of Paulinism. 1 Others have maintained that the
purpose of the writer is to observe a studied, calculated neutrality
between Paulinism and Judaism. 2 These opposite views may be
left to destroy each other. Others, again, have found in the book
a contribution towards establishing Christians in the faith that
Jesus was the Messiah, when that faith was tried by a delayed
second coming. 3 A didactic programme has been supposed to be
hinted at in the opening words: "The beginning of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God," and atterpnts have been made to
show that in the sequel this programme is steadily kept in view. 1
am by no means anxious to negative these last suggestions ; all I
say is that the didactic purpose is not prominent. The writer
seems to say, not : " These are written that ye may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God," but more simply : " These are
written that ye may know Jesus". This also makes for the histori-
city and early date of the archaic Gospel.

4. Among the more obvious characteristics of Mark's literary
style are the use of dual phrases in descriptive passages, a liking
for diminutives, occasional Latinisms, the frequent employment of
€u0u's in narrative and of the historical present, both tending to
vividness and giving the impression of an eye-witness. The rough
vigour and crude grammar frequently noticeable in Mark's reports
strengthen this impression. The style is colloquial rather than
literary. To this in part is due the unsatisfactory state of the
text. Mark's roughness and originality were too much for the
scribes. They could not rest till they had smoothed down every-
thing to commonplace. Harmonising propensities also are re-
sponsible for the multiplicity of variants, the less important Gospel
being forced into conformity with the more important.

Section III. Author, Destination, Date.

1. The Gospel itself contains no indication as to who wrote it.
That the writer was one bearing the name of Mark rests solely on
an ecclesiastical tradition whose reliableness there has been no
disposition to question. The Mark referred to has been from the

1 So Pfleiderer in his Urchristenthutn.

2 So Baur and other members of the Tubingen school.

3 So Bernhard Weiss, vide Das Marcusevangelium, Einleitung, p. 23.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK 3$

earliest times till now identified with the Mark named in Acts xii. 12,
as the son of a Mary ; in xiii. 5, 13, as the attendant of Paul and
Barnabas on their mission journey ; and in xv. 39, as the travelling
companion of Barnabas alone after he had separated from Paul ;
also, in Colossians iv. 10, as the cousin (d^eifrios) of Barnabas ; and,
finally, in 2 Timothy iv. 11, and Philemon 24, as rendering useful
services to Paul.

2. The explanations of Jewish customs, e.g., ceremonial washings
(chap. vii. 3-4), and words such as Talitha cumi and Ephphatha,
and the technical term "common" or "unclean" (v. 41, vii. 34,
vii. 2), point to non-Jewish readers; and the use of Latinisms is
most naturally accounted for by the supposition that the book was
written among and for Roman Christians.

3.. The dates of the Gospels generally have been a subject of
much controversy, and the endless diversity of opinion means that
the whole matter belongs largely to the region of conjecture. The
vevy late dates assigned to these writings by the Tubingen school are
now generally abandoned. By many competent critics the Synopti-
cal Gospels are placed well within the first century, say, between
the years 60 and 80. To condescend upon a precise year is im-
possible. One cannot even determine with absolute confidence
whether the earliest of them, i.e., Mark, was written before or after
the destruction of Jerusalem. The point of practical importance
is not the date at which a Gospel was composed, but the historical
value of its materials. In this respect the claims of Mark, as we
have seen, stand high. 1

1 On the Appendix oi Mark, chap. xvi. 9-20, vide is'otes ad loc.

CHAPTER III.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW.

Section I. Contents.

!. As has been stated in chap, i., the bulk of Marlt's narrative
is substantially taken up into Matthew's longer story. But to that
narrative of the archaic Gospel is added much new material, con-
sisting mainly of the teaching of our Lord. This teaching as
reproduced in the first Gospel consists not of short pregnant sen-
tences such as Mark has preserved, but of connected discourses of
considerable length — the longest and the most important being that
familiarly known as the "Sermon on the Mount". Whether this
connected character is due to the Teacher or to the evangelist has
been disputed, the bias of critical opinion being strongly in favour
of the latter alternative. Extreme views on either side are to be
avoided. That Jesus uttered only short pithy sayings is a gratuitous
assumption. In connection with deliberate efforts to instruct the
disciples, the presumption is in fawur of continuous discourse. On
the other hand, in some of the discourses reported in Matthew, e.g.,
that in chap. x. on apostolic duties and tribulations, agglomera-
tion is apparent. To what Jesus said to the twelve in sending them
forth on their Galilean mission the evangelist, naturally and not
inappropriately, adds weighty words which bear on the more mo-
mentous mission of the apostles as the propagandists in the wide
world of the Christian faith. A similar instance of editorial com-
bination of kindred matter only topically connected may be found
in the parabolic discourse (chap. xiii.). Matthew's seven parables
were doubtless all spoken by Jesus, but not that day. The parables
spoken from the boat were probably all of one type, presenting together
a critical review of Christ's past ministry among the people. On the
other hand, I am inclined to think that the contents of chaps, xviii.
and xxiii. for the most part belong to the respective occasions with
which they are connected in the Gospel. The call for careful
admonition to the twelve at Capernaum was urgent, and the Master

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 37

would have much to say to His offending disciples. Then nothing
could be more fitting than that Jesus should at the close of His
life deliver a final and full testimony against the spurious sanctity
which He had often criticised in a fragmentary way, and which was
now at last to cause His death.

2. The main interest of the question now under consideration
revolves around the " Sermon on the Mount ". That a discourse
of some length was delivered on the mountain Luke's report proves.
Luke, even in this case, breaks up much of Matthew's connected
matter into short separate utterances, but yet he agrees with
Matthew in ascribing to Jesus something like an oration. Though
much abbreviated, his report of the discourse is still a discourse.
The only question is which of the two comes nearer the original in
length and contents. Now, the feeling is a very natural one that
Jesus could hardly have spoken so long a discourse as Matthew
puts into His mouth at one time, and to a popular audience. But
two questions have to be asked here. Did Jesus address a popular
audience ? Did He speak all at one time in the sense of a con-
tinuous discourse of one hour or two hours' length ? I am strongly
inclined to answer both questions in the negative. Jesus addressed
Himself to disciples ; His discourse was teaching, not popular
preaching — Didache, not Kerygma. And the time occupied in com-
municating that teaching was probably a week rather than an hour.
Matthew's report, in chaps, v.-vii., in that case will have to be
viewed as a summary of what the Great Teacher said to His dis-
ciples in a leisurely way on sundry topics relating to the Kingdom
of Heaven, during a season of retreat on the summit of the hills to
the west of the Galilean Lake. Instead of calling it the Sermon
on the Mount, we should more properly designate it the Teaching on
the Hill. 1

3. The insertion of great masses of didactic matter into the
framework of Mark's narrative weakens our sense of the progress
of the history in reading Matthew. The didactic interest over-
shadowed the historical in the evangelist's own mind, with the
result that his story does not present the aspect of a life-drama
steadily moving on, but rather that of a collection of discourses
furnished with slight historical introductions. The " Sermon on
the Mount" comes upon us before we are prepared for it. To
appreciate it fully we must realise that before it was spoken Jesus

1 For further remarks on this point vide Notes on the Sermon at the beginning
and throughout.

38 INTRODUCTION

had preached in many synagogues and to many street crowds, and
that a long enough time had elapsed for the Preacher to feel that
His ministry had been to a large extent fruitless, and that to
establish and perpetuate His influence He must now devote Himself
to the careful instruction of a disciple-circle. The miscellaneous-
ness of the parable-collection in chap. xiii. hides from us the fact
that that day Jesus was sitting in judgment on His own past
ministry and pronouncing on it the verdict : Much seed, little fruit ;
so justifying Himself for attending henceforth less to the many and
more to the few.

4. While the connections of Matthew's discourses are topical
rather than temporal, and the sense of progress in his narrative is
comparatively weak, there is a manifest correspondence between
the discourses he imputes to Jesus and the whole circumstances of
the times in which Jesus lived. This remark applies especially to
the criticism of Pharisaism, which occupies so prominent a place in
the first Gospel, as compared, e.g., with the third, in which that
element retires comparatively into the background. Keen conflict
between our Lord and the Scribes and Pharisees was inevitable, and
the amount of controversial material in the first Gospel speaks
strongly in favour of its fidelity to fact in this part of its record,
even as the unique quality of the anti-Pharisaic sayings ascribed to
Jesus bears witness to their originality. In the Teaching on the
Hill the references to Scribism and Pharisaism are, as was fitting,
the criticised parties not being present, didactic rather than
controversial, but there can be little doubt that Jesus would take
occasion there to indicate the difference between His religious ideas
and those in vogue at the time. Here it is not Matthew that adds,
but Luke that omits.

5. It has been maintained that Matthew's account of our Lord's
teaching is not uniform in character — is, indeed, so discrepant as to
suggest different hands writing in diverse interests and with con-
flicting theological attitudes. D'Eichthal, e.g., is of opinion that the
primitive Matthew was the earliest written Gospel, and that its
contents were much the same as those found in canonical Mark ;
but that, through being the earliest, it had exceptional authority,
and was therefore liable to be added to with a view to furnishing it
with support in the teaching of Christ for developing Christianity. 1
D'Eichthal counts as many as forty-five "Annexes" gradually in-
troduced in this way, including the history of the infancy, many

5 Les Evangiles.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 39

parables, numerous passages bearing on the Person of Christ, the
Church, the Resurrection, the Second Advent, etc. From this
questionable honour of becoming " a place of deposit " for new
material, as Dr. Estlin Carpenter calls it, 1 Mark, according to
D'Eichthal, was protected by its greater obscurity and inferior
authority; hence its modest dimensions and superior reliableness
in point of fidelity to actual historic truth.

This theory is plausible, and we are not entitled to say a priori
that it has no foundation in fact. Additions to the Gospels might
creep in before they became canonical, as they crept in afterwards
through the agency of copyists. The sayings about the indestructi-
bility of the law (v. 17-19) and the founding of the Church (xvi. 18, 19)
might possibly be examples in point. But possibility is one thing,
probability another. To prove diversity of hand or successive
deposits of evangelic tradition by men living at different times,
and acting in the interest of distinct or even opposing tendencies,
it is not enough to point to apparently conflicting elements and
exclaim : " Behold a Gospel of contradictions ". 9 On this topic I
may refer readers to what has been already stated in discussing
the subject of the historicity of the Gospels. And \ may here add
that it would not be difficult to conceive a situation for which the
Gospel might have been written by one man, as it now stands.
Dr. Weiss, indeed, has successfully done this in his work on the
Gospel of Matthew and its parallels in Luke. He conceives the
Gospel, substantially as we have it, to have been written shortly
after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish State, when the
faith of Jewish Christians in the Messiahship of Jesus would be
sorely shaken by the events: the promised Messianic Kingdom
passing away irretrievably from Israel and Wking up its abode
among Gentiles. The Gospel that was to meet this situation would
have to show that Jesus was indeed the Messianic King, in whose
history many prophetic oracles found their fulfilment ; that He did
His utmost to found the kingdom in Israel, but was frustrated by
the unbelief of the people, and especially of its rulers ; that, there-
fore, the kingdom was driven forth from Jewish soil, and was now
to be found mainly in the Gentile Church, and there Lad been left
to Israel only an inheritance of woe; that though Jesus had pre-
dicted this doom He nevertheless loved His people, had loyally and

1 The First Three Gospels, p. 370.

2 Dr. Estlin Carpenter, in the above work, p. 363, remarks : " Truly has the
first Gospel been called a ' Gospel of contradictions ' ".

40 INTRODUCTION

lovingly Bought her good, had spoken with reverence of her God-
given l.iw (while treating with disrespect Rabbinical traditions), and
honoured it by personal observance. This hypothesis fairly meets
the requirements of the case. It covers the phenomena of the
Gospel, and it is compatible with unity of plan and authorship. 1

Si i . nix [I. Char ■■< < < ristics.

1, The most outstanding characteristic of the first Gospel is that
it paints the life-image of Jesus in prophetic coloiirs. While in
Mark Jesus is presented realistically as a man, in Matthew He is
presented as the Christ, verified as such by the applicability of many
prophetic oracles to the details of His childhood, His public ministry,
and His last sufferings.

2. If the realism of Mark makes for the historicity of this Gospel,
the prophetic colouring so conspicuous in Matthew need not detract
from the historicity of its accounts. This feature may be due in
part to the personal idiosyncrasy of the writer and in part to his
didactic aim. He may have set himself to verify the thesis, Jesus
the Christ, for his own satisfaction, or it may have been necessary
that he should do so in order to strengthen the faith of his first
readers. In either case the presumption is that the operation he
was engaged in consisted in discovering prophetic texts to answer
facts ready to his hand, not in first making a collection of texts and
then inventing facts corresponding to them. The facts suggested
the texts, the texts did not create the facts, though in some instances
they might influence the mode of stating facts. In this connection
it is important to note that the evangelist applies his prophetic
method to the whole of his material, including that which is common
to him with Mark. He has his prophetic oracles ready to be attached
as labels to events which Mark reports simply as matters of fact.
Thus Mark's dry statement, " they went into Capernaum," 2 referring
to Jesus and His followers proceeding northwards from the scene of
the baptism, in Matthew's hands assumes the character of a solemn
announcement of an epoch-making event, whereby an ancient oracle
concerning the appearing of a great light in Galilee of the Gentiles
received its fulfilment. 3 Again, Mark's matter-of-fact report of the
extensive healing function in Capernaum on the Sabbath evening is
in Matthew adorned with a beautiful citation from Isaiah's famous

1 Vide Weiss, Das Matthcius-Evangelium und seine Lucas-parallelen, p. 39.
2 Mark L 21. * Matt. iv. 12-17.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 41

oracle concerning the suffering servant of Jehovah. 1 Once more,
to Mark's simple statement that Jesus withdrew Himself to the sea
after the collision with the Pharisees occasioned by the healing on
a Sabbath of the man with a withered hand, the first evangelist
attaches a fine prophetic picture, as if to show readers the true
Jesus as opposed to the Jesus of Pharisaic imagination. 2 From
these instances we see his method. He is not inventing history,
but enriching history with prophetic emblazonments for apologetic
purposes, or for increase of edification. Such is the fact, we observe,
when we have it in our power to control his statements by compari-
son with Mark's ; such we may assume to be the fact when we
have not that in our power, as, e.g., in the narrative relating to the
birth and infancy of Jesus, in which prophetic citations are unusually
abundant. The question as to the historicity of that narrative has
its own peculiar difficulties, into which * do not here enter. The
point I wish to make is that the numerous prophetic references cast
no additional shadow of doubt on its historicity. Here too the
evangelist is simply attaching prophe^c oracles to what he regards
as historic data. If invention has been at work it has not been in
his imagination. This is manifest even from the very weakness of
some of the citations, such as " Out of Egypt have I called my Son,"
" Rachel weeping for her children," and " He shall be called a
Nazarene". Who could ever have thought of these unless there
had been traditional data accepted by the Christian community (and
by the writer of the Gospel) as facts ? The last citation is especially
far-fetched. It is impossible to say whence it is taken ; it could
never have entered into the mind of any one unless the fact of
the settlement in Nazareth had been there to begin with, creating a
desire to find for it also, if at all possible, some prophetic antici-
pation.

These prophetic passages served their purpose in the apologetic
of the apostolic age. For us now their value is not apologetic,
except indeed in a way not contemplated by the evangelist. Their
occasional weakness as proofs of the Messiahship of Jesus can be
utilised in the manner above hinted at in support of the historicity
of the evangelic tradition. But the chief permanent value of these
citations lies in the light they throw on the evangelist's own con-
ception of Jesus. We see from them that he thought of Jesus as
the Light of Galilee, the sympathetic Bearer of humanity's heavy
burden, the Beloved of God, the Peacemaker, the Friend of weak-

1 Matt. viii. 17. * Matt. xii. 15-21. Cf. Mark iii. 7.

42 INTRODUCTION

ness, the Man who had it in Him by gifts and graces to perform a
Christ's part for all the world. Truly a noble conception, which
lends perennial interest to the texts in which it is embodied.

3. In the foregoing remarks I have anticipated to a certain
extent what relates to the question of didactic aim. That the first
Gospel has such an aim is obvious from the careful manner in which
the prophetic argument is elaborated. The purpose is to confirm
Jewish Christians in the faith that Jesus is the Christ. The purpose
is revealed in the very first sentence and in the genealogy to which
it forms a preface. "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ,
the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." The Son of David first,
because on that hangs the Messianic claim ; the Son of Abraham
likewise, because that makes Him a Jew, a fellow-countryman of those
for whose benefit the Gospel is written. The genealogy is the first
contribution to the apologetic argument. The logic of it is this :
"The Psalms and Prophets predict the coming of a great Messianic
King who shall be a descendant of the house of David ; this genealogy
shows that Jesus possessed that qualification for Messiahship. Ha
is the rod out of the stem of Jesse." Whoever compiled the
genealogy did it under the impression that physical descent from
David was indispensable to Jesus being the Christ. But it does not
follow that the genealogy was manufactured to serve that purpose.
The descent from David might be a well-known fact utilised for an
apologetic aim. For us, though a fact, it is of no vital consequence.
Our faith that Jesus is the Christ does not rest on any such external
ground, but on spiritual fitness to be th.2 world's Saviour. We
reverse the logic of the Jewish Church. They reasoned: because
David's Son, therefore the Christ. We reason : because the Christ,
therefore David's Son, at least in spirit. 1

4. In speaking of the literary characteristics of Matthew it is
necessary to keep in mind that some of these may come from the
Logia of the apostle Matthew, and that others may be due to the
evangelist. Critics ascribe to the apostolic source certain phrases
of frequent recurrence, such as kcu 18ou, dp-rp Xeyw up.Tf, 6 Tr<xTT|p 6 iv
■rots oupayols- Among the features of the evangelist's own style they
recognise the frequent use of such words as totc, Xe'ywc, -npoaekdw,
ox\ot, dTTOKpiGeis, dfaxwpelt', Xeyop-cvos, and such phrases as ti troi SokcI,
<Tup.j3ouXi.oi' Xapj3dt/en', k(xt' oyap, iv eKeiew tu Kcupu. 2 By comparison
with Mark, the style of this Gospel is smooth and correct.

1 Vide notes on Matt. i. 2 Vide Weiss, Matthaus-Evangelium, pp. 23-4.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 43

Section III. Author, Destination, Date.

1. If the views of modern critics as to the relation of the first
Canonical Gospel to the Logia, compiled by the apostle Matthew, be
well founded, then that apostle was not its author. Who the
evangelist was is unknown. That he was a Jew is highly probable,
that he was a Palestinian Jew has been generally assumed ; but
Weiss calls this in question. That he wrote in Greek is held to be
proved by the use which he makes of the Septuagint in his citations
of Old Testament prophecy, and by traces of dependence on the
Greek Gospel of Mark. But the view that our Greek Gospel of
Matthew is a translation by some unknown hand from a book with
the same contents in the Hebrew tongue still has its advocates,
among whom may be mentioned Schanz, of Tubingen. 1

2. The destination of the Gospel was in all probability to a
community of Jewish Christians, whose faith it was designed to
strengthen. How it was fitted to serve this end has been indicated
in Section I. § 5.

3. The probable date is shortly after the destruction of the
Jewish State. Some things have been supposed to imply a much
later date, e.g., the commission to the disciples in chapter xxviii. 18,
with its explicit Trinity, its pronounced universalism, and its doctrine
of a spiritual presence. On these points the reader is referred to
the commentary.

1 Vide his Commentar uber dai Evangelism des hciligtn Matthaus: Einleitung.

CHAPTER IV.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE.

Section I. Contents.

!. Luke's Gospel includes much of the narrative of Mark and
large portions of the didactic matter contained in Matthew. There
are numerous omissions in both departments, but on the other
hand also considerable additions, especially in the didactic element.
The third evangelist has greatly enriched the treasure of the
parables, for it is in this important division of our Lord's teaching
that his peculiar contribution chiefly lies. The amount of new
matter suffices to raise the question as to its source. It can hardly
be thought that the author of the first Gospel would have omitted
so much valuable material, had it lain before his eye in the Logia.
The hypothesis of a third source, therefore, readily suggests itself
— a collection of reminiscences distinct from Mark and the book of
Logia, whence Luke drew such beautiful parables as the Good
Samaritan, the Selfish Neighbour and the Unjust Judge, the
Prodigal Sou, the Unjust Steward, Lazarus and Dives, and the
Pharisee and Publican. The chapters on the infancy and on the re-
surrection, so entirely different from the corresponding chapters in
Matthew, might suggest a fourth source, unless we suppose that
the third included these.

2. The distribution of the material in this Guspel arrests atten-
tion. In the early part of the history, from chapters iv. 31 to vi. 16,
the author follows pretty closely in the footsteps of Mark. Then
comes in a digression, extending from vi. 17 to viii. 3, containing a
version of the Sermon on the Mount, the stories of the Centurion
and the Widow of Nain, the Message of the Baptist with relative
discourse, and the woman in Simon's house. Thereafter Luke's
narrative again flows in Mark's channel from the parable of the
Sower onwards to the end of the Galilean ministry, as reported in
the second Gospel (Mark iv. 1 to ix. 50. Luke viii. 4 to ix. 50), only

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE 45

that the whole group of incidents contained in Mark vi. 45 to viii. 26
is omitted in Luke. Then at ix. 51 begins another longer digression,
extending from that point to xviii. 14, consisting mainly of didactic
matter, and containing the larger number of Luke's peculiar con-
tributions to the evangelic tradition. Thereafter our author joins
the company of Mark once more, and keeps beside him to the end
of the Passion history. 1

3. This lengthy insertion destroys the sense of progress in the
story. The stream widens out into a lake, within which any move-
ment perceptible is rather circular than rectilinear. It is a dog-
matic section, and any indications of time and place it contains are
of little value for determining sequence or pointing out the suc-
cessive stages of the journey towards Jerusalem mentioned in ix. 51.
It may be affirmed, indeed, that throughout this Gospel the interest
in historic sequence or in the causal connection of events is weak.
Sometimes, as in the incident of Christ's appearance in the syna-
gogue of Nazareth, the author, consciously and apparently with
deliberate intention, departs from the chronological order. 2 What-
ever, therefore, he meant by KaGe^s in his preface, he cannot have
intended to say that he had made it a leading aim to arrange his
material as far as possible in the true order of events. Still less
can it have been his purpose so to set forth his story that it should
appear a historic drama in which all events prepare for and
steadily lead up to tne final catastrophe. When at ix. 22 we
find Jesus announcing for the first wme that " the Son of Man must
suffer many things," it takes us by surprise. No reason has appeared
in the previous narrative why it should come to that. It has indeed
been made clear by sundry indications — at chapter v. 21 ; v. 30, 33 ;
vi. 7-11 ; vii. 34, 50 — that there was not a good understanding be-
tween Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees ; but from Luke's
narrative by itself we could not have gathered that matters were so
serious. Two important omissions and one transposition are largely
responsible for this. Luke leaves out the collision between Jesus
and the Pharisees in reference to the washing of hands (Mark vii.
1-23. Matt. xv. 1-20), and the demand for a sign (Mark viii. 11.
Matt. xvi. 1) ; and he throws the blasphemous insinuation of a league
with Beelzebub into chapter xi., beyond the point at which he
introduces the first announcement of the Passion. Therefore, the

1 In the main, that is to say; for Luke's Passion history contains a number of
peculiar elements.

2 Chap. iv. 16-30; vide v. 23.

46 INTRODUCTION

necessity (Sei) of that tragic issue is not apparent in the sense that
it is the inevitable result of causes which have been shown to be in
operation. For Luke the Set refers exclusively to the prophetic
oracles which predicted Messiah's sufferings. Jesus must die if
these oracles are to be fulfilled. And for him it is a matter of course,
and so he treats it in his narrative. The announcement of the
Passion is not brought in as a new departure in Christ's communi-
cation with His disciples, as in the companion narratives, with
indication of the place and solemn introductory phrase : M He
began to teach them ". It is reported in a quite casual way, as if
it possessed no particular importance. In connection with this it
may be noted that Luke gives a very defective report of those
words of our Lord concerning His death which may be said to
contain the germs of a theory as to its significance. For particulars
readers are referred to the notes-

Sfxtion II. Characteristics.

1. One very marked feature of this Gospel is what, for want of
a better word, may be called the idealisation of the characters of
Jesus and the disciples. These are contemplated not in the light
of memory, as in Mark, but through the brightly coloured medium
of faith. The evangelist does not forget that the Personages of
whom he writes are now the Risen Lord, and the Apostles of the
Church. Jesus appears with an aureole round His head, and the
faults of the disciples are very tenderly handled. The truth of this
statement can be verified only by k detailed study of the Gospel,
and readers will find indications of proof at appropriate places in
the notes. It applies equally to the Master and to His disciples,
though Von Soden, in the article already referred to, states that the
tendency in question appears mainly in the presentation of the
conduct of the disciples ; drawing from the supposed fact the pre-
carious inference that the Apostolic Church cared little or nothing
for the earthly history of Jesus. 1 The delicate treatment of the
disciples is certainly very apparent. Luke, as Schanz remarks, ever
spares the twelve ; especially Peter. The stern word, " Get thee
behind me," is not in this Gospel. The narrative of the denial is an
interesting subject of study in this connection. But the whole body
of the disciples arc treated with equal consideration. Their faults —
ignorance, weak faith, mutual rivalries — are acknowledged, yet

1 Vide Thcologhche Abhandlungen, p. 138.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE 47

touched with sparing hand. Some narratives in which these faults
appear very obtrusively, e.g., the conversation about the leaven of
the Pharisees, the ambitious request of James and John, and the
anointing in Bethany, are omitted, as is also the flight of all the
disciples at the apprehension of their Master. The weak faith of
the disciples is very mildly characterised. " Where is your faith ? "
asks Jesus in the storm on the lake, in Luke's version of the story,
instead of uttering the reproachful word : " Why are ye cowardly ?
Have ye not yet faith ? " Their failure to watch in the garden of
Gethsemane is apologetically described as sleeping for sorrow. In
his portraiture of the Lord Jesus the evangelist gives prominence to
the attributes of power, benevolence, and saintliness. The pictorial
effect is brought out by omission, emphasis, and understatement.
Among the omissions are the realistic word about that which
defileth, about " dogs" in the story of tH woman of Canaan which
is wholly wanting, and the awful cry on the Cross : " My God, rny
God ! " Among the things emphasised are those features in acts of
healing which show the greatness of Christ's might and of the benefit
conferred. Peter's mother-in-law suffers from a great fever ; and
the leper is full of leprosy. The hand restored on the Sabbath is the
right hand, the centurion's servant is one dear to him, the son of
the widow of Nain is an only son, the daughter of Jairus an only
daughter, the epileptic boy at the hill of Transfiguration an only
child. The holiness of Jesus is made conspicuous by the prominence
given to prayer in connection with critical occasions, and by under-
statement where the incidents related might to ill-instructed minds
seem to compromise that essential characteristic. Luke's narratives
of the cleansing of the temple and the agony in Gethsemane may be
referred to as striking illustrative instances of the latter. To the
same category may be referred the treatment by Luke of the anti-
Pharisaic element in Christ's teaching. Much is omitted, and what
is retained is softened by being given, much of it, not as spoken
about, but as spoken to, Pharisees by Jesus as a guest in their
houses. 1

2. The influence of the Christian consciousness of the time in
which he wrote is traceable not only in Luke's presentation of the
characters of Jesus and His disciples, but in his account of Christ's
teaching. He seems to have in viewjthroughout the use of the Lord's
words for present guidance. Weizsacker has endeavoured to
analyse the didactic element in the third Gospel into doctrinal

1 Luke vii. 36-50 ; xi. 37-52 ; xiv. 1-24.

48 INTRODUCTION

pieces bearing on definite religious questions and interests of the
primitive Church. 1 This may be carried too far, but the idea is not
altogether baseless. In this Gospel the so-called " Sermon on the

Mount" is really a Sermon {Kerygma not Didache) delivered to a
Christian congregation with all the local and temporary matter
eliminated and only the universal and perennial retained. The same
adaptation to present and general use is apparent in the words,
Kad' T|fA(?pak, added to the law of cross-bearing (ix. 23).

3. The question may be asked whether this adaptation of the
matter of the evangelic tradition to present conceptions and needs
is to be set down to the account of Luke as editor, or is to be
regarded as already existing in the documents he used. On this
point there may be room for difference of opinion. J. Weiss in his
commentary on Luke (Meyer, eighth edition) inclines to the latter
alternative. Thus, in reference to Luke's mild version of Peter's
denial, he remarks : " A monstrous minimising of the offence if
Luke had Mark's account before him " ; and he accordingly thinks
he had not, but used instead a Jewish Christian source, giving a
mitigated account of Peter's sin. Of .such a source he finds traces
throughout Luke's Gospel, following in the footsteps of Dr. Paul
Feine, who had previously endeavoured to establish the existence of
a precanonical Luke, i.e., a Qrst attempt to work up into a single
volume the evangelic traditions in Mark, the Login, and other
sources, after the manner of the third Gospel. 2 This may be a
perfectly legitimate hypothesis for solving certain literary problems
connected with this Gospel, and the argument by which Feine seeks
to establish it is entitled on its merits to serious consideration. But
I hardly think it suffices to account for all the traces of editorial
discretion in Luke's Gospel. It does not matter what documents
Luke used; he exercised his own judgment in using them. If he
did not, his relation to the work of redacting the memoirs of Jesus
becomes so colourless that one fails to see what occasion there was
for that imposing prefatory announcement in the opening sentence.
A primitive Luke was ready to his hand, and he did not even
contribute to it the colour of his own religious personality. Inten-
tion, bias, purpose to utilise the material for edification of believers
were all there before he began. He did what ? Added, perhaps, a

1 Vide his Umtersuchuugen uber die Evangelische Geschichte, and his Apostolic
Age, vol. ii.

2 Eine vorkanonische Uberlieferung des Lukas in Evangelium und AposteU
geschichte, 1891.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE 49

few anecdotes and sayings gleaned from other sources, oral or
written !

4. Notwithstanding this pervading regard to what may he com-
prehensively called edification, the author of the third Gospel cannot
justly be charged with indifference to historic truth. He professes
in his preface to have in view acribeia, and the profession is to be
taken in earnest. But he is writing not as a mere chronicler, but as
one seeking to promote the religious welfare of mose for whom he
writes, and so must strive to combine accuracy, fidelity to fact, with
practical utility. The task is a delicate one, and execution without
error of judgment not easy. Even where mistakes are made, they
are not to be confounded with bad faith. Nor should it be for-
gotten that Luke's peculiarities can be utilised for the apologetic
purpose of establishing the general credibility of the evangelic
tradition. Luke omits much. But it does not follow that he did
not know. He may omit intentionally what he knows but does not
care to report. Luke often understates. What a writer tones down
he is tempted to omit. By simply understating, instead of omitting,
he becomes a reluctant and therefore reliable witness to the
historicity of the matter so dealt with. Luke often states strongly.
Either he adds particulars from fuller information or he exaggerates
for a purpose. Even in the latter case he witnesses to the truth of
the basal narrative. A writer who has ideas to embody is tempted
to invent when he cannot find what will suit his purpose. Luke
did not invent but at most touched up stories given to his hand
in trustworthy traditions.

5. The author of the third Gospel avowedly had a didactic aim.
He wrote, so it appears from the preface, to confirm in the faith
a friend called "most excellent (xpctTurre) Theophilus," expecting
probably that the book would ultimately be useful for a wider circle.
But there is no trace of a dominant theological or controversial aim.
The writer, e.g., is not a Paulinist in the controversial sense of the
word. He is doubtless in sympathy with Christian universalism, as
appears from his finishing the quotation from Isaiah beginning with,
** The voice of one crying in the wilderness," and ending with,
"All flesh shall see the salvation of God" (iii. 6). Yet, in other
places, e.g., in the history of the infancy, the salvation brought by
Jesus is conceived of as belonging to Israel, the chosen people
(t<Z> Xaw au-rou, i. 68; cf. ii. 10; vii. 16; xiii. 16; xix. 9). The author
is not even Paulinist in a theological sense, as the absence from his
pages of most of the words of Jesus bearing on a theory of atone-
ment, already remarked on, sufficiently proves. He appears to be an

50 INTRODUCTION

eclectic, rather than a man whose mind is dominated hy a great
ruling idea. Distinct, if not conflicting, tendencies or religious types
find houseroom in his pages : Pauline universalism, Jewish par-
ticularism, Ehionitic social ideals, the blessedness of poverty, the
praise of almsgiving. Geniality, kindliness of temper, is the personal
characteristic of the evangelist. And if there is one thing more
than another he desires to inculcate on his readers it is the
graciousness of Christ. " Words of grace " (iv. 22) is his compre-
hensive title for the utterances of Jesus, and his aim from first to
last is to show the Saviour as the friend of the sinful and the social
outcast, and even of those who suffer justly for their crimes (vii. 36-
50; xix. 1-10; xxiii. 39-43).

6. The literary aspect of this Gospel is a complex phenomenon.
At times, especially in the preface, one gets the impression of a
writer having at his command a knowledge of Greek possible only
for one to whom it was his native tongue- an expert at once in the
vocabulary and the grammatical structure of that language. But
far oftener the impression is that of «* Jew thinking in Hebrew and
reflecting Hebrew idiom in phrase and construction. Hebraisms
abound, especially in the first two chapters. Two explanations are
possible : That the author was really a Jew, that his natural style
was Hebrew-Greek, in which case it would have to be shown that
the preface was no such marvellous piece of classicism after all;
or that he was a Gentile well versed in Greek, but somewhat slavish
in his copious use of Jewish-Christian sources, such as the primitive
Luke for which Feine contends.

Section III. Author, Destination, Date.

1. The author of the third Gospel was also the author of the
Acts of the Apostles, as appears in chap. i. 1 of the latter work,
where the name of Theophilus recurs. Neither book bears the
name of the writer, but uniform ancient tradition ascribes it to Luke,
the companion of Paul, and by occupation a physician (Col. iv. 11).
From the preface to the Gospel we gather that he had no personal
knowledge of Jesus, but was entirely dependent on oral and written
tradition.

2. From the prefaces of the Gospel and the book of Acts we
learn that the author wrote for the immediate benefit of a single
individual, apparently a man of rank, say a Roman knight. It is
not necessary to infer that a larger circle of readers was not con-
templated either by the writer or by the first recipient of his work.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE 5I

3. The date cannot be definitely fixed. Opinion ranges from
a.d. 63 to the early years of the second century. As late a date as
say a.d. 90 is compatible with the writer being, in his younger
years, a companion of St. Paul in his later missionary movements.
The still later date of a.d. 100 or 105 would be required if it were
certain, which it is not, that the writer used the Antiquities of
Josephus, which were published about the year 93-94. Dr. Sanday,
in his work entitled Inspiration, expresses the view that Acts was
written about A.D. 80, and the Gospel some time in the five years
preceding.

CHAPTER V.

THE TEXT, CRITICAL LANDMARKS, CRITICAL TESTS OF

READINGS.

Section I. The Text.

The Greek text given in this work is that known as the Textus
Receptus, on which the Authorised Version of the New Testament
is based. Representing the Greek text as known to Erasmus in the
sixteenth century, and associated with the names of two famous
printers, Stephen and Elzevir, whose editions (Stephen's 3rd, 1550,
Elzevir's 2nd, 1633) were published when the apparatus at command
for fixing the true text was scanty, and when the science of textual
criticism was unborn, it may seem to be entirely out of date. But
it is an important historical monument, and it is the Greek original
answering to the English Testament still largely in use in public
worship and in private reading. Moreover, while the experts in
modern criticism have done much to provide a purer text, their
judgments in many cases do not accord, and their results cannot
be regarded as final. It is certain, however, that the texts prepared
by such scholars as Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and
the company of experts to whom we are indebted for the Revised
Version, are incomparably superior to that of Stephen or of Elzevir,
and that they must be taken into account by every competent com-
mentator. That means that to the text must be annexed critical
notes showing all important various readings, with some indication
of the documentary authority in their favour, and of the value
attached thereto by celebrated editors. This accordingly has been
done, very imperfectly of course, still it is hoped sufficiently for
practical purposes. Variations not affecting the sense, but merely
the spelling or grammatical forms of words, have been for the most
part disregarded. There are many variations in the spelling of
proper names, of which the following are samples : —

THE TEXT, CRITICAL LANDMARKS, ETC. 53

Nc^ap^T Na^ape'O rcGar^a^ re0(7Y)pam

MarGaios MaGGaios 'IwcWtjs 'ludVrjs

Aa0i8 AauciS 'Upixw 'kpcixw

HXias 'HXeias Mukttjs Mwuotjs

Kairepkaoup, Ka<J>api'aoup riiXdros fleiXd-ros

Among other insignificant variations may be mentioned the presence
or absence of v final in verbs (eXcye, eXeyei') ; the omission or in-
sertion of p. (XrjiJ/opai, \TJfx\|/o(xai) ; the assimilation or non-assimilation
of iv and abv in compound verbs (au^Tciis vuvI^tCiv ; iKKaKcif, e^ica-
K€iv) ; the doubling of p., v, p or the reverse (pappwms, papayas;
yeVnrjpa, yeV^pa : cmppdirrei, impairrei) ; the conjunction or disjunction
of syllables (ouk in, ouke'ti) ; outws for outu ; the aorist forms tl-nov,
r)\Qov, etc., replaced by forms in a (elirav, r\\Qay) ; single or double
augment in certain verbs (eS^api^, ifiuvd^v ; IpeXXoK, rjpeXXoK).

Section II. Critical Landmarks.

1. Up till 1831 editors of the New Testament in Greek had been
content to follow in the wake of the Textus Receptus, timidly adding
notes indicating good readings which they had discovered in the
documents accessible to them in their time. Lachmann in that year
inaugurated a new critical era by printing a text constructed
directly from ancient documents without the intervention of any
printed edition. It is not given to pioneers to finish the work they
begin, and Lachmann's effort judged by present-day tests was far
from perfect. " This great advance was marred by too narrow a
selection of documents to be taken into account, and too artificially
rigid an employment of them, and also by too little care in obtaining
precise knowledge of some of their texts" (Westcott and Hort's
New Testamejit, Introduction, p. 13). Tischendorf in Germany and
Tregelles in England worthily followed up Lachmann's efforts, and
made important contributions towards the ascertainment of the
true text by adopting as their main guides the most ancient MSS.,
in place of the later documents which had formed the basis of the
early printed editions. The critical editions of the Greek New
Testament by these scholars appeared about the same time;
Tischendorf's eighth edition (the important one which supersedes
the earlier) bearing the date 1869, and the work of Tregelles being
published in 1870. The characteristic feature of Tischendorf's
edition is the predominant importance attached to the great Codex
Sinaiticus (N), with the discovery of which his name is connected.

INTRODUCTION

The defect common to it with the edition of Tregelles is failure to
deal on any clear principle with the numerous instances in which
the ancient texts on which they placed their reliance do not agree.
All goes smoothly when Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus (B)
and Codex Bezae (D) and the most ancient versions bear the same
testimony ; but what is to be done when the trusted guides follow
divergent paths ?

2. It is by the answer which they have given to this question
that Westcott and Hort have made an epoch-making contribution
to the science of Biblical Criticism in the first volume of their
monumental work, The New Testament in the Original Greek,
published in 18S1. Following up hints thrown out by earlier in-
vestigators, like Bengel and Griesbach, they discriminated three
types of text prevalent in ancient times, before the period of eclectic
revision which fixed to a great extent the character of the text in
actual use throughout the Middle Ages and on to the dawn of
modern criticism. To these types they gave the names Western,
Alexandrian, and Neutral. The last epithet is to be understood
only when viewed in relation to the other two. The Western and
Alexandrian types of text had very well-marked characteristics. The
Western was paraphrastic, the Alexandrian literary. The tendency
of the one was to alter the primitive tex> by explanatory additions
with a view to edification, made by men who combined to a certain
extent the functions of copyist and commentator. The tendency
of the other was to improve the text fro*s a literary point of view by
scholarly refinements. The neutral text is neutral in the sense of
avoiding both these tendencies and aiming steadily at the faithful
reproduction of the exemplar assumed to approach in its text as
near as possible to the autographs. A text adhering honestly to
this programme ought to be the most reliable guide to the original
Greek Testament as it proceeded from the hands of the writers,
making due allowance for errors in the exemplar and for mistakes
in transcription. The result of investigation has been to justify
this expectation.

3. The main representative of the Western text is Codex Bezae
(D), containing the Gospels and the Acts. Of the Alexandrian text
there is no pure example. This divergent stream broke up into rills,
and lost itself as a mere element in mixed texts, like those of Codex
Sinaiticus and Codex Ephraemi (C). It is important to note by
the way that these names do not denote local prevalence. The
Western text was not merely Western. This divergent stream
overflowed its banks and spread itself widely over the Church,

THE TEXT, CRITICAL LANDMARKS, ETC.

reaching even the East. Hence traces of its influence are to be
found not merely in the old Latin versions, but also in the Syriac
versions, e.g., in what is called the Curetonian Syriac, and in the
recently discovered Syriac version of the Four Gospels, which may
be distinguished as the Sinaitic Syriac. Of the neutral text, the
great, conspicuous, honourable monument is Codex Vaticanus (B),
containing the Gospels, Acts, and Catholic epistles, and the epistles
of St. Paul, as far as Heb. ix. 14; and being, especially in the
Gospels, a nearly pure reproduction of a text uninfluenced by the
tendencies of the Western and Alexandrian texts respectively. To
this MS., belonging like Codex Sinaiticus to the fourth century,
Westcott and Hort, after applying to it all available tests, assign
the honour of being on the whole the nearest approach to the
original verity in existence, always worthy of respect and often
deserving to be followed when it stands alone against all comers.
A very important conclusion if it can be sustained.

4. In recent years a certain reaction against the critical results
of Westcott and Hort has been manifesting itself to the effect of
imputing to them an overweening estimate of Codex B, analogous
to that of Tischendorf for Codex N. Some scholars, such as Resch
in Germany and Ramsay in this country, are disposed to insist
that more value should be set on Codex D ; the former finding in it
the principal witness for the text of the Gospels in their precanonical
stage, the assumption being that when the four-Gospel canon was
constructed the text underwent a certain amount of revision. The
real worth of ihis Codex is one of the unsettled questions of New
Testament textual criticism. Irteresting contributions have been
made to the discussion of the question, such as those of J. Rendel
Harris, and more may be expected.

Section III. Critical Tests of Readings.

1. The fixation of the true text is not a simple matter like that
of following a single document, however trustworthy, like Codex B.
Every editor may have his bias in favour of this or that MS., but
all editors recognise the obligation to take into account all avail-
able sources of evidence — not merely the great uncial MSS. of
ancient dates, but the cursives of later centuries, and, besides Greek
MSS. of both kinds containing the whole or a part of the New
Testament, ancient versions, Latin, Syriac, Egyptian, etc., and
quotations in the early Fathers. The evidence when fully adduced
is a formidable affair, demanding much space for its exhibition

INTRODUCTION

(witness TischcndoiTs eighth edition in two large octavos), and the
knowledge of an expert for its appreciation. In such a work as the
present the space cannot be afforded nor can the knowledge be
expected even in the author, not to say in his readers. Full know-
ledge of the critical data through first-hand studies belongs to
specialists only, who have made the matter the subject of lifelong
labour. All one can do is to utilise intelligently their results. But
because all cannot be specialists it is not profitless to have a
juryman's acquaintance with the relative facts. It is the aim of the
critical notes placed beneath the Greek text to aid readers to the
attainment of such an acquaintance, and to help them to form an
intelligent opinion as to the claims of rival readings to represent the
true text. Fortunately, this can be done without adducing a very
long array of witnesses.

2. For it turns out that there are certain groups of witnesses
which often go together, and whose joint testimony is very weighty.
Westcott and Hort have carefully specified these. They may here
be indicated : —

For the Gospels the most important and authoritative group is
NBCDL 33.

In this group L and 33 have hitherto not been referred to. L
(Codex Regius), though belonging to the eighth century, represents
an ancient text, and is often in agreement with N and B. 33
belongs to the cursive class (which are indicated by figures), but
is a highly valuable Codex, though, like all cursives, of late date.
In his Prolegomena to Tischendorf's New Testament, Dr. Caspar
Rene Gregory quotes (p. 469) with approval the opinion of Eichhorn
that this is the 'queen of the cursives". In the above group, it
will be noticed, representatives of the different ancient types —
Western, Alexandrian, Neutral (D, N, C, B) — are united. When they
agree the presumption that we have the true text is very strong.

When D falls out we have still a highly valuable group in
NBCL 33.

When DC and 33 drop out there remains a very trustworthy
combination in t^BL.

There are, besides these, several binary combinations of great
importance. The following is the list given by Westcott and Hort
for the Gospels : —

BL, BC, BT, B=, BD, AB, BZ, B 33, and for St. Mark Ba.
In these combinations some new documents make their appearance.

T stands for the Greek text of the Graeco-Thebaic fragments of
St. Luke and St. John (century v., ancient and non- Western).

THE TEXT, CRITICAL LANDMARKS, ETC. 57

H = fragments of St. Luke (cent, viii., comparatively pure, though
showing mixture).

A is the well-known Codex Alexandrinus of the fifth century, a
chief representative of the " Syrian " text, that is, the revised text
formed by judicious eclectic use of all existing texts, and meant to
be the authoritative New Testament. This Codex contains neariv
the whole New Testament except Matthew as far as chapter xxv. 5.
For the Gospels it is of no independent value as a witness to the
true text, but its agreements with B are important.

A = Codex Sangallensis, a Graeco- Latin MS. of the tenth century,
and having many ancient readings, especially in Mark.

To these authorities has to be added, as containing ancient read-
ings, and often agreeing with the best MSS., Codex Purpureus Ros-
sanensis (z), published in 1883, edited by Oscar Von Gebhardt ; of the
sixth century, containing Matthew and Mark in full. Due note has
been taken of the readings of this MS.

The foregoing represent the chief authorities referred to in the
critical notes. In these notes I have not uniformly indicated my
personal opinion. But in the commentary I have always adopted as
the subject of remark the most probable reading. Reference to
modern editors has been chiefly restricted to Tischendorf, and West-
tott and Hort, meaning thereby no depreciation of the work done by
others, but simply recognising these as the most important.

MSS. were corrected from time to time. Corrected copies are
referred to by critics by letters or figures: thus, N» (4th cent.), N b (6tb
cent.), tt c (7th cent.), B 2 (4th cent), B 3 (10th cent.).

Besides the above-named documents the following uncials are
occasionally referred to in the critical notes : —

E cod. Basiliensis. 8th century (Gospels nearly entire).

G cod. Seidelii. gth or ioth century (Gospels defective).

I cod. palimps. Petropolitanus. 5th and 6th centuries (fragments of Gospels).

K cod. Cyprius. gth century (Gospels complete).

M cod. De Camps, Paris, gth century (Gospels complete).

N cod. Purpureus. 6th century (fragments of all the Gospels).

P cod. Guelpherbytanus I. 6th century (fragments of all the Gospels).

Q cod. Guelpherbytanus II. 5th century (fragments from Luke and John).

R cod. Nitriensis, London. 6th century (fragments of Luke).

S cod. Vaticanus 354. ioth century (four Gospels complete).

U cod. Nanianus Venetus. gth or ioth century (Gospels entire).

V cod. Mosquensis. gth century (contains Matt, and Mk., and Lk. nearly complete).

X cod. Monacensis. gth or ioth century (fragments of all the Gospels).

Z cod. Dublinensis. 6th century (fragments of Matthew).

T cod. Oxoniensis et Petropolitanus. ioth century (four Gospels, Matthew and

Mark defective.).

A cod. Oxoniensis Tisch. gth century (Luke and John entire).

fl cod. Petropolitanus Ticch. gth century (Gospels nearly complete).

4> cod. Eeratinus. 5th century (Matthew and Mark with lacunae).

CHAPTER VI.
LITERATURE.

The following list of works includes only those chiefly consulted.
Many others are occasionally referred to in the notes.

1. To the pre- Reformation period belong —

Origen's Commentary on Matthew. Books x.-xvii. in Greek (Matt. xiii. 36—
xxii. 33), the remainder in a Latin translation (allegorical method of inter-
pretation).

Chrysosiom's Homilies on Matthew. The Greek text separately edited in three
vols, by Dr. Field (well worth perusal).

Jerome's Commentarius in Matthaeum (a hasty performance, but worth consulting).

Augustine. De Sermone Domini in monte.

Theophylactus (12th century, Archbishop in Bulgaria). Commentarii in quatuor
Evangelistas, Graece.

Euthymius Zirabenus (Greek monk, 12th century). Commentarius in quatuoi
Evangelia, Graece et Latine. Ed. C. F. Matthaei, 170^ (a choice work).

2. From the sixteenth century downwards —

Calvin. Commentarii in Harmonian. jx Evangelistis tribus . . . compositam.
Beza. Annotationes in Novum Testamentum. I 556-

Maldonatus. Commentarii in quatuor Evangelistas (Catholic). I 596-

Pricaei (Price). Commentarii in varios N. T. libros (including Matthew and Luke;

philological, with classical examples, good). 1660.

Grotius. Annotationes in N. T. (erudite and still worth consulting). 1644.

Lightfoot. Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae. 1644.

Heinsius. Sacrarum excrcitationum ad N. T. libri xx. 1665.

Raphel. Annotationes Philological in N. T., ex Xenophonte , Polybio, Arriano et

Hcrodoto. I 747-

Olearius. Observationes sacrae ad Evangelium Matthaei. 1713-

Wolf. Curae philolvgicae et criticae in N. T. Five vols. I 74 I -

Schottgen. Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae in N. T. 1733-

Wetstein. Novum Testamentum Graecum (full of classic citations). I 75 I -

Bengel. Gnomon Novi Tesiamenti (unique). x 734-

Palairet (French pastor at London, f 1765). Observationes philologico-criticae in

aacros N. T. libros. 1752.

LITERATURE 59

Kypke. Observationes sacrae in N. T. libros. 1755.

Elsner. Observationes sacrae in N. T. libros (the three last named, like Pricaeus,
abound in classic examples). 1767.

Loesner. Observationes ad N. T. e Philons Alexandrino (of the same class as
Raphel). 1777.

Kuinoel. Commentarius in libros N. T. historicos. 1807.

Fritzsche. Evangelium Matthaei recensuit. 1826.

Fritzsche. Evangelium Marci recensuit (both philological). 1830.

De Wette. Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch turn N. T. 1S36-48.

Bornemann. Scholiae in Lucae Evangelium. 1S30.

Alford. The Greek Testament. Four vols. 1849-61.

Field. Otium Norvicense. 1S64.

Bleek. Synoptische Erhldrung der drei ersten Evangelien. 1862.

Meyer. Commentary on the New Testament. Sixth edition (T. & T. Clark).

Meyer. Eighth edition by Dr. Bernhard Weiss {Matthew and Mark, largely
Weiss). 1890-92.

Meyer. Eighth edition by J. Weiss (son of Bernhard Weiss ; Luke, also largely
the editor's work). 1892.

Weiss. Das Marcusevangclium und seine synoptischen Parallelm (a contribution
to comparative exegesis in the interest of his critical views on the synoptical
problem). 1872.

Weiss. Das MatthduscvangcUum und seine Lucas-parallelen (a work of similar
character). 1876.

Lutteroth. Essai d 'Interpretation de quclques parties de VEvangile scion Sai?it
Malthicu. • 1864-76.

Schanz. Commentar uber das Evangelium des heiligen Matlhdus. 1 ^>79-

Schanz. Commentar uber das Evangelium des heiligen Marcus. 1881.

Schanz. Commentar uber das Evangelium des heiligen Lucas (these three com-
mentaries by Schanz, a Catholic theol^ian, are good in all respects, specially
valuable for patristic references). 1883.

Godet. Cotnmentaire sur VEvangile de Saint Luc, 3 me edition. 1888-89.

Hahn. Das Evangelium des Lucas. Two vols. 1S92-94.

Holtzmann. Die Synoptiker in Hand-C^Mmentar xum Neucn Testament (advanced
but valuable). 1892.

The Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges; Matthew, Mark, and

Luke. 1891-93.

The well-known lexical and grammatical helps, including Grimm, Cremer,

Winer, and Buttman, have been consulted. Frequent reference has been made to

Burton's Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in New Testament (T. & T. Clark, 1894),

both because of its excellence and its accessibility to students.

A new edition of Winer's Grammatik (the eighth) by Schmiedel is in course of

publication ; also of Kuhner by Blass.

In the notes, the matter common to the three Gospels is most fully treated in

Matthew, the notes in the other two Gospels being at these points supplementary

and comparative.

The marginal references to passages of Scripture are simply supplementary to

those in the notes.

It is hoped that most abbreviations used will need no special explanation, but

the following table may be helpful : —

INTRODUCTION

Mt. = Matthew
Mk. = Mark.
Lk. = Luke.
O. T. = Old Testament
N. T. = New Testament.
Sept. = Septuagint.
A. V. = Authorised Version.
R. V. — Revised Version.
C. N. T. = Cambridge New Testament.
Tisch. = Tischendorf.
Treg. = Tregelles.
W. H. = Westcott and Hort.

Ws. = Weiss (Dr. Bernhard).
Egypt. = Egyptian versions (vie., the two following).
Cop. = Coptic (called Memphitic by W. II.).
Sah. = Sahidic (called Thebaic by W. H.).
Syrr. = Syriac versions.
Pesh. = Peshito (= Syrian Vulgate).
Syr. Cur. = Curetonian Syriac. (For Greek equivalent v: de B.ieth

gen's Evangelicnfragmente.)
Syr. Sin. = Sinaitic Syriac (recently discovered).
Latt. = Latin versions.

Vulg. = Vulgate (Jerome's revision of old Latin version).
Vet. Lat. = Vetus Latina (Old Latin, referred to also as It. = Itala).
The codices of the old Latin are distinguished by
the letters a, b, c, etc.
Minusc. = Minusculi (Codices), another name for cursives.

TO RATA MA TWA I ON
AriON EYAITEAION.i

I. I. •BIBA02 h \ev£veus 'IHIOY Xpicrrou, * utoG AaGi'S), 2 uioo B Gen - »• *•
> O > * a \ t ^ > , , Mk.xii.36.

Appaau.. 2. Appaap, iyivvqae toc lead* • 'icraaK Se iy£vvr\a€ -rov Lk - »»• 4i

_ . .. . b ver. 18.

Gen. xxxi. 13; xxxu. g. Lk. 1. 14. Jas. i. 23; iii. 6. c xii. 33; xxi. 9; xxii. .12.

1 The title in T.R. (as above) is late. fc^B have simply Kcrra Mc.06ai.ov. Other
expanded forms occur.

2 AaBiS is found only in minusc. ^B have Aavei.8. This is one of several
variations in spelling occurring in the genealogy, among which may be named Boot
(ver. 5) = Boes in W.H.; np^S (ver. 5) = la>Sr)8, W.H. ; Mo.T0av (ver. i5) = Ma6Sav,
W.H. For a list of such variations in the spelling of names in the three first
Gospels vide p. 53.

The Title. The use of the word tv-
BYYe'Aiov in the sense of a book may be as
old as the Teaching of the twelve Apostles
(Didache, 8, 11, 15. Vide Sanday, Hamp-
ton Lectures, 1893, p. 317, n. 1). The
word passed through three stages in the
history of its use. First, in the older
Greek authors (Horn., Od. |, 152, 166), a
reward for bringing good tidings ; also a
thank-offering for good tidings brought
(Arist., Eq. 656). Next, in later Greek,
the good tidings itself (2 Sam. xviii. 20,
22, 25, in Sept. In 2 Sam. iv. 10, «v>-
ayye'Xia occurs in the earliest sense).
This sense pervades the N. T. in re-
ference to the good news of God, ~he
message of salvation. Finally, it came
very naturally to denote the books in
which the Gospel of Jesus was presented
in historic form, as in the Didache and in
Justin M., Apol. i. 66, Dial. con. Try p.
100. In the titles of the Gospels the
word retains its second sense, while sug-
gesting the third. evayy KaTa M. means
the good news as reduced to writing by
M. Twra iSTTOt^of, nor KatcTttafCaiov
= MutScuov, as if the sense were : The
book called a " Gospel" written by Mat-
thew. (Vide Fritzsche against this the
older view, supported by Kuinoel.)

Chapter I. The Genealogy and
Birth of Jesus. — The genealogy may

readily appear to us a most ungenial
beginning of the Gospel. A dry list of
names 1 It is the tribute which the
Gospel pays to the spirit of Judaism.
The Jews set much store by genealogies,
and to Jewish Christians the Messiah-
ship of Jesus depended on its being
proved that He was a descendant of
David. But the matter can hardly be
so vital as that. We may distinguish
between the question of fact and the
question of faith. It may be that Jesus
was really descended from David — many
things point that way ; but even if He
were not He might still be the Christ,
the fulfiller of O. T. ideals, the bringer-in
of the highest good, if He possessed the
proper spiritual qualifications. What
although the Christ were not David's
son in the physical sense ? He was a
priest after the order of Melchisedec,
though dYeveaXoYiiTos ! why not Messiah
under the same conditions ? Pie might
still be a son of David in the sense in
which John the Baptist was Elijah — in
spirit and power, realising the ideal of
the hero king. The kingdom of prophecy
came only in a spiritual sense, why not
also the king ? The two hang together.
Paul was not an apostle in the legitimist
sense, not one of the men who had been
with Jesus ; yet he was a very real apostle.

KATA MAT9AI0N

iQKoSp. "laKa>P oe iyivv7]cre tov 'louoav Kal tous ao£X<pous auTOo.

d similar »• #q c * > r * .*. * * * ^ * d j ~ r\ r

const, in 3- loubas oe tyivvnae. tov Vapts *a.i Toy Zapa ck tt)S ©upap •

Ci»l. IV. 4, . \ c \ t / } »r" f »r- * C*2/ * »*'

2i, .13. "♦'apes o« «fy€KKT]cre tov Eorpup. ■ tupwp oe eyevvrjo-e tov Apap.

So might Jesus be a Christ, though not
descended from David. St. Paul writes
(Gal. iii. 29) : "If ye be Christ's, then are
ye Abraham's seed". So might we say:
II Jesus was lit to be the Christ in point
of spiritual equipment, then was He of
the seed of David. There is no clear
evidence in the Gospels that Jesus Him-
self set value on Davidic descent; there
are some things that seem to point the
other way : e.g., the question, " Who is
my mother ? " (Matt. xii. 48 ; Mk. iii. 33),
and the other, " What think ye of the
Christ, whose son is He ? " (Matt. xxii.
42, et par.). There is reason to believe
that, like St. Paul, He would argue from
the spiritual to the genealogical, not vice
versa : not Christ because from David,
but from David, at least ideally, because
Christ on otb?r higher grounds.

Ver. 1. PipXos ■yevecrews k.t.X. How
much does this heading cover : the whole
Gospel, the two first chapters, the whole
of the first chapter, or only i. 1-17 ? All
these views have been held. The first
by Euthy. Zigab., who argued: the birth
of the God-man was the important point,
and involved all the rest ; therefore the
title covers the whole history named
from the most important part (airo tov
Kvptciire'pov pc'povs). Some moderns
(Ebrard, Keil, etc.) have defended the
view on the ground that the correspond-
ing title in O. T. (Gen. vi. 9 ; xi. 27,
etc.) denotes not merely a genealogical
list, but a history of the persons whose
genealogy is given. Thus the expression
is taken to mean a book on the life of
Christ (liber de vita Christi, Maldon.).
Against the second view and the third
Weiss-Meyer remarks that at i. iS a
new beginning is made, while ii. 1 runs
on as if continuing the same story. The
most probable and most generally
accepted opinion is that of Calvin, Beza,
and Grotius that the expression applies
only to i. 1-17. (Non est haec inscriptio
totius libri, sed particulae primae quae
velut extra corpus historiae prominet.
Grotius.)

'It)ctov Xpio-Toi}. Christ here is not an
appellative but a proper name, in accord-
ance with the usage of the Apostolic
age. In the body ct the evangelistic his-
tory the word is not thus used ; only in
the introductory parts. {Vide Mk. i. 1 ;
John i. 17.)

vlov A., vlov A. Of David first, because
with his name was associated the more
specific promise of a Messianic king ; of
Abraham also, because he was the
patriarch of the race and first recipient
of the promise. The genealogy goes
no further back, because the Gospel is
written for the Jews. Euthy. Zig.
suggests that David is placed first
because he was the better known, as the
less remote, as a great prophet and a
renowned king, (curb tov •vvupiawTepov
jxaXXov ap|dp.EVO'S, eiri tov "iraXaiorepov
avTJ\9«v.) The word vlov in both cases
applies to Christ. It can refer gram-
matically to David, as many take it, but
the other reference is demanded by the
fact that ver. 1 forms the superscription
of the following genealogy. So Weiss-
Meyer.

Vv. 2-16. The genealogy divides
into three parts : from Abraham to
David (w. 2-6a) ; from David to the cap-
tivity (w. 6b-n) ; from the captivity to
Christ. On closer inspection it turns out
to be not so dry as it at first appeared.
There are touches here and there which
import into it an ethical significance,
suggesting the idea that it is the work
not of a dry-as-dust Jewish genealogist,
but of the evangelist ; or at least worked
over by him in a Christian spirit, if the
skeleton was given to his hand. To
note these is the chief interest of non-
Rabbinical exegesis.

Vv. 2-6a- Kal tovs d8eX<}>ovs ovtov.
This is not necessary to the genealogical
line, but added to say by the way that
He who belonged to the tribe of Judah
belonged also to all the tribes of Israel.
(Weiss, Matthausevang.) . . . Ver. 3.
tov $apes Kal tov Zapa : Zerah added
to Perez the continuator of the line, to
suggest that it was by a special provi-
dence that the latter was first born (Gen.
xxxviii. 27-30). The evangelist is on the
outlook for the unusual or preternatural
in history as prelude to the crowning
marvel of the virgin birth (Gradus
futurus ad credendum partum e virgine.
Grot.). — ck Tfjs ©duap. Mention of the
mother wholly unnecessary and un-
usual from a genealogical point of view,
and in this case one would say, primd
facie, impolitic, reminding of a hardly
readable story (Gen. xxxviii. 13-26). It
is the first of four references to mothers

3 — io.

EYAITEAION

6.1

4. 'Apdp. 8e eyeVerjae t<W 'Au,ii>a8d|3 ■ 'Au.icaSd|3 8e iy£vvr\ae rbv
Haacrcrdy • Naaaouc 8e eyeVeriac toc laXfxuf. 5. laXjiwv 8e eveWriae
toi> Boo£ 6K ttJs 'PaxajS ■ Boot, 8e eyeWr|cr€ t6i> 'flf3r)S in ttjs 'Pou'0 •
*il^Y)8 8e cytwYjo-e toc 'leaaai • 6. 'icacral Se eyeVytpe Toy Aaf3L8
Tok PaatXe'a. Aa(3l8 8e 6 PaaiXeus l iytvvr\<re to^ ZoXop-wrra 2 eic
ttjs tou Oupiou • 7. IoXou.wy 8e cy^cTjcre toc 'Popodp. • 'Po/Bod/i
8e eye%TT)o-e to*' 'Apia • 'A0id 8e eyeVnr)o-e Toy 'Acrd • 8. 'Aaa 8e
eytW-rjo-e Toy Iwo-ucjmT • 'iwcra^aT Se eyeVyTjo-e Toy 'icupdp. • 'iwpdu.
Be iyivvqire Toy '0£iay ■ q. a O£ias Be eyeVcrjo-e Toy 'iwdGap. • 'iwdOau.
Be e'yeVrnae Toy "Axa£ • "Axa£ Be eyeVyTjo-e toc 'E^ckiov • 10. 'E£eicias

1 o Pao-iXevs omitted in ^B, found in C5* Most modern editors omit.
1 So in A. ZoXojxwva in BCL and most uncials.

in the ancestry of Jesus, concerning
whom one might have expected the
genealogy to observe discreet silence :
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba; three
of them sinful women, and one, Ruth, a
foreigner. Why 'w/e they mentioned ?
By way of defence against sinister mis-
construction of the birth of Jesus ? So
Wetstein : Ut tacitse Judaeorum objec-
tioni occurreretur. Doubtless there is a
mental reference to that birth under some
aspect, but it is not likely that the evan-
gelist would condescend to apologise
before the bar of unbelief, even though
he might find means of doing so in the
Jewish habit of glorying over the mis-
deeds of ancestors (Wetstein). Much
more probable is the opinion of the
Fathers, who found in these names a
foreshadowing of the gracious character
of the Gospel of Jesus, as it were the
Gospel in the genealogy. Schanz follows
the Fathers, except that he thinks they
have over-emphasised the sinful element.
He finds in the mention of the four
women a hint of God's grace in Christ
to the sinful and miserable: Rahab and
Bathsheba representing the one, Tamar
and Ruth the other. This view com-
mends itself to many interpreters both
Catholic and Protestant. Others prefer
to bring the four cases under the cate-
gory of the extraordinary exemplified by
the case of Perez and Zerah. These
women all became mothers in the line of
Christ's ancestry by special providence
(Weiss-Meyer). Doubtless this is at least
part of the moral. Nicholson (New
Comm.) thinks that the introduction of
Tamar and Ruth is sufficiently explained
by Ruth iv. 11, 12, viewed as Messianic;
of Rahab by her connection with the
earlier Jesus (Joshua), and of Bathsheba

because she was the mother of a second
line culminating in Christ, as Ruth of a
first culminating in David. — Ver. 6a.
Toy Aa{3!8 tov (3ao-iXea, David the King,
the title being added to distinguish him
from the rest. It serves the same pur-
pose as if David had been written in
large letters. At length we arrive at the
great roy»l name 1 The materials for
the first part of the genealogy are taken
from Ruth iv. 18-22, and 1 Chron. ii.

5-15-

Vv. 6b-io, Ik ttjs tov Ovpiov, vide
above. The chief feature in this second
division of the genealogical table is the
omission of three kings between Joram
and Uzziah (ver. 8), viz., Ahaziah, Joash,
Amaziah. How is the omission to
be explained ? By inadvertence, or by
intention, and if the latter, in what view ?
Jerome favoured the second alternative,
and suggested two reasons for the inten-
tional omission — a wish to bring out the
number fourteen (ver. ty) in the second
part of the genealogy, and a desire to
brand the kings passed over with the
stamp of theocratic illegality. In effect,
manipulation with a presentable excuse.
But the excuse would justify other omis-
sions, e.g., Ahaz and Manasseh, who,
were as great offenders as any. One can,
indeed, imagine the evangelist desiring to
exemplify the severity of the Gospel as
well as its grace in the construction of
the list — to say in effect : God resisteth
the proud, but He giveth grace to the
lowly, and even the low. The hypo-
thesis of manipulation in the interest of
symbolic numbers can stand on its own
basis without any pretext. It is not
to be supposed that the evangelist was at
all concerned to make sure that no link
in the line was omitted. His one concern

KATA MA T0AION

8e tytvvy\<re rov Mamaaf] • Ma^acraij? St iyivvr\a€ rov 'AjidJv 'Ajjiwc
ver. 17. g> t'vti'i'iiirj tov '\u)ula.v • II. laxrias Se evtWrio-c tov 'lex ^ 101 ^ KCt *

Also 111 1 1 ' ' ' n

Kiiiks T0 ^ 5 dStXAou^ auTOu, tirl tti$ " u.€T0iK€<7ias BaSoXwfos. 12. Metoi

xxiv. K 1 T » # »

Chion. v. g| j^y jieToiiceffiar BaPuXwvos, 'itxovias iylvvqae rov XaXa0tT)X '

verb ("<-- IaXa0ii]X 8e iyivvr\ot rov ZopoPdpcX • 13. ZopoPdPtX 8e iyivvqae
oiKt^u>) in
Acts vii. 4, 43.

would be to make sure that no name
appeared that did not belong to the line.
He can hardly have imagined that his
list was complete from beginning to end.
Thus Nahshon (ver. 4) was the head of the
tribe of Judah at the Exodus (Num. i. 7),
yet between Hezron and him only two
names occur — four names for 400 years.
Each name or generation represents a
century, in accordance with Genesis xv.
13-16. The genealogist may have had
this passage in view, but he must have
known that the actual succession em-
braced more links than four (vide Schanz
on ver. 4). The hypothesis of inadver-
tence or error in consulting the text
of the O. T., favoured by some
modern commentators, is not to be sum-
marily negatived on the ground of an
a priori theory of inerrancy. It is pos-
sible that in reading 1 Chron. iii. 11 in
the Sept. the eye leapt from 'Oxo£tas to
'0££as, and so led to omission of it and
the two following names. ('A£apias, not
'0£ias, is the reading in Sept., but Weiss
assumes that the latter, Azariah's original
name, must have stood in the copy used
by the constructor of the genealogy.)
The explanation, however, is conjectural.
No certainty, indeed, is attainable on the
matter. As a curiosity in the history of
exegesis may be mentioned Chrysostom's
mode of dealing with this point. Plaving
propounded several problems regarding
the genealogy, the omission of the three
kings included, he leaves mis one un-
solved on the plea that he must not ex-
plain everything to his hearers lest they
become listless (Tva p-r| dvaire'o-r|Te, Horn.
iv.). Schanz praises the prudence of
the sly Greek orator.

Ver. n. 'loio-ias iytv. rov 'lt\oviav.
There is an omission here also : Eliakim,
son of Josiah and father of Jeconiah.
It was noted and made a ground of
reproach to Christians by Porphyry.
Maldonatus, pressed by the difficulty,
proposed to substitute for Jeconiah, Jeho-
takim, the second of four sons ascribed
to Josiah in the genealogist's source (r
Chron. iii. 14), whereby the expression
tous dSe\4>ous aiiTod would retain its
natural sense. But, while the two names

are perhaps similar enough to be mis-
taken for each other, it is against the
hypothesis as a solution of the difficulty
that Jehoiakim did not share in the cap-
tivity (2 Kings xxiv. 6), while the words
of ver. n seem to imply that the descen-
dant of Josiah referred to was associated
with his brethren in exile. The words
lir\ ttjs p.cToiK£<rius Ba.pu\u>vos probably
supply the key to the solution. Josiah
brings us tothe brink of the period of exile.
With his name that doleful time comes
into the mind of the genealogist. Who
is to represent it in the line of succession ?
Not Jehoiakim, for though the deporta-
tion began in his reign he was not
himself a captive. It must be Jeconiah
(Jehoiakin), his son -vt the second re-
move, who was among the captives (2
Kings xxiv. 15). His " brethren " are his
uncles, sons of Josiah, his grandfather;
brethren in blood, and brethren also as
representatives of a calamitous time—
(vide Weiss-Meyer). There is a pathos
in this second allusion to brother-
hood. " Judah and his brethren," par-
takers in the promise (also in the sojourn
in Egypt) ; " Jeconiah and his brethren,"
the generation of the promise eclipsed.
Royalty in the dust, but not without
hope. The omission of Eliakim (or
Jehoiakim) serves the subordinate pur-
pose of keeping the second division of the
genealogy within the number fourteen. —
Me-rotKeo-ias : literally change of abode,
deportation, " carrying away," late Greek
for (itTCRKia or (i«ToiKT)cris. — Baj3v\(Zii'09 :
genitive, expressing the terminus ad quern
(vide Winer, § 30, 2 a, and cf. Matt. iv.
15, 6Sov 0aXdo-err|s, x. 5, 6Sov f9vuiv). — 6ttI
t. p.., "at the time of, during," the time
being of some length ; the process of de-
portation went on for years. Cf. Mk. ii.
26, £tti 'APidOap, under the high priest-
hood of Abiathar, and Mk. xii. 26 for a
similar use of i-n\ in reference to place:
ctti tov pdrov — at the place where the
story of the bush occurs. Merd t. p.. in
ver. 12 means after not during, as some
have supposed, misled by taking p.£Toi-
Kecria as denoting the state of exile. Vide
on this Fritzsche.

Vv. 12-15. I n tne ^ ast division the

EYAITEAION

6 S

t6c 'A|3iou8 • 'AfBiouS 8e eyeVcrjire toc 'EXictKeip. • 'EXiaKelp. 8e
iyivvr\(ie toc 'A£u>p • 14. A£wp Se eyeccrjcre toc Za8wK ■ ZaSwtc Se
iy{vi't\ae t6c 'Axeip. • 'Ax^JJ- Se iyivvt]a-e toc 'EXiouS • 15. 'EXiouS
8e eyeccTjcre toc 'EXed£ap • 'EXed£ap 8e eyeccrjae toc MaT0dc*
M vrOdc 8e iyivvi\<re toc 'Io.kgj(3 ■ 1 6. 'IcikgjP Se eye'ccYjcre toc 'lioarj<{), f same ex-
roc dVSpct Maptas, H >JS eyeccrjflr} ''Itjo-ous 6 XeyoiJiecos Xpia-ros. F^xxvH.
17. riao-ai ouc al yececu airo 'A|3padp. eios AapL'S, yeceal Seita/reV- ("je^us

\ * \ A r>^ ^ * f n n \ ** ^ called the

crapes* kcu airo AaJSu) ews ttjs pteTOiKecuas BapuXcocos, yececu Christ).

genealogical table escapes our control.
After Zerubbabel no name occurs in
the O. T. We might have expected
to find Abiud in 1 Chron. iii. 19, where
the children of Zerubbabel are given, but
Abiud is not among them. The royal
family sank into obscurity. It does not
follow that no pains were taken to pre-
serve their genealogy. The priests may
have been diligent in the matter, and re-
cords may have been preserved in the
temple (Schanz). The Messianic hope
would be a motive to carefulness. In
any case we must suppose the author of
the genealogy before us to give here what
he found. He did not construct an
imaginary list. And the list, if not guar-
anteed as infallibly accurate by its inser-
tion, was such as might reasonably be
expected to satisfy Hebrew readers.
Amid the gloom of the night of leg^iism
which broods over all things belonging to
the period, this genealogy included, it is
a comfort to think that the Messiahship
of Jesus does not depend on the absolute
accuracy of the genealogical tree.

Ver. 16. 'Io.kuiB . . . ibv 'la)crf|<{>: the
genealogy ends with Joseph. It is then
presumably his, not Mary's. But for
apologetic or dogmatic considerations,
no one would ever have thought of
doubting this. What creates perplexity
is that Joseph, while called the husband
(tov &v8pa) of Mary, is not represented
as the father of Jesus. There is no
tytwrjcrt in this case, though some sup-
pose that there was originally, as the
genealogy came from the hand of some
Jewish Christian, who regarded Jesus as
the Son of Joseph (Holtzmann in H. C).
The Sinaitic Syriac Codex has " Joseph,
to whom was betrothed Mary the Vir-
gin, begat Jesus," but it does not alter
the story otherwise to correspond with
Joseph's paternity. Therefore Joseph
can only have been the legal father of
Jesus. But, it is argued, that is not
enough to satisfy the presupposition of
the whole N. T., viz., that Jesus was the

actual son of David (Kcn-d crdpKa, Rom. i.
3) ; therefore the genealogy must be that
of Mary (Nosgen). This conclusion can
be reconciled with the other alternative
by the assumption that Mary was of the
same tribe and family as Joseph, so that
the genealogy was common to both.
This v/as the patristic view. The fact
may have been so, but it is not indicated
by the evangelist. His aim, undoubtedly,
is to set forth Jesus as the legitimate son
of Joseph, Mary's husband, at His birth,
and therefore the proper heir of David's
throne. — 1£ -?js eyevvr|0r| 'I. The peculiar
manner of expression is a hint that
something out of the usual course had
happened, and prepares for the following
explanation : o Xevo|j.€vos Xpicrros ; not
implying doubt, but suggesting that the
claim of Jesus to the title Christ was
valid if He were a legitimate descendant
of David, as the genealogy showed Hin
to be.

Ver. 17. The evangelist pauses to point
out the structure of his genealogy : three
parts with fourteen members each ; sym-
metrical, memorable; irdcrcu does not
imply, as Meyer and Weiss think, that in
the opinion of the evangelist no links
are omitted. He speaks simply of what
lies under the eye. There they are,
fourteen in each, count and satisfy your-
self. But the counting turns out not to
be so easy, and has given rise to great
divergence of opinion. The division
naturally suggested by the words of the
text is : from Abraham to David, termi-
nating first series, 14 ; from David, head-
ing second series, to the captivity as
limit, i.e., to Josiah, 14 ; from the
captivity represented by Jeconiah to
Christ, included as final term, 14. So
Bengel and De Wette. If objection be
taken to counting David twice, the
brethren of Jeconiah, that is, his uncles,
may be taken as representing the con-
cluding term of series 2, and Jeconiah
himself as the first member of series 3
(Weiss-Meyer). The identical number

k.\ I A MA lOAlOJN

K Ik. i. 27; ScKar«f<Tcrope9 • kciI diro ttJs [icTOiKeaias Ba(5uXoli -05 ?(■•? tot)

h Lk. xvii XpiaTou, vcreal SeKarAiaapes.
iS. 1 Cor. r •

> v - 18. TOY 8e hiffoii l XptaroG m yivvnais 2 outws «v. 'avnattv-

i again in • « / . , \

x\iv. 19. OeiCTTjs Y"P T ^ s | AT lTpos aoToC Mapias tw "l(oa-^<(>, irpli' r\ oui-eXSeif
j Mi. xt. 4. aoTOiis. eupeOr) iv yaurpi e)(ouora ^k riieuuaTOS Ayiou. IQ

!\l k. vi ■ c»>.

Ik. xx.20. 'iwrrf)^ ^ ° d«'i}p auTrjs, ' Sikcuos w^, kcu iatj Oe'Xtuy oiuttiv irapa-

Rom. v. 7.

1 i; inverts the order of the (X. I.). I. X. in SS^'-' etc. Weiss (Meyer,
Mh ed.) remarks that B has a preference for " Christ Jesus ".

2 The best il<l MSS. read -yeveo-is . . . yevvno-is is doubtless a correction of the
scribe to bring the text into conformity with ey£vi/r|a-€ in the genealogy.

3 ■yap omitted in fr^BC 1 , etc. The sense is clearer without it.

in the three parts is of no importance in
itself. It is a numerical symbol uniting
three periods, and suggesting comparison
in other respects, e.g., as to different
forms of government — judges, kings,
priests (Euthy. Zig.), theocracy, mon-
archy, hierarchy (Schanz), all summed
up in Christ ; or as to Israel's fortunes :
growth, decline, ruin — redemption ur-
gently needed.

Vv. 18-25. The Birth of Jesus.
This section gives the explanation which
«£ ^s €-y«vvTJ9r) (ver. t6) leads us to expect.
It may be called the justification of the
genealogy (Schanz), showing that while
the birth was exceptional in nature it
yet took place in such circumstances,
that Jesus might justly be regained as
the legitimate son of Joseph, and there-
fore heir of David's throne. The position
of the name Tov Se I. X. at the head of
the sentence, and the recurrence of the
word -yt'veo-is, point back to ver. 1 ; ytveo-Ls,
not y«Vvr)cri.s, is the true reading, the
purpose being to express the general idea
of origin, art its, not the specific idea of
generation (6 €vayyeXio~TT]s licaivord-
p.T)<re to KciTtt <j)vari.v 6'vop.a ttjs ysvvv|o--
«<os, yt'vea-iv avrfp/ KaXio-as. Euthy.
Zig. on ver. 1).

Ver. 18. p.v»]o-T€v;G€LO-r|S . . . auTOtis
indicates the position of Mary in relation
to Joseph when her pregnancy was dis-
covered. Briefly it was — betrothed, not
married. nplv f| o-uv€\0€tv means before
they came together in one home as man
and wife, it being implied that that would
not take place before marriage. o-weXGciv
might refer to sexual intercourse, so far
as the meaning of the word is concerned
(Joseph. Antiq. vii. 9, 5), but the evange-
list would not think it necessary to state
that no such intercourse had taken place
between the betrothed. That he would
regard as a matter of course. Yet most

of the fathers so understood the word ;
and ."ime, Chrysostom, e.g., conceived
Josepn and Mary to be living together
before marriage, but sine concubitu, be-
lieving this to have been the usual
practice. Of this, however, there is no
satisfactory evidence. The sense above
assigned to o-uveX. corresponds to the
verb TrapaXa.p«!v, ver. 20, TrapeXa^c, ver.
24, which means to take home, domum
ducere. The supposed reason for the
practice alleged to have existed by Chry-
sostjm and others was the protection of
the betrothed (81/ do-<j>dXeiav, Euthy.).
Grammarians (vide Fritzsche) say that
•rrplv i] is not found in ancient Attic,
though often in middle Attic. For other
instances of it. with infinitive, vide Mk.
xiv. 30, Acts vii. 2 ; without •rj, Mt.
xxvi. 34, 75. On the construction of
•n-piv with the various moods, vide Her-
mann ed. Viger, Klotz ed. Devarius, and
Goodwin's Syntax. — eips'Gij . . . ^ovcra:
€{ip«'Grj, not tjv. (So Olearius, Observ.
ad Ev. Mat., and other older inter-
preters.) There was a discovery and a
surj -ise. It was apparent (de Wette) ;
Sid to dirpoo-8oKT|Tov (Euthy.). To
whom apparent not indicated. Jerome
says : " Non ab alio inventa est nisi a
Joseph, qui pene licentia maritali futurae
uxoris omnia noverat". — in irv. dy. This
was not apparent ; it belonged to the
region of faith. The evangelist hastens
to add this explanation of a painful fact
to remove, as quickly as possible, all
occasion for sinister conjecture. The
expression points at once to immediate
divine causality, and to the holy character
of the effect : a solemn protest against
profane thoughts.

Ver. iq. I. 6 dvt|p : proleptic, imply-
ing possession of a husband's rights and
responsibilities. The betrothed man had
a duty in the matter SCuaios • • . Seiviia-

l8— 22.

EYAlTEAiON

QeiyfiaTicrai,* e(3ou\i]0Y] XdOpa 2 k diroXuacu aurqc. 20. TauTa 8e k vv >3'i3a;

auTOo ' eVSop-TjOefTOs, L8ou, dyyeXos Kupi'ou m KaT SVap ecJ>di'T] auTio, V k x ; j 2

Xt'ywv, " 'Io>o-q4>, utos Aa(3i8, p-T] <feopr)9rjs a TrapaXafleii' Mapidp. 3 j\ h , l ! s '

tt\v yui'aiKd ctou • to yap iv aurr) yefnr]0ei> e« n^eup.aTos ianv ' ch j*P- '*-. 4-

Aviou. 21. Te'ieTat 8e uldV, Kal ° KaXe'creis to oVoua auTOo 'lr)o-ou^'• l2 < J 3. '.?.
* ' ' as; xxvu.

auTos vdp CTUcrei Toy Xaoe (xutou dir6 twv duapTiw!/ auTwf. ' 22. '9-

' r n again ver.

Touto 8e oXof ye'yoyey, ira irXiripwOfj to p pTi0ei/ utto tou 4 Kupi'ou 8id *4-

* ' " ' o Lk. i. 13;

ii. 21.
pchap. ii. 15; iii. 3; xxii. 31

1 B and t^ 2 have the simple verb (8eiyu.cm<rai).

2 XaOpa. in W.H.

3 Mapiav in BL (W.H. text). The Mapiap, of the T. R. probably comes from the
history of Christ's birth in Luke i., ii.

4 The article ton before Kvpiov is omitted in the best MSS.

rbrai. He was in a strait betwixt two.
Being 8Ckcuos, just, righteous, a respecter
of the law, he could not overlook the
apparent fault ; on the other hand, loving
the woman, he desired to deal with her
as tenderly as possible: not wishing to
expose her (avT^v in an emphatic posi-
tion before 8«iyu.a.TCcrai — the loved one.
Weiss-Meyer). Some (Grotius, Fritz-
sche, etc.) take 8£kcuos in the sense of
bonitas or benignitas, as if it had been
dyaGds, so eliminating the element of con-
flict.— epovXf,9ii . . . aviTT|v. He finally
resolved on the expedient of putting her
away privately. The alternatives were
exposure by public repudiation, or quiet
cancelling of the bond of betrothal.
Affection chose the latter. 8«iyu.aTC<rai
does not point, as some have thought, to
judicial procedure with its penalty, death
by stoning. Xu0pa before diro\£crai is
emphatic, and suggests a contrast be-
tween two ways of performing the act
pointed at by airo\v<rai. Note the
synonyms 0^Xo>v and €|3ou\t|0t|. The
former denotes inclination in general,
the latter a deliberate decision between
different courses — maluit (vide on chapter
xi. 27).

Vv. 20-21. Joseph delivered from his
perplexity by angelic interposition. How
much painful, distressing, distracting
thought he had about the matter day and
night can be imagined. Relief came at
last in a dream, of which Marj was the
subject. — Taih-a . . . €v0vu.Ti0evTO$ : 'he
genitive absolute indicates the time of
the vision, and the verb the state of
mind : revolving the matter in thought
without clear perception of outlet.
Tavro, the accusative, not the genitive
with ir«p( : «v0. irepd tivos = Cogitare de
re, Iv0. ti = aliauid secum reputare.

Kiihner, § 417, 9. — l8ov : often in Mt
after genitive absolute ; vivid introduc-
tion of the angelic appearance (Weiss
Pvleyer). — kcit' ovap (late Greek con-
demned by Phrynichus. Vide Lobeck
Phryn., p. 423. ovap, without pre-
position, thq classic equivalent), during a
dream reflecting present distractions. —
mos Aa-PCS : the angel addresses Joseph
as son of David to awaken the heroic
mood. The title confirms the view that
the genealogy is that of Joseph. — u/f)
<|>op-q0fjs : he is summoned to a supreme
act of faith similar to those performed by
the moral heroes of the Bible, who by
faith made their lives sublime. — ri\v
ywaiKa trov : to take Mary, as thy wife,
so in ver. 24 — to . . . dyCov : negativing
the other alternative by which he was
tormented. The choice lies between
two extremes : most unholy, or the holi-
est possible. What a crisis ! — ver. 21.
Tt£«Tcu — 'It)o-ovv: Mary is about to bear
a son, and He is to bear the significant
name of Jesus. The style is an echo ot
O. T. story, Gen. xvii. 19, Sept., the
birth of Isaac and that of Jesus being
thereby placed side by side as similar in
their preternatural character. — KaXe'o-«? ':
a command in form of a prediction. But
there is encouragement as well as com-
mand in this future. It is meant to
help Joseph out of his doubts into a mood
of heroic, resolute action. Cease from
brooding anxious thought, think of the
child about to be born as destined to a
great career, to be signalised by His name
Jesus — Jehovah the helper. — av-rbs
yap . . . d|AapT«ov auTwv : interpretation of
the name, still part of the angelic speech,
a-u-ros emphatic, he and no other. ap.apT.,
sins, implying a spiritual conception of
Israel's need.

KATA MATUA10JN

I. 23-25.

q Is. vii. 14. tou irpcxfnjTOu, Xeyovro'i, 23. q " loou, iq TrapOeVos iv yaaTpt e^ei Kal

W^€Tai uloV, Kal xaXe'crouffi 1 to 6Voua auTOu 'EuuayourjX," o ean

r Mk. v. 41 ; r ueflepp.rii'euop.eyoy, Me0' rtixCiv 6 06os. 24. AievepQeis 2 8e 6 3

XV. 32 34.

John i. 42. lu)o~)]<|> diro tou Stvvou eTroiTp7€i> ws irpocreTa^ev auTui 6 ayY 6 ^ ?
• Lk. i. 34. Kupi'ou • Kal irapeXaPe tt)»' y *' "* 01 auTOu, 25. Kal ouk * iyivucrKCv

OUT)']k, £0)9 OU 4 CT6K6 TO^ 6 OlOt' aUTTJS TOC TTpWTOTOKOV " & Kal tKClXtat

t6 ofopa auTou IHZOYN.

1 D has KaXeo-tis as in Sept. ver. of Is. vii. 14.

1 Here again, as in ver. 19, the simple verb eyip9n% is used instead of the com-
pound of T. R. in the best texts (^BCZ).

3 o omitted in i^ZA al., bracketed in W.H.

4 ov is omitted in B and bracketed in W.H.

8 Instead of the words tov viov avTtjs tov irpwTOTOKov, fc^BZ 1, 33, some old Latin
MSS., the Egyptian versions and Syr. Cur., have simply viov. The expanded
phrase of T. R., found in many copies, is doubtless imported from Lk, ii. 7.

The prophetic reference.

> the evangelist's habit to cite

Vv. 22-23
As it

O. T. prophecies in connection with
leading incidents in the life of Jesus, it
is natural, with most recent interpreters,
to regard these words, not as uttered
by the angel, but as a comment of
the narrator. The ancients, Chry.,
Theophy., Euthy. , etc., adopt the for-
mer view, and Weiss-Meyer concurs,
while admitting that in expression they
reveal the evangelist's style. In support
of this, it might be urged that the sug-
gestion of the prophetic oracle to the
mind of Joseph would be an aid to faith.
It speaks of a son to be born of a virgin.
Why should not Mary be that virgin, and
her child that son ? In favour of it also
is the consideration that on the opposite
view the prophetic reference comes in
too soon. Why should not the evangelist
go on to the end of his story, and then
quote the prophetic oracle ? Finally, if
we assume that in the case of all objec-
tive preternatural manifestations, there
is an answering subjective psychological
state, we must conclude that among the
thoughts that were passing through
Joseph's mind at this crisis, one was
that in his family experience as a " son
of David," something of great importance
for the royal race and for Israel was
about to happen. The oracle in question
might readily suggest itself as explaining
the nature of the coming event. On all
these grounds, it seems reasonable to
conclude that the evangelist, in this case,
means the prophecy to form part of the
angelic utterance.

Ver. 22. tovto Se . . . Iva •trX.t]pa>9'>j.
iva is to be taken here, and indeed al-

ways in such connections, in its strict
telic sense. The interest of the evan-
gelist, as of all N. T. writers, in prophecy,
was purely religious. For him O. T.
oracles had exclusive reference to the
events in the life of Jesus by which
they were fulfilled. The virgin, t|
irapOe'vos, supposed to be present to the
eye of the prophet, is the young woman
of Nazareth betrothed to Joseph the
carpenter, now found to be with child. —
MooC . . . 'Eu.p,avovVj\ : in the oracle
as here quoted, %i (cf. i?x<»>cra, ver. 18),
is substituted for \i]t|rerai, and KaXioreis
changed into the impersonal KaXe'o-ovo-i.
Emmanuel = " with us God," implying
that God's help will come through the
child Jesus. It does not' necessarily im-
ply the idea of incarnation.

V~<, 24-25. Joseph hesitates no more:
immediate energetic action takes the
place of painful doubt. Euthymius
asks : Why did he so easily trust the
dream in so great a matter ? and an-
swers : because the angel revealed to
him the thought of his own heart, for he
understood that the messenger must
have come from God, for God alone
knows the thoughts of the heart. —
«Y«p6d.s • • . KvpCov : rising up from
the sleep (to-u ■Cirvov), in which he had
that remarkable dream, on that memor-
able night, he proceeded forthwith to
execute the Divine command, the first,
chief, perhaps sole business of that day.
— Kal irapeXaPcv . . . aurov. He took
Mary home as his wife, that her off-
spring might be his legitimate son and
heir of David's throne. — Ver. 25. Kal
ovk eytvaa-Kev . . . vtov : absolute habitual
(note the imperfect) abstinence from

II. 1.

EYArTEAION

II. I. Tou Se ^Irjaou Y em l6^TOS iv Bn,0\eep. rr\<s 'louSaias, ei"* a S ain in

♦ju-epcus 'HpciSou tou {3acu\ews, i8ou, ' ixdyoi diro b avarokiov {bis). Acts

xiii. 6, 8.
b chap. viiL 11 ■ xxiv. 27. Lk. xiii. 29

marital intercourse, the sole purpose of
the hastened marriage being to legitimise
the child. — io>s • not till then, and after-
wards ? Here comes in a qucestio vexata
of theology. Patristic and catholic
authors say : not till then and never at
all, guarding the sacredness of the virgin's
womb. &os does not settle the question.
It is easy to cite instances of its use as
fixing a limit up to which a specified
event did not occur, when as a matter of
fact it did not occur at all. E.g., Gen.
viii. 7 ; the raven returned not till the
waters were dried up ; in fact, never re-
turned (Schanz). But the presumption is
all the other way in the case before us.
Subsequent intercourse was the natural,
if not the necessary, course of things.
If the evangelist had felt as the Catholics
do, he would have taken pains to prevent
misunderstanding. — vtdv : the extended
reading (T. R.) is imported from Luke
ii. 7, where there are no variants.
irpcoTOTOKOv is not a stumbling-block to
the champions of the perpetual virginity,
because the first may be the only.
Euthymius quotas in proof Isaiah xliv. 6 :
" I am the first, and I am the last, and be-
side Me there is no God." — itcd eKaXeo-ev,
he (not she) called the child Jesus, the
statement referring back to the command
of the angel to Joseph. Wunsche says
that before the Exile the mother, after
the Exile the father, gave the name to
the child at circumcision (Neue Beitrdge
zur Erlauterung der Evangelien, p. n).

Chapter II. History of the In-
fancy continued. The leading aim of
the evangelist in this chapter is not to
give biographic details as to the time
and place of Christ's birth. These are
disposed of in an introductory subordinate
clause with a genitive absolute construc-
tion : "Jesus being born in Bethlehem
of Judaea in the days of Herod the
King " : that is all. The main purpose
is to show the reception given by the
world to the new-born Messianic King.
Homage from afar, hostility at home ;
foreshadowing the fortunes of the new
faith : acceptance by the Gentiles, re-
jection by the Jews ; such is the lesson
of this new section. It is history, but
not of the prosaic sort : history with a
religious bias, and wearing a halo of
poetry. The story forms a natural
sequel to the preceding account. The

Z\ in ver. 1, as in i. 18, is adversative
only to the extent of taking the attention
off one topic and fixing it on another
connected and kindred. This, according
to Klotz, who regards 8J as a weak form
of 8r], is the original force of the particle.
He says (in Devarius, p. 355) : " Ilia
particula earn vim habet, ut abducat nos
ab ea re, quae proposita est, transferat-
que ad id quod, missa ilia priore re, jam
pro vero ponendum esse videatur ".

Vv. 1-12. Visit of the Magi. Ver.
1. iv Btj8X«u.: The first hint of the
birthplace, and no hint that Bethle-
hem is not the home of the family. —
Tfjs MovSaCas : to distinguish it from
another Bethlehem in Galilee (Zebulon),
named in Joshua xix. 15. Our Bethle-
hem is called Bethlehem-Judah in 1
Sam. xvii. 12, and Jerome thought it
sho^id be so written here — Bethlehem
of Judah, not of Judaea, taking the latter
for the name of the whole nation. The
name means "house of bread," and
points to the fertility of the neighbour-
hood ; about six miles south of Jerusalem.
— ev T|u.€pcus, " in the days," a very
vague indication of time. Luke aims at
more exactness in these matters. It is
enough for our evangelist to indicate
that the birth of Jesus fell within the
evil time represented by Herod. A name
of evil omen ; called the Great ; great in
energy, in magnificence, in wickedness;
a considerable personage in many ways
in the history of Israel, and of the world.
Not a Jew, his father Antipater an
Edomite, his mother an Arabian — the
sceptre has departed from Judah —
through the influence of Antony ap-
pointed King of Judaea by the Roman
senate about forty years before the birth
of Christ. The event here recorded
therefore took place towards the close
of his long reign ; fit ending for a career
blackened with many dark deeds. — l8ov
|xa-yoi : " Behold 1 " introducing in a
lively manner the new theme, and a
very different class of men from the
reigning King of Judaea. Herod, Magi ;
the one representing the ungodly ele
ment in Israel, the other the best element
in the Gentile world ; Magi, not kings
as the legend makes them, but having
influence with kings, and intermeddling
much by astrological lore with the for-
tunes of individuals and peoples. The

7 o

KATA MAT9AI0N

II.

c Acis xiii. • irapeytVok'TO €i$ 'fepoo-oXupa, 2. Xe'yorres, M l"lou itrriv 6 tcxOciS
same fJautXeus Twc 'louSai'wk ; tiSojiey yap auTOu Toy daTcpa eV ttj

d TV. 7, y, i , wiv. 2y. i Cor. xv. 41.

homage of the Gentiles could not be
offered by worthier representatives, in
whom power, wisdom, and also error,
superstition meet. — |xdyoi airb dvar.
-rrapey., Magi from the east came — so
the words must be connected : not
" came from the east " ; from the east,
the land of the sunrise ; vague indication
of locality. It is vain to inquire what
precise country is meant, though com-
mentators have inquired, and are divided
into hostile camps on the point: Arabia,
Persia, Media, Babylon, Parthia are
some of the rival suggestions. The
evangelist does not know or care. The
east generally is the suitable part of the
world for Magi to come from on this
errand. — els 'Upoo-o\vp,a : they arrived
at Jerusalem, the capital, the natural
place for strangers to come to, the precise
spot connected with their errand to be
determined by further inquiry. Note
the Greek form of the name, usual with
Matthew, Mark and John. In Luke,
the Hebrew form ' Upovo-aX^p. is used.
Beforehand, one would have expected
the first evangelist writing for Jews to
have used the Hebrew form, and the
Pauline evangelist the Greek.

Ver. 2, -rrov . . . MovSaCtov: the in-
quiry of the Magi. It is very laconic,
combining an assertion with a question.
The assertion is contained in rex^els.
That a king of the Jews had been born
was their inference from the star they
had seen, and what they said was in
effect thus : that a king has been
born somewhere in this land we know
from a star we have seen arising, and
we desire to know where he can be
found : " insigne hoc concisae orationis
exemplum," Fritzsche. The Messianic
hope of the Jews, and the aspiration
after world-wide dominion connected
with it, were known to the outside
world, according to the testimony of
non-Christian writers such as Josephus
and Tacitus. The visit of the Magi in
quest of the new-born king is not in-
credible. — ei8op.ev . . . ev tt) dvaroXv), we
saw His star in its rising, not in the east,
as in A. V., the plural being used for
that in ver. 1. Always on the outlook, no
heavenly phenomenon escaped them ; it
was visible as soon as it appeared above
the horizon. — do-Te'pa, what was this
celestial portent ? Was it phenomenal

only ? an appearance in the heavens
miraculously produced to guide the wise
men to Judaea and Bethlehem ; or a
real astronomical object, a rare con-
junction of planets, or a new star
appearing, and invested by men addicted
to astrology with a certain significance ;
or mythical, neither a miraculous nor a
natural phenomenon, but a creation of
the religious imagination working on
slender data, such as the Star of Jacob
in Balaam's prophecies ? All these views
have been held. Some of the fathers,
especially Chrysostom, advocated the
first, viz., that it v> % star, not <j>vo-ci,
but £i|sci p.dvov. H. Masons were such
as these : it moved from north to south ;
it appeared in the daytime while the
sun shone ; it appeared and disappeared ;
it descended down to the house where
the child lay, and so indicated the spot,
which could not be done by a star in
the sky (Horn. vi.). Some modern com-
mentators have laid under contribution
the investigations of astronomers, and
supposed the &o-Trjp to have been one
of several rare conjunctions of planets
occurring about the beginning of our
era or a comet observed in China. Vide
the elaborate note in Alford's Greek
Testament. The third view is in favour
with students of comparative religion
and of criticism, who lay stress on the
tact that in ancient times the appearance
of a star was expected at the birth of
all great men (De Wette), and who
expect mythological elements in the
N. T. as well as in the Old. {Vide
Fritzsche, Strauss, L.J., and Holtzmann
in H. C.) These diverse theories will pro-
bably always find their abettors ; the first
among the devout to whom the mirac-
ulous is no stumbling-block, the second
among those who while accepting the
miraculous desire to reduce it to a min-
imum, or at least to avoid its unneces-
sary extension, the third among men of
naturalistic proclivities. I do not profess
to be able to settle the question. I
content myself with expressing general
acquiescence in the idea thrown out by
Spinoza in his discussion on prophecy
in the Tractatus theologico-politicus, that
-in the case of the Magi we have an
instance of a sign given, accommodated
to the false opinions of men, to guide
them to the truth. The whole system

2—5-

EYAITEAION

e dyaToXfl, Kal v)\0ofie>' irpoffKu^crai auT<5." 3. 'AkoiWs 8e c a g a ?n ver.

HpwStis 6 PctcnXeus 1 ' iTapd\Qy\, Kal irdtra MepotxoXuij.a wet' auTOu ■ ' ■'■

„ the sense

4. Kai g aufavayui' TTdcras tous dpxtepsis Kal vpaapaTeis tou Xaou, o{ «sing)-

h»A» >»- «c f chap. xiv.

eTruvoaye-ro Trap auTwe, ttou o Xpicrros vewciTai. K- 01 Se eliroi'" 2 26- Lki -

,..,.. i2- 1 Pet.

m. 14. g chap. xxii. 10. John xi. 47. Acts xiv. 37. h Cf. Acts xxiii. 40 (ri *epL tivos)-

1 o Pa<riX€vs HpwSi]s in j^BDZ. In the T. R. the order of the words is conformed
to that in ver. 1.

2 ctirav in fc$B. All such forms have been corrected in the text which the T. R.
represents and need not be further noticed.

of astrology was a delusion, yet it might
be used" by Providence to guide seekers
after God. The expectation of an epoch-
making birth was current in the east,
spread by Babylonian Jews. That it
might interest Magians there is no wise
incredible ; that their astrological lore
might lead them to connect some un-
known celestial phenomenon with the
prevalent expectation is likewise credible.
On the other hand, that legendary ele-
ments might get mixed up in the Chris-
tian tradition of the star-guided visit
must be admitted to be possible. It
remains to add that the use of the word
axTTjp, not ao-Tpdv, has been supposed
to have an important bearing on the
question as to the nature of the phe-
nomenon. ao-TTjp means an individual
star, aerrpov a constellation. But in the
N. T. this distinction is not observed.
(Vide Luke xxi. 25 ; Acts xxvii. 20 ; Heb.
xi. 12 ; and Grimm's Lexicon on the two
words.)

Ver. 3. 6 Bao-iXeis ' HpwSvjs tTapdvJh] :
paoriXsvs beiore the name, not after, as
in ver. 1, the emphatic position suggest-
ing that it was as king and because king
that Herod was troubled. The foreigner
and usurper feared a rival, and the
tyrant feared the rival would be wel-
come. It takes little to put evil-
doers in fear. He had reigned long,
men were weary, and the Pharisees,
according to Joseph (A. J. xvii. 2-4),
had predicted that his family would
ere long lose its place of power. His
fear therefore, though the occasion may
seem insignificant, is every way cred-
ible. — tea! Trdo-a L, doubtless an exag-
geration, yet substantially true. The
spirit of the city was servile and selfish.
They bowed to godless power, and cared
for their own interest rather than for
Herod's. Few in that so-called holy
city had healthy sympathies with truth
and right. Whether the king's fears
were groundless or not they knew not
nor cared. It was enough that the fears

existed. The world is ruled not by truth
but by opinion. — -.racra : s .'i£poa:aXvu.a
feminine here, or is vj irdXts understood?
or is it a construction, ad sensnm, of the
inhabitants ? (Schanz).

Ver. 4. Herod's measures. — Kal
o~uva"ya"ywv . . . toO XaoC. Was this a
meeting of the Sanhedrim ? Not likely,
as the elders are not "uentioned, who
are elsewhere named as the repre-
sentatives of the people, vide xxvi.
3, " the chief priests, scribes and elders
of the people ". Here we read only
of the chief priests and scribes of the
people. The article is not repeated
before ■ypap.p.aTeis, the two classes being
joined together as the theological ex-
perts of the people. Herod called
together the leading men among the
priests and scribes to consult them as to
the birth-place of Messiah. Holtzmann
(H. C), assuif t .ng that a meeting of the
Sanhedrim is meant, uses the fact as an
argument against the historicity of the
narrative. The Herod of history slew
the Sanhedrists wholesale, and did his
best to lull to sleep Messianic hopes. It
is only the Herod ot Christian legend
that convenes the Sanhedrim, and makes
anxious inquiries about Messiah's birth-
place. But the past policy of the king
and his present action, as reported by
the evangelist, hang together. He dis-
couraged Messianic hopes, and, now that
they have revived in spite of him, he
must deal with them, and his first step
is to consult the experts in as quiet away
as possible, to ascertain the whereabouts
of the new-born child — €iruv9avero, etc. :
it is not a historical question he submits
to the experts as to where the Christ
has been born, or shall be, but a theo-
logical one : where, according to the ac-
cepted tradition, is His birth-place ?
Hence ■ytvvc.-.-ai, present tense.

Vv. 5-6. The answer oj the experts. —
01 8£ tlirov, etc. This is not a Chris-
tian opinion put into the mouth oi the
scribes. It was the answer to be ex-

K \T A MATBAION

II.

jnflUb'vii. a " T< ^' "'^ Br l^ E «f* T ilS 'louoaiac;. outoj yap yeypa-nrai Sid roo

sense me 7T P°4> , l TOU > 6. ' Kal cru, Br|9Xeeu,, yr] 'lou&a, ' ououjacos tXaxiorrj et

Ct c7Lk e ' 1 ' T0 ^ s ^yep-daiy 'louSa • JK aou yap e^eXeutxeTai k ^youLici'os,

xxil. 26. ocms ' iroi.uai'ci rov XadV pou tow 'lo-par^X." 7. Totc 'HpGjSrjs,

16. Acts Xa0pa 1 KaXe'cras tous pdyous, m rjKpipaxre Trap' auTwe to^ XP'^ *'

Pet. v. 2. too AatroaeVou daTcpos, 8. Kal ire'iid/as auTous eis Bri0Xe€u. eiire,
m here and

in ver. 16. " nopCU0£VT€S n aKpiGis ° €^€TaoraTC " TTepl TOU iraioiou • v eirdf 8e
n kk. '-3' / o )

Actswiii. €upr)T€, dirayyeiXaTe' poi, ottcjs Kdyw eXGwf TrpoaKucrjacj auTui."

Thess. v. a o chap. x. 11. John xxi. 12. p Lk. xi. 22, 34 (with aor. sub.)-

1 XaOpo. as in i. 19 in W.H.

1 t^tTaaoTt aKpiBws in fr^BCD, which accords with Mt.'s usual order.

pected from them as reflecting the current
opinion of the time. The Targum put
upon the oracle in Micah a Messianic
interpretation (Wetstein, and Wiinsche,
Beitrage). Yet with the Talmudists the
Messiah was the one who should come
forth from a strange, unknown place
(Weber, Die Lehren des Talmud, p. 342).
Vide on this point Schanz, who quotes
Schegg as denying the statement of
Wetstein, and refers to Celsus as object-
ing that this view ^bout Messiah's birth-
place was not cun-ent among the Jews.
(Origen, c. Celsunt, i. 51. Cf. John vii.
27, and 42.) — oCtoi yh.p ■ycYpa'n-Ta.i., etc. :
The Scripture proof that Messiah's
birth-place was Bethlehem is taken from
Micah v. 2. The oracle put into the
mouth of the experts consulted by Herod
receives its shape from the hand of the
evangelist. It varies very considerably
both from the original Hebrew and
from the Sept. The "least" becomes
"by no means the least," "among the
thousands " becomes " among the
princes," and the closing clause, "who
shall rule my people Israel,' departs
from the prophetic oracle altogether,
and borrows from 2 Sam. v. 2, God's
promise to David ; the connecting link
apparently being the poetic word de-
scriptive of the kingly function common
to the two places— iroiwavti in Micah
v. 3, 7roip.aveis in 2 Sam. v. 2.
The second variation arises from a
different pointing of the same Hebrew

word 1Q7N1, " i ij7^1 = among the

thousands, "'57^2 = among the heads

of thousands. Such facts are to be
taken as they stand. They do not cor-
respond to modern ideas of Scripture
proof.

Vv. 7, 8. Herod's next step. — r6rt
'HptoSvis . . . ao-repos : totc, frequent
formula of transition with our evangelist,
cf. vv. 16, 17; iv. 1, 5, 11, etc. Herod
wished to ascertain precisely when the
child the Magi had come to worship was
born. He assumed that the event would
synchronise with the ascent of the star
which the Magi had seen in its rising,
and which still continued to be seen
(<jjai.vop.cVov). Therefore he made par-
ticular inquiries (i^KpiBtoo-e) as to the
time of the star, i.e., the time of its first
appearing. This was a blind, an affec-
tation of great interest in all that related
to the child, in whose destinies even the
stars were involved.— Ver. 8. Kal 7T£p.\J/as
. . . aviT<i : his hypocrisy went further.
He bade the strangers go to Bethlehem,
find out the whereabouts of the child,
come back and tell him, that he also
might go and worship Him. Worship,
i.e., murder ! " Incredible motive 1 "
(H.C.). Yes, as a real motive for a
man like Herod, but not as a pretended
one, and quite likely to be believed by
these simple, guileless souls from the
east. — ■jrEp.xJ/as elite : the sending was
synchronous with the directions accord-
IriglrTDeWefte, prior accordingto Meyer.
It is a question of no importance here,
but it is sometimes an important ques-
tion in what relation the action expressed
by the aorist participle stands to that
expressed by the following finite verb.
The rule certainly is that the participle
expresses an action going before : one
thing having happened, another there-
after took place. But there is an impor-
tant class of exceptions. The aorist
participle " may express time coincident
with that of the verb, when the actions
of the verb and the participle are prac-
tically one ". Goodwin, Syntax, p. 52,
and vide article there referred to by

-II.

EYAITEAION

Q. Ot Se dKOuaai-Tes tou Sao-iXe'ws iiropevQ-naav • Kal ISou, 6 daTrtP, 3 Mk - *■ 32.
* ~ ^It. xx '- 9

or elooi' iv ttj draToXfj, * TrpoTwcr auTOus, eus eX9we earn 1 r tirdyw <™ ith a *>-

* <*■ tw c TovW.M.)

ou t]k to TTaiOioc. io. loorres 8e to^ dore'pa, ex a P Y ] <mi ' X a P a,/ r Ch ' v " I4

p.e.y6iky]v •ff<j>68pa- IX. Kal eXOorres cis ttji/ oiKiay, cupoi' 2 to xxiii. i8.

sCh. xvii. 6,
23 ; xviii. 31 ; xix. 25 ; xxvi. 22 ; xxvii. 54.

1 co-TaBr] in J^BCD.

2 aSov in all uncials, evpov only in minusc. Came in probably from ver. 8 (eupr]T€).

Prof. Ballantine in Bibl. Sacra., 1884,
on the application of this rule to the
N. T., in which many instances of the
kind occur. Most frequent in the Gospels
is the expression diroKpiGels dire, which
does not mean " having first answered
he then proceeded to say," but "in
answering he said ". The case before
us may be one of this kind. He sent
them by saying " Go and search," etc.

Vv. 9, 10. The Magi go on their
errand to Bethlehem. They do not know
the way, but the star guides them.
l8oi» 6 do-Tt^p: looking up to heaven as
they set out on their journey, they once
more behold their heavenly guide. — ov
elSov «. t. dvaToA/jj : is the meaning
that they had seen the star only at its
rising, finding their way to Jesus with-
out its guidance, and that again it
appeared leading, them to Bethlehem ?
So Bengel, and after him Meyer. Against
this is <j>aivop,evou, ver. 7, which implies
continuous visibility. The clause ov
cISov, etc., is introduced for the purpose
of identification. It was their celestial
guide appearing again. — irpoTJyev : it
kept going before them (imperfect) all
the way till, arriving at Bethlehem, it
took up its position (Io-tcL0t]) right over
the spot where the child was. The star
seemed to go before them by an optical
illusion (Weiss-Meyer) ; it really, in the
view of the evangelist, went before and
stopped over the house (De Wette, who, of
course, regards this as impossible in fact).
Ver. 10, ISovTes 8£ . . . x a pdv peydXirjv
cr<{>d8pa: seeing the star standing over
the sacred spot, they were overjoyed.
Their quest was at an end ; they had
at last reached the goal of their long
journey. trtjjoSpa, a favourite word of
our evangelist, and here very appropriate
after pe-yaXir]v to express exuberant glad-
ness, ecstatic delight. On the convoy of
the star, Fritzsche remarks : " Fuit certe
stellae pompa tarn gravi tempore digna ".
Some connect the seeing of the star in
ver. 10 with the beginning of the journey
from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. They re-
joiced, says Euthy. Zig. <Ls e-updvTts tov
a.f'CiiSea'TaTOv oStj^ov

Ver. 11. The Magi enter anddo homage.
— Kal e. t. r. olxlav : the house. In Luke
the shepherds find the holy family in a
stable, and the holy child lying in a man-
ger ; reconcilable by assuming that the
Magi arrived after they had found refuge
in a friend's house (Epiphan. Theophy.).
— eiSov t. it. . . . cuitov : tISov better than
evpov, which seems to have been intro-
duced by the copyists as not only in itself
suitable to the situation, but relieving the
monotony caused by too frequent use of
elSov (vv. 9, 10). The child with His
mother, Joseph not mentioned, not in-
tentionally, that no wrong suspicions
might occur to the Gentiles (Rabanus
in Aquin. Cat. Aur.). — Kal irecrdvTcs . . .
c-ptipvav. They come, eastern fashion,
with full hands, as befits those who enter
into the presence of a king. They open
the boxes or sacks (Oqo-avpovs, some
ancient copies seem to have read Tnfjpas
= sacculos, which Grotius, with proba-
bility, regards as an interpretative gloss
that had found its way into the text, vide
Epiphanius Adv. Hun: Alogi., c. 8), and
bring forth gold , frankincense and myrrh,
the two latter being aromatic gums dis-
tilled from trees. — XiPavov: in classic
Greek, the tree, in later Greek and
N. T., the gum, to Ovpiwpevov =
Xi(3av&>Tos, vide Phryn. ed. Lobeck, p.
187. The gifts were of three kinds, hence
the inference that the Magi were three in
number. That they were kings was de-
duced from texts in Psalms and Prophe-
cies {e.g., Psalm lxxii. 10, Isaiah lx. 3),
predicting that kings would come doing
homage and bringing gifts to Messiah.
The legend of the three kings dates as far
back as Origen, and is beautiful but base-
less. It grew with time ; by-and-by the
kings were furnished with names. The
legendary spirit loves definiteness. The
gifts would be products of the givers'
country, or in high esteem and costly
there. Hence the inference drawn by
some that the Magi were from Arabia.
Thus Grotius : " Myrrha nonnisi in
Arabia nascitur, nee thus nisi apud
Jabaeos Arabum portionem : sed et auri-
iera est felix Arabia ". Gold and incense

KATA MAT0A10JN

ii.

t C/. vi. 19-
ti. Lk.
xii. 33.
Heb. xi.

.0 { = con-
tent u>n).
u Rev. xviii.

'3-
v John xix.

39-
w Lk. x. 6.

Acts xviii.

si. Heb.

xi. 15.
x vv. 14, 22 ;

iv. is; ix.

24; xii. 15.

al.

waiSioy jjieTa Mapiac, tijs pjTpos auTou, Kal itta6vj*% iipoa€Kun]aae
aurw, Kai d^oi^avrts touc, ' Oijaaupouc aurCiv Trpoa/|i'eyKav <iutw
Suipa, xpvobv Kal u Xif3avoe Kal v afxupvav. 12. Kal xp^P-UTttfOeVTts
kot oVap pi w deaKau<j/ai irpos 'HpwSYjK, 81' dXXns 680C x &vexu>pi)uav
els T?)k x«pa^ aoTWk.

13. ' Ava.)(wpr]oavT(i)V 8e auTWP, i8ou, dyyeXos Kupiou (JmiYtTai
kot' ovap 1 tw '\u>vr)$, \4yuv, "'EyEpfJels TrapdXaJ3e to TraiSioy Kal
■ri]k pujTe'pa auTou, Kal (J>euye ^19 AiyimTOi', Kal ia0i ^kci ews a>
eiirw aoi • pieXXei yap 'HpwS^s JvjTelV to iraiSioi', too d-iroXeWi
auro. 14. O Se eyepOels irapeXape to TTaioiOk Kal TT)f p.rjTe'pa
auTou i'uktos, Kai dvc^(Jjpr\crev €19 AiyuirToy, 15. Kal i\v ekel e'ws

1 B has kct cvap e<f>avv] as in i. 20 (W.H. margin).

(XifJavo*;) are mentioned in Isaiah Ix. 6
among the gifts to be brought to Israel
in the good time coming. The fathers
delighted in assigning to these gifts of the
Magi mystic meanings : gold as to a
king, incense as to God, myrrh as to
one destined to die (u>s jteXXovn •ysvera-
cr8ai OavaTOv). Grotius struck into a
new line: gold = works of mercy; incense
= prayer ; myrrh = purity — to the dis-
gust of Fritzsche, who thought such
mystic interpretations beneath so great
a scholar.

Ver. 12. Their pious errand fulfilled, the
Magi, warned to keep out of Herod's way,
return home by another road. — xpt|p.cvrur-
0«vt€s points to divine guidance given in
a dream (kot fivap) ; responso accepto,
Vulg. The passive, in the sense of a
divine oracle given, is found chiefly
in N. T. (Fritzsche after Casaubon).
Was the oracle given in answer to a
prayer for guidance ? Opinions differ.
It may be assumed here, as in the case of
Joseph (i. 20), that the Magi had anxious
thoughts corresponding to the divine
communication. Doubts had arisen in
their minds about Herod's intentions.
They had, doubtless, heard something of
his history and character, and his man-
ner on reflection may have appeared
suspicious. A skilful dissembler, yet not
quite successful in concealing his hidden
purpose even from these guileless men.
Hence a sense of need of guidance, if not
a formal petition for it, may be taken for
granted. Divine guidance comes only to
prepared hearts. The dream reflects the
antecedent state of mind.— \iA\ ava.Kdu.ij/cu,
not to turn back on their steps towards
Jerus. and Herod. Fritzsche praises the
felicity of this word as implying that
to go by Jerusalem was a roundabout

for travellers from Bethlehem in the east.
Apart from the question of fact, such a
thought does not seem to be in the mind
of the evangelist. He is thinking, not of
the shortest road, but of avoiding Herod
— ave^wpucrav, they withd'ew not only
homewards, but away from Herod's
neighbourhood. A word of frequent
occurrence in our Gospel, four times in
this chapter (vv. 13, 14, 22).

Vv. 13-23. Flight to Egypt, massacre in
Bethlehem, return to Nazareth. These
three stories have one aim. They indi-
cate the omens which appear in begin-
nings — omnia principiis inesse solcnt
(Ovid). The fortunes of Christianity
foreshadowed in the experiences of the
holy child : welcomed by Gentiles, evil
entreated by Jews. " The real contents
of these sections embody an ideal aim "
(Schanz).

Vv. 13-15. Flight to Egypt. Ver. 13.
<J>aiv€Tai: assuming that this is the cor-
rect reading, the flight to Egypt is
represented as following close on the
departure of the Magi ; the historic
present, vividly introducing one scene
after another. A subjective state of
anxiety is here also to be presumed.
Whence arising we can only conjecture.
Did the Magi give a hint, mentioning
Herod's name in a significant manner ?
Be that as it may, Joseph also gets the
necessary direction. — 'E-y«p8tls ... els
Aivvittov : Egypt — near, friendly, and
the refuge of Israel's ancestors in days
of old, if also their house of bondage.—
wapdXo.pe, take with a view to taking
care of (cf. John i. 11, "His own re-
ceived Him not," irapsXa |3ov) ; benigne,
Fritzsche— ?«s • • • croi : either gene-
rally, till I give thee further orders
(FriUsche) ; or till I tell thee to return

12 — 17»

EYAITEATON

tt]s y TeXeuTVjS 'HpoJoou • iVa Tr\t]p(jjQfi to pr\Qkv utto tou 1 Kupiou
Sid tou TTpocjsviTou, Xe'yoyTos, "'E£ AtyuirTou eKaXeaa tov uloV fiou."
1 6. ToTe 'HpciSiqs, lowi' oti * ive-naLxQy) utto twi/ ady^y, * e0uu.w0T]
Xtay, Kal diroaTeiXas b dyeiXe irdcTas tous Traioas tous eV BT]0Xeep.
Kal ec Trdai tois c opiois auTrjs, diro d SieTous Kal KaTWTepw, KaTa
tom xpo 170 " o" T|Kpipa>o-e impd twi/ p.dywi'. 17. Totc eTrXrjpwOr] to

Gen. xxx. 2. b Lk. xxii. 2 ; xxiii. 32 (Acts often). c Ch. iv. 13 ; viii. 34 ; xv. 22 ; xix.

only. Cf. Acts xxiv. 27.

y here only
in N. T.
Sept.
(Gen.
xxvii. 2)

fornix

z Ch. xx. ig;

xxvii. 41,

parall.
a here only

in N. T.
1. d here

1 fc^BCD, etc., omit tov.

(Meyer, Schanz) ; sense the same ; the
time of such new direction is left vague
(dv with sub.). — aeXXet, ydp : gives reason
of the command. — tov airoXco-ai avTo :
Herod's first purpose was to kill Mary's
child alone. He afterwards killed many
to make sure of the one. The genitive
of the infinitive to express purpose
belongs to comparatively late Greek.
It occurs constantly in the Sept. and
in N. T.— Ver. 14. 6 8£ eytpQels: Joseph
promptly executes the command, vvktos,
before the day, indicating alarm as well
as obedience. The words of the com-
mand in ver. 13 are repeated by the
evangelist in ver. 14 to emphasise the
obedient spirit of Joseph. — Ver. 15. Kal
rjv €K«i, etc. : the stay in Egypt cannot
have been long, only a few months,
probably, before the death of Herod
(Nosgen). — I'va TrXi]pa>0YJ : another pro-
phetic reference, this time proceeding
directly from the evangelist ; Hosea xi.
1, given after the Hebrew, not the Sept.,

which Tor ^33, nas T * Kva avTOv. The oracle

states a historical fact, and can therefore
only be a typical prophecy. The event
in the life of the infant Jesus may seem
an insignificant fulfilment. Not so did
it appear to the evangelist. For him all
events in the life of the Christ possessed
transcendent significance. Was it an
event at all ? criticism asks. Did the
fact suggest the prophetic reference, or
did the prophecy create the fact ? In
reply, be it said that the narratives in
this chapter of the Infancy all hang
together. If any one of them occurred,
all might occur. The main question is,
is Herod's solicitude credible ? If so,
then the caution of the Magi, the flight
to Egypt, the massacre at Bethlehem,
the return at the tyrant's death to
Nazareth, are all equally credible.

Vv. 16-18. The massacre. Tots:
ominous then. When he was certain
that the Magi were not going to come
back to report what they had found at

Bethlehem, Herod was enraged as one
who had been befooled (€V€iraix0T|). Mad-
dened with anger, he resolves on more
truculent measures than he at first in-
tended : kill all of a certain age to make
sure of the one — such is his savage order
to his obsequious hirelings. Incredible ?
Anything is credible of the man who
murdered his own wife and sons. This
deed shocks Christians ; but it was a
small affair in Herod's career, and in
contemporary history. — ev Bt)0. Kal Iv
iracri tois optois avTTjs, in Bethlehem, and
around in the neighbourhood, to make
quite sure. — dirb Sutovs Kal KaTWTe'pw :
the meaning is clear — all children from
an hour to two years old. But Sierovs
may be taken either as masculine, agree-
ing with irai86s understood = from a two-
year-old child, or as a neuter adjective
used as a noun = from the age of two
years, a bimatu as in Vulg. There are
good authorities on both sides. For a
similar phrase, vide 1 Chron. xxvii. 23, airb
£iKoo-a€To{is. Herod made his net wide
enough ; two years ensured an ample
margin. — KaTa t. \. . . . udywv. Euthy.
Zig. insists that these words must be con-
nected, not with 8i6tous, but with KaTM-
Te'pw, putting a comma after the former
word, and not after the latter. If, he
argues, Herod had definitely ascertained
from the Magi that the child must be
two years old, he would not have killed
those younger. They made Mary's child
younger ; Herod kept their time and
added a margin : irXaTo? «T«pov avrbs
Trpoo-e'0T]K€. It does not seem to matter
very much. Herod would not be very
scrupulous. He was likely to add a
margin in either case ; below if they
made the age two years, above if they
made it less. — Ver. 18 : still another pro-
phetic reference, Jerem. xxxi. 15, freely
reproduced from the Sept. ; pathetic and
poetic certainly, if the relevance be not
conspicuously apparent. The evangelist
introduces the prophetic passage in this
case, not with iva, but with totc (ver. 17),

KATA MATGAION

ii.

pi]6ev urro 1 'lepeuiou tou Trpodn'jTou, XeyovTos, 1 8. " Qwi) iv Pap.d
e Ch. xiii. tjkouo-Ot], OpTJ^os Kal 2 e KXau0p.6s Kal 6oupp.os ttoXus, 'Pa)(T]X
fa Cor.' vii. f KXaiouaa Ta TCKV'a aurfjs ■ Kal ouk fjSeXt 9 irapaKXr|0f|»'ai., on ouk

e with «cc. €i(Ti." 19. TcXeuTrjaarros oe tou 'HpoSoou, iSou, dyyeXos Kupiou

here only. , « , » . „ >, »»»»»< , ,, \ ' « >r *_

kot o^ap (pai^tTai * tw Iwcrfjep ev Aiyuirrw, 20. heywv, Eyepoeis

irapdXaf3e to TraiSioe Kal TTjy urjTe'pa auTou, Kal iropeuou cis yfji/

h Rom. xl. 3. 'lo-paf^X • TcS^Kaai yap 01 h £rjToGrr€s tt|V i|/uyjiv tou iraiSiou."

i Rev. v. 10 2 1. *0 8c eyepGVis TrapeXape to iraioiov Kal rr]v urjTe'pa auToC, Kal

and geno! TjXGek s els yr\v 'lapaqX. 22. dKOuaas oe oti 'Apxe'Xaos l {JaaxXeuei

1 81a in £>$BCD ; viro not ace. to style of Evang. (Weiss in Meyer).

2 0pi]vos Kai om. fr$BZ ; probably introduced to correspond with Sept.

3 T|9e\Tio-€ in DZ.

4 4>aiv«Tai tcaT ovap, fc«$BDZ.

5 tio-^XGev in ^BC.

suggesting a fulfilment not regarded as
exclusive. The words, even in their
original place, are highly imaginative.
The scene of Rachel weeping for her
children is one of several tableaux, which
passed before the prophet's eye in a
vision, in a dream which, on awaking,
he felt to be sweet. It was poetry to
begin with, and it is poetry here. Rachel
again weeps over her children ; hers,
because she was buried there, the pro-
phet's Ramah, near Gibeah, north of
Jerusalem, standing for Bethlehem as far
to the south. The prophetic passage
did not create the massacre ; the tradition
of the massacre recalled to mind the
prophecy, and led to its being quoted,
though of doubtful appositeness in a strict
sense. Jacob's beloved wife seems to
have occupied an imaginative place also
in Rabbinical literature. Wiinsche quotes
this from the Midrasch : " Why did Jacob
bury Rachel on the way to Ephratah or
Bethlehem ? (Gen. xxxv. 16). Because
he foresaw that the exiles would at some
future time pass that way, and he buried
her there that she might pray for them "
{Beitrage, p. 11). Rachel was to the
Hebrew fancy a mother for Israel in all
time, sympathetic in all her children's
misfortunes.

Vv. 19-21. Joseph's return. TeXevr-
^o-avTos Se t. *Hp: Herod died in 750
u.c. in his 70th year, at Jericho, of a
horrible loathsome disease, rotten in
body as in soul, altogether an unwhole-
some man {vide Joseph, Bell, i. 33,
1-5 ; Antiq., xvii. 6, 5 ; Euseb., H. E., i.
6, 8). The news of his death would fly
swiftly, and would not take long to
reach Egypt. There would be no need

of an angel to inform Joseph of the fact.
But his anxieties would not therefore be
at an end. Who was to succeed Herod ?
Might he not be another of the same
type ? Might disorder and confusion
not arise ? Would it be safe or wise to
return to Palestine ? Guidance was
again needed, desired, and obtained.
— l8ov ayyeXos . . . Xe'ywv : the guid-
ance is given once more in a dream
(kot' 6vap). The anxious thoughts of
the daytime are reflected in the dream
by night, and the angelic message comes
to put an end to uncertainty. — ver. 20.
'EyepOels . . • 'lo-paT|\: it is expressed in
the same terms as those of the message
directing flight to Egypt, except of
course that the land is different, and
the order not flee but return. "Arise,
take the child and His mother." The
words were as a refrain in the life of
Joseph in those critical months. — tcGvtj-
Kao-i yap : in this general manner is the
death of Herod referred to, as if in
studious avoidance of the dreaded name.
They are d3ad. The plural here (01
£t)tovvtcs), as often, expresses a general
idea, a class, though only a single person
is meant (vide Winer, § 27, 2, and
Exodus iv. 19). But the manner of ex-
pression may indicate a desire to dissi-
pate completely Joseph's apprehensions.
There is nothing, no person to fear : go !
Ver. 21. 6 8e rycpOels . . . Mo-paTjX :
prompt obedience follows, but vuktos
(ver. 14) is omitted this time. Joseph
may wait till day ; the matter is not
so urgent. Then the word was <{>evye.
It was a flight for life, every hour or
minute important.

Vv. 22-23. Settlement in Nazareth in

l8 22.

EYAITEAION

tirl 1 ttjs 'louScucts cirri 'HpwSou tou TraTpos auTou, 2 e<f>o|3i]dT) ' eneijfor cmta*.

, \/j ~ 0*5* » " ! ' > , k , - Ch. xvii 20.

aireXOeiK • xP T l| JLaTt(J " ei S oe KaT omp, acexwpTjaef ei$ Ta p.«pt] ttjs Johnxi.8;

xviii. 3.
k Ch. xv. 21 ; xvi. 13. Mk. viii. 10.

1 Omit em fr$B and several cursives. With erri the usual construction ; therefore
its omission here probably correct.

2 fc<$BC place HpcoSov after t. ttcit. avrov.

Galilee. Joseph returns with mother
and child to Israel, but not to Judaea
and Bethlehem. — d.Kov<ra? . . . 'HpuSov:
Archelaos reigns in his father's stead.
A man of kindred nature, suspicious,
truculent (Joseph., Ant., 17, n, 2), to be
feared and avoided by such as had cause
to fear his father. — |3acriXev€i, reigns, not
in the strict sense of the word. He
exercised the authority of an ethnarch,
with promise of a royal title if he con-
ducted himself so as to deserve it. In
fact he earned banishment. At Herod's
death the Roman emperor divided his
kingdom into four parts, of which he
gave two to Archelaus, embracing
Judaea, Idumaeaand Samaria; the other
two parts were assigned to Antipas and
Philip, also sons of Herod : to Antipas,
Galilee and Peraea ; to Philip, Batanea,
Trachonitis and Auranitis. They bore
the title of Tetrarch, ruler of a fourth
part (Joseph., Ant., 17, n, 4).— €<j>oPtj9tj
€KeX direXOetv. It is implied that to
settle in Judaea was the natural course to
follow, and that it would have beer,
followed but for a special reason.
Schanz, taking a hint from Augustine,
suggests that Joseph wished to settle in
Jerusalem, deeming that city the most
suitable home for the Messiah, but that
God judged the despised Galilee a better
training school for the future Saviour of
publicans, sinners and Pagans. This
hypothesis goes on the assumption that
the original seat of the family was
Nazareth. — exei : late Greek for eiceicre.
In later Greek authors the distinction
between iroi ttov, ol ov, ottoi oirov,
«k«i and eK€icre practically disappeared.
Rutherford's New Phrynichus, p. 114.
Vide for another instance, Luke xxi. 2.
Others explain the substitution as a case
of attraction common in adverbs of
place. The idea of remaining is in the
mind = He feared to go thither to abide
there. Vide Lobeck's Phryn., p. 44, and
Fritzsche. — xP T lP' aTt<r ^ £Vts T *l* TaXiXaias:
again oracular counsel given in a dream,
implying again mental perplexity and
need of guidance. Going to Galilee,
Judaea being out of the question, was
not a matter of course, as we should

have expected. The narrative of the
first Gospel appears to be constructed on
the assumption that Nazareth was not
the original home of the holy family,
and to represent a tradition for which
Nazareth was the adopted home, Beth-
lehem being the original. " The evan-
gelist did not know that Nazareth
was the original seat of the family."
Weiss, Matt, evang. p. 98.

Ver. 23. KaTWKTjo-cv. tcaroiKeiv in

Sept. is used regularly for ^tyt in the

sense of to dwell, and with iv in Luke and
Acts (Luke xiii. 4 ; Acts i. 20, etc.) in the
same sense. Here with els it seems to
mean going to settle in, adopting as a
home, the district of GaUlee, the parti-
cular town called Nazareth. — els iroXiv is
to be taken along with Kara), not with
IX0uv. Arrived in Galilee he transferred
his family to Nazareth, as afterwards Jesus
migrated to Capernaum to carry on there
His ministry (iv. 13, where the same form
of expression recurs). — Na£ape'-r, a town
in lower Galilee, in the tribe of Zebulon,
nowhere mentioned in O. T. or Josephus.
— S-ircos ttXtjpoiBtj, etc. : a final prophetic
reference winding up the history of the
infancy, cnrws not iva, as usual, but with
much the same meaning. It does not
necessarily imply that a prophetic oracle
consciously influenced Joseph in making
his choice, but only that the evangelist
saw in that choice a fulfilment of pro-
phecy. But what prophecy ? The reference
is vague, not to any particular prophet,
but to the prophets in general. In no
one place can any such statement be
found. Some have suggested that it
occurred in some prophetic book or
oracle no longer extant. " Don't ask,"
says Euthy. Zig., " in what prophets ;
you will not find : many prophetic books
were lost " (after Chrys.). Olearius, in
an elaborate note, while not adopting,
states with evident sympathy this view
as held by others. Jerome, following
the Jewish scholars (eruditi Hebraeorum)
of his time, believed the reference to be
mainly to Isaiah xi., where mention is

made of a branch (^22) th» l shall

KATA MATOALON

11.23

I with i if, TaXiXai'as, 23. kcu tXGin' ' KO.TwKijoei' €is ttoXii' Xeyop^^i' Na^apeT 1
Acts vii. 4 oirus TrXijpujOi) to prjGek Sia tuv irpo(j)i]Twv, "On Na£wpa,ios kX'tjGj}-
acTai.

1 This spelling is found in fc^BDL and adopted by W. FI.
forms occur.

Na£ap€8 in CI. Othei

spring out of Jesse's root. This view is
accepted by most modern scholars,
Catholic and Protestant, the name of the
town being viewed as a derivative from
the Hebrew word (a feminine form). The
epithet Na£wpouos will thus mean : " the
man of Nazareth, the town of the off-
shoot ". De Wette says : " In the spirit of
the exegetical mysticism of the time, and
applying what the Jews called Midrasck,
deeper investigation, the word is used in
a double sense in allusion at once to

■^2 Isaiah xi. 1, sprout, and to the

name of Nazareth ". There may be
something in the suggestion that the
reference is to Judges xiii. 7 : on K.i£ip-
aiov 0£ov fe'crTai, and the idea : one living
apart in a secluded town. (So Furrer
in Die Bedcutung der bibl. Geographie
jiir d. bib. Excgcse, p. 15.)

This final prophetic reference in the
history of the infancy is the weakest link
in the chain. It is wasted effort to try
to show its value in the prophetic argu-
ment. Instead of doing this, apologists
would act more wisely by frankly recog-
nising the weakness, and drawing from
it an argument in favour of historicity.
This may very legitimately be done. Of
all the incidents mentioned in this
chapter, the settlement in Nazareth is
the only one we have other means of
verifying. Whether it was the original
or the adopted home of Jesus may be
doubtful, but from many references in
the Gospels we know that it was His
home from childhood till manhood. In
this case, therefore, we certainly know
that the historic fact suggested the
prophetic reference, instead of the pro-
phecy creating the history. And the
very weakness of the prophetic reference
in this instance raises a presumption
that that was the nature of the connec-
tion between prophecy and history
throughout. It is a caveat against the
critical theory that in the second chapter
of Matthew we have an imaginary his-
tory of the infancy of Jesus, compiled to
meet a craving for knowledge on the
subject, and adapted to the requirements
of faith, the rudiments of the story
consisting of a collection of Mes?ianic

prophecies--the star of Jacob, princes
bringing gifts, Rachel weeping for her
children, etc. The last of the pro-
phetic references would never have
occurred to any one, whether the evan-
gelist or any other unknown source of
the tradition, unless there had been a
fact going before, the settlement in
Nazareth. But given the fact, there
was a strong desire to find some allusion
to it in the O. T. Faith was easily
satisfied ; the faintest allusion or hint
would do. That was in this case, and
presumably in most cases of the kind,
the problem with which the Christian
mind in the Apostolic age was occupied:
not creating history, but discovering in
evangelic facts even the most minute,
prophetic fulfilments. The evangelist's
idea of fulfilment may provoke a smile,
but it might also awaken a feeling of
thankfulness in view of what has been
stated. It is with the prophetic re-
ferences in the Gospels as with songs
without words. The composer has a
certain scene or state of mind in his
view, and writes under its inspiration.
But you are not in his secret, and cannot
tell when you hear the music what it
means. But let the key be given, ani
immediately you find new. meaning in
the music. The prophecies are the
music ; the key is the history. Given
the prophecies alone and you could with
difficulty imagine the history ; given the
history you can easily understand how
religious fancy might discover corres-
pondingprophecies. That the prophecies,
once suggested, might react on the facts
and lead to legendary modifications is of
course not to be denied.

Chapter III. The Ministry of
the Baptist, and the Baptism of
Jesus. This chapter and part of the
next, containing the narrative of the
temptation (iv. 1-11), form the prelude to
the public ministry of Jesus. John, of
whom we have not heard before, appears
as consecrating Jesus to His Messianic
calling by baptism, and from the baptism
Jesus passes to the scene of moral trial.
In what year of Christ's life these events
happened is not indicated. The new
narrative begins with the vague phrase,

III. 1-3.

EYAfTEAION

III. i. a 'Ec Se Tais Tjixepcus a 6K€iVchs b TrapavtVeTai 'lud

'Trapayi^eTai lojdvfTjs 6* Of. Ex. ii.

'it' ■> l \ ' 11,23. Is.

louoatas, 2. Kar Aevwc, uxvui. x.

PaiTTicrTT)S, c KT)puV(7ojc ei> ttj epr)p.w tt)s louoaias, 2. Kai* Aey

" MeTai'oeLTc • d T]yY lK€ Y*P T P acri ^ et ' a TaJf oupafwv." 3. Outos «• « for
■ . ....... « » 1 . - ... same ab-

solute use. c passim in Mt. Mk. & Lk. ta ref. to the kingdom of God. Cf. Ex. xxxii. 5. d CI.
*yyi£oixei>, Heb. vii. 19, and ey'yvot, ver. 22 ( = one who keeps us near to God).

1 KOi omitted in ^B and Egypt, verss.

" in those days ". But it is obvious
from the contents that Jesus has now
reached manhood ; His thoughts and
experiences are those of mature years.
From childhood to manhood is an ab-
solute blank in our Gospel. The evange-
list gives a genesis of Christ's body, but
no genesis of His mind. As we see it
in the sequel, it is a miracle of wisdom.
It too, doubtless, had its genesis and
history, but they are not given or even
hinted at. Christ is ushered on the
scene an unexplained prodigy. One
would like to know how He reached this
unprecedented height of wisdom and
grace (Luke ii. 52). The only pos° ; ble
source of knowledge is reasoning back
from the outcome in the full-grown man.
Jesus grezv. and the final result ma>
reveal in part the means and process of
growth. The anti-Pharisaic spirit and
clean-cut descriptions of Pharisaic ways
imply antecedent study, perhaps in
Rabbinical schools. The parables may
not have been so extempore as Gey
seem, but may be the ripe fruit of
long brooding thought, things new and
yet old.

Vv. 1-6. John the Baptist appears
(Mark i. 1-6, Luke iii. 1-6). Ver. 1.
tv Sk tois ^(iiepais €K£ivai9 : the time
when most vaguely indicated. Luke's
narrative here (iii. 1) presents a great
contrast, as if with conscious intent to
supply a want. John's ministry is there
dated with reference to the genera,
history of the world, and Christ's age at
His baptism is given. Luke's method is
more satisfactory in a historical point of
view, but Matthew's manner of narra-
tion is dramatically effective. He passes
abruptly to the new theme, *nd leaves
you to guess the length of the interval.
A similarly indefinite phrase occurs in
the story of Moses (Ex. ii. n). There
has been much discussion as to what
period of time the evangelist had in
view. Some say none, except that of
the events to be related. " In those
days," means simply, "in the days
when the following events happened " (so
Euthy. Zig.). Others suggest explana-
tions based on the relation of our Gospel

to its sources, e.g., use of a source in
which more was told about John, or
anticipation of Mark i. 9, where the
phrase is used in reference to Christ's
coming to be baptised. Probably the
best course is to take it as referring back
from the apostolic age to the great
creative epoch of the evangelic history =
" In those memorable years to which we
look back with wistful reverent gaze ". —
irapa-yiveTai 6 I. : John appears on the
stage of history — historical present, used
" to give a more animated statement of
past events" (Goodwin's Syntax, p. n).
John 6 PaTrTio-TT)s, well known by this
epithet, and referred to under that de-
signation by Josephus (Antiq., xviii. 5, 2,
on which vide Schurer ; Jewish History,
div. i., vol. ii., p. 23). Its currency
naturally suggests that John's baptism
was partly or wholly an originality, not
to be confounded with proselyte baptism,
which perhaps did not even exist at that
time. — KTjpvao-cov, preaching, as well as
baptising, heralding the approach of the
Kingdom of Heaven, standing especially
in N. T. for proclamation of the good
news of God, distinct from SiSao-Kuv (iv.
23) ; a solemn word for a momentous
matter. — tv i-p eprjp.<o *r. 'lovScuas : scene
of the ministry, the pasture lands lying
between the central range of hills and
the Jordan and the Dead Sea, not all
belonging to Judaea, but of the same
character; suitable scene for such a
ministry.

Ver. 2. \4y<ov introduces the burden
of his preaching. — p-tTavoeT-rt, Repent.
That was John's great word. Jesus
used it also when He began to preach,
but His distinctive watchword was
Believe. The two watchwords point to
different conceptions of the kingdom.
John's kingdom was an object of awful
dread, Jesus' of glad welcome. The
message of the one was legal, of the other
evangelic. Change of mind John deemed
very necessary as a preparation for
Messiah's advent. — r\ |3c.criXeia tuv ovi-
pavaiv, the Kingdom of Heaven. This
title is peculiar to Matthew. In the
other Gospels it is called the Kingdom
of God. Not used either by John or by

RATA MATUA10N

in.

c Is. xl .3. yap ianv 6 pvtOels into 1 'Haaiou tou irpoAiiTou, Xevorros, "•4>wi'ri

f here and ' ' ' * • •

in par..ll. |3owrros iv rn epnuu, ' 'ETOipdaaTC txiv b%hv Kupi'ou • euOeias Troieire
in sense \ t 'o > ~ » »• » » »

of a worn TaS TptpOUS CIUTOU. 4. AtJTOS 8e 6 'iwdwric; €IY€ TO * <fi/Suu.a

path (rpi- r

£w). auTou &tt6 Tpix^i' Kapi^Xou, Kal £wer)i' SeppaTiVirji' irepl Tr^ oa^uf

g Ch. xxii. , „ «c-» .\ 1 ~ ■» 9 h » /o \ n 1 v

ii, xxvui. auTou • r) oe Tpocpr) auTou tj»' ^ dKpioes Kai peXi aypioy.

h Mk. i. 6. Rev. ix. 3, 7. i Mk. i. 6. Jude 13 (fierce).

3 ; cloth-
ing generally in Mt. vi. 25, 38.

1 vrro here as in ii. 17, instead of 8ia in fr^BCD.

2 avrov after ny in fc^BCD. The T. R. is suspiciously smooth.

Jesus, says Weiss, but to be ascribed to
the evangelist. There does not seem to
be any urgent reason for this judgment.
In Daniel ii. 44 the kingdom is spoken
of as to be set up by " the God of
heaven," and in the Judaistic period
previous to the Christian era, when a
transcendent conception of God began
to prevail, the use of heaven as a syno-
nym for God came in. Custom might
cause it to be employed, even by those
who did not sympathise with the con-
ception of God as transcendent, outside
and far off from the world (vide note in
H. C, p. 55).

Ver. 3. ovtos Yap t<rnv, etc. : the
uvangelist here speaks. He finds in John
the man of prophecy who proclaims in the
desert the near advent of Jehovah coming
to deliver His people. He quotes Isaiah
only. Mark (i. 2) quotes Malachi also,
identifying John, not only with the voice
in the desert, but with Elijah. Isaiah's
herald is not merely a type of John in
the view of the evangelist ; the two are
identical. The quotation follows the
Sept., except that for tov 0£ov T|p.&»v is
substituted a\i-rov. Note where Matthew
stops. Luke, the universalist, goes on to
the end of the oracle. The mode of
introducing the prophetic citation is
peculiar. "This is he," not "that it
might be fulfilled". Weiss (Meyer)
thinks this an indication that the passage
is taken from " the apostolic source ".

Ver. 4. 0/utos Se 6 M. The story
returns to the historical person, John,
and identifies him with the herald of
prophecy. " This same John." Then
follows a description of his way of life —
his clothing and his food, the details con-
veying a life-like picture of the manner
of the man : his habits congruous to his
vocation. — to evSvp-a airb xpix^v Kap-rj-
Xov : his characteristic (oaptov) piece of
clothing was a rough rude garment woven
out of camel's hair, not as some have
thought, a camel's skin We read in
Heb. xi. 37, of sheep E^ins and goat

skins worn by some of God's saints, but
not of camel skins. Fritzsche takes
the opposite view, and Grotius. Euthy.,
following Chrysostom, says: "Do not
ask who wove his garment, or whence
he got his girdle ; for more wonderful is
it that he should live from childhood to
manhood in so inhospitable a climate".
John took his fashion in dress from
Elijah, described (2 Kings i. 8) as " an
hairy man, and girt with a girdle of
leather about his loins". It need not
be doubted that the investment is histori-
cal, not a legendary creation, due to the
opinion that John was Elijah redivivus.
The imitation in dress dees not imply a
desire to pass for Elijah, but expresses
similarity of mood.— -q Si rpo<|>T) : his
diet as poor as his clothing was
mean. — dtcpiSes : the last of four kinds of
edible locusts named in Le.'. xi. 22
(Sept.), still it seems used by the poor
in the east ; legs and wings stripped off,
and the remainder boiled or roasted.
"The Beduins of Arabia and of East
Jordan land eat many locusts, roasted,
boiled or baked in cakes. In Arabia
they are sold in the market. They
taste not badly" (Benzinger, Hebraische
Archaologie). Euthy. reports to the
same effect as to his own time: many
eat it in those parts Ttrapixtvpevov
(pickled). Not pleasant food, palatable
only to keen hunger. If we may trust
Epiphanius, the Ebionites, in their aver-
sion to animal food, grudged the Baptist
even that poor diet, and restricted him
to cakes made with honey (eyKpiSas kv
peXin), or to honey alone. Vide Nichol-
son's Gospel according to the Hebrews, p.
34, and the notes there ; also Suicer's
Thesaurus, sub. v. aKpfe. — pe'Xi ayptov:
opinion is divided between bee honey
and tree honey, i.e., honey made by wild
bees in trees or holes in the rocks, or a
liquid exuding from palms and fig trees.
(On this also consult Nicholson, Gospel
of Hebrews, p. 35.) Both were used as
food, but our decision should incline to

EYAITuAlON

5. Totc e|ciropeu€To irpds autof 'lepoaoXujxa Kal iracra i\ 'louoaiaj Gen. xiii.

Kal iracra r\ i Trcpi^wpos too 'lopSuVou • 6. Kal cPaim£ofTo 1 ec tu phrase).

'lopodVr) 2 utt* auTou, k €$op.o\oYOUfj.€coi ras &p,apTias auTwy. 7. 35- Mk.

'iStof 8e iroWous Ttoc <J>apicraiwi/ Kal ZaooouKaicoy ep^op-eVous em to k here and

Pd-rmo-u.a auTou, 3 ctire^ au iOis, " ' rc^p-aTa exioi/tov, tis m uire'Sci^ei' =to con-
fess sin.
Similar sense in Acts xix. 18. James v. 16. 1 Ch. xii. 34 ; xxiii. 33. Lk. iii. 7. m Lk. iii. 7 (same
const, and sense).

1 Some copies (C 3 33) have itovtcs after ePairr.

2 fr$BCA al. have iroTauw after lop. which the scribes may have omitted as
superfluous.

3 awrov omitted in ^B and by Origen.

vegetable honey, on the simple ground
that it was the poorer food. Bee honey
was a delicacy, and is associated with
milk in Scripture in descriptions of a
fertile land. The vegetable product
would suit best John's taste and state.
" Habitatori solitudinis congruum est,
non delicias ciborum, sed necessitatem
humanae carnis explere." Jerome.

Vv. 5-6. Effects of John's preaching.
Remarkable by his appearance, his mes-
sage, and his moral intensity, John made
a great impression. They took him for
a prophet, and a prophet was a novelty
in those days. His message appealed to
the common Messianic hope, and pro-
claimed fulfilment to be at hand. — T6t«,
then, general note of time, frequent in
this GospeL l|eiropei3«To imperfect, de-
noting continued action. The movement
of course was gradual. It began on
a small scale and steadily grew till
it reached colossal dimensions. Each
evangelist, in his own way, bears
witness to this. Luke speaks of
crowds (iii. 7), Mark and Matthew
give graphic particulars, similar, but
in diverse order. "All Judaea and all
the Jerusalemites," says Mark. "Jeru-
salem, Judaea and the Jordan country,"
Matthew. The historical order was
probably the reverse of that in Matthew's
narrative. First came those from the
surrounding country — people living near
the Jordan, on either side, in what is
now called El-Ghor. Then the move-
ment extended in widening circles into
Judaea. Finally it affected conservative,
disdainful Jerusalem, slow to be touched
by new popular influences. — 'IcpocrdXu-
p.a: the Greek form here as in ii. 3, and
generally in this Gospel. It is not said
all Jerusalem, as in Mark. The remark-
able thing is that any came from that
quarter. Standing first, and without the
"all," the reference means even Jerusa-

lem. The iraora in the other two clauses
is of course an exaggeration. It implies,
not that every human being went to the
Jordan, but that the movement was
general. The evangelist expresses him-
self just as we should do in a similar
case, rias with the article means " the
whole,'' without, "every". — Ver. 6. tcai
ePairTijJovTO : the imperfect again. They
were baptised as they came. — ev t 'lop.
iroTap.u>. The word iroxap.o), omitted in
T. R., by all means to be retained. Dull
prosaic scribes might deem it superfluous,
as all men knew the Jordan was a river,
but there is a touch of nature in it which
helps us to call up the scene. — -uir' ovtov,
by him, the one man. John would not
want occupation, baptising such a crowd,
one by one. — ejjop.oXoYovp.evoi : confes-
sion was involved in the act of sub-
mitting to baptism at the hands of one
whose preaching had for its burden,
Repent. But there was explicit confes-
sion, frank, full (4k intensifies), on the
part of guilt-burdened men and women
glad to get relief so. General or special
confession ? Probably both: now one,
now the other, according to idiosyncrasy
and mood. Confession was not exacted
as a conditio sine qua non of baptism,
but voluntary. The participle means,
while confessing ; not, provided they
confessed. This confession of sins by
individuals was a new thing in Israel.
There was a collective confession on the
great day of atonement, and individual
confession in certain specified cases
(Numb. v. 7), but no great spontaneous
self-unburdenment of penitent souls —
every man apart. It must have been a
stirring sight.

Vv. 7-10. Words of rebuke and warn-
ing to unwelcome vistors (Luke iii. 7-9).
Ver. 7. 'ISiv Si, etc. : among those
who visited the Jordan were some,
not a few, many indeed (iroXXovs) of the

KATA MATUA10N

in.

n Cf. Is uaic * 4>uveiv iiro ° ttjs ueXXouo-ns opvns ; 8. iroi/icraTC auv Kapirous

xlviii. so. i « / \ i

Mk.xvi. S. 651OUS ttjs ueTuvoias - Q. Kat at)
o for the

idea of " the comiug wrath," vide Rom. ii. j. 1 Then. i. 10. p Ch. vi. 7 ; xxvi. 53.
Lk. iii. 8. Cf. Ps. iv. 5 ; x. 6 ; xiv. 1.

86£t]T6 q Xt'ycn' iv 4aurois,
q Ch. ix. 21.

1 Kapirov a£iov in fc$BCD an ^ many other uncials. The reading in T. R. (found
in L) may have come in from Lk. iii. 8, where it is undisputed.

Pharisees and Sadducees. The first
mention of classes of whom the Gospels
have much to say, the former being the
legal precisians, virtuosi in religion, the
latter the men of affairs and of the
world, largely belonging to the sacer-
dotal class (consult Wellhausen, Die
Pharisder und die Sadducder). Their
presence at the scene of John's ministry
is credible. Drawn doubtless by mixed
motives, as persons of their type gene-
rally are, moral simplicity not being in
their line ; partly curious, partly fasci-
nated, partly come to spy ; in an am-
biguous state of mind, neither decidedly
in sympathy nor pronouncedly hostile.
In any case they cannot remain in-
different to a movement so deep and
widespread. So here they are ; coming
to (eir!) John's baptism, not to be bap-
tised, nor coming against, as some
(Olearius, e.g.) have thought, as if to put
the movement down, but coming to wit-
ness the strange, novel phenomenon, and
form their impressions. John did not
make them welcome. His spirit was
troubled by their presence. Simple,
sensitive, moral natures instinctively
shrink from the presence of insincerity,
duplicity and craftiness. — ISwv : how did
they come under his observation ? By
their position in the crowd or on the
outskirts of it, and by their aspect ? How
did he identify them as Pharisees and
Sadducees ? How did the hermit of the
desert know there were such people ?
It was John's business to know all the
moral characteristics of his time. These
were the matters in which he took
supreme interest, and he doubtless had
means of informing himself, and took
pains to do so. It may be assumed
that he knew well about the Essenes
living in his neighbourhood, by the
shores of the Dead Sea, somewhat after
his own 'fashion, and about the other
two classes, whose haunts were the
great centres of population. There
might be Essenes too in the crowd,
though not singled out, the history other-
wise having no occasion to mention
them. — Y€wrjfi,aTa c^iSvwv : sudden, ir-
repressible outburst of intense moral

aversion. Why vipers ? The ancient
and mediaeval interpreters (Chrysos.,
Aug., Theophy., Euthy.) had recourse in
explanation to the fable of the young
viper eating its mother's womb. The
term ought rather to be connected with
the following words about fleeing from
the coming wrath. The serpents of all
sorts lurking in the fields flee when the
stubble is set on fire in harvest in pre-
paration for the winter sowing. The
Baptist likens the Pharisees and Sad-
ducees to these serpents fleeing for their
lives (Furrer in Zeitschrift fiir Missions-
kunde und Religionswissenschaft, 1890).
Professor G. A. Smith, Historical
Geography of the Holy Land, p. 495,
suggests the fires among the dry scrub,
in the higher stretches of the Jordan
valley, chasing before them the scorpions
and vipers, as the basis of the metaphor.
There is grim humour as well as wrath
in the similitude. The emphasis is not
on vipers but on fleeing. But the felicity
of the comparison lies in the fact that
the epithet suits very well. It implies
that the Pharisees and Sadducees are
fleeing. They have caught slightly the
infection of repentance ; yet John does
not believe in its depth or permanence. —
tis xnTc'Seiijev : there is surprise in the
question. Can it be possible that even
you have learned to fear the approaching
crisis ? Most unlikely scholars. — t^vyclv
airo : pregnant for " flee and escape
from " (De Wette). The aorist points to
possibility, going with verbs of hoping
and promising in this sense (Winer,
§ xliv. 7 a). The implied thought is
that it is not possible = who encouraged
you to expect deliverance ? The aorist
further signifies a momentary act : now
or never. — ttjs p.«X. ipytjs, the day
of wrath impending, preluding the
advent of the Kingdom. The idea of
wrath was prominent in John's mind:
the coming of the Kingdom an awful
affair ; Messiah's work largely a work of
judgment. But he rose above ordinary
Jewish ideas in this : they conceived of
the judgment as concerning the heathen
peoples ; he thought of it as concerning
the godless in Israel — Ver. 8. iroiTjoraT*

8— ix.

EYAITEAION

riaTepa exojxeK T ° v 'AjBpadji • \iyut yap iip.lv, on SuVaTai 6 ©eos
Ik tuji/ \i0wk toutwv eyeipai TtKya to A|3padp,. 10. r\Zr] 8e
Kal * tj d|inrj irpos ttji' pi£aK Tail' SeVSpwy Kelrai • irdv ouc SeVSpoy

(XT] r TTOtOUK KapTTOC Ka\6f * CKK01TT€Tat Kal CIS TTOp |3d\\€T(U. II.

'Eyw jack pairri^w u(xas 2 Ik uSan els |xeTayoiaK • 6 8c 6m<ra> p,ou

Ipxojxcyos I<r\up6rep6s fxou Iotik, oil ouk cijxl 'iKayos to, uTroS^jxara

Lk. iii. 16. 1 Cor. xv. g. 3 Cor. iii. 5 (= fit with inf.). 2 Cor. ii.

1 teat omitted in fc^BCDA and by most modern editors.
s Pairn|w v|ios inverted in fc^B 1, 33.

r vide ver. 8
and vii.17-
19; xiii.26
al. Cf.
Gen. i. il

sCh. vii. 19;
aneye.etc,
v. 30 ; ix

TIVOJ,

Rom. xi.

24.
t Mk. i. 7.
16 (irpdc ti )

ovv, etc. " If, then, ye are in earnest
about escape, produce fruit worthy of
repentance ; repentance means more
than confession and being baptised."
That remark might be applied to all
that came, but it contained an innuendo
in reference to the Pharisees and
Sadducees that they were insincere even
now. Honest repentance carries amend-
ment along with it. Amendment is not
expected in this case because the repent-
ance is disbelieved in. — tcapirov, collec-
tive, as in Gal. v. 22, fruit ; the reading
in T. R. is probably borrowed irom
Luke iii. 8. The singular is intrinsically
the better word in addressing Pharisees
who did good actions, but were not
good. Yet John seems to have incul-
cated reibrmation in detail (Luke iii.
10-14). It was Jesus who proclaimed
the inwardness of true morality. Fruit :
the figure suggests that conduct is the
outcome of essential character. Any one
can do (iroiTJoraTe, vide Gen. i. 11) acts
externally good, but only a good man
can grow a crop of right acts and habits.
Vv. 9-10. Protest and warning. Kal
(xt) 86gT)Te . . . t. 'Appadjx: the meaning is
plain = do not imagine that having Abra-
ham for father will do instead of repent-
ance—that all children of Abraham are
safe whatever betide. But the expression
is peculiar : do not think to say within
yourselves. One would have expected
either : do not think within yourselves,
or, do not say, etc. Wetstein renders :
" ne animum inducite sic apud vosmet
cogitare," with whom Fritzsche sub-
stantially agrees = do not presume to
say, cf. Phil. iii. 4. — ira/repa, father, in
the emphatic position = we have as father,
Abraham ; it is enough to be his children :
the secret thought 01 all unspiritual Jews,
Abraham's children only in the flesh.
It is probable that these words (w. 9,
10) were spoken at a different time, and
to a different audience, not merely to
Pharisees and Sadducees, but to the

people generally. Vv. 7-12 are a very
condensed summary of a preaching
ministry in which many weighty words
were spoken (Luke iii. 18), these being
selected as most representative and most
relevant to the purpose of the evangelist.
Vv. 7-8 contain a word for the leaders of
the people ; w. 9-10 for the people at
large; w. 11-12 a word to inquirers
about the Baptist's own relation to the
Messiah. — Ver. 10. tj8t| Si r\ &££vtj . . .
kcItcu : judgment is at hand. The axe
has been placed (Kei|xcu = perfect passive
of ti0t)|xi) at the root of the tree to lay it
low as hopelessly barren. This is the
doom of every non-productive fruit tree. —
€KKdirrcTcu : the present tense, expressive
not so much oi the usual practice
(Fritzsche) as of the near inevitable
event. — (xtj ttoiovv Kapirov KaXbv, in case
it produce not (jxtj conditional) good
fruit, not merely fruit of some kind.
degenerate, unpalatable. — els Triip |3d\-
XtTcu: useless for any other purpose
except to be firewood, as the wood of
many fruit trees is.

Vv. 11, 12. jfohn defines his relation
to the Messiah (Mark i. 7-8 ; Luke iii.
15-17). This prophetic word would
come late in the day when the Baptist's
fame was at its height, and men began
to think it possible he might be the
Christ (Luke iii. 15). His answer to
inquiries plainly expressed or hinted
was unhesitating. No, not the Christ,
there is a Coming One. He will be here
soon. I have my place, important in its
own way, but quite secondary and sub-
ordinate. John frankly accepts the posi-
tion oi herald and forerunner, assigned
to him in ver. 3 by the citation of the
prophetic oracle as descriptive of his
ministry. — iyu> p.ev, etc. iyi> emphatic,
but with the emphasis of subordination.
My function is to baptise with water,
symbolic of repentance. — 6 82 0. p..
<pxo|x£vos. He who is just coming
(present participle). How did John know

S 4

KATA MAT0A10N

in.

u I.k. iii. 17. PaoTaaai • auTos up.as |3cnrTio-€i cV riceufian 'Ayiu> Kal irupi. 1 2.

wCh.vi.s6;o3 to "tttuov tV rf\ x ei P l °-utou, Kal T 8iaKa0api€i Ttjf ciXwva cujtou,

Lk.x'ii. 18. Kal awa^ei rbv aiToe auToG cis T^y w diroO/jKYjc, 1 to oe axupoc

x Mk. ix. 43. KaTcucaucrei Trupi x do-pcorw."
Lk. iii. 17.

1 BL have avrov after airoBt]Kr\v (W.H. marg.). L omits avrov after c-itov.

the Messiah was just coming? It was
an inference from his judgment on the
moral condition of the time. Messiah
was needed ; His work was ready for
Him ; the nation was ripe for judgment.
Judgment observe, for that was the
function uppermost in his mind in con-
nection with the Messianic advent. These
two verses give us John's idea of the
Christ, based not on personal knowledge,
but on religious preconceptions. It
differs widely from the reality. John
can have known little of Jesus on the
outer side, but he knew less of His
spirit. We cannot understand his words
unless we grasp this fact. Note the
attributes he ascribes to the Coming
One. The main one is strength — lo-x'u-
pdxepos fully unfolded in the sequel.
Along with strength goes dignity— ov
ovik elp.1, etc. He is so great, august a
personage, I am not fit to be His slave,
carrying to and from Him, for and after
use, His sandals (a slave's office in Judaea,
Greece and Rome). An Oriental magnifi-
cent exaggeration. — avi-os vp.ds Pair-
Ti<m : returns to the Power of Messiah, as
revealed in His work, which is described
as a baptism, the better to bring out
the contrast between Him and His
humble forerunner. — kv •jrvevp.aTi d-yup Kal
Trvp£. Notable here are the words, kv
irvevpaTi d-yio>. They must be interpreted
in harmony with John's standpoint, not
from what Jesus proved to be, or in the
light of St. Paul's teaching on the
Holy Spirit as the immanent source of
sanctification. The whole baptism of
the Messiah, as John conceives it, is
a baptism of judgment. It has been
generally supposed that the Holy Spirit
here represents the grace of Christ, and
the fire His judicial function ; not a few
holding that even the fire is gracious as
purifying. I think that the grace of the
Christ is not here at all. The Trvtvjia
d-yiov is a stormy wind of judgment ;
holy, as sweeping away all that is light
and worthless in the nation (which, after
the O. T. manner, is conceived of as the
subject of Messiah's action, rather than
the individual). The fire destroys what
the wind leaves. John, with his wild

prophetic imagination, thinks of three
elements as representing the functions
of himself and of Messiah: water, wind,
fire. He baptises with water, in the
running stream of Jordan, to emblem
the only way of escape, amendment.
Messiah will baptise with wind and fire,
sweeping away and consuming the im-
penitent, leaving behind only the right-
eous. Possibly John had in mind the
prophetic word, " our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away," Is. lxiv. 6 ;
or, as Furrer, who I find also takes
irvevp.a in the sense of " wind," suggests,
the "wind of God," spoken of in Is. xl.
7 : the strong east wind which blights
the grass (Zeitschrift fiir Missionskunde
und Religionswissenschaft, i8go). Carr,
Cambridge G. T., inclines to the same
view, and refers to Is. xli. 16 : " Thou
shalt fan ihem, and the wind shall carry
them away". Vide also Is. iv. 4.

Ver. 12. This ver. follows up ver. n,
and explains the judicial action emblemed
by wind and fire. — ov to irrvov c. t. v.
av-rov. The construction is variously
understood. Grotius takes it as a Hebra-
ism for kv ov x £l P l T0 tttvov. Fritzsche
takes iv t. \eip\ avTov as epexegetical,
and renders : " whose will be the fan,
vis., in His hand". Meyer and Weiss
take ov as assigning a reason : " He
(avTos of ver. n) whose fan is in hand
and who is therefore able to perform the
part assigned to Him ". Then follows an
explanation of the modus operandi. —
8ia.Ka.0api€T from 8iaKa0api£a>, late for
classic SiaKaOaipu. The idea is: He
with His fan will throw up the wheat,
mixed with the chaff, that the wind may
blow the chaff away ; He will then collect
the straw, axvpov (in Greek writers
usually plural rd ax^pa, vide Grimm),
and burn it with fire, and collect the
wheat lying on the threshing floor and
store it in His gTanary. So shall He
thoroughly (8to intensifying) cleanse His
floor. And the sweeping wind and the
consuming fire are the emblems and
measure of His power ; stronger than
mine, as the tempest and the devastating
flames are mightier than the stream
which I use as my element.- fiXwv, a place

«a— 15.

EYAITEAION

13. Totc irapayu'CTai 6 'irjo-ous diro ttjs TaXiXaias em tok y here only ;

>i ^1 ^ \ >i / -> n «.< <•>•>.. . ~ . f° r force

\opQayi\v irpos toc IwavMrjy, too pairTio-0T|i'ai uir ciutou. 14. 6 8e of tense

'iwdekrjs 1 y 8i£Kcl\uev' au-roV, X^uf, " 'Eyw *xp 6iav ' «X W U7ro °"°" 5?- Acta

paTTTto-t>i]i'ai, kcu <ru epxrj irpos p.e; 15. AiroKpiOeis be 6 Irjaous z Ch. xiv.

eiire irpos au-roV, 2 ""AcJ>es 'apn- outw yap b irpeW e'crrlv fjfui' x ?ii. i J ° hn

(same
const.). a John xiu. 37. 1 Cor. xiiL la (now, opp. to fut. time). b Heb. ii. xo. With ace. and

inf., 1 Cor. xi. 13.

1 IwavvTjs omitted in fc^B sah. vers. (W.H. omit.)

2 For wpos aurov B and it. vg. cop. versions have avrc*.

Though weakly attested
this reading accords best with the usage of the Evangelist. W.H. adopt it.

in a field made firm by a roller, or on a
rocky hill top exposed to the breeze. —
diro6 , rjKT| means generally any kind of
store, and specially a grain store, often
underground. Bleek takes the epithet
do-pto-TO) applied to the fire as signifying :
inextinguishable till all the refuse be
consumed. It is usually understood
absolutely.

Vv. 13-17. Jesus appears, His baptism
and its accompaniments (Mark i. 9-1 1 ;
Luke n'i. 21-22). Ver. 13. Tots irapa. 6
'I. . . . TaXiiXaias: then, after John had de-
scribed the Messiah, appears ou the scene
(irapayiveTCU,thehistoricalpresentagain,
as in ver. i, with dramatic effect) from
Galilee, where He has lived since child-
hood, Jesus, the real Christ ; how widely
different from the Christ conceived by
the Baptist we know from the whole
evangelic history. But shutting off know-
ledge gathered from other sources, we
may obtain significant hints concerning
the stranger from Galilee from the present
narrative. He comes iirl tov I. irpos t6v
'Iwav.j tov PairTio-fl-rjvai tiir' outov. These
words at once suggest a contrast between
Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees.
They came to the baptism as a phenome-
non to be critically observed. Jesus
comes to the Jordan (fcirl), towards the
Baptist (irpos) to enter into personal
friendly relations with him (vide John i.
1, irpos t6v Be6v), in order to be baptised
by him (genitive of the infinitive express-
ing purpose). Jesus comes thoroughly
in sympathy with John's movement,
sharing his passion for righteousness,
fully appreciating the symbolic signifi-
cance of his baptism, and not only
willing, but eager to be baptised ; the
Jordan in His mind from the day He
leaves home. A very different person
this from the leaders of Israel, Pharisaic
or Sadducaic. But the sequel suggests
a contrast also between Him and John
himself.

Vv. 14-15. John refuses. It is in-
structive to compare the three synoptical
evangelists in their respective narratives
of the baptism of Jesus. Mark (i. 9)
simply states the fact. Matthew reports
perplexities created in the mind of John
by the desire of Jesus to be baptised,
and presumably in the minds of Chris-
tians for whom he wrote. Luke (iii.
21) passes lightly over the event in
a participial clause, as if consoious that
he was on delicate ground. The three
narratives exhibit successive phases of
opinion on the subject, a fact not with-
out bearing on the dates and relations of
the three Gospels. Matthew represents
the intermediate phase. His account
is intrinsically credible. — Ver. 14.
SiEKcoXvev : imperfect, pointing to a
persistent (note the 8id) but unsuccess-
ful attempt to prevent. His reason was
a feeling that if either was to be baptised
the relation ought to be inverted. To
understand this feeling it is not necessary
to import a fully developed Messianic
theology into it, imputing to the Baptist
all that we believe concerning Jesus as
the Christ and the sinless one. It is
enough to suppose that the visitor from
Galilee had made a profound moral im-
pression on him by His aspect and con-
versation, and awakened thoughts,
hopes, incipient convictions as to who
He might be. Nor ought we to take too
seriously the Baptist's statement: "I
have need to be baptised of Thee ".
Hitherto he had had no thought of being
baptised himself. He was the baptiser,
not one feeling need to be baptised ; the
censor of sinners, not the sympathetic
fellow-sinner. And just here lies the
contrast between John and Jesus, and
between the Christ of John's imagina-
tion and the Christ of reality. John
was severe ; Jesus was sympathetic.
John was the baptiser of sinners ; Jesus
wished to be baptised, as if a sinner

KATA MAT9A10N

in.

cLk.iii. 9i. irXTjpwaai iraaay 8iKaioauvt]c." ToTe atpirjcuK ciutoV. 16. Kal
Acts x. ii PaTTTiffOels 1 6 'lT|crous ayt'Prj eu9us " air6 tou uoaTos • Kal t8ou,

(with 6io, ,. s>-4«> ' ^'C vn~ ~«~

Acts vii. a>'€u>x"*]°'a»' auTw * ot oupcu'oi, Kai tioc to ni'euaa tou 0eou KaTa-

56).

1 fJairricrScis St in fr$BC vg. sah. cop.
1 For ovtpT) oBus fc$B have ev0ws ttvtpr).

* B has Tjvcwx8il<rav.

* fr$B omit •vro>.

Himself, a brother of the sinful. In the
light of this contrast we are to under-
stand the baptism of Jesus. Many ex-
planations of it have been given (for
these, vide Meyer), mostly theological.
One of the most feasible is that of Weiss
(Matt. -Evan.), that in accordance with
the symbolic significance of the rite as
denoting death to an old life and rising
to a new, Jesus came to be baptised in
the sense of dying to the old natural
relations to parents, neighbours, and
earthly calling, and devoting Himself
henceforth to His public Messianic voca-
tion. The true solution is to be found
in the ethical sphere, in the sympathetic
spirit of Jesus which made Him main-
tain an attitude of solidarity with the
sinful rather than assume the position of
critic and judge. It was impossible for
such an one, on the ground of being the
Messiah, or even on the ground of sin-
lessness, to treat John's baptism as a
thing with which He had no concern.
Love, not a sense of dignity or of moral
faultlessness, must guide His action.
Can we conceive sinlessness being so
conscious of itself, and adopting as its
policy aloofness from sinners ? Christ's
baptism might create misunderstanding,
just as His associating with publicans
and sinners did. He was content to be
misunderstood.

Ver. 15. The reasoning with which
Jesus replies to John's scruples is char-
acteristic. His answer is gentle, re-
spectful, dignified, simple, yet deep. —
"A4>es apn — deferential, half-yielding,
yet strong in its very gentleness. Does
ap-ri imply a tacit acceptance of the
high position assigned to Him by John
(Weiss- Meyer) ? We may read that
into it, but I doubt if the suggestion
does justice to the feeling of Jesus. —
ovTio yap Trpe'irov : a mild word when a
stronger might have been used, because
it refers to John as well as Jesus : fitting,
becoming, congruous; vide Heb. ii. 10,
where the same word is used in reference
to the relation of God to Christ's suffer-
ing*. " It became Him." — iracrav Siicai-

ootJvtjv : this means more than meets
the ear, more than could be explained to
a man like John. The Baptist had a
passion for righteousness, yet his concep-
tion of righteousness was narrow, severe,
legal. Their ideas of righteousness sepa-
rated the two men by a wide gulf which
is covered over by this general, almost
evasive, phrase : all righteousness or
every form of it. The special form
meant is not the mere compliance with
the ordinance of baptism as administered
by an accredited servant of God, but
something far deeper, which the new era
will unfold. John did not understand
that love is the fulfilling of the law. But
he saw that under the mild words of
Jesus a very earnest purpose was hid.
So at length he yielded — tots dtjuijcnv
aviTov.

Vv. 16, 17. The preternatural accom-
paniments. These have been variously
viewed as meant for the people, for the
Baptist, and for Jesus. In my judgment
they concern Jesus principally and in the
first place, and are so viewed by the
evangelist. And as we are now making
the acquaintance of Jesus for the first
time, and desiring to know the spirit,
manner, and vocation of Him whose
mysterious birth has occupied our
attention, we may confine our comments
to this aspect. Applying the principle
that to all objective supernatural experi-
ences there are subjective psychological
experiences corresponding, we can learn
from the dove-like vision and the voice
from heaven the thoughts which had
been passing through the mind of Jesus
at this critical period. These thoughts
it most concerns us to know; yet it is
just these thoughts that both believers
and naturalistic unbelievers are in danger
of overlooking ; the one through regard-
ing the objective occurrences as alone
important, the other because, denying
the objective element in the experience,
they rush to the conclusion that there
was no experience at all. Whereas the
truth is that, whatever is to be said as to
the objective element, the subjective at

i6— 17.

EYA1 TEAION

pcuvof 6<rel * TTCpiffTepdi', Kal 1 ep^ou-e^oy eV ciutoV. 17. Kal ISou, d Ch. x. 16;

<{i«vt) ex twi/ oupaywe Xeyouo-a, " Outos lativ 6 ulos p.ou 6 dycnnjTos, Licit. '24.

, - , it 1 no e Ch. xii. 18;

€K (0 £U0OKT]O~a. * xvii. 5. 1

Cor. x. 5.
Heb. x. 38 (all with m and dat.)

1 ^B omit K«i.

J J^CL have tjvSok., which Teschendorf follows. W.H. as in T. R.

all events is real : the thoughts reflected
and symbolised in the vision and the
voice.

Ver. 16. «i8is may be connected
with PairriaScts, with avifi-q, or with
TJv«o»x0T]o-av in the following clause by a
hyperbaton (Grotius). It is commonly
and correctly taken along with avs^.
But why say straightway ascended ?
Euthy. gives an answer which may be
quoted for its quaintness : " They say
that John had the people under water up
to the neck till they had confessed their
sins, and that jesus having none to con-
fess tarried not in the river ". Fritzsche
laughs at the good monk, but Schanz
substantially adopts his view. There
might be worse explanations. — xai l8oi»
rjve<j>x9ii<rav, etc. When Jesus ascended
out of the water the heavens opened and He
(Jesus) saw the spirit of God descending
as a dove coming upon Him. According
to many interpreters, including many of
the Fathers, the occurrence was of the
nature of a vision, the appearance of a
dove coming out of the heavens. 6
evayYeXiffTTjs oiik elirev oti Iv fyvcru
Trepiorrepas, &XX' iv «i8«i ircpicrrcpas —
Chrys. Dove-like : what was the point
of comparison ? Swift movement, accord-
ing to some ; soft gentle movement as it
sinks down on its place of rest, according
to others. The Fathers insisted on the
qualities of the dove. Euthy. sums up
these thus : ^>i\dvdpwirov y°p *cti Kal
avejjiKaicov * CLTrccTTepoijficvov yap rmv
veoaaStv inropevei, Kal oiiSev yjttov tovs
airocTepoijVTas irpo<ri€Tai. Kal Ka0a-
puraTov eo-Tt, Kal tq eit>8ia x a ^P EI "
Whether the dove possesses all these
qualities — philanthropy, patient endur-
ance of wrong, letting approach it those
who have robbed it of its young, purity,
delight in sweet smells — I know not ;
but I appreciate the insight into the
spirit of Christ which specifying such
particulars in the emblematic significance
of the dove implies. What is the O. T.
basis of the symbol ? Probably Gen.
viii. 9, 10. Grotius hints at this without
altogether adopting the view. Thus we
obtain a contrast between John's con-
ception of the spirit and that of Jesus as

reflected in the vision. For John the
emblem of the spirit was the stormy
wind of judgment ; for Jesus the dove
with the olive leaf after the judgment by
water was past.

Ver. 17. ovtos ecttiv : " this is," as if
addressed to the Baptist; in Mk. i. g, <rv
el, as if addressed to Jesus. — Iv cJ evSok. :

a Hebraism, { ^ VDH- — «vi8oKT)o-a,aor-

ist, either to express habitual satisfac-
tion, after the manner of the Gnomic
Aorist (vide Hermann's Viger, p. 169), or
to denote the inner event = my good
pleasure decided itself once for all for
Him. So Schanz ; cf. Winer, § 40, 5, on
the use of the aorist. exiSokeiv, according
to Sturz, De Dialecto Macedonica et Alex-
andrina, is not Attic but Hellenistic. The
voice recalls and in some measure echoes
Is. xlii. 1, " Behold My servant, I uphold
Him ; My chosen one, My soul delights
in Him. I have put My spirit upon Him."
The title " Son " recalls Ps. ii. 7.
Taking the vision, the voice, and the
baptism together as interpreting the
consciousness of Jesus before and at this
time, the following inferences are sug-
gested. (1) The mind of Jesus had been
exercised in thought upon the Messianic
vocation in relation to His own future.
(2) The chief Messianic charism appeared
to Him to be sympathy, love. (3) His
religious attitude towards God was that
of a Son towards a Father. (4) It was
through the sense of sonship and the
intense love to men that was in His
heart that He discovered His Messianic
vocation. (5) Prophetic texts gave direc-
tion to and supplied means of expression
for His religious meditations. His mind,
like that of John, was full of prophetic
utterances, but a different class of oracles
had attractions for Him. The spirit of
John revelled in images of awe and ter-
ror. The gentler spirit of Jesus delighted
in words depicting the ideal servant of
God as clothed with meekness, patience,
wisdom, and love.

Chapter IV. The Temptation, and
the Beginning of the Galilean
Ministry. It is in every way credible
that the baptism of Jesus with its con-

KATA MAT0AION

IV.

.» ! k ii aj; IV. I. Totc 6 ' 'irjffous * ui , i]\0r) els T$|V cprjfxoc 6tto toG nyeyfAtvros,

ix. 39. Cf. h Treipaa0f|t'cu utto tou 8ia(36Xou. 2. kcu ' vr\oT tunas l'jut'pas Teacropa-

Kom. x. 7.
Heb. xiii. 30 (to lead up from the dead). b besides parall. 1 Cor. vii. 5. 1 Tboxs. iii. 5 (same
tense). c Ch. vi. 16-18 ; ix. 14. Acts xiii. a.

1 B omits o ; bracketed in W.H.

nected incidents should be followed by a
season oi moral trial, or, to express it
more generally, by a period of retirement
for earnest thought on the future career
so solemnly inaugurated. Retirement
for prayer and meditation was a habit
with Jesus, and it was never more likely
to be put in practice than now. He had
left home under a powerful impulse with
the Jordan and baptism in view. The
baptism was a decisive act. Whatever
more it might mean, it meant farewell to
the past life of obscurity and consecration
to a new, high, unique vocation. It re-
mained now to realise by reflection what
this calling, to which He had been set
apart by John and by heavenly omens,
involved in idea, execution, and experi-
ence. It was a large, deep, difficult sub-
ject of study. Under powerful spiritual
constraints Jesus had taken a great leap
in the dark, if one may dare to say so.
What wonder if, in the season of reflec-
tion, temptations arose to doubt, shrink-
ing, regret, strong inclination to look
back and return to Nazareth ?

In this experience Jesus was alone
inwardly as well as outwardly. No
clear, adequate account could be given of
it. It could only be faintly shadowed
forth in symbol or in parable. One can
understand how in one Gospel (Mk.) no
attempt is made to describe the Tempta-
tion, but the fact is simply stated. And
it is much more important to grasp the
fact as a great reality in Christ's inner
experience than to maintain anxiously
the literal truth of the representation in
Matt, and Luke. In the fight of faith
and unbelief over the supernatural ele-
ment in the story all sense of the inward
psychological reality may be lost, and
nothing remain but an external, miracu-
lous, theatrical transaction which utterly
fails to impress the lesson that Jesus
was veritably tempted as we are, severely
and for a length of time, before the open-
ing of His public career, in a representa-
tive manner anticipating the experiences
of later date. All attempts to dispose
summarily of the whole matter by refer-
ence to similar temptation legends in the
case of other religious initiators like
Buddha are to be deprecated. Nor

should one readily take up with the
theory that the detailed account of the
Temptation in Matt, and Luke is simply
a composition suggested by O. T.
parallels or by reflection on the critical
points in Christ's subsequent history.
(So Holtzmann in H. C.) We should
rather regard it as having its ultimate
source in an attempt by Jesus to convey
to His disciples some faint idea of what
He had gone through.

Vv. i-n. The Temptation (Mk. i. 12,
13 ; Luke iv. 1-13). Ver. 1. T6*t€ ; then,
implying close connection with the events
recorded in last chapter, especially the de-
scent of the Spirit. — ay^x^'H; was ' e< ^ U P>
into the higher, more solitary region of the
wilderness, the haunt of wild beasts (Mk.
i. 13) rather than of men. — iiro tov
•n-yevjiaros. tTh*» divine Spirit ha s to do
with our darker experiences as well as
with our bright, joyous ones. He is with
-the sons of God in their conflicts with
doubt' not less than in their moments
of noble impulse and heroic resolve.
The same Spirit who brought Jesus
from Nazareth to the Jordan afterward
led Him to the scene of trial. The
theory of desertion hinted at by Calvin
and adopted by Olshausen is based on a
superficial view of religious experience.
God's Spirit is never more with a man
than in his spiritual struggles. Jesus
was mightily impelled by the Spirit at
tfits time (cf. Mk.'s ck^oiWei). And as
the power exerted was not physical but
moral, the fact points to intense mental
preoccupation. — ireipao-0T)vai, to be temp-
ted, not necessarily covering the whole
experience of those days, but noting a
specially important phase : to be tempted
inter alia. — irctpd^u : a later form for
Tttipdo), in classic Greek, primary meaning
to attempt, to try to do a thing (vide for
this use Acts ix. 26, xvi. 7, xxiv. 6) ; then
in an ethical sense common in O. T.
and N. T., to try or tempt either with
good or with bad intent, associated in
some texts (e.g., 2 Cor. xiii. 5) with Soki-
u.a£, kindred in meaning. Note the
omission ot tov before infinitive. — v-iro
t. SiafJoXou : in later Jewish theology
the devil is the agent in all temptation
with evil design. In the earlier period

«— 5«

EYAITEAION

Korra * kcu fuxTas TeacrcipaKorra, 2 uorepoi' itreivaae. 3. ica! TrpoacX- d A ?r«tp. ai

a» , -• d' Jr f I «n' '< * - a " » » • « a ?" bstin

(7wk auTw " o Treipa^wv envew," Ei uios ei tou Qeou, cure iva oi 1 Thess.

Xidoi outoi apToi yivwTai. 4. O 8e dbroKpiOeis cure, " reypcnrrai, eC/. Mk. ix.

' Ouk eir' apTu p,oVa> £rjcreTCH * ayOpamos, &W em' irarrl * p^p-an f ch. xvii. i.

tKiropeuop.tk'U) 01a o-tou.citos ©eou. 5" 'otc irapaAap.paf£i aujoy ch. xxvii.

6 8idJ3o\os eis ttik * dyt'ac iroXik, ical Z<m\<riv ° aurof em to xl

Rev.

XI. 2.

1 Tt<r<T6p. both places in ^BCL.

2 Tt<r<rap. before vvktus in ^D (Tisch.).

3 fr$B omit this avru and fc^BD insert one after ctircv (D with koi before ciiriv).

4 fc^BCD, etc., insert o before avOpwiros.

5 CD have ev ; eiri in Sept. and retained by Tisch. and W.H.

6 to-rvio-ev in fc^BCDZ I, 33, 209 (Tisch., W.H.). The reading in T. R. conforms
to 7rapaXa|i.|3a.vei..

the line of separation between the divine
and the diabolic was not so carefully de-
fined. In 2 Sam. xxiv. n God tempts
David to number the people; in 1 Chron.
xxi. 1 it is Satan. — ver. 2. Kal vt]<r-
Tevaas. The fasting was spontaneous,
not ascetic, due to mental preoccupation.
In such a place there was no food to be
had, but Jesus did not desire it. The
aorist implies that a period of fasting pre-
ceded the sense of hunger. The period
of forty days and nights may be a round
number. — eireivao-ev, He at last felt
hunger. This verb like 8i\|/<xw contracts
in a rather than t) in later Greek. Both
take an accusative in Matt. v. 6.

Vv. 3-4. First temptation, through
hunger. Ver. 3. irpoo-€X0a>v, anot! ^r of
the evangelist's favourite words, implies
that the tempter is conceived by the
narrator as approaching outwardly in
visible form. — elire iva : literally " speak
in order that ". Some grammarians see
in this use of iva with the subjunctive
a progress in the later Macedonian
Greek onwards towards modern Greek,
in which va with subjunctive entirely
supersedes the infinitive. Buttmann
(Gram, of the N. T.) says that the chief
deviation in the N. T. from classic
usage is that tva appears not only after
complete predicates, as a statement of
design, but after incomplete predicates,
supplying their necessary complements
(cf. Mk. vi. 25, ix. 30). elirJ here may
be classed among verbs of commanding
which take iva after them. — oi Xi9oi
ovtoi, these stones lying about, hinting
at the desert character of the scene. —
ciproi yiv., that the rude pieces of stone
may be turned miraculously into loaves.
Weiss (Meyer) disputes the usual view
that the temptation of Jesus lay in the

suggestion to use His miraculous power
in His own behoof. He had no such
power, and if He had, why should He
not use it for His own benefit as well as
other men's ? He could only call into
play by faith the power of God, and the
temptation lay in the suggestion that
His Messianic vocation was doubtful it
Gnrl fliH nntrnmp tn His help flT"this
time. This seems a refinement. Hunger
represents human wants, and the
question was : whether Sonship was to
mean exemption from these, or loyal
acceptance of them as part of Mes-
siah's experience. At bottom the issue
raised was selfishness .or. -self-sacrifice;
Selfishness would JbaYe_-heen. -shown
either in the use of personal power 01 in
the wish that God would use it. — Ver. 4.
6 8£ airoK. el-irev : Christ's reply in this
case as in the others is taken from
Deuteronomy (viii. 3, Sept.), which
seems to have been one of His favourite
books. Its humane spirit, with laws even
for protecting the animals, would com-
mend it to His mind. The word quoted
means, man is to live a life of faith in
and dependence on God. Bread is a
mere detail in that life, not necessary
though usually given, and sure to be
supplied somehow, as long as it is desir-
able. Z-fjv tirl is unusual, but good
Greek (De Wette).

Vv. 5-7. Second temptation. Tare
irapaXap.. . . . tov iepov : Tore has the
force of "next," and implies a closer
order of sequence than Luke's Kal (iv. 5).
•n-apaXap-Pavei, historical present with
dramatic effect ; seizes hold of Him and
carries Him to. — -rr\v ayiav iroXiv :
Jerusalem so named as if with affection
(vide v. 35 and especially xxvii. 53,
where the designation recurs).- to

9 o

KATA MATOAION

IV.

n here and b Trrepuyioy toG lepoG, 0. kui Xe'yei * aunli, " El ulds el tou 6eoG,
9. pdXe aeauTOK kiitu • ytypairTai yap, '"Oti tois dyyt'Xois auToG

i Ch. xvH.g. 'eVTtXeiTai irepl <roG, ical iirl -^tipiov dpoGai ae, ji,i]TroT€ rpocrKovJiflS
Heb. xi.aa. rrpos XiGov TOf iroSa ctoG.' ' 7. "E(J)T] auTw 6 'irjaous, " fldXii'

j Lk. x. 15. Ye'ypcnrrai, ' Ouk j eKimpdaeis Ku'pioy rbv Qeov ctou.' ' 8. ndXiv
TTapaXop-Pdvci auTov 6 Sid|3oXos eis opos ui|/r)X6k \iav, Kal SeiKvurji*'

k Ch. vi. 19. ,^, \ n \ ' - < < ^ k«'t ' - „ x

Lk.xii.a7. auTw -iraaas Tas paairvcias tou koo-jaou kcu tt\v oosaf auTwc, 9. Kai
1 For Xrya Z has ciircr.

irTepvyiov tov Upov : some part of the
temple bearing the name of " the
winglet," and overhanging a precipice.
Commentators busy themselves discuss-
ing what precisely and where it was. —
Ver. 6. piXt crcavTov kiitu : This
suggestion strongly makes for the" -
symbolic or parabolic nature of the
whole representation. The mad pro-
posal could hardly be a temptation to
such an one as Jesus, or indeed to any
man in his senses. The transit through
the air from the desert to the winglet,
like that of Ezekiel, carried by a lock trf
his hair from Babylon to Jerusalem,
must have been " in the visions of God "
(Ezek. viii. 3), and the suggestion to
cast Himself down a parabolic hint at a
class of temptations, as the excuses in
the parable of the Supper (Lk. xiv. 16)
simply represent the category of pre-
occupation. What is the class repre-
sented ? Not temptations through
vanity or presumption, but rather to
reckless escape from desperate situa-
tions. The second temptation, like the
first, belongs to the category of need.
The Satanic suggestion is that there can
be no sonship where there are such
inextricable situations, in proof of which
the Psalter is quoted (Ps. xci. II, 12). —
YtypaiTTai, it stands written, not precisely
as Satan quotes it, the clause tov
Sia<j>vXd£ai arc ev irdaais Tats 6801s crov
being omitted. On this account many
commentators charge Satan with
mutilating and falsifying Scripture. —
Ver 7. Jesus replies by another quota-
tion from Deut. (vi. 16). — rrdXiv, on the
other hand, not contradicting but
qualifying : " Scriptura per scripturam
interpretanda et concilianda," Bengel.
The reference is to the incident at
Rephidim (Ex. xvii. 1-7), where the
people virtually charged God with bring-
ing them out of Egypt to perish with
thirst, the scene of this petulant outburst!
receiving the commemorative name of
Massah and Meribah because they

tempted Jehovah, saying: "Is Jehovah
among us or not ? " An analogous
situation in the life of Jesus may be
found in Gethscmane, where He did not
complain or tempt, but uttered the sub-
m issive, " If it be pos sible ". The leap

flown at that crisis would Tiave consisted
in seeking escape from the cross at the
cost of duty. The physical fall from the
pinnacle is an emblem of a moral fall.
Before passing from this temptation I
note that the hypothesis that it was an
appea 1 to vanity presupposes a crowd at
the foot to witness the performance, of
which there is no mention.

Vv. 8-10. Third temptation. els
opos v\j»T)X6v Xiav: a mountain high
enough for the purpose. There is no
such mountain in the world, not even in
the highest ranges, " not to be sought
for in terrestrial geography," says De
Wette. The vision oi all the kingdoms
and their glory was not physical. — tov
koVuov. What world ? Palestine merely,
or all the world, Palestine excepted?
or all the world, Palestine included ?
All these alternatives have been sup-
ported. The last is the most likely.
The second harmonises with the ideas
of contemporary Jews, who regarded
the heathen world as distinct from the
Holy Land, as belonging to the devil.
The tempter points in the direction of a
universal Messianic empire, and claims
power to give effect to the dazzling
prospect. — Ver. 9. lav ireaiov 7rpoo--
kvvtjo-qs |iot. This is the condition,
homage to Satan as the superior. A
naive suggestion, but pointing to a subtle
form of temptation, to which all am-
bitious, self-seeking men succumb, that
„flf gaining P" w fir hy compromise with
evil. The danger is ^greatest when the
end is good. " The end sanctifies the
means." Nowhere is homage to Satan
more common than in connection witlj
sacred causes, the interests . of truth,
righteousness, and God. Nothing tests
purity oi motive so thoroughly as tempta-

6—13.

EYAITEAION

Xe'yei 1 auTw, " TauTa irdrra aoi 2 8wo-&>, ea> Treawi' Trpoo-Ku^cr^s • v "y freq.

p.01." 10. Tore Xe'yei auTw 6 'Itjo-ous, "'"Yiraye, 3 lajava • ye'ypcnrrai alwaysin-

* 1 \* * \ +\ f mm 9 \ » _ » -. * . trans.
yap, Kupioj' iov 0eov aou " TrpoaKUKTjcreis, kch ciutw p.6Vu> " XctTpeu- m with ace.

o-cis." 11. Totc d<|)iT](yiK outok 6 8id|3oXos • Kai iSou, ayyeXoi inLk. iv.
irpoaTjXGov' Kal ° 8itjk6Voui/ auTw. Rev '"

12. AKOYXAI 8e 6 'inaous 4 on 'ludmjs »irap E 86er], d^p*™ n j&ji£ti
6iS ttjk TaXiXaiaK- 13. Kal * KaTaXnrw ttj^ Na£apeT, cXGwk p ch.' x.%
Ka.TUKi\<rev cis Kcnrepvaoup. 6 rt]v p irapa9aXao-ow, eV opiois q Heb.Yi. 4 '

r here only in N. T., in Sept. (e.g., a Chron! Tiii 17).

1 fr^BCDZ have etircv (most mod. edd.).

J iravTa 0-01 tr. ^BCZ with several cursives.

* Some MSS. (DLZ) insert omo-u jtov, obviously imported Irom xvi. 23.

4 o I. omit fr$BCDZ ; probably the insertion is due to ver. 12 commencing a lesson
in Lectionaries.

5 This name is spelt Ka<f>«p. in the older MSS. (fr^BDZ), which is adopted through-
out by W.H.

tions of this class. Christ was proof
against them. The prince of the world
found nothing of this sort in Him (John
xiv. 30). In practice this homage, if
Jesus had been willing to render it,
would have taken the form of conciliating
the Pharisees and Sadducees, and pander-
ing to the prejudices of the people. He
took His own path, and became a Christ,
neither after the type imagined by the
Baptist, nor according to the liking of
the Jews and their leaders. So He
gained universal empire, but at a great
cost. — Ver. 10. Bira/ye oraTava. Jesus
passionately repels the Satanic sug-
gestion. The Ziraye <r. is true to His
character. The suggestions of worldly
wisdom always roused in Him passionate
aversion. The 6irio-w p,ou of some MSS.
does not suit this place ; it is imported
from Matt. xvi. 23, where it does suit,
the agent of Satan in a temptation of
the same sort being a disciple. Christ's
final word to the tempter is an absolute,
peremptory Begone. Yet He con-"
descends to support His authoritative
negative by a Scripture text, again from
Deut. (vi. 13), slightly adapted,
-n-poo-Kvvijo-eis being substituted for
4>opT)0Vjo-n (the p.(5vo> in second clause is
omitted in Swete's Sept.). It takes the
accusative here instead of dative, as in
ver. 9, because it denotes worship proper
(Weiss-Meyer). The quotation states a
principle in theory acknowledged by all,
but how hard to work it out faithfully in
lifel

Ver. 11. tot« ckJutjohv : then, when
the peremptory vira-ye had been spoken.

Nothing was to be made of one who
would not do evil that good might come.
— Kal ISov ayyeXoi. The angels were
ministering to Him, with food, pre-
sumably, in the view of the evangelist.
It might be taken in a wider sense, as
signifying that angels ministered con-
stantly to one who had decidedly chosen
the path of obedience in preference to
that of self-pleasing.

Vv. 12-25. Beginnings of the Galilean
ministry (Mk. i. 14, 15 ; Lk. iv. 14, 15).
In a few rapid strokes the evangelist
describes the opening of the Messianic
work of Jesus in Galilee. He has in
view the great Sermon on the Mount,
and the group of wonderful deeds he
means thereafter to report, and he gives
first a summary description of Christ's
varied activities by way of introduction.
Vv. 12, 13. a.Kovo~as 8^ . . . ToXiXaiav:
Tnote of time. Jesus returned to Galilee
jon hearing that John was delivered up,
i.e., in the providence of God, into the
hands of his enemies. Further particu-
lars as to this are given in chapter xiv.
Christ's ministry in Galilee began when
the Baptist's came to an end ; how long
after the baptism and temptation not in-
dicated. Weiss (Meyer) thinks that in
the view of the evangelist it was im-
mediately after, and that the reference
to John's imprisonment is meant simply
to explain the choice of Galilee as the
sphere of labour. — Ver. 13. Na£apcT.
Jesus naturally wentto Nazareth first, but
He did not tarry there. — kctcoktio-cv <U
KoTrepvaovp, He went to settle (as in
ii. 23) in Capernaum. This migration to

9 2

KATA M ATOM ON

IV.

i Ch. x. 5. ZaPouXwc kcu Ne<J>0aXetu, 14. tea TfXr)pw9T) rb prjOeV Sid 'Hcraiou

u Ch . xiii.6. T0 (j Trpo(})i')Tou, XtyovTos, 15. " Ttj ZaPouXwk Kal yfj N€4>0aXeiu,

James i. • 68oy 0aXd(T(rn9 ■nipav tou 'lopSdvou, TaXiXaia tuk e0>w, 16. 6
11 (all in- ' '

trans). \a0S 6 KaGlJJi.Ck'OS «V aKOTCl 1 €l8e <J)WS r^Y 01 ' Kat T0 ^ S Ka07]U£VoiS
v Ch. xi. 7, » « »»

■0: xii. 1. e y ywpa Kai ctkici OawaTou, d>u>s aveTeiAev auTOis.
Mk. iv. 1. A r ' ' T

Lk. iii.8«* 17. 'Atto TOTc T rjp£a,TO 6 'irjaous Ktjpuoaen' KalXcycif, "MeTOU'deiTc*

a/.(on force ,««o \' ~ > -»• o „ -<>>«>, -4

of this iwytKe yap T| pao~iA€ta ruv oupa^wf. Io. ncpnraTwt' oe o Irjcjous

Grimm's w Trapd ty[v GdXacrcrac ttjs TaXtXaias ctSe 8uo d8eX(}>ous, IijxwKa Toy

w again xiii.Xey6p.evoy rie'Tpov, koI 'AvSpe'av tok d8eX4>6v auToo, pdXXorras

1. Mk. v.
21. Cf. Acts x. 6.

1 o-KOTia, BD.

3 4>ws before ei8ev in ^BCI (W.H.).

s The Syr. Sin. and Cur. omit (xexavoeiTe before tvyyikc.

4 o I. found in ELA; omit fc^BCD (beginning of a new lesson)..

Capernaum is not formally noted in the
other Gospels, but Capernaum appears
in all the synoptists as the main centre
of Christ's Galilean ministry. — ttjv
•n-apaGoAao-criav, etc. : sufficiently denned
by these words, " on the sea (of
Galilee), on the confines of Zebulun and
Naphthali ". Well known then, now
of doubtful situation, being no longer in
existence. Tel Hum and Khan Minyeh
aompete for the honour of the site.
The evangelist describes the position not
10 satisfy the curiosity of geographers,
but to pave the way for another prophetic
reference.

Vv. 14-16. Jesus chose Capernaum
as best suited for His work. There He
was in the heart of the world, in a busy
town, and near others, on the shore of a
sea that was full of fish, and on a great
international highway. But the evan-
gelist finds in the choice a fulfilment of
prophecy — tva TrAr|pii)0-[j. The oracle is
reproduced from Is. viii. 22, ix. 1, freely
following the original with glances at
the Sept. The style is very laconic : land
of Zebulun and land of Naphthali, way of
the sea (68bv absolute accusative for

= versus, vide Winer, § 23),

Galilee of the Gentiles, a place where
races mix, a border population. The
clause preceding, "beyond Jordan," is
not omitted, because it is viewed as a
reference to Peraea, also a scene of
Christ's ministry. — Ver. 16. Iv o-kotCo/.
the darkness referred to. in the view of
the evangelist, is possibly that caused
by the imprisonment of the Baptist
(Fritzsche). The consolation comes in
the form of a greater light, <j>ws pfva,

great, even the greatest. The thought
is emphasised by repetition and by
enhanced description of the benighted
situation of those on whom the light
arises : " in the very home and shadow
of death " ; highly graphic and poetic,
not applicable, however, to the land of
Galilee more than to other parts of the
land ; descriptive of misery rather than
of sin.

Ver. 17. cWb tote . . . KTjpwcreiv.
After settling in Capernaum Jesus began
to preach. The phrase airo tote offends
in two ways, first as redundant, being
implied in rjp|a.TO (De Wette) ; next as
not classic, being one of the degeneracies
of the koivt]. Phrynichus forbids Ik totc,
and instructs to say rather ejj Ikeivov
(Lobeck's ed., p. 45). — KTjpwo-eiv, the
same word as in describing the ministry
of the Baptist (iii. 1). And the message
is the same — MeTavoetxe, etc. " Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
The same in word but not in thought, as
will appear soon. It may seem as if the
evangelist meant to represent Jesus as
simply taking up and continuing the
arrested ministry of the Baptist. So He
was in form and to outward appearance,
but not in spirit. From the very first,
as has been seen even in connection
with the baptism, there was a deep-
seated difference between the two
preachers. Even Euthy. Zig. under-
stood this, monk though he was. Repent,
he says, with John meant "in so far as
ye have erred " = amendment ; with
Jesus, " from the old to the new " (diro
ttjs it a X a 1 as lirt tt)v Kaivrjv) =a change
from within. For the evangelist this
was the absolute beginning of Christ's

14—23.

EYAITEAION

x dp, 8d\acr<rai' • r\<ra.v yap J dXieis. 1 19. Kai x
Xe'yet, auTois> "* Aeutc ottictw uou, Kal Tro(.r)CTw upas d\ieis dvOpoJirwf."
20. Ol 8e euOe'us dc^evTes Ta SiKTua T)Ko\oo9r]aai' aurw. 21. Kal
irpo|3ds eKeifley, etoef dXXous Suo dSeXcpoug, 'idKwPoy tov tou Ze(3e-
Saioo Kal '\u)&vvr]V Toy d8eX<J>6e atJTOu, Iv tu irXoiw peTa ZcPeSaioo
tou iraTpos ouTciii', KaT<xpTi£orras Ta SiKTua auTuiy ■ Kal eKaXeo-ee
auTOus. 2 2. »l 8e eu9e<09 d<f>eiTcs to irXoioy Kai tov iraTe'pa auTwy
riKoXouOrjaaf auTw.

23. Kal "irepi.TJY 61 ' oXyjv' ttjk TaXiXaiay 6 'Iy|o-ous, 2 SiSdaKwi' iv Tais
owaywyais auTwy, Kal KT)puo-o-a>»' to euayyeXioy ttjs PaatXeias, Kal

here onl»
in N. T. ,
verb in
Mk. i. 16
in Sept.
Mk. i. 16
17. Lk.v.x
Ch. xi.28;
xxv. 34.
with rv
here only
(true text);
with ace-
of place
■x. 35;
xxiii. 15.
Mk. vi. 6.

1 fc^C have oXteis, B oXcieis.

2 fr$BC have ev o\t\ rr\ TaXiXaia. The ace. (T. R. as in D, etc.) is the more
usual construction, hence preferred by ancient revisers. B omits lr|o-ovs.

ministry. He knows nothing of an
earlier activity.

Vv. 18-22. Call of four disciples.
The preceding very general statement is
followed by a more specific narrative
relating to a very important department
of Christ's work, the gathering of dis-
ciples. Disciples are referred to in the
Sermon on the Mount (v. 1), therefore
it is meet that it be shown how Jesus
came by them. Here we have simply a
sample, a hint at a process always going
on, and which had probably advanced a
considerable way before the sermon was
delivered. — irepnraTuv 8e : 8J simply
introduces a new topic, the time is inde-
finite. One day when Jesus was walk-
ing along the seashore He saw two men,
brothers, names given, by occupation
fishers, the main industry of the locality,
that tropical sea (800 feet below level of
Mediterranean) abounding in fish. He
saw them, may have seen them before, and
they Him, and thought them likely men,
and He said to them, ver. 19 : AciJre . . .
dvOpiinrttv. From the most critical point
of view a genuine saying of Jesus; the
first distinctively individual word of the
Galilean ministry as recorded by Matthew
and Mark. . Full 01 significance as a self-
revelation of the speaker. Authoritative
yet genial, indicating a poetic idealistic
temperament and a tendency to figurative
speech ; betraying the rudiments of a
plan for winning men by select men.
Ae\JT€ plural form of Stvpo = Sevp' itc,
Seijpo being an adverb of place with the
force of command, a verb of command-
ing being understood : here ! after me ;
imperial yet kindly, used again in Matt.
fci. 28 with reference to the labouring and
heavy-laden. 8cvt« and a\tei9 (= sea-

people) are samples of old poetic words re-
vived and introduced into prose by later
Greek writers. — Ver. 20. The effect wag
immediate : evdias d<j>e'vTes. This seems
surprising, and we naturally postulate
previous knowledge in explanation. But
all indications point to the uniquely
impressive personality of Jesus. John
felt it ; the audience in the synagogue of
Capernaum felt it on the first appearance
of Jesus there (Mk. i. 27) ; the four fisher-
men felt it. — SiK-rua: ap,<{>i|3XT]crTpov in
ver. 18. In xiii. 47 occurs a third word
for a net, <rayt\vr] ; Siktuov (from Slkciv,
to throw) is the general name ; dp<tu-
p\T|«rTpov (dfiLpd\X<o), anything cast
around, e.g., a garment, more specifically
a net thrown with the hand ; o-ayrjvT], a
sweep-net carried out in a boat, then
drawn in from the land (vide Trench,
Synonyms of N. T., § 64). — Ver. 21.
aXXovs Svo, another pair of brothers,
James and John, sons of Zebedee, the
four together an important instalment of
the twelve. The first pair were casting
their nets, the second were mending
them, (Ka.Tap-ri£ovT£s), with their father.
— Ver. 22. oi 8e tvBe'ws d^e'vTeg. They
too followed immediately, leaving nets,
ship, and father (vide Mk. i. 20)
behind.

Vv. 23-25. Summary account of the
Galilean ministry. A colourless general
statement serving as a mere prelude to
chapters v.-ix. It points to a ministry in
Galilee, varied, extensive, and far-famed,
conceived by the evangelist as antecedent
to the Sermon on the Mount ; not
necessarily covering a long period of
time, though if the expression " teaching
in their synagogues " be pressed it must
imply a good many weeks (vide on Mk.).

KATA MAT9AI0N

IV. 24—25.

bCh. ii. 35: dcpancuwf irdaaf fopof Kal ixacrav b uaXaKiap iv tu> Xafi. 24. Kal

c Ch. xiv. 1 ; dirrjXOey 1 ^ * dKof] auTOu els oXy]^ ttjk Zupiay * Kal irpoa^veyKai'

d Ch. viii. qutw TTCiv'Tas tous kokws «X 0kTa 5> iroiia'Xais yoa-ois Kal * Paadyois

al.' au^xoueVous, Kal 2 Saiuofi£op.eVous, Kal ' atXrji'ia^ofAtVous, Kai

a8. ' irapaXuTiKou's * Kal tGepu-rreucrev auTous. 25. Kal T|KoXou8rjaav

' auTw 0^X01 ttoXXoI &iro ttjs r*aXiXaias Kal AeKairoXeus Kai 'lepo-

aoXuuuc Kal 'louoaias, Kal Wpav tou 'lopSdVoo.

1 So in BD (W.H.), «frX8«v in ^C.

1 BC omit Kai, which is in CD. The force of Kai = and especially.

The ministry embraced three functions :
SiSda-Kwv, KTipvcro-cov, 0cpaircv(»v (ver.
23), teaching, preaching, healing. Jesus
was an evangelist, a master, and a healer
of disease. Matt, puts the teaching
function first in accordance with the
character of his gospel. The first gospel
is weak in the evangelistic element com-
pared with the third : SiSax^ is more
prominent than K^pvyp.a. The healing
function is represented as exercised on a
large scale : vac-ay vocrov Kal iraaav
paXaKiav, every form of disease and
ailment. Euthy. Zig. defines vdcros as
the chronic subversion of health (tj
Xpovia irapaTpoirT) ttjs tow <rcop.aTos
I §€«?), p.aXaKia as the weakness in which
it begins (ipx'H X avvo * (rews ww^a-ros,
irpoayytXos voaov). The subjects of
healing are divided into two classes, ver.
«4. They brought to Him irdvTas t.
Km lx» iroiKiXais vdffoi9i all who were
Afflicted with various diseases (such as
fever, leprosy, blindness) ; also those
PacrdvoL? a-uvexopivovs, seized with dis-
eases of a tormenting nature, of which
three classes are named — the koi in T.
R. before Saipov. is misleading; the follow-
ing words are epexegetical : 8aiuovi£ouc-
kovs, a , eXi]via£op.€vo'us, irapaXvriKO'US =
demoniacs, epileptics (their seizures
following the phases of the moon),
paralytics. These forms of disease are
graphically called torments. (j3acravo9,
first a touch-stone, lapis Lydius, as in
Pindar, Pythia, x. 105 : rUipwvri Si koi
Xpvo-os ev f3a.crdv(j> irpEirci Kal voos 6p8ds ;
then an instrument of torture to extract
truth ; then, as here, tormenting forms of
disease.) The fame, tj clkot), of such a
marvellous ministry naturally spread
widely, els SXtjv ttjv Ivpiav, throughout
the whole province to which Palestine
belonged, among Gentiles as well as
Jews. Crowds gathered around the
wonderful Man from all quarters : west,
east, north, south ; Galilee, Decapolis
on the eastern side of the lake, Jerusalem

and Judaea, Peraea. With every allow
ance for the exaggeration of a populai
account, this speaks to an extraordinary
impression.

Chapters V.-VII. The Sermon on
the Mount. This extended utterance
of Jesus comes upon us as a surprise.
Nothing goes before to prepare us to
expect anything so transcendently great.
Tne impressions made on the Baptist, the
people in Capernaum Synagogue (Mk. i.
27), and the four fishermen, speak to
wisdom, power, and personal charm, but
not so as to make us take the sermon
as a thing cf course. Our surprise is all
the greater that there is so little ante-
cedent narrative. By an effort of
imagination we have to realise that
much went before — preaching, teaching,
interviews with disciples, conflicts with
Pharisees, only once mentioned hitherto
(iii. 7), yet here the leading theme of
discourse.

The sermon belongs to the didache,
not to the kerygma. Jesus is here the
Master, not the Evangelist. ' He ascends
the hill to get away from the crowds
below, and the disciples, now become a
considerable band, gather about Him.
Others may not be excluded, but the p.a-
O^Tal are the audience proper. The dis-
course may represent the teaching, not of
a single hour or day, but of a period of
retirement from an exciting, exhausting
ministry below, and all over Galilee ;
rest being sought in variation of work,
evangelist and teacher alternately. A
better name for these chapters than the
Sermon on the Mount, which suggests a
concio ad populum, might be The Teach-
ing on the Hill. It may be a combina-
tion of several lessons. One very
outstanding topic is Pharisaic righteous-
ness. Christ evidently made it His
business in one of the hill lessons to
define controversially His position in
reference to the prevailing type 01 piety,
which we may assume to have been to

V. i—3.

EYAITEAION

V. I. IAQN S£ tous oxXous * aviflr) els to opos ' kcu b KaOicravTos » same

auTou, irpoo-f|X0oy auTw 1 oi o u.a0r|Tai auTOu • 2. Kal d droi|as to ch. xiv.

orou-a auTou, eoioacrKef auTous, X^ywv, 3. u, MaKapiotot 'irrwxol Mk.iii.13

b here and
in xiii. 48. Mk. iz. 35. Lk. iv. ao al., intrans., also Heb. i. 3; trans. 1 Cor. vi. 4. Eph. ii. 6 (ovvtic).
c frequent in Gospp. and Acts, nowhere else in N. T. d again in xiii. 35. e Ch. xi. 6; xiii 16.

Lk. i. 45 ; x. 23. f Ch. xi. 5. Lk. iv. 18.

1 B omits av-rw ; bracketed as doubtful in W.H.

Him a subject of long and careful study
before the opening of His public career.
The portions of the discourse which bear
on that subject can be picked out, and
others not relating thereto eliminated,
and we may say if we choose that the
resulting body of teaching is the Sermon
on the Mount (so Weiss). Perhaps the
truth is that these portions formed one
of the lessons given to disciples on the
hill in their holiday summer school. The
Beatitudes might form another, instruc-
tions on prayer (vi. 7-15) a third,
admonitions against covetousness and
care (vi. 19-34) a fourth, and so on. As
these chapters stand, the various parts
cohere and sympathise wonderfully so as
to present the appearance of a unity ;
but that need not hinder us from regard-
ing the whole as a skilful combination
of originally distinct lessons, possessing
the generic unity of the Teaching on
the Hill. This view I prefer to that
which regards the sermon as a com-
pendium of Christ's whole doctrine (De
Wette), or the mag7ia charta of the
kingdom (Tholuck), though there is a
truth in that title, or as an ordination
discourse in connection with the setting
apart of the Twelve (Ewald), or in its
original parts an anti-Pharisaic manifesto
(Weiss-Meyer). For comparison of
Matthew's version of the discourse with
Luke's see notes on Lk. vi. 20-49.

Chap. v. 1-2. Introductory statement
by evangelist. MSuv 8i . . . els to
opos. Christ ascended the hill, accord-
ing to some, because there was more
room there for the crowd than below. I
prefer the view well put by Euthy. Zig. :
" He ascended the near hill, to avoid
the din of the crowd (OopiSPovs) and to
give instruction without distraction ; for
He passed from the healing of the body
to the cure of souls. This was His habit,
passing from that to this and from this
to that, providing varied benefit." But
we must be on our guard against a
double misunderstanding that might be
suggested by the statement in ver. 1,
that Jesus went up to the mountain, as
if in ascetic retirement from the world,

and addressed Himself henceforth to His
disciples, as if they alone were the
objects of His care, or to teach them an
esoteric doctrine with which the multi-
tude had no concern. Jesus was not
monastic in spirit, and He had not two
doctrines, one for the many, another for
the few, like Buddha. His highest
teaching, even the Beatitudes and the
beautiful discourse against care, was
meant for the million. He taught
disciples that they might teach the
world and so be its light. For this
purpose His disciples came to Him when
He sat down (ica6icravTos ai-roC) taking
the teacher's position (cf. Mk. iv. 1, ix.
35, xiii. 3). Lutteroth (Essai d'Jnterpre-
tation, p. 65) takes ica8ia-avTos as mean-
ing to camp out (camper), to remain for
a time, as in Lk. xxiv. 49, Acts xviii. n.
He, I find, adopts the view I have
indicated of the sermon as a summary
of all the discourses of Jesus on the hill
during a sojourn of some duration. The
hill, to opos, may be most naturally
taken to mean the elevated plateau
rising above the seashore. It is idle to
inquire what particular hill is intended. —
Ver. 2. avo£|as to o~Top.a : solemn
description of the beginning of a weighty
discourse. — !8i8ao-icev, imperfect, imply-
ing continued discourse.

Vv. 3-12. The Beatitudes. Some
general observations may helpfully intro-
duce the detailed exegesis of these
golden words.

1. They breathe the spirit of the scene.
On the mountain tops away from the
bustle and the sultry heat of the region
below, the air cool, the blue sky over-
head, quiet all around, and divine
tranquillity within. We are near heaven
here.

2. The originality of these sayings
has been disputed, especially by modern
Jews desirous to credit their Rabbis
with such good things. Some of them,
e.g., the third, may be found in sub-
stance in the Psalter, and possibly many,
or all of them, even in the Talmud. But
what then ? They are in the Talmud as
a few grains of wheat lost in a vast heap

9 6

KATA MAT6A10N

g the name tw TTi'tuuaTi • on auTuf tarty r\ g BaaaXeia rdv f oupavStv. 4.

for the k. ' , r ■ . \ , .

of G. in uaKcipioi ' ot TreyBoGrres • oti auToi unpaKX'nGvjcroi'Tcu. 5. uaxapioi

Mr, put
into the Baptist's mouth, in iii. a. His, not Christ's, ace. to Weiss tt al. h Ch. ix. 15.

1 The 2nd and 3rd Beatitudes (w. 4, 5) are transposed in D, most old Latin texts,
and in Syr. Cur. Tisch. adopts this order.

of chaff. The originality of Jesus lies in
putting the due value on these thoughts,
collecting them, and making them as
prominent as the Ten Commandments.
No greater service can be rendered to
mankind than to rescue from obscurity
neglected moral commonplaces.

3. The existence of another version of
the discourse (in Lk.), with varying
forms of the sayings, has raised a
question as to the original form. Did
Christ, e.g., say "Blessed the poor"
(Lk.) or " Blessed the poor in spirit "
(Matt.) ? This raises a larger question as
to the manner of Christ's teaching on
the hill. Suppose one day in a week of
instruction was devoted to the subject
of happiness, its conditions, and heirs,
many things might be said on each lead-
ing proposition. The theme would be
announced, then accompanied with
expansions. A modern biographer
would have prefaced a discourse like
this with an introductory account of the
Teacher's method. There is no such
account in the Gospels, but there are
incidental notices from which we can
learn somewhat. The disciples asked
questions and the Master answered them.
Jesus explained some of His parables to
the twelve. From certain parts of His
teaching, as reported, it appears that He
not only uttered great thoughts in
aphoristic form, but occasionally en-
larged. The Sermon on the Mount
contains at least two instances of such
enlargement. The thesis, " I am not
come to destroy but to fulfil " (ver. 17),
is copiously illustrated (w. 21-48). The
counsel against care, which as a thesis
might be stated thus: "Blessed are the
care-free," is amply expanded (vv. 25-34).
Even in one of the Beatitudes we find
traces of explanatory enlargement ; in
the last, " Blessed are the persecuted ".
It is perhaps the most startling of all the
paradoxes, and would need enlargement
greatly, and some parts of the expansion
have been preserved (w. 10-12). On
this view both iorms of the first
Beatitude might be authentic, the one as
theme, the other as comment. The
theme would always be put in the fewest
possible words ; the first Beatitude there-

fore, as Luke puts it, MaKapini ot
TTTtt>x o L> Matthew preserving one of the
expansions, not necessarily the only one.
Of course, another view of the expansion
is possible, that it proceeded not from
Christ, but from the transmitters of His
sayings. But this hypothesis is not a
whit more legitimate or likely than the
other. I make this observation, not in
the spirit of an antiquated Harmonistic,
but simply as a contribution to historical
criticism.

4. Each Beatitude has a reason an-
nexed, that of the first being "for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven ". They vary
in the different Beatitudes as reported.
It is conceivable that in the original
themes the reason annexed to the first
was common to them all. It was under-
stood to be repeated like the refrain of a
song, or like the words, " him do I call a
Brahmana," annexed to many of the
moral sentences in the Footsteps of the
Law in the Buddhist Canon. " He who,
when assailed, does not resist, but speaks
mildly to his tormentors — him do I call a
Brahmana." So "Blessed the poor, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven",
"blessed they who mourn, for," etc.;
"blessed the meek, the hungry, for," etc.
The actual reasons annexed, when they
vary from the refrain, are to-be viewed as
explanatory comments.

5. It has been maintained that only
certain of the Beatitudes belong to the
authentic discourse on the mount, the
rest, possibly based on true login of Jesus
spoken at another time, being added
by the evangelist, true to his habit of
massing the teaching of Jesus in topical
groups. This is the view of Weiss (in
Matt. Evan., and in Meyer). He thinks
only three are authentic — the first, third,
and fourth — all pointing to the righteous-
ness of the kingdom as the summum
bonum : the first to righteousness as
not yet possessed ; the second to the
want as a cause of sorrow ; the third to
righteousness as an object of desire.
This view goes with the theory that
Christ's discourse on the hill had refer-
ence exclusively to the nature 01 true and
lalse righteousness.

6. A final much less important ques-

4 — 6.

EYATTEAION

oi 'irpaeis' on auTol sXripo^o^TJaoufft t)\v yfjk. 6. paicdpioi 0liCh.xi.3g;
Tretewrres koi Sii|/uctes ttjk Sucaioauyny • on <xutoI \opraaQr\(royrai. Pet. iii. 4.

34-

J Ch. xxv.
Heb. vi. 13. k Ch. xiv. 20.

tion in reference to the Beatitudes is that
which relates to their number. One
would say at a first glance eight, counting
ver. 10 as one, vv. n, 12 being an en-
largement. The traditional number,
however, is seven — vv. 10-12 being re-
garded as a transition to a new topic.
This seems arbitrary. Delitsch, anxious
to establish an analogy with the Deca-
logue, makes out ten — seven from ver. 3
to ver. 9, ver. 10 one, ver. 11 one, and
ver. 12, though lacking the (laKapioi, the
tenth ; its claim resting on the exulting
words, x a ^P £Te Ka ^ d-yaXXiacrfl*. This
savours of Rabbinical pedantry.

Ver. 3. fiQKapioi. This is one of the
words which have been transformed and
ennobled by N. T. use ; by association,
as in the Beatitudes, with unusual con-
ditions, accounted by the world miser-
able, or with rare and difficult conduct,
e.g., in John xiii. 17, " if ye know these
things, happy (p.a.Kapi.01) are ye if ye do
them ". Notable in this connection is
the expression in 1 Tim. i. 11, "The
Gospel of the glory of the happy God".
The implied truth is that the happiness
of the Christian God consists in being a
Redeemer, bearing the burden of the
world's sin and misery. How different
from the Epicurean idea of God ! Our
word " blessed" represents the new con-
ception of felicity. — ol tttuxoI : irT&>x<5s

in Sept. stands for 1i*Qfr$ P s - c ' x - J 6> or
*0J? Ps. xl. 18: the poor, taken even in

the most abject sense, mendici, Tertull.
adv. Mar. iv. 14. irrwxos and irevTjs
originally differed, the latter meaning
poor as opposed to rich, the former
destitute. But in Biblical Greek irruxoi,
ir«VT)T£s, irpaeis, Taireivoi are used indis-
criminately for the same class, the poor
of an oppressed country. Vide Hatch,
Essays in Biblical Greek, p. 76. The
term is used here in a pregnant sense,
absolute and unqualified at least to begin
with ; qualifications come after. From
TT-rwo-o-ctf, to cower in dispiritment and
fear, always used in an evil sense till
Christ taught the poor man to lift up his
head in hope and self-respect ; the very
lowest social class not to be despaired of,
a future possible even for the mendicant.
Blessedness possible for the poor in every
sense ; they, in comparison with others,
under no disabilities, rather contrari-

wise—such is the first and fundamental
lesson. — to) irvevftaTi. Possibilities are
not certainties ; to turn the one into the
other the soul or will of the individual
must come in, for as Euthy. Zig. quaintly
says, nothing involuntary can bless (ovSev
t»v dirpoaipl-ruv Liaicapio-ToV). " In
spirit " is, therefore, added to develop
and define the idea of poverty. The
comment on the theme passes from the
lower to the higher sphere. Christ's
thought includes the physical and social,
but it does not end there. Luke seems
to have the social aspect in view, in
accordance with one of his tendencies and
the impoverished condition of most mem-
bers of the apostolic Church. To limit
the meaning to that were a mistake, but
to include that or even to emphasise it
in given circumstances was no error.
Note that the physical and spiritual lay
close together in Christ's mind. He
passed easily from one to the other (John
iv. 7-10 ; Lk. x 42, see notes there).
tu Try. is, of course, to be connected with
irrwxo^ not with fj.aKa.pioi. Poor in spirit
is not to be taken objectively, as if spirit
indicated the element in which the
poverty is manifest — poor intellect :
"homines ingenio et eruditione parum
florentes" (Fritzsche) = the vtjttioi in
Matt. xi. 25 ; but subjectively, poor in
their own esteem. Self-estimate is the
essence of the mattu, and is compatible
with real wealth. Only the noble think
meanly of thams^lvcs. The soul ol
goodness is in ttje .nau who is really
humble. Poverty laid to heart pass«
into riches. A high \deai of life li-6
beneath all. Ai d vhai idual is the link
between the sowal and the spiritual.
The poor man paisew ir to Ihe blessedness
of the kingdom *s soon as he realises
what a man is or ought to be. Poor in
purse or even in character, «io man is
beggared who has a vision of Man's chief
end and chief good. — av-rwv, emphatic
position :tht irs, note it well. t>o in the
following verses atiTol and avrwv. — «oti,
not merely in prospect, but in present
possession. The kingdom of heaven is
often presented in the Gospels apoca-
lyptically as a thing in the future to be
given to the worthy by way of external
recompense. But this view pertains
rather to the form of thought than to the
essence of the matter. Christ speaks ol
the kingdom here not as a known quan-

9 8

KATA MAT0AION

1 Heb. ii .17. 7. p.aKapioi 01 l ^Xetjfiokcs • on aoTol m eXe^drjo-orrai. 8. u-atcdpioi
n Rom. xi. c , ^ , , v , „

30, 31. 1 01 Kaoapoi rj] Kapoia • on auTOi row Qeov o\|/ovrai. (j. u-aicapioi

Tim. i. 13,

16. n 1 Tim. i. 5; sTim. ii. --'. o Heb. xii. i.| (seeing God)-

tity, but as a thing whose nature He is in
the act of defining by the aphorisms He
utters. If so, then it consists essentially
in states of mind. It is within. It is our-
selves, the true ideal human.

Ver. 4. ot irtv6ovvT£s. Who are
they ? All who on any account grieve ?
Then this Beatitude would give utterance
to a thoroughgoing optimism. Pessimists
say that there are many griefs for which
there is no remedy, so many that life is
not worth living. Did Jesus mean to
meet this position with a direct nega-
tive, and to affirm that there is no
sorrow without remedy ? If not, then
He propounds a puzzle provoking
thoughtful scholars to ask : What grief
is that which will without fail find com-
fort ? There can be no comfort where
there is no grief, for the two ideas are
correlative. But in most cases there
is no apparent necessary connection.
Necessary connection is asserted in this
aphorism, which gives us a clue to the
class described as oi irev8ovvT6s. Their
peculiar sorrow roust be one which com-
forts itself, a grief that has the thing it
grieves for in the very grief. The com-
fort is then no outward good. It lies in
a right state of soul, and that is given
in the sorrow which laments the lack of
it. The sorrow reveals love of the good,
and that love is possession. In so far as
all kinds of sorrow tend to awaken re-
flection on the real good and ill of human
life, and so to issue in the higher sorrow
of the soul, the second Beatitude may be
taken absolutely as expressing the tend-
ency of all grief to end in consolation. —
■jrapaKX^Siio-ovTai, future. The comfort
is latent in the very grief, but for the
present there is no conscious joy, but
only poignant sorrow. The joy, how-
ever, will inevitably come to birth. No
noble nature abides permanently in the
house of mourning. The greater the
sorrow, the greater the ultimate gladness,
the "joy in the Holy Ghost " mentioned
by St. Paul among the essentials of the
Kingdom of God (Rom. xiv. 17).

Ver. 5. ol irpatls: in Sept. for 0^2 J?

in Ps. xxxvii. n, of which this Beatitude
is an echo. The men who suffer wrong
without bitterness or desire for revenge,
a class who in this world are apt to go to
the wall. In this case we should have
expected the Teacher to end with the

common refrain : theirs is the kingdom
of heaven, that being the only thing
they are likely to get. Jean Paul
Richter humorously said : " The French
have the empire of the land, the English
the empire of the sea ; to the Germans
belongs the empire of the air ". But
Jesus promises to the meek the empire of
the 6olid earth — kXtjpovoja^ctovo-i tt)k
Y^v. Surely a startling paradox ! That
the meek should find a foremost place in
the kingdom of heaven is very intel-
ligible, but " inherit the earth "—the land
of Canaan or any other part of this
planet — is it not a delusive promise ?
Not altogether. It is at least true as a
doctrine of moral tendency. Meekness
after all is a power even in this world, a
"world-conquering principle " (Tholuck).
The meek of England, driven from their
native land by religious intolerance,
have inherited the continent of America.
Weiss (Meyer) is quite sure, however,
that this thought was far (ganz fern)
from Christ's mind. I venture to think
he is mistaken.

The inverse order of the second and
third Beatitudes found in Codex D, and
favoured by some of the Fathers, e.g.,
Jerome, might be plausibly justified by
the affinity between poverty of spirit and
meekness, and the natural sequence of
the two promises : possession of the
kingdom of heaven and inheritance of
the earth. But the connection beneath
the surface is in favour of the order as it
stands in T. R.

Ver. 6. If the object of the hunger
and thirst had not been mentioned this
fourth Beatitude would have been parallel
in form to the second : Blessed the
hungry, for they shall be filled. We
should then have another absolute affir-
mation requiring qualification, and
raising the question : What sort of
hunger is it which is sure to be satisfied ?
That might be the original form of the
aphorism as given in Luke. The answer
to the question it suggests is similar to
that given under Beatitude 1. The
hunger whose satisfaction is sure is that
which contains its own satisfaction. It
is the hunger for moral good. The
passion for righteousness is righteous-
ness in the deepest sense of the word. —
•7reiv&)VT€S icai 8i\J/wvt£S. These verbs,
like all verbs of desire, ordinarily take
the genitive of the object. Hece and in

7 — io.

EYAITEAION

oi p eipr\voTroioi • on auTol 1 q ulol 0eou K\T|6r|C7oeTat.. io. paxapioi p here only.

oi SeSiwvucVoi eveKev SiKaiocrui/riS • cm auTwy Icttlv ti BacriXeia tw Col. i. 20.
,r ' q «ioi 0. in

Lk. xx. 36. Rom. viii. 14, 19. Gal. iii. 26.

1 avroi omitted in fc^CD it. vul. syr., bracketed in W.H. It may have been
omitted by homceoteleiiton and it seems needed for emphasis.

other places in N.T.they take the accusa-
tive, the object being of a spiritual
nature, which one not merely desires to
participate in, but to possess in whole.
Winer, § xxx. 10, thus distinguishes the
two constructions : 8u|rav <j>iXoero4>ias =
to thirst after philosophy ; 8n|/.
<f>i\cicro<|>iav = to thirst for possession
of philosophy as a whole. Some have
thought that 81a is to be understood
before Sue., and that the meaning is :
" Blessed they who suffer natural hunger
and thirst on account of righteousness ".
Grotius understands by Sue. the way or
doctrine of righteousness.

Ver. 7. This Beatitude states a self-
acting law of the moral world. The
exercise of mercy (eXeos, active pity)
tends to elicit mercy from others — God
and men. The chief reference may be
to the mercy of God in the final awards
of the kingdom, but the application need
not be restricted to this. The doctrine
of Christ abounds in great ethical prin-
ciples of universal validity : "he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted," " to
him that hath shall be given," etc. This
Beatitude suitably follows the preceding.
Mercy is an element in true righteous-
ness (Mic. vi. 8). It was lacking in
Pharisaic righteousness (Matt, xxiii. 23).
It needed much to be inculcated in
Christ's time, when sympathy was killed
by the theory that all suffering was
penalty of special sin, a theory which
fostered a pitiless type of righteousness
(Schanz). Mercy may be practised by
many means ; " not by money alone,"
says Euthy.Zig., " but by word, and if you
have nothing, by tears" (Sua Saicpijiov).

Ver. 8. ol ica0apol tt) xapSia : t. Kap8.
may be an explanatory addition to indi-
cate the region in which purity shows
itself. That purity is in the heart, the
seat of thought, desire, motive, not in
the outward act, goes without saying
from Christ's point of view. Blessed
the pure. Here there is a wide range of
suggestion. The pure may be the spot-
less or faultless in general ; the continent
with special reference to sexual indul-
gence — those whose very thoughts
are clean ; or the pure in motive, the
single-minded, the men who seek the

kingdom as the suntmum bonum with
undivided heart. The last is the most
relevant to the general connection and
the most deserving to be insisted on.
In the words of Augustine, the mundum
cor is above all the simplex cor. Moral
simplicity is the cardinal demand in
Christ's ethics. The man who has
attained to it is in His view perfect
(Matt. xix. 21). Without it a large
numerical list of virtues and good habits
goes for nothing. With it character,
however faulty in temper or otherwise,
is ennobled and redeemed. — tov Qebv
oxJ/ovtoi : their reward is the beatific
vision. Some think the reference is not to
the faculty of clear vision but to the rare
privilege of seeing the face of the Great
King (so Fritzsche and Schanz). " The
expression has its origin in the ways of
eastern monarchs, who rarely show them-
selves in public, so that only the most
intimate circle behold the royal counten-
ance" (Schanz) = the pure have access
to the all but inaccessible. This idea
does not seem to harmonise with Christ's
general way of conceiving God. On the
other hand, it was His habit to insist on
the connection between clear vision and
moral simplicity ; to teach that it is the
single eye that is full of light (Matt. vi.
22). It is true that the pure shall have
access to God's presence, but the truth
to be insisted on in connection with this
Beatitude is that through purity, single-
ness of mind, they are qualified for seeing,
knowing, truly conceiving God and all
that relates to the moral universe. It is
the pure in heart who are able to see and
say that " truly God is good" (Ps. lxxiii.
1) and rightly to interpret the whole
phenomena of life in relation to Pro-
vidence. They shall see, says Jesus,
casting His thought into eschatological
form, but He means the pure are tht
men who see; the double-minded, the
two-souled (8i\[/vxos, James i. 8) man \r
blind. Theophylact illustrates the con-
nection between purity and vision thus:
wtrirep yap to KaTOirrpov, tav f) KaOapov
tot£ Scleral T0.5 €p.<|)da£is, ovtu Kai yy
KaOapa i|n>xT) Sc'xcTai oifriv 0eov.

Ver. g. 01 eipT|vo7roioi : not merely
those who have peace in their own souls

IOO

KATA MATOAION

r Kom. ir. i. oupavu»K. II. fiaicrfpioi lent, OTav oVeiOiawo-if ujaus Kai Oiu£<do~i,
18. Kal eiTTuxri iraK irovr\pbv ptjfxa 1 Ka0' ujjiwk 2 r \J/eu86u,eeoi, 3 Ikckck

*.ver. 46. ^jiou. 12. )(aipeTe ical * &ya\\iaCT0e, on 6 ' fuaflos up.u>y ttoXus iv
2, 5, etc. tois oupaKOis ' outw yap eoiw^aK tous Trpo^^Tas tous irp6 uu.wk.

1 This word (in CAZ) is omitted in ^BD.
sense clear.

1 ko.0 v|xu)v before irav in D.

1 Omitted in D ; found in fc$BC al.

It may have been added to make the

through purity (Augustine), or the peace-
loving (Grotius, Wetstein), but the active
heroic promoters of peace in a world full
of alienation, party passion, and strife.
Their efforts largely consist in keeping
aloof from sectional strifes and the
passions which beget them, and living
tranquilly for and in the whole. Such
men have few friends. Christ, the ideal
peace-maker, was alone in a time given
up to sectarian division. But they have
their compensation — viol Otov kXt|8ii-
o-ovtoi. God owns the disowned and
distrusted as His sons. They shall be
called because they are. They shall be
called at the great consummation ; nay,
even before that, in after generations,
when party strifes and passions have
ceased, and men have come to see who
were the true friends of the Divine
interest in an evil time.

Vv. 10-12. ol SeSior/fju'voi e. 8110 The
original form of the Beatitude was pro-
bably: Blessed the persecuted. The
added words only state what is a, matter
of course. No one deserves to be called
a persecuted one unless he suffers for
righteousness, ol SeSiajy. (perf. part.) :
the persecuted are not merely men who
have passed through a certain experience,
but men who bear abiding traces of it in
their character. Thev are marked men,
and bear the stamp of trial on their faces.
It arrests the notice of the passer-by:
commands his respect, and prompts the
question, Who and whence ? They are
veteran soldiers of righteousness with an
unmistakable air of dignity, serenity, and
buoyancy about them. — avT«v eo-riv y\ ($.
t. ovp. The common refrain of all the
Beatitudes is expressly repeated here to
hint that theirs emphatically is the
Kingdom of Heaven. It is the proper
guerdon of the soldier of righteous-
ness. It is his now, within him in
the disciplined spirit and the heroic
temper developed by trial. — Ver. 11.
paicdpioi icrrt. The Teacher ex-
patiates as if it were a favourite theme,
giving a personal turn to His further re-

flections—" Blessed are ye. " Is it
likely that Jesus would speak so early
of this topic to disciples? Would He
not wait till it came more nearly within
the range of their experience ? Nay, is
the whole discourse about persecution
not a reflection back into the teaching of
the Master of the later experiences of the
apostolic age, that suffering disciples
might be inspired by the thought that
their Lord had so spoken ? It is possible
to be too incredulous here. If it was not
too soon to speak of Pharisaic righteous-
ness it was not too soon to speak of
suffering for true righteousness. The
one was sure to give rise to the other.
The disciples may already have had ex-
perience of Pharisaic disfavour (Mk. ii.,
iii.). In any case Jesus saw clearly what
was coming. He had had an apocalypse
of the dark future in the season of tempta-
tion, and He deemed it fitting to lift the
veil a little that His disciples might get
a glimpse of it. — ot<xv oveiSio-faKriv . . .
Ivckcv sfiov : illustrative details pointing
to persistent relentless persecution by
word and deed, culminating in wilful,
malicious, lying imputations of the gross-
est sort — irav irovTjpov, every conceivable
calumny — \|/«v8ou.evoi, lying : not merely
in the sense that the statements are
false, but in the sense of deliberately
inventing the most improbable lies ; their
only excuse being that violent prejudice
leads the calumniators to think nothing
too evil to be believed against the objects
of their malice. — eveKtv efio-u : for Him
who has undertaken to make you fishers
of men. Do you repent following Him ?
No reason why. — Ver. 12. x < "P £T * Ka ^
ay. In spite of all, joy, exultation is
possible — nay, inevitable. I not only
exhort you to it, but I tell you, you cannot
help being in this mood, if once you
throw yourselves enthusiastically into
the warfare of God. 'A-yaXXiaa is a
strong word of Hellenistic coinage, from
a/yav and aXXo|iai, to leap much, signify-
ing irrepressible demonstrative gladness.
This joy is inseparable from the heroic

ii— 13-

EYAiTEAION

IOI

13. " VfAeis ecrre to " aXas t^s yr\s • iat> 8e to a\a? T ficupafflfj, u Mk. ix.50/

eV tiki w a\ia6i]CT€Tat ; eis ouSec la^uei cti, el u,yj J3XT)3TJ^ai J e£«, 34. Col.

iv. 6.
v Lk. xiv. 34. Rom. i. 22. 1 Cor. i. 20. w here and in Mk. ix. 49.

1 pA/nfl v in fc^BC 1, 33, Origen, which carries along with it the omission of k«u
after ££<•>•

temper. It is the joy of the Alpine
climber standing on the top of a snow-
clad mountain. But the Teacher gives
two reasons to help inexperienced dis-
ciples to rise to that moral elevation. —
Sti 6 [juc/-6os . . . ovpavois. For evil
treatment on earth there is a com-
pensating reward in heaven. This hope,
weak now, was strong in primitive
Christianity, and greatly helped martyrs
and confessors. — ovtws yo.p e. tovs
irpo4>-rJTas. If we take the yap as giving
a reason for the previous statement the
sense will be: you cannot doubt that the
prophets who suffered likewise have
received an eternal reward (so Bengel,
Fritzsche, Schanz, Meyer, Weiss). But
we may take it as giving a co-ordinate
reason for joy == ye are in good com-
pany. There is inspiration in the
" goodly fellowship of the prophets,"
quite as much as in thought of their
posthumous reward. It is to be noted
that the prophets themselves did not get
much comfort from such thoughts, and
more generally that they did not rise to
the joyous mood commended to His
disciples by Jesus ; but were desponding
and querulous. On that side, therefore,
there was no inspiration to be got from
thinking of them. But they were
thoroughly loyal to righteousness at all
hazards, and reflection on their noble
career was fitted to infect disciples with
their spirit. — Tois -rrpo vy.Stv : words skil-
fully chosen to raise the spirit. Before you
not only in time but in vocation and
destiny. Your predecessors in function
and suffering ; take up the prophetic
succession and along with it, cheerfully,
its tribulations.

Vv. 13-16. Disciple functions. It is
quite credible that these sentences
formed part of the Teaching on the
Hill. Jesus might say these things at a
comparatively early period to the men
to whom He had already said : I will
make you fishers of men. The functions
assigned to disciples here are not more
ambitious than that alluded to at the
time of their call. The new section
rests on what goes before, and postulates
possession of the attributes named in
the Beatitudes. With these the disciples

will be indeed the salt of the earth and
the light of the world. Vitally important
functions are indicated by the two
figures. Nil sole et sale utilius was a
Roman proverb (Pliny, H. N., 31, 9).
Both harmonise with, the latter points
expressly to, a universal destination of
the new religion. The sun lightens all
lands. Both also show how alien it was
from the aims of Christ to be the teacher
of an esoteric faith.

Ver. 13. aXas, a late form for SXs,
a\os, masculine. The properties of salt
are assumed to be known. Com-
mentators have enumerated four. Salt
is pure, preserves against corruption,
gives flavour to food, and as a manuring
element helps to fertilise the land. The
last mentioned property is specially
insisted on by Schanz, who finds a
reference to it in Lk. xiv. 35, and thinks
it is also pointed to here by the expres-
sion ttjs "yTJs. The first, purity, is a
quality of salt per se, rather than a con-
dition on which its function in nature
depends. The second and third are
doubtless the main points to be. insisted
on, and the second more than the third
and above all. Salt arrests or prevents
the process of putrefaction in food, and
the citizens of the kingdom perform the
same function for the earth, that is, for
the people who dwell on it. In Schanz's
view there is a confusion of the
metaphor with its moral interpretation.
Fritzsche limits the point of comparison
to indispensableness = ye are as
necessary an element in the world as
salt is ; a needlessly bald interpretation.
Necessary certainly, but why and for
what ? — ttjs yfjs might mean the land oi
Israel (Achelis, Bergpredigt), but it is
more natural to take it in its widest
significance in harmony with Kocrp.ov.
Holtzmann (H. C.) sets KoVp.ov down to
the account of the evangelist, and thinks
yrjs in the narrow sense more suited to
the views of Jesus. — Ver. 14. p.<opav8-{j.
The Vulgate renders the verb evanuerit.
Better Beza and Erasmus, infahtatin
fuerit. If the salt become insipid, so as
to lack its proper preserving virtue —
can this happen ? Weiss and others
reply: It does not matter for the point

102

RATA MAT0A10N

x ? ^ v " 6 KOtl ' * KaTairaTciaGai utto t£>v dt'OpojTTwv. 14. 'Y|i.eis tore to <f>a>s

Heb.x.29. T0 £ K oajjiou • ou ouraTtu ttoXis Kpvf$r\vou. indyo) opous K€ip.tVr] • 15.

id Lk. xii. £§£ t Kaiouai Xuyvov icai TiO&aaiK auTOk uird to^ u<5oioy, dXX' ^irl
35. " e , b - A r » .

xii. 18 <J(.

1 Omitted in MSS. named in preceding note.

of the comparison. Perhaps not, but it
does matter for the felicity of the
metaphor, which is much more strikingly
apt if degeneracy can happen in the
natural as well as in the spiritual sphere.
Long ago Maundrell maintained that it
could, and modern travellers confirm his
statement. Furrer says : " As it was
observed by Maundrell 200 years age, so
it has often been observed in our time
that salt loses somewhat of its sharpness
in the storehouses of Syria and Palestine.
Gathered in a state of impurity, it under-
goes with other substances a chemical
process, by which it becomes really
another sort of stuff, while retaining its
old appearance " (Ztsclit. fur M. und
R., 1890). A similar statement is made
by Thomson (Land and Book, p. 381).
There is no room for doubt as to whether
the case supposed can happen in the
spiritual sphere. The " salt of the earth "
can become not only partially but
wholly, hopelessly insipid, losing the
qualities which constitute its conservative
power as set forth in the Beatitudes and
in other parts of Christ's teaching (e.g.,
Mat. xviii.). Erasmus gives a realistic
description of the c&uses of degeneracy
in these words : " Si vestri mores fuerint
amore laudis, cupiditate pecuniarum,
studio voluptatum, libidine vindicandi,
metu infamiae damnorum aut mortis
infatuati," etc. (Paraph, in Evan. Matt.).
— iv rLvi aXis : not, with what shall the
so necessary salting process be done ?
but, with what shall the insipid salt be
salted ? The meaning is that the lost
property is irrecoverable. A stern state-
ment, reminding us of Heb. vi. 6, but
true to the fact in the spiritual sphere.
Nothing so hopeless as apostate disciple-
ship with a bright past behind it to which
it has become dead — begun in the spirit,
ending in the flesh. — ets ovSev, useless
for salting, good for nothing else any
more («ti). — cl \lt) [JXtjGJv, etc. This is a
kind of humorous afterthought : except
indeed, cast out as refuse, to be trodden
under foot of man, i.e., to make foot-
paths of. The reading (3Xt]0€v is much
to be preferred to p\T]0fjvai., as giving
prominence to KaTaTraTcwrOai as the
main verb, pointing to a kind of use
to which insipid salt can after all be put.

But what a downcome : from being
saviours of society to supplying materials
for footpaths I

Ver. 14. to <f>us t. k., the light, the
sun of the moral world conceived of as
full of the darkness of ignorance and
sin. The disciple function is now viewed
as illuminating. And as under the figure
of salt the danger warned against was
that of becoming insipid, so here the
danger to be avoided is that of obscuring
the light. The light will shine, that is
its nature, if pains be not taken to hide
it. — ov Swcltou ir^Xis, etc. As a city
situate on the top of a hill cannot be
hid, neither can a light fail to be seen
unless it be expressly prevented from
shining. No pains need to be taken to
secure that the light shall shine. For
that it is enough to be a light. But
Christ knew that there would be strong
temptation for the men that had it in
them to be lights to hide their light. It
would draw the world's attention to
them, and so expose them to the ill will
of such as hate the light. Therefore He
goes on to caution disciples against the
policy of obscuration.

Ver. 15. A parabolic word pointing
out that such a policy in the natural
sphere is unheard of and absurd. — tcai-
ovo-i, to kindle, accendere, ordinarily
neuter = urere ; not as Beza thought, a
Hebraism ; examples occur in late Greek
authors (vide Kypke, Obser. Sac.). The
figure is taken from lowly cottage life.
There was a projecting stone in the wall
on which the lamp was set. The house
consisted of a single room, so that the
tiny light sufficed for all. It might now
and then be placed under the modius, an
earthenware grain measure, or under the
bed (Mk. iv. 21), high to keep clear of
serpents, therefore without danger of
setting it on fire (Koetsveld, De Ge-
lijkenissen, p. 305). But that would be
the exception, not the rule — done occa-
sionally for special reasons, perhaps dur-
ing the hours of sleep. Schanz says
the lamp burned all night, and that when
they wanted darkness they put it on the
floor and covered it with the " bushel ".
Tholuck also thinks people might cover
the light when they wished to keep it
burning, when they had occasion to leave

14—16.

EYAITEAION

103

rfjk Xoxftaf Kal "Xdpvirei ttScti tois £v tjj oiKia. 16. outw XafuJ/aTw z Lk. xvii

24-

to <f>ws upvwy i^-npoaQev twc d^OpcSirwi', oirois iSwaiy ufxwc t<i * Ka\a Actsxii.7.

» » s > / * , c ~ > * ~ > ~ 2 Cor iv -

epya, Kai bo^atrwtri top iraTepa uuwc Toy ec tois oupaeois. 6.

a C/. Mt.
xxvi. 10. Mk. xiv. 6, for an example of a " good work "

the room for a time. Weiss, on the
other hand, thinks it would be put under
a cover only when they wished to put it
out (Matt;-Evan., p. 144). But was it
ever put out ? Not so, according to
Benzinger (Heb. Arch., p. 124).

Ver. 16. ovtu. Do ye as they do in
cottage life : apply the parable. — Xap,-
«|/otw, let your light shine. Don't use
means to prevent it, turning the rare
exception of household practice into the
rule, so extinguishing your light, or at
least rendering it useless. Cowards can
always find plausible excuses for the
policy of obscuration — reasons of pru-
dence and wisdom : gradual accustom-
ing of men to new ideas ; deference to
the prejudices of good men ; avoidance
of rupture by premature outspokenness ;
but generally the true reason is fear of
unpleasant consequences to oneself.
Their conduct Jesus represents as dis-
loyalty to God.— 8irws, etc. The shining
of light from the good works of disciples
glorifies God the Father in heaven.
The hiding of the light means withhold-
ing glory. The temptation arises from
the fact — a stern law of the moral world
it is — that just when most glory is likely
to accrue to God, least glory comes to
the light-bearer ; not glory but dishonour
and evil treatment his share. Many are
ready enough to let their light shine
when honour comes to themselves. But
their " light " is not true heaven-kindled
light; their works are not KaXa, noble,
heroic, but irovTjpa (vii. 17), ignoble,
worthless, at best of the conventional
type in fashion among religious people,
and wrought often in a spirit of vanity
and ostentation. This is theatrical
goodness, which is emphatically not what
Jesus wanted. Euthy. Zig. says : ow

KcXeUCl 0£CXTp(£ciV TT|V dpCTTJV.

Note that here, for the first time in the
Gospel, Christ's distinctive name for God,
"Father," occurs. It comes in as a
thing of course. Does it presuppose
previous instruction ? (So Meyer.) One
might have expected so important a topic
as the nature and name of God to have
formed the subject of a distinct lesson.
But Christ's method of teaching was not
scholastic or formal. He denned terms
by discriminating use; Father, e.g., as a
name for God, by using it as a motive to

noble conduct. The motive suggested
throws light on the name. God, we
learn, as Father delights in noble conduct;
as human fathers find joy in sons who
acquit themselves bravely. Jesus may
have given formal instruction on the
point, but not necessarily. This first use
of the title is very significant. It is full,
solemn, impressive : your Father, He
who is in the heavens ; so again in ver.
45. It is suggestive of reasons for faith-
fulness, reasons of love and reverence.
It hints at a reflected glory, the reward
of heroism. The noble works which
glorify the Father reveal the workers to
be sons. The double-sided doctrine of
this logion of Jesus is that the divine is
revealed by the heroic in human conduct,
and that the moral hero is the true son
of God. Jesus Himself is the highest
illustration of the twofold truth.

Vv. 17-20. Jesus defines His position.
At the period of the Teaching on the Hill
Jesus felt constrained to define His ethi-
cal and religious position all round, with
reference to the O. T. as the recognised
authority, and also to contemporary
presentations of righteousness. The
disciples had already heard Him teach in
the synagogues (Matt. iv. 23) in a manner
that at once arrested attention and led
hearers to recognise in Him a new type
of teacher (Mk. i. 27), entirely different
from the scribes (Mk. i. 22). The sen-
tences before us contain just such a
statement of the Teacher's attitude as
the previously awakened surprise of His
audiences would lead us to expect.
There is no reason to doubt their sub-
stantial authenticity though they may not
reproduce the precise words of the
speaker ; no ground for the suggestion ol
Holtzmann (H. C.) that so decided a
position either for or against the law was
not likely to be taken up in Christ's time,
and that we must find in these w. an
anti-Pauline programme of the Judaists.
At a first glance the various statement
may appear inconsistent with each other.
And assuming their genuineness, they
might easily be misunderstood, and give
rise to disputes in the apostolic age, or
be taken hold of in rival interests. The
words of great epoch-making men gene-
rally have this fate. Though apparently
contradictory they might all proceed

104

KATA MATGAION

17. " M?) h COfJ.l(TTJT£ OTl rjXOok

KaTaXuaai jbv v6}iov f\ tous

18. dfATjK yap

irap/XOi] 6 oupavo? teal 1^ yr], * iwTa tv ?) p,ia

b with on
here and
in x. 34 Trpo<J>i)Tas ■ ouk i]X0ov KaTaXucrai, dXXd irXijpwaai

eov), Aeyw upwy, tws av

with inf. ' Ktpaia ou fi^j -irap^XGr} duo tou vouou, ewe, S^ irdfTa yeVrjTai

or an

accus. with inf. c in same sense Acts v. 38, 3g. Rom. xiv. ao. d Ch. xxiv. 34

Cor. v. 17. James i. to. e here only. f Lk. xvi. i7(/t»p«'a in both pi. W.H.)

Lk. xvi 17. a

from die many-sided mind of Jesus, and
be so reported by the genial Galilean
publican in his Logia. The best guide to
the meaning of the momentous declara-
tion they contain is acquaintance with the
general drift of Christ's teaching {vide
Wendt, Die Lehre jfesu, ii., 330). Verbal
exegeuis will not do much for us. We
must bring to the words sympathetic
insight mto the whole significance of
Chriit's ministry. Yet the passage by
itself, well weighed, is more luminous
than at first it may seem.

Ver. 17. Mtj vop.io-r|T€ : These words
betray a consciousness that there was
that in His teaching and bearing which
might create such an impression, and
are a protest against taking a surface
impression for the truth. — KaTaXvo-ai, to
abrogate, to set aside in the exercise of
legislative authority. What freedom of
mind is implied in the bare suggestion
of this as a possibility I To the ordinary
religious Jew the mere conception would
appear a profanity. A greater than the
O. T., than Moses and the prophets, is
here. But the Greater is full of rever-
ence for the institutions and sacred
books of His people. He is not come
to disannul either the law or the pro-
phets. ^ before t. Trpo<J>. is not = icai.
" Law " and '* Prophets " are not taken
here as one idea = the O. T. Scriptures,
as law, prophets and psalms seem to
be in Lk. xxiv. 44, but as distinct parts,
with reference to which different atti-
tudes might conceivably be taken up.
f\ implies that the attitude actually taken
up is the same towards both. The pro-
phets are not to be conceived of as
coming under the category of law
(Weiss), but as retaining their distinc-
tive character as revealers of God's
nature and providence. Christ's attitude
towards them in that capacity is the
same as that towards the law, though
the Sermon contains no illustrations
under that head. " The idea of God
and of salvation which Jesus taught bore
the same relations to the O. T. revelation
as His doctrine of righteousness to the
O. T. law " (Wendt, Die L. J., it., 344).
— TrXTjpuio-ai: the common relation is ex-
pressed by this weighty word. Christ

protests that He came not as an abro-
gator, but as ^.fuljiller. What r61e does
He thereby claim ? Such as belongs to
one whose attitude is at once free and
reverential. He fulfils by realising in
theory and practice an ideal to which
O. T. institutions and revelations point,
but which they do not adequately ex-
press. Therefore, in fulfilling He neces-
sarily abrogates in effect, while repudi-
ating the spirit of a destroyer. He
brings in a law of the spirit which
cancels the law of the letter, a kingdom
which realises prophetic ideals, while
setting aside the crude details of their
conception of the Messianic time.

Vv. 18-19. These verses wear on first
view a Judaistic look, and have been
regarded as an interpolation, or set down
to the credit of an over-conservative
evangelist. But they may be reconciled
with ver. 17, as above interpreted. Jesus
expresses here in the strongest manner
His conviction that the whole O. T. is
a Divine revelation, and that therefore
every minutest precept has religious
significance which must be recognised
in the ideal fulfilment. — 'Aprjv, formula
of solemn asseveration, often used by
Jesus, never by apostles, found doubled
only in fourth Gospel. — ?&>s av TrapcXOfl,
etc. : not intended to fix a period after
which the law will pass away, but a
strong way of saying never (so Tholuck
and Weiss). — twra, the smallest Letter in
the Hebrew alphabet. — Kepaia, the little
projecting point in some of the letters,
e.g., of the base line in Beth ; both
representing the minutiae in the Mosaic
legislation. Christ, though totally op-
posed to the spirit of the scribes, would
not allow them to have a monopoly of
zeal for the commandments great and
small. It was important in a polemical
interest to make this clear. — ov p/J) ir.,
elliptical = do not fear lest. Vide Kuhner,
Gram., § 516, 9 ; also Goodwin's Syntax,
Appendix ii. — lu? av ir. Y ev «> a second
protasis introduced with fws explanatory
of the first fa»s S,v irapeXOfj ; vide
Goodwin, § 510; not saying the same
thing, but a kindred : eternal, lasting,
till adequately fulfilled ; the latter the
more exact statement of Christ's thought.

17 — ao«

EYArrEAION

105

IQ. $c io.v ouv *\uaTi iilav rdv b ivroKCtv TouTWf tu>v i\a\icrT<i)\>, kcu. gjohn v. 18;

7 ' vii. 23 ; x.

<kod£r] outo) tous uvGpwirous, ^X^x 10 " 1 " ? K\T]0T)creTai eV ttj PaaiXcta 35-

-» ~ *c'^ » ^ s S '/■ * » \ a> hCh. xv. 3;

tojv oupcifwc • os ae Troirjcnf] Kai oioa§Y|, ouros p.eyas KAr|Ui|ffeTai xtx. 17;

- o \ ' ~ > «* „~ \ ' ' i « " " >S » xxii.40.

ei/ ttj paaiXeia twv oupaewe. 20. Xeyw yap upiv, on ear julyj Lk. 1. 6.

, ' , / c. <-l\- -J ' « J ohu xi "

ivepiacreuarj tj otKatoo-ucT] oftwi/ l irAeiof twc j ypau.p.aTEue icai 34.

/ jx'^a > ^Q\' - > * i with irapa

^apiaaiuK, 00 p-tj ciocAdtjtc eis Ti)v paaiAeiap tcdi' oupa^wc. ; n Eccles.

iii. ig. Of.
Rom. r. 15. j aim. ellipt. const. 1 |ohn ii. 2.

1 vfixav before ■») Sue. ( = your righteousness) in ^BLA al. T. R. as in SU2.

Ver. 19. 8s eav ovv Xijo-tj, etc. : oxiv
pointing to a natural inference from what
goes before. Christ's view being such
as indicated, He must so judge of the
setter aside of any laws however small.
When a religious system has lasted long,
and is wearing towards its decline and
fall, there are always such men. The
Baptist was in some respects such a man.
He seems to have totally neglected the
temple worship and sacred festivals. He
shared the prophetic disgust at formal-
ism. Note now what Christ's judgment
about such really is. A scribe or Phari-
see would regard a breaker of even the
least commandments as a miscreant.
Jesus simply calls him the least in the
Kingdom of Heaven. He takes for
granted that he is an earnest man, with
a passion for righteousness, which is the
key to his iconoclastic conduct. He
recognises him therefore as possessing
real moral worth, but, in virtue of his
impatient radical-reformer temper, not
great, only little in the scale of true
moral values, in spite of his earnestness
in action and sincerity in teaching. John
the Baptist was possibly in His mind,
or some others not known to us from
the Gospels. — os 8' av iroiY]<rrj Kal8i8a|Tj,
etc. We know now who is least : who
is great ? The man who does and
teaches to do all the commands great
and small ; great not named but under-
stood — ovtos p.£yas. Jesus has in view
O. T. saints, the piety reflected in the
Psalter, where the great ethical laws and
the precepts respecting ritual are both
alike respected, and men in His own
time living in their spirit. In such was
a sweetness and graciousness, akin to
the Kingdom as He conceived it, lacking
in the character of the hot-headed law-
breaker. The geniality of Jesus made
Him value these sweet saintly souls.

Ver. 20. Here is another type still,
that of the scribes and Pharisees. We
have had two degrees of worth, the little
and the great. This new Jype gives us

the moral zero. — Xeyw yap. The yap is
somewhat puzzling. We expect 8c,
taking our attention off two types de-
scribed in the previous sentence and
fixing it on a distinct one. Yet there
is a hidden logic latent in the yap. It
explains the IXdxLo-ros of the previous
verse. The earnest reformer is a small
character compared with the sweet
wholesome performer, but he is not a
moral nullity. That place is reserved
for another class. I call him least, not
nothing, for the scribe is the zero. —
irXelov rwv Yp. k. <$>., a compendious
comparison, ttjs StKatocnJvrjs being
understood after irXeiov. Christ's state-
ments concerning these classes of the
Jewish community, elsewhere recorded,
enable us to understand the verdict He
pronounces here. They differed from
the two classes named in ver. 18, thus :
Class 1 set aside the least command-
ments for the sake of the great ; class 2
conscientiously did all, great and small ;
class 3 set aside the great for the sake
of the little, the ethical for the sake of
the ritual, the divine for the sake of the
traditional. That threw them outside
the Kingdom, where only the moral has
value. And the second is greater, higher,
than the first, because, while zeal for
the ethical is good, spirit, temper, dispo-
sition has supreme value in the Kingdom.
These valuations of Jesus are of great
importance as a contribution towards
denning the nature of the Kingdom as
He conceived it.

Nothing, little, great : there is a higher
grade still, the highest. It belongs to
Christ Himself, the Fulfiller, who is
neither a sophistical scribe, nor an im-
patient reformer, nor a strict performer
of all laws great and small, walking
humbly with God in the old ways, with-
out thought, dream or purpose of change,
but one who lives above the past and the
present in the ideal, knows that a change
is impending, but wishes it to come
gently, and so as to do full justice to all

io6

RATA MAT9AI0N

k Rom. ix. 21. 'HtcouaciTe on k ippidt] l T019 ' dpyaiois, Ou <()or€ocr€is ■ os 8 &>

12.
I again ver. <J>oi'eu'o-T), "" Iroxos torai tt] n Kpiaei • 22. ^yw 8c X/yoj up.iv, on ttus

i.ig. Acts 6 opyi^ou-eeos tw dSeXcfxIi ciutou €iki") 2 evoxos Icrrtti tt) Kpicrei • os 8'

Pet. ii. i.&v citty] tw d8e\4>w auTou, 'Paicd, 8 evoxos eorai tw " oweSpiw ■ os
(ethical)

l Cor. v. 17. m with dat. here four times ; with gen. of punisht. Ch. xxvi. 66. MU. xiv. 64.
d of the tribunal, here only. o Ch. xxvi. 59. Mk. xiv. 55. Lk. xxii. 66 Often in Acts.

1 tppr)&T) in BD ; text in ^LMA al. pi. (W.H.). «ppe0T| was more usual in later
Greek.

1 rkt) is an ancient gloss found in many late MSS. but omitted in fc$B, Origen,
Vulgate, and in the best modern editions.

s pa X o in N*D abc (Tisch.); text in ^bBE (W.H.).

that is divine, venerable, and of good
tendency in the past. His is the unique
greatness of the reverently conservative
yet free, bold inaugurator of a new time.
Vv. 21-26. First illustration of Christ's
ethical attitude, taken from the Sixth
Commandment. In connection with
this and the following exemplifications of
Christ's ethical method, the interpreter
is embarrassed by the long-continued
strifes of the theological schools, which
have brought back the spirit of legalism,
from which the great Teacher sought to
deliver His disciples. It will be best to
ignore these strifes and go steadily on
our way. — Ver. 21. 'HicoiJcraTe. The
common people knew the law by hearing
it read in the synagogue, not by
reading it themselves. The aorist ex-
presses what they were accustomed to
hear, an instance of the " gnomic " use.
Tholuck thinks there may be an allusion
to the tradition of the scribes, called
Shema. — tois ipxaiois might mean : in
ancient times, to the ancients, or by the
ancients. The second is in accord with
N. T. usage, and is adopted by Meyer,
Weiss and Holtzmann (H. C). How far
back does Christ go in thought ? To
Moses or to Ezra? The expression is
vague, and might cover the whole past,
and perhaps is intended to do so. There
is no reason a priori why the criticism
should be restricted to the interpretation
of the law by the scribes. Christ's
position as fulfiller entitled Him to point
out the defects of the law itself, and we
must be prepared to find Him doing so,
and there is reason to believe that in the
sequel He actually does (so Wendt, L. J.,
ii., 332). — Oi <£ovevcr€is . . • Kpicrci.
This is a correct statement, not only of
the Pharisaic interpretation of the law,
but of the law itself. As a law for the
life of a nation, it could forbid and punish
only the outward act. But just here lay
its defect as a summary of human duty.

It restrained the end not the beginning
of transgression (Euthy. Zig.).— «fvoxos =
€v«x<5 r l€V0S > with dative of the tribunal
here. — Ver. 22. eyo» 8e Xcyu) vp.tv.
Christ supplies the defect, as a painter
fills in a rude outline of a picture
(cncicvypadnav), says Theophy. He goes
back on the roots of crime in the feel-
ings : anger, contempt, etc. — irds . . .
aiiToii. Every one ; universal interdict
of angry passion. — d8c\4>$: not in blood
(the classical meaning) or in faith, but
by common humanity. The implied
doctrine is that every man is my brother ;
companion doctrine to the universal
Fatherhood of God (ver. 45). — elio) is of
course a gloss ; qualification of the
interdict against anger may be required,
but it was not Christ's habit to supply
qualifications. His aim was to impress
the main idea, anger a deadly sin. —
Kpicrci, here as in ver. 21. The reference
is to the provincial court of seven (Deut.
xvi. 18, 2 Chron. xix. 5, Joseph. Ant. iv.
8, 14) possessing power to punish capital
offences by the sword. Christ's words
are of course not to be taken literally as
if He were enacting that the angry man
be tried as a criminal. So understood
He would be simply introducing an ex-
tension of legalism. He deserves to go
before the seven, He says, meaning he is
as great an offender as the homicide
who is actually tried by them.

'Paicd : left untranslated in A. V. and
R. V. ; a word of little meaning, rendered
by Jerome " inanis aut vacuus absque
cerebro ". Augustine says a Jew told him
it was not properly a word at all, but an
interjection like Hem. Theophy. gives
as an equivalent «rv spoken by a Greek
to a man whom he despised. And the
man who commits this trivial offence (as
it seems) must go before, not the pro-
vincial seven, but the supreme seventy,
the Sanhedrim that tried the most heinous
offences and sentenced to the severest

a i— 25.

EYArTEAION

107

S' 8,f elm], MoW, eroYog eorai cis Tn/ yievvav tou irupoV 23. p 'X'^tik.

" Tico? here.

'Edr our irpoCT<j)epT]s to SwpdV crou em to Gucriaarrripioi', kcLkci Mk.xi.25.

u.vr)crQris on 6 dSeXAos o-ou * e vex Ti KaTd ctou, 24. a<f>€s ckei to C/. Acts

xxir. 19

SwpoV aou ejnrpoo-Oer tou Ouonaornptou, Kai uTraye, irpwrov 'oiaXXd- (n-posTii-a).
yr]0i to dSc\4>u aou, Kal TOTe eXOwf irpocr^epe to 8up6c aou. 25. in N. T.

r* A •' J . I, C > ' ■ « • * ' ~ ce>~ ,r 10-61 with

io-0i "cu vow to> 'dm-OiKO) aou Tax", "ews otou ei £K rr) oou> u.«t part. Lk.

auTOu, 1 /i^-iroTc ae * irapaofi 6 drriSixos tw Kpirfl, Kal 6 Kpirrjs <re t here only

in N. T.
t Lk. xii. 58; xviii. 3. 1 Peter r. 8. u cm? otov= while, here only. v tih» Tm here »nd Ch. xviii
34 ; xx. 18; xxvii. 2, etc.

1 uer avrov before ev t. o8w, jj^BDL.

penalties, e.g., death by stoning ! Trivial
in appearance, the offence is deadly in
Christ's eyes. It means contempt for a
fellow-man, more inhuman than anger —
a violent passion, prompting to words
and acts often bitterly regretted when
the hot temper cools down. Mwpc, if a

Greek word, the equivalent for 732 =

T T

fool, good for nothing, morally worthless.
It may, as Paulus, and after him Nosgen,

suggests, be a Hebrew word, H ufc2

(Num. xx. 24, Deut. xxi. 18), a rebel
against God or against parents, the most
worthless of characters. Against this
Field (Otium Norvicense) remarks that it
would be the only instance of a pure
Hebrew word in the N. T. In either
case the word expresses a more serious
form of contempt than Raca. Raca ex-
presses contempt for a man's head = you
stupid 1 More expresses contempt for
his heart and character = } r ou scoundrel.
The reckless use of such opprobrious
epithets Jesus regarded as the supreme
offence against the law of humanity. —
tfvoxos • • • irvp<5s. He deserves to go,
not to the seven or the seventy, but to
hell, his sin altogether damnable.
Kuinoel thinks the meaning is : He
deserves to be burned alive in the valley
of Hinnom : is dignus est qui in valle
Hinnomi virus comburatur. This in-
terpretation finds little approval, but it is
not so improbable when we remember
what Christ said about the offender of
the little ones (Matt, xviii. 6). Neither
burning alive nor drowning was actually
practised. In these words of Jesus
against anger and contempt there is an
aspect of exaggeration. They are the
strong utterance of one in whom all
forms of inhumanity roused feelings of
passionate abhorrence. They are of the
utmost value as a revelation of character.
Vv. 23, 24. Holtzmann (H. C.) regards

these verses, as well as the two following,
as an addition by the evangelist. But
the passage is at least in thorough
harmony with what goes before, as well
as with the whole discourse. — 'Eav otiv
irpoo-^p'ns, if thou art in the very act of
presenting thine offering (present tense)
at the altar. — kolkci u.vvjo-0jjs . . . icai-a
trov, and it suddenly flashes through thy
mind there that thou hast done some-
thing to a brother man fitted to provoke
angry feeling in him. What then ? Get
through with thy worship as fast as
possible and go directly after and make
peace with the offended ? No, interrupt
the religious action and go on that
errand first. — a<}>es ck«i. Lay it down on
the spur of the moment before the altar
without handing it to the priest to be
offered by him in thy stead. — Kal v-n-ayt
irpwTOV. The irpwTov is to be joined to
vTrayt, not to the following verb as in A.
V. and R. V. (irpw-rov stands after the
verb also in chaps, vi. 33, vii. 5). First
go : remove thyself from the temple,
break off thy worship, though it may
seem profane to do so. — 8iaA.\<ryT]0i . . .
Kal t<5t£ . . . wpdV<}>ep€ : no contempt
for religious service expressed or implied.
Holtzmann (H. C.) asks, did Jesus offer
sacrifice ? and answers, hardly. In any
case He respected the practice. But,
reconciliation before sacrifice: morality
before religion. Significant utterance,
first announcement of a great principle
often repeated, systematically neglected
by the religion of the time. Placability
before sacrifice, mercy before sacrifice,
filial affection and duty before sacrifice ;
so always in Christ's teaching (Matt. ix.
13, xv. 5). irpdVdJtpt : present ; set about
offering : plenty of time now for the
sacred action.

Vv. 25, 26. There is much more
reason for regarding this passage as an
interpolation. It is connected only ex-
ternally (by the references to courts of

io8

KATA MAT9AI0N

• ver iv TrapaRw x tw UTrrjpfTT], Kal C19 4>u\aKr)e |3\i]0>'}cn). 26. djxrji' X^yai

jj; xxii. crot, ou fif) e£A9r|9 exeiOey, ews &f w diroSoj; to^ ?ct)(utoi' * Koopdmrjv.

■I. Kom. 1 R . *

xiii. 7. 27. HicoucrciTe on £ppt'6rj toi$ dpxaiois, O 1 r oi)(6ucr£i<; • nS. eycj

•)-' Be Xe'yaj upuy, on iras 6 pXerrwy yuvaitca trpos ro emGujiTJo-ai aurfjs 3

1 This second <r« ir«p. is omitted in fc$B.
addition.

Luke's text may have suggested the

3 tois apxaiois is wanting in MSS. except LMA.

" «Tn.0vp.T)o-ai without pronoun, ^* (Tisch.) ; with atiTi]v, BDL al. (W.H.
brackets). MX have avTtjs. avrrjv is probably the true reading.

law) with what goes before, and it is out
of keeping with the general drift of the
teaching on the hill. It occurs in a
different connection in Luke xii. 58,
there as a solemn warning to the Jewish
people, on its way to judgment, to re-
pent. Meyer pleads that the logion
might be repeated. It might, but only
on suitable occasions, and the teaching
on the hill does not seem to offer such
an occasion. Kuinoel, Bleek, Holtzmann,
Weiss and others regard the words as
foreign to the connection. Referring to
the exposition in Luke, I offer here only
a few verbal notes mainly on points in
which Matthew differs from Luke. — to-Oi
ruvowv, be in a conciliatory mood, ready
to come to terms with your opponent in
a legal process (civtiSikos). It is a case
of debt, and the two, creditor and debtor,
are on the way to the court where they
must appear together (Deut. xxi. 18, xxv.
1). Matthew's expression implies will-
ingness to come to terms amicably on
the creditor's part, and the debtor is
exhorted to meet him half way. Luke's
80s Ip-yao-iav throws the willingness on
the other side, or at least implies that the
debtor will need to make an effort to bring
the creditor to terms. — irapaS^, a much
milder word than Luke's KaTaonjp^j, which
points to rough, rude handling, dragging
an unwilling debtor along whither he
would rather not go. — iirTipeVn, the officer
of the court whose business it was to
collect the debt and generally to carry
out the decision of the judge ; in Luke
irpdicTop. — KoSpavTi\v = quadrans, less
than a farthing. Luke has \citt6v, half
the value of a koS., thereby strengthening
the statement that the imprisoned debtor
will not escape till he has paid all he
owes.

Vv. 27-30. Second illustration, taken
from the seventh commandment. A
grand moral law, in brief lapidary style
guarding the married relation and the
sanctity of home. Of course the Hebrew
legislator condemned lust after another

man's wife ; it is expressly prohibited in
the tenth commandment. But in practical
working as a public law the statute laid
main stress on the outward act, and it
was the tendency of the scribes to give
exclusive prominence to this. Therefore
Christ brings to the front what both
Moses and the scribes left in the back-
ground, the inward desire of which
adultery is the fruit — Ver. 28. — 6 pXsiruv :
the looker is supposed to be a husband
who by his look wrongs his own wife. —
■yvvaiKa: married or unmarried. — irpos to
€iri0vp/fjo-at. The look is supposed to
be not casual but persistent, the desire
not involuntary or momentary, but
cherished with longing. Augustine, a
severe judge in such matters, defines the
offence thus : " Qui hoc fine et hoc animo
attenderit ut earn concupiscat ; quod
jam non est titillari delectatione carnis
sed plene consentire libidini " (De ser.
Domini). Chrysostom, the merciless
scourge of the vices of Antioch, says :
6 lavru tt)v lTri6iip.iav cruWtyojv, 6
fiTjStvos avavKalJovTos to 8t]piov €ireur-
ayxav T|p€p.ovvTi t&> Xovi.a-p.tl>. Horn,
xvii. The Rabbis also condemned
unchaste looks, but in how coarse a
style compared with Jesus let this
quotation given by Fritzsche show :
" Intuens vel in minimum digitum
feminae est ac si intueretur in locum
pudendum ". In better taste are these
sayings quoted by Wunsche (Beitrage) :
" The eye and the heart are the two
brokers of sin " ; " Passions lodge only
in him who sees". — awTTjv (bracketed as
doubtful by W. H.) : the accusative after
eiriO. is rare and late. — We cannot but
think of the personal relations to woman
of One who understood so well the subtle
sources of sexual sin. Shall we say that
He was tempted in all points as we are,
but desire was expelled by the mighty
power of a pure love to which every
woman was as a daughter, a sister, or a
betrothed : a sacred object of tendei
respect ?

26 — 3 1,

EYAITEAION

109

fj8i) efioixcuaei' aurrp' iv rjj KapSia. auTou. 1 29. el 8e 6 6<}>0u\p6s
aou 6 8e|ios ' 0Kav8aXi£ei ae, z e£eXe auToc Kal fidXe duo aou •
*cro(i4>^p£t yap aoi twa diroX'rjTai, ev tw^ pcXwy aou, Kal p,T] SXoe to
0-oJp.d aou 0Xt]6tj ets yitwav. 30. Kal ei V] 8e§id aou )(elp aKav-
8aXi£ci ae, ckkovjjoi' auTTjK Kal |3dXe airo aou • auu.<J5s'pet yap aot iva
diT6XTjTai er Tciy peX&K aou, Kal fir) oXoy to cripd aou J3Xt)6tj eis

31. "'Eppe'8r| 8e*, OTi 3 8$ a> diroXuaT) t)\v yufaiKa auToC, Sotu

y Ch. xviii.

6, 8, parall.
1 Cor.viii.

13 ( =
tempt).
Ch. xv. 12;
xvii. 27(to
give
offence).
z Ch. xviii.

9-
a Ch. xviii.
6 with Iva.
Ch.xix. 10
with inf.

1 B has eavTOv.

3 For the reading in text fc$B have »s yecvvav a-reXO^. The T. R. has doubtless
been conformed to the reading in ver. 29. Had it stood here in the copies used by

the scribes they would not have substituted the reading in fc^B.

5 fc^BDL omit otl.

Vv. 29, 30. Counsel to the tempted,
expressing keen perception of the danger
and strong recoil from a sin to be shunned
at all hazards, even by excision, as it
were, of offending members ; two named,
eye and hand, eye first as mentioned
before. — 6 6$. 6 8«|ibs : the right eye
deemed the more precious (1 Sam. xi. 2,
Zech. xi. 17). Similarly ver. 30 the right
hand, the most indispensable &r work.
Even these right members &i g&e body
must go. But as the remaining ieft eye
and hand can still offend, it is obvious
that these counsels are not meant to be
taken literally, but symbolically, as ex-
pressing strenuous effort to master
sexual passion (vide Grotius). Mutila-
tion will not serve the purpose ; it may
prevent the outward act, but it will not
extinguish desire. — o-KavSa\i£ei, cause
to stumble; not found in Greek authors
but in Sept. Sirach, and in N. T. in a
tropical moral sense. The noun aKav-
8a\ov is also of frequent occurrence, a
late form for aKavSdX-rjBpov, a trap-stick
with bait on it which being touched the
trap springs. Hesychius gives as its
equivalent 4u.iroSi.ap.ci9. It is used in a
literal sense in Lev. xix. 14 (Sept.). —
crvpcj>£pci . . . Xva d-roX. : iVa with sub-
junctive instead of infinitive (vide on
ch. iv. 3). Meyer insists on tva having
here as always its telic sense and praises
Fritzsche as alone interpreting the
passage correctly. But, as Weiss ob-
serves, the mere destruction of the
member is not the purpose of its ex-
cision. Note, the impressive solemn
repetition in ver. 30 of the thought in
ver. 29, in identical terms save that for
$\i]0fj is substituted, in the true reading,
i-nAe-rj. Tms logion occurs again in

Matthew (xviii. 8, 9). Weiss (Marc-
Evang., 326) thinks it is taken here
from the Apostolic document, i.e.,
Matthew's book of Logia, and there from
Mark ix. 43-47.

Vv. 31-32. Third illustration, sub-
ordinate to the previous one, connected
with the same general topic, sex rela-
tions, therefore introduced less formally
with a simple eppeOij 8£. This instance
is certainly directed against the scribes
rather than Moses. The law (Deut.
xxiv. 1) was meant to mitigate an existing
usage, regarded as evil, in woman's
interest. The scribes busied themselves
solely about getting the bill of separation
into due legal form. They did nothing
to restrain the unjust caprice of
husbands ; they rather opened a wider
door to licence. The law contemplated
as the ground of separation a strong
loathing, probably of sexual origin. The
Rabbis (the school of Shammai excepted)
recognised whimsical dislikes, even a
fancy for another fairer woman, as
sufficient reasons. But they were
zealous to have the bill in due form that
the woman might be able to show she
was free to marry again, and they
probably flattered themselves they were
defending the rights of women. Brave
men 1 Jesus raised the previous question,
and asserted a more radical right of
woman — not to be put away, except
when she put herself away by unfaithful-
ness. He raised anew the prophetic
cry (Mai. ii. 16), I hate putting away. It
was an act of humanity of immense signi-
ficance for civilisation, and of rare cour-
age ; for He was fighting single-handed
against widely prevalent, long - estab-
lished opinion and custom. — diroAvorj :

RATA MAT0AION

b here and auTT) &irocrr<{<noK ■ 32. iyu) 8e Xt'yw up.lv, on 8s ay AttoXucttj 1 T^]f

in - .-0 * \ ' ' -> > y -aq

xix. 7. vumiica auTou, rrapcKTog Aoyou iropKeias, iroiei outtii' uoiYaaoai * •
c Acts xxvi. \ * ,i , \ \ , , „ %

39. aCor. Koi 05 lay niTOAeXufitnfjK Yo.u.rjo-r|, fAOtxaTai. 8 33. ndXie T|K0uo-aT«

d here only on ippl&i) TOis dpxaiois, Outc * eiriopK^aeis, dTroSoWeis 8e tw Kupiw

twice in tous opKous <roo • 34. ^yu> 8e X£yw up.IV jar) •6p.6o-cu SXws ■ p.T)T€ Iv

e Ch. xxiii. tw oupavw oti GpoVos iarl too Oeou • 35. fi-qre iv ttj yfj, oti

I(>-22(with f , /r. 1 , ~ 5^ > *» / , c. ,» _ ,-

b>). Heb. uttottooiok eori tw*' Troowy auTou ' (xtjt6 eis IcpoaoXu/xa, oti 'ttoXis

^it'h &rrl tou u.eydXou ^aaiXews • 36. p.r)Te iv Trj ice<}>aXfj ctoo 6p.ocrj]s> oti

*a7-o),ver.

35 (with fit). fLk. xx. 43. Heb. i. 13. g this title for J. here and in Ps. xlvii. 3

1 iras o o/n-oXvtov in fc^BLA al. Text in D al.
a fc^BD have ox)ix cu ^ 7 l vai "

' The clause teat os €txv . . . u-oixarai is wanting in D and bracketed in W.H.
In B it runs o airo\i\v|ievr|v yau/rjo-as.

the corresponding word in Greek
authors is dTroireu-ireiv. — airoo-Tao-ioK
= pL^Xtov diroo-Tacriov in Deut. xxiv.
The husband is to give her her dismissal,
with a bill stating that she is no longer
his wife. The singular form in tov is to
be noted. The tendency in later Greek
was to substitute tov for ia, the plural
ending. Vide Lobeck, Phryn., p. 517.
— Trap. X. TTopvei'as : a most important
exception which has given rise to much
controversy that will probably last till
the world's end. The first question is :
Did Christ really say this, or is it not
rather an explanatory gloss due to the
evangelist, or to the tradition he
followed? De Wette, Weiss, Holtz-
mann (H. C.) take the latter view. It
would certainly be in accordance with
Christ's manner of teaching, using
strong, brief, unqualified assertions to
drive home unfamiliar or unwelcome
truths, if the word as He spoke it took
the form given in Lk. xvi. 18 : " Every
one putting away his wife and marrying
another committeth adultery". This
was the fitting word to be spoken by one
who hated putting away, in a time when
it was common and sanctioned by the
authorities. A second question is: What
does iropvtia mean ? Schanz, a master,
as becomes a Catholic, in this class of
questions, enumerates five senses, but
decides that it means adultery committed
by a married woman. Some, including
Dollinger (Christenthum und Kirche : The
First Age of Christianity and the Church,
vol. ii., app. iii.), think it means fornica-
tion committed before marriage. The
predominant opinion, both ancient and
modern, is that adopted by Schanz. A
third question is : Does Christ, assuming
the words to have been spoken by Him,

recognise adultery as a ground of absolute
divorce, or only, as Catholics teach, of
separation a toro et mensa ? Is it possible
to be quite sure as to this point ? One
thing is certain. Christ did not come to
be a new legislator making laws for
social life. He came to set up a high
ethical ideal, and leave that to work on
men's minds. The tendency of His
teaching is to create deep aversion to
rupture of married relations. That
aversion might even go the length of
shrinking from severance of the tie even
in the case of one who had forfeited all
claims. The last clause is bracketed by
W. H. as of doubtful genuineness. It
states unqualifiedly that to marry a dis-
missed wife is adultery. Meyer thinks
that the qualification ".unjustly dis-
missed," i.e., not for adultery, is under-
stood. Weiss (Meyer) denies this.

Vv. 33-37. Fourth illustration : con-
cerning oaths. A new theme, therefore
formally introduced as in ver. 21. irdXtv
points to a new series of illustrations
(Weiss, Mt.-Evan., p. 165). The first
series is based on the Decalogue. Thou
shalt not swear falsely (Lev. xix. 12),
and thou shalt perform unto the Lord
thy vows (Num. xxx.3: Deut. xxiii. 22) —
what is wrong in these dicta ? Nothing
save what is left unsaid. The scribes
misplaced the emphasis. They had a
great deal to say, in sophistical style, of
the oaths that were binding and not
binding, nothing about the fundamental
requirement of truth in the inward parts.
Again, therefore, Jesus goes back on the
previous question : Should there be any
need for oaths? — Ver. 34. oXus:
emphatic = iravTfXws, don't swear at
all. Again an unqualified statement, to
be taken not in the letter as a new law,

33—33.

EYAITEAION

ou ouvacrcu uiav Tpix<* XcukJjv f) u-Aaivav iroifjo-ai. 1 37. laTw 2 8c h 2 Cor. i.

6 \<5yos upv, h vai vat, ou ou • to 8e Trepio-o-ov toutwv ck tou James v.

TTorripou eoriv. 38. 'Hicouo-aTe oti ippt&in, ' 'O^GaXiiov avrl 64>0aX- i Ex. xxi. 24.

Lev. xxiv.
30. Deut. xix. 21.

1 fc$BL place iroiTjo-ai before tj ucXaivav. The T. R. represents an effort by the
scribes to give a smoother reading.

2 For €<tto) (fr^DL a/.) BZ have ttrrai, which expresses the injunction in the
strongest way and is to be preferred (W.H. on margin).

but in the spirit as inculcating such a
love of truth that so far as we are con-
cerned there shall be no need of oaths.
In civil life the most truthful man has to
take an oath because of the untruth and
consequent distrust prevailing in the
world, and in doing so he does not sin
against Christ's teaching. Christ Him-
self took an oath before the High Priest
(Mt. xxvi. 63). What follows (w. 34-
6) is directed against the casuistry which
laid stress on the words t^ icvpicp, and
evaded obligation by taking oaths in
which the divine name was not
mentioned : by heaven, earth, Jerusalem,
or by one's own head. Jesus points out
that all such oaths involved a reference
to God. This is sufficiently obvious in
the case of the first three, not so clear in
case of the fourth. — Xcvktjv $j iit'Xaivav :
white is the colour of old age, black of
youth. We cannot alter the colour of
our hair so as to make our head look
young or old. A fortiori we cannot
bring on our head any curse by perjury,
of which hair suddenly whitened might
be the symbol. Providence alone can
blast our life. The oath by the head is
a direct appeal to God. All these oaths
are binding, therefore, says Jesus; but
what I most wish to impress on you is :
do not swear at all. Observe the use of
|«]T€ (not u.T|8e) to connect these different
evasive oaths as forming a homogeneous
group. Winer, sect. lv. 6, endorses the
view of Herrmann in Viger that ovre and
p/rJTc are adjunctival, oiSe and p.r)Se dis-
junctive, and says that the latter add
negation to negation, while the former
divide a single negation into parts.
Jesus first thinks of these evasive oaths
as a bad class, then specifies them one
after the other. Away with them one
and all, and let your word be val vai,
ov ou. That is, if you want to give
assurance, let it not be by an oath, but
by simple repetition of your yes and no.
Grotius interprets: let your yea or nay in
word be a yea or nay in deed, be as good
as your word even unsupported by an

oath. This brings the version of Christ's
saying in Mt. into closer correspond-
ence with Jas. v. 12 — T]Tti) to Nai val,
koA to Ov ov. Beza, with whom Achelis
(Bevgpredigt) agrees, renders, "Let your
affirmative discourse be a simple yea,
and your negative, nay". — to 8e Trepio--
o-6v, the surplus, what goes beyond these
simple words. — i< tov irovripov, hardly
" from the evil one," though many
ancient and modern interpreters, including
Meyer, have so understood it. Meyer
says the neuter " of evil " gives a very
insipid meaning. I think, however, that
Christ expresses Himself mildly out of
respect for the necessity of oaths in a
world full of falsehood. I know, He
means to say, that in certain circum-
stances something beyond yea and nay
will be required of you. But it comes of
evil, the evil of untruthfulness. See that
the evil be not in you. Chrysostom
(Horn, xvii.) asks: How evil, if it be
God's law? and answers: Because the
law was good in its season. God acted
like a nurse who gives the breast to an
infant and afterwards laughs at it when
it wants it after weaning.

Vv. 38-42. Fifth illustration, from the
law of compensation. Ver. 38 contains
the theme, the following vv. Christ's
comment. — '0<|>6oXp.ov . . . 6S<5vtos. An
exact quotation from Ex. xxi. 24. Christ's
criticism here concerns a precept from the
oldest code of Hebrew law. Fritzsche
explains the accusatives, &4>0aXu.ov,
oSovto, by supposing elvai to be under-
stood : " Ye have heard that Moses wrote
that an eye shall be for an eye ". The
simplest explanation is that the two
nouns in the original passage are under
the government of 8u<rci, Ex. xxi. 23.
(So Weiss and Meyer after Grotius.)
Tersely expressed, a sound principle 01
civil law for the guidance of the judge,
acted on by almost all peoples: Christ
does not condemn it : if parties come
before the judge, let him by all means
give fair compensation for injuries re-
ceived. He simply leaves it on one side.

1 12

KATA MAT9AI0N

| Ch. xxvi. fioo, Kal 6ooWa drrl 6S6Vto9 " 39. iyl> Se X^yw up-If p?) &ma-rrjvai tu

Hosea xi. Trorrjpii ■ &XX* oaris ore ' pamaet e'lrl 1 ttjk Se^idV ctou k aiavoVa, 2

k Lk. vi. ag. arpe'^ok auT<o Kal tt\v aXXtj^ • 40. Kal tw 0eXoi/Ti aot Kpi0f]cai Kal
(Hosea xi. ^ _ . \o-»j. >» \ \ * , \ m

4). TOk xiTWkd crou \apcu', a<p€9 aurui Kat to ipanok • 41. Kai ooris ore

1 For pavurti erri fr>$BI have pairi£ti (pres.) «is. The em of the T. R. conforms
to the parall. in Luke.

* For o-ou o-io/yova BD have o-iayova o-ow. Tisch. (with ^) omits o-ov. W.H.
bracket it. .-.

" Though the judge must give redress
when demanded, you are not bound to
ask it, and if you take My advice you
will not." In taking up this position
Jesus was in harmony with the law itself
which contains dissuasives against vin-
dictiveness, e.g., Lev. xix. 18: "Thou
shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge
against the children of thy people".
The fault of the scribes did not lie in
gainsaying this and introducing the jus
talionis into private life, but in giving
greater prominence to the legal than to
the ethical element in the O. T. teaching,
and in occupying themselves mainly with
discussing the casuistry of compensation,
e.g., the items to be compensated for in
a case of wounding — the pain, the cure,
the loss of time, the shame, etc., and the
money value of the whole. Jesus turned
the minds of His disciples away from
these trivialities to the great neglected
ethical commonplace.

Ver. 39. |it) dvxioTTJvai : resist not,
either by endeavouring to prevent injury
or by seeking redress for it. — tu irovtjptji,
not the devil, as Chrys. and Theophy.
thought ; either the evil doer or the evil
doing or done. Opinion is much divided
between the last two meanings. The
sense is the same in either case. The
A. V. takes irovqp^t as neuter, the
R. V. as masculine. The former is on
the whole to be preferred. Instances
of injury in various forms are next speci-
fied to illustrate the general precept.
These injuries have been variously dis-
tinguished — to body, and property, and
freedom, Tholuck ; exemplum citatur in-
juriae,privatae,forensis, curialis, Bengel ;
injuries connected with honour, material
good, waste of time, Achelis, who points
out that the relation of the three, Ex. in
w. 39-41, is that of an anti-climax, in-
juries to honour being felt most, and
those involving waste of time least. — oo-ris
. . . oXXijv. In the following instances
there is a climax : injury proceeds from
bad to worse. It is natural to expect
the same in this one. But when the right

cheek has been struck, is it an aggrava-
tion to strike the left ? Tholuck, Bleek,
and Meyer suggest that the right cheek
is only named first according to common
custom, not supposed to be struck first.
Achelis conceives the right cheek to be
struck first with the back of the hand,
then the left with a return stroke with
the palm, harder than the first, and ex-
pressing in a higher measure intention to
insult. — pairi£<d in class. Greek = to beat
with rods ; later, and in N. T., to smite
with the palm of the hand ; vide Lobeck,
Phryn., p. 175. — Ver. 40, KpiOrjvai =
Kpiveo-Bai in 1 Cor. vi. 1, to sue at law as
in A. V. Grotius takes it as meaning
extra-judicial strife, while admitting that
the word is used in the judicial sense in
the Sept., e.g., Job ix. 3, Eccles. vi.
10. Beza had previously taken the same
view. — x tT " va » ipdriov. The contention
is supposed to be about the under gar-
ment or the tunic, and the advice is,
rather than go to law, let him have not
only it but also, Kal, the more costly
upper robe, mantle, toga. The poor
man might have several tunics or shirts
for change, but only one upper garment,
used for clothing by day, for bed-cover
by night, therefore humanely forbidden
to be retained over night as a pledge, Ex.
xxii. 26.

Ver. 41. dvyapevo-ei: compel thee to
go one mile in A. V. and R. V. Hatch
(Essays in Biblical Greek, p. 37) thinks it
means compel thee to carry his baggage,
a very probable rendering in view of the
history of the word as he gives it. A
Persian word, originally, introduced into
the Greek, Latin, and Rabbinic languages,
it denoted first to requisition men, beasts,
or conveyances for the courier system
described in Herod, viii. 98, Xen. Cyr.
viii. 6, 17 ; next in post-classical use
under the successors of the Persians in
the East, and under the Roman Em-
pire, it was applied to the forced trans-
port of military baggage by the inhabit-
ants of a country through which troops
were passing. Hatch remarks : " The

39-

EYAITEAION

1 6.yyapeu(T€t m fiiXioy ec, " oirayc u.er' auTou 8uo. 42. tw "atToGrril Ch. xxvii.

ae 81'Sou * • Kal tov OAovra diro aou oaveicracrSat a uti d-rrocrrpa<f>Y]5. xv. 21.

, m here only.

43. 'HKOufjaT€ on cppc'dr), 'AyaiTrjo-eis Toy p -rr\T)ariov aoo, kui p.icrT)<7€i.s n followed

-> -s \ a \ • « by M- eT,t

roc ey^o^ <rou ■ 44. eyw Se Xeyw up-iy, dyaTraT« tous ex°P 0U ? up-iy, and gen.

,c-\--\ ~ here and

euXoyeire toos KorapwueVous up-ds, xa\cjs "rrot.6i.Te T009 p.icroui'Tas in Lk. xu.

up.ds, 8 Kal Ttpojreuy^euQe uirep twi- £7rr|p€a£oVTwy up.ds, Kal 4 Zl<hk6vtuh> th-o

added).
o with ace. of person asked here, Ch. vi. 8. Lk. yL 30. p Ch. xU. 19. Lk. x. 2;

1 80s in fc^BD. 8i8ou (T. R.) conforms to Luke (vi. 30).

2 W.H. give 8avi<nio-eai after ^B*DA.

'One of the more important various readings occurs here. From «v\oy«i.t« to

vp.as is omitted in fc^B, some ancient versions (including Syr. Sin.), and some
cursives. The omitted part may be regarded as an importation in a harmonistic
spirit from Lk. vi. 27. It is left out by most modern editors.

* t«uv ernipt«£ovTa>v vp,a$ Kai also wanting in fc^B, and also imported from Lk.
(vi. 28).

extent to which this system prevailed is
seen in the elaborate provisions of the
later Roman law : angariae came to be
one of those modes of taxing property
which, under the vicious system of the
empire, ruined both individuals and com-
munities ". An instance in N. T. of the
use of the word in this later sense occurs
in Mt. xxvii. 32, Mk. xv. 21, in reference to
Simon compelled to carry Christ's cross.
We may conceive the compulsion in the
present case to proceed from a military
man. — p.tXiov, a Roman mile, about 1600
yards, a late word. — 8vo, in point of time,
the additional mile = two, there and
back, with proportional fatigue, a
decided climax of hardship. But it is
not merely a question of time, as Achelis
thinks. The sense of oppression is in-
volved, subjection to arbitrary military
power. Christ's counsel is : do not sub-
mit to the inevitable in a slavish, sullen
spirit, harbouring thoughts of revolt. Do
the service cheerfully, and more than you
are asked. The counsel is far-reaching,
covering the case of the Jewish people
subject to the Roman yoke, and of slaves
serving hard masters. The three cases
of non-resistance are not meant to foster
an abject spirit. They point out the
higher way to victory. He that mag-
nanimously bears overcomes.

Ver. 42. This counsel does not seem
to belong to the same category as the
preceding three. One does not think of
begging or borrowing as an injury, but
at most as a nuisance. Some have
doubted the genuineness of the Logiou as
a part of the Sermon. But it occurs in
Luke's redaction (vi. 30), transformed
indeed so as to make it a case of the

sturdy beggar who helps himself to what
he does not get for the asking. Were
there idle, lawless tramps in Palestine in
our Lord's time, and would He counsel
such treatment of them ? If so, it is the
extreme instance of not resisting evil.—
p.T) aTroo-Tpacji-jjs with rbv Oe'XovTa in
accusative. One would expect the geni-
tive with the middle, the active taking an
accusative with genitive, e.g., 2 Tim. iv.
4, tt)v dKo-rjv dirb -rfjs dX-rjQeias. But the
transitive sense is intelligible. In turn-
ing myself away from another, I turn
him away from me. Vide Heb. xii. 25, 2
Tim. i. 15.

Vv. 43-48. Sixth and final illus-
tration : from the Law of hove. To an
old partial form of the law Jesus opposes
a new universal one. — Ver. 43. -r|Kovo-aT€
5ti ippedr) : said where, by whom, and
about whom ? The sentiment Jesus
supposes His hearers to have heard is not
found in so many words in the O. T.
The first part, " Thou shalt love thy
neighbour," occurs in Lev. xix. 18. The
contrary of the second part is found in
Ex. xxiii. 4, where humanity towards
the straying or overburdened beast of an
enemy is enjoined. It is to be hoped
that even the scribes did not in cold blood
sin against the spirit of this precept by
teaching men to love their private friends
and hate their private enemies. Does
ttX.t|o-iov then mean an Israelite, and
«x9po v a Gentile, and was the fault of
the traditional law of love that it con-
fined obligation within national limits ?
The context in Lev. xix. 18 gives irX. that
sense : " Thou shalt not bear any grudge
against the children of thy people ". On
the other hand, the tendency of Israel's

ii 4

KATA MATOAION

q transitive tip a$ ' 45. OTTWC, V^rr)(r6£ OlOl TOU TrdTpOS UUUV TOO Iv OUpai (HS, OTi
ly here ' , *, r

only in N. Toy yjXiok auTOu * dpaTAXci im ironrjpous Kai dyaGous, Kat r (3p^x ei

Gen. iii. £irl Sikcu'ous Kai doiKOug. 46. ioK yap dyaTrr]OT|Te tous dyaTTWKTas

1 Lk. vii. «8, up-ds, Ti^a u.ia66^ ex«TC ; ou)(i Kai 01 TeXwyai to auTo 1 iroiouai .

44 ; * v »-

29. Jas. v. 17.

1 Sonic editors, following DZ, prefer ovtios to to avTo. W.H., while retaining
to ovto, which has the support of ^BL, put ovtu>s (DZ) in the margin.

election, and of certain texts (vide Ex.
xxiii., Deut. vii.), was to foster aversion
to the outside nations, and from Ezra
onwards the spirit of Judaism was one of
increasing hostility towards the goyim —
vide Esther. The saying quoted by
Jesus, if not an exact report of Rabbinical
teaching, did no injustice to its general
attitude. And the average Jew in this
respect followed the guidance of his
teachers, loving his own countrymen,
regarding with racial and religious
aversion those beyond the pale. — Ver.
44. Ix"p°" s mav be ta ^ en m a 'l senses :
national, private, religious. Jesus abso-
lutely negatives hatred as inhuman.
But the sequel shows that He has in
view the enemies whom it is most diffi-
cult to love — 8iwk<5vtii»v : those who
persecute on account of religion. The
clauses imported into the T. R. from
Luke have a more general reference to
enmities arising from any cause, although
they also receive a very emphatic mean-
ing when the cause of alienation is
religious differences. There are no
hatreds so bitter and ruthless as those
originating therein. How hard to love
the persecutor who thinks he does God
service by heaping upon you all manner
of indignities. But the man who can
rejoice in persecution (ver. 12) can love
and pray for the persecutor. The
cleavage between Christians and un-
believers took the place of that between
the chosen race and the Gentiles, and
tempted to the same sin.

Vv. 45-47. Characteristically lofty in-
ducements to obey the new law ; like-
ness to God (ver. 45) ; moral distinction
among men (vv. 46, 47). — viol tov
irarpos vp.wv : in order tha*. ye may be
indeed sons of God : noblesse oblige ;
God's sons must be Godlike. " Father "
again. The new name for God occurs
sixteen times in the Sermon on the Mount ;
to familiarise by repetition, and define
by discriminating use. — 6V1, not = 8s, but
meaning " because " : for so your Father
acts, and not otherwise can ye be His
sons. — av« 'tXX«i, sometimes intransitive,

as in Mt. iv. 16, Lk. xii. 54, here
transitive, also in Sept., Gen. iii. 18,
etc., and in some Greek authors (Pindar.
Isth. vi., 110, e.g.) to cause to rise. The
use of koUiv (ver. 15) and dvaWXXciv in
an active sense is a revival of an old
poetic use in later Greek (exx. of the
former in Eisner).— Ppfy" = /'"'< (Vulg.j,
said of God, as in the expression -Covtos
tov Aios (Kypke, Observ. Sac.). The
use of this word also in this sense is a
revival of old poetic usage. — irovijpovs,
dyadovs ; SucaCovs, dSCico'u;, not mere
repetition. There is a difference between
d-ytxOtis and Sikcuos similar to that
between generous and just. TrovTjpous
may be rendered niggardly — vide on vi.
23. The sentiment thus becomes : " God
makes His sun rise on niggardly and
generous alike, and His rain fall on just
and unjust ". A similar thought in
Seneca, De benif. iv. 26 : " Si deos
imitaris, da et ingratis beneficia, nam et
sceleratis sol oritur, et piratis patent
maria". The power of the fact stated
to influence as a motive is wholly
destroyed by a pantheistic conception of
God as indifferent to moral distinctions, or
a deistic idea of Him as transcendent,
too far above the world, in heaven, as it
were, to be able to take note of such
differences. The divine impartiality is
due to magnanimity, not to indifference
or ignorance. Another important re-
flection is that in this word of Jesus we
find distinct recognition of the fact that
in human life there is a large sphere
(sun and rain, how much these cover !)
in which men are treated by Providence
irrespectively of character ; by no means
a matter of course in a Jewish teacher,
the tendency being to insist on exact
correspondence between lot and charac-
ter under a purely retributive conception
of God's relation to man. — Ver. 46. fuo-8ov:
here, and three times in next chapter ; one
of several words used in this connection of
thought — trtpio-o-ov (ver. 47), TeXeioi (ver.
48) — having a legal sound, and capable
of being misunderstood. The scribes
and Rabbis had much to say about merit

45—48-

EYAITEAION

promises).
t Ch. xix. si. Jame» i. 4 ; iii. a. Heb. v. 14,

1 Many copies have ^iXovs, bat a8cX$ous is the reading of J^BDZ.

2 ^BDZ have cdvucoi instead of TeXwvai and to avro for ovtw. See below.

* «s in fr^BLZZ. exnrep possibly a literary refinement of the scribes.

* o oupavios instead of o «v r. ovpavois in fc$BDt>LZI.

and reward — vide W'cbet, Die Lehren des
Talmud, c. xix. J 59, on the idea of
Sechuth (merit). Totally opposed to
Rabbinism, Jesus did not lose His
balance, or allow Himself to be driven
into extremes, after the usual manner
of controversialists (Protestants and
Catholics, e.g.). He speaks of ui<r8o$
without scruple (cf. on Lk. vi. 32). —
rcXwvai (rt'Xos, tax, <S>vcop.ai), first men-
tion of a class often referred to in the
Gospels, unpopular beyond their deserts ;
therefore, like women unjustly treated by
husbands, befriended by Jesus ; the
humble agents of the great farmers of
taxes, disliked as representing a foreign
yoke, and on account of too frequent
acts of injustice, yet human and kindly
within their own class, loving those that
loved them. Jesus took advantage of
this characteristic to win their love by
friendly acts. — Ver. 47. ao-rrao-f|o-8*,
" Salute," a very slight display of love
from our Western point of view, a mere
civility ; more significant in the East ;
symbolic here of friendly relations, hence
Tholuck, Bleek and others interpret, " to
act in a friendly manner," which, as
Meyer remarks, is, if not the significatio,
at least the ad significatio. — irepicrcov,
used adverbially, literally " that which is
over and above " ; A. V., " more " ; here,
tropically = distinguished, unusually good
= " quid magnum, eximium, insigne "
(Pricaeus), so in Rom. iii. 1. In Plutarch,
Romulus, xi., of one who excelled in cast-
ing horoscopes. Christ would awaken
in disciples the ambition to excel. He
does not wish them to be moral
mediocrities, men of average morality,
but to be morally superior, uncommon.
This seems to come perilously near to
the spirit of Pharisaism (cf. Gal. i. 14,
irpo€KOTrTov), but only seems. Christ
commends being superior, not thinking
oneself superior, the Pharisaic charac-
teristic. Justin, Apol. i. 15, mixes w.
46 and 47, and for ir«pio-<crov puts Katvbv,
and for TcXwvai, or IOvikoI, iropvoi ; " If

ye love those who love you what new
thing do ye ? for even fornicators do
this." — c8vlkol, here as elsewhere in ths
Gospels associated with TcXwvai (Mt.
xviii. 17). A good many of the publicans
would be Gentiles. For a Jew it was a
virtue to despise and shun both classes.
Surely disciples will not be content to
be on a moral level with them 1 Note
that Jesus sees some good even in
despised classes, social outcasts.

Ver. 48. Concluding exhortation, ovv,
from an ancient form of the participle of
the verb elvai (Klotz, Devar.) = " things
being so ; " either a collective inference
from all that goes before (w. 21-47) or
as a reflection on the immediately pre-
ceding argument. Both come to the
same thing. Godlike love is commended
in w. 44-47, but the gist of all the six
illustrations of Christ's way of thinking
is : Love the fulfilling of the law ;
obviously, except in the case of oaths,
where it is truth that is enjoined. But
truth has its source in love ; Eph. iv. 15 :
aXij6«vovT€s iv a-yairrj, " truthing it in
love ".— €o-eo-0«, future, "ye shall be" =
BE. — vpcis, vi, emphatic, in contrast with
t«X. and «8v., who are content with
moral commonplace and conventional
standards. — Te'Xeioi t in general, men who
have reached the end, touched the ideal,
that at least their purpose, not satisfied
with anything short of it. The rt'Xtioi are
not men with a conceit of perfection, but
aspirants — men who seek to attain, like
Paul : Sl6>kc* el ical KaTaXa{3(i>, Phil. iii.
12, and like him, single-minded, their
motto : iv 8«\ Single-mindedness is a
marked characteristic of all genuine
citizens of the kingdom (Mt. vi. 33),
and what the Bible means by perfection,
All men who attain have one great
ruling aim. That aim for the disciple,
as here set forth, is Godlikeness — us o
iraT-fip . . . Tt'Xctos €<ttiv. God is what
His sons aspire to be ; He never sinks
below the ideal : impartial, benignant,
gracious love, even to the unworthy ; for

TIC

RATA MAT9AI0N

VI.

• followed VI. 1. "TIPOIEXETE ' T.y AtrjfxocruiYjk'-' u^wv (jlij -nouiv e'fi-

wiih inf. Trpc.irOir Tun- (irOpiuirur, Trpo? to ''OcaOip-ai at'TOis " €t Se in'iye, ii.ioQbv
here, by >i a- ' ' ' ' „

ttoti with OUK tY€Tt TfOpU Tti TTClTpl UUbiV Til fcV TOIQ 3 OUpClfCHS. 2. OTCU' OU^

SU bj. Lk * f ■ £ r f . <* I

XXI. 34. TTOITJS <\€T]ftOaul'T|>', U,V| <Ta\TTlffT]S CpTfpOfftJeV (TOO, WOTTCp 01 U7T0-

5. Mk. KpiTai ttoiouctik tv Tais awaywYaiS tai ck tous pup.ats, ottws

c same 8o£ao-0il>ai»' UTf6 twv dyGpojiruy • AjiT|v \£yw ufuy, direxouai tok
phrase in i «

Sir. vii. 10. Tobit iv. 7. Acts x. a; xxiv. 17. d 1 Cor. iv. 52 and beveral times in Revel. * Lit
xiv. si. Acts ix. 11 ; xii. 10.

1 8« after Trpoo-«xtT€ in fr^LZ, inserted by Tisch. and byW.H. within brackets. BD
have no 8«. It might have fallen out by similar ending (t«) ; on the other hand,
it would stand here appropriately as a connecting particle of transition.

5 fc^BD have SiKaioo-vvTjv ; doubtless the true reading, as a general caution against
counterfeit righteousness was to be looked for first ; then particular examples : alms,
prayer, fasting.

1 Tisch., on the authority of fc^D 1, 33, omits tois.

that, not all conceivable attributes, is
what is in view, us, not in degree, that
were a discouraging demand, but in
kind. The kind very necessary to be
emphasised in view of current ideas and
practice, in which holiness was dis-
sociated from love. The law " Be holy
for I am holy " (Lev. xi. 44) was taken
negatively and worked out in separation
from the reputedly sinful. Jesus gave it
positive contents, and worked it out in
gracious love.

Chapter VI. The Sermon Con-
tinued. From Scribe law, the main
theme of w. 21-48, the Teacher passes to
speak of Pharisaic practice. Ver. 1
describes the general character of
Pharisaic righteousness. Then follow
three special examples : alms, w. 2-4 ;
prayer, w. 5-6 ; fasting, w. 16-18. The
transition from the one theme to the
other was almost inevitable, and we may
be sure that what follows formed part of
the instruction on the hill.

Ver. 1. irpoo'£X€T€ (rbv vovv under-
stood), to attend to ; here, with p.v)
following, take heed, be on your guard
against. — 8t,Ko.ioowT|v, not e\rr|p.oo"vv'r|v
(T. R.), is the reading demanded in a gene-
ral introductory statement. Alms formed
a very prominent part of Pharisaic right-
eousness, and was in Rabbinical dialect

called righteousness, i"Tp"T2 (vide Weber,
p. 273), but it was not the whole, and it
is a name for the whole category that is
wanted in ver. 1. If Jesus spoke in
Aramaic He might, as Lightfoot (Hor.
Hebr.) suggests, use the word tsedakah
both in the first and in the following
three verses ; in the first in the general

sense, in the other places in the special
sense of alms. — cp/irporrdev t. dvOpuTruv.
In chap. v. 16 Christ commands
disciples to let their light shine before
men. Here He seems to enjoin the
contrary. The contradiction is only
apparent. The two places may be com-
bined in a general rule thus : Show
when tempted to hide, hide when
tempted to show. The Pharisees were
exposed, and yielded, to the latter
temptation. They did their righteous-
ness, irpbs to OcaOfjvai, to be seen.
Their virtue was theatrical, and that
meant doing only things which in
matter and mode were commonly ad-
mired or believed by the doers to be.
This spirit of ostentation Christ here and
elsewhere represents as the leading
feature of Pharisaism. — cl $i P)Y C > a
combination of four particles frequently
occurring in the Gospels, meaning: if at
least ye do not attend to this rule, then,
etc. ye is a very expressive particle, de-
rived by Klotz, Devar. ii. 272, from TEA,
i.e., EAJQ, or from dye, and explained as
meant to render the hearer attentive.
Baumlein, dissenting from Klotz's
derivation, agrees substantially with his
view of its meaning as isolating a thought
from all else and placing it alone in the
light (Untersuchungen uber Griechische
Partikeln, p. 54) r= " Mark my words,
for if you do not as I advise then," etc. —
(xio-dov oxik ex«Tc : on p.io-0ov, vide v. 46.
The meaning is that theatrical virtue
does not count in the Kingdom of God.
Right motive is essential there. There
may be a reward, there must be, else
theatrical religion would not be so
common ; but it is not irapd t<Jj irarpi.

1—4-

EYAITEAION

117

liioQov auruv. 3. oroo Se -rroioGiTOS £Xer|U.oawY]v, |i?| yi-wTO* ^

&piOT£p<£ aOU Tl TTOieT T) Se^ld (TOU, 4. OTTWS "I] (TOO T) AeTJfJLOCTUt'T] 1 «V

tw 'kdutttw' *ai 6 -rraTTJp aoo 6 pXe'irwi' eV tw KpuTrrw, auTos 2 « Rom. ii. 29

* ' (phrase).

1 Tisch. has y\ <row fXer]p.o<ruvT] r\, following fc<$D (t) c. «Xc. r\). Most modern
editors as in text.

2 fc$BL omit eurros, which is found in D.

Vv. 2-4. /4 Imsgiving. Ver 2. eXerjpo-
axjvrjv, mercy in general, but specifically
alms, as a common mode of showing
mercy. Compare our word charity. —
iroXiri<jT)s : to be understood metaphori-
cally, as there is no evidence of the
literal practice. Furrer gives this from
Consul Wetstein to illustrate the word.
When a man (in Damascus) wants to do
a good act which may bring a blessing
by way of divine recompense on his own
family, e.g., healing to a sick child, he
goes to a water-carrier with a good
voice, gives him a piece of money, and
Bays " Sebil," i.e., give the thirsty a
fresh drink of water. The water-carrier
fills his skin, takes his stand in the
market, and sings in varied tones : " O
thirsty, come to the drink-offering," the
giver standing by, to whom the carrier
says, as the thirsty drink, " God forgive
thy sins, O giver of the drink" (Zscht.
fur M. und R., 1890. Vide also his Wand-
erungen d. d. H. L., p. 437). — viiroKpiTal,
stage-players in classics, used in N. T.
in a moral and sinister sense, and for the
Christian mind heavily burdened with evil
connotation— hypocrites I What a deep-
ening of the moral sense is implied in
the new meaning 1 The abhorrence of
acting for effect in religion is due to
Christ's teaching. It has not yet quite
banished the thing. There are religious
actors still, and they draw good houses.
— ervvaYWYats : where alms were col-
lected, and apparently also distributed. —
p\5|iais, streets, in eastern cities narrow
lanes, a late meaning; in earlier Greek =
impetus — onset. Vide Rutherford's New
Phryn., 488. Cf. irXaTfiwv, ver. 5.
irXarela, supp. 680s = a broad street.-—
So£a<r8utrtv : in chap. v. 16 God is
conceived as recipient of the glory ;
here the almsgiver, giving for that
purpose. — ap-V : introducing a solemn
statement, and a very serious one for
the parties concerned.— onr«xoviori, they
have in full; they will get no more,
nothing from God : so in Lk. vi. 24,
Phil. iv. 18 (vide on Mk. xiv. 41). The
hypocrite partly does not believe this,
partly docs not care, so long as he gets

the applause of his public. — Ver. 3. p.Y)
yvuTu : in proverbial form a counsel to
give with simplicity. Let not even thy
left hand, if possible even thyself, know,
still less other men ; give without self-
consciousness or self-complacency, the
root of ostentation. — iv tw Kpim-rw :
known to the recipient, of course, but
to no other, so far as you are concerned,
hardly even to yourself. " Pii lucent, et
tamen latent," Beng. — 6 pXeTrwv I. t. to,
who seeth in the dark. " Acquainted
with all my ways." Ps. cxxxix., a
comfort to the sincerely good, not to
the counterfeits. — d"7ro8ai<r«i <roi : a cer-
tainty, and not merely of the future.
The reward is present ; not in the form
of self-complacency, but in the form of
spiritual health, like natural buoyancy,
when all physical functions work well.
A right-minded man is happy without
reflecting why ; it is the joy of living
in summer sunshine and bracing moun-
tain air. The Iv t$ <{>avep<j» here and in
w. 6 and 18, a gloss by some superficial
copyist, ignores the inward present re-
ward, and appeals in a new form to the
spirit of ostentation.

Vv. 5-6. Prayer, us oi vnroKpiTai,
as the actors. We shrink from the
harshness of the term " hypocrite ".
Jesus is in the act of creating the new
meaning by the use of an old word in
a new connection. — <jnXovcri stands in
place of an adverb. They love to, are
wont, do it with pleasure. This con-
struction is common in classics, even in
reference to inanimate objects, but here
only and in Mt. xxiii. 6-7 in N. T.—
io-TWTcs, ordinary attitude in prayer.
o~rt]vai and iea0TJcr9ai seem to be used
sometimes without emphasis to denote
simply presence in a place (so Pricaeus).
— a-vvavo^ats, Y'i'Wcus t. irXar. : usual
places of prayer, especially for the
" actors," where men do congregate, in
the synagogue for worship, at the
corners of the broad streets for talk 01
business ; plenty of observers in both
cases. Prayer had been reduced to
system among the Jews. Methodising,
with stated hours and forms, began after

KATA MATOAION

VI.

fCh. xri.ij. * diroSwaet aoi iv tu> ^avtpCo. 1 5. Kal orav irpoafuyr\, o6k ?<rj) 3
1 Ch. xxiii. wcrrrcp 3 01 UTTOKpiTQi, on h $iXouai»< iv rais o-uraywyais Kal iv Tais
4 6. ywKiois tuv ■nKaTeiutv ioTwres Trpoo"€uxeo-0ai, oitcjs ay * ^tafwai tois

dfOpuTrois • dp.rp' X£yw up.lv, 5ti 6 dTre'xoucri t6v ptcrOcn' auTWP. 6.
26. Lk. au %i, oTaK irpoatuxT], eureXOe eig to 'TapueioV 8 aou, Kai xXciaas
Sir. xxix. tt]k oupaK aou, Trpoaeu^ai tu) iraTpi aou tu eV tw Kpuirrw • *ai o
Sept. -naTr]p aou 6 pX^rrwy eV tw KpuTirw dTroowaci aoi ^k tu ^>acepw. 7

1 fr$BD omit. This time L goes with the MSS. which have this reading.
Doubtless a gloss, vide below.

1 For irpoo-cuxi ovk «tt| fc$B have wpoaruxn<r9« ovk «r«r6«, adopted by W.H. and
other editors.

• m S in NBDZ.

4 av omitted in ^BDL.

• on omitted in fc^BDZ.

« rajmov in W.H. So in NBDL (touiov, NDj,

7 fr^BDZ omit «v to» 4>avip«, followed by most modern editors.

Ezra, and grew in the Judaistic period ;
traces of it even in the later books of
O. T., e.g., Dan. vi. 10, n (vide Schultz,
Alt. Theol.). The hour of prayer might
overtake a man anywhere. The " actors "
might, as De Wette suggests, be glad
to be overtaken, or even arrange for it,
in some well-frequented place. — oiru?
4>avu»aiv t. a. in order that they may
appear to men, and have it remarked :
how devout ! Ver. 6 : true prayer in
contrast to the theatrical type.— o-u ii,
thou, my disciple, in opposition to the
" actors ". — Stov, when the spirit moves,
not when the customary hour comes,
freedom from rule in prayer, as in
fasting (Mt. ix. 14), is taken for
granted. — to Tapeiov, late form for
Tajxielov (Lobeck, Phryn., 493), first a
store-chamber, then any place of privacy,
a closet (Mt. xxiv. 26). Note the aov
after Tap. and 8vpav and iraTp£, all em-
phasising isolation, thy closet, thy door,
thy Father. — tcXeiaas, carefully shutting
thy door, the door of thine own retreat,
to exclude all but thy Father, with as
much secrecy as if you were about a
guilty act. What delicacy of feeling,
as well as sincerity, is implied in all
this ; greatly to be respected, often
sinned against.— -t£ iv t^ KpvirTy, He
who is in the secret place ; perhaps
with allusion to God's presence in the
dark holy of holies (Achelis). He is
there in the place from which all fellow-
men are excluded. Is social prayer
negatived by this directory ? No, but
it is implied that social prayer will be

a reslity only in proportion as it pro-
ceeds from a gathering of men accus-
tomed to private prayer.

Vv. 7-15. Further instruction in
prayer. Weiss (Mt.-Evan.) regards
this passage as an interpolation, having
no proper place in an anti-Pharisaic dis-
course. Both the opinion and its ground
are doubtful. As regards the latter, it is
true that it is Gentile practice in prayer
that is formally criticised, but it does
not follow that the Pharisees were not
open to the same censure. They might
make long prayers, not in ignorance,
but in ostentation (Lutteroth), as a dis-
play of devotional talent or zeal. But
apart from the question of reference to
the Pharisees, it is likely that prayer
under various aspects formed one of the
subjects of instruction in the course of
teaching on the hill whereof these chap-
ters are a digest.

Ver. 7. PaTTaXoyno-rjT* : a airo£ Xey.
in N. T., rarely used anywhere, and of
doubtful derivation. Some (Erasmus,
e.g.) have thought it was formed from
Battus, the stammerer mentioned by
Herod, (iv. 155), or from a feeble poet of
the name who made long hymns full of
repetitions (Suidas, Lexicon), but most
now incline to the view that it is onoma-
topoetic. Hesychius (Lex.) takes this
view of the kindred word Pa-rrapi^civ
(cpol fiev Sokci Kara piprgaiv ttjs $«*vt};
irciroifjo-Sai). It points to the repetition
without end of the same forms of words
as a stammerer involuntarily repeats the
same syllable, like the Baal worshippers

5—9-

EYAITEA10N

119

7. npocr€uv x opes'oi hk u.n, PaTroXoyqo-TjTc, 1 ucnrep ol i IQvikqI • 2 j Ch. v. 47
ft ~ x « , ~ x \ > , - k > /»» ov (incritlcal

ookoucti yap on cf Ti] TvoXuXoyia auTwk eio-aKOuaorjaoKTai. 8- pr| notes);

ouk ' 6p,oiu0TjTc auTois • oi8e yap 6 iraTTjp 3 upw^ wv m xpeiaK exere, k Lk. i. 13.

wpo too upas aiTTJo-ai auToV. 9. outu>9 out' Trpoaeuxeo-Oe upeis * iCor.xiv!

2i. Heb.
▼. r- 1 Ch. vil 24, 26 ; xlli. 24. m Ch. Ix. 13 ; xxi. 3.

1 fc^B have PaTTO., which Tisch. and W.H. follow. L as in text. D has pXa-rroX.

2 B and Syr. Cur, have vn-oxpiTai.

8 fc^B Sah. version have 0€o$ before o va-n\p (W.H. within brackets).

shouting from morning till noon, " O
Baal, hear us " (1 Kings xviii. 26, cf.
Acts xix. 34, " Great is Diana of the
Ephesians "). This repetition is charac-
teristic of Pagan prayer, and when it
recurs in the Church, as in saying many
Aves and Paternosters, it is Paganism
redivivus. — !8viko£, the second of three
references to Pagans (v. 47, vi. 32) in the
Sermon on the Mount, not to be wondered
at. The Pagan world was near at hand
for a jew belonging to Galilee with its
mixed population. Pagan customs would
be familar to Galileans, and it was
natural that Jesus should use them as well
as the theory and practice of scribes and
Pharisees, to define by contrast true piety.
— iroXvXoyiq., epexegetical of PaTraXoy.
The Pagans thought that by endless
repetitions and many words they would
inform their gods as to their needs and
weary them ( " fatigare deos " ) into
granting their requests. Ver. 8, ovv,
infers that disciples must not imitate the
practice described, because it is Pagan,
and because it is absurd. Repetition
is, moreover, wholly uncalled for. —
oIScv yap : the God whom Jesus
proclaims — " your Fatner " — knows be-
forehand your needs. Why, then, pray
at all ? Because we cannot receive un-
less we desire, and if we desire, we will
pray ; also because things worth getting
are worth asking. Only pray always as
to a Being well informed and willing, in
few words and in faith. With such
thoughts in mind, Jesus proceeds to give
a sample of suitable prayer.

Vv. 9-13. The Lord's Prayer. Again,
in Lk. xi. 1-4 — vide notes there. Here
I remark only that Luke's form, true
reading, is shorter than Matthew's.
On this ground Kamphausen (Das Gebet
des Herm) argues for its originality.
But surely Matthew's form is short and
elementary enough to satisfy all reason-
able requirements I The question as to
the original form cannot be settled on
such grounds. The prayer, as here given,

is, indeed, a model of simplicity. Be-
sides the question as to the original form,
there is another as to the originality of
the matter. Wetstein says, " tota haec
oratio ex formulis Hebraeorum concin-
nata est ". De Wette, after quoting
these words, asserts that, after all the
Rabbinical scholars have done their ut-
most to adduce parallels from Jewish
sources, the Lord's Prayer is by no
means shown to be a Cento, and that it
contains echoes only of well-known O. T.
and Messianic ideas and expressions,
and this only in the first two petitions.
This may be the actual fact, but there is
no need for any zeal in defence of the
position. I should be very sorry to think
that the model prayer was absolutely
original. It would be a melancholy
account of the chosen people if, after
thousands of years of special training,
they did not yet know what to pray for.
Jesus made a new departure by inaugu-
rating (1) freedom in prayer ; (2) trustful-
ness of spirit ; (3) simplicity in manner.
The mere making of a new prayer,
if only by apt conjunction of a few
choice phrases gathered from Scripture
or from Jewish forms, was an assertion
of liberty. And, of course, the liberty
obtains in reference to the new form as
well as to the old. We may use the
Paternoster, but we are not bound to use
it. It is not in turn to become a fetish.
Reformers do not arise to break old
fetters only in order to forge new ones.

Ver. 9. ovtws, thus, not after the
ethnic manner. — irpocrtvxtirBe : present,
pray so habitually. — vpcis : as opposed
to the Pagans, as men (i.e.) who believe in
an intelligent, willing God, your Father.
The prayer which follows consists of six
petitions which have often been elabor-
ately explained, with learned discussions
on disputed points, leaving the reader
with the feeling that the new form is any-
thing but simple, and wondering how it
ever came into universal use. Gospel
has been turned into law, spirit into

120

KATA~MATOATON

VI.

a i Pet. iii. riuTep T^jiaii' 6 iv toI$ oupayois, n Ayiaff&^TU to oVofid <roo • io.

xxii. si) 1\Q(tu> rj j3aaiXcia crou • , y € H^'1 tw t ^ OAtiiid crou, p a>9 Iv oupavSt,
o Ch. xxvi '

43. Acts xxi. 14 (same phrase). p Acts vii. 51 (»; «ai).

letter, poetry into prose. We had better
let this prayer alone if we cannot catch
its lyric tone. — nd-rtp. In Luke's form
this name stands impressively alone,
but the words associated with it in
Matthew's version of the address are
every way suitable. Name and epithet
together — Father, in heaven — express
reverential trust.- — *AYiacr8i]T«u t. o. crov :
first petition —sanctified, hallowed be
Thy name. Fritzsche holds that crov in
this and the next two petitions is empha-
tic, crov not crov enclitic. The suggestion
gives a good direction for the expositor =
may God the Father-God of Jesus be-
come the one object of worship all the
world over. A very natural turn of
thought in view of the previous reference
to the Pagans. Pagan prayer corre-
sponded to the nature of Pagan deities
— indifferent, capricious, unrighteous,
unloving ; much speaking, iteration, dun-
ning was needed to gain their ear. How
blessed if the whole pantheon could be
swept away or fall into contempt, and
the one worshipful Divinity be, in fact,
worshipped, s iv ovpavu teal cnl Ytjs; for
this clause appended to the third petition
may be conceived as common to all the
first three. The One Name in heaven
the One Name on earth, and reverenced
on earth as in heaven. Universalism is
latent in this opening petition. We
cannot imagine Jesus as meaning merely
that the national God of Israel may be
duly honoured within the bounds of His
own people.

Ver. 10. 'EKBirot tj fiacriXeia crov :
second petition. The prayer of all Jews.
Even the Rabbis said, that is no prayer
in which no mention of the kingdom is
made. All depends on how the kingdom
is conceived, on what we want to come.
The kingdom is as the King. It is the
kingdom of the universal, benignant
Father who knows the wants of His chil-
dren and cares for their interests, lower
and higher, that Jesus desires to come.
It will come with the spread of the wor-
ship of the One true Divine Name ; the
paternal God ruling in grace over believ-
ing, grateful men. Thus viewed, God's
kingdom comes, is not always here, as
in the reign of natural law or in the
moral order of the world. — 'Y <VT l''i]T t. 0.
or.: third petition. Kamphausen, bent
on maintaining the superior originality of

Luke's form in which this petition is
wanting, regards it as a mere pendant to
the second, unfolding its meaning. And
it is true in a sense that any one of the
three first petitions implies the rest.
Yet the third has its distinct place. The
kingdom, as Jesus preached it, was a
kingdom of grace. The second petition,
therefore, is a prayer that God's gracious *

•will may be done. The third, on the
other hand, is a prayer that God's com-
manding will may be done; that the
right as against the wrong may every-
where prevail. — &>% iv ovp. koA tin, 7^5 »

i This addendum, not without application
to all three petitions, is specially appli-
cable to this one. Translated into
modern dialect, it means that the divine
will may be perfectly, ideally done on
this earth: as in heaven, so also, etc.
The reference is probably to the angels,
described in Ps. ciii., as doing God's
commandments. In the 0. T. the angels
are the agents of God's will in nature as
well as in Providence. The defining
clause might, therefore, be taken as
meaning : may God's will be done in the
moral sphere as in the natural ; exactly,
always, everywhere.

The foregoing petitions are regarded
by Grotius, and after him Achelis, as pi a
desideria, ti\al, rather than petitions
proper — al-rnjACvTa, like the following
three. The distinction is not gratuitous,
but it is an exegetical refinement which
may be disregarded. More important
is it to note that the first group refers to
the great public interests of God and
His kingdom, placed first here as in vi.
33, the second to personal needs. There
is a corresponding difference in the mode
of expression, the verbs being in the
third person in Group I., objective, im-
personal ; in the second in Group II.,
subjective, personal.

Ver. 11. Fourth petition, tov ap-rov
tjuwv : whatever the adjective qualifying
apTov may mean, it may be taken for
granted that it is ordinary bread, food
for the body, that is intended. All
spiritualising mystical meanings of
iiriovo-iov are to be discarded. This is
the one puzzling word in the prayer. It
is a aira£ \ty., not only in O. and N. T.,
but in Greek literature, as known not
only to us, but even to Origen, who
(De Oratione, cap. xxvii.) states that it

IO — 12.

EYAITEAION

121

(tal eirl ttJs * yrjs " IT- tov ap-roe ^p-w^ tov , emoucnof 80s T]M-^' <3 h e re an =., « - * r>. \> . - « r « - in Lk. xi.

arificpoy • 12. kcu ad>e9 Tf JU> ' Ta ocpeiArifiaTa T)p.f, ws kcu r|p.eis 3 (not

found in
Greek literature). r Rom. iv. 4.

1 Ss^BZA and some cursives omit rns. So most modern editors.

is not found in any of the Greeks, or
used by private individuals, and that it
seems to be a coinage (eoticc TreirXao-flai.)
of the evangelists. It is certainly not
likely to have proceeded from our Lord.
This one word suffices to prove that, if
not always, at least in uttering this
prayer, Jesus spoke in Aramaean. He
would not in such a connection use an
obscure word, unfamiliar, and of doubt-
ful meaning. The problem is to account
for the incoming of such a word into the
Greek version of His doubtless simple,
artless, and well - understood saying.
The learned are divided as to the deriva-
tion of the word, having of course
nothing but conjecture to go on. Some
derive it from inl and ovo-ia, or the parti-
ciple of elvou ; others from tim'vat, or r)
Imovora = the approaching day (i'iu.e'pa
understood). In the one case we get a
qualitative sense — bread for subsistence,
bread needed and sufficient (to. Siovra
v.a\ avTapKT]. Prov. xxx. 8, Sept.) ;
in the other, a temporal — bread of the
coming day, patient quotidianum (Vulg.,
Lk., xi. 3), " daily bread ". Either
party argues against the other on gram-
matical grounds, e.g., that derived from
ovo-ia the word should be iirovcnos, and
that derived from ciriovo-a it should be
tiriovaaiog. In either case the dis-
putants are ready with their answer.
Another source of argument is suitable-
ness of the sense. Opponents of the
temporal sense say that to pray for
to-morrow's bread sins against the
counsel, " Take no thought for the
morrow," and that to pray, " Give us
to-day our bread of to-morrow," is
absurd (ineptius, Suicer, Thesaurus, s.v.
ciriovo-ios). On the other side it is said :
Granting that the sense "sufficient"
can be got from eirl, owia, and granting
its appropriateness, how comes it that
a simpler, better-known word was not
chosen to represent so plain a meaning ?
Early tradition should have an important
bearing on the question. Lightfoot, in
the appendix on the words tiriovorios
and iTfpiovo-ios, in his work " On a fresh
Revision of the N. T.," summarises the
evidence to this effect: Most of the
Greeks follow Origen, who favoured
derivation fiorn ovo-ia. But Aramaic

Christians put for 4ttiovo-ios Mahar =
crastinum. (Jerome comm. in Mt.)
The Curetonian Syriac has words mean-
ing, ' ' our bread continual of the day give
us". The Egyptian versions have
similar readings. The old Latin ver-
sion has quotidianum, retained by Jerome
in revision of L. V. in Lk. xi. 2, while
supersubstantialem is given in Mt.
vi. 11. The testimony of these early
versions is important in reference to the
primitive sense attached to the word.
Still the question remains: How account
for the coinage of such a word in Greek-
speaking circles, and for the tautology :
give us to-day (o-qptpov, Mt.) or daily
(to ko.0' T)pipav, Luke), the bread of
to-morrow ? In his valuable study on
" The Lord's Prayer in the early
Church " (Texts and Studies, 1891),
Principal Chase has made an important
contribution to the solution of this diffi-
culty by the suggestion that the coinage
was due to liturgical exigencies in con-
nection with the use of the prayer in
the evening. Assuming that the original
petition was to the effect : " to us give,
of the day, our bread," and that the
Greek equivalent for the day was -f)
c-irtoicra, the adjective emo-uo-ios was
coined to make the prayer suitable
at all hours. In the morning it
would mean the bread of the day now
begun, in the evening the bread of
to-morrow. But devotional conserva-
tism, while adopting the new word as
convenient, would cling to the original
"of the day"; hence o-iju-tpov in Matt,
and to ko.9' T|u,^pav in Luke, along with
eirtovo-tos. On the whole the temporal
meaning seems to have the weight of
the argument on its side. For a full
statement of the case on that side vide
Lightfoot as above, and on the other
the article on cirtovcrios in Cremer's Bib.
Theol., W. B., 7te Aufl., 1893.

Ver. 12. Fifth petition. &<j>€tXi]p,aTa,
in classics literal debts, here moral debts,
sins (apapxias in Lk. xi. 4). The more
men desire God's will to be done the
more conscious they are of shortcoming.
The more conscious of personal short-
coming, the more indulgent towards the
faults of others even when committed
against themselves. Hence the added

122

RATA MATGAION

VI.

I Ch. xvlll

Mteral) i 4 ,ie f A «*' l T °iS s 6<|)eiX^Tai5 Tjuwy 13. *al u.yj * elaei/t'yKTjs Tafias els
Lie xiii. 4 TreipaauoV, dXXd puaai rjuas diro too Tronfjpoo. oti aou eariy ^

G»l. v 3 pao-tXcia Kai ^ SuVauis Kal i] 8ol-a els tous nlwms. du.t)*'. 2 14.

obliRa- 'Edw yap d^Te tois dvOpoj-rrois to n TrapaTrrw/iaTa aoTwc, d^rjaei

' jftj 4, Kai "r"*' ° 1TaT ^P uuwy 6 oupd>aos * 15. edv 8e jatj d<pT|TC tois d^Opw-

Rom.v. irois Td TrapaTrrwp.aTa auTw^, 8 ou8e 6 TraTr)p uuojf di|>rjcrei Td rrapa-

Gal. vi. i. TTTwuaTa uuwy. 16. Ot<xc 8e irjoTcuTjTe, u.f^ ylveaQe <Zxr-ncp* 01

» Lk. xxiv. uiroKptTal T CKuOpwTroi ■ w d^ayij^ouai ydp Td Trpocrwira auTWf , 6

w rv. 19, 20. ottws <paywCTi toIs d^Opwirois fTjoTeuorres * djAtn' Xe'yw uuiV, oti 6
Acts xiii.
41. Jomes iv. 14.

1 fc«$BZ have a<{>T)Ka|jktv, adopted by modern editors. a$it\uv (T. R.) has probably
come in from Luke (xi. 4).

2 The Doxology ori <rou . . . a\iri)v is wanting in fc^BDZ and is regarded by most
modern critics as an ancient liturgical insertion. It is found in LAI al.

3 to irapairTwuaTa avrwv wanting in fr$D, omitted by Tisch., bracketed by W.H.,
•hough found in BL.

* «s in NBDA.

5 For avrwv B has tavrttv.

8 T. R. has oti with L al. ^BD omit.

words : is Kal 4\. a^KajAtv, etc. It is
natural and comforting to the sincere
soul to put the two things together, us
must be taken very generally. The
prayer proceeds from child-like hearts,
not from men trained in the distinctions
of theology. The comment appended
in w. 14, 15 introduces an element of
reflection difficult to reconcile with the
spontaneity of the prayer. It is pro-
bably imported from another connection,
e.g., Mt. xviii. 35 (so Weiss-Meyer).

Ver. 13. Sixth petition : consists of two
members, one qualifying or limiting the
other. — ut| . . . ir«ipao-u6v, expose us
not to moral trial. All trial is of doubt-
ful issue, and may therefore naturally
and innocently be shrunk from, even by
those who know that the result may be
good, confirmation in faith and virtue.
The prayer is certainly in a different key
from the Beatitude in V. 10. There
Jesus sets before the disciple a heroic
temper as the ideal. But here He does
not assume the disciple to have attained.
The Lord's Prayer is not merely for
heroes, but for the timid, the inex-
perienced. Tbe teacher is considerate,
and allows time for reaching the heights
of heroism on which St. James stood
when he wrote (i. 2) irdo-av x a P^ v
f\yqaaa-Qt, dScX({>oi ftov, orav ircipaajjioig
ircptTre'o-TjTe itoikiXois. — dXXd, not purely
adversative, cancelling previous clause,
but confirming it and going further

(Schanz, in accordance with original
meaning of dXXd, derived from dXXo or
SXXa, and signifying that what is going
to be said is another thing, aliud, in
relation to what has been said, Klotz,
Devar. ii., p. 2) = Lead us not into
temptation, or so lead us that we may
be safe from evil : may the issue ever
be beneficent. — pvcrai airo, not Ik. ; the
latter would imply actual implication in,
the former implies danger merely. Both
occur in N. T. (on the difference cf.
Kamphausen, Das G. des H.). — tow
irovrjpov, either masculine or neuter,
which ? Here again there is an elaborate
debate on a comparatively unimportant
question. The probability is in favour
of the masculine, the evil one. The
Eastern naturally thought of evil in the
concrete. But we as naturally think of
it in the abstract ; therefore the change
from A. V. in R. V. is unfortunate. It
mars the reality of the Lord's Prayer on
Western lips to say, deliver us from the
evil one. Observe it is moral evil, not
physical, that is deprecated. — Stv o-ov
Io-tiv . . . Aut}v : a liturgical ending,
no part of the original prayer, and tend-
ing to turn a religious reality into a
devotional form.

On w. 14-15 vide under ver. 12.

Vv. 16-18. Fasting. Ver. 16. irav
SJ: transition to a new related topic. —
aKvflpwiroi, of sad visage, overdone of
course by the " actors ". Fasting, like

I3-"-

EYAITEAION

123

direxouori tok fuaOoe auTwy. 17. au 8e n^crreuwi' * aXci\|>at trou tyji* x
Ke^aX-rjf, Kal to -zrpocywnw aoo vi^iai • 18. ott«9 p-*l ^affjs tois
dc0pw7rot.s nfjoTcowK, 1 dXXd tw iraTpi ctou tw iv t« Kpinn-w 2 ical 6
TraTrjp aou 6 pXeirwf iv tw KpuTnrw 2 d-iroowaci aoi Ic tw 4>ai'epw. 3

19. " Mr] f OTjaaupt^eTe u/xIk 8ncraupous eirl tt|S yrjs, orrou tri]s icaly
j3pwai$ d^aKi^ei, Kal oirou nXeirrai * Siopuacrouo t icai (cXtirToutri •

20. Orjaaupil^eTe Ss ojxic Orja-aupous iv oupa^w, oirau out« <tt)s outc z
^pwais d$api£6t, Kal oirou KXc'irTai ou otopuCTcrouo-if ouoe KXe'irTouorty.

21. oirou yap iariv 6 Onaaupos 6p.wi', 4 ck€i ecrrai Kal 5 "q xapoia
uuclv.* 22. 'O Xux^os tou o-wp-aTos cotii/ 6 6$9a\u.6s ° • ^dv ouV 6

1 B places vTjer-rcvwv before tois avOpunroife
8 KpixfiaiM in fc^BD.

3 fc^BDL omit «v tw 4>avcpe>.

4 fc^B have trov, which makes the reflection more pointed.
8 B omits ical.

6 B adds crov.

Mk. vi. 13

Lk.vii.38,

46. James

▼. 14.

Lk. xit.2T.
Rom.ii. 5.
1 Cor. xvt.
3 al.

Cb. xxiv.
43. Lk
xii 39.

prayer, was reduced to a system ; twice a
week in ordinary Pharisaic practice :
Thursday and Monday (ascent and
descent of Moses on Sinai), artificial
gloom inevitable in such circumstances.
In occasional fasting, in circumstances
of genuine affliction, the gloom will be
real (Lk. xxiv. 17). — d($>avi£ov<riv — 8-jrws
Wvwa-iv, a play upon words, may be
endered in English " they disfigure
that they may figure ". In German :
Unsichtbar machen, sichtbar werden
(Schanz and Weiss). — Ver. 17. &\cu|rai,
viif/ai : not necessarily as if preparing
for a feast (Meyer and Weiss), but
performing the usual daily ablutions
for comfort and cleanliness, so avoiding
parade of fasting by neglect of them
(Bleek, Achelis).

The foregoing inculcations of sincerity
and reality in religion contribute in-
directly to the illustration of the divine
name Father, which is here again defined
by discriminating use. God as Father
desires these qualities in worshippers.
All close relations (father, son : husband,
wife) demand real affection as distinct
from parade.

Vv. 19-34. Counsels against covetous-
ness and care (reproduced in Lk. xii. 22-
34, with exception of w. 22-23, which
reappear in Lk. xi. 34-36). An inter-
polation, according to Weiss. Doubtless,
if the Sermon on the Mount was ex-
clusively an anti- Pharisaic discourse.
But this homily might very well have
formed one of the lessons on the hill, in
connection with the general theme of

the kingdom, which needs to be defined
in contrast to worldliness not less than
to spurious types of piety.

Vv. 19-21. Against hoarding.
0T|cravpov? Iirl ttjs ytjs, treasures
upon earth, and therefore earthly,
material, perishable, of whatever kind. —
art)?, moth, destructive of costly garments,
one prominent sort of treasure in the
East.— Ppwo-vs, not merely "rust," but a
generic term embracing the whole class
of agents which eat or consume valuables
(so Beza, Fritzsche, Bleek, Meyer, etc.).
Erosionem seu corrosionem quamlibet
denotat, quum vel vestcs a tineis vel
vetustate et putredine eroduntur, vel
lignum a cossibus ct carie, frumentum a
curculionibus, quales rpwyas Graeci
vocant, vel metalli ab aerugine, ferrugine,
eroduntur et corroduntur (Kypke, Obs.
Sac). — Siopvacrova-iv, dig through (clay
walls), easier to get in so than through
carefully barred doors (again in Matt.
xxiv. 43). The thief would not find
much in such a house. — Ver. 20. Otja. iv
ovpav4> : not = heavenly treasures, saya
Fritzsche, as that would require tovs
before iv. Grammatically this is correct,
yet practically heavenly treasure is
meant. — Ver. 21. oirov 8tjo-. . . . ivitl
icap8(a. The reflection goes back on
the negative counsel in ver. 19. Do not
accumulate earthly treasures, for then
your heart will be there, whereas it
ought to be in heaven with God and the
Kingdom of God.

Vv. 22-24. Parable of the eye. A
difficult passage ; connection obscure,

I2 4

KATA MAT0AION

VI.

• Lk. xl. 34. 64>0aXii6s aoo * dirXous n, 1 oXov to o-wjid aoo b •bcDTCiviW eoTai • 2%.
bCh. ivii.5. * ^ " ^^ r T J

Lk. xi. j4, lav oe 6 6<}>9aXu.6s aou TroKflpos t], oXoy to o-wu.d aoo •aKOTeiydf

C Lk. xi. 54, €(7TOl. €1 OoV TO $wg TO Iv CTOl CTKOT09 ^OTl, TO CTKOT09 TT<5aov ;

dLk.xvi. 13. 24. OoSels SuVavat Sucri tcuptois SooXeoeif • ?) yap tov Iva u-nr^aei,

v. 14. kcu tok €T«pof dyaTr^afei • f\ lvb$ d de0c£eTai, ical too ^Ttpoo " koto-

e Ch. xviii. ^poi'r^aei. od 8oi'aa0e 6eu> SooXeociy ical ' iiauu.an'a. 2 25. Sid
10. Lk.
xvi. 13. Rom. ii. 4 at. f Lk. xvi. 13.

1 t) before o o4>0a\|ios trov airXoos in ^B.
3 jiafiwva in all uncials.

and the evangelic report apparently
imperfect. The parallel passage in
Luke (xi. 33-36) gives little help. The
figure and its ethical meaning seem to
be mixed up, moral attributes ascribed
to the physical eye, which with these
still gives light to the body. This con-
fusion may be due to the fact that the
eye, besides being the organ of vision,
is the seat of expression, revealing inward
dispositions. Physically the qualities
on which vision depends are health and
disease. The healthy eye gives light for
all bodily functions, walking, working,
etc. ; the diseased eye more or less fails
in this service. If the moral is to be
found only in last clause of ver. 23, all
going before being parable, then qttXous
must mean sound and -irovTjpbs diseased,
meanings which, if not inadmissible, one
yet does not expect to find expressed by
these words. They seem to be chosen
because of their applicability to the
moral sphere, in which they might suit-
ably to the connection mean " liberal "
and " niggardly ". dirXoTijs occurs in
this sense in Rom. xii. 8, and Hatch
(Essays in B. G., p. 80) has shown that
•n-ovrjpds occurs several times in Sept.
(Sirach) in the sense of niggardly, grudg-
ing. He accordingly renders : " The
lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore
thine eye be liberal thy whole body shall
be fuli of light ; but if thine eye be
grudging, thy whole body shall be full
of darkness." Of course this leaves the
difficulty of the mixing of natural and
moral untouched. The passage is
elliptical, and might be paraphrased
thus: The eye is the lamp of the body:
when it is healthy we see to do our
daily work, when diseased we are in
darkness. So with the eye of the soul,
the heart, seat of desire : when it is free
from covetousness, not anxious to hoard,
all goes well with our spiritual functions
— we choose and act wisely. When
sordid passions possess it there is dark-

ness within deeper than that which
afflicts the blind man. We mistake the
relative value of things, choose the
worse, neglect the better, or flatter our-
selves that we can have both.

Ver. 24. Parable of the two masters.
OvSeis : In the natural sphere it is im-
possible for a slave to serve two masters,
for each claims him as his property, and
the slave must respond to one or other of
the claims with entire devotion, either
from love or from interest. — f\ yap . . .
u.io"t]arti . . . ay a-Krfirti: We may take this
clause as referring to the case of honest
preference. A slave has his likes and
dislikes like other men. And he will not
do things by halves. His preference will
take the form of love, and his aversion
that of hate. — r\ evos dvGe'ltTai, etc. :
this clause may be taken as referring to
the case of interest. The slave may not
in his heart care for either of the rival
masters. But he must seem to care, and
the relative power or temper of one as
compared to the other, may be the
ground of his decision. And having
decided, he attaches himself, dvBe^tTai,
to the one, and ostentatiously disregards
the other. In ordinary circumstances
there would be no room for such a com-
petition of masters. But a case might
occur in time of war when the conquered
were sold into slavery. — o-i 8vvao-0e, etc.
Application of the parable to God and
earthly possessions. — p.ap.<ov<j, wealth per-
sonified=Plutus, a Chaldee, Syriac, and
Punic word ("lucrum punice mammon
dicitur," Aug. de S. D.) derived from

|QI3 = to conceal or 'Hpt'S to trust

(vide Buxtorf, Lex. Talm., p. 1217).
The meaning is not, " ye cannot serve
God and have riches," but "ye cannot
be faithful to God and make an idol of
wealth ". " Non dixit, qui habet divitias,
sed qui servit divitiis," Jerome.

Vv. 25-34. Counsels against care.
More suitable to the circumstances of the

23—27-

EYAITEAION

125

touto Xe'yw uu.tf, fi^j * (lepifii'aTe ttj ^uxfi "M-wk, Tl <j><*Y*lT€ tal l ti g Ch. x. 19.
ttit]Tc • pvnoe tw aujxaTi up.wi', ti * eVou'<jr|0-9€. ofy! tj ^uyrt irXeioV xii. 25.
cart ttjs Tpo<J>fj9, seal to awjxa tou eV8u'p.aTog; 26. 'ej-ipXe'vpaTC eis (various
Tot ' TTtTcim too oupavou, oti ou k crircipouaii', ouSe k Oepi^ouCTic, ouSe h Ch. xxii.

, , , fl , » « .«-.«,, ,, , , II. Mk.i.

awd'youo-ii' C is airo&ijKas, Kai o iraTTjp up.wi' o ouptmos Tpetyei auTa • c. Rom.

oux uu.€is p.aXXoK ' Sia<f>epeTe outwk ; 27. tis Se e£ op.wi' u.epip.wwi' SuVa- Eph.vj'.ii.

iThess. v.
3 (last three exx. met«phori<-*l). i Acts i. 11 (with eU). j Ch. viii. ao; xiii. 4. Lk. via. 5. Acts
x.12. kjohniv. 36, 37. lCh.x.31 ; xii. 12. Lk. xii. 24 (with pa\Kov).

1 tj ti ititjt* in B. This clause is wanting in fr$, omitted by Tisch., and bracketed
by W.H.

disciples than those against amassing
treasures. " Why speak of treasures to
us who are not even sure of the neces-
saries of life ? It is for bread and cloth-
ing we are in torment " (Lutteroth). —
Ver. 25, Sia tovto: because ye can be
unfaithful to God through care as well as
through covetousness.— (atj fj.epip.va.Tc:
fi-ipiava from pcpis, p.cpi£, because care
divides and distracts the mind. The
verb is used in N. T. in various construc-
tions and senses ; sometimes in a good
sense, as in 1 Cor. vii. 32 : " The un-
married care for the things of the Lord,"
and xii. 25 in reference to the members
of the body having the same care for
each other. But the evil sense predom-
inates. What is here deprecated is not
work for bread and raiment, but worry,
" Labor exercendus est, solicitudo toll-
enda," Jerome. — oix^tj^vxT • • • M>v-
(ihtos : the life not the soul ; the natural
life is more than meat, and the body more
than the clothing which protects it, yet
these greater things are given to you
already. Can you not trust Him who
gave the greater to give the less ? But
a saying like this, life is more than meat,
in the mouth of Jesus is very pregnant.
It tends to lift our thoughts above materi-
alism to a lofty conception of man's
chief end. It is more than an argument
against care, it is a far-reaching principle
to be associated with that other logion —
a man is better than a sheep (Matt. xii.
12). — Ver. 26. «pPX€i|/aT€ ets, fix your
eyes on, so as to take a good look at (Mk.
x. 2i,xiv. 67). — to. ircTciva r. ov., the birds
whose element is the air ; look, not to
admire their free, careless movements on
the wing, but to note a very relevant
fact — oti, that without toil they get their
food and live. — cnreipouo-iv, 8€pC£ovo-(.v,
cruvavovo-i t. a. : the usual operations
of the husbandman in producing the staff
of life- In these the birds have no part,
yet your Father feedeth them. The
careworn might reply to this : yes ; they

feed themselves at the farmer's expense,
an additional source of anxiety to him.
And the cynic unbeliever in Providence :
yes, in summer ; but how many perish in
winter through want and cold I Jesus,
greatest of all optimists, though no
shallow or ignorant one, quietly adds:
ov\ vp.tts p.a\Xov Siac|>£pcTc avriov : do
not ye differ considerably from them ?
They fare, on the whole, well, God's
humble creatures. Why should you fear,
men, God's children ?

Ver. 27. TfeSe.etc. The question means:
care is as bootless as it is needless. But
there is much difference of opinion as to
the precise point of the question. Does
it mean, who by care can add a cubit to
his height, or who can add a short space
of time, represented by a cubit, to the
length of his life ? tjXikigl admits of
either sense. It means stature in Lk.
xix. 3; age in John ix. 21, Heb. xi. n.
Most recent commentators favour the
latter interpretation, chiefly influenced
by the monstrosity of the supposition as
referring to stature. Who could call
adding a cubit, i£ feet, to his height a
very small matter, the expression of Lk.
(iXdxMTTov, xii. 26) ? The application of
a measure of length to length of days is
justified by Ps. xxxix. 5 : " Thou hast
made my days as handbreadths ". But
Dr. Field strongly protests against the
new rendering. Admitting, of course,
that ^XtKia is ambiguous, and that in
classic authors it oftener means age than
stature, he insists that irrjxvs is decisive.
•* irtjx v Si" he remarks (Ot. Nor.), " is not
only a measure of length, but that by
which a man's stature was properly
measured." Euthy. on this place
remarks'. " Kai ptjv ov8£ cririOap.^v (half
a cubit) otiSs 8cLktvXov (a 24th part) :

XoiTTOV OVV 1T'j}x' uv ctlTe, StOTl KVpttuS
RCTpOV TU>V T|\lKl(<JV 6 ITTJX^S £0"TI. Thus

a short man is Tpi-n-Tjx'us, a tall man
T«Tpainr)X'us." But how are we to get
over the monstrosity of the supposition ?

126

KATA MAT0AION

VI.

11 Lk - *", rai TTpO(70«imi lit\ Tr)*" TjXiKiaK o.utou " Triixuv eVa ; 28. nai irepi
«*•*• . eV8uu.aTOS Ti jxcpifikdT* ; KaTa|id0€Te t& " Kpiya toO dypou, irws
'?■ aufdwei * • ou kottio, 1 ouSc vnQei * • 29. Xe'vw 8e uluk, on ouSe I0X0-

over, .u pfoy l v -nao-p tt] So^tj auTou 'irtpuPdXtTO ws eV tou'twk. 30. el St

Lk.xii 37. tok p x°pToc tou dypou, <ri]p.epok' orra, teal aupioi' eis ' rcXifJavoK

19. Lk. paXX6p.€yov, 6 6609 outws * &[l$\.Ivv\ht\.v, ou ttoXXw fidXXoy up.as,

Us. i. 10 ' dXiyoTnoroi ; 31. fit) ouV u.epiu.^aT]T£, Xe'yorres, Ti fyayuptv, f\
(of grass).

Ch. xiii. 26. Mk. ir. *8 (of grain). 1 Cor. ill. ia (of hay). q here and Lk. xil. 38. f Ch. xi. 8.

s Ch. viii. 26 ; xiv. 31 ; xvi. 5. Lk. xii. 38.

1 ^B have plurals (W.H.). The singulars are a grammatical correction (icptva
neut. pi. nom.) wholly unnecessary. The lilies are viewed singly.

Lutteroth helps us here by finding in the
question of Jesus a reference to the
growth of the human body from infancy
to maturity. By that insensible process,
accomplished through the aid of food,
Gods adds to every human body more
than one cubit. " How impossible for
you to do what God has done without
your thinking of it! And if He fed you
during the period of growth, can you not
trust Him now when you have ceased to
grow ? " Such is the thought of Jesus.
Vv. 28-30. Lesson from the /lowers.
tcoTap.d6«T«, observe well that ye may
learn thoroughly the lesson they teach.
Here only in N.T., often in classics.
Also in Sept., e.g., Gen. xxiv. 21 : The
man observed her (Rebekah), learning
her disposition from her actions. — to,
Kpiva, the lilium Persicum, Emperor's
crown, according to Rosenmuller and
Kuinoel ; the red anemone, according to
Furrer (Zscht. fur M. und R.) growing
luxuriantly under thorn bushes. All
flowers represented by the lily, said
Euthy. Zig. long ago, and probably he
is right. No need to discover a flower
of rare beauty as the subject of remark.
Jesus would have said the same thing of
the snowdrop, the primrose, the bluebell
or the daisy. After dypov should come
a pause. Consider these flowers 1 Then,
after a few moments' reflection : ir«s,
not interrogative (Fritzsche), but ex-
pressive of admiration ; vague, doubtful
whether the growth is admired as to
height (Bengel), rapidity, or rate of mul-
tiplication. Why refer to growth at all ?
Probably with tacit reference to question
in ver. 27. Note the verbs in the plural
(vide critical note) with a neuter nomi-
native. The lilies are viewed individ-
ually as living beings, almost as friends,
and spoken of with affection (Winer, §
58, 3). The verb av$dvw in active voice
is transitive in class., intransitive only in

later writers. — kottiuxtiv, vifOovrxiv : " il-
lud virorum est, qui agrum colunt, hoc
mulierum domisedarum " (Rosenmiiller).
The former verb seems to point to the
toil whereby bread is earned, with back-
ward glance at the conditions of human
growth ; the latter to the lighter work,
whereby clothing, the new subject of
remark, is prepared. — Ver. 29. Xc'yo Sc :
the speaker is conscious He makes a
strong statement, but He means it. — ov8e,
not even Solomon the magnificent, most
glorious of the kings of Israel, and on
state occasions most gorgeously attired.
— tv tovtwv : the lilies are in view, and
one of them is singled out to vie with
Solomon. — Ver. 30. cl hi rbv \6prov.
Application. The beautiful flowers now
lose their individuality, and are merged
in the generic grass : mere weeds to be
cut down and used as fuel. The natural
sentiment of love for flowers is sacrificed
for the ethical sentiment of love for
man, aiming at convincing him of God's
care. — kXi(5o.vov (Attic Kpifiuvus, vide
Lobeck, Phryn., 179), a round pot of
earthenware, narrow at top, heated by a
fire within, dough spread on the sides ;
beautiful flowers of yesterday thus used
to prepare bread for men 1 oXiyrfirioroi :
several times in Gospels, not in classics ;
not reproachful but encouraging, as if
bantering the careworn into faith. The
difficulty is to get the careworn to con-
sider these things. They have no eye
for wild flowers, no ear for the song of
birds. Not so Jesus. He had an in-
tense delight in nature. Witness the
sentiment, " Solomon in all his glory,"
applied to a wild flower 1 These golden
words are valuable as revealing His
genial poetic nature. They reflect also
in an interesting way the holiday mood
of the hour, up on the hill away from
heat, and crowds, and human misery.
Vv. 31-33. Renewed exhortation

aS—34-

EYAXTEAION

127

ti muucf, ^ ti weptfJaXwu-eOa ; 32. irdrra ydp raura to 20t>t] t Lk. xii. 30.

'citiIyjtcI 1, oTSe yap 6 irarrjp up.diy 6 oupdeio9 on u xp^stc TouTwf Heb. xi.

d.TrdcTWJ' • 3'?. IriTeiTe 8e ■ttpdrov rr\v J3aai.X6t.af tou 06ou kcu ttji* u Lk. xi. 8

o - o / e - \ Kom. xvi.

StKaioaurrj^ 8 aiiToo, ical TauTa irdvTa v Trpoo-Teorjo-eTai uu.if • 34. u.r] a (gcu. of

ouk u.6piu,niorT|Te €is ttiv aupiov ■ rj yap aopiow u-epiji^aei Td eaimjs. 8 Cor. Hi. 1.

«/,« v Mk. iv. S4.

w dpKcroe ttj Tjp.£p a 1 * K a * ta cujttjs. Lk.xii.31.

Heb. xii.
19. w Ch. x. 45. 1 Pet. ir. ^ x here only in N. T. in ien»e of trouble. Sept. Eccl. vii. 15 ; xii.
1. Amos iii. 6. Sir. xix. 6.

1 Another grammatical correction (neut. pi. nom. Wvtj). fc^B have Miri^-rovo-i.

a fr$B omit tov Ceov, and B transposes the nouns and has ti)v Biic. kcu. njv {$o.er.
qvtov. Tisch. and W.H. retain the order as in T. R., omitting tow dtov.
9 to. eavTTjs in EI (A to irepi avTTjs). B*L have simply ov-rns.

against care. Ver. 31. ovv, goes back
on ver. 25, repeating the counsel, re-
inforced by intervening argument. — Ver.
32. to. eOvT), again a reference to
heathen practice ; in vi. 7 to their " bat-
tology" in prayer, here to the kind of
blessings they eagerly ask (kvil^rovariv) :
material only or chiefly ; bread, raiment,
wealth, etc. I never realised how true
the statement of Jesus is till I read the
Vedic Hymns, the prayer book and song
book of the Indian Aryans. With the
exception of a few hymns to Varuna,
in which sin is confessed and pardon
begged, most hymns, especially those to
Indra, contain prayers only for material
goods : cows, horses, green pastures,
good harvests.

To wifeless men thou givest wives,
And joyful mak'st their joyless lives ;
Thou givest sons, courageous, strong,
To guard their aged sires from wrong,,
Lands, jewels, horses, herds of kine,
All kinds of wealth axe gifts of thine.
Thy friend is never slain ; his might
Is never worsted in the fight.
—Dr. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, vol. v., p. 137.

— oiSev Yap 6 vari\p v. : Disciples must
rise above the pagan level, especially as
they worship not Indra, but a Father in
heaven, believed in even by the Indian
Aryans, in a rude way, under the name
of Dyaus-Pitar, Heaven-Father. vip
explains the difference between pagans
and disciples. The disciple has a Father
who knows, and never forgets, His
children's needs, and who is so regarded
by all who truly believe in Him. Such
faith kills care. But such faith is
possible only to those who comply with
the following injunction. — Ver. 33.
£t|t«itc irpuTov. There is considerable
variation in the text of this counsel.
Perhaps the nearest to the original is
the reading of B, which omits tov 9tov

with fc$, and inverts the order of Paa.
and Sucai. Seek ye His (the Father's)
righteousness and kingdom, though it
may be against this that in Luke (xii. 31)
the kingdom only is mentioned, irpuTov
also being omitted: Seek ye His king-
dom. This may have been the original
form of the logion, all beyond being in-
terpretation, true though unnecessary.
Seeking the kingdom means seeking
righteousness as the summum bonum,
and the irp»Tov is implied in such a
quest. Some (Meyer, Sevin, Achelis)
think there is no second, not even a
subordinate seeking after earthly goods,
all that to be left in God's hands, our
sole concern the kingdom. That is in-
deed the ideal heroic attitude. Yet
practically it comes to be a question of
first and second, supreme and subordi-
nate, and if the kingdom be indeed first
it will keep all else in its proper place.
The irpuTov, like the prayer against
temptation, indicates consideration for
weakness in the sincere. — wpoo-T€9r]o"tTot,
shall be added, implying that the main
object of quest will certainly be secured.
Ver. 34. Final exhortation against
care. Not in Luke's parallel section,
therefore regarded by Weiss as a re-
flection appended by the evangelist, not
drawn from apostolic doctrine. But it
very fitly winds up the discourse. In-
stead of saying, Care not about food and
raiment, the Teacher now says finally,
Care not with reference to to-morrow,
els tt|v avpiov (•rip.epav understood). It
comes to the same thing. To restrict
care to to-day is to master it absolutely.
It is the future that breeds anxiety and
leads to hoarding. — uepiuvijo-ci : future,
with force of an imperative = let it, with
genitive (av-rfjs, W.H.) like other verbs of
care ; in ver. 25, with accus. — apKCTor: &

k.VIW MAT9AI0IS

VII.

\ I I . i . " MH ' KpiVeTe, iVa p] KpiGTjTs ■ J. tV w yip Kpipan «pi-

f< tc, Kpi8i'|(jea0e • Kai tV J pc'rpa) peTpeiTe, uyTiptTpiiOqaeTcu ' upiy.

•Y- ",v Tl oe jSXc'tteis to l ' tmpcpos to iv tw o4>0aXpou aou,

1 Most uncials have the simple pfTpijOTjo-tTai. The compound (T. R.) is in
minusc. and Z. Doubtless it came in originally from Lk. (vi. 38), being there the
most probable reading.

neuter adjective, used as a noun ; a
sufficiency. — Tfl ■fip.tpa.for each successive
day, the article distributive.— tj Kax(a,
not the moral evil but the physical, the
misery or affliction of life (not classical
in this sense). In the words of Chrys.
H. xxii., KdKiav 4>T)cri, ov ttjv irovrjpiav,
jiT) ycvoiTO, aXXa ttjv TuXanriopiav, ical
rov irdvov, Kal -ras o-vp<{>6pa;. Every day
has some such troubles : " suas afflic-
tiones, quas nihil est necesse metu con-
duplicare". Erasmus, Paraph. Fritzsche
proposes a peculiar arrangement of the
words in the second and third clauses.
Putting a full stop after pepipvtjo-ti, and
retaining the -ra of T.R. before eavrfjs,
he brings out this sense : The things of
itself are a sufficiency for each day, viz.,
the evil thereof.

Chapter VII. The Sermon Con-
tinued and Closed. The contents of
this chapter are less closely connected and
more miscellaneous than in the two pre-
ceding. In w. 1-12 the polemic against
Pharisaism seems to be continued and
concluded. Vv. 6-1 1 Weiss regards as
an interpolation foreign to the connec-
tion. It seems best not to be too
anxious about discovering connections,
but to take the weighty moral sentences
of the chapter as they stand, as embody-
ing thoughts of Christ at whatever time
uttered, on the hill or elsewhere, or in
whatever connection. Section 1-5
certainly deals with a Pharisaic vice,
that of exalting ourselves by disparaging
others, a very cheap way of attaining
moral superiority. Jesus would have
His disciples rise above Pagans,
publicans, Sadducees, Pharisees, but not
by the method of detraction.

Vv. 1-5. Against judging. Ver. 1.
firj Kptverc, judge not, an absolute pro-
hibition of a common habit, especially
in religious circles of the Pharisaic type,
in which mach of the evil in human
nature reveals itself. " What levity,
haste, prejudice, malevolence, ignorance ;
what vanity and egotism in most of the
judgments pronounced in the world "
(Lutteroth). Judge not, said Christ.
Judge, it is your duty, said the Dutch

pietists of last century through a literary
spokesman, citing in proof Matt, xxiii.
33, where the Pharisees are blamed for
neglecting "judgment". Vide Ritschl,
Geschichte des Pietismus, i., p. 328.
How far apart the two types 1 — tva jit|
Kpi0TJT€ : an important, if not the highest
motive ; not merely a reference to the
final judgment, but stating a law of the
moral order of the world : the judger
shall be judged ; to which answers the
other: who judges himself shall not be
judged (1 Cor. xi. 31). In Rom. ii. 1
St. Paul tacitly refers to the Jew as
6 KpCvwv. The reference there and here
defines the meaning of Kpivtiv. It
points to the habit of judging, and the
spirit as evinced by the habit, censorious-
ness leading inevitably to sinister judging,
so that xpiveiv is practically equivalent to
KtncLKpivti.v or Ka.Ta8iKd£eiv (Lk. vi. 37).
— Ver. 2. ev w -yap, etc. : Vulgatissimum
hoc apud Judaeos adagium, says Light-
foot (Hor. Heb.). Of course; one would
expect such maxims, based on ex-
perience, to be current among all
peoples (vide Grotius for examples). It
is the lex talionis in a new form :
character for character. Jesus may have
learned some of these moral adages at
school in Nazareth, as we have all when
boys learned many good things out of
our lesson books with their collections of
extracts. The point to notice is what
the mind of Jesus assimilated — the best
in the wisdom of His people — and the
emphasis with which He inculcated the
best, so as to ensure for it permanent
lodgment in the minds of His disciples
and in their records of His teaching.

Vv. 3-5. Proverb of the mote and
beam. Also current among Jews and
Arabs {vide Tholuck). — icdp(j>os, a minute
dry particle of chaff, wood, etc.— 8ok<Js,
a wooden beam (let in, from Sc'xop-at) or
joist, a monstrous symbol of a great
fault. A beam in the eye is a natural
impossibility; cf. the camel and the
needle eye. The Eastern imagination
was prone to exaggeration. This is a
case of tu quoque (Rom. ii. 2), or rather
of " thou much more ". The faults may

1—6.

EYAITEAION

129

ttjc 8e iv tw crw o<t>6aXu.w e Sokov ou d Karafoeis ; 4. t\ ttw? tpeis to c Lk. vi. 41,

d8eX<f>w crou, "Acpeg cKfidXw to Kdp<f>os diro x tou 6c|>0aXpou aou • Kal d Lk.vi.41;

I8ou, -q Sokos iv tw 64>0aXu.w aou ; 5. uiroKpiTd, eK^aXc irpwTOK tt\v Actsxxvii.

Sokov iK tou 6<{>(?aXu,ou 0-ou, 2 Kal tot€ e 8iapX^v|/€is eKJ3aX6iv to Kcip^os Lk.xi1.24,

« tou 6cf>6aXu.ou tou dSeXc^oJ crou. 6. Mtj Sutc to dyiov toIs kucti • \l. 19. ° m *

u-tjSc pdXtjTC tous p-apyapiTas up.wv lu/n-poaflev tov x°^P w>, > firjiroTe ' 25. Lk!

vi. 42.
f Ch. xiii. 45. 1 Tim. ii. 9. Rer. xvii. 4 ; xviii. 16 ; xxi. 31.

1 fc^BZ have ck, which is preferred by most modern edd. Weiss suspects con-
formity to the €ic in CK^aXco.

J fr^BC place ik tov ocj>9. crou before Trjv Sokov, so giving to the censor's own eye
due emphasis.

be of the same kind : Kap<J>os, a petty
theft, 8ok^9, commercial dishonesty on
a large scale — " thou that judgest doest
the same things" (Rom. ii. 2) ; or of a
different sort : moral laxity in the
publican, pride and inhumanity in the
Pharisee who despised him (Lk. xviii. 9-
14). — pXe'trtiS) oxi KciTavotls : the contrast
is not between seeing and failing to see,
but between seeing and not choosing to
see; ignoring, consciously overlooking.
The censorious man is not necessarily
ignorant of his own faults, but he does
not let his mind rest on them. It is more
pleasant to think of other people's faults.
— Ver. 4. tK^dXtt), hortatory conjunc-
tive, first person, supplies place of im-
perative which is wanting in first person ;
takes such words as aye, <f>^p€, or as
here £4>«s, before it Vide Goodwin,
section 255. For ad)cs modern Greek
has ds, a contraction, used with the
subjunctive in the first and third
persons (vide Vincent and Dickson,
Modem Greek, p. 322). — Ver. 5.
viroKpiTtt : because he acts as no one
should but he who has first reformed
himself. " What hast thou to do to
declare my statutes ? " Ps. 1. 16.— 810-
pXe'iJrcis, thou will see clearly, vide Mk.
viii. 24, 25, where three compounds of
the verb occur, with avd, 810, and iv.
Fritzsche takes the future as an im-
perative and renders: se componere ad
aliquid, curare; i.e., set thyself then to
the task of, etc.

Ver. 6. A complementary counsel.
No connecting word introduces this
sentence. Indeed the absence of con-
necting particles is noticeable throughout
the chapter: w. 1, 6, 7, 13, 15. It is
a collection of ethical pearls strung
loosely together. Yet it is not difficult
to suggest a connecting link, thus : I
have said, ''Judge not," yet you must
know people, else you will make great

mistakes, such as, etc. Moral criticism
is inevitable. Jesus Himself practised
it. He judged the Pharisees, but in the
interest of humanity, guided by the law
of love. He judged the proud, pre-
tentious, and cruel, in behalf of the weak
and despised. All depends on what we
iudge and why. The Pharisaic motive
was egotism ; the right motive is de-
fence of the downtrodden or, in certain
cases, ^//-defence. So here. — Kara-
iran^o-ovcri : future well attested, vide
critical note, with subjunctive, p^lucri,
in last clause ; unusual combination,
but not impossible. On the use of the
future after p.^TroT€ and other final
particles, vide Burton, Syntax of the
Moods and Tenses in N'. T. Greek, §
199- — T ° crytov, tovs (JiapyapiTas : what
is the holy thing, and what are the
pearls ? In a moral aphorism special
indications are not to be expected, and
we are left to our own conjectures. The
"holy" and the "pearls" must define
themselves for each individual in his own
experience. They are the things which
are sacred and precious for a man or
woman, and which natural feeling teaches
us to be careful not to waste or expose to
desecration. For this purpose knowledge
of the world, discrimination, is necessary.
We must not treat all people alike, and
show our valuables, religious experiences,
best thoughts, tenderest sentiments, to
the first comer. Shyness, reserve, goes
along with sincerity, depth, refinement.
In all shyness there is implicit judgment
of the legitimate kind. A modest woman
shrinks from a man whom her instinct
discerns to be impure ; a child from
all hard-natured people. Who blames
woman or child ? It is but the instinct
of self-preservation. — kuotiv, xoipcov. The
people to be feared and shunned are
those represented by dogs and swine,
regarded by Jews as shameless and

1 30

KATA MATOAION

VII.

1 Ch. ix. 17. KaTairaTnauxjiv l auTous tv tois ixoo\v ciotw, Kal OTpaA^KTCS

Mk.ix. 18. t f t m t r T

Lk. ix. 42. * pr)£uait> up.as. 7. AiTeiTe, Kai SoOtWtcu iiu.lv [t)tcitc, koI

Gal. iv. 27 t t h ' v , /

(to break cupijcrcTC ' KpoucTC, Kai avoiyTjircTai up-if. 8. ttcis yap 6 a'nuiv

out into vo, *,.-«< v„ , , , „

iov). Aaupakei, Kai o LTjTwr cupiaKci, kci tui Kpouotri avoiyrjaeTai. 2

io;xii.36. 9. >1 tis iariv 8 e£ up-wv aVSpwrros, oy eae 4 airrja-n 6 ui6s auTou

16. Rev. aproy, jxfj Xiflov ' e-motijaei auTw ; 10. Kal lav l^Biiv aiTrjo-T], 6 p,$|
iii. 20.
i Lk. xi. 11; xxiv. 30, 42. Acts xv. 30; xxvii. 15.

1 KOTairaTT)o-o«ori.v in BCLXI. Weiss against most critics thinks this combina-
tion of the fut. ind. with the subj. (pT||uo-iv) impossible. He ascribes the reading
ov to a confusion of ov with u>. Vide below.

2 avoi-ycToi in B Cop. Syr. Cur. W.H. in margin. Weiss decides for this reading.

3 BL omit €o-tiv, and among modern editors Treg. and W.H.

* For eav amjo-ri fc«$BCLA have airrjo-ei. Tisch. and W.H. adopt this.

6 For Kai cav aiTr)o-r) fr^BC have t) Kai ai-rr|o-ei, which modern critics generally
adopt.

unclean animals. There are such people,
unhappily, even in the judgment of
charity, and the shrewd know them and
fight shy of them ; for no good can come
of comradeship with them. Discussions
as to whether the dogs and the swine
represent two classes of men, or only
one, are pedantic. If not the same they
are at least similar ; one in this, that
they are to be avoided. And it is gratu-
itous to limit the scope of the gnome to
the apostles and their work in preaching
the gospel. It applies to all citizens of
the kingdom, to all who have a treasure
to guard, a holy of holies to protect from
profane intrusion. — (itittots, lest per-
chance. What is to be feared ? — Kara-
xaT-rjo-ovioriv, pTJ|uaiv : treading under
foot (iv t. ir., instrumental, with, de
Wette ; among, Weiss) your pearls
(avTovs), rending yourselves. Here
again there is trouble for the com-
mentators as to the distribution of the
trampling and rending between dogs and
swine. Do both do both, or the swine
both, or the swine the trampling and the
dogs the rending ? The latter is the
view of Theophylact, and it has been
followed by some moderns, including
Achelis. On this view the structure of
the sentence presents an example of
€Tr<ivo8o9 or vio-TcpTjo-is, the first verb
referring to the second subject and the
second verb to the first subject. The
dogs — street dogs, without master, living
on offal — rend, because what you have
thrown to them, perhaps to propitiate
them, being of uncertain temper at the
best, is not to their liking ; the swine
trample under foot what looked like peas
or acorns, but turns out to be uneatable.

Before passing from these verses (1-6)
two curious opinions may be noted. (1)
That ayiov represents an Aramaic word
meaning ear-ornaments, answering to
pearls. This view, once favoured by
Michaelis, Bolten, Kuinoel, etc., and
thereafter discredited, has been revived
by Holtzmann (H. C). (2) That 6<f>0a\-
p.6s (w. 3, 5) means, not tbe eye, but a
village well. So Furrer. Strange, he
says, that a man should need to be told
by a neighbour that he has a mote in his
eye, or that it should be a fault to propose
to take it out ! And what sense in the
idea of a beam in the eye ? But translate
the Aramaic word used by Jesus, well,
and all is clear and natural. A neighbour
given to fault-finding sees a small im-
purity in a villager's well and tauntingly
offers to remove it. Meantime his own
boys, in his absence, throw a beam into
his own well (Zeitsch. fur M. und R.
Vide also Wanderungcn, p. 222).

Vv. 7-11. Admonition to prayer : pre-
supposes deferred answer to prayer,
tempting to doubt as to its utility, and
consequentdiscontinuanceof the practice.
A lesson more natural at a later stage,
when the disciples had a more developed
religious experience. The whole subject
more adequately handled in Luke xi.

I-I3. Ver. 7. AtT€lT«, £t|T£IT£, KpOVCTC,

threefold exhortation with a view to
impressiveness ; first literally, then twice
in figurative language : seek as for an
object lost, knock as at a barred door,
appropriate after the parable of the
neighbour in bed (Lk. xi. 5-8). The
promise of answer is stated in corre-
sponding terms. — 8o0TJo-eTai, cvpT)o~CTc,
dvoiyrjortTai. — Ver. 8, iteration in form

-ia.

EYAITEAION

I3 1

O^tf eiuSwrm auTW ; II. 61 OUV UU61S, TTOCTlpol 5WeS> J Ol8aT€ j Lk. xii. 56,
fc 2 Pet. ii. 9.

k SoaaTa dvaOd SiSoVai tois t^kkois uuaiv, iroaw uaXXoi' 6 iron-Tip (vide be-
- - ~ • - , low, also

ujxwk 6 iv tois oupavols OoIctci dyaQa tois cutouo-iv auToe; 12. ndrra Mt. xxviL

ouv ocra av 1 6e\r|Te iva ' Troiwcrii' up.iv ol avflpwrroi, outw ical ufieis k Lk. xi. 13.
1 ~ , - » , , « / , v . ,~ Eph. iv.8

iroieiTe aurois " outos y a P «rnr o cop.09 Kai 01 Trpo<j>r|TCH. Phil. v.

17-
1 Ch. xviii. 35; xx. 32; xxi. 4o;_xxv. 40, 45. Mk. v. ig, 20. Lk. L 4g al. (with dat. of person in all
cases cited. Not usual in classics).

1 For av fc$C have cav, which has been adopted by Tisch. and W.H.

of a general proposition : iras "yap, for
every one, etc. — Ver. g. f) answers to a
state of mind which doubts whether God
gives in answer to prayer at all, or at
least gives what we desire. — t£s l£ duwv
av. : argument from analogy, from the
human to the divine. The construction
is broken. Instead of going on to say
what the man of the parable will do, the
sentence changes into a statement of
what he will not do. Well indicated in
W.H.'s text by a — after ap-rov. The
anacolouthon could be avoided by
omitting the e«rri of T. R. after tis and
p/r) before X£8ov, when the sentence
would stand : tCs l| vp.wv av., 6v al-r[jo-£i
& tuos avToii apTOf, X£8ov eiriSwo-et
avT<j>. But the broken sentence, if
worse grammar, is better rhetoric. — p/rj
X. lirtSiio-tt, he will not give him a stone,
will he ? Bread, stone ; fish, serpent.
Resemblance is implied, and the idea is
that a father may refuse his child's
request but certainly will not mock him.
Grotius quotes from Plautus: "Altera
manu fert lapidem, panem ostentat al-
tera ". Furrer suggests that by oduv is
meant not a literal serpent, but a scale-
less fish, therefore prohibited to be eaten
(Lev. xi. 12) ; serpent-like, found in the
Sea of Galilee, three feet long, often
caught in the nets, and of course thrown
away like the dogfish of our waters. —
Ver. 11, TrovT|poi, morally evil, a strong
word, the worst fathers being taken to
represent the class, the point being that
hardly the worst will treat their children
as described. There is no intention to
teach a doctrine of depravity, or, as
Chrysostom says, to calumniate human
nature (011 SiapaXXwv ttjv av0p«i>ir£vr|v
(jnjo-iv). The evil specially in view, as
required by the connection, is selfish-
ness, a grudging spirit : " If ye then,
whose own nature is rather to keep what
you have than to bestow it on others,
etc." (Hatch, Essays in B. Gr., p. 81).—
oiSa-rc 8iS<5vai soletis dare, Maldon.
Wetstein ; rather, have the sense to
give; with the infinitive as in Phil. v.

12, 1 Tim. iii. 5. Perhaps we should
take the phrase as an elegant expression
for the simple S(Sote. So Palairet. —
8<5p.a.Ta, four times in N. T. for the attic
Swpov, 8prjp,a ; Sop. ayaBa, gifts good
not only in quality (bread not stone, etc.)
but even in measure, generous, giving
the children more than they ask. — iroVu
paXXov, a fortiori argument. — 6 iraTT)p,
etc., the Father whose benignant nature
has already been declared, v. 45. — dyaSd,
good things emphatically, insignia dona,
Rosenm., and only good (Jas. i. 17, an
echo of this utterance). This text is
classic for Christ's doctrine of the Father-
hood of God.

Ver. 12. The golden rule. ovv
here probably because in the source, cf.
Kal in quotation in Heb. i. 6. The con-
nection must be a matter of conjecture —
with ver. n, a, " Extend your goodness
from children to all," Fritzsche ; with
ver. 11, b, " Imitate the divine good-
ness," Bengel ; with vii. 1-5, w. 6-n
being an interpolation, Weiss and Holtz.
(H.C.). Lk. vi. 31 places it after the
precept contained in Matt. v. 42, and
Wendt, in his reconstruction of the login
(L. J., i. 61), follows that clue. The
thought is certainly in sympathy with
the teaching of Matt. v. 38-48, and
might very well be expounded in that
connection. But the meaning is not
dependent on connection. The sentence
is a worthy close to the discourse begin-
ning at v. 17. " Respondent ultima
primis," Beng. Here as there " law and
prophets". — iva with subjunctive after
0«Xt|tc, instead of infinitive.— irdvTa ovv
. . . iroieiTe a-iiTois. The law of
nature, says Rosenmuller. Not quite.
Wetstein, indeed, gives copious instances
of something similar in Greek and
Roman writers and Rabbinical sources,
and the modern science of comparative
religion enables us to multiply them.
But recent commentators (including
Holtz., H.C.) have remarked that, in
these instances, the rule is stated in
negative terms. So, e.g., in Tobit,

132

KATA MAT9AI0N

VII.

m (with iii 13. " n ' EiaAOtTe Sto. -rijs *<rrcnis ttuXtjs " on 'irXaTcta tj ttuXii, 1
of way), kcu p eupux^pos ^ 086s ^ dTTayoucra eis Trp d-rrwXeiai', teal iroXXoi
24. John €icnf 01 eicrepxou-efoi 81' aim]?;- 14. on crree^ ify ttuXtj, 2 kcu ' tcOXija-

n Lie. xiii. p.c^ ^ 086s *] dirdyouaa tis TV|f £wrje, kcu oXiyoi eicuv o! cupicrKOkTcg

o here only in N. T., several times in Sept
only in the sense of contracted.

p here only in N. T., Sept. Pi. ciii. (iv.) 25. q here

1 ij iruXrj is wanting in fr$ and many Fathers (Clem. Orig.), and omitted by W.H.
and bracketed by Tisch. Weiss thinks it very suspicious.

9 Some copies have n for on and omit tj irvXtj, but the text as it stands
approved by W.H. Tisch. brackets t| irvXtj.

iv. 15, 6 picrcis, (it|8«vi iroiTJo-fls, quoted
by Hillel in reply to one who asked him
to teach the whole law while he stood on
one leg. So also in the saying of Con-
fucius : " Do not to others what you
would not wish done to yourself," Legge,
Chinese Classics, i. 191 f. The negative
confines us to the region of justice • the
positive takes us into the region of gener-
osity or grace, and so embraces both law
and prophets. We wish much more
than we can claim — to be helped in need,
encouraged in struggles, defended when
misrepresented, and befriended when
our back is at the wall. Christ would
have us do all that in a magnanimous,
benignant way ; to be not merely Sixmo;
but dyaOdg. — vdp.os Kal Trpoc|>f)Tcu : per-
haps to a certain extent a current phrase
= all that is necessary, but, no doubt,
seriously meant ; therefore, may help us
to understand the statement in v. 17,
" I came not to destroy, but to fulfil ".
The golden rule was Law and Prophets
only in an ideal sense, and in the same
sense only was Christ a fulfiller. — Vide
Wendt, L. J., ii. 341.

Vv. 13, 14. The two ivays (Lk.
xiii. 23-25). From this point onwards
we have what commentators call the
Epilogue of the sermom introduced with-
out connecting particle, possibly no part
of the teaching on the hill, placed here
because that teaching was regarded as
the best guide to the right way. The
passage itself contains no clue to the
right way except that it is the way oithe
few. The allegory also is obscure from
its brevity. Is the gate at the beginning
or end of the way, or are gate and
way practically one, the way narrow
because it passes through a narrow door-
way ? Possibly Christ's precept was
simply, " enter through the narrow gate "
or "door" (Ovpa, Luke's word), all the
rest being gloss. — ttvXtis, the large en-
trance to an edifice'or city, as distinct
from 6vpa, a common door, peihaps

chosen by Lk. because in keeping with
the epithet o-T€vr)s.— on, etc. : explana-
tory enlargement to unfold and enforce
the precept. — j) 680s : two ways are con-
trasted, either described by its qualities
and end. The "way" in the figure is a
common road, but the term readily
suggests a manner of life. The Christian
religion is frequently called "the way"
in Acts (ix. 2, xix. 9, etc.). The v/rong
road is characterised as irXaTeia and
€vpvx*>»pos, broad and roomy, and as
leading to destruction (dT-iiXeiov). The
right way (and gate, y\ ttvXti, is to be
retained in ver. 14, though omitted in
ver. 13) is described as crrtvT) kcu
T<8Xip.p.€VTj, narrow and contracted, and
as leading to life. — £«ri}V, a pregnant
word, true life, worth living, in which
men realise the end of their being — the
antithesis of dirtiXeia. The one is the
way of the many, iroXXoi tiv.v ol elcrcp. ;
the other of the few, 6X1701 ... 01
evpio-Kovres. Note the word "finding".
The way is so narrow or so untrodden
that it may easily be missed. It has to
be sought for. Luke suggests the idea
of difficulty in squeezing in through the
very narrow door. Both points of view
have their analogue in life. The practi-
cal application of this counsel requires
spiritual discernment. No verbal direc-
tory will help us. Narrow ? Was not
Pharisaism a narrow way, and the mon-
astic life and pietism with its severe rules
for separation from the " world " in
amusement, dress, etc. ?

Vv. 15-20. Warning against pseudo-
prophets. Again, without connecting
particle and possibly not a part of the
Sermon on the Mount. But the more
important question here is : Does this
section belong to Christ's teaching at all,
or has it been introduced by the Evangelist
that false teachers of after days appear-
ing in the Church might be condemned
under the authority of the Master ?
(Holtz., H.C.). What occasion had

'3—19-

EYAITEAION

133

aoTi]K. 15. r npooe')(€Te 8c 1 diro twi' " <J/eu8oTTpo<J5T]T<iik, omk£S
epxorrai irpog up.as iv ekSufiacn irpof3dTCi)»', eauOef Se eiou *Xukoi
apirayes. 16. diro rail' tcap-nw auTwi/ ° emyeGJO-eaOe ciutou's • u.iqti
T oroXXe'youan' oLtto dKavflwy CTTa^uXiQi', 2 il] diro TpiPoXwy cruxa ; 17.
outu iray SeVSpoi/ dyaOdi' KapiTOus KaXous iroici 8 • to 8e w oxtTrpoy
Sei'Spoi' KapiTOus Tronrjpous iroiei. 1 8. 06 8uVq,tcu SeVSpoc dyafloi'
KapiTous iTo^rjpous iroieii',* ouSe SewSpoK trairpov Ktxpirous KaXous
Troicif. 4 19. ira> SeVSpov \u\ ttoiouk KapiroK KaXdf eKKOTrrerai kcu

xiii. 48.
» ^B omit 8e (so W.H.).

s fc^BC have o-Ta<|>v\as. The sing, comes from Lk. (vi. 44).
* B has iroiei KaXovs (W.H. margin).
4 For -jtouiv fc$ has «ve7K€iv (Tisch. both places, W.H. 1st place).

r Ch. x. 17;
xvi. 6, 11.
Lk. xx. 46
(all with
«jtoth'Os).

s Ch. xxiv.

11, 24 al.
t Acts xx. 29

trop.,so in

Sept. Jer.

v. 6 al.
u Ch. xi. 27.
v Ch. xiii.

28,41

(with «).
wCh.xii.33;
Eph. iv. 39.

Christ to speak of false prophets ? The
reference can hardly be to the Pharisees
or the Rabbis. They were men of tradi-
tion, not prophetic, either in the true or
in the false sense. But, apart from
them, there might be another class of
men in evidence in our Lord's day, who
might be so characterised. It was a
time of religious excitement; the force of
custom broken, the deep fountains of the
soul bursting forth ; witness the crowds
who followed John and Jesus, and the
significant saying about the kingdom of
heaven suffering violence (Matt. xi. 12).
Such times call forth true prophets and
also spurious ones, so far in religious
sympathy with prevalent enthusiasms,but
bent on utilising them for their own
advantage in gain or influence, men of
the Judas type. If such men, as is
likely, existed, Jesus would have some-
thing to say about them, as about all
contemporary religious phenomena.

Ver. 15. npo(r«'x«T€ diro, take heed
to and beware of. — otrtves, I mean, such
as. — iv cvSvp-acri irpopd-rwv. Grotius,
Rosenm. and Holtz. (H.C.) take this as
referring to the dress worn (iv p.T]XwTai«,
Heb. xi. 37) as the usual badge of a
prophet, but not without reference to
the plausible manner of the wearer ;
deceptive and meant to deceive (Zechar.
xiii. 4) ; gentle, innocent as sheep ;
speaking with " unction," and all but
deceiving " the very elect ". The manner
more than the dress is doubtless in-
tended. co-coBev Se : manner and nature
utterly different ; within, Xvkoi Spiremes ;
greedy, sometimes for power, ambitious
to be first ; often for gain, money. The
Didache speaks of a type of prophet
whom it pithily names a xpurep/Tropos
(chap, xii.), a Christ-merchant. There

have always been prophets of this type,
" each one to his gain " (Is. lvi. n),
Evangel-merchants, traders in religious
revival. — Ver. 16. airo t. icapirwv.
By the nature of the case difficult to
detect, but discernible from their fruit.
— itti.yvw<TtcrQe. Ye shall know them
through and through (€iri) if ye study
carefully the outcome of their whole
way of life.

Vv. 16-20. An enlargement in parabolic
fashion on the principle of testing by
fruit. Ver. 16. |mJti, do they perhaps,
ti suggesting doubt where there is
none = men never do collect, or think
of collecting, grapes from thorns or figs
from thistles. And yet the idea is not
absurd. There were thorns with grape-
like fruit, and thistles with heads like
figs (Holtz., H.C). But in the natural
sphere these resemblances never de-
ceived ; men saw at a glance how the
matter stood. — Ver. 17. Another illus-
tration from good and bad trees of the
same kind. dyaOov, sound, healthy ;
o-airpbv, degenerate, through age or bad
soil. According to Phryn., o~airpos was
popularly used instead of alcrxpos in a
moral sense (cairpdv ol iroXXol dv-ri tow
aUrxpdv, P- 377)* Each tree brings forth
fruit answering to its condition. — Ver.

18. ov SvvaTai, etc. Nothing else is
possible or looked for in nature. — Ver.

19. Men look on this as so certain that
they do not hesitate to cut down and
burn a degenerate tree, as if it were
possible it might bring forth good fruit
next year. — u.t| iroiovv, if it do not, that
once ascertained. Weiss thinks this
verse is imported from iii. 10, and foreign
to the connection. — Ver. 20. dpayc: final
inference, a very lively and forcible com-
posite particle; again with similar effect

134

RATA MAT0AION

VII.

x Ch xii . cis Trup pdMtTcu. 20. dpaye dtro iuiv KapirwK auTwy ririyt wacvdc

"'•.»'"•''■ auTOiis.

j Ch. xxiv.

36. LW. x. 21. " Ou iras 6 \iyuv p.01, Kupie, Kupie, eiaeXeuaeTai els Trp

Thess. i. pao-iXeiap twk oupavw • dXX' 6 x ttoioJi' to 6cXr)|xa tou TraTptJs p-ou

.• Mk. ix. 38. jou eV * oupayois. 22. ttoXXoi e'poucri p.oi eV 7 eKeikr) ttj T|p.^pa,

> John i. 20. Kupie, Kupie, ou tw aw 6fdp.aTi TrpoeAiiTeuo-auey, 2 Kal 'tw o-w 6v6u.clti
Heb. xi. » *

13 (tim ti 8aiu.6Via es'ePdXou.ey, Kal tw crw 6c6p.aTi 8uedu.eis iroXXds eiToiii-

oti, Acts c\'/' ~« c »

xxiv. 14). cap-ey; 23. kcu tot« * 6p.oXoyr)o-w auTois, on ouO^TfOTc eyyaie upas "

1 fc«$BC have tois before ovpavois, which T. R., following many MSS., omits.
1 ^BCLZ have the augment at the beginning («irpo(J>.) ; adopted by modern
editors.

in Matt. xvii. 26. The y« should have
its full force as singling out for special
attention ; " at least from their fruits, if
by no other means ". It implies that to
know the false prophet is hard. Ver.
22 explains why. He has so much to
say, and show, for himself: devils cast
out, souls saved, spiritual if not physical
miracles done. What other or better
" fruit " would you have ? What in
short is the test ? Doctrine, good moral
life ? Is the false prophet necessarily a
false teacher or an immoral man ? Not
necessarily though not unfrequently.
But he is always a self-seeking man.
The true prophet is Christ-like, i.e.,
cares supremely for truth, righteousness,
humanity ; not at all for himself, his
pocket, his position, his life. None but
such can effectively preach Christ. This
repetition of the thought in ver. 16 is not
for mere poetical effect, as Carr (Camb.
G. T.), following Jebb (Sacred Litera-
ture, p. 195), seems to think.

Vv. 21-23. False discipleship. From
false teachers the discourse naturally
passes to spurious disciples. Luke's
version contains the kernel of this
passage (Luke vi. 46). Something of
the kind was to be expected in the teach-
ing on the hill. What more likely than
that the Master, who had spoken such
weighty truths, should say to His
hearers : " In vain ye call me Master,
unless ye do the things which I say " ?
As it stands here the logion has pro-
bably, as Weiss suggests (Matt. Evang.,
p. 219), undergone expansion and
modification, so as to give to the title

" Lord," originally = "^£, Teacher, the

full sense it bore when applied to Christ
by the Apostolic Church, and to make
the warning refer to false prophets
of the Apostolic age using Christ's

name and authority in support of anti-
Christian tendencies, such as anti-
nomianism (avopiav, ver. 23). — Ver. 21.
6 Xiywv, 6 iroiuv: Of all, whether disciples
or teachers, the principle holds good with-
out exception that not saying " Lord "
but doing God's will is the condition of
approval and admittance into the king-
dom. Saying " Lord " includes taking
Jesus for Master, and listening to His
teaching with appreciation and admira-
tion ; everything short of carrying out
His teaching in life. In connection
with such lofty thoughts as the Beati-
tudes, the precept to love enemies and
the admonition against care, there is a
great temptation to substitute senti-
mental or aesthetic admiration for heroic
conduct. — to 0eXt)pa tov iro/rpds p.ov.
Christ's sense of His position as Master
or Lord was free from egotism. He
was simply the Son and Servant of the
Father, whose will He and all who
follow Him must obey ; my Father here
for the first time. — Ver. 22. 4v Ikcivti
TJj T)p.€pq., the great dread judgment
day of Jehovah expected by all Jews,
with more or less solemn awe ; a very
grave reference. — t<D o-(j; 6v6p,o.Ti : thrice
repeated, the main ground of hope.
Past achievements, prophesyings, exor-
cisms, miracles are recited ; but the
chief point insisted on is : all was done
in Thy name, honouring Thee, as the
source of wisdom and power. — Ver 23.
ToVi. When they make this protesta-
tion, the Judge will make a counter-
protestation — opoXoyrjcrcj axiTOis, I will
own to them. Bengel's comment is :
aperte. Magna potestas hujus dicti. But
there is a certain apologetic tone in the
expression, " I will confess " (" profess,"
A.V. and R.V.), as if to say : I ought to
know men who can say so much for
themselves, but I do not. — oti, recita-

to — 26.

EYAITEAION

135

b &Troxwp<sLT€ dir* cjxou 01 c cpyat>6\i€voi ttj>> d d^ofiiUK. 24. I"las OU^ b Lk. ix. jj

* 3/ \ \ / / i > ^ » # * , Acts XUl.

oorts <xkou€i )ulou tou$ Aoyous toutous, 1 Kcu TTotct ciutous, ojaoiwctw 13.

>\Q'fc>eA * 1 » O f \ »/ s m « ■» \ & *" Cfl. XXVI,

auToy* a^opi <ppovijxu>, oaris uncooofujae ri]v oikuik aoTou 3 eiu Trjy ia

f_ _ . \ ff% en \ \»\a e \ »d Ch. xiii.

TreTpay 25. <ai KaT*pr| tj ppoyr\ k<u TiMJof ot TroTapoi Kal 41. i John

liTfeuo-ai' ol aVepot, kou f TrpooreTrecroi/ -n} oikux eKeift], Kal ook erreac • e Ch. 4 *. 16;

T€0€fieXiu)TO yap eirl ttjk TreTpak. 26. Kal irSs 6 dxotW pou tous Wv. 2? 4!

\6yous toutous ical jifj ttoigji' outous, 6p,oiu8i]o-eTat dfopl ' pupw, T^ - x "'

f here only
in sense of beat against. g Ch. xxiii.17, 19; xxv. 2, 8.

1 B omits tovtows, which is bracketed by W.H. It seems needed, and may have

fallen out by homceot.

2 fr$BZ have op.oia>0r|<reTai for opoiwo'b) avrov. So W.H.

3 ovtou before ttjv oikmxv in j^BCZI, so giving the pronoun due emphasis — his
house.

tive, the exact words directly reported. —
ovSe'iroTe, never: at no point in that
remarkable career when so many wonder-
ful things were done in my name. —
a-n-o)(wp€iT€, etc. : an echo of Ps. vi. 9,
and sentence of doom, like Matt. xxv. 41.

Vv. 24-27. Epilogue (Lk. vi. 47-49,
which see for comparative exegesis),
ovv, ver. 24, may be taken as referring to
the whole discourse, not merely to w.
21-23 (Tholuck and Achelis). Such a
sublime utterance could only be the
grand finale of a considerable discourse,
or series of discourses. It is a fit ending
of a body of teaching of unparalleled
weight, dignity, and beauty. The toij-
tovs after Xoyovs (ver. 24), though
omitted in B, therefore bracketed in
W. H., is thoroughly appropriate. It
may have fallen out through similar
ending of three successive words, or have
been omitted intentionally to make the
statement following applicable to the
whole of Christ's teaching. Its omission
weakens the oratorical power of the
passage. It occurs in ver. 26.

Ver. 24. rias Sorts. Were the read-
ing opoiucru adopted, this would be a
case either of attraction iras for -sravTa
to agree with 8o-tis (Fritzsche), or of a
broken construction : nominative, with-
out a verb corresponding, for rhetorical
effect. (Meyer, vide Winer, § lxiii., 2, d.)
— olkovci, trout : hearing and doing, both
must go together ; vide James i. 22-25, for
a commentary on this logion. " Doing "
points generally to reality, and what it
means specifically depends on the nature
of the saying. " Blessed are the poor in
spirit " ; doing in that case means being
poor in spirit. To evangelic ears the
word has a legal sound, but the doing
Christ had in view meant the opposite

of legalism and Pharisaism.— ouoiuOt)-
o-eTai; not at the judgment day (Meyer),
but, either shall be assimilated by his
own action (Weiss), or the future passive
to be taken as a Gerund = comparandus
est (Achelis). — ej>povipo>: perhaps the best
rendering is " thoughtful ". The type of
man meant considers well what he is
about, and carefully adopts measures
suited to his purpose. The undertaking
on hand is building a house — a serious
business — a house not being meant for
show, or for the moment, but for a
lasting home. A well-selected emblem
of religion. — ttjv TKTpav : the article used
to denote not an individual rock, but a
category — a rocky foundation.

Ver. 25. What follows shows his
wisdom, justified by events which he had
anticipated and provided for ; not abstract
possibilities, but likely to happen every
year — certain to happen now and then.
Therefore the prudence displayed is not
exceptional, but just ordinary common
sense. — Kal : observe the five Kal in
succession — an eloquent polysyndeton,
as grammarians call it; note also the
rhythm of the sentence in which the war
of the elements is described: down came
the rain, down rushed the rivers, blew
the winds— sudden, fell, terrible. — irpoo-e-
ireo-ov, they fell upon that house : rain on
root, river on foundation, wind on walls.
And what happened ? Kal ovk tTreo-ev.
The elements fell on it, but it did not
fall. — T€0€p.e\ia>To yap : for a good reason,
it was founded on the rock. The
builder had seen to that.

Vv. 26-27. |xo>pai, Jesus seems here to
offend against His own teaching, v. 22,
but He speaks not in passion or con-
tempt, but in deep sadness, and with
humane intent to prevent such folly.

'3 6

KATA MAT0A10N

VII. 27 — 2Q.

b Lt. ii. 34. Sons wKooourjac rty oiKiac auTou l em tx]v auM-of • 27. tea! KaWPtj

. 5;. 11 " » ^ PP°X'l Kai rjXOoi' 01 iroTauol Kal e-nveufjav 01 akeuoi, Kal Trpoae>

1 Ch. xxii. .>«,/,, i ,,

33. ML. I. Kovj/ay- T|j oiKia £K«irr], Kal eirecre* Kal rjf r\ h irToJais aurr)s ueyaXir)."

Lie iv. 32 28. Kai eyeVeTO ore auverfkeaev 3 6 'irio-ous tous Xovous toutous,
(all in ref. . ,. . , f „

toChrists *§eTrXTio-o-oi'To oi ovXoi ltr\ Tn SioaYTi auTou • 20. r\v vap oioaaKW*
doctrine). •».•.* , - . , \

j ML. i.:->. auTous ws tjouaiay t\d>y, Kal ou)( ws 01 ypauuaTcis.*

1 avTov before "rrjv oiKiav in ^BZZ as in ver. 24.
a Some copies have Trpocr«ppTj|av.

* tTcXeo-tv in NBCZX.

* After Ypaii.(iaT£is J^BAZ have ovtw (W.H. and other editors),
add Kai 01 cjmpicraioi (W.H. margin).

Some copies

Wherein lay the second builder's folly ?
Not in deliberately selecting a bad
foundation, but in taking no thought of
foundation ; in beginning to build at
haphazard and anywhere ; on loose sand
(ap.p.09) near the bed of a mountain
torrent. His fault was not an error in
judgment, but inconsiderateness. It is
not, as is commonly supposed, a question
of two foundations, but of looking to,
and neglecting to look to, the foundation.
In the natural sphere no man in his
senses commits such a mistake. But
utterly improbable cases have to be
supposed in parables to illustrate human
folly in religion. — Ver. 27. Kal . . . avcuoi:
exactly the same phrases as in ver. 25, to
describe the oncome of the storm. —
TrpocreKov|;av : a different word for the
assault on the house— struck upon it
with immediate fatal effect. It was not
built to stand such rough handling. The
builder had not thought of such an
eventuality. — t-rrtcrev, Kai r\v -rj tttujctis
a\iTvjs p.eYaX-rj : not necessarily implying
that it was a large building, or that the
disaster was of large dimensions, like the
collapse of a great castle, but that the
ruin was complete. The fool's house
went down like a house of cards, not one
stone or brick left on another.

Allegorising interpretation of the rain,
rivers and winds, and of the foundations,
is to be avoided, but it is pertinent to
ask, what defects of character in the
sphere of religion are pointed at in this
impressive parabolic logion ? What kind
of religion is it that deserves to be so
characterised ? The foolish type is a
religion of imitation and without fore-
thought. Children play at building
houses, because they have seen their
seniors doing it. There are people who
play at religion, not realising what
religion is for, but following fashion,

doing as others do, and to be seen of
others (Matt. vi. 1). Children build
houses on the sea sand below high-tide
mark, not thinking of the tide which will
in a few hours roll in and sweep away
their houselet. There are men who have
religion for to-day, and think not of the
trial to-morrow may bring.

Ver. 28. Concluding statement as to
the impression made by the discourse.
A similar statement occurs in Mk. i. 22,
27, whence it may have been transferred
by Matthew. It may be assumed that
so unique a teacher as Jesus made a pro-
found impression the very first time He
spoke in public, and that the people
would express their feelings of surprise
and admiration at once. The words
Mark puts into the mouth of the audience
in the synagogue of Capernaum are to
the life (vide comments there). They
saw, and said that Christ's way of speak-
ing was new, not like that of the scribes
to which they had been accustomed.
Both evangelists make the point of
difference consist in "authority".

Ver. 29. u9 efovaiav «x<i)v : Fritzsche
supplies, after «x<^v, tov SiSacrKciv, and
renders, He taught as one having a right
to teach, because He could do it well,
"scite et perite," a master of the art.
The thought lies deeper. It is an ethical,
not an artistic or aesthetical contrast that
is intended. The scribes spake by
authority, resting all they said on tradi-
tions of what had been said before.
Jesus spake with authority, out of His
own soul, with direct intuition of truth;
and, therefore, to the answering soul of
His hearers. The people could not quite
explain the difference, but that was what
they obscurely felt.

Chapters VIII., IX. The Healing
Ministry of Jesus. These two chap-
ters consist mainly of miracle narratives,

VIII. i-3.

EYA1TEAI0N

*37

VIII. I. KATABANTI 8e uotw 1 diro too opous, TjKoXouO-qaav o.utw » Ch. x. 8;

5)(Xoi iroXXoi • 2. Kal toou, •Xeirpos eXOwy* TrpoaeKuVei auTw, \e\uv, 6. Lk. iv.

Kupie, eat-' PeXns, ouyacrai uc Katfapiaai. 3. Kai CKTeivas TTjf 12.

X€ipa, -Tjij/aTO auTou 6 'Itjctous, 3 Xeywf, " QeKm, ica9apio-0r]Ti." Kal xi. 5. Lk

iv. «7 ;
xviL 14, 17. c with tV x f 'P* often in Sept. and frequently in the Gospels (Ch. xii. 13, 49, etc.).

1 For KaTa^avTi Se avria (the reading of fc$ al. adopted by Tisch.) ^ b BC have
pcaTa$avT09 8e a-u-rov. Z has the gen. also (icai KaT. av.). The dative is a gram-
matical " improvement ".

2 For e\6o>v (in CKL, etc.) ^BAI have irpocrtX0_>v. The wpos has probably
fallen out through homceot. (Xmrpos).

* fr^BCZ omit o Itjo-ovs, which T. R. often introduces.

the greater number being reports of
healing acts performed by Jesus, nine in
all, being the second part of the pro-
gramme sketched in chap. iv. 23-25.
These wonderful works are not to be
regarded, after the manner of the older
apologists, as evidential signs appended
to the teaching on the hill to invest it
with author ity. That teaching neede d
no exter n nl r rg "^ r "^ 1c ; ji t spoke for
itselfjhen as now. These histories are
an integral part of the self-revelation of
lesus by word and deed; they are de-
monstrations not merely of His p"ower.
but above all, of His spiri t. Therein lies
their chief permanent interest, which is
entirely independent of all disputes as
to the strictly miraculous character of
the events. This collection is not
arranged in chronological order. The
connection is topical, not temporal.

Chapter VIII. 1-4. The leper (Mk.
i. 40-45 ; Lk. v. 12-16). This is the first
individual act of healing reported in this
Gospel, chap. iv. 23-24 containing only
a general notice. It is a very remarkable
one. No theory of moral therapeutics will
avail here to eliminate the miraculous
element. Leprosy is not a disease of
the nerves, amenable to emotional treat-
ment, but of the skin and the flesh,
covering the body with unsightly sores.
The story occurs in all three Synoptics,
and, as belonging to the triple tradition,
is one of the best attested. Matthew's
version is the shortest and simplest here
as often, his concern being rather to re-
port the main fact and what Christ said,
than to give pictorial details. Possibly
he gives it as he found it in the Apostolic
Document both in form and in position,
immediately after Sermon on Mount, so
placed, conceivably, to illustrate Christ's
respectful attitude towards the law as
stated in v. r7 (cf. viii. 4 and vide Weiss,
Matt. Evan., p. 227).

Ver. 1. KaTafidvTOS oxitotj (for the
reading vide above). Jesus descended
from the hill towards Capernaum (ver. 5),
but we must beware of supposing that
the immediately following events all
happened there, or at any one place or
time. Mark seems to connect the cure
of the leper with the preaching tour
in Galilee (i. 40), a nd that of the palsie d
man wit h Christ's return therefrom (ii. 1 ).
jesus nad ascended the hill to escape the
pressure of human need. He descends, in
att.'s n arrative, to encounter it again —
TJKoXovOTjo-av, large crowds gather about
and follow Him. — l8ot», the sign mark of
the Apostolic Document according to
Weiss ; its lively formula for introducing a
narrative. — vpocr*Kvvti, prostrated him-
self to the ground, in the abject manner
of salutation suitable from an inferior to
one deemed much superior, and also to one
who had a great favour to ask. — Kvpic:
not implying in the leper a higher idea
than that of Master or Rabbi. — cav
Oc'Xfls : the leper's doubt is not about the
power, for he probably knows what mar-
vellous things have been happening of late
in and around Capernaum, but about the
jviU l z doubt natural in one suffering
rrorn ~ a loathsome disease" ppgiHpg m.S
m ore easily believe in miraculous pnwf r
than in miraculous lov e. te'Xfls, present
"subjunctive, not aorist, which would ex-
press something that might happen at a
future time (vide Winer, § xlii., 2, b). —
KaOapurai — of course the man means to
cleanse by healing, not merely to pro-
nounce clean. This has an important
bearing on the meaning of the word
in next ver. — tjuVolto, touched him, not
to show that He was not under the
law, and that to the pure nothing is un-
clean (Chrys., Horn, xxv.), but to evince
His willingness and sympathy. T_he
stretching out of the hand doe s not mean

that, in touching H<- might hr at far nff a<;

138

KATA MATGA10N

VIII.

i here and tu0£u>s e*Ka9apio-8r) l airrou m d XeVpa. 4. Kal Xeyet auVw 6 'iriaous,

in par.ill. , * ^ 'J

; eh. wiii. " * Opa p-vjoeyi citttjs ' <*X)^ "Traye, acaoToe oei£oy tu Upei, Kal

'?:. Heb - / 2 * &- ' « 'tkj-f> ,',-.,

vim. 5. TfpoaeVeyKe * to oiopoy o 7rp0creTa.se Ma>or|5, eis uapTupiov auToi;.

uiv. 14. 5. EicreXdok'Ti 8e tiS 'ItjctoC 3 ei? Kairepfaoua, Trpoo-TJXSey auTto

g ver. 14; eKO.TOi'Tapxos TrapaKaAcoc auToy, o. tcai Aeywe, Kupie, o Trais p-ou

vii. 30. 8 ^e'pXiiTai lv Tjj oiKia irapaXimKos, u Seikws {3acraei£op,e>'os.
h L,k. xi. 53.

1 BLXI have the less correct, but none the less likely, €Ka9tpio-0Tj.

'-' BC have "irpoo-tve"yKov. fc$ as in T. R.

s The dative is here also a correction. fc^BCZ have the gen. as in ver. 1.

possible to avoid defilement and infection
(Weiss-Meyer). It was action suited to
the word. — Bt'Xw, " I will," pronounced
in firm, cordial tone, carefully recorded
by all the evangelists. KaOapio-OtjTi,
naturally in the sense of the man's
request. But that would imply a real
miracle, therefore naturalistic interpre-
ters, like Paulus and Keim, axe forced to
take the word in the sense of pronounc-
ing clean, the mere opinion of a shrewd
observer. The narrative of Matthew
barely leaves room for this hypothesis.
The other evangelists so express them-
selves as to exclude it. — cica6ap(cr0T] :
forthwith the leprosy disappeared as if by
magic. The man was and looked per-
fectly well.

Ver. 4. Spa, see to it 1 Look you ! —
imperative in mood and tone (vide
Mark's graphic account). Christ feared
the man would be content with being
well without being officially pronounced
clean — physically healed, though not
socially restored. Hence p/qSevl ei-n-j}?,
d.XX' -uTra-ye, etc. : speak of it to nobody,
but go at once and show thyself (8ei|ov),
T<j> lepci, to the priest who has charge of
such matters. What was the purpose of
this order ? Many good commentators,
including Grot., Beng. and Wetstein, say
it was to prevent the priests hearing of
the cure before the man came (lingering
on the road to tell his tale), and, in spite,
declaring that he was not clean. The
truth is, Jesus desired the benefit to be
complete, socially, which depended on
the priest, as well as physically. If the
man did not go at once, he would not go
at all. — to Swpov: vide Lev. xiv. 10, 21 ;
all things to be done according to the
law ; no laxity encouraged, though the
official religion was little worthy of re-
spect (cf. Matt. v. 19). — els papTvpiov, as
a certificate to the public (aviTois) from
the constituted authority that the leper
■vas clean. The direction shows Christ's

confidence in the reality of the cure.
The whole story is a picture of character.
Thi>^i |ch reveals sympath y • \V>r ar rrlm -
panying word, " I will, be clean,"
prompt, cordial, laconic, immense energy.
.and vitality ; the final order, rev e rence^
for existing institutions. fearlessness t
humane solicitude for the snff>rr r'a fm-nrf
well-being in every se nse (vide on Mk.).
Vv. 5-13. The centurion's son or
servant (Lk. vii. 1-10). Placed by both
Matthew and Luke after Sermon on
Mount, by the latter immediately after.
— Ver. 5. etcreXOcivTos, aorist participle
with another finite verb, pointing to
a completed action. He had entered
Capernaum when the following event
happened. Observe the genitive ab-
solute again with a dative of the same
subject, ovit$, following irpoo-fjXOev.
eicaTovTapxos : a Gentile (ver. 10), pro-
bably an officer in the army of Herod
Antipas. — Ver. 6. Kvpie again, not
necessarily expressing any advanced
idea of Christ's person. — irais may mean
either son or servant. Luke has SovXos,
and from the harmonistic point of view
this settles the matter. But many, in-
cluding Bleek and Weiss (Meyer), insist
that irais here means son. — Pe'pX^Tai,
perf. pointing to a chronic condition ;
bed-ridden in the house, therefore not
with the centurion. — irapaXvTiKo's : a
disease of the nerves, therefore emotional
treatment might be thought of, had the
son only been present. But he could
not even be brought on a stretcher as in
another case (Matt. ix. 1) because not
only irapaX., but Scivtus |3acravi.t6p.£vos,
not an ordinary feature of paralysis. —
Ver. 7. This is generally taken as an
offer on Christ's part to go to the house.
Fritzsche finds in it a question, arranging
the words (T. R.) thus : Kal, Xe'-yei a. 6
'I., 'E-yw cX0wv depairevo-w ovtoV ; and
rendering: "And," saith Jesus to him,
"shall I go and heal him?" = is that

4— IO.

EYAITEAION

139

7. Kal 1 Xe'yei aurw 6 'liqaous, 2 "'Eyw eX0i> Gepaireiio-w auTOK."

8. Kal diTOKpi0els 3 o cKa-nWapxos e4>n> "Kupie, ouk etp.1 'iKaeos <W i with ;.-«
uou uiro Tf|y ore'yrp eiaeXQrjs ■ dXXa uoW et-rre Xoyoy, 4 Kal ia0r}- hLk'vfi
acTai 6 irais uou. 9. Kal yap eyw aV0pwiros cipti 'uiro i£ou<TLav, 5 Uuftii.
ex<^y (it' euauToe orpaTiwTas • Kal Xe'yw toutw, riopeu0r)Ti, Kal J Lk v "' 8 '
TropeueTai • Kal dXXw, "Epxou, Kal epxeTai ■ Kal t<1 oou'Xw uoo,
floiTiCToi' touto, Kal iroici." 10. 'AKOuaag 8e 6 'Itjctous eflauaaae,

Kal ci7T€ tois dKoXouflouW, "'A^ir]v Xe'yw uui>, ouSe iv tu 'icrparjX

1 B and many vers, (including Syr. Sin. and Cur.) omit the kou, so giving an
expressive asyndeton.

2 fc^B, Syr. Sin. omit o Itio-ous.
s aTTOKpiOcis 8e in ^B 33.

4 ^BC have Xoyo>, adopted by both Tisch. and W.H., and to be preferred.

• ^B al. add Taoo-op.eios, adopted within brackets by W.H. " Manifestly out of
Lk.," Weiss in Meyer.

what you wish ? The following verse
then contains the centurion's reply.
This is, to say the least, ingenious. —
Ver. 8, Ikcivo;: the Baptist's word, chap.
iii. 11, but the construction different in
the two places, there with infinitive,
here with Xva : I am not fit in order
that. This is an instance illustrating
the extension of the use of Iva in later
Greek, which culminated in its super-
seding the infinitive altogether in modern
Greek. On the N. T. use of "va, vide
Burton, M. and T., §§ 191-222. Was it
because he was a Gentile by birth, and
also perhaps a heathen in religion, that
he had this feeling of unworthiness, or
was it a purely personal trait ? If he
was not only a Gentile but a Pagan,
Christ's readiness to go to the house
would stand in remarkable contrast to
His conduct in the case of the Syro-
Phoenician woman. But vide Lk. vii. 5.
— ciirt A6yi[>, speak (and heal) with a
word. A bare word just where they
stand, he thinks, will suffice. — Ver. g,
Kal yap tyu : he argues from his own
experience not with an air of self-
importance, on the contrary making
light of his position as a commander —
vtto e£ovcriav, spoken in modesty. He
means: I also, though a very humble
person in the army, under the authority
of more important officers, still have a
command over a body of men who do
implicitly as I bid them. Fritzsche
rightly suggests that av8poj-.ro? vtto
££ovo-iav does not express a single idea
= "a man under authority". He re-
presents himself as a man with authority,
though in a modest way. A comma

might with advantage be placed after
«lp,i. The centurion thinks Jesus can
order about disease as he orders his
soldiers — say to fever, palsy, leprosy,
go, and it will go. His soldiers go, his
slaves do (Carr, C. G. T.).

Ver. 10. In ver. 13 we are told that
Jesus did not disappoint the centurion's
expectation. But the interest of the
cure is eclipsed for the evangelist by the
interest of the Healer's admiration,
certainly a remarkable instance of a
noteworthy characteristic of Jesus : His
delight in signal manifestations of faith.
Faith, His great watchword, as it was St.
Paul's. This value set on faith was not
a mere idiosyncrasy, but the result of
insight into its nobleness and spiritual
virtue. — Kai elir« : Christ did not conceal
His admiration ; or His sadness when
He reflected that such faith as this
Gentile had shown was a rare thing in
Israel. — 'Autjv: He speaks solemnly, not
without emotion. — irap' oiiScvl : this is
more significant than the reading of
T. R., assimilated to Lk. vii. 9. The
ovSl implies that Israel was the home of
faith, and conveys the meaning not even
there. But irap' ovStvi means not even
in a single instance, and implies that
faith in notable degree is at a discount
among the elect people. Such a sentiment
at so early a period is noteworthy as show-
ing how far Jesus was from cherishing
extravagant hopes of setting up a theo-
cratic kingdom of righteousness and
godliness in Israel.

Vv. 11-12. This logion is given bj
Luke (xiii. 28-29) ' n a different connec-
tion, and it may not be in its historical

140

RATA MATOAION

k Ch. Mv. voaaoTiif Triorir 1 cupor. 11. \tvu> hi. uu.lv, oti rroXXol diro d^a-
19, p«r»ll. ' 1 1— »

Lk. xiii. toXw^ Kal Sucrpuf Tj^oucri, Kal k dvaKXiOriaoiTai fxcrd 'AfSpaap. «al
to this 'laaaK Kal 'laKwfJ ev ttj (SaatXeia twc oupavm" 12. oi oe uiol tyjs

text).

I Ch. xxii. paaiXcias €KpXr]6i^o-o^Tai eis ' to ctkotos to i^JJTepov • iKtl lorai
13; xxv. tt

30 (same m 6 kXuuGjjlos Kal 6 jSpuyaos t£)v oSovTWf. 13. Kai ciireK 6 'irjaous

m ch. xni. t« eicaTOVTapxw, YTraye, Kai * ws CTUOTeuo-as ye>T|0r|Tu> aoi.

xxv. 30 Kai laorj o irais auTou • ev ttj wpa cKeirn.*

phrase). 14. Kai eXSuk 6 'Itjctous eis ttj i' otKiac n^Tpoo, cT8e Trjf ■KtvBepa.v

n parall. > ~ Q o\ ' » / .. ■> « 1 ~ s

John iv. auTou pep\T)p.EKT|K Kai irupearcroucrak, 15- Kai TJVJ/aTO ttjs x ci P°5

xxviii. s. auTTjs, Kal d^ffKCf aoTTjK 6 n Trup€TO$' Kal Tjyep0T|, Kal oitjkoVci

1 Authorities are much divided between the reading ovSe ir ra I. . . , ropov

(T. R.), which is found in fc^CLAZ al. (Tisch.), and irap ouSevi Too-avTrjv ttio-tiv tv
t« I. evpov, found in B, old Latin verss., Syr. Cur., Egypt, verss., and several cursives
(W.H.). The former has probably come in from Lk. vii. 9.

2 fc$B omit Kai. Vide below;

s fr$B omit avTov, also superfluous.
4 otto fns copes €k«ivy]S in CA1 33.

place here. But its import is in thorough
harmony with the preceding reflection on
the spiritual state of Israel. One who
said the one thing was prepared to say
the other. At whatever time said it
would give offence. It is o r"> of die
heavy burdens of the gm phet that he
cannot be a mere patriot, or say com-
plimentary things about h' g "a*'"" nr his.
"Uhurch. avaKXi0T)o-ovTai : Jesus ex-
presses Himself here and throughout
this logion in the language of His time
and people. The feast with the
patriarchs, the outer darkness, the weep-
ing and the gnashing of teeth (observe
the article before o-kotos, KXaoj9p.os,
Ppiryjxbs, implying that all are familiar
ideas) are stock phrases. The imagery
is Jewish, but the thought is anti-Jewish,
universalistic, of perennial truth and
value.

Ver. 13. viraye, etc. : compressed im-
passioned utterance, spoken under
emotion = Go, as thou hast believed be
it to thee ; cure as thorough as thy faith.
The Kal before <Lg in T. R. is the addition
of prosaic scribes. Men speaking under
emotion discard expletives.?

Weizsacker (Untersuckungen uber die
Evang. Gesch., p. 50) remarks on the
felicitous juxtaposition of these two
narratives relatively to one another and
to the Sermon on Mount. " In the first
Jesus has to do with a Jew, and demands
of him observance of the law. In this
respect the second serves as a com-
panion piece, the subject of healing

heing a heathen, giving occasion for a
word as to the position of heathens.
The two combined are happily appended
to a discourse in which Jesus states His
attitude to the law, forming as comple-
ments of each other a commentary on
the statement."

Vv. 14-15. Cure of a fever : Peter's
mother-in-law (Mark i. 29-31 ; Luke iv.
38, 39). This happened much earlier, at
the beginning of the Galilean ministry,
the second miracle-history in Mark and
Luke. Mark at this point becomes
Matthew's guide, though he does not
follow implicitly. Each evangelist has
characteristic features, the story of the
second being the original. — Ver. 14.
IX.0WV, coming from the synagogue on a
Sabbath day (Mark i. 29) with fellow-
worshippers not here named. The story
here loses its flesh and blood, and is cut
down to the essential fact. — els t. o.
Uirpov ; Peter has a house and is
married, and already he receives his dis-
ciple name (Simon in Mark). — ircvOepav.
It is Peter's mother-in-law that is ill. —
Bt{3XT]p.evT]v xal irvpe'o-aovaav, lying in
bed, fevered. Had she taken ill since
they left to attend worship, with the
suddenness of feverish attacks in a
tropical climate ? fitfi\r)u.£vT)v is against
this, as it naturally suggests an illness
of some duration ; but on the other
hand, it she had been ill for some time,
why should they need to tell Jesus after
coming back from the synagogue ? (Mark
i. 30). wptorcr. does nut necessarily

II — ig.

EYAITEAION

141

ciutoIs. 1 16. ''Oil/ias oe yefOjJi^fTjs irpoar\veyK.a.v auTw 8aiuon£o- °

fj.4vou<; ttoXXous • ica! e^cjSaXe to. TrvcujAaTa Xoyw, Kal irdcTas tous

KaKois ?)(oyTas iQep&Trevcrev • 17. ottws itXtjpcuOt} to pr]Qev Sid

'Ho-atou toG irpo^TOu, Xeyomro;, ' Autos Tas p do-0eveias 'rju.wi'

IXa|3e, Kal Tas kdcrous e|3dcrrac7ei'.'

18. 'tSuiy 8e 6 'irjo-ous ttoXXous oxXous 2 irepl auToV, eKeXeuaee

dircXQeic * ets to * irepaf. 19. Kal -rrpoaeXOiW els ypap-^aTeds eurey

in Mt. and Mk. (ver. 28, Ch. xiv. 22. Mk.

1 avTcu in J^BCI al. avToi? (in LA) has come in from parall.
■ B has oxXov ; ^ oxXovs, which once introduced was enlarged into
oxXovs (fr$ c CLA2! al.), not a usual expression in Mt.

same
phrase.
Ch. xiv.

15- 23 ;

xxvn. 57,
and in Mk.
and John.
Lk. v. 15 ;
viii. 2.
Acts
xxviii. g.
1 Tim.
v. 23.
phr. freq.
iv. 35 al.).

TToXXoVS

imply a serious attack, but vide Luke iv.
38. — Ver. 15. TJ\|/aTo. He touched her
hand ; here to cure, in Mark to raise her
up. — YJye'pGY), 8it]kov6i : she rose up at
once and continued to serve at the meal ;
all present but Jesus only referred to
here (o,xit<j>, plural in Mark, but in-
appropriate here). Not only the fever
but the weakness it causes left her.
" Ordinarily a long time is required for
recovery, but then all things happened
at once " (Chryst., Horn, xxvii.). Not a
great miracle or interesting for anything
said ; but it happened at an early
lime and in the disciple circle ; Peter
the informant ; and it showed Christ's
sympathy (ver. 17), the main point for Mt.
Vv. 16-17. Events of that Sabbath
evening (Mark i. 32-34; Luke iv. 40, 41).
A general statement, which, after iv.
23 f., might have been dispensed with ;
but it is in the source (Mark) in the same
context, and it gives our evangelist a
welcome opportunity of quoting a pro-
phetic text in reference to Christ's heal-
ing work. Ver. 16. 'Oxjuas -y€vofi.Evirjs :
vague indication of time on any day, but
especially a Sabbath day. There were
two evenings, an early and a late (Ex.
xxx. 8). Which of them was it ; before
or after sunset ? Mark is more exact. —
Sa.1p.0y. iroX.Xov9 : why a crowd just then,
and why especially demoniacs brought
to be healed ? For explanation we must
go to Mark. The preaching of Jesus in
the synagogue that Sabbath day, and the
cure of a demoniac (Mark i. 21-28), had
created a great sensation, and the result
is a crowd gathered at the door of Peter's
house at sunset, when the Sabbath
ended, with their sick, especially with
demoniacs. — Ver. r7. Prophetic cita-
tion, apposite, felicitous ; setting Christ's
healing ministry in a true light ; giving
prominence not to the thaumaturgic but

to the sympathetic aspect ; from the
Hebrew original, the Sept. making the
text (Is. liii. 4) refer to sin. The
Hebrew refers to sicknesses and pains.
It is useless to discuss the precise mean-
ing of eXafJev and €(3do-Tao-«v: took and
bore, or took and bore away ; subjective
or objective ? The evangelist would
note, not merely that Jesusactually did
remove diseases, ^but that He wasminded
to do so : auch was "His bent.

Vv. 18-34. Excursion to the eastern

shore with its incidents (Mark iv. 35 v.

20 ; Luke viii. 22-39). These narratives
make a large leap forward in the history.
As our evangelist is giving a collection
of healing incidents, the introduction of
w. 18-22, disciple interviews, and even
of vv. 23-27, a nature miracle, needs an
explanation. The readiest is that he
found these associated with the Gadara
incident, his main concern, in his source
or sources, the whole group in the Apos-
tolic Document (so Weiss). We must
not assume a close connection between
§ 18-22 and the excursion to the eastern
shore. Luke gives the meeting with the
scribe, etc.. a different setting. Possibly
neither is right. The scribe incident
may belong to the excursion to the north
(xv. 21).

Ver. 18. 'ISoiv . . . -trepl ai-rov. The
evangelist makes a desire to escape from
the crowd the motive of the journey.
This desire is still more apparent in
Mark, but the crowd and the time are
different. The multitude from which
Jesus escapes, in Mark's narrative, is
that gathered on the shore to hear the
parable-discourse from a boat on the
lake. — iKeXeva-ev aireXdtlv. Grotius thinks
this elliptical for : tKe'Xevcre iravTa t-roi-
pdcrai els to air. Beza renders: indixit
pro/ectionem = He ordered departure.
tovs fioJ-n-rd's is unueiitood, not men-

T4?

KATA MATOAION

VIII.

r Lk. ix. 58; auTu, "AiSdaKaXe, dKoXou0i'|Crw aoi, ottou lav arslp^t]." 20. Kai

1 Lk. ix. 58. Xe'yei aoTw 6 'irjaous, " At r cLXwitckcs " <t>a>\£ous exooai, icai. Ta

a Ch. xix. 8. TTCTCli'd TOO OUpaWOU ' KaTaO"KTJl'WO"ei9 • 6 8e uL6s TOU dvOpojTrou OUK

32 (with «x et > Tro " T V K«4* a ^V ^Xirj]." 21. "ETepos 8e tuv p,a9i)rCjv ciutou ]

Cor. xvi. ctirtf auTw, " Kupie, " eirrrpeiJ/oV p.01 -irpwToi' aTreXfleiK Kai T 0d\J/ai tbv

*7 II ch VI

3 (»bsol). iraT^pa p.ou." 2 2. 'O 8c 'Itjctous 2 circey 3 auTu, " 'AtcoXouGei uoi,
t Ch. xiv.
ia. Lk. ix. 59; xvi. m.

1 fr$B omit mtov, which here as often elsewhere occurs in T. R., where it is not
required.

* On the authority of fr$, Tisch. omits o Itjo-ovs found in BCLA al.

»Xf7ciinNBC 33-

tioned because they alone could be
meant. — Ver. 19, ets, either "one, a
scribe " (Weiss and very decidedly Meyer,
who says that ets never in N. T. = tis),
or "a certain scribe," indefinite reference,
so Fritzsche, falling back on Suicer,
I., p. 1037, and more recently Bleek
and others. Vide Winer, § xviii. 9, who
defends the use of els for tis as a feature
of later Greek. — -ypap.uo.Tevs, a scribe 1
even one of that most unimpressionable
class, in spirit and tendency utterly op-
posed to the ways of Jesus. A Saul
among the prophets. He has actually
become warmed up to something like
enthusiasm. A striking tribute to the
magnetic influence of Jesus. — dicoXov-
0i]o-w: already more or less of a disciple —
perhaps he had been present during the
teaching on the hill or at the encounter
between Jesus and the scribes in re
washing (xv. 1 f.), and been filled with
admiration for His wisdom, moral
earnestness and courage ; and this is
the result. Quite honestly meant, but.
— Ver. 20, Xe'vei aiiw 6 I. Jesus dis-
trusted the class, and the man, who
might be better than the average, still
he was a scribe. Christ's feeling was
not an unreasoning or invincible pre-
judice, but a strong suspicion and aversion
justified by insight and experience.
Therefore He purposely paints the pro-
spect in sombre colours to prevent a
connection which could come to no
good. — al aXwireices, etc. : a notable say-
ing ; one of the outstanding logia of
Jesus, in style and spirit characteristic ;
not querulous, as if lamenting His lot,
but highly coloured to repel an undesir-
able follower. Foxes have holes, and
birds resting places, roosts (not nests,
which are used only for breeding), but —
6 8e vlos tov dvOp<ij~ov : a remarkable
designation occurring here for the first

time. It means much for the Speaker,
who has chosen it deliberately, in con-
nection with private reflections, at whose
nature we can only guess by study of
the many occasions on which the name
is used. Here it seems to mean the
man simpliciter (son of man — man in
Hebrew or Syriac), the unprivileged M an :
not only no exception to the rule of
ordinary human experience in the way of
being better off, but rather an exception
in the way of being worse off ; for the
rule is, that all living creatures, even
beasts, and still more men, have their
abodes, however humble. If it be Mes-
sianic, it is in a hidden enigmatical way.
The whole speech is studiously enigma-
tical, and calculated to chill the scribe's
enthusiasm. Was Jesus speaking in
parables here, and hinting at something
beyond the literal privations of His life
as a wanderer with no fixed home ? The
scribe had his spiritual home in Rabbinical
traditions, and would not be at ease in
the company of One who had broken with
them. Jesus had no place where He could
lay His head in the religion of His time
(vide my With Open Face, chap. ix.).

Vv. 21-22. Another disciple. "ETepos,
another, not only numerically (SXXos),
but in type. The first was enthusiastic ;
this one is hesitating, and needs to be
urged ; a better, more reliable man,
though contrasting with his neighbour
unfavourably.— -rCtv (jtaflrjTtiv : the ex-
pression seems to imply that the scribe
was, or, in spite of the repellent word of
Jesus, had become, a regular disciple.
That is possible. If the scribe insisted,
Jesus might suffer him to become a
disciple, as He did Judas, whom doubtless
He instinctively saw through from the
beginning. But not likely. The in-
ference may be avoided by rendering with
Bleek : "another, one of the discip'cs". —

30—25.

EYAITEAION

kcu dd>es -rods Ketcpous 0d\J/ai tous ^auTWf yeKpoiis." 23. Kal where only

^u,|3dvTi aoTw els to l irXoiov, i]KoXou0r]o-av auTw 01 p.a0T)Tal aurou. Ch. xxiv.

24. Kal ISou, w aeio-fAos p.e'yas eye'vcTo eV ttj OaXdacrr], wore to 54 a/.

irXoioi' x KaXuTTTeaSai utto tuc Kup.aTwv • ciutos 8e CKci0£u8e. 25. quake).

ical irpocreXOo^Tes ol fia0i]Tal auTou 2 ^yeipav cujtoV, Xe'yorrcs, i6(ti'th>0

Ch. x. 26.
2 Cor. iv. 3 (hide from knowledge).

1 to omitted in ^ b BC 33.

2 01 p.a6T)Tat avTov wanting in fc$B ; added for clearness, but not needed.

eTriTp£\(/dv (aoi : he wished, before setting
out from home to enter on the career
of discipleship, to attend to an urgent
domestic duty ; in fact to bury his
father. In that climate burial had to
take place on the day of death. Per-
mission would have involved very little
delay of the voyage, unless, with Chrysos-
tom, we include under 0d\}<ai all that
goes along with death and burial, ar-
ranging family affairs, distribution of
inheritance, etc. There would not pro-
bably be much trouble of that sort in the
case of one belonging to the Jesus-
circle. — Ver. 22. "AnoXovOei p,oi: the
reply is a stern refusal, and the reason
apparently hard and unfeeling— dcj>€s
Tot»s veicpo-us . . . veKpovs : word for
word the same in Luke (ix. 60), an
unforgettable, mystic, hard saying. The
dead must be taken in two senses = let
the spiritually dead, not yet alive to the
claims of the kingdom, bury the naturally
dead. Fritzsche objects, and finds in
the saying the paradox : " let the dead
bury each other the best way they can,",
which, as Weiss says, is not a paradox,
but nonsense. Another eccentric idea of
some commentators is that the first
vcKpovs refers to the vespillones, the
corpse-bearers who carried out the bodies
of the poor at night, in Hebrew phrase,
the men of the dead. Take it as we
will, it seems a hard, heartless saying,
difficult to reconcile with Christ's de-
nunciation of the Corban casuistry, by
which humanity and filial piety were
sacrificed on the altar of religion (Matt.
xv. 3-6). But, doubtless, Jesus knew to
whom He was speaking. The saying
can be understood and justified ; but it
can also very easily be misunderstood
and abused, and woe to the man who
does so. From these two examples we
see that Jesus had a startling way of
speaking to disciples, which would create
reflection, and also give rise to remark.
The disciple-logia are original, severe,
fitted to impress, sift and confirm.
Vv. 23-27. Storm on the lake (Mk.

iv. 35-41, Lk. viii. 22-25). Ver. 23.
!p.|3dvTi ai-nS might be called a dative
absolute ; if taken as dative after tjkoXou-
Orjoav, the ain-y after this verb is
superfluous. This short sentence is
overcharged with pronouns (aip-rov after
p,a0T|Ta!). — ri> irXoiov (to omitted in Lk.),
the ship in readiness in accordance with
previous instructions (ver. 18). Ver. 24,
18ov indicates sudden oncome. — cr«iau.os
Iv t. 0., literally an earthquake of the
sea, the waters stirred to their depths by
the winds referred to in vv. 26, 27 ;
XcuXo.']/ in Mark and Luke = hurricane. —
wo-te, here with infinitive, used also with
finite moods (e.g., Gal. ii. 13). In the
one case wo-tc indicates aim or tendency,
in the other it asserts actual result (vide
Goodwin, p. 221, also Bai'imlein, Schul-
grammatik, §§ 593, 594). Klotz, Devar.,
ii. p. 772, gives as the equivalent of
5o-T€, with infinitive, ita ut ; with in-
dicative, itaque or quare). — KaXvirreo-Oai.,
was covered, hidden, the waves rising
high above the boat, breaking on it, and
gradually filling it with water (cf. Mark
and Luke). — avTcsSeeKaSeDSev: dramatic
contrast = but He was sleeping (im-
perfect), the storm notwithstanding.
Like a general in time of war Jesus
slept when He could. He had fallen
asleep before the storm came on, pro-
bably shortly after they had started (Lk.
viii. 23, irXedvTwv avrStv o(j>v-rrv«i)0"€V :
while they sailed He went off to sleep),
soothed by the gliding motion. It was
the sleep of one worn by an intense life,
involving constant strain on body and
mind. The mental tension is apparent
in the words spoken to the two disciples
(vv. 20-22). Words like these are not
spoken in cold blood, or without waste
of nervous power. Richard Baxter de-
scribes Cromwell as " of such vivacity,
hilarity, and alacrity as another man
hath when he hath drunken a cup too
much " (Rcliqitiac Baxt.). " Drunken,
but not with wine," with a great epoch-
making enthusiasm. The storm did not
wake the sleeper. A tempest, the sublime

144

KATA MATOAION

v:n.

> .Mk. iv. 40. " Ku'pie, auxjov Tj^as, 1 diroXXufAcGa." 26. Kal X^yei aureus, "T»

XXI.

8. J SeiXoi ^<7T€, oXiyd-rriorroi ; Tot« eycpOcis ' ^'ireTiu.Tio'e tois

1 here and »«•«># >> '

pnrall. of dyeuois Kai -ri) OciXdacrr), kcu ^y^CTo "yaX-qw] ueydXr). 27. 01 8e
Ihe wind _ . >a ' \*/ k i » « \ «

and sea ciySpwrroi erjauuao-ak, Xeyorrcs, rioTaTroc, eariy outos,. oti xat 01

(Ps.cv.9)- „ , , , „ ,

a here and aK€p,oi kcu r\ vahacraa. uTraKOuouaiK auTw ;

parall.
b Mk. xiii. 1. Lk. 1. ag; vii. 39. 1 John iil. 1.

1 ijfias, another addition for clearness, wanting in fr$B ; more expressive without.
1 ^B transpose viraic. avrw (so Tisch., W.H.).

in nature, is a UllJahy tn a grfflt spirits
The Fathers viewed the sleep and the
storm theologically, both arranged for
beforehand, to give time for cowardice
to show itself (Chrys., Horn, xxviii.), to
let the disciples know their weakness and
to accustom them to trials (Theophyl.).
A docetic Christ, an unreal man, a
theatrical affair 1 — Ver. 25. irpocrtX0dvT«s :
one of our evangelist's favourite words. —
■fjytipqy : they would not have waked Hi m
it they coul d have helped it. They were
genuinely terrified, tnougn experienc ed

"sailors acc ustomed to_rjaugh- weather^ —
Ktfp'C?, o-io-ov . . . a-rroX.Xvp.e9a : laconic
speech, verbs unconnected, utterance
of fear-stricken men. Luke's ^Trio-raxa,
sTrio-TaTa is equally descriptive. Who"
could tell exactly what they said? All
three evangelists report differently. — Ver.
26, SeiXoi, oXiyrfirurToi, He chidqs (hem
firs t, t hen the wi nds, the chiding meant
to calm fear. Cowards, men of little
faith ! harsh in tone but kindly meant ;
expressive really of pers onal fearlessne ss.
to gain ascendenc y over pan ic-stricke n
spirits (cf. Luke). — t6t« cycptfels: JHe Mad "
uttered the previous words as He lay,
then with a sudden impulse He rose and
spoke imperial words to the elements:
animos discipulorum prius, delude mare
composuit (Bengel).— avtp.ois, GaXdacrn :
He rebuked both. It would have been
enough to rebuke the winds which caused
the commotion in the water. But the
speech was impassioned and pontic, not
scientific. — yaXTJvT) p.eyaXr| : antithetic to
o-eto-uds p.«yas, ver. 24. — Ver. 27, 01
av9p<jTroi : who ? Naturally one would
say the disciples with Jesus in t'ne boat,
called men to suit the tragic si tuation.
But many think others are referred to,
men unacquainted with Jesus : " quibus
nondum innotuerat Christus " (Calvin);
either with the disciples in the boat, and
referred to alone (Jerome, F deyer) or

jointly (De Wette, Bleek), or ' *-ho after-
wards heard the story (Hilar y, Euthy.,
Fritzsche: "homines, quote ^ot hujus

portenti nuntium acceperant," and
Weiss). Holtzmann (H. C.) says they
might be the men in the other ships
mentioned in Mk. iv. 36, but in reality
the expression may simply point to the
contrast between the disciples as men
and the divine power displayed. — iroTa-
Tr<5s . . . ovtos, what manner of person ?
The more classic form is iroSa-rros = from
what land ? where born ? possibly from
ttov and Siro, with a euphonic 8 (Passow).
TroTOTrcSs, in later use, = of what sort ?
vide Lobeck, Phryn., p. 56. — This story
of the triple tradition is a genuine re-
miniscence of disciple life. There w as a
.^ TP" 1 , Jf ifil JF g1 rpt" thft d''mpi'"T riY£2!J a, _
Him in terror. He rebuked the win ds

and waves, and they forthwith subsided.
The only escape of naturalism from a
miracle of power or Providence (Weiss,
Leben Jesu) is to deny the causal
sequence between Christ's word and the
ensuing calm and suggest coincidence.
The storm sudden in its rise, equally
sudden in its lull.

Vv. 28-34. The demoniacs of Gadara
(Mk. v. 1-20, Lk. viii. 26-39). This
narrative raises puzzling questions of all
sorts, among them a geographical or
topological one, as to the scene of the
occurrence. The variations in the read-
ings in the three synoptical gospels
reflect the perplexities of the scribes.
The place in these readings bears three
distinct names. It is called the territory
of the Gadarenes, the Gerasenes, and the
Gergesenes. The reading in Mk. v. 1
in B, and adopted by W.H., is r"€pacm.viiy,
and, since the discovery by Thomson
[Land and Book, ii. 374) of a place
called Gersa or Kersa, near the eastern
shore of the lake, there has been a grow-
ing consensus of opinion in favour ol
Gerasa (not to be confounded with
Gerasa in Gilead, twenty miles east ot
the Jordan) as the true name of the
scene of the story. A place near the sea
seems to be demanded by the circum-
stances, and Gadara on the Hicromxx

26 — 2g .

EYAITEAION

«45

28. KtU ^XflokTi auTW 1 €is to irepa^ €is ttji> xoSpay r&v rcpycatj^aij', 5 c Ch. xxviii

uiTT)Krr|aaM auTw ouo oaifxoyi£ofX€voi €K tw^ jxrifjjJLCitov e^epxo/xeroi 27; xiv.

XoActtoi \ta^ wore pit] \,<r%u€iv nva Trapc\ueLv bia tt)s ooou €K€in]s * hostile
* »© / v t \ / « c T / e« % '»■ -oes * sense).

29. Kai ioou, €Kpa§ay, AtyokTes, Ti yjiaic Kai troi, Itjctou^ uie tou ■: here and a

Tim. iii. i
(Isa. xviii. a). e Mk. i. 34. Lk. iv. 34.

1 Dat. again by way of grammatical correction for the gen. abs. found in fc$°BC
and adopted by Tisch., W.H., etc.

5 So in fc$ c C s L al., Memph. vers., Origen. raSapTjvwv in BC*MAI al., adopted
by Tisch., Treg., W.H., Weiss. Vide below.

3 lt|crov is wanting in fc^BCL. Comes in from Mk. Modern editors omit.

was too far distant. The true reading
in Matthew (ver. 28) nevertheless is Ta8a-
ptivwv. He probably follows Mark as
his guide, but the village Gerasa being
obscure and Gadara well known, he
prefers to define the locality by a general
reference to the latter. The name
Gergesa was a suggestion of Origen's
made incidentally in his Commentary on
John, in connection with the place
named in chap. i. 28, Bethabara or
Bethany, to illustrate the confusion in
the gospel in connection with names,

fierce exceedingly ; Xiav, one of our
evangelist's favourite words. These
demoniacs were what one would call
dangerous madmen ; that, whatever
more ; no light matter to cure them, say
by "moral therapeutics". — &<rrt ftr\
to-xveiv : again Zo-rt with infinitive (with
p.Tj for negative). The po int is not that
nobody passed that way, but that the —
presence of the madmen tended to make
it a place to be shunned as dangerous.
Nobody cared to go near them Chiia!__
came near their lair by acc ident, hut f^

His words are : Tepyeo-a, adV fjs oi would not have been sna red t hough H f

rtpyto-aiot, iroXis apxaia ircpl ttjv vvv' had known of their presence

Ver. 29. I8011 e«pa£av : sudden, start-

KaXovue'vtjv TiptpiaSa Xip.vr)v, irepi ijv
KpT)(iros irapaKeip.cvos T-jj Xip.vf|, a<j>' oi
SciKWTat tovs x 0l P '"? viro twv 8aip.<5vwv
KaTapepXija-Gai (in Ev. loan., T. vi. c.
24). Prof. G. A. Smith, Historical
Geography, p. 459, note, pronounces
Gerasa " impossible ". But he means
Gerasa in Decapoiis, thirty-six miles
away. He accepts Khersa, which he
identifies with Gergesa, as the scene of
the incident, stating that it is the only
place on the east coast where the steep
hills come down to the shore.

Ver. 28. Svo, two, in Mark and Luke
one. According to some, e.g., Holtz-
mann (H. C), the two includes the case
reported in Mk. i. 23-27, Lk. iv. 31-37,
omitted by Matthew. Weiss' hypothesis
is that the two is an inference from
the plurality of demons spoken of
in his source (vide Matt. -Evan., p.
239). The harmonists disposed of the
difficulty by the remark that there might

ling, unearthly cry, fitted to shock weak
nerves. But not the cry of men about
to make an assault. The madmen, whom
all feared and shunned, were subdued
by the aspect of the stranger who had
arrived in the neighbourhood. To be
taken as a fact, however strange and
mysterious, partly explained by the fact
that Jesus was not afraid of them any
more than He had been of the storm.
They felt His power in the very look of
His eye. ti Tip.iv Kai o~ol : an appropri-
ate speech even in the mouth of one
demoniac, for he speaks in the name of
the legion of devils (Mk. v. 9) by which
he conceives himself possessed. Identi-
fying himself with the demons, he
shrinks from the new comer with an
instinctive feeling that He is a foe.— vU
tov 8eov : 6 ayios T. 6. in the Capernaum
synagogue case ; strange, almost incred-
ible divination. Yet " insanity is much

be two, though only one is spoken of in nearer the kingdom ot uod. than worldly
the other accounts, perhaps because "*}' m i " f ^ nf '" There was, doubtless,

something in the whole aspect and man-
ner of Jesus which was fitted to produce
almost instantaneously a deep, spiritual
impression to which child-like, simple,
ingenuous souls like the Galilean fisher-
men, sinful, yet honest-hearted men
like those who met at Matthew's feast,

was the more violent of the two (so
Augustine and Calvin). — «k tuv avrjutioiv:
the precipitous hills on the eastern shore
are a limestone formation lull of caves,
which were doubtless used for burying
the dead. There the demoniacs made
their congenial home. — x Q ^ € ' Tro ' t Xiav,

i 4 6

KATA MATHA10N

vin

( tame phr.

1 Cor. iv.

5 (Sir.

xxx. X4).
j rtere and

parall.
h Mk. v. 14.

Lie. viii.

«;xv.i 5 .

John xxi.

15. 7-

i parall. and
Acts xix.
20 (Acts
vii. 57, int

Bcou ; TjXOes w8c f Trpo 'Kaipou fiaaavlvai r|u.ds ; " 30. *Hv Se p.a>cpdr
dir' auiw ■ dycXTj \oipuv iroXXwi' b {3oo-kou.cVt). 31. 01 8c 8aiu.oke$
-rraptKuXouk- auTcV, Xe'yorrcs, w Et tK{3aXXets TjfAas, £TTiTpe»|»OK r^iiv
iireXdelv 1 els tt]v &.y£kl\¥ tuc x ot P a ' > '-" 3 2 - Kal ctircp ciutois,
" 'Ytrdytrt." Oi 8c e^eXflcWcs dirf)X0of els i"V dvA,l|V T«r
^oi'pojv 2 • Kal ISou, ' upurjae irar/a tj &yekr\ rutv y^oipuiv 8 J teend
tou J Kpnp'ou cis ttji' OdXaorr/af, Kal dire'Sa^oy eV tois "oacui'.
riva). j parall.

1 For the reading eiriTpet|/ov tjp.iv aireXOciv in T. R. fc$B have airoo-TeiXov ; adopted
by modern editors. The T. R. conforms to Lk. (viii. 32).

4 For cis ttjv o-ycXtjv tuv x 0l P uv fc$BC have tovs x ot P ov s (Tisch., W.H.).

5 fr^BCAI omit twv xoipwv.

readily surrendered themselves. Men
with shattered reason also felt the
spell, while the wise and the strong-
minded too often used their intellect,
under the bias of passion or prejudice, to
resist the force of truth. In this way
we may account for the prompt recogni-
tion of Jesus by the Gadarene demoniac.
All that is kiecessary to explain it is the
Messianic hope prevalent in Gadara as
elsewhere, and the sight of Jesus acting
on an impressionable spirit" (Bruce, The
Miraculous Element in the Gospels p.
187). — irpo xaipov : before the appointed
time of judgment. The article wanting
here before k. as in other phrases in
N. T., e.g., iv KaipoJ, Matt. xxiv. 45. —
pao-avLcrcu, to torment with pain in
Hades, described as a place of torment
in Lk. xvi. 28, cf. ver. 23.

Ver. 30. p.aKpdv : the Vulgate renders
non longe, as if ovi had stood in the Greek
before p.a«. But there are no variants
here. Mark and Luke have ckci, which
gives rise to an apparent discrepancy.
Only apparent, many contend, because
both expressions are relative and elastic :
at a distance, yet within view ; there, in
that neighbourhood, but not quite at
hand. Eisner refers to Lk. xv. 20 :
p.aKpdv, " et tamen in conspectu, ut,
Luc. xv. 20 : "En 8« av-rov p.a.Kpdv
iire'xovTOS) ciSev aviTov 6 TraTfjp ". On
Ikci he remarks : " docet in ea regione
et vicinia fuisse, nee distantiam descri-
bit ". Weiss against Meyer denies
the relativity of p.axpdv, and takes it as
meaning " a long way off," while visible.
— PocrKop.€VT| : far removed from rjv, and
not to be joined with it as if the feeding
were the main point, and not rather the
existence of the herd there. The ill
attested reading (3oo-Kou.eVa>v brings out
the meaning better : a herd of swine

which were feeding in the hill pastures.
The swine, doubtless, belonged to Gen-
tiles, who abounded in Persea. — Ver.
31. ol Sa.iu.ovos : unusual designation,
commonly 0a.1u.dvLa. — Trap«i<d\ovv : the
request was made by the possessed in the
name of the demons. — a-rrdo-TtiXov : the
reading of the T. R. (€iriTp£\|/ov dircXSciv)
taken from Luke expresses, in a milder
form, Christ's share of responsibility in a
transaction of supposed doubtful charac-
ter. The demoniac would have no
scruple on that score. His request was:
if you are to cast us out, send us not
to hell, but into the swine. — Ver. 32.
■uird-yeTe : Christ's laconic reply, usually
taken to mean : go into the swine, but
not necessarily meaning more than "be-
gone ". So Weiss, who holds that
Jesus had no intention of expressing
acquiescence in the demoniac's request.
(Matt. Evan, and Weiss-Meyer, " Hin-
weg mit euch ".) — oi 8e . . . x°ip°' u s : tne
entrance of the demons into the swine
could not, of course, be a matter of
observation, but only of inference from
what followed. — ISo-u, introducing a sud-
den, startling event — upu,T|cr£v irdcra r\
d-yeAr) — the mad downrush of the herd
over the precipice into the lake. Assum-
ing the full responsibility of Jesus for the
catastrophe, expositors have busied them-
selves in inventing apologies. Euthy.
gives four reasons for the transaction,
the fourth being that only thereby could
it be conclusively shown that the devils
had left the demoniacs. Rosenmuller
suggests that two men are worth more
than ever so many swine. The lowest
depth of bathos in this line was touched
by Wetstein when he suggested that, by
cutting up the drowned swine, salting the
meat or making smoke-dried hams (fum-
osas pernas), and selling them to Gen-

30— 34-

EYAITEAION

33. 01 8e j3o<TKOCTes e^tuyoy, Kal direXOoVTes ets ttji/ TrdXiy aTvrJYY€iXai>
Trdera, Kal Ta tuc Satfjioi'i^op.eVwi'. 34. Kal i&ou, Trdaa rj ttoXis

e£f)X0ev eLs awaki-no-ie * tw 2 'irjcrou • Kal loorreq clutov, irapeKaXeaai' k xiLo; xv!

29 (with

ottus 3 k fA€Taj3rj airo rajf 6piwi> aiiiw.

1 For <rwavTii<rtv (CLAI) fr$B 1, 33, have viravTTjcriv (Tisch., W.H.), a preferable
word. Vide below.

2 For tw (B) fc^C have tow, adopted by Tisch. and put in margin by W.C.
s For oirws B has iva.

tiles who did not object to eat suffocated
animals, the owners would escape loss.
But the learned commentator might be
jesting, for he throws out the suggestion
for the benefit of men whom he describes
as neither Jews, Gentiles, nor Christians.
Vv. 33-34. The sequel. Zfyvyov : the
swineherds fled. No wonder, in view of
such a disaster. If the demoniacs, in
the final paroxysm before return to
sanity, had anything to do with bringing
it about, the superstitious terror with
which they were regarded would add to
the panic. — aw^yyeiXav : they reported
what had happened to their masters and
to everybody they met in the town. —
irdvTa, what had befallen the swine. —
Kal to t. 8ai(jiovt£o(Ae'v(«)V : they could
not know the whole truth about the
demoniacs. The reference must be to
some visible connection between the
behaviour of the madmen and the
destruction of the herd. They told the
story from their own point of view, not
after interviewing Jesus and His com-
pany. — Ver. 34. irao-o. -f| ttoXis : an ex-
aggeration of course, cf. accounts in
Mark and Luke. — els vTravTYjcriv ... I.,
to a meeting with Jesus. The noun
occurs again in Matt. xxv. 1, and John
xii. 13 ; in Matt. xxv. 6 aiTa.vT-r\criv is
used instead of it. els dirav. occurs in

Sept.

\rh>

The two nouns

for n*Or

t': ■

are little used in Greek authors. The
change from one to the other in Matt,
xxv. 1,6 implies a slight difference in mean-
ing ; virdvTT]cn.s = accidental chance, or
stealthy meeting ; dirdvTT|crts = an open
designed meeting. The stealthy charac-
ter of the meeting implied in inro is well
illustrated in ynrr\vrt\<jav, ver. 28, of this
narrative. The statement that the whole
city went out to meet Jesus implies a
report laying the blame of the occurrence
on Him. But Matthew's account is
very summary, and must be supple-
mented by the statements in Mark and
Luke, from which it appears that some

came from the town to inquire into the
matter, " to see what had happened,"
and that in the course of their inquiries
they met Jesus and learned what they
had not known before, the change that
had come over the demoniac. It was
on their giving in their report to their
fellow-townsmen, connecting the cure
with the catastrophe, that the action re-
ported in ver. 34 took place. — Ver. 34.
irapeKaXetrav : same word as in ver. 31
in reference to the demoniacs. They
did not order or drive Him out. They
besought in terms respectful and even
subdued. They were afraid of this
strange man, who could do such wonder-
ful things ; and, with all due respect,
they would rather He would withdraw
from their neighbourhood.

This would be an oft-told tale, in
which different versions were sure to
arise, wherein fact and explanation of
fact would get mixed up together. The
very variations in the synoptical accounts
witness to its substantial historicity.
The apologist's task is easy here, as
distinct from that of the harmonist,
which is difficult. The essential outline
of the story is this. A demoniac, alias
a madman, comes from the tombs in the
limestone caves to meet Jesus, exhibiting
in behaviour and conversation a double
consciousness. Asked his name, he
calls himself Legion. In the name of
the " Legion " he begs that the demons
may enter the swine. Jesus orders the
demons to leave their victim. Shortly
after a herd of swine feeding on the
hills rushed down the steep into the sea
and were drowned. Tradition connected
the rush of the swine with the demons
leaving their former victim and entering
into them. But, as already remarked,
the causal connection could not be a
matter of observation but only of in-
ference. The rush might, as Weiss
suggests, be caused by the man, in his
final paroxysm, chasing them. But
that also is matter of conjecture. The

i 4 8

KATA MAT0AION

IX.

" ihiav

b ;s

t Ch. xl*. IX.

34- Mk

▼. ai

xvi. a6. PePXrjpeVok • tea! ISwy A Ntjaous Tr|x many auTuv clirc tw irapa-
"•0<£paei, T^Ki'Of, d^wrrai 8 aoi al dpapTiai aoo." s

I . KAI IppcLs «i$ to ' ttXoioj' * oieWpaae ical yJX6ck cis t^k
ttoXik. 2. xai i8ou, iTpoat(J)tp&k auTu TrupaXimKov eirl kXiktjs

b Lk. ii. 3
(in various XoTlKd),
MSS.).
c again ver. ii. Ch. xiv. 37 (plur., to the :a).

Mk. x. 40.

1 to omitted by fc^BLX.

1 fc^B have the form a<fu«vTai (Tisch., W.H.).

3 The reading a^cuvrai 0-01 ui ap. crov in T. R. is from Lk. (v. 20).
aov ai apap. D has 0*01 ai ap.

fc$B have

real cause of the catastrophe is a mystery.
Rosenmuller suggests that at a hot
season of the year one in a herd of swine
might undergo a morbid seizure, begin
to run wildly about, and be followed
sequaciously by the whole flock. He
mentions an occurrence of the kind at
Erfurt, recent when he wrote. Lutteroth,
no rationalist, suggests "vertigo," per-
mitted by Jesus to befall the swine, that
the demoniac might have in their be-
haviour a sensible sign of deliverance,
and so be rid of his fixed idea (vide
his Essai D'Interp., 3eme Partie, p. 27,
note). On the nature of demoniacal
possession, vide my Miraculous Element
in the Gospels, pp. 172-190 ; vide also
notes on Mark.

Chapter IX. The Healing Ministry
Continued. Vv. 1-8. The palsied man
(Mark ii. 1-12 ; Luke v. 17-26). Ver. 1.
€p.{$as : Jesus complied with the request
of the men of Gerasa, who had inti-
mated so plainly that they did not want
any more of His company. Whatever
His purpose in crossing over to the
eastern shore may have been, it was
frustrated by an event which in some
respects was an unexpected disaster.
Was it rest only or a new sphere of
work He was seeking there ? Vide notes
on Mark. — els t. tBCav te. : entering the
boat which had been moored to the
shore, Jesus returned with His disciples
to His own city, to distinguish it from
Gerasa, the city that shut its gates
against Him ; so named here only.
When precisely the following incident
happened cannot be ascertained. Luke's
indication of time is the vaguest possible ;
" on one of the days ". Matthew and
Mark give it in different sequence, but
their narratives have this in common,
that they make the incident occur on
arrival in Capernaum after an excursion ;
in either case the first mentioned, though
not the same in both. Vide notes on
Mark.

Ver. 2. ical ISov : usual formula for

introducing an important incident. —
Trpoo-e'4>£pov, the imperfect, implying a
process, the details of which, extremely
interesting, the evangelist does not give.
By comparison with Mark and Luke the
narrative is meagre, and defective even
for the purpose of bringing out the
features to which the evangelist attaches
importance, e.g., the value set by Jesus
on xht faith evinced. His eye is fixed
on the one outstanding novel feature,
the word of Jesus in ver. 6. In
view of it he is careful, while omitting
much, to mention that the invalid in this
instance was brought to Jesus, ltr\
tcXivrjs PepXiijie'vov, lying on a couch.
To the same cause also it is due that a
second case of paralysis cured finds a
place in this collection, though the two
cases have different features : in the one
physical torments, in the other mental
depression. — irforiv avi-rtSv, the faith of
the men who had brought the sick man
to Him. The common assumption that
the sick man is included in the ain-Jiv
is based on dogmatic grounds. — Gapcrei,
rlKvov : with swift sure diagnosis Jesus
sees in the man not faith but deep
depression, associated probably with sad
memories of misconduct, and uttering
first a kindly hope-inspiring word, such
as a physician might address to a
patient : cheer up, child 1 He deals first
with the disease of the soul. — &<p£evrai :
Jesus declares the forgiveness of his
sins, not with the authority of an ex-
ceptional person, but with sympathy and
insight, as the interpreter of God's will
and the law of the universe. That law
is that past error need not be a doom ;
that we may take pardon for granted ;
forgive ourselves, and start anew. The
law holds, Jesus believed, both in the
physical and in the moral sphere. In
combining pardon with healing of bodily
disease in this case, He was virtually
announcing a general law. " Who
forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases" Ps. ciii. A*

1—7-

EYATTEAION

149

3. Kal i8ou, tikcs twk YpajjifAaTew^ cittok iv 4auTots, "Outos d 0Xaa- d Ch. xxvi.

4>T]ueu 4. Kal lowy 1 6 'irpous Tas * lyOufu/jacis auTui* cittck, 7 <w. H.j

"''iraTi uu€t$ 2 eVduuciaOe irovTjpd tV reus Kapoiais uawe; 5. ti absolutely.
, , m» 1 »~'»j.y '■ ic, > * eCh. xii. 25.

yap ecmv * euKOTrwTepoy, ciTTCif, Acpewrrai ° <roi * at auapnai • tj Heb. ir.

eiircic, "Eycipai 5 Kal irepnrdTci ; 6. im 8e eiSnTc, on c£ouaiav cyci f Ch. iivll.

fc T V

6 olos tou ui'0pa>TTou errl ttjs yTJs dcfHe'vai duapTias," (totc Xe/yei tw xiii. 7. 1

irapaXuTiKw,) "'EyepOels 6 dp6V aou TTjf KXieT)f, Kal uiraye eis tot g m£'h. 9*

oikoV aou." 7. Kal eyepOels dirf|X0€K eis t6v oikov outou. (withinf 3 )

Mt. xiz.
24. Lk. xvi. 17 (with ace. and inf.).

1 For i8o)v (fc^CD, Tisch.) BM have ciSus. The tendency of the scribes would be
to use the same word as in ver. 2. W.H. has ciSus in text but bracketed, iSwr in
margin.

2 NBCD omit vjicis.

* aduevTcu fr$ c B.

4 o-ov in ^BCDL.

• eycipe NBCDL2.

6 cycipe in B and D with k» ; the more forcible word.

Ver. 3. tivc9 t. ypap,p.aWciiv : some
scribes present on this occasion. Ominous
fact duly introduced by ISov ; its signifi-
cance still more distinctly recognised by
Luke, who gives it prominent mention
at the beginning of his narrative (ver. 17).
Sure sign of the extent, depth, and
quality of Christ's influence.— f)\aadVr|p,ci :
of course ; the prophet always is a
scandalous, irreverent blasphemer from
the conventional point of view. The
scribes regarded forgiveness purely under
the aspect of prerogative, and in self-
defence Jesus must meet them on their
own ground. His answer covers the
whole case. There is more than preroga-
tive in the matter ; there is the right,
duty, privilege, and power of every man
to promote faith in pardon by hearty
proclamation of the law of the moral
world. This is dealt with first. — Ver. 4.
iv6v|ii](rcis : Jesus intuitively read their
thoughts as He read the mental state of
the sick man. — ivo ti : elliptical for tva
ti yivi\rai understood = in order that
what may happen, do you, etc. (vide
Baumlein, Schul. Gram., § 696, and
Goodwin's Syn., § 331). — Ver. 5.
€tiKoiruT€pov (from €v and k<5itos, whence
tvKoiros ; in N.T. (Gospels) only the
comparative neuter is found, as here).
The question as to ability, Svvafus, is
first disposed of ; which is easier —
clirelv : they are both alike easy to
say; the vital matter is saying with
effect. Saying here stands for doing.
And to do the one thing was to do the

other. To heal was to forgive. It is
implied that it is easier to forgive than
to make a palsied man strong. Christ
means that the one is ordinary, the
other extraordinary ; the one is within
the power of any man, the other belongs
only to the exceptional man ; there is no
assumption in declaring pardon, there is
pretension in saying "arise and walk ". —
Ver. 6. tva 8c cIStjtc : transition tc the
other aspect, that of c£ovoua, the point
raised by the scribes when they looked a
charge of blasphemy.— 6 vlos rov av.,
Iirl tyjs yrjs : these two phrases point at
supposed disabilities for forgiving. " For-
giveness takes place in heaven, and is
the exclusive prerogative of God," was
the thesis of the scribes. " It may be
exercised even on earth, and by the Son
of Man," is the counter thesis of Christ.
Therefore " Son of Man " must be a
title not of dignity but of humiliation.
Here = one whom ye think lightly of ;
even He can forgive. — r6rt Xcyei. Jesus
stops short in His speech to the scribes
and turns to the sick man, saying :
eycipc, etc., also in ver. 6, intransitive.
The reading fycipcu in T.R., ver. 6, is a
correction of style, the use of the active
intransitively being condemned by
grammarians. Hence this various read-
ing always occurs. (Vide Suidas, s.v.,
and Buttmann, Gramm., p. 56.) — tt)v
kXivyjv, a light piece of furniture, easily
portable. — virayc : all three actions,
arising, lifting, walking, conclusive
evidence of restored power. — Ver.

ISO

RATA MATGAION

IX.

h ver. iy 8. iSorres 8e ol oj(\ot e'Oauu.ao-af, 1 Kai e'oo^aaav Toy 6c6k, tok o<5ira
(with ,

imitar). efouaiay TOiaurt]*' tois dyflpwirois.

31 ( = 9. Kal h irapdyuiv 6 'irjo-ous eKei0€f cIStK dVOpwrroy KaGrjueyoc ciri

away), to ' TeXcJyiok, MaT0aiok Xeyoucyoi', Kal Xeyei auTw, " 'AkoXouOei

i here and in „ » • ■ \>\/a ">><■ \ » > i ->

parall. uoi. Kai ' dfaoras t|ko\ou0t]o-€I' ■ outu). 10. Kai cytccTO auTou

I «"*■ "• J 4' w » » S» e » I v 4 »C ' \\ * \ ~ v « \ '

Lk. v. 38. dyo.Keifi.6kou ° ey ttj oikki, Kai* ibou, ttoXXoi TeXwcai Kai ap.apTw/voi

(Hebrew

rfiom ; c/. Num. xxii. 20). k Ch. xxii. 10 ; xxvi. 7, ao. Mk. xit. 18. Lk. xxii. 37.

1 £<}>opT)0T]o-av in fc^BD (Tisch., W.H.) €0avp.ao-av (CLA a/.) gives a commonplace
idea more to the taste of the scribes.

- ^tcoXovOei in ^D (Tisch.).

3 avaKcipcvov avTov in ^ C, as in text in most MSS.

4 Koi omitted in fr$D.

7. Said, done ; a convincing ar-
gumentum ad hominem. Who would
dispute the right to forgive to one who
could do that, or persist in the charge of
blasphemy against Him ? At least those
who do will get little sympathy from the
mass of spectators. — Ver. 8. 186vt«s
ol 6x^01. The people are free from the
petty jealousies and pedantic theories of
the professional class ; broad facts settle
the matter for them. They probably
had no scruples about the forgiving, but
if they, had the miracle would put an end
to them : the manifest authority and
power a witness of the non-apparent
(iroitiTat tt)v cfjavfpav [e|ovo-iav] t£k(ati-
piovT'r)sd4>avovs. Euthy.). — ecfco!3TJ0T]cra.v,
they feared ; may point to a change of
mind on the part of some who at first
were influenced by the disapproving
mood of the scribes. The solemn frown
of those who pass for saints and wise
men is a formidable thing, making many
cowards. But now a new fear takes the
place of the old, perhaps not without a
touch of superstition.

Vv. 9-13. The publican feast (Mk.
ii. 13-17 ; Lk. v. 27-32). The point of
interest for the evangelist in this narra-
tive is not the call of the publican disci-
ple, but the feast which followed, a
feast of publicans and " sinners " at
which Jesus was present proclaiming
by action what He formerly proclaimed
by word : a sinful past no doom. The
story, though not a miracle-history,
finds a place here because it follows
the last in Mark, in whose Gospel the
incident of the palsied man forms the
first of a group serving one aim — to show
the beginnings of the conflict between
Jesus and the religious leaders. The
same remark applies to the next section.

Ver. 9. -rrapaYiuv tutlBtv : passing

along from the scene of the last incident,
Jesus arrives at the custom-house of
Capernaum (tcXwviov). — cISev . . . MaT-
Baiov Xc-y. : there He saw a man named
Matthew. (On the identity of Matthew
with Levi in Mark and Luke, vide
Mark.) Capernaum being near the
boundary and on the caravan road be-
tween Egypt and Damascus, Matthew
would be a busy man, but, doubtless,
Christ and he have met before. — 'AkoX-
ovf)ei p.01 : Jesus acted on His own plans,
but the recent encounter with the scribes
would not be without influence on this
new departure — the call of a publican.
It was a kind of defiance to the party
who cherished hard thoughts not only
about pardon but about those who
needed pardon. An impolitic step the
worldly-wise would say ; sure to create
prejudice. But those who are too
anxious to conciliate the prejudices of
the present do nothing for the future. —
dvao-Tas T|KoXoij6T]a-ev : prompt compli-
ance, probably with some astonishment
at the invitation.

Ver. 10. Kal eYe'vcTo, etc. The narra-
tive of this incident in all three Syn-
optists is condensed, and the situation
not clear. What house is meant (iv Tfj
oIk.), and why so many (iroXXol) ?
" There were many," Mark remarks,
emphatically (ii. 15), and the t8oi< here
implies that something important took
place. Luke infers (for we need not
suppose independent information) that it
is a feast (Zo\r)v), and, doubtless, he is
right. But given by whom ? Levi,
according to Luke. It may have been
so, but not necessarily as the prime
mover ; possibly, nay, probably, as the
agent of his new Master. Our thoughts
have been too much biassed by the
assumption that the call of Matthew in

8-13-

EYAITEAION

15 1

AOorres vuvclvIkcivto to 'Iyjctou Kal tois p.a0r|Tais auTou. II. xal

iSorres ol 4>apio~aioi cittok 1 tois |ia0T|Tais auTou, " AiaTi u.t rd tok

TeXwKwy Kal duapTwXwj' ccrOid 6 OiSdaxaXos uu«i> , " 12. *0 8e
>. ~ 9 « / » > " 8 « «> ' 9 tit ' Mk. IX. 10.

lT]0"OUS ClKOUCTaS eiTTCl' ailTOlS, OU XP €tak ' CX 000 * 11 ' 0l W'XUOKTeS Lk. viii. g.

A C t *i Tt T *^

taTpOU, d\V 01 KClrCWS €X 0rr€ 5' 1 3- TOpeuGcVreS Be U.d0€T€ Tl 'loTtr, ( = means).

"""EXcof 4 0A.w, koI ou Quaiav' ou y a P TJXSoy KaXeVai Butai'ous, Ch. xii. 7

fr. Hose*
vi. 7.

dXX' dp,apTwXous els fietdw»OF." 6

1 cXeyov ^BCL (Tisch., W.H.). eiirov in D a£

2 ^BD omit Itjo-ovs (Tisch., W.H.).

* NBCD omit avTois (Tisch., W.H.).

4 fc^BCD have cXcos. eXeov is a gram. cor.

8 eis (Jieravoiav is wanting in fr$BDAI. It is a clear case of harmonising assimila-
tive on Lk. v. 32 for its effect on the sense.

tion.

this section is the main thing, and the
feast an accompanying incident, a fare-
well feast of Matthew's in which Jesus
passively partook. The truth, probably,
is that the call was a preliminary to the
feast, the first step in the working out of
a plan. Jesus aims at a mission among
the reprobated classes, and His first step
is the call of Matthew to discipleship,
and His second the gathering together,
through him, of a large number of these
classes to a social entertainment ; the
place of meeting being, possibly, not a
private house, whether Christ's or Mat-
thew's, but a public hall. If Matthew's
house or Simon's (in which Jesus pro-
bably had His home, vide Mark) was
large enough to have a quadrangular
court, the gathering might be there,
where, according to Faber, Archaologie
der Hebrder, p. 408, meetings of various
sorts were held. In any case it was a
great affair — scores, possibly hundreds,
present, too large for a room in a house,
a conventicle meeting, so to speak ; a
meeting with such people in the Syna-
gogue not being possible. For further
remarks vide on Mark. — teXwvou Kal
afAap-rwXo! : publicans naturally, if Mat-
thew was the host, but why apap. ? He
was a respectable man ; are the apap.
simply the TtXuvai as viewed from the
outside, so named in anticipation of the
Pharisaic description of the party ? If
Jesus was the inviter, they might be a
distinct class, and worse, very real sin-
ners, for His aim was a mission among
the social Pariahs.

Ver. 11. ISovTcs ol $ap. Here was a
good chance for the critics, really a
scandalous affair ! — Wis |xa0t)Tais. They
spoke to the disciples, possibly, as Euthy.

Zig. suggests, to alienate them from the
Master, possibly lacking courage to attack
Him face to face.

Ver. 12. 6 8J a. tlirtv: to whom?
Were the fault-finders present to hear ?
— ov xptiav, etc. : something similar can
be cited from classic authors, vide in-
stances in Grotius, Eisner, and Wetstein.
The originality lies in the application =
the physician goes where he is needed,
therefore, I am here among the people
you contemptuously designate publicans
and sinners. The first instalment, this,
of Christ's noble apology for associating
with the reprobates — a great word.
Ver. 13. irop€vfl€VT€s pdOeTE : a common
expression among the Rabbis, but they
never sent men to learn the particular
lesson that God prefers mercy to sacri-
fice. — koI ow, does not imply that sacri-
fice is of no account. — eXeos (eXeov in T.
R., a correction by the scribes), accusa-
tive neuter. Masculine nouns of 2nd de-
clension are often neuter 3rd in N. T. and
Sept. — tjXOov : Jesus speaks as one having
a mission. — apapTuXovg : and it is to the
sinful, in pursuance of the principle em-
bodied in the prophetic oracle — a mission
of mercy. The words io-xvovtes, ver.
12, and Sixaiovs, ver. 13, naturally sug-
gest the Pharisees as the class meant.
Weiss, always nervously afraid of allegor-
ising in connection with parabolic utter-
ances, protests, contending that it is
indifferent to the sense of the parable
whether there be any " whole " or
righteous. But the point is blunted if there
be no allusion. KaXeVai here has the
sense of calling to a feast.

Vv. 14-17. The fast-question (Mk.
ii. 18-22; Lk. v. 33-39). Totc. Our
evangelist makes a temporal connection

I 5 2

KATA MAT0AION

IX.

■ in parall. 14. ToTC •n , pOCTepJ(OKTai aUTW ol Jia6l]Tul "iwtWou, \4yoVTf$,

Tobit vi. "AtaTt T](i€is Kal ol <f>apiaaioi KTjcrreuop.ek TroXXd, 1 ol 8c p.ufliiTai
o 2 Pet. i. 13 aoo ou »»t]otcuoucti ; 1 5. Kal clircy auTois 6 'irjo-ous, " M^j

phrase). SuVaVTai ol ulol TOO * yufJK^WkOS TTeyOeiy, * €<$>' OCTOV iXtT* ttUTOf &TTII' 6

and Ch. r Kupjuos ; ^Xcuo-orrai 8e r^i.ipai orav q aTrapOifj dir' aurCjv 6 yuu<f>io$,
Johnii.o;Ka! totc vr)<jT€ucrou(Tiv. 16. ouSels 8e r £Tu{3dXXei ' €irij3Xr|p,a
Rev. xviii. pa.K0U9 ayi'atpou £tti ipuTuo -n-aXaiw • aipei yap to 7rA.T)pwp.a

*3-
q here and in parall. r here, in parall., in same sense. Cf. Mlt. xi. 7. a here and in parall.

C lame phr. in MIc. ii. 21. u without object here and in Mk. ii. ai.

1 iroXXa is in a large number of uncials, including ^ C CDLAZ.
gloss and is wanting in fc$*B 27, 71. Tisch. and W.H. omit.

Yet it looks like a

out of what in Mark is merely topical,
another of the £ rou P of incidents showing
Jesus in conflict with current opinion
and practice. Where it happened can-
not be determined, but it is brought in
appositely after the feast of the publicans,
serving with it to illustrate the free
unconventional life of the Jesus-circle. —
irpocepxovTat . . . ol p.a0. ludvvov. The
interrogants here are John's disciples ;
in Mark, unknown persons about John's
disciples with the Pharisees ; in Luke,
who treats this incident as a continuation
of the last, the fault-finders are the same
as before (01 8e). Mark probably gives
the true state of the case. Some persons
unknown, at some time or other, when
other religious people were fasting, and
the Jesus-circle were observed not to be
fasting, came and remarked on the dis-
sidence. — 8iaT£ : the interrogants wanted
to know the reason. But the important
thing for us is the fact, that Jesus and
His disciples did not conform to the
common custom of religious people, in-
cluding the disciples of the Baptist. It
is the first instance of an extensive
breach with existing religious usage. —
ov vTjo-Tcvovo-i : the broad patent fact ; if
they did any fasting it was not apparent.
Ver. 15. kou elirtv : The question
drew from Jesus three pregnant para-
bolic sayings: bright, genial, felicitous
impromptus ; the first a happy apology
for His disciples, the other two the
statement of a general principle. — oi viol
tov vup.<f>u>vos. The mere suggestion of
this name for the disciples explains all.
Paranymphs, friends of the bridechamber,
companions of the bridegroom, who act
for him and in his interest, and bring the
bride to him. How can they be sad (p.-rj
SvvavTai irevOeiv) ? The point to note is
that the figure was apposite. The life
of Jesus and His disciples was like a

wedding feast— they the principal actors.
The disciples took their tone from the
Master, so that the ultimate fact was the
quality of the personal piety of Jesus.
Therein lay the reason of the difference
commented on. It was not irreligion, as
in the case of the careless ; it was a
different type of religion, with a Father-
God, a kingdom of grace open to all,
hope for the worst, and spiritual spon-
taneity. — eXei'o-ovTai ^p.epat. While the
Bridegroom is with them life will be a
wedding feast ; when He is taken from
them it will make a great difference;
then (toV«) they will grieve, and therefore
fast : a hidden allusion to the tragic end
foreseen by Jesus of this happy free life,
the penalty of breaking with custom.

Vv. 16, 17. The substitution of v-no-
Tevovciv for ircvOetv, in the close of ver.
15, implicitly suggested a principle which
is now explicitly stated in parabolic
form: the great law of congruity ; practice
must conform to mood ; the spirit must
determine the form. These sayings,
apparently simple, are somewhat ab-
struse. They must have been over the
head of the average Christian of the
apostolic age, and Luke's version shows
that they were diversely interpreted.
Common to both is the idea that it is
bootless to mix heterogeneous things,
old and new in religion. This cuts two
ways. It defends the old as well as the
new; the fasting of John's disciples as
well as the non-fasting of Christ's. Jesus
did not concern Himself about Pharisaic
practice, but He was concerned to defend
His own disciples without disparagement
of John, and also to prevent John's way
and the respect in which he was justly
held from creating a prejudice against
Himself. The double application of the
principle was therefore present to His
mind. — Ver. 16, ovSeIc . . . -n-aXaiw. No

14—19-

EYAITEAION

153

auTou diro tou luaTiou, *al yzlpov tr/lapa ylverai. 17. ouSc T |3dX- v here,
Xouaii' olvov viov els Aeneous iraXaious ' ei 8e fi^yc, pifyyuKTat 01 John xiii
dcncoi, Kal 6 oti'os eKxeiTai, Kal ol doxol diroXoui'Tai l • dXXd 0dX- liquids).

\ * ' » .2 ^ ' ^>±/ 9w ~ ^* n * XXV»

Xoucm' oifOK Keoy cis aCTKOus KaiKous, Kai du<poT€pa * ao»Tr|pouvTai. 13 (i-ni

18. TauTa auTou XaXoorros auTois, ISou, apyjiay eXGwK 3 TrpoacKuVci w LkV 38
outw, Xeywv, "*0ti tj Ouydrnp uou ap-u eTeXeuTtjaei' • dXXd cXGwv x Mk. xvi

cttiOcs TT)i' x et P a °" 00 €ir Quttj*', Kai 7 t 1 1 " eTat - 19- Kai cyepOeis ix. 17

(same
const.).

y Mk. xvi.

Rom. xiv. 9.

6 'irjaous t|ko\ou0t)ct€(' 4 auTw Kal 01 uaOnral auTou.

11. John v. 25. Acts ix. 41.

1 For the future, in most MSS., ftfB have airoXXwTai. (Tisch., W.H.).

* All uncials have au$orcpoi.

* The reading is in confusion here. B has after opx«ov, »s irpocreXGwv, probably
the true reading out of which all variants arose (tis for sis ; «s om. ; eXOuv for irpoa. ;
cis cXOuv, «X6u)v.).

4 fc^CD have the imp. B as in text.

one putteth a patch of an unfulled, raw
piece of cloth (pdicos from pTJvvvp.i) on
an old garment. — to irXrjpp.a cvutov, the
filling, the patch which fills; of it, i.e.,
the old garment, not of the unfulled cloth
(Euthy., Grotius, De W., etc.). — aipei
diro, taketh from = tears itself away by
contraction when wetted, taking a part
of the old garment along with it. — Kal
. . . -yfveTai, and so a worse rent takes
place. This looks in the direction of an
apology for John and his disciples (so
Weiss) = they and we are in sympathy
in the main, but let them not assimilate
their practice to ours ; better remain as
they are ; imitation would only spoil a
good type of piety. What is to be done
with the unfulled cloth is not indicated,
but it goes without saying. Let it
remain by itself, be fulled, and then
turned into a good new garment.

Ver. 17. The new parable of the
wine and wine-skins is introduced, net
merely because the Speaker is full of
matter, but because it enables Him aptly
to show both sides of the question, the
twofold application of the principle. —
ox>8« pd\Xovo-iv : nobody puts new wine
into old skins; vcos applied to wine,
Kaivos to skins (do-Kovs Kaivovs). vcos
is new in time, Kaivos in quality. That
which is new in time does not necessarily
deteriorate with age ; it may even im-
prove. That which is new in quality
always deteriorates with age, like skins
or cloth, vide Trench's Synonyms, lx. — ■
el 8s p-TJye (vide ad vi. 1) : two disastrous
consequences ensue: skins burst, wine
spilt. The reason not stated, assumed
to be known. New wine ferments, old

skins have lost their toughness and
stretchableness. " They have become
hard leather and give no more " (Koets-
veld, De Gelijkenissen, p. 99). That is
the one side — keep the old to the old. —
dXXd f$aXXovo-i . . . <r«VTT|poSvTai : this
is the other — the new to the new ; new
wine in fresh skins, and both are pre-
served as suiting one another. With
reference to the two parables, Schanz
remarks that, in the first, the point of
comparison is the distinction between
part and whole, in the second form and
contents are opposed to each other.
So after him, Holtzmann in H.C.
Weiss takes both parables as explaining
the practice of John's disciples, Holtz-
mann as giving reasons why Christ's
disciples differed from all others. The
truth as above indicated lies between.

Vv. 18-26. The daughter of Jairus,
with interlude (Mk. v. 21-43 ; Lk. viii.
40-56). Given by Matthew in immediate
connection with the discourse on fast-
ing, but by Mark, and Luke following
him, in connection with the return from
the eastern shore, after the story of the
demoniac. Ver. 18. ISov . . . Xcyuv:
exactly the same formula as in viii. 2. —
dpx»v, an important person, a rulei
of synagogue, according to Mark. — cts :
peculiar here, but taken from Mark
where it is intelligible, the suppliant
being there described as one of the ruler*
of the synagogue. The word puzzled
the scribes, and gave rise to many variants
{vide crit. note). — apri eTeXevT^crev : this
statement of Matthew, compared with
those of Mark and Luke, which make
the father say his daughter was dying,

'54

KATA MATOAION

IX.

• here only 20. Kal loou, yuv^j * alpoppoouaa Swocko err), TrpoaeXOouaa

l ev. rv. 33. oiriaGcv, ■ityaTO toG * Kpacnr^oou too IpaTiou auTou. 21. eXeye yap

36; xxiii. iv caurf], " 'EoLr uoVoy a^/wpai tou taaTiou auTou, crwOi^aopai. 22.

56. Lie. O oe Irjaous tiriorpacpeis Kai ioa>^ auTTjy enre, Oapo-et, WuyaTep"

(Niim^xv. tj mans aou acawKe - o-c." Kal cacSAr] V) yuvr| airo ttjs wpas eVeivns.

38).

23. Kal c'XOoh' 6 Irjaous eis ttjc oiKiaf tou ap^orros, Kal ISwy tous

1 <rrpa<J>€i.s NBDX (Tisch., W.H.).

has created work for the harmonists.
The patristic view (Chrys., Theophy.,
Euthy.), that the statement was an
inference from the condition in which he
left her, or a natural exaggeration, has
been adopted by many. Probably it is
an inaccuracy of the evangelist's due to
abbreviation. The girl was dead when
Jesus arrived ; that was all he cared
about. The ruler thought Jesus could
do anything short of raising from the
dead, save even in articido mortis. But
our evangelist gives him credit for more
faith ; that Jesus can bring back from the
dead, at least when death has just taken
place. — J->io-€Tai, not remain living, but
revive, come to life again (Fritzsche). —
Ver. 19. eyepflels apparently refers back
to ver. 10, implying close sequence —
feasting, fasting, dying; such is life
indeed.

Vv. 20-22. The story is suspended at
this point by an interlude. — Ver. 20, Kal
l8ov:a new applicant for help appears on
the scene, on the way to Jairus' house. —
yvvf) . . . e-rq, a woman who had suffered
for twelve years from some kind of bloody
flux. — oirio-8ev : realistic feature ; from
womanly shame or the morbid shrinking
of chronic ill-health, or out of regard to
the law concerning uncleanness (Lev.

xv.). — Kpao-ircSov, Hebrew j"\^2 (Num.

xv. 38), fringes at the four corners of the
outer garment, to remind of the com-
mandments. In dress Jesus was not
nonconformist. His mantle, ijj.a-n.ov,
had its Kpao-ircSa like other people's. —
Tj\J/aTO, touched one of the tassels ; the
least possible degree of contact enough
to ensure a cure, without notice ; faith,
superstition and cunning combined.
Ver. 21. cXryc yip Iv eavrj} : such was
her little private scheme. Ver. 22, 6
Bi I. o-Tpa<J>eis Kal L8»v. Matthew's
narrative here is simple as compared
with that of Mark and Luke, probably a
transcript from Apostolic Document,
concerned mainly about the words of
Jesus. So far as our evangelist is con-

cerned the turning round of Jesus might
be an accident, or due to consciousness
of a nervous jerk instinctively understood
to mean something. — 6apo-ci, BvyaTtp,
again as in ix. 2, a terse, cordial sym-
pathetic address ; there child to a man,
here daughter to a mature woman. —
irio-Tis, no notice taken of the super-
stition or the cunning, only of the good
side ; mark the rhythm : -q ttio-tis <rov
crt'o-toKeV <re, again in Lk. vii. 50, where,
with TropfvoD cts «lpi^vt]v, it forms a
couplet. — o-e'cra>K€v, perfect, not future,
to convey a feeling of confidence = you
are a saved woman. — koA ko-66r), and so
she was from that hour. A true story in
the main, say Strauss and Keim, strictly
a case of faith-cure.

Vv. 23-26. The narrative returns to
the case of Jairus' daughter. Ver. 23,
iX9uv . . . Kat I8u»v, circumstantial
participles leading up to what Jesus
said, the main fact. — toxis avXijras, etc. :
the girl was only just dead, yet already
a crowd had gathered about the house,
brought together by various motives,
sympathy, money, desire to share in the
meat and drink going at such a time (so
Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., ut ederent et
biberetit), and of course making a con-
fused din. — 6opv(3ovfi.evov, the part. = a
relative with finite verb = the crowd
which was making a din. The crowd,
besides the aviXrjTai, tibicines, flute-
players, would include some hired
mourning women (Jerem. ix. i"]),prcefic(Z,
whose duty it was to sing nania in praise
of the dead. Mourning, like everything
else, had been reduced to system, two
flutes and one mourning woman at the
burial of a wife incumbent on the
poorest man (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb.).
The practice in Greece and Rome was
similar ; proofs in Grotius, Eisner, Wet-
stein. Vide also Marquardt, Handbuch
der Rom. Alterthumer, vol. vii., p. 341,
where it is stated that by the twelve
Tables the number of tibicines was
limited to ten, and that before the Punic
war, at least, prcefica were employed. —

Jo— 31.

EYArrEAIOJN

l 5S

b ao\t]Tas Kal toc oxXoy * GopuPoupevoy, 24. Xe'yei auToi?, 1 " 'Afa-
)(wp€iT€ • ou y^P dTrfiflake to Kopdoaoi', dXXd d KafieuSei." Kal
darcy^Xwi' auToG. 25. Otc 8e * e|e{3\r)0T) 6 S)(Xos, eiaeXOiov

' £KpdTT)0-€ TT)S X €l P° S a " T ^S, Kal TJY^P&l TO KOpdcuOV. 26. Kal

€tjTjX0€i' r\ ■ cp-q/xrj aur*] els oXrjv ttji' yt]*' ckciv't]^.

27. Kal irapciYorri €K€i9ey to Itjctou, r|KoXou0T]o-av auTw 8uo
TU(})Xoi, Kpd£ocTes Kal \iyovre<i, " h 'E\4r)aov TJpas, ule 2 Aa|3io."
28. 'EX06cti Se els ttjv oikuu', TrpotrrjXOoy outw ol Tu<pXoi, Kal Xe'yei
au-rois 6 'irjaous, "riioreueTe on SuVapai touto TroiTJaai;" Aiyouaiv
aoTw, " Nat, Kopie." 29. Tote rj>]/aTO tw o^GaXpGJf auiw, Xe'Ywv,
" KaTd TT|f ttioth' upwy yevn]Qr\TO) {spiv. 30. Kal dc6<j>x0T]O"a»' ?
aurwi' ol 6<}>0aXpoi • Kal * cVePpiprjo-aTO 4 auTol? 6 'ItjooGs, Xcywc,
" 'OpaTe pt]8els yii'wo'KCTW." 31. Ol Se e£eX06VTes J oied^rjpiaray
auTOK iv oXtj ttj yf? eKeing.

b Rev. xviii.

22.
c Mk. v. 39.

Acts xvii.

J ; zz. 10
d 1 Thess. v.

10 (= to

be dead).
eCh. xxi. 12.
f Mk. i. 31.
g Lk. iv. 14.

h Ch. xv. ;2;
xx 30.

i Mk. t. 43.

j Ch. xxviii.

15. Mk. i.
45-

1 For Xeyti avrois fc«$BD have tXrycr.

2 For vie B has vios.

3 Tjvtwx- in BD.

4 6V€ppipT)0t] in fr$B, a less usual form avoided by scribes.

Ver. 24. dvaxwpeiTt, retire ! Hired
mourners distasteful to Jesus, who
gladly avails Himself of this opportunity
of dismissing them. — ov yap dire'flave: no
need of you yet, for the maid (Kopdcriov,
dim. for Koprj, but = puella in late
Greek) is not dead. A welcome word
to naturalistic commentators, giving a
plausible basis for the hypothesis of an
apparent death or swoon (Schleier., Keim,
etc.), not to be taken prosaically as
meant to deny death. Yet Carr (C. G.
T.) thinks it open to question whether
it ought not to be taken literally, and
doubtful whether Koipdo-Oai is ever used
in a metaphorical sense in the N. T. or
elsewhere. The derisive laughter of the
crowd (KaTCYe'Xwv) is good evidence to
the contrary. — e£«P>oiGii : not to be
pressed as implying physical force,
non vi et manibus, sed voce jussuque
(Fritzsche), a tone and manner not to
be resisted, the house therefore soon
cleared of the noisy crowd. — Ver. 26,
I^tjXOcv t| <j>., against the wish of Jesus,
who did not desire raising the dead to be
regarded as a part of His ordinary work.
Perhaps that was why He said : " she
sleepeth" (Weiss, L. J., Marcus-Evang.).
— -rrjv ■yTJv £K6iv»|v : Weiss thinks the ex-
pression implies that the evangelist is a
stranger to Palestine (Weiss-Meyer).

Vv. 27-31. Two blind men. — This
miracle-narrative and the next

paratively colourless and uninteresting.
They bring under notice two new types
of disease, blindness and possession
accompanied with dumbness. The
interest in both cases, however, lies not
so much in the cures as in the words
spoken. — Ver. 27. Tu<f>Xol: blindness
common from limestone dust in the air
and changing temperature. — vlos A.,
Messianic appellation, first time ad-
dressed to Jesus, a point of interest for
the evangelist ; not welcome to Jesus,
who feared the awakening of false ex-
pectations. Therefore He took no notice
of them on the way to His house, whither
He retired after the last incident. — Ver.
28. *\06Vti «ls t. o. irpo<ri)\Qov : they
follow, and Jesus at last takes notice of
them, asking if they have faith in His
power. His previous conduct might
throw doubt on His willingness, but that
is dispelled by speaking to them. — vai:
a prompt glad "yes " is their answer. —
Ver. 30. Tjv€a>'x0'»]o"av, a Hebraism. The
Jews thought of blind eyes as shut, and
of seeing eyes as open. — evePpi(xi]0T],
sternly enjoined (vide Mk. i. 43). The
paraphrase of Euthy. Zig. gives a vivid
idea of the meaning, "looked severely,
contracting His eyebrows, and shaking
His head at them, as they are wont to
do who wish to make sure that secrets
will be kept ". — Ver. 31. Iv oXfl t. 7. ck.
(vide remarks on ver. 26).

i 5 6

KATA MAT9AI0N

IX.

kCh.xO.aa. 32. Autuw 8t ^epxou-^WK, 1800, -npovqvtyKay auTw dVOpanToe '

Acts .

31. 1 Cor. ko)4>ov

v,.«; xiv.

ii |ume €AaAt]a«»'

8aiu<m£6u,ei'oi'.
ifyavr) outws

33. teal tKpXrjG^rros tou 8aiuoviou,
edaup.aaac ol S)(Xoi, X^yoi'Tes, ""On 2
lapai]\." 34. Ol 8e <t>apiomoi

Ef TO)

teal
me of tv, , c ,"
vide also OUOeTTOTe

4; xxx. 13). eXeyof, "' 'Ev tu> ' apxorri iw 8aiu,0Kia>y cKpMXXei to, 8aip.6taa." 3
but there 35« KAI m Tfepujyef 6 'Itjctous Tas xroXcis Trdcras Kal tc\s Kwp.as,
here with SiSdatcwf iv Tais auyaycoyais auTwc, Kal tCTipuffo-wy to cuayyAiof

•ecus. " n \ > \ a t « / \ - \ ' »

ttjs patnXetas, Kai vepaireuwf iracraK foaof Kat irao-af poAaxun' ev

1 £^B omit avGpojirov.

3 D, a, k, Syr. Sin. omit ver

The dumb demoniac (Lk

'-' ^BCl) omit on.
W.H. bracket.

Vv. 32-34.
xi. 14). A slight narrative, very meagre
in comparison with the story of the Gera-
6ene demoniac, the interest centring in
the conflicting comments of spectators
which probably secured for it a place in
the Logia of Matthew. Ver. 32. Avptwv
{|cpX°r^ v<dV : while the two blind men are
going out they bring another sufferer to
the great Healer; an incessant stream of
applicants for aid flowing towards His
door. — kio<J>6v : dumbness the apparent
symptom. The word literally means blunt,
and in Homer (II., ii. 390) is applied to a
weapon. In N. T. it is used with refer-
ence to the senses and faculties, here the
faculty of speech (ver. 33, eXdXTjtrtv),
in xi. 5, that of hearing. — Saip.ovi£<Sp.evov :
the inferred cause. It was known that
the dumbness was not due to any physi-
cal defect. Speech seemed to be prevent-
ed by some foreign spiritual power ; the
mental disease, possibly, melancholy. —
Ver. 33. ^Xo\t)o-«v: that cured, speech
followed. — ^0avp,a<rav : the crowd present
wondered, hearing one speak whom they
had so long known to be dumb. — oiSeiroTe
«4>dvr|, etc. : thus they expressed their
surprise ; the like was never seen in
Israel. €<f>dvr| is impersonal, the refer-
ence being to the change in the man ;
the manner of expression is colloquial,
"nd it is idle to discuss the precise mean-
ing of oCtws, and what nominative is to
be supplied to e^dvrj. It is more to the
purpose to inquire why this seemingly
minor miracle should make so great an
impression. Perhaps we should not
isolate it, but take it along with the other
marvels that followed in quick succession
as joint causes of admiration. The
people were worked up into a high
measure of astonishment which, at last,
found vent in these words. So in effect
Euthy., also Rosenmuller (" tot signa, tarn
admirabilia, tarn celeriter, neque con-
tactu tantum, sed et verbo, et in omni

morborum genere"). — Ver. 34. ol 8£ 4>ap.
fXryov. The multitude admired, but the
Pharisees said. They are watching
closely the words and acts of Jesus and
forming their theories. They have got
one for the cures of demoniacs. — ^v t£
apxovn t. S : He casts out demons in
the power of the prince of demons.
Probably they did not believe it, but it was
plausible. How differently men view
the same phenomenon (vide on Matt.
xii. 22 £).

Vv. 35-38. These verses look both
backwards and forwards, winding up the
preceding narrative of words and deeds
from chap. v. onwards, and introducing
a new aspect of Christ's work and experi-
ence. The connection with what follows
is strongest, and the verses might, with
advantage, have formed the commence-
ment of chap. x. Yet this general state-
ment about Christ's teaching and healing
ministry (ver. 35) obviously looks back to
iv. 23, 24, and, therefore, fitly ends the
story to which the earlier summary
description of the ministry in Galilee
forms the introduction. It is, at the
same time, the prelude to a second act
in the grand drama (chap. ix. 35 — xiv.
12). In the first act Jesus has appeared
as an object of general admiration ; in
the second He is to appear as an object
of doubt, criticism, hostility.

Ver. 36. ISwv ii tovs oxXous: in the
course of His wanderings Jesus had
opportunities of observing the condition
of the people, and at length arrived at a
clear, definite view as to the moral and
religious situation. It was very sombre,
such as to move His compassion (eVirXaY-
XvUtOt), post classical, in Gospels only).
The state of things suggested two
pictures to His mind : a neglected flock
of sheep, and a harvest going to waste
for lack of reapers. Both imply, not
only a pitiful plight of the people, but
a blameworthy neglect of duty on the

32—3».

EYAITEAION

157

tw Xaw. 1 36. iSwk 8c Tods S)(\ous, * eaTrXayxfurOr) ircpl auTwy, n here only

• '■»' > \ \ ' 2 v » ' 3 « * 'Q v» withirepi;

on i](Tav eKAeXup-eyoi i Kai eppijAiiecot ° wcrei irpopaTa (irj €)(orra with en-i,
TTOifieVa. 37. tot€ Xe'yci tois u,a0r|Tais auTou, " 'O fiev ° 0€pi<rp.os 14." Mk.

iroXus, ol Be epyaTai oXiyoi • 38. 8er]8r|Te oSV tou Kupiou tou 9ept.tr- viii. 2'aJ.

«• o>oy\sy »*o \ > * »> Chi xui.

(aou, oirus eKpaXn €pyuTa9 eis rov ocpiapvof auTou. 3 o, 3 q.

Mk. iv jo
Lk. x. a. p Lk. x 2. John x. 4

1 tv to) Xaco brought in probably from iv. 23. BCDAI omit (Tisch., W.H.).

2 €K\eXvp,6vou (T. R.) is a very weakly-supported reading, having only one im-
portant uncial, L, on its side. ^BCDAZ al. have eo-KuXp.evoi — the true reading.

3 The variation here is simply a matter of spelling : €p. in ^BCL (Tisch., W.H.),
epp. (T. R.) TA, pep. D.

part of their religious guides — the shep-
herds by profession without the shep-
herd heart, the spiritual husbandmen
without an eye for the whitening fields
and skill to handle the sickle. The
Pharisaic comments on the Capernaum
mission festival (ix. 11) were sufficient to
justify the adverse judgment. Their
question on that occasion meant much,
and would not be forgotten by Jesus. —
cVtcvXpevoi, eptu.u.e'voi, graphic words,
clear as to general import, though
variously understood as to their precise
meaning. The former may mean
"flayed" (from <no)\ov, Holtz., H. C), or
"hunted" and tired out (Weiss-Meyer),
the practical sense is " exhausted by
long, aimless wandering, foot-sore and
fleece-torn ". The other points to the
natural sequel — lying down, scattered
about (piTTTw), here one, there another,
on the hill side, just where they found
themselves unable to go a step further.
A flock can get into such a condition
only when it has no shepherd to care for
it and guide it to the pastures.

Vv. 37, 38. 0epio-|xbs : a new figure
coming in abruptly in the narrative, but
not necessarily so close together in
Christ's mind. The one figure suits the
mood of passive sympathy ; the other,
that of the harvest, suits the mood of
active purpose to help. It would not be
long in the case of Jesus before the one
mood passed into the other. He could
not be a mere pitying spectator. He
must set on foot a mission of help.
The Capernaum feast was the first stage ;
the mission of the twelve the second.
The word " harvest " implies spiritual
susceptibility. Weiss protests against
this inference as allegorising interpre-
tation of a parabolic saying which simply
points to the want of suitable labourers

(vide L. J,, ii. ug). So also Schanz
maintains, against Euthy., that not sus-
ceptibility but need is pointed to. But,
as against Weiss, it is pertinent to ask :
what suggested the figure of a harvest
if not possibilities of gain to the
kingdom of God, given sympathetic
workers ? This hopeful judgment as to
the people of the land, contrasted with
Pharisaic despair and contempt, was
characteristic of Jesus (vide my Kingdom
0/ God, chap. v.). — ipyarai oXi-yoi: pro-
fessional labourers, men busying them-
selves with inculcation of moral and
religious observances, abundant; but
powerless to win the people because with-
out sympathy, hope, and credible accept-
able Gospel. Their attempts, if any,
only make bad worse — (sub legis on-
ere segrotam plebem, Hilary). "Few"
— as yet only one expert, but He is train-
ing others, and He has faith in prayer for
better men and times. — Ver. 38. Sci^Otjtc :
the first step in all reform — deep, devout
desire out of a profound sense of need.
The time sick and out of joint — God
mend it 1 — oiro>s cK^aXxj, etc. The pray-
er, expressed in terms of the parabolic
figure, really points to the ushering in of
a new era of grace and humanity —
Christian as opposed to Pharisaic, legal,
Rabbinical. In the old time men thought
it enough to care for themselves even in
religion ; in the new time, the impulse and
fashion would be to care for others.
^KpaXr), a strong word (cf. Mk. iv. 29,
airoo-TeXXti), even allowing for the
weakened force in later Greek, implying
Divine sympathy with the urgent need.
Men must be raised up who can help the
time. Christ had thorough faith in a
benignant Providence. Luke gives this
logion in connection with the mission of
the .seventy (x. 2).

i 5 8

KATA MAT0AION

• ch.xii.43.

Mk. i. S3,
26; iii. 11.
Lk. iv. 33,

36 al. (in
ret. to
demons.),
b once only
in Mt. and
Mk. (vi.
30), often
..1 Lk.

X. I. Kal ■n-pooxaXeo-djj.cyos tous SwScica pa0i]Tds aurou, c^wkc*-
auTois e£ouaiay irccofidTWK ' dKaddpTue, wcrre tK.SdXXfci.v, auTa, Kal
OepaiTeuetK irdcray voaov Kal iraaay uaXaKiac. 2. Twk 8e SwocKa
b diroo-roXwi' Ta 6>op.aTd coti TauTa ■ irpwTos Iipojv 6 Xcyopeeos
n^Tpos, Kal AfSpcas 6 doeX<|>6s aoroo • 'idKOjjBos 1 6 toO Ze^eSaiou,
Kal l<i)&vvr\s 6 dotX^os auTOu • 3- ♦iXnriros, Kal BapOoXopaios '
©upas, Kal MaT8aios 6 TeXwrns ' ldKw0os 6 tou AX4>atou, Kal

1 fr$B have Kai before laK(o{3o<s.

Chapter X. The Galilean Mission.
The beginnings of the mission to the
neglected "lost" sheep of Israel may be
found in the Capernaum feast (ix. 10).
As time went on Jesus felt increasingly
the pressure of the problem and the need
for extended effort. Matthew's call was
connected with the first stage of the
movement, and that disciple was Christ's
agent in bringing together the gathering
of publicans and sinners. He is now
about to employ all the intimate dis-
ciples He has collected about Him and
through them to spread the movement
all over Galilee. They will be a poor
substitute for Himself, yet not wholly
useless like the scribes, for they have
heard His teaching on the hill and
imbibed somewhat of His spirit of love.

Vv. 1-15. The Twelve: their names,
mission, and relative instructions (Mk.
iii. 14-19, vi. 7-13, Lk. ix. 1-6).

Ver. 1. irpoo-KaXtordpevos : this does
not refer to the call to become disciples,
but to a call to men already disciples to
enter on a special mission. — toxis 8<S8«Ka,
the Twelve. The article implies that a
body of intimate disciples, twelve in
number, already existed. The evangelist
probably had Mk. iii. 14 in view. He
may also reflect in his language the
feeling of the apostolic age to which
the Twelve were familiar and famous.
Hitherto we have made the acquaintance
of five of the number (iv. 18-22, ix. 9).
Their calls are specially reported to
illustrate how the body of twelve grew. —
«|ovirriav, authority, not to preach, as we
might have expected, but to heal. The
prominence given to healing in this
mission may surprise and disappoint,
and even tempt to entertain the suspicion
that the exalted ideas concerning the
Twelve of after years have been read into
the narrative. This element is certainly
least prominent in Mark. Yet to some
extent it must have had a place in the
mission. The people in Galilee had all
aca.'d of Jesus and His work, and it was

no use sending the Twelve unless they
could carry with them something of His
power. — ■jrvrupaTwv a., genitive objective,
as in John xvii. 3, Rom. ix. 21. u<rre
c'k . . . Kal dcpa-rreveiv, dependent also
on e|oiJo-lav (cf. 1 Cor. ix. 5), uxrre with
infinitive indicating tendency of the
power, irdo-av voorov, etc., echo of iv.

23-

Ver. 2. t£»v 8£ Su>8. airoo-ToXtov : etc.,
the evangelist finds here a convenient
place for giving the names of the Twelve,
called here for the first and last time
dirdo-ToXoi, with reference at once to the
immediate minor mission (from diroo-Te'X-
X«iv, vide ver. 5) and to the later great
one. One half of them are for us mere
names, and of one or two even the names
are doubtful, utterly obscure, yet, doubt-
less, in their time and sphere faithful
witnesses. They are arranged in pairs,
as if following the hint of Mark that they
were sent out by two and two, each pair
connected with a Kal (so in Luke, not in
Mark). — -rrpuiTos: at the head of the list
stands Peter, first not only numerically
(Meyer) but in importance, a sure matter
of fact, though priestly pretensions based
on it are to be disregarded. He is first
in all the lists. — 6 Xry. rirrpos: a fact
already stated (iv. 18), here repeated
probably because the evangelist had his
eye on Mark's list (iii. 16) or possibly to
distinguish this Simon from another in
the list (No. n). Ver. 3. BapBoXopotos,
the 6th, one of the doubtful names, com-
monly identified with Nathanael (John
i. 46). — MarSaios 6 TeXtivns, one of four
in the list with epithets : Peter the first,
Simon the zealot, Judas the traitor,
Matthew the publican ; surely not with-
out reason, except as echoing ix. 9
(Meyer). Matthew stands second in his
pair here, before Thomas in Mark and
Luke. Position and epithet agree,
indicative, Euthy. suggests, of modesty
and self-abasement. — Ver. 4. 2ip.a>v a
Kavavaios : Luke gives tov KaX. Zk]X<ot»|»
= the zealot, possibly a piece of in-

EYAITEAION

159

Aef3|3aios o e , TUKXT]0ei<; SaSSaios 1 4. Iipw 6 KamKiTTjs, 2 nai louSas 8
laKapiuTTjs 6 Kal * irapaSous auToV. c again in

5. Toutou9 tous SuSeKa a-nicneikev 6 Irjaous, TrapayyciXas ciutois, Judas,
Xiyw, " Eis 686y iQv&v p.rj d.TTeX9if]Te, Kal els iriXiv lapapenw p.Yi 15; xxvii
etCTc\0T]Te • 6. iropeuea^e 8e paXXoy lrpos Tot d irp6f3aTa to. d airoXw-d Chtxv. 24.

\6ra * oikou 'lapairjX. 7 • wopeuop.ei'oi 8e KTjpuo-aeTe, XeyovTes, °Oti e Ch. xv. a,

Actsii.
vii. 4a.

r]YYiKCf t\ fJacnXeia iw oupayuf. 8. da9ccoorras OepaireueTe,

1 D has AsSpaLos (eos) alone. ^B have 6a.88a1.09 alone. The reading in T. R.
as above is simply a conflate reading combining the two by a connecting phrase,
o citikXt]Ocis.

2 BCDL have Kavavaios, probably the true form.
5 o before lo-Kap. in £^BDA.

formation based on an independent
reliable source, or his interpretation of

the Hebrew word "^fc^p. The form

Kavavaios seems to be based on the idea
that the word referred to a place. Jerome
took it to mean "of Cana," " de vico
Chana Galilaeae ". 'lovSas 6 'lo-Kapiunjs :
last in all the lists, as Peter is first. The
epithet is generally taken as denoting the
place to which he belonged : the man of
Issachar (Grotius) ; but most render : the
man of Kerioth (in Judah, Joshua xv. 25,
Jer. xlviii, 41) ; in that case the one non-
Galilean disciple. The ending, -«t»j$, is
Greek ; in Mark the Hebrew ending, -m9,
is given.

Vv. 5-15. Instructions to the missioners.
Ver. 5. To^tovs t. 8«i8 : These, the Twelve,
Jesus sent forth, under the injunctions
following (irapayyeiXas). — els 68ov c'O. (tT|
direXGifjTe. This prohibition occurs in
Matthew only, but there is no reason to
doubt its authenticity except indeed that
it went without saying. The very pro-
hibition implies a consciousness that one
day the Gospel would go the way of the
Gentiles, just as Mt. v. 17 implies con-
sciousness that fulfilling, in the speaker's
sense, would involve annulling.— 686v
eflvuiv, the way towards (Meyer), the
genitive being a genitive of motion
(Fritzsche, Kiihner, § 414, 4), or a way
within or of, parallel to ir<S\iv Zapapeiiw
in next clause. — els if. Sap.., not even in
Samaria should they carry on their
mission. The prohibition is total.
iroXiv does not refer to the chief city
(Erasmus, Annot., metropolis) or to the
towns as distinct from the rural parts
through which at least they might pass
(Grotius). It means any considerable
centre of population. The towns and
villages are thought of as the natural

sphere of work (ver. 11). The reason ol
the double prohibition is not given, but
doubtless it lay in the grounds of policy
which led Christ to confine His own
work to Israel, and also in the crude
religious state of the disciples.— Ver. 6.
diroXtoXoVa, " the lost sheep," an ex-
pression consecrated by prophetic use
(Jer. 1. 6, Swetc "s ed., xxvii. 6), the epithet
here first introduced, often occurring in
Gospels, was used by Jesus not in blam?
but in pity. " Lost " in His vocabulary
meant "neglected" (ix. 36), in danger
also of course, but not finally and hope-
lessly given over to perdition, salvabltr
if much needing salvation. The term is
ethical in import, and implies that the
mission had moral and religious improve-
ment mainly in view, not mere physical
benefit through healing agency; teaching
rather than miraculous acts. — Ver. 7.
iropevdu.evoi K^pvo-crere, as ye go, keep
preaching; participle and finite verb,
both present. Preaching first in the
Master's thoughts, if not in the evangel-
ist's (ver. 1). — tjyY IK£V "1 (JafiXeta t. o.:
the theme is, of course, the kingdom
longed for by all, constantly on the lips
of Jesus. The message is : It has come
nigh to you and is here. Very general,
but much more, it may be taken for
granted, was said. The apprentice
apostles could as yet make no intelligent
theoretic statement concerning the King-
dom, but they could tell not a little about
the King, the Master who sent them, the
chief object of interest doubtless for all
receptive souls. It was a house mission
(not in synagogue) on which they were
sent (ver. 12). They were to live as guests
in selected dwellings, two in one, and
two in another, for a time, and their
preaching would take the form of familiar
conversation on what they had seen and

i6o

KATA MAT0AION

I Rom iil. XtiTpous Ka0(ipt^6Tt, I'tKpous tyeiptTe, 1 ouip.Ofiu eKfiaWne. ' Owped*

t Lk. xviii. e\dPcT€, Sojpeac 8otc. 9. M^ ' kti]<tt)<x0€ \puvbv, p.nS€ apyupoi',

10.' Actst. p.T]8£ x<iXkoc cts Tas £wyas ujiw*', 10. pifj irr\pav els 686f, pvrjSe 81I0

30; xxii. x tT '* ,Ka 5» r")^' uiroSimaTa, utjSc ftd^Sov ■ d£ios Yap 6 epydrr)S tt)S
■&

1 vcxpous rycipcT* is wanting in L, but well attested by fc^BCDI. The position
varies in MSS., after Soup,. tKpaXX. in PA, before Xcir. icaOap. in fc^BCDX.

heard Jesus do and say. They would
talk by the hour, healing acts would be
very occasional, one or two in a village.
Ver. 8. vcKpous iytiptrt. This clause
is wanting in several Codd., including L,

so often associated with ^B in good read-
ings. It is, however, too well attested to
be omitted. It must either have found a
place in the autograph, or it must have
crept in as a gloss at a very early period.
The evangelist's aim seems to be to
represent Christ as empowering the
disciples to do the works He is reported
to have done Himself in chaps, viii., ix.
That purpose demands the inclusion of
raising the dead as the crowning miracle
of the group (raising of daughter of
Jairus). Yet it is hard to believe that
Jesus would give power to the disciples
to do, as an ordinary part of their
mission, what He Himself did only on
one or two exceptional occasions. The
alternatives seem to be either an early
gloss introduced into the text, or an
inaccuracy on the part of the evangelist.
Meyer takes the former view, Weiss
apparently the latter. We cannot take
the phrase in a spiritual sense, the other
clauses all pointing to physical miracles.
This clause is not in the accounts of
Mark and Luke. The seventy on their
return (Luke x. 17) make no mention of
raising the dead.

Ver. g. p-t) icrrjo-Tjo-Oe : Vulgate : nolite
possidere. But the prohibition is directed
not merely against possessing, but
against acquiring (xEKTr|p.ai, perfect =
possess). The question is as to the scope
of the prohibition. Does it refer merely to
the way, or also to the mission ? In one
case it will mean : do not anxiously pro-
cure extensive provision for your journey
(Meyer) ; in the other it will mean, more
comprehensively: do not procure for the
way, or during the mission, the things
named. In other words, it will be an
injunction to begin and carry on the
mission without reward. Though the
reference seems to be chiefly to the
starting point, it must be in reality to
iheir conduct during the mission. There

was no need to say : do not obtain gold
before starting, for that was practically
impossible. There was need to say:
do not take gold or silver from those
whom you benefit, for it was likely to be
offered, and acceptance of gifts would be
morally prejudicial. That, therefore, is
what Jesus prohibits, true to His habit
of insisting on the supreme value of
motive. So Jerome (condemnatio avari-
tiae), Chrys., Hilary, etc. bo also
Weiss. Holtz. (H.C.), while concurring
in this interpretation, thinks the pro-
hibition suits better the conduct of the
Christ-merchants in the Didache than
the circumstances of the disciples. —
Xpvo-ov, ap-yvpov, \o.\kov : an anti-
climax, not gold, not silver, not even a
copper. — cU to.? £uvas, in your girdles,
used for this purpose as well as for
gathering up the loose mantle, or in
purses suspended from the girdle. " It
was usual for travellers to carry purses
(4>a<ri«o\ia) suspended from their girdles ;
in which they carried the pence " (Euthy.).
— Ver. 10. Trtjpav, a wallet for holding
provisions, slung over the shoulder
(Judith xiii. 10, iriipav t<Sv f3pup.dTv). —
Svo x iT w va s : not even two under-gar-
ments, shirts ; one would say very neces-
sary for comfort and cleanliness in a hot
climate, and for travellers along dusty
roads. In Mark the prohibition seems
to be against wearing two at the same
time (vi. 8) ; here against carrying a
spare one for a change. Possibly we
ought not to take these instructions
too literally, but in their spirit. — viroSi}-
p.aTa : this does not mean that they
were to go barefooted, but either without
a spare pair, or without more substantial
covering for the feet (shoes) than the
light sandals they usually wore— mere
soles to keep the feet off the hard road.
Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.) distinguishes
between the two thus : " usus delicatoris
fuerunt calcei, durioris atque utilioris
sandalia ". He states that there were
sandals, whose soles were of wood, and
upper part of leather, the two joined by
nails, and that they were sometimes
made of rushes or the bark of palms.

9—14-

EYAITEAION

ibi

Tpo^vrjs auTOu earif. 1 II. Eis r\v 8 &v iroXie t) KbS|XT]f €io-€X9t)T€,

h e^eTcio-aTe tis ec aurrj a£ios eon • icdicei peiVaTe, Iws ay es'eXOnre. h Ch. ii. 8.

> * t i < > i flii <»\ Johu XXI.

12. €K7epxop.eeoi be eis ttji' oiiuaf, a<nra(racr(7e au-rrji'. 13. Kai cap 12 .

pee t) •q oiKia d^ia, eXOeTw iq eipr\vq upuW eir' aur^y ecu* 8e prj ij i Ch. xii. 44.

d|ia, t) ciprjcT) upwi> irpos upas J eiriorpa<j)^TU. 14. ical 05 ede 2 pt] 25.

S^TjTai upas, p^Se aKouo-rj tous Xoyous upflv, e^epxcpe^oi 3 rfjs x. 11. Acts

OIKiaS 1] TT]S TToXewS eK€inr]S, CKTlfd^aTC TOI' j KOl'tOpTOk' 4 TWf 7To8di>'

xin. 51 ;
xxii. 23.

1 NBCL omit «°" riv - 2 av in N BDL - 3 ^BD add e£<o.

4 ^C add £ic (Tisch.). BD omit (with T. R.). W.H. have it on margin.

— pd(38ov : not even a staff ! That can
hardly be meant. Even from the
romantic or picturesque point of view
trie procession of pilgrim missioners
would not be complete without a staff
each in their hand. If not a necessity,
at least, it was no luxury. Mark allows
the staff, creating trouble for the har-
monists. Grotius suggests : no second
staff besides the one in hand ! Glassius,
quoted by Fritzsche in scorn, suggests a
staff shod with iron (scipio) for defence.
Ebrard, with approval of Godet, thinks
of two different turns given to the

Aramaic original ntOft Dfc$ "O =
either " if you take one staff it is
enough," or "if, etc., it is too much".
Really the discrepancy is not worth all
this trouble. Practically the two ver-
sions come to the same thing : take only
a staff, take not even a staff ; the latter
is a little more hyperbolical than the
former. Without even a staff, is the ne
plus ultra of austere simplicity and self-
denial. Men who carry out the spirit of
these precepts will not labour in vain.
Their life will preach the kingdom better
than their words, which may be feeble
and helpless. " Nothing," says Euthy.,
"creates admiration so much as a simple,
contented life " (|3ios acrictvos ko.1 6\i-
YapKifc). — a£ios . . . t. Tptxprjs : a
maxim universally recognised. A labourer
of the type described is not only worthy
but sure of his meat ; need have no con-
cern about that. This is one of the few
sayings of our Lord referred to by St.
Paul (1 Cor. ix. 14), whose conduct as
an apostle well illustrates the spirit of
the instructions to the Twelve.

Vv. 11-15. e|tTa«raT€ {Ik €Ta£a), from
c't£os, true ; to inquire as to the truth of
a matter). A host to be carefully sought
out in each place : not to stay with the first
who offers. — a£ios points to personal
moral worth, the deciding consideration
to be goodness, not wealth (worth so

much). The host to be a man generally
respected, that no prejudice be created
against the mission (ne praedicationis
dignitas suscipientis infamia deturpetur,
Jerome). — (Aeivare : having once secured a
host, abide with him, shift not about
seeking better quarters and fare, hurting
the feelings of the host, and damaging
your character, as self-seeking men. —
Ver. 12. tt|v oiiciav, the house selected
after due inquiry. — dorirdo-ao-Oe, salute it,
not as a matter of formal courtesy, but
with a serious mind, saying: "peace be
with you," thinking the while of what
peace the kingdom can bring. — Ver. 13.
lav pev tj t\ o. djjia : after all pains have
been taken, a mistake may be made;
therefore the worthiness of the house
is spoken of as uncertain (fl, in an
emphatic position, so p.T) Tl> m next
clause). — eX0€Tco r\ clprjvT) . . . eirur-
Tpa<pi]Ta>. The meaning is : the word of
peace will not be spoken in vain ; it will
bless the speaker if not those addressed.
It is always good to wish peace and good
for others, however the wish may be
received. There is a tacit warning
against being provoked by churlish treat-
ment. Ver. 14. 6s eoiv fit} 8t'|v)Tai : Christ
contemplates an unfavourable result of
the mission in the host's house, or in the
town or village generally. The con-
struction of the sentence is anacolouthi-
stic, beginning one way, ending another :
rhetorical in effect, and suitable to emo-
tional speech ; cf. Lk. xxi. 6 : " these
things ye see — days will come in which
not one stone will be left upon another"
{vide Winer, § 63, on such constructions).
— clepxop-evoi. : when an unreceptive
attitude has once been decidedly taken
up, there is nothing for it but to go
away. Such a crisis severely tests the
temper and spirit of promoters of good
causes. — £KTiva|aT£ tov Koviop-rov: a
symbolic act practised by the Pharisees
on passing from heathen to Jewish soil,
the former being regarded as unclean

1 62

RATA MAT0AION

15. dfiTjK Xc'yw ufiu, k d^KTOTepok Icttcu yjj 2o8<5fi«f xui

k Ch. xi. 22, OflWK.
12, 14. Tofioppwi' cV ^(x^pa Kpurcws, rj T|j iroXci etccinrj.

16. "'iSou, eyw ' diroanreXXu up.a§ is irp6J3aTa ev uVctu) Xokwc

I Ch. xi. 10;
\xiii. 34.
Rom. x. 15.
m Rom. xvi. y weave ouv 4<povip.oi w$ 01 o^eis, Kai aKcpatoi ws ai TTcpiorepai.

ii. 15. 17. " Trpoffe'xeT€ Se diro twk avQpti-nuv ■ irapaSwaouat ydp "H^S €i$
Di'ideatCh. ,-. , , , „

vii. 15. o-uveopia, Kai ck Taig owaywycus aurwy fiaoTiywarouo-iy up.as •
oCh.xx. 19;

xxiii. 34. Mk. x. 34. Lk. xviii. 33. John xix. I. Heb. xii. 6.

(Light., Hor. Heb.) : Easy to perform,
not easy to perform in a right spirit ; too
apt to be the outcome of irritation, dis-
appointment, and wounded vanity = they
did not appreciate me, I abandon them
to their fate. Christ meant the act to
symbolise the responsibility of the in-
habitants for the result = leave the place,
feeling that you have done your duty,
not in anger but in sadness. The act,
if performed, would be a last word of
warning (cts p.apTupiov avTois, Mark and
Luke). Grotius and Bleek understand it
as meaning : "we have nothing more to
do with you ". — Ver. 15. yjj 2. ical T. :
dodom and Gomorrah, a byword for
great iniquity and awful doom (Is. i. 9),
yjj, land for people. — dvcKTOTepov : yet
the punishment of these wicked cities,
tragic though it was, or the punishment
still in store, more endurable than that
of city or village which rejects the
message of the kingdom. This may
seem an exaggeration, the utterance of
passion rather than of sober judgment,
and a dangerous thing to say to raw
disciples and apprentice missionaries.
But the principle involved is plain : the
greater the privilege rejected the greater
the criminality. The utterance reveals
the high value Jesus set on the good
tidings He commissioned the Twelve to
preach.

Vv. 16-39. Prophetic picture 0/ future
apostolic tribulations. An interpolation
of our evangelist after his manner of
grouping login of kindred import. The
greater part of the material is given in
other connections in Mark, and especially
in Luke. No feeling of delicacy should
prevent even the preacher from taking
this view, as it destroys all sense of the
natural reality of the Galilean mission
to suppose that this passage formed part
of Christ's instructions to the Twelve in
connection therewith. Reading into the
eariy event the thoughts and experiences
of a later time was inevitable, but to get
a true picture of the life of Jesus and His
disciples, we must keep the two as
distinct as possible. There may be a

doubt as to ver. 16. It stands at the
beginning of the instructions to the
Seventy in Luke (x. 2), which, according
to Weiss (Matth. Evang., p. 263), are
really the instructions to the Twelve
in their most original form. But it is
hard to believe that Jesus took and
expressed so pessimistic a view of the
Galilean villagers to whom He was
sending the Twelve, as is implied in the
phrase, " sheep among wolves," though
He evidently did include occasional un-
receptivity among the possible experiences
of the mission. He may indeed have
said something of the kind with an
understood reference to the hostility of
Pharisaic religionists, but as it stands
unqualified, it seems to bear a colouring
imported from a later period.

Ver. 16. tSov, something important is
going to be said. — 4yi>, emphatic: Jesus
is conscious that connection with Him
will be a source not only of power, but
of trouble to the Twelve. — ev fxec-w : not to
wolves (irp&s Xvkovc, Chrys.). They were
not sent for that purpose, which would
be a mission to destruction, but on an
errand of which that would be an inci-
dent, ^v is used here as often, especially
in later Greek writers, with a verb of
motion to indicate a subsequent chronic
state, "the result of a love of concise-
ness " (Winer, § 50, 4, a). — yivtaOe . . .
■n-epio-Ttpai. The serpent, the accepted
emblem of wisdom (Gen. iii. 1 ; Ps. lviii.
5) — wary, sharp-sighted (Grotius) ; the
dove of simplicity (Hos. vii. 11, "silly
dove," ivovs, Sept.). — aiccpaioi (a, Kcpdv-
wj«), unmixed with evil, purely good.
The ideal resulting from the combina-
tion is a prudent simplicity ; difficult to
realise. The proverb seems to have
been current among the Jews. " God
says : ' with me the Israelites are simple
as the dove, but against the heathen
cunning as the serpent ' " (Wunsche,
Beitrdge). — Ver. 17. r&v dvOpwiruv :
Weiss, regarding ver. 17 as the beginning
of an interpolation, takes twv generi-
cally = the whole race of men conceived
of as on the whole hostile to the truth =

15—22.

EYAITEAION

163

18. Kal em r)yep.6Vas 8e Kai Bao-iXcis &)(0T)CTecr0e Ikckcc cjioo, ei$ p Ch. xx.23.

> - « -*fl .„«•«> « c~ i.-I Mk - xiil -

jiapTopiOK auTOis Kai. tols coVco-ik. 19. oTaK oe Trapaotowan' * uuas, is- 2 Cor.

uyj uepiu^crnTe ira»s f) ti XaX-r)crr|Te ■ p SoO^creTat yap up.if iv ckciVt] phrase).

rrj wpa ti AaXrjaeTe ' • 20. ou yap up-ei? core 01 XaXourres, dXXa 12. (Deut.

to n^eup-a toC rraTpos ojiwi/ to XaXouK eV 6|Aiy. 21. q napaSwaei 8e Mkahvii.

d8eX<(>6s dSeX^oe q eis 6dyaToe, Kal TraTrjp TCKkOf • Kal r eTraeaor^- s c n . xxvi.

aocTat TtKca em yo^eis, kcu BacaTuaouaiv auToug. 22. Kai eo-earJe ,, 2 cor.

uiaoufX.CKOi utto ir&vrtav Sid to oVop.d p.00 • 6 8e ' uiroueikas M eis t Ch. 9 xxiv.

13. Rom.
xii. ia. n Ch. xxiv. 13. Lit. xviii. 5. John xiii. 1.

1 fc«$B have irapaSwo-tv (Tisch., W.H.).

3 fr^BC have XaXT)o~r|Te = what ye ought to speak. The fut. ind. (T. R.) = what
ye will speak. The former is to be preferred. DL omit the whole clause from
8o6T)o-£Tai to \a\r|o-Y|T€, an error of similar ending.

xoVfios in the fourth Gospel (xv. 19 ;
xvii. 14). It seems more natural to find
in it a reference to the Xwoi of ver. 16.
Beware of the class of men I have in
view. So Eras., Eisner, Fritzsche. —
o-uv^8pia, the higher tribunals, selected
.0 represent courts of justice of all grades,
to denote the serious nature of the
danger. — <ruvav»Yais. The synagogue
is referred to here, not merely as a place
of worship, but as a juridical assembly
exercising discipline and inflicting penal-
ties (Grotius). Among these was scourg-
ing (|AaorTiY(io"ovo"iv, vide Acts xxii. 19 ;
xxvi. 11 ; 2 Cor. xi. 24). — Ver. 18. TJycpd-
vos, provincial governors, including the
three degrees: Propraetors, Proconsuls,
and Procurators. From the point of
view of the evangelist, who conceives the
whole discourse as connected with the
Galilean mission confined to Jews,
the reference can only be to Roman
governors in Palestine. But in Christ's
mind they doubtless had a larger scope,
and pointed to judicial tribulations in the
larger, Gentile world. — ets uapTvpiov.
The compensation for the incriminated
will be that, when they stand on their
defence, they will have an opportunity
of witnessing for the Master (evckcv
Ipov) and the Cause. Observe the com-
bination Kal 8« in first clause of this
verse, kuI before ^-irl TrvtaoVas, 8i after
it. It introduces a further particular
under a double point of view, with teal
so far as similar, with Si so far as different
(Baumlcin, Schulgram., § 675, also Gr.
Partikeln, 188, 9). A more formidable
experience.

Vv. 19-22. (ft) (* e P t r JL ' , 'n o ~T r€ > etc - • a
second counsel against anxiety (Matt.
vi. 25), this time not as to food and
raiment, but as to speech at a critical

hour. With equal emphasis : trouble not
yourselves either as to manner or matter,
word or thought (irws rj ti). — 8o6rj<reTai:
thought, word, tone, gesture — every-
thing that tends to impress — all will be
given at the critical hour (iv «xeiKTj T-jj
»pa). In the former instance anxiety
was restricted to the day (Matt. vi. 34).
Full, absolute inspiration promised for
the supreme moment. — ov yap vp.€is, etc.:
not you but the divine Spirit the speaker.
ov, dXXa, non tarn quam, interprets
Grotfus, followed by Pricaeus, Eisner,
Fritzsche, etc. = not so much you as ;
as if it were an affair of division of
labour, so much ours, so much, and
more, God's. It is, however, all God's,
and yet all ours. It is a case of
immanent action, to XaXovv iv vp.iv,
not of a transcendent power coming in
upon us to help our infirmity, eking
out our imperfect speech. Note the
Spirit is called the Spirit tou iraTpos
vuuv, echo of vi. 32. Some of the
greatest, most inspired utterances have
been speeches made by men on trial for
religious convictions. A good con-
science, tranquillity of spirit, and a sense
of the greatness of the issue involved,
make human speech at such times touch
the sublime. Theophy. distinguishes
the human and the divine in such utter-
ances thus : ours to confess, God's to make
a wise apology (to piv ouoXoyeiv i]{i{-
Tcpov, to Si o~o(f>w$ airoXov€io~8at 6cov).
— Ver. 22. cU Tt'Xos, to the end (of the
tribulations) described (w. 21-22) ; to the
end, and not merely at the beginning
(Theophy., Beza, Fritzsche, Weiss, etc.).
No easy thing to do, when such in-
humanities and barbarities are going on,
all natural and family affections out-
raged. But it helps to know, as is here

6 4

RATA MAT9AI0N

" '. Iere h onIy tAos, ootos o-wG^ctctcu. 23. OTav 8e SiuKuaif ujias iv tt] ttoKci
sense of T auTTi, d^cuyeTe " s T V A^XlfK. 1 dfATjK yap X£y« uu,ik, 00 p.Y|

Similar * TeX^aTJTC TOlS TTo'XciS TOU 8 'l(Tpaiq\, f«S &V 8 cX6t) 6 UtOS TOO

Greek and i v Qputrou. 24. Ouk eon p.a0T]TT]s iJirep ToK SiSdo-xaXoy, ou8e

authors.

1 crcpav in fc^B (W.H., clXXtjv in margin).
i BD omit the article. * fc^BX omit »r.

indirectly intimated, that there will be
an end, that religious animosities will
not last for ever. Even persecutors and
guillotineers get weary of their savage
work. On cl« -re'Xos Beza remarks :
declarat neque momentaneam neque per-
petuam hanc conditionem fore.— oItos
crii>dr\artTai, he, emphatic, he and no
other, shall be saved, in the day of final
award (James i. 12, "shall receive the
crown of life ") ; also, for the word is
pregnant, shall be saved from moral ship-
wreck. How many characters go miser-
ably down through cowardice and lack
of moral fibre in the day of trial !

Ver. 23. otov 82 : the thought takes
a new comforting turn, much needed
to reconcile disciples to the grim
prospect. With courage and loyalty
effort for self-preservation is quite
compatible. Therefore, when they per-
secute here flee there. — tv tjj iroXfi
TavTT|, in this city, pointing to it, this
standing for one. — d>eu-ycTe, flee, very un-
heroic apparently, but the bravest
soldier, especially an old campaigner,
will avail himself of cover when he can.

els tt)v iripav: the reading of ^Bis

to be preferred to cLXXtjv of the T.R., the
idea being: flee not merely to another
city numerically distinct, but to a city
presumably different in spirit (vide vi. 24
and xi. 16), where you may hope to
receive better treatment. Thus the
flight, from being a mere measure of
self-preservation, is raised to the dignity
of a policy of prudence in the interest of
the cause. Why throw away life here
among a hostile people when you may do
good work elsewhere ? — Au.tjv -yip : reason
for the advice solemnly given ; an im-
portant declaration, and a perplexing
one for interpreters. — ov pvr), have no
fear lest, ye will certainly not have
finished — Tt\iin\Tt. In what sense ?
" gone over " (A.V.) in their evangelising
tour, or done the work of evangelising
thoroughly ? (ad fidei et evangelicae vir-
tutis perfectionem — Hilary). The former
is the more natural interpretation. And
yet the connection of thought seems to

demand a mental reference to the quality
of the work done. Why tarry at one
place as if you were under obligation to
convert the whole population to the
kingdom ? The thing cannot be done.
The two views may be combined thus :
ye shall not have gone through the
towns of Israel evangelising them in
even a superficial way, much less in a
thorough-going manner. Weiss takes
the word t«X. as referring not to mission
work but to flight = ye shall not have
used all the cities as places of refuge, i.e.,
there will always be some place to flee
to. This is beneath the dignity of the
situation, especially in view of what
follows. — ews fX0fl 6 vies t. L. Here
again is the peculiar title Son of Man :
impersonal, but used presumably as a
synonym for " I ". What does it mean
in this connection ? And what is the
coming referred to ? The latter ques-
tion can be best answered at a later
stage. It has been suggested that the
title Son of Man is here used by Christ
in opposition to the title Son of David.
The meaning of ver. 23 on that view is
this : do not think it necessary to tarry
at all hazards in one place. Your work
anywhere and everywhere must be very
imperfect. Even success will mean
failure, for as soon as they have re-
ceived the tidings of the kingdom they
will attach wrong ideas to it, thinking of
it as a national kingdom and of me as
the " Son of David ". No thorough
work can be done till the Son of Man
has come, i.e., till a universal Gospel for
humanity has begun to be preached
(Lutteroth). This is a fresh suggestion,
not to be despised, on so obscure a sub-
ject. We are only feeling our way as to
the meaning of some of Christ's sayings.
Meantime, all that we can be sure of is
that Christ points to some event not far
off that will put a period to the apostolic
mission.

Vv. 24, 25 point to another source of
consolation — companionship with the
Master in tribulation. A hard lot, but
mine as well as yours ; you would not
expect to be better off than the Master

23—27.

EYAITEAION

165

SouXo? uirip tok ttipiov airou. 25. w apKeibv tw paOnTrj "5W ytVTjTai w vide Ch.

ws 6 8i8acrKaXos auTOu, Kal 6 SouXos a>s 6 Kupios aoroG. ci Toy x i»a after

y oiKoSeo-TTOTrji/ l BeeX£e/3ouX extiXcaac, 2 iroVa) paXXoy toos oiKiaicous 3 Similar

> « ^ .«« * 10 a~ 9 / , c t 1 j t phrases in

auroo; 20. Mtj ouy <popt]Or)T€ auTOus ' oooef yap eori KcicaXuu.- Ch. v. 29,

p4vov, o ouk diroKaXu(})0T]o-eTot • koI Kpuuroc, o ou yva<jQr\Qtrai. 3 Lk X xvii. 2

27. 8 \{yv ip.lv iv rfc * cjkotio, etiraTe iv t$ * <}>uti • Kal o "

z Lk. xii. 3.

a7.

CIS TO y Ch. XX. I,

II.

• Lk. i. 44. Acts xi. 22.

1 B has oiicoBto-TroTTj (dat.). W.H. put this reading in the margin.

s cirticaXco-av in fc$ BCAI al., adopted by most editors. fr$ has the middle voice.

" B has the dative here also.

and Lord. — Ver. 25. apxerov, not as in
vi. 34 a neuter adjective used as a noun,
but a predicate qualifying the clause iva
yev., etc., as noun to verb eo-ri under-
stood. Tva ye'vrjTai instead of the infini-
tive ; 6 SovXo? instead of rif 8ot5X» de-
pendent like t» paflrjTQ on apKerov, by
attraction of the nearer word y^vyjtcu
{vide Winer, § 66,5). — olKoSccnrd-nrjv (-tq,
B.) points to a more intimate relation
between Jesus and the Twelve, that of a
head of a house to a family, implying
greater honour for the latter, and suggest-
ing an added motive for patient endur-
ance of the common lot. — otKoSco-rrd-nrn
is a late form. Earlier writers said
olicCas Seo-Tr<5TT]9, Lob., Phryn., p. 373.
— BecX^cfSovX : an opprobrious epithet ;
exact form of the word and meaning of
the name have given more trouble to
commentators than it is all worth. Con-
sult Meyer ad loc. Weiss (Meyer) re-
marks that the name of the Prince of the
demons is not yet sufficiently explained.
A question of interest is : did the enemies
of Jesus call Him Beelzebul (or Beelze-
bub), or did they merely reproach Him
with connection with Beelzebub ? Weiss,
taking ver. 25 b as an explanatory gloss
of the evangelist, based on be. 3, xii. 24,
adopts the latter view; De Wette and
Meyer the former. The reading of Co-
dex B, oiKoSeo-rroTfl, favours the other
alternative. The dative requires the
verb cTreKaXecrav to be taken in the sense
of to cast up to one. Assuming that
the evangelist reports words of Jesus
instead of giving a comment of his own,
they may quite well contain the informa-
tion that, among the contemptuous
epithets applied to Jesus by His enemies,
was this name. It may have been a
spiteful pun upon the name, master
of the house. — ir6a-u pcLXXov implies that
still worse names will be applied to the
Twelve. Dictis respondet «v«w<mj, remarks

Grotius, citing in proof the epithets
Y<5t)to,«, impostores, applied to the apos-
tles and Christians by Celsus and Ulpian,
and the words of Tacitus : convictos in
odio humani generis, and the general use
of aOcot as a synonym for Christians. —
oIkuxkov; (again in ver. 36), those belong-
ing to a household or family (from oIklo,
whence also the more common oIkcio;
bearing a similar meaning).

Vv. 26, 27. p.)] ovv 4>oPyj9tjt« : " fear
not," and again " fear not " in ver. 28,
and yet again, 31, says Jesus, knowing
well what temptation there would be to
fear, oviv connects with w. 24, 25 ; fear
not the inevitable for all connected with
me, as you are, take it calmly, yap sup-
plies a reason for fearlessness arising out
of their vocation. It is involved in the
apostolic calling that those who exercise
it should attract public attention. There-
fore, fear not what cannot be avoided if
you would be of any use. Fear suits not
an apostle any more than a soldier or a
sailor, who both take coolly the risks of
their calling. — KCKaXvppcvov, diroKaXucfj-
8rja«Tai ; Kpvirrbv, YvwaOTjcrcTai : the two
pairs of words embody a contrast be-
tween Master and disciples as to relative
publicity. As movements develop they
come more under the public eye.
Christ's teaching and conduct were not
wholly covered and hidden. There was
enough publicity to ensure ample criti-
cism and hostility. But, relatively, His
ministry was obscure compared to that
of the apostles in after years to which the
address looks forward. Therefore, more
not less, tribulation to be looked for. The
futures diroKaX. yvwo-. with the relative'
virtually express intention ; cf. Mk. iv.
22, where iva occurs ; the hidden is hidden
in order to be revealed. That is the law
of the case to which apostles must recon-
cile themselves. — Ver. 27. <nco-ria, the
darkness of the initial stage ; the begin.

.66

KATA MAT9AI0N

b Ch. xxiv. oSs &KOUCTC, KT)pU^aT€ CTTl TWC b Swp.aTOJI'. 28. KCU Jir| * 4>o|3rj0r| 76 l
xiii. 15. &TTO TUC &1TOKT€lv6vTli)V 2 TO CTWpLO., TT)K S« +UXT]!' fJ.T| 8uyap.tVwP

xvii. 51. AiroKT€i»'ai • <})oPTi9T]Te 8 Se p.aXXoK t6v 8ui/<ip.e»'Of icai ^"xV Kai

c with anb. > \ / > » » « fc ' d fl'j '

Lk. xii. 4. awfia OTTo\e(rai ey yeem). 29 ouxt ouo arpoutua daaapiou

d Lk. xii. 6, «« 1 ,. > , » - > •> >\\ « e * -

7 . ir(«)\eiTai; itai ei> 65 auTwv ou Trcaeirai eiu tj)v yi]i> avtv tou

6 1 ; iv. 9"' ircrrpos op-wK ■ 30 v\iS>v 8c Kai al Tpi'xes Trjs Ked>aXfj$ iratrai

Kev. X Jti.g!'"npi0H-T)H-c>'ai eUri. 31. p.rj ouv <|>oPt]0t]T€ * • iroXXwc <npou9iu>v 810-

1 So in DSI, adopted by W.H. fc^BCLA id. have d>of3€i.o-8e (Tisch.).
- ^CDAZ have the Alexandrian form aTroKTevvovTwv.

3 dSoPeio-Ot here in ^BC against D.

4 <j>opeur8£ in ^BDL (Tisch., W.H al.).

nings of great epoch-making movements
always obscure. — <J>wt£, the light of pub-
licity, when causes begin to make a noise
in the wide world. — tts to ovs : a phrase
current among Greeks for confidential
communications. For such communica-
tions to disciples the Rabbis used the term

t2JnS, t0 whisper. XaXr|9tV may be

understood = what ye hear spoken into
the ear.— SupaTwv, on the roofs ; not a
likely platform from our western point
of view, but the /7ar-roofed houses of
the East are in view. S&p.a in classics
means house ; in Sept. and N. T., the
flat roof of a house ; in modern Greek,
terrace. Vide Kennedy, Sources of N. T.
Greek, p. 121. — KT)pi5£aT€, proclaim with
loud voice, suitable to your commanding
position, wide audience, and great theme.
Vv. 28-31. New antidote to fear
drawn from a greater fear, and from the
paternal providence of God. <(>o0fj8T)T*

airo like the Hebrew Yfi WV, but

also one of several ways in which the
Greeks connected this verb with its
object. — to o-wpa: that is all the persecu-
tor as such can injure or destroy He
not only cannot injure the soul, but the
more he assails the physical side the
safer the spiritual. — tov Swap-tvo* Kai
\|». Kai <r. Who is that ? God, say
most commentators. Not so, I believe.
Would Christ present God under this
aspect in such close connection with the
Father who cares even for the sparrows ?
What is to be greatly feared is not the
final condemnation, but that which leads
to it — temptation to forsake the cause of
God out of regard to self-interest or self-
preservation. Shortly the counsel is :
fear not the persecutor, but the tempter,
not the man who kills you ior your fidel-
ity, but the man who wants to buy you

off, and the devil whose agent he is. — Ver.
29 o-rpovOia, dim. for o-Tpov66s, small
birds in general, sparrows in particu-
lar. — aao-apiov, a brass coin, Latin as,
tV of a Spaxprj = about |d. The small-
ness of the price makes it probable that
sparrows are meant (Fritzsche). We are
apt to wonder that sparrows had a price
at all. — tv . . . ov looks like a Hebra-
ism, but found also in Greek writers,
" cannot be called either a Graecism or a
Hebraism ; in every case the writer
aims at greater emphasis than would
be conveyed by ovSci's. which properly
means the same thing, but had become
weakened by usage " (Winer, § 26). — eiri
tt)v yfjv. Chrys. paraphrases : ets ira-yfSa
(Horn. 34), whence Bengel conjectured
that the primitive reading was not y^v
but iravr|v, the first syllable of a little
used word falling out. But Wetstein
and Fritzsche have pointed out that liri
does not suit that reading. T'ie idea is
that not a single sparrow dies from any
cause on wing or perch, and falls dead
to the earth — fivev t. trarpbs v. Origen
(c. Cclsum, i. 9) remarks: "nothing use-
ful among men comes into existence
without God " (a0«£). Christ expresses
a more absolute faith in Providence :
" the meanest creature passes not out of
existence unobserved of your Father". —
Ver. 30. tip&v, emphatic position : your
hairs. — Tp£x«s ! of little value all together,
can be lost without detriment to life or
health. — irao-ai, all, every one without
exception.— ^TJpiSpijp^vai, counted. Men
count only valuable things, gold pieces,
sheep, etc. Note the perfect participle.
They have been counted once for all, and
their number noted ; one hair cannot go
amissing unobserved. — Ver. 31. w. «r.
SiadWpeTc : once more, as in vi. 26, a
comparison between men and birds as
to value : ye of more worth than many

i8—37.

EYAITEAION

167

4>^peT€ ufiets- 32. nfis GUI' ootis c ou-oXoy^o-ei ev epiol cu.Trpoa9ev
tuv dvOpoJirwv, 6u.oXoyV]aw (cdyw ev auTw ep/irpoo-Gev tou irarpos p.ou
too ev 1 oupakois. 33- Sons 8' Si' h dpvrjo-rjTcu u,e euvrrpoa-Sev twv
dvOpwTrwv, dp^aop.ai o.ut6v Kdyw 2 ep/irpocrOcv tou irarpos p.ou tou
«v 3 oupavoi9. 34. Mr) vopitrqrc oti tJXOov ' (BaXeiv eipijnrp ctti rqv
yrjK - ouk rjX8ov (SaXeiv ctptjvrjk, dXXd p-d^at-pav. 35. t}X0ov
8i)((io-ai dVOpwirov Kara tou TraTpos auTOu, teat Ouyar^pa ico/rd rfjs
p.T]Tpos aurrjs, Kal ^ujx<^t)k tca/rd rr|s TreyOepd? aurfjs • 36. ical e>(0pol
tou dcdpwTTou 01 oiKiaKol auTou. 37- 'O 4>iXaJv TraTe'pa $ p-TjTepa
uTT€p €p.€, ouk Ion p.ou a|i09 ' Kol 6 <Jn\£v ulov tj Guyo/repa tmep

1 tois before ovpavois in BCZ. a ico/yw avTov in fc^BDAZ.

3 tois before ovp. in BX (W.H. adopt the art. both in i and in 3).

g also in I M

xii. 8 (with

tv and

dat.).
h Ch. xxv i

70,72. Lit

xii. 9.

i John xx
25. Jas. iii
3. Rev.
xiv. 16, 19.

sparrows ; one hair of your head as much
worth to God as one sparrow. " It is a
litotes to say that there is a great
difference between many sparrows and
a human being" (Holtz., H.C.). There
is really no comparison between them.
It was by such simple comparisons that
Jesus insinuated His doctrine of the
absolute worth of man.

Vv. 32, 33. Solemn reference to the
final Judgment. ovv points back to
ver. 27, containing injunction to make
open proclamation of the truth. — irds
octtis : nominative absolute at the head
of the sentence. — Iv lp.01, Iv airu :
observe these phrases after the verb in
ver. 32, compared with the use of the
accusative p.«, ovtov in the following
verse : " confess in me," " deny me,"
"confess in him," " deny him ". Chry-
sostom's comment is : we confess by the
grace of Christ, we deny destitute of
grace. Origen (Cremer, Catenae, i. p.
80) interprets the varying construction
as indicating that the profit of the faith-
ful disciple lies in fellowship with Christ
and the loss of the unfaithful in the lack
of such fellowship. (opa SI, «t u.tj to
wX€ovgicTt](jia tov Iv aviToi op-oXoyovv-
tos, •JJSti ovtus Iv xp L(rT ¥ SrjXovTai,
Ik tou, " Ka/yu Iv avToi " op-oXoyeiv • to

81 KCIKOV TOV dpVOVU,EV0V, Ik TOV p.T|

o-WTJ4>9ai T-fj apv ijtrei TO " Iv lu.ol," f\
to ev avTw .)

Vv. 34-39. The whole foregoing dis-
course, by its announcements and con-
solations, implies that dread experiences
are in store for the apostles of the faith.
To the inexperienced the question might
naturally suggest itself, why ? Can the
new religion not propagate itself quietly
and peaceably ? Jesus meets the ques-
tion of the surprised disciple with a de-

cided negative. — Ver. 34. u.tj vou.(o-t)T€, do
not imagine, as you are very likely to do
(cf. v. 17). — yjXdov (BaXelv : the use of the
infinitive to express aim is common in
Matt., but Christ has here in view result
rather than purpose, which are not
carefully distinguished in Scripture. For
PaXelv Luke has Sovvai, possibly with a
feeling that the former word does not
suit elpijviiv. It is used specially with re-
ference to p.dxaipav. The aorist points
to a sudden single action. Christ came
to bring peace on earth, but not in an
immediate magical way ; peace at last
through war (Weiss, Matt. Evang.). —
p.dxaipav : Luke substitutes Siau.epio-u.6V.
The connecting link may be that the
sword divides in two (Pleb. iv. 12).
Grotius says that by the word there
should be understood : " non bellum sed
dissidium ". — Ver. 35. Description of
the discord. — Sixacrai, to divide in two
(8ix«0, to separate in feeling and in-
terest, here only in N.T. ; verifies the
truth of Grotius' comment as to the
" sword ". — avdptoTrov Kara tov iraTpos
avTov. In this and the following
clauses it is the young that are set
against the old. " In all great revolu-
tions of thought the change begins from
the young " (Carr, Cambridge Gr. T.). —
vvu.c|>i]v, a young wife, here as opposed
to irtvScpas, a daughter-in-law. — Ver. 36.
ex^poi : the predicate standing first for
emphasis ; enemies, not friends as one
would expect, the members of one's
family (oIkwikoI, as in ver. 25). The
passage reproduces freely Micah vii. 6. —
Ver. 37. Such a state of matters imposes
the necessity of making a very painful
choice between relatives and truth. —
c|uXwv : this verb denotes natural affec-
tion as distinct from dyairdw, which

i68

RATA MATGAION

X. 38-42.

j cf. Ch.

tfiV, ouk core fioo a£ios ■ 38. Kai os 00 Xau.J3deci tok crraupuf

auTOU Kai dicoXouOei oiuau fiou, ouk lo~n pou d£ios. 39- o cupuir

ttjk <|* xV a " T0 " drroX^o-ei airr)v • Kai 6 diroXeVas ttjk 4>ux*)>' auToC

cVckck cuou euprjaci auTrjy. 40. 'O 0ex.0p.6y0s u/ias cue S^tTai ■

xviii. 20. Kai 6 cue SexopLffos Se^eTai toc dTrooTeiXarrd uc. 41. 6 Scyo-
kChxxv.35, , „

37.4?; uei'os Trpo9T)TT|»' J cis ofoua irpocpTjTou fiicrBoK Trpo<f>r)TOu \r)i|/€Tai •

Lk.xiii. 15. Kai 6 &€)(0p.€f09 oiKaioK eis oVoua StKaiou u.io~66v SiKaiou Xi^\|/eTai *

Rom. xii. > » >\ 1 k ' ■ ~ - / > 1 ■

20. 42. Kai os cay * iroTioT] e^a twk u-iKpuw toutww TTOTr|pioK (|/uxpou

15 (here piovoK els oyopva ua0T]TOu, duTjc Xtyw uu-tf, ou jitj drroXeaij Toy
only = <. ■ ~ ».

cold water). fUffPOK auTOU.

1 os av in BD 33.

points to love of an ethical kind. The
distinction corresponds to that between
amare and diligere. Vide Trench, Syno-
nyms, and Cremer, s. v., dyaTrau). —

pov agio?. The Master ig p^rf mptm-y ;

absolutely demands pre %ypf» "*" Wic.
cause to all claims of earthly relatio ns.
— Ver. 38. oravpov. There is here no
necessary allusion to the death of Jesus
Himself by crucifixion, though one
possessing such insight into the course
of events, as this whole discourse indi-
cates, must have known quite well
when He uttered the words what
awaited Himself, the worst possible pro-
bable if not certain. The reference is to
the custom of the condemned person
carrying his own cross. Death by cruci-
fixion, though not practised among the
Jews, would be familiar to them through
Roman custom. Vide Grotius for Greek
and Roman phrases, containing figura-
tive allusions to the cross. This sentence
and the next will occur again in this
Gospel (Matt. xvi. 24, 25). — Ver. 39.
tvpuv . . . airoXco-ei, airoXlcas. • • •
cvp^crci: crucifixion, death ignominious,
as a criminal — horrible ; but horrible
though it be it means salvation. This
paradox is one of Christ's great, deep, yet
ever true words. It turns on a double
sense of the term rjruxii as denoting now
the lower now the higher life. Every
wise man understands and acts on the
maxim, " dying to live ".

Vv. 40-42. The following sentences
might have been spoken in connection
with the early Galilean mission, and are
accordingly regarded by Weiss as the
conclusion of the instructions then given.
Luke gives their gist (x. 16) at the close
of the instructions to the seventy. After
uttering many awful, stern sayings, Jesus
takes care to make the last cheering.
He promises great rewards to those

who receive the missionaries, thereby
" opening the houses of the whole world
to them," Chrysos. — Ver. 40. ipk ScxeTai .
first the principle is laid down that to
receive the messenger is to receive the
Master who sent him (Matt. xxv. 40), as
to receive the Master is to receive God.
— Ver. 41. Then in two distinct forms
the law is stated that to befriend the re-
presentative of Christ and God ensures
the reward belonging to that representa-
tive. — els ovopa, having regard to the
fact that he is a prophet or righteous
man. The prophet is the principal object
of thought, naturally, in connection with
a mission to preach truth. But Christ
knows (vii. 15) that there are false
prophets as well as true ; therefore from
vocation He falls back on personal
character. Here as everywhere we see
how jealously He made the ethical in-
terest supreme. " See," says Chrys.,
commenting on ver. 8, " how He cares
for their morals, not less than for the
miracles, showing that the miracles
without the morals are nought " (Horn.
32). So here He says in effect : let the
prophet be of no account unless he be
a just, good man. The fundamental
matter is character, and the next best
thing is sincere respect for it. To the
latter Christ promises the reward of the
former. — 6 Sex°H-fvos Staaiov . . . purOov
8. X^x|/€Toi: a strong, bold statement
made to promote friendly feeling towards
the moral heroes of the world in the
hearts of ordinary people ; not the utter-
ance of a didactic theologian scientifi-
cally measuring his words. Yet there is
a great principle underlying, essentially
the same as that involved in St. Paul's
doctrine of justification by faith. The
man who has goodness enough to
reverence the ideal of goodness approxi-
mately or perfectly realised in another,

XI. i— 3 .

EYATTEAION

169

XI. 1. Kat iyivero otc IriXevev 6 'irjc/oos hiaT&oouv tois oc5o€Ka

(j.a0T]Tats aoTou, * p.eT60r] ixelOev too SiodaKeu- Kal Krjpuaaeif eeaCh. xii. 9,
- >\ » ~ xv. 29 (with

Tais Tfo\€aii' auTwf. tKtietv).

2. 'O AE 'iwdffirjs aKouaas cf tw b o€o-p.wrnpi<i» Ta epyo- too b Acts v.2i,

Xpioroo, Tfep.yas 000' tuiv u.atfriTwi' aoroo, 3. eirrei' ciijtw, lo

1 ^BCDAI have Sia. 8vo is a harmonistic assimilation to Lk.

though not in himself, shall, in the
moral order of the world, be counted as
a good man. — Ver. 42. The last word,
and the most beautiful ; spoken with
deep pathos as an aside ; about the
disciples rather than to them, though
heard by them. "Whosoever shall do
the smallest service, were it but to give
a drink to one of these little ones (fva
tw (xiKpuiv tovtwv, cf. Matt. xxv. 40)
in the name of a disciple, I declare
solemnly even he shall without fail have
his appropriate reward." — tjrvxpov : ex-
pressive word for water, indicating the
quality valued by the thirsty ; literally a
cup of the cool, suggesting by contrast
the heat of the sun and the fierce thirst
of the weary traveller. No small boon
that cup in Palestine I " In this hot
and dry land, where one can wander for
hours without coming on a brook or an
accessible cistern, you say ' thank you ' for
a drink of fresh water with very different
feelings than we do at home " (Furrer,
Wanderungen durch das Heilige Land,
p. 118). — Fritzsche remarks on the
paucity of particles in w. 34-42 as indi-
cating the emotional condition of the
speaker.

Chapter XI. Jesus Judged by and
Judging His Contemporaries. We
are not to suppose any close connection
in time between the events related in this
chapter and the Galilean mission. The
reverse is implied in the vague introduc-
tory statement, that when Jesus had
completed His instructions to the Twelve
He went away on a teaching and preach-
ing tour among the towns. The impor-
tant thing is to realise that all that is re-
lated here must have taken place after
there had been time for the methods,
aims, spirit, and way of life of Jesus to
maniiest themselves, and so to become
the subject of general remark. It was a
matter of course that a man of such
depth, originality, unconventionally,
energy and fearless independence would
sooner or latter provoke criticism of all
shades ; from mild, honest doubt, to de-
cided reprobation. However popular at
first, He must become at last compara-

tively isolated. By the time the events
here related occurred, the reaction had
fully set in, and the narrative shows how
extensive it was, embracing within its
sphere of influence the best in the land
represented by the Baptist ; the com-
mercial class represented by three cities
named ; the professional class — the " wise
and understanding " ; and the zealots in
religion.

Ver. 1. 8t« ItcXcctcv 8ioT<icrcrcjv. The
participle here with a verb signifying to
cease as often with verbs signifying to
begin, continue, persevere, etc., vide
Goodwin, § 879. ctcciGev, from that place,
the place where the mission was given to
the Twelve. Where that was we do not
know ; probably in some place of retire-
ment (dans la retraite, Lutteroth).— ^tr6
Xctrif ovitwv: the pronoun does not refer
to the disciples (paOtiTciis) as Fritzsche
thinks, but to the people of Galilee.
While He sent out the Twelve to preach,
He continued preaching Himself, only
avoiding the places they visited, " giving
room to them and time to do their work,
for, with Him present and healing, no
one would have cared to go near them,"
Chrysos., Horn. 36.

Vv. 2-6. Message from the Baptist
(Lk. vii. 18-23). Ver. 2. 8e<rp.G>TT]pici>
(from Sco-p.o'b), oWpos, a bond), in prison
in the fortress of Machaerus by the Dead
Sea(Joseph.,Antiq.,i8,5, 2), a fact already
alluded to in iv. 12. By this time he has
been a prisoner a good while, long
enough to develop a prison mood. — dxov-
«ros: not so close a prisoner but that
friends and followers can get access to
him (cf. Matt. xxv. 36, 43). — to. epya tov
xpitrrov : this the subject in which the
Baptist is chiefly interested. What is Jesus
doing ? But the evangelist does not
say the works of Jesus, but of the Christ,
i.e., of the man who was believed to be
the Christ, the works which were sup-
posed to point Him out as the Christ.
In what spirit reported, whether simply
as news, with sympathy, or with jealousy,
not indicated. — ir€p.v|/as : the news set
John on musing, and led to a message oi
inquiry — Sid t. paOijTbtv ovtou, by his

170

KATA MAT0AION

XI.

cjobnvi. el 6 * cpxopev'os, fj irepov d Trpoa8oKojp.Ek ; 4. Kai d-n-OKpiSels 6

x. 37. lT]ffous elrcev au-rois, " nopeuoeVxec; dTrayyciXaTt '\uavv{\, a Akouctc

vii. 19; Kal p\£ir€T6 • 5. tu(J>Xoi * dyapXetroucri, Kai 1 X/.0X0I irepnraTouai •

Actsx. 24. AtTrpoi KaOapi^ov'Tai, Kai Kioipoi aKououai • yeKpoi eyciporrai, Kai

s Pet. iii.

12, 14 (all with accus.)- e Ch. xz. 34. Mk. z. 51. Lk. zviii. 41 (= to recover sight).

1 The texts show some unimportant variations in ref. to the kcu in this and the
following clauses. In the best MSS. there is a Kai before vticpoi.

disciples, possibly the same men who
brought the news. There would be con-
stant coming and going between Galilee
and Machserus. The construction is
Hebraistic = sent by the hand of. — Ver.
3. clirev aiiTu, said to Jesus, by them,
of course. — Ii> cl : the question a grave
one and emphatically expressed : Thou,
art Thou 6 tpxoucvos ? Art Thou He
whom I spoke of as the One coming after
me when I was baptising in the Jordan
(iii. 11) ? It is a question whether Jesus
be indeed the Christ. Lutteroth, basing
on the hypothesis that for popular Jewish
opinion the Christ and the coming One
(a prophet like Moses) were different per-
sons, interprets the question thus : " Art
Thou, Jesus, whom I know to be the
Christ, also the coming Prophet, or must
we expect another to fill that role ? " — ^
?T«pov, not aXXov, which would have
been more appropriate on Lutteroth's
view = a numerically distinct person.
?t. suggests a different kind of person. —
irpoo-SoKuftev : may be present indicative
(for future) as Beza and Fritzsche take it,
or present subjunctive deliberative =
ought we to look ? (Meyer-Weiss, Holtz. ,
H.C.), the latter preferable. What was
the animus or psychological genesis of
the question ? Doubt in John's own
mind, or doubt, bred of envy or jealousy,
in the minds of his disciples, or not doubt
on Baptist's part, but rather incipient
faith ? Alternative (2), universal with
the fathers (except Tertullian, vide de
prcescrip., 8, de baptis., 10) ; (1) common
among modern commentators ; (3) fav-
oured by Keim, Weizsacker, and Holtz.,
H.C. : "beginnende Disposition zum
Glauben an Jesu Messianitat ". The
view of the fathers is based on a sense of
decorum and implicit reliance on the
exact historical value of the statements
in fourth Gospel ; No. (3), the budding
faith hypothesis, is based on too scepti-
cal a view as to the historic value of even
the Synoptical accounts of John's early
relations with Jesus; No. (1) has every-
thing in its favour. The effect of con-
finement on John's prophetic temper, the

general tenor of this chapter which obvi-
ously aims at exhibiting the moral isola-
tion of Jesus, above all the wide differ-
ence between the two men, all make for
it. Jesus, it had now become evident,
was a very different sort of Messiah from
what the Baptist had predicted and de-
siderated (vide remarks on chap. iii. n-
15). Where were the axe and fan and
the holy wind and fire of judgment ?
Too much patience, tolerance, gentle-
ness, sympathy, geniality, mild wisdom
in this Christ for his taste.

Vv. 4-6. Answer of Jesus. Ver. 4.
dira-yYeiXoTe I. : go back and report to
John for his satisfaction. — a 4k. Kal
pXcVeTt, what you are hearing and see-
ing, not so much at the moment, though
Luke gives it that turn (vii. 21), but
habitually. They were not to tell their
master anything new, but just what they
had told him before. The one new ele-
ment is that the facts are stated in terms
fitted to recall prophetic oracles (Isaiah
xxxv. 5, lxi. 1), while, in part, a historic
recital of recent miracles (Matt, viii., ix.).
Probably the precise words of Jesus are
not exactly reproduced, but the sense is
obvious. Tell John your story over again
and remind him of those prophetic texts.
Let him study the two together and draw
his own conclusion. It was a virtual in-
vitation to John to revise his Messianic
idea, in hope he would discover that after
all love was the chief Messianic charism.
— Ver. 5. dva{3Xeirovcriv : used also in
classics to express recovery of sight. —
ko»4>oI, here taken to mean deaf, though
in ix. 32, 33, it means dumb, showing that
the prophecy, Isaiah xxxv. 5, is in the
speaker's thoughts. — wtcoxoI : vague
word, might mean literal poor (De W.)
or spiritual poor, or the whole people in
its national misery (Weiss, Matt. Evan.),
best defined by such a text as ix. 36, and
such facts as that reported in ix. 10-13. —
tvayyeXtJovTai : might be middle = the
poor preach, and so taken by Euthy.
Zig. (also as an alternative by Theophy.),
for " what can be poorer than fishing
(a\i«vTiKTJs) ? " The poor in that case =

IO.

EYATTEAION

171

irrw)(Oi * cuayYtXiJorrai ' 6. Kal p.aKdpi09 tony, 05 ede 1 u.r\ 'oKaroa- f Heb. iv. 3

V JLs » » '" ■ t ' S* ' » i A '. (passive

\ioot] ty tp.01. 7* Toutwk" be TTopeuop-tewy, Tjp^aTO Irjoous also).

\i " " \ < >i ' It -r' >>/\A > \ » g Ch. xm.

eyeif T019 o)(Xoi9 ircpi Iwaveou, Ti e$r)At/tT€ eig Trjf tprju-oy 57; xxvi

QedaaaQai ; ' KaXajxoy uiro dft'ixou ' o-a.Xcu6p.eyoy ; 8. dXXd Ti 3. Lk. vii!

e|rjX0€Te tody; ay0p*«nroy e'y p.aXaicoi9 IjxaTiots 2 Yip^ieop^yoy ; with iv).

>c / « \ \ ^ 1 a ~ * _ ** ^ ** a \ r 3/«n Ch. XU.

lOou, 01 Ta p.a\aKa ' ^opourrts €y T019 01K019 toc paoiXccoy cioiy 8 20 (la

9 dXXd ti t'^X0€T€ loeiy; irpo<£rjnr]v 4 ; yai, Xtyoj uuiy, Kal ircpio- Lk

xlii. 3).

vii. 24.
'_ a'_ »„ *_ 1 5 * ' * ' f»iO / i Ch. xxiv.

OOT€pOy TrpO<p|TOU • IO. OUT09 Y*P €OTl 1rc P t ou Y^P*" 1 " 1 " - 1 '' ' 00u > 29. parall.

eyw dTToartXXto Toy aYyeXoy p.ou xrpo irpoawirou oou, 09 kg-to.- 27 f

j John xix.5.
Rom. xiii. 4. 1 Cor. xr. 49. Jas. ii. 3.

1 av in BI3 (W.H.).

s fc$BDZ omit 1p.aTi.015, which has come in from Lk (vii 25).

* fc^B omit sio-tv.

4 fr^BZ have irpo<^T)Tt]v iSttv forming a 2nd question. So Tisch. and W.H.

s fr^BDZ omit -yap, which has been introduced to clear the sense which it rather

obscures.

the Twelve sent out to preach the king-
dom That, too, was characteristic of
the movement, though not the character
istic intended, which is that the poor, the
socially insignificant and neglected, are
evangelised (passive, as in Heb. iv. 2).
— Ver. 6. (iSKapios (vide v. 3), possessed
of rare felicity. The word implies that
those who, on some ground or other, did
not stumble over Jesus were very few.
Even John not among them! On o-icav-
Sa\i£<o vide ad. v. 29. iv ep.ot, in any-
thing relating to my public ministry, as
appearinginconsistent with my Messianic
vocation.

Vv. 7-15. "Judgment of Jesus concern-
ing the Baptist (Lk. vii. 24-30). Charac-
teristically magnanimous, while letting it
be seen that He is aware of John's limits
and defects. Ver. 7. tovtwv 8t irop-
cvoplvuv : while John's messengers were
in the act of going, Jesus began at once,
without any delay, to make a statement
which He deemed necessary to prevent in-
jurious inferences from the message of
the Baptist, or the construction He had
put on it as implying doubt regarding
Himself.— tois SxXois : the interrogation
had taken place in presence of many.
Jesus was always in a crowd, except
when He took special steps to escape.
The spectators had watched with interest
what Jesus would say about the famous
man. Therefore, more must be said ; a
careful opinion expressed. — ti Ijj^XOtTt
. . . Scdo-ao-dai : it might be taken for
granted that most of them had been there.
The catechetical method of stating His

opinion of John lively and impres-
sive to such an audience. They had
gone to see as well as hear and be bap-
tised , curiosity plays a great part in
popular religious movements. — xaXapov.
Plenty of reeds to be seen. " What a
vast space of time lies between the days
of the Baptist and us 1 How have the
times changed 1 Yet the stream flows
in the old bed. Still gently blows the
wind among the sighing reeds." — Furrer,
Wanderungen, 185. Many commenta-
tors (Grot., Wet., Fritzscbe, De W.) in-
sist on taking icaX. literally = did ye go,
etc., to see a reed, or the reeds on the
Jordan banks shaken by the wind ? This
is flat and prosaic. Manifestly the indi-
vidualised reed is a figure of an incon-
stant, weak man ; just enough in John's
present attitude to suggest such a
thought, though not to justify it. — Ver.
8. dXXa assumes the negative answer
to the previous question and elegantly
connects with it the following = " No ;
well, then, did you, etc. ? "— ev jxaXaicois,
neuter, ipaTiois not necessary : in preci-
ous garments of any material, silk,
woollen, linen ; the fine garments sugges-
tive of refinement, luxury, effeminacy. —
tSov oi t. p.. (j>opovv'Tcs : iSov points to a
well-known truth, serving the same pur-
pose as 8ij here ; those accustomed to
wear, <|>op., frequentative, as distinct from
<j)«'povT€s, which would mean bearing
without reference to habit. — oftcois t.
f3ao-., in palaces which courtiers frequent.
Jesus knows their flexible, superfine ways
well ; how different from those of the

172

KATA MAT9AI0N

XI.

k Ch. ixlv. (TKtvacTf i tt]v 680V <rou tftTTpofffl^K <rou.' 1 1. 'Apqv \iy<a iu.lv, ofix
ii,a.» .I.k , „

vii. 16. ty)|yepTai ev ytvvi\TOt.s yuvaiKwv p-ei^w^ Icoaffou tou paTrrtorou ■

John vii. , s , m , , q \ ' - . - ', »-»

52. o oe (AiKpoTcpos *v tq paai\cia twk oupaccn- p-ei^wc aurou coti? '

1 here and in
Lk. vii. a8. mCh. xiii. 33, Mk. iv. 31. Lk. vii. 28 ; Ix. 48.

rudely clad and rudely mannered, un-
compromising Baptist 1 — Ver. 9. &\\o.
ri 1%.: one more question, shorter, abrupt,
needing to be supplemented by another
(Weiss-Meyer) — why then, seriously,
went ye out ? irpo<^TT|v tSeiv ;— to see
a Prophet f — voC, yea 1 right at last ; a
prophet, indeed, with all that one expects
in a prophet — vigorous moral conviction,
integrity, strength of will, fearless zeal
for truth and righteousness ; utterly free
from the feebleness and time-serving of
those who bend like reeds to every
breath of wind, or bow obsequiously be-
fore greatness.— Kai ir€pio-<roT«pov ir.,
a prophet and more, something above the
typical prophet (vide on v. 47). The
clause introduced by vat, as \iytt vp.iv
shows, expresses Christ's own opinion,
not the people's (Weiss). — Ver. 10.
ovtos . . . yeYpaiTTai. The irtptorao-
rtpov verified and explained by a pro-
phetic citation. The oracle is taken
from Malachi iii., altered so as to
make the Messianic reference apparent —
pov changed into <rov. By applying the
oracle to John, Jesus identifies him with
the messenger whom God was to send to
prepare Messiah's way. This is his dis-
tinction, irepio-aoTcpov, as compared with
other prophets. But, after all, this is an
external distinction, an accident, so to
speak. Some prophet must be the fore-
runner, if Messiah is to come at all, the
last in the series who foretell His coming,
and John happens to be that one — a
matter of good fortune rather than of
merit. Something more is needed to
justify the irepwro-oTepov, and make it a
proper subject for eulogy. That is forth-
coming in the sequel.

Vv. 11-12. This is the further justifi-
cation of the irepio-o-. desiderated. Ver.
11. ap-V Xeyw vp.iv. First Christ ex-
presses His personal conviction in
solemn terms. What follows refers to
John's intrinsic worth, not to his historic
position as the forerunner. The latter
rests on the prophetic citation. Christ's
aim now is to say that the Baptist's
character is equal to his position : that
he is Jit to be the forerunner. For
Christ, being the forerunner is no matter
of luck. God will see that the right
man occupies the position ; nay, none
but the right man can successfully per-

form the part. — ovk iyifytpTai, there
hath not arisen ; passive with middle
sense, but the arising non sine numine,
" surrexit divinitus, quomodo existunt
veri Prophetae," Eisner; cf. Mt. xxiv.
II, Lk. vii. 16, vide also Judges ii. 18,
iii. 0. — Iv y€wrjTois vvvaiiciv = among
mankind, a solemn way of expressing
the idea. The meaning, however, is not
that John is the greatest man that ever
lived. The comparison moves within
the sphere of Hebrew prophecy, and
practically means : John the greatest of
all the prophets. A bold judgment not
easily accepted by the populace, who
always think the dead greater than the
living. Christ expresses Himself strongly
because He means to say something
that might appear disparaging. But He
is in earnest in His high estimate, only
it is not to be understood as asserting
John's superiority in all respects, e.g.,
in authorship. The point of view is
capacity to render effective service to the
Kingdom of God. — 6 82 putpoVepos.
Chrysostom took this as referring to
Jesus, and, connecting iv t. p. t. otp.
with u€C£uv, brought out the sense : He
who is the less in age and fame is greater
than John in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The opinion might be disregarded as an
exegetical curiosity, had it not been
adopted by so many, not only among
the ancients (Hilar., Ambr., Theophy.,
Euthy.), but also among moderns (Eras.,
Luth. , Fritzsche). In the abstract it is
a possible interpretation, and it expresses
a true idea, but not one Jesus was likely
to utter then. No doubt John's in-
quiry had raised the question of Christ's
standing, and might seem to call for
comparison between questioner and ques-
tioned. But Christ's main concern was
not to get the people to think highly of
Himself, but to have high thoughts of
the kingdom. What He says, therefore,
is that any one in the kingdom, though
of comparatively little account, is greater
than John. Even the least is ; for
though piKpdrcpos, even with the article,
does not necessarily mean p-iKpoTaros
(so Bengel), it amounts to that. The
affirmative holds even in case of the
highest degree of inferiority. The im-
plication is that John was not in the
kingdom as a historical movement (a

II-

EYAITEAION

173

12. &tto Be TUf nu.epwK 'iwdyyou too Bawriorou eo>s apn, 11 BaaiXeia n here and

« » 1 > inLlc. xvi.

tw oiipavutv n Btd^eTai, kcu ptaarai ° dpird£ouaiv auTqv. 13. irdrres 16 (middle

yap ol Trpo^TJTai ical 6 cop.o$ ews ludcfou irpoet^qTeuaae 1 • 14. kou o c/. Phil. ii.

6 {apnay
/ios).

1 fc^BCDZ have the augment at the beginning (cirpo<|>.). A has no augment.

simple matter of fact), and the point of
comparison is the dominant spirit. The
moral sternness of John was his great-
ness and also his weakness. It made
him doubt Jesus, kept him aloof from the
kingdom, and placed him below any one
who in the least degree understood
Christ's gracious spirit, e.g., one of the
Twelve called in x. 42 " these little ones ".
Ver. 12. The statement just com-
mented on had to be made in the in-
terests of truth and the Kingdom of God,
but having made it Jesus reverts with
pleasure to a tone of eulogy. This verse
has created much diversity of opinion,
which it would take long to recount. I
find in it two thoughts : one expressed,
the other implied. (1) There has been a
powerful movement since John's time
towards the Kingdom of God. (2) The
movement derived its initial impetus
from John. The latter thought is
latent in airo 8c twv t>u,. I cad v. The
movement dates from John ; he has the
credit of starting it. This thought is
essential to the connection. It is the
ultimate justification of the ircpioro-oTcpov
(ver. g). The apostle Paul adduced as
one argument for his apostleship, called
in question by Judaists, succ«s, which in
his view was not an accident but God-
given, and due to fitness for the work
(2 Cor. ii. 14, Hi. 1-18). So Christ here
in effect proves John's fitness for the
position of forerunner by the success of
his ministry. He had actually made
the kingdom come. That was the true
basis of his title to the honourable
appellation, " preparer of the way " ;
without that it had been an empty title,
though based on any number of pro-
phecies. That success proved fitness,
adequate endowment with moral force,
and power to impress and move men.
This being seen to be Christ's meaning,
there is no room for doubt as to the
animus of the words p\d£cTai, fkaoTai..
They contain a favourable, benignant
estimate of the movement going on, not
an unfavourable, as, among others, Weiss
thinks, taking the words to point to a
premature attempt to bring in the king-
dom by a false way as a political crea-
tion (Weiss-Meyer). Of course there

were many defects, obvious, glaring, in
the movement, as there always are.
Jesus knew them well, but He was not
in the mood just then to remark on
them, but rather, taking a broad,
generous view, to point to the move-
ment as a whole as convincing proof of
John's moral force and high prophetic
endowment. The two words p\a£.,
piaa. signalise the vigour of the move-
ment. The kingdom was being seized,
captured by a storming party. The
verb might be middle voice, and is so
taken by Beng., "sese vi quasi obtrudit,"
true to fact, but the passive is demanded
by the noun following. The kingdom
is forcefully taken ({Jiaicos Kpa-rciTat,
Hesychius) by the fSuurTal. There is
probably a tacit reference to the kind of
people who were storming the kingdom,
from the point of view, not so much of
Jesus, as of those who deemed themselves
the rightful citizens of the kingdom.
" Publicans and sinners" (ix. 9-12), the
ignorant (xi. 25). What a rabble 1
thought Scribes and Pharisees. Cause
of profound satisfaction to Jesus (ver. 25).
Vv. 13-15. Conclusion of speech about
John. Ver. 13. The thought here is
hinted rather than fully expressed. It
has been suggested that the sense would
become clearer if w. 12 and 13 were
made to change places (Maldonatus).
This inversion might be justified by
reference to Lk. xvi. 16, where the two
thoughts are given in the inverse order.
Wendt (L. J., i. 75) on this and other
grounds arranges the verses 13, 14, 12.
But even as they stand the words can
be made to yield a fitting sense, har-
monising with the general aim, the
eulogy of John. The surface idea is
that the whole O. T., prophets of course,
and even the law in its predictive aspects
(by symbolic rites and foreshadowing in-
stitutions) pointed forward to a Kingdom
of God. The kingdom coming — the
burden of O. T. revelation. But what
then ? To what end make this observa-
tion ? To explain the impatience of the
stormers : their determination to have
at last by all means, and in some form,
what had so long been foretold ? (Weiss).
No ; but to define by contrast John's

»74

KATA MAT9AI0N

XI.

ei (teXeTe S^aaOai, aoTos *<mv 'HXias 6 p.eXXwk' epxeaOai. 15. A
c^uk dra dicouW, 1 aKOueTu. 16. Tm 8e ojaoiwo-w Tr\v yi.vtav
Taurrjy ; 6p,oia tori iroiSapiots 2 Iv dyopais KaOna-ercus, 3 *ai Trpoa-
4>wvou<Ti tois eraipois avrCtv, 17. kcu Xeyouaic, 4 HuXrjaau.ei' upuy,
Kai ouk wpx^craaOc • eOprprjcrau.ek upuc, 5 icai ouk cKO^acrde.

1 BD omit aKoveiv, which has come in from Mk. and Lk. where the addition of
this word to the phrase is usual.
'-' -vaiSiois in all uncials.

3 Ka8T]p.evois before tv in fc^BCDL, etc., with Tais before <ryopai$ in jf^BZ.

4 ^BDZ have a irpocrtfiitfvovvTa . . . Xryovaiv, and for eraipois BCDLAI al.
have crepcis. (Tisch., W.H.).

6 fr$BDZ omit vp.iv, which may have been added to assimilate with first clause.

position. Observe ?o»s I. goes not with
the subject, but with the verb Prophets
(and even law) till John prophesied. The
suggestion is that he is not a mere con-
tinuator of the prophetic line, one more
repeating the message : the kingdom
will come. His function is peculiar and
exceptional. What is it ? Ver. 14 ex-
plains. He is the Elijah of Malachi,
herald of the Great Day, usherer in of
the kingdom, the man who says not
merely " the kingdom will come," but
" the kingdom is here " ; says it, and
makes good the saying, bringing about a
great movement of repentance. — ei 0«'\«t«
Se'£acr9ai : the identification of John with
Elijah to be taken cum grano, not as a
prosaic statement of fact. Here, as
always, Christ idealises, seizes the
essential truth. John was all the Elijah
that would ever come, worthy to repre-
sent him in spirit, and performing the
function assigned to Elijah redivivus in
prophecy. Some of the Fathers dis-
tinguished two advents of Elijah, one in
spirit in the Baptist, another literally at
the second coming of Christ. Servile
exegesis of the letter. 8*'£o.cr8ai has no
expressed object : the object is the state-
ment following. Lutteroth supplies
" him " = the Baptist. In the 0/X*tc
Weiss finds a tacit allusion to the im-
penitence of the people : Ye are not
willing because ye know that Elijah's
coming means a summons to repentance.
— Ver. 15. A proverbial form of speech
often used by Jesus after important
utterances, here for the first time in
Matt. The truth demanding attentive
and intelligent ears (ears worth having ;
taking in the words and their import) is
that John is Elijah. It implies much —
that the kingdom is here and the king,
and that the kingdom is moral not
political.

Vv. 16-19. Judgment of Jesus on
His religious contemporaries (Lk. vii.
3 I "35)- It ' s advisable not to assume as
a matter of course that these words were
spoken at the same time as those going
before. The discourse certainly appears
continuous, and Luke gives this utter-
ance in the same connection as our
evangelist, from which we may infer
that it stood so in the common source.
But even there the connection may
have been topical rather than temporal ;
placed beside what goes before, because
containing a reference to John, and
because the contents are of a critical
nature. Ver. 16. tivi 6p.01.ucru : the
parable is introduced by a question, as if
the thought had just struck Him. — ttjv
-yevcav ravri]v. The occasion on which
the words following were spoken would
make it clear who were referred to. Our
guide must be the words themselves.
The subjects of remark are not the
fkao-Tcu of ver. 12, nor the ox^oi to
whom Jesus had been speaking. Neither
are they the whole generation of Jews
then living, including Jesus and John
(Eisner) ; or even the bulk of the Jewish
people, contemporaries of Jesus. It was
not Christ's habit to make severe
animadversions on the " people of the
land," who formed the large majority of
the population. He always spoke of
them with sympathy and pity (ix. 37,
x. 6). ytvta. might mean the whole body
of men then living, but it might also
mean a particular class of men marked
out by certain definite characteristics.
It is so used in xii. 39, 41, 42, 45 ; xvi.
4. The class or " race " there spoken of
is in one case the Scribes and Pharisees,
and in the other the Pharisees and
Sadducces. From internal evidence the
reference here also is mainly to the
Pharisees. It is a class who spoke of

15—19.

EYAITEAION

1 1S

1 8. *HX0e yip 'IwoVitjs piTe icrQiotv fir\rc -nivw, kcu Xlyouai,
Acnu.<mok ey^u. *9 - *fl^* v ° U ^°S T0 " &y0pwirou iadlw ical Tri'i/ow,
Kal \lyouariv, 'l8ou, aVOpcoiros p <J>dyos nal q oimottottis, TeXwywe p Lk.vH. 34.
$1X0$ Kal ajxapTuXwi'. teat e8iKaiw8r] t) aoc^ia &tto twc TeKkUf 1

1 fr^B have epywv, which Tisch. and W.H. adopt. Though supported by a great
array of MSS. (including CDL) tckvcdv may be suspected of assimilation to the
reading in Lk.

Jesus as reported in ver. 19. Who can
they have been but the men who asked :
Why does He eat with publicans and
sinners (ix. 11)? These vile calumnies
are what have come out of that feast, in
the same sanctimonious circle. Luke
evidently understood the Pharisees and
lawyers (vop,tKoi) to be the class referred
to, guided probably by his own im-
pression as to the import of the passage
(vide Lk. vii. 30). — iraiStois . . .
ayopais : Jesus likens the Pharisaic
ytved to children in the market-place
playing at marriages and funerals, as He
had doubtless often seen them in Naza-
reth. The play, as is apt to happen, has
ended in a quarrel. — 7rpocr<{>. toIs e-rcpois
. . . \iyovariv. There are two parties,
the musicians and the rest who are ex-
pected to dance or mourn according to
the tune, and they are at cross purposes,
the moods not agreeing : cTtpois, the
best attested reading, may point to this
discrepancy in temper = a set differently
inclined. — rjviXi](rap,er : the flute in this
case used for merriment, not, as in ix. 23,
to express grief. — ^0pT|VT]<rap.ev : we have
expressed grief by singing funeral dirges,
like the mourning women hired for the
purpose {vide ad ix. 23). — «K($\J/ao-9€ : and
ye have not beat your breasts in re-
sponsive sorrow. This is the parable to
which Jesus adds a commentary. With-
out the aid of the latter the general
import is plain. The -yevea animadverted
on are like children, not in a good but
in a bad sense : not child-like but childish.
They play at religion ; with all their
seeming earnestness in reality triflers.
They are also fickle, fastidious, given to
peevish fault-finding, easily offended.
These are recognisable features of the
Pharisees. They were great zealots and
precisians, yet not in earnest, rather
haters of earnestness, as seen in different
ways in John and Jesus. They were hard
to please : equally dissatisfied with John
and with Jesus ; satisfied with nothing
but their own artificial formalism.
They were the only men in Israel of
whom these things could be said with
emphasis, and it may be taken for

granted that Christ's animadversions
were elicited by pronounced instances of
the type. — Ver. 18. The commentary on
the parable showing that it was the
reception given to John and Himself that
suggested it.— p.iJTS iv9. p.iJT« wiv. : eat-
ing and drinking, the two parts of diet ;
not eating nor drinking = remarkably
abstemious, ascetic, that his religious
habit ; p/i]T€ not ovrt, to express not
merely the fact, but the opinion about
John. Vide notes on chap. v. 34. — 8ai-
p.(Sviov exti : is possessed, mad, with
the madness of a gloomy austerity.
The Pharisee could wear gloomy airs in
fasting (vi. 16), but that was acting. The
Baptist was in earnest with his morose,
severely abstinent life. Play for them,
gTim reality for him; and they disliked it
and shrank from it as something weird.
None but Pharisees would dare to say
such a thing about a man like John.
They are always so sure, and so ready to
judge. Ordinary people would respect
the ascetic of the wilderness, though they
did not imitate him. — Ver. 19. 6 vli>% t.
a. : obviously Jesus here refers to Him-
self in third person where we might have
expected the first. Again the now famil-
iar title, defining itself as we go along by
varied use, pointing Jesus out as an ex-
ceptional person, while avoiding all con-
ventional terms to define the exceptional
element.— icrQiuiv xal ttLvuiv : the "Son
of Man " is one who eats and drinks, i.e.,
non-ascetic and social, one of the marks
interpretative of the title = human, frater-
nal. — Kal Xiyovari, and they say : what ?
One is curious to know. Surely this
genial, friendly type of manhood will
please ! — tSov, lo ! scandalised sancti-
moniousness points its finger at Him
and utters gross, outrageous calumnies. —
<f)dyos, olvo-nr<$TT|s, <f>iXos, an eater with
emphasis = a glutton (a word of late
Greek, Lob., Phryn.,434), a wine-bibber ;
and, worse than either, for 4>{\os is used
in a sinister sense and implies that Jesus
was the comrade of the worst characters,
and like them in conduct. A malicious
nickname at first, it is now a name of
honour : the sinner's lover. The Son of

i 7 6

RATA MAT9AI0N

XI.

r Mk. xvi. auTrk. 20. T6ti rm£o,TO ' oieiSi^eu- Tas ttoXcis, iv a*s ev^orro
14 (with ( '

•ecus, of ai irXeiorai Sufdp.cis aoToo, on 00 ueTCforjo-ae. 21. "Oval <rot,

1 Lk. x. 13 Xopa^iy, ouai aoi, f3r|0<raiodK, on el iv Tupu> teal Iio&n. iytvovro

(long ago). ,5., « , »A-iJ\*»»j «

2 Cor. xii. ai ouyapeis ai yc^OfiCKai (.v u\i.iv, iraAai B.v ev o-cIkku Kai
this time," * ottoSw p-eTerOTjo-ai'. 22. ° irXrp' Xtyw tifi.lv, Topw Kal Iioom dyeKTO-
t Lk. x. 13 Tepok etrrai iv ^ulpa Kpiaeus, ^ tjuik. 23. Kai <ro, Kcurcpfaoup.,
g). u '^ J eus tou oopakou ovj/wdeiaa, 1 lu? a8oo KaTapi(3aff0^(rr] 2 * on €i eV
7; xxvi. loSopois iyivovro 9 ai Sufduei; at ycyoueycu iv aoi, IpciKar 4 &v
(frequent in Lk.).

1 fc^BCDL Syr. Cur. read ut) tw? ovpavov v\|»u0t)o-t|, which recent editors adopt.
Weiss thinks it has no sense, as un implies a negative answer, and gives as the true
reading t) eus ovp. v\J/<i8ns.

* BD have Karap^^ (W.H.).

s NBCD have eytvr\8ii<rav (Tisch., W.H.).

♦tpuvtr in NBC33 (W.H.).

Man takes these calumnies as a thing of
course and goes on His gracious way.
It is not necessary to reflect these char-
acteristics of Jesus and John back into
the parable, and to identify them with
the piping and wailing children. Yet
the parable is so constructed as to ex-
hibit them very clearly in their distinctive
peculiarities by representing the children
not merely employed in play and quarrel-
ling over their games, which would have
sufficed as a picture of the religious Jews,
but as playing at marriages and funerals,
the former symbolising the joy of the
Jesus-circle, the latter the sadness of the
Baptist-circle (vide my Parabolic Teach-
ing of Christ, p. 420). — ical ISucaiwdi],
etc. This sentence wears a gnomic or
proverbial aspect (" verba proverbium
redolere videntur," Kuinoel, similarly,
Rosenmiiller), and the aorist oftSuc. may
be taken as an instance of the gnomic
aorist, expressive of what is usual ; a law
in the moral sphere, as elsewhere the
aorist is employed to express the usual
course in the natural sphere, e.g., in
James i. 11. Weiss-Meyer strongly
denies that there are any instances of
such use of the aorist in the N. T. (On
this aorist vide Goodwin, Syntax, p. 53,
and Baumlein, § 523, where it is called the
aorist of experience, " der Erfahrungs-
wahrheit ".) — airo, in, in view of (vide
Buttmann's Gram., p. 232, on airo in

N. T.). — ?py<xv : the reading of fr$B, and

likely to be the true one just because
t«'kvojv is the reading in Luke. It is an
appeal to results, to fruit (vii. 20), to the
future. Historical in form, the state-

ment is in reality a prophecy. Resch,
indeed (Agrapha, p. 142), takes ISik. as
the (erroneous) translation of the Hebrew
prophetic future used in the Aramaic
original = now we are condemned, but
wait a while. The Kal at the beginning
of the clause is not = " but". It states a
fact as much a matter of course as is the
condemnation of the unwise. Wisdom,
condemned by the foolish, is always, of
course, justified in the long run by her
works or by her children.

Vv. 20-24. Reflections by fesus on
the reception given to Him by the towns
of Galilee (Lk. x. 13-15). Ver. 20. roVe,
then, cannot be pressed. Luke gives
the following words in instructions to the
Seventy. The real historical occasion is
unknown. It may be a reminiscence
from the preaching tour in the syna-
gogues of Galilee (Mt. iv. 23). The
reflections were made after Jesus had
visited many towns and wrought many
wonderful works (Svvdpcis). — ov uetc-
votjo-ov ; this the general fact ; no deep,
permanent change of mind and heart.
Christ appearing among them a nine
days' wonder, then forgotten by the
majority preoccupied with material inter-
ests. — Ver. 21. Xopa££v, BrjOo-aiSdv : the
former not again mentioned in Gospels,
the latter seldom (vide Mk. vi. 45, viii.
22 ; Lk. ix. 10), yet scenes of important
evangelic incidents, probably connected
with the synagogue ministry in Galilee
(iv. 23). The Gospels are brief records
of a ministry crowded with events.
These two towns may be named along
with Capernaum because all three were
in view where Christ stood when He

*•>— 25.

ETAITEA1UN

177

* jjiej^pt t^s ffi'jfispok. 24. tt\t]1' \«yw ujjuc, on yrj loSojiwi' (micro- v Ch. xxviii.

> < r / * '" «- »e » ' - - 15 (same

repoi' carat ev T)(A«pa Kptffews, t\ oroi. 25. Ev oceicu t<o Kaipw phrase).

w C h x 11

* diroKpiOeis 6 'irjaoug eiTrep, " x 'E£ou,o\oyoGu,o.i ctoi, Trd/rcp, Kupie 3S;xv. 15;

rou oupavou kou rrjs Y*l s > ° Tt 6Vrr«Kpu T , as * TaoTO diro T aofyuv kcu (in sense

of begin-
.ling to speak). x Lk x. 21. Rom. xiv. 11 ; xv. 9. y Lk. x. 21 (Jewish). Mt. xxiii. 34 (Christian),
i Cor. i. 26 (Pagan).

1 fc^BD have the simple cicpvijra;.

uttered the reproachful words, say on
the top of the hill above Capernaum :
Bethsaida on the eastern shore 01 Jordan,
just above where it falls into the lake ;
Chorazin on the western side on the road
to Tyre from Capernaum (Furrer, Wan-
dernngen, p. 370). They may also have
been prosperous business centres selected
to represent the commercial side of
Jewish national life. Hence the refer-
ence to Tyre and Sidon, often the subject
of prophetic animadversion, yet not so
blameworthy in their impenitence as the
cities which had seen Christ's works. —
iv o-ttKK<»> kcu. cnroSu : in black sackcloth,
and with ashes on the head, or sitting
in ashes like Job (ii. 8). — Ver. 22.
tt\t)v : contracted from irX^ov = more-
over, for the rest, to put the matter
shortly ; not adversative here, though
sometimes so used. — Ver. 23. The
diversity in the reading p,T) or t) tus, etc.,
does not affect the sense. In the one
case the words addressed to Capernaum
contain a statement of fact by Jesus; in
the other a reference to a feeling prevail-
ing in Capernaum in regard to the facts.
The fact implied in either case is dis-
tinction on some ground, probably be-
cause Capernaum more than all other
places was favoured by Christ's presence
and activity. But there may, as some
think (Grotius, Rosen., De Wette, etc.),
be a reference to trade prosperity.
" Florebat C. piscatu, mercatu, et quae
alia esse solent commoda ad mare sitar-
um urbium" (Grot.). The reference to
Tyre and Sidon, trade centres, makes
this not an idle suggestion. And it is
not unimportant to keep this aspect in
mind, as Capernaum with the other two
cities then become representatives of the
trading spirit, and show us by sample
how that spirit received the Gospel of the
kingdom. Capernaum illustrated the com-
mon characteristic most signally. Most
prosperous, most privileged spiritually,
and — most unsympathetic, the population
being taken as a whole. Worldliness
as unreceptive as counterfeit piety re-
presented by Pharisaism, though not so

offensive in temper and language. No
calumny, but simply invincible indiffer-
ence. — ews oxipavov, fus a8ov : proverbial
expressions for the greatest exaltation
and deepest degradation. The reference
in the latter phrase is not to the future
world, but to the judgment day of Israel
in which Capernaum would be involved.
The prophetic eye of Jesus sees Caper-
naum in ruins as it afterwards saw the
beautiful temple demolished (chap. xxiv.

2 )-

Vv. 25-27. Jesus worshipping (Lk.

x. 21, 22). It is usual to call this golden
utterance a prayer, but it is at once
prayer, praise, and self-communing in a
devout spirit. The occasion is unknown.
Matthew gives it in close connection
with the complaint against the cities
(iv cKcivu to> KQtpw), but Luke sets it in
still closer connection (Iv avTrj tjj wpa)
with the return of the Seventy. Accord-
ing to some modern critics, it had no
occasion at all in the life of our Lord,
but is simply a composition of Luke's,
and borrowed from him by the author
of Matthew: a hymn in which the
Pauline mission to the heathen as the
victory of Christ over Satan's dominion
in the world is celebrated, and given
in connection with the imaginary mis-
sion of the Seventy (vide PHeiderer,
Urchristenthum, p. 445). But Luke's
preface justifies the belief that he
had here, as throughout, a tradition
oral or written to go on, and the
probability is that it was taken both
by him and by Matthew from a com-
mon document. Wendt (L. J., pp. 90,
91) gives it as an extract from the
book of Logia, and supposes that
it followed a report of the return of
the disciples (the Twelve) from their
mission.

Ver. 25. cWoKpi.0€is, answering,
not necessarily to anything said, but
to some environment provocative of
such thoughts. — l£op,o\o-yovp,cu crot ( =

V mil - ! P s - lxxv - 2 , etc.). In iii. 6
this compound means to make full con-

i 7 8

KATA MATGAION

XI.

i Lk. i. ai. ffowTwc, Kai aTTtKu\uiJ/as auTa ytjmois. 26. vai 6 iremjp, oti
Actsxiii.7. -,, 1 >c ' 1 " a' t- in

1 Cor. i .19. outws tytk'eTo coooKia l €p.Trpocr0t v (too. 27. riat'Ta u.01 Trap£Oo6ir|

10. Phil, utto too iraTpos p.00 ■ Kai ouSels c-rriYU'waxei toc oloc, el p.r) 6

b Ik. x. 11. TTarr)p • ou8e to** iraTepa tis eiriyn'tjaKei, et prj 6 oios, Kai <£ * a *
Rom. ii. 90.
1 Cor. iii. 1. Heb. w. 13. c Eph. i. 5,9. Phil. ii. 13. d 1 Cor. xiii. 13.

1 cvSoKia «-y€v£TO in ^B 33, making cvSoxia more emphatic.

fession (of sin). Here it = to make
frank acknowledgment of a situation in
a spirit partly of resignation, partly of
thanksgiving. — ?Kpvi|/as. The fact stated
is referred to the causality of God, the
religious point of view ; but it happens
according to laws which can be ascer-
tained. — TavTa : the exact reference un-
known, but the statement holds with
reference to Christ's whole teaching and
healing ministry, and the revelation of
the kingdom they contained. — <ro$u>v
kqI <tvv£tuv : the reference here doubt-
less is to the Rabbis and scribes, the
accepted custodians of the wisdom of
Israel. Cf. <ro<$>bs Kai iiri<rrqp.uv in
Deut. iv. 6 applied to Israel. The ren-
dering "wise and prudent" in A. V. is
misleading ; " wise and understanding "
in R. V. is better. — vipriois (fr. vi\ and
tiros, non-speaking) means those who
were as ignorant of scribe-lore as babes
(cf. John vii. 49 and Heb. v. 13). Their
ignorance was their salvation, as thereby
they escaped the mental preoccupation
with preconceived ideas on moral and
religious subjects, which made the scribes
inaccessible to Christ's influence (vide my
Parabolic Teaching, pp. 333, 334). Jesus
gives thanks with all His heart for the
receptivity of the babes, not in the same
sense or to the same extent for the non-
receptive attitude of the wise (with De
Wette and Bleek against Meyer and
Weiss). No distinction indeed is ex-
pressed, but it goes without saying, and
the next clause implies it. — Ver. 26. vai
reaffirms with solemn emphasis what
might appear doubtful, viz., that Jesus
was content with the state of matters
(vide Klotz, Devar., i. 140). Cf. ver. 9. —
itottip : nominative for vocative. — oti,
because, introducing the reason for this
contentment. — ovtus, as the actual facts
stand, emphatic (" sic maxime non aliter,"
Fritzsche). — ev8o»c£a, a pleasure, an
occasion of pleasure ; hence a purpose,
a state of matters embodying the Divine
Will, a Hellenistic word, as is also the
verb evSoK^&j (cf. 1 Cor. i. 21, where the
whole thought is similar). Christ re-
signs Himself to God's will. But His

tranquillity is due likewise to insight
into the law by which new Divine
movements find support among the
vijirioi rather than among the o-o<^ou —
Ver. 27. iravTa, all things necessary
for the realisation of the kingdom (Holtz.,
H.C.). The irdvTa need not be restricted
to the hiding and revealing functions
(Weiss, Nosgen). Hiding, indeed, was
no function of Christ's. He was always
and only a revealer. For the present
Jesus has only a few babes, but the
future is His : Christianity the coming
religion. — irapt$6Qr\, aorist, were given.
We might have expected the future. It
may be another instance of the aorist
used for the Hebrew prophetic future
(vide ad ver. 19). In Mt. xxviii. 18
cScSOt) again to express the same thought.
The reference probably is to the eternal
purpose of God : on the use of the
aorist in N. T., vide note on this pas-
sage in Camb. G. T. — cm-yivwo-Kci,
thoroughly knows. — t6v viov . . . ■wa.T-^p,
Christ's comfort amid the widespread
unbelief and misunderstanding in re-
ference to Himself is that His Father
knows Him perfectly. No one else does,
not even John. He is utterly alone in
the world. Son here has a Godward
reference, naturally arising out of the
situation. The Son of Man is called an
evil liver. He lifts up His heart to
heaven and says : God my Father knows
me, His Son. The thought in the first
clause is connected with this one thus :
the future is mine, and for the present
my comfort is in the Father's know-
ledge of me. — oiSi tov iraWpa ... 6
vlos : a reflection naturally suggested
by the foregoing statement. It is igno-
rance of the Father that creates mis-
conception of the Son. Conventional,
moral and religious ideals lead to mis-
judgment of one who by all He says and
does is revealing God as He truly is and
wills. The men who know least about
God are those supposed to know most,
and who have been most ready to judge
Him, the "wise and understanding".
Hence the additional reflection, ko.I u
lay fio\i\i)Tai 6 v. airoKaXv\l/ai. Jesus

26~2g.

EYAITEAION

179

f3ouXi]TCu *6 utog dvroKaXu'uW,

* KOTTiwfTes Kal Tre<j>opTKT)xeVoi, Kciyuj

28. ' AeuTe irpos lie -trdVTeg 01 e o vio S
. absolutel>

decnraucrGJ uuds. 2Q. upare here and
' inCh.

xxiv. 36; xxviii. 19. Mk. xiii. 32. f t/trf« Ch. iv. 19. g here and in John iv. 6. Rev. ii. 3 (with

the sense of weariness, cf. Is. xl. 31, ov Koiriacrovai. Sir. Ii. 27, ixoniacra). h 1 Cor. xvi. 18.

Philem. 20 (Sir. Ii. 27, the noun).

here asserts His importance as the re-
vealer of God, saying in effect : " The
wise despise me, but they cannot do
without me. Through me alone can
they attain that knowledge of God
which they profess to desire above all
things." This was there and then the
simple historic fact. Jesus was the one
person in Israel who truly conceived
God. The use of fJovXtiTai is noticeable :
not to whomsoever He reveals Him, but
to whomsoever He is pleased to reveal
Him. The emphasis seems to lie on
the inclination, whereas in Mt. i. 19
0eXo>v appears to express the wish, and
«|3ov\t]6ti rather the deliberate purpose.
Jesus meets the haughty contempt of
the "wise" with a dignified assertion
*hat it depends on his inclination whether
rfiey are to know God or not. On the
distinction between (3ov\ojiai and 0eXa),
vide Cremer, Worterbuch, s. v. £ov-
Xop.ai. According to him the former re-
presents the direction of the will, the
latter the will active (Affect, Trieb).
Hence PovX. can always stand for OtX.,
but not vice versd.

Vv. 28-30. The gracious invitation.
Full of O. T. reminiscences, remarks
Holtz., H.C., citing Isaiah xiv. 3 ; xxviii.
12; lv. 1-3; Jer. vi. 16; xxxi. 2, 25,
and especially Sirach vi. 24, 25, 28, 29 ;
li. 23-27. De Wette had long before
referred to the last-mentioned passage,
and Pfleiderer has recently (Urch., 513)
made it the basis of the assertion that
this beautiful logion is a composition out
of Sirach by the evangelist. The passage
in Sirach is as follows : lyvkraTe irp6«
u.e aira^SevTOi, Kal avXia0T|T£ Iv oiKo"i cr(j>68pa ;
TJvoi£a to axo|xa iaov, Kal eXaXTjaa,
KTrJ0"acr0e eavrois avev dpyvpiov. tow
Tpax^i^ov vjjlujv viroOeTe viro £tjvov, Kal
eTTiSeldo-Oo) t| i|n>XT) tijiuv -rraiSeiav •
ly-yijs €0"tiv tipeiv axiTTjv • i8ct« iv
6i|>9aX|xois vp.b>v OTi 6\i-yov EKOTriaaa,
Kal cvpov Ip-avToi iroX\r)v dvdiravtriv.*

There axe unquestionably kindred
thoughts and corresponding phrases, as
even Kypke points out (" Syracides magna
similitudine dicit "), and if Sirach had
been a recognised Hebrew prophet one
could have imagined Matthew giving
the gist of this rhetorical passage, pre-
faced with an " as it is written ". It is
not even inconceivable that a reader of
our Gospel at an early period noted on
the margin phrases culled from Sirach as
descriptive of the attitude of the one
true o-oi^ds towards men to show how
willing he was to communicate the know-
ledge of the Father-God, and that his
notes found their way into the text.
But why doubt the genuineness of this
logion ? It seems the natural conclusion
of Christ's soliloquy ; expressing His
intense yearning for receptive scholars
at a time wnen tie was painfully con-
scious of the prevalent unreceptivityT
'The words do not smell of the lamp.
They come straight from a saddene d
yet t enaerly anectionate, unembittered
he art ; simple, pathetic, sincere. he
may have known Sirach from boyhood,
and echoes may have unconsciously
suggested themselves, and been used
with royal freedom quite compatibly with
perfect originality of thought and phrase.
The reference to wisdom inver. 19 makes
the supposition not gratuitous that Jesus
may even have had the passage in Sirach
consciously present to His mind, and
that He used it, half as a quotation, half
as a personal manifesto. The passage
is the end of a prayer of Resits, the Son
of Sirach, in which that earlier Jesus,
personating wisdom, addresses his fellow-
men, inviting them to share the benefits
which orocjua has conferred on himself.
Why should not Jesus of Nazareth close
His prayer with a similar address in the
name of wisdom to those who are most
likely to become her children — those
whose ear sorrow hath opened ? This
view might meet Martineau's objection
to regarding this logion as authentic, that

* Of the above the R.V. gives the follow-
ing translation: "Draw near unto me, ye
unlearned, and lodge in the house of in-
struction. Say wherefore are ye lacking in
these things, and your souls are very thirsty?
I opened my mouth and spake. Get her

for yourselves without money. Put your
neck under the yoke, and let your soul
receive instruction. She is hard at hand to
find. Behold with your eyes how that 1
laboured but a little, and found for myself
much rest.''

r8o

KATA MATGAION

XI. 30.

i Acts xv. 10. t6> ' £uyoy fiou t<£ ofias, kui jxciOeTc dir' cuou, on Trpdos ' €iu.i Kal
j Ch. xn 43. Tairciros ttj Kapoia • kcu eupYjcrtTC J dvatvaucnv tous yuccas up.uf.

11 (Wis 30. 6 y«p £uy<$S p-ou k xp")o r TOS ) tai t£ <^opTiof p.ou e\a4>p6v t<my."

dom iv. 7).
k Lk. vi. 39. Rom. ii. 4.

1 -irpavs in ^BCD (Tisch., W.H.).

it is not compatible with the humility of
Jesus that He should so speak of Him-
self (Stat of Authority, p. 583). Why
should He not do as another Jesus had
done before Him : speak in the name of
wisdom, and appropriate her attributes ?
Ver. 28. Aixni : vide ad iv. ig, again
authoritative but kindly. — Koiriwvrts Kal
ire^opricrfitVoi, the fatigued and bur-
dened. This is to be taken metaphorically.
The kind of people Jesus expects to be-
come "disciples indeed" are men who.
have sou ght lonf*. earnestly, but in vaTnT
for the summum bonum, the knowledge of
God. \ There is no burden so heavy as
that of" truth sou ght and nnt found.
"Scholars OJ the Kahhis, like Raul of
Tarsus, knew it wel l. In corning thence
€0 Christ's school they wo uETiinH rest

by passing from letter to spirit, from
torm to reality, from hearsay to cer -
tainty, from traditions of the past to th e
present voice of Go d. — Kayu, and I, em-
phatic, with side glance at the reputed
"wise" who do not give rest (with
Meyer against Weiss). — Ver. 29. £vydv :
current phrase to express the relation of
a disciple to a master. The Rabbis
spoke of the " yoke of the law ". Jesus
uses their phrases while drawing men
away from their influence. — p.d0£-r£ air*
ep.ov : not merely learn from my example
(Buttmann, Gram., p. 324: on, that is,
from the case of), but, more compre-
hensively, get your learning from me ;
take me as your Master in religion. Th<>
t hing to be learned is not merely a moral
Tesson, humility , but th e whol^ tp ith
' abou t God and righteousne ss. Bu t
the mood of Master and scEblar must
correspo nd. He meek as thev have be- '
come by sorrowful experience. Hence
on Trpovs . . . tti KttpSta : not that,
but for I am, etc! What connection
is there between '{his spirit and know-
ledge of God ? This : a proud man
cannot know God. God knoweth the
proud afar off (Ps. cxxxviii. 6), and
they know God afar off. God giveth
the grace of intimate knowledge of
Himself to the lowly.— avdira vcrtv : rest.

such as comes throu gh finding the
"true "God, or throu gh satisjacaon_ol
desire, ol the hunger~bf the soul. — Ver^

30. xP'Vrrfc'. kindly to we ar. Christ's
doctrine fits and satisfies our whole
sp iritual nature—reason, h^art, con-
scien ce, " thesweet reasonableness of
Christ ". — 4>oqtLov, the burden of obliga-
tion. — j\a<f>p6v : in one respect Christ's
burden is the heaviest of all because His
moral ideal is the hig hest^_ But just on
thata ccount it is light. Lofty, noble
ideals inspi re an d attract ; vulgar ideal s
are oppres sive. _unnst's commandment
is difficult, but not like that of the Rabbis,
grievous. (Vide With Open Face.)

Chapter XII. Conflicts with the
Pharisees. This chapter delineates the
growing alienation between Jesus and
the Pharisees and scribes. The note of
time (iv ikeivu to Kcupu, ver. 1) points
back to the situation in which the prayer
xi. 25-30 was uttered (vide ver. 25, where
the same expression is used). All the
incidents recorded reveal the captious
mood of Israel's "saints and sages".
They have now formed a thoroughly bad
opinion of Jesus and His company.
They regard Him as immoral in life
(xi. 19) ; irreligious,
blasphemy (assuming
rogative of forgiving
ally of Satan even in
(xii. 24). He can do nothing right.
The smallest, most innocent action is
an offence.

Vv. 1-8. Plucking ears of corn on the
Sabbath (Mk. ii. 23-28 ; Lk. vi. 1-5).
. Sabbath observance was one of the lead-
ing causes of conflict between Jesus and
the guardians of religion and morality.
This is the first of several encounters
reported by the evangelist. According
to Weiss he follows Mark, but with say-
ings taken directly from the Apostolic
Source.

Vv. 1, 2. o-dp(3ao-iv : dative plural, as
if from o-d{3Pav-os, other cases (genitive,
singular and plural, dative, singular,
accusative, plural) are formed from crdp-
parov (vide ver. 2). — 81a. tuv o-rropLp.a>v
might mean through fields adapted for
growing grain, but the context requires
fields actually sown ; fields of corn. —
eireivao-av : for the form vide iv. 2.
This word supplies the motive for the
action, which Mark leaves vague. —

capable even ol

the divine pre-

sin, ix. 3) ; an

His beneficence

XII. i—5.

EYAITEAION

XII. r. 'EN eKei'vo) tw Kaipw eiropeuOr) 6 'It]o-oGs tois o-d{3j3aai
Sid tQ>v ^ cTtop'ni.(i)v ■ 01 8e u,a0r|Tal auTou i-neivaaav, Kal r\p%avTo
b Ti\\cn' c <rrd)(uas Kal co-Stcic. 2. ot 8e <!>apio-aloi ISrWes elirov
auTw, "'l8ou, ol p.a0T]Tai crou irotouo-ic, o ouk c^eon Troicty ev
o-a/3|3dTW." 3. c Be enrei' outois, "Ouk d aviyvure ti eiroiTjae
Aa|3i8, ore eTreiyacrey auTos * Kal ot u,£t' auTou ; 4. irws €io-TJ\0ec
ctS Toy oikoi' toO 0£ou, Kal tous apTous *tt]S TrpofleVews etjsaYe*', 2
ous 3 ouk e£6y rjf aurw d^ayeii', ou8e tois JJ-eT' auTou, €t p.r) T015
Upeuo-i pvoVois ; 5. *H ouk aveyv<D7€ tV tw yop,w, oti tois ad|3f?ao-n/
ol Upeis eV tw lepw 16 o-dPPaToy * {3ej3ir]Xouo-i., Kal ' dfaiTioi ciai;

1 The avros (LI) comes from Mk. (ii. 25) ; it is omitted in ^BCDA al.

2 c<j>avov in fc$B — probably the true reading.

1 o in BD. The reading of T. R. (e<f>a.Ycv ovs) is from Mk.

a here and

in parall.
b here and

in parall.
c here,

parall. and

Mk. iv.28.
d Ch. xix.4;

xxi. 16,42;

xxiv. 15 al.
e Heb. ix. 2.
f Acts xxiv.

6 (often in

Sept.).
g here and

in ver. 7.

TJpjjavro : perhaps emphasis should be
laid on this word. No sooner had they
begun to pluck ears than fault was found.
Pharisees on the outlook for offences.
So Carr, Camb. G. T.— Ver. 2. o ovk
i£eo-Ttv it. 6. caPPaTw. The emphasis
here lies on the last word. To help one-
self, when hungry, with the hand was
humanely allowed in the Deuteronomic
law (Deut. xxiii. 25), only to use the
sickle was forbidden as involving waste.
But according to the scribes what was
lawful on other days was unlawful on
Sabbath, because plucking ears was
reaping. " Metens Sabbato vel tantillum,
reus est " (Lightfoot rendering a passage
from the Talmud). Luke adds tywxovTts,
rubbing with the hands. He took the
offence to be threshing. Microscopic
offence in either case, proving primd
facie malice in the fault-finders. But
honest objection is not inconceivable to
one who remembers the interdict placed
by old Scottish piety on the use of the
razor on Sabbath. We must be just
even to Pharisees.

Vv. 3-8. Christ's defence. It is two-
fold. (1) He shields disciples by examples:
David and the priests ; to both the fault-
finders would defer (vv. 3-5) ; (2) He
indicates the principles involved in the
examples (w. 6-8). The case of David
was apposite because (a) it was a case of
eating, (b) it probably happened on
Sabbath, (c) it concerned not only David
but, as in the present instance, followers ;
therefore ol p.e-r' av-rov, ver. 3, carefully
added, (b) does not form an element in
the defence, but it helps to account for
the reference to David's conduct. In
that view Jesus must have regarded the
act of David as a Sabbatic incident, and

that it was may not unnaturally be in-
ferred from 1 Sam. xxi. 6. Vide Light-
foot, ad loc. — This was probably also the
current opinion. The same remark
applies to the attendants of David.
From the history one might gather that
David was really alone, and only pre-
tended to have companions. But if, as
is probable, it was usually assumed that
he was accompanied, Jesus would be jus-
tified in proceeding on that assumption,
whatever the fact was (vide Schanz, ad
loc). — Ver. 4. tio-fjXOev, e^ayov, he
entered, they ate. Mark has t<j>a-yev.
Weiss explains the harsh change of sub-
ject by combination of apostolic source
with Mark. The two verbs point to two
offences against the law : entering a holy
place, eating holy bread. The sin of the
disciples was against a holy time. But
the principle involved was the same =
ceremonial rules may be overruled by
higher considerations. — o ovk «£bv tjv.
ovs in Mark and Luke agreeing with
ap-rovs, and here also in T. R., but S
doubtless the true reading ; again pre-
senting a problem in comparative exegesis
(vide Weiss-Meyer). S ought to mean
"which thing it was not lawful to do,"
but it may be rendered " which kind of
bread" etc. — el p. tj, except; absolutely un-
lawful, except in case of priests. — Ver. 5.
This reference to the priests naturally
leads on to the second instance taken
from their systematic breach of the
technical Sabbath law in the discharge
of sacerdotal duty. — {j ovk dveyvwxe,
have ye not read ? not of course the
statement following, but directions on
which such a construction could be put,
as in Numb, xxviii. g, concerning the
burnt offering of two lambs. They had

182

KATA MAT9AT0N

XII.

h f'cTTu =. 6. Xe'yw ot uu.iv, on toG lepou u.ei£wv ' tarty &Se. ^, « &£ eyyu-

vidt Lk. kcitc ti h eoriv, ' "EXcov " 0e\w Kal ou 0uo-iav,' ouk &v ' xareoiKcwraTe

i Lk vi 17, tous dvaiTious. 8. Kupios y^P t0 " rt K0 " R T °u <raP/3d-rou 6 uu>s too

(the pass. dl'DpwTrOO.
in ver. 37).

1 p.€i£ov in NBD al. ftci^jov (LA) is a misjudged attempt at correction.
a This is another grammatical correction (vide ix. 13), sXtos in NBCD33.
3 Koi omitted in fc$BCD, etc. It comes in from the parall.

read often enough, but had not under-
stood. As Euthy. Zig. remarks, Jesus
reproaches them for their vain labour, as
not understanding what they read (u.tj
liriYivuo-Kovcriv 6. dvayivwaKovai). — pe-
PtjXovo-i, profane, on the Pharisaic view
of the Sabbath law, as an absolute pro-
hibition of work. Perhaps the Pharisees
themselves used this word as a technical
term, applicable even to permissible
Sabbath labour. So Schanz after Schott-
gen.

Vv. 6-8. The principles involved. The
facts stated raise questions as to the
reasons. The Pharisees were men of
rules, not accustomed to go back on
principles. The passion for minutiae
killed reflection. The reasons have
been already hinted in the statement of
the cases : ore iveivaartv, ver. 3 ; ev tu
Upw, ver. 5: hunger, the temple; human
needs, higher claims. These are referred
to in inverse order in w. 6-7. — Ver. 6.
Xe'yw 8e vp.lv : solemn affirmation, with
a certain tone in the voice. — tov Upov
p.€i£ov. Though they might not have
thought of the matter before, the claim
of the temple to overrule the Sabbath
law would be admitted by the Pharisees.
Therefore, Jesus could base on it an
argument a fortiori. The Sabbath must
give way to the temple and its higher
interests, therefore to something higher
still. What was that something ? Christ
Himself, according to the almost unani-
mous opinion of interpreters, ancient and
modern ; whence doubtless the pei^wv of
T. R. But Jesus might be thinking
rather of the kingdom than of the king;
a greater interest is involved here, that
of the kingdom of God. Fritzsche takes
p.€i£ov as = teaching men, and curing
them of vice then going on. It may be
asked : How did the interest come in ?
The disciples were following Jesus, but
what was He about ? What created
the urgency ? Whence came it that the
disciples needed to pluck ears of standing
corn ? We do not know. That is one
of the many lacuna in the evangelic
history. But it may be assumed that

there was something urgent goin<» on
in connection with Christ's ministry,
whereby He and His companions were
overtaken with extreme hunger, so that
they were fain to eat unprepared food
(oKaTtpYoerTov ctitov, Euthy. Zig. on
ver. 7).- — Ver. 7. The principle of human
need stated in terms of a favourite pro-
phetic oracle (ix. 13). — cl 81 tyvwijcire
. . . oiik av KarcSiKatrai e : the form of
expression, a past indicative in protasis,
with a past indicative with av in apodosis,
implies that the supposition is contrary
to fact (Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses,
§ 248). The Pharisees did not know
what the oracle meant ; hence on a pre-
vious occasion Jesus bade them go and
learn (ix. 13). If their pedantry blinded
them to distinctions of higher and lower
in institutions, or rather made them
reckon the least the greatest command,
minutiae testing obedience, it still more
deadened their hearts to the claims of
mercy and humanity. Of course this
idolatry went on from bad to worse.
For the Jews of a later, templeless time,
the law was greater than the temple
(Holtz., in H.C., quoting Weber). —
dvaiTiovs : doubly guiltless : as David
was through imperious hunger, as the
priests were when subordinating Sabbath,
to temple, requirements. — Ver. 8. This
weighty logion is best understood when
taken along with that in Mark ii. 27 =
the Sabbath for man, not man for the
Sabbath. The question is : Does it
merely state a fact, or does it also con-
tain the rationale of the fact ? That
depends on the sense we give to the
title Son of Man. As a technical name =
Messiah, it simply asserts the authority
of Him who bears it to determine how
the Sabbath is to be observed in the
Kingdom of God. As a name of humility,
making no obtrusive exceptional claims,
like Son of David or Messiah, it suggests
a reason for the lordship in sympathy
with the ethical principle embodied in
the prophetic oracle. The title does not
indeed mean mankind, or any man,
homo quivis, as Grotius and Kuinoel

6 — ii.

EYAITEAION

i«3

9. Kal J pcTaf3ds cKeiGey, rjXOey eis TTjk owaywYY)!' auTuc. lO.jCh. xl. 1.
kcu iSou, avGpwTTOS ty ttjv 1 X e ^P a ^X (ov k £ T ]P < * |/ ' Kai e'mrjpwTrja'ai'kparail.and

a t \ / f< r-a *> ' /rtn a / 9 11 e> J Ofin V. 3.

auToc, Xeyoi'Teg, ti e§€OTi tois aappacri ocpa-rreueiv " ; ica Kanr]-
YoprjawCTiv' auTou. II. '0 Se eiTfey auTois, " Tts eorai 3 e£ uiiuk
a^Opwiros, os e£ei irpopaToi' Iv, Kal ear efATre'crj) touto tois crajSPao-ic

1 fc$BC omit i\v ti\v. The text of Mt. as in T. R. has been influenced by that in
Mk. (iii. 1).

2 So in BC (W.H.), OtpaTrtvcrai in fc^DL (Tisch.).

3 eorai is omitted in CLXI, and bracketed in W.H. ; it is found in ^BA al.

think. It points to Jesus, but to Him not
as an exceptional man (" der einzigartige,"
Weiss), but as the representative man,
maintaining solidarity with humanity,
standing for the human interest, as the
Pharisees stood for the supposed divine,
the real divine interest being identical
with the human. The radical anti-
thesis between jesus and the Pharisees
lay in their respective ideas of God. It
is interesting to find a glimpse of the
true sense of this logion in Chrysostom :
Trepi eavToi) Xe'yiov. 'O 8e MapKOS teal
irept ttjs kolvs]s cj)Tjo"eu>9 avTov touto
€ipT]K6vai (f>t]o-£v. Horn, xxxix. — Kvpios,
not to the effect of abrogation but of in-
terpretation and restoration to true use.
The weekly rest is a beneficent institu-
tion, God's holiday to weary men, and
the Kingdom of Heaven, whose royal law
is love, has no interest in its abolition.

Vv. 9-14. A Sabbath cure (Mk. iii.
1-6; Lk. vi. 6-n) : not necessarily
happening immediately after. Matthew
and Luke follow Mark's order, which is
topical, not historical ; another instance
of collision as to Sabbath observance. —
Ver. g. koi p.eTa(3as . . . ovituv. The
aviTuv seems to imply that our evangel-
ist takes the order as one of close tem-
poral sequence (Mark says simply " into
a synagogue," iii. i). In that case the
oAiTuiv would refer to the fault-finding
Pharisees of the previous narrative,
piqued by Christ's defence and bent on
further mischief (vide Weiss-Meyer).
The narrative comes in happily here as
illustrating the scope of the principle of
humanity laid down in connection with
the previous incident. — Ver. 10. Kal
ISov, here, as in viii. 2, ix. 2, introducing
in a lively manner the story. — |iipav, a
dry hand, possibly a familiar expression
in Hebrew pathology (De Wette) ; use-
less, therefore a serious enough affliction
for a working man (a mason, according
to Hebrew Gospel, Jerome ad loc),
especially if it was the right hand, as

Luke states. But the cure was not
urgent for a day, could stand over ;
therefore a good test case as between
rival conceptions of Sabbath law. — c-irrfpu-
TTjo-av. The Pharisees asked a question
suggested by the case, as if eager to
provoke Jesus and put Him to the proof.
Mark says they observed Him, waiting
for Him to take the initiative. The
former alternative suits the hypothesis
of immediate temporal sequence. — el
sj-eo-Tiv, etc. After Xcyovtss we expect,
according to classic usage, a direct ques-
tion without ei. The el is in its place in
Mark (ver. 2), and the influence of his
text may be suspected (Weiss) as ex-
plaining the incorrectness in Matthew.
But el in direct questions is not un-
usual in N. T. (Mt. xix. 3 ; Lk. xiii.
23, xxii. 49), vide Winer, § 57, 2, and
Meyer ad loc. In Mark's account
Christ, not the Pharisees, puts the ques-
tion.

Vv. 11, 12. Christ's reply, by two
home-thrusting questions and an irre-
sistible conclusion. — Tts . . . avOpcoiros.
One is tempted here, as in vii. 9, to put
emphasis on avOpuiros : who of you not
dead to the feelings of a man ? Such
questions as this and that in Lk. xv. 4
go to the root of the matter. Humanity
was what was lacking in the Pharisaic
character. — irp<S|3aTov iv : one sheep
answering to the one working hand,
whence perhaps Luke's rj 8e£ia (vi. 6). —
lav ep.ire'o"n. The case supposed might
quite well happen ; hence in the protasis
lav with subjunctive, and in the apodosis
the future (Burton, N. T. Moods and
Tenses, § 250). A solitary sheep might
fall into a ditch on a Sabbath; and that
is what its owner would do if he were an
ordinary average human being, viz., lift
it out at once. What would the Pharisee
do ? It is easy to see what he would be
tempted to do if the one sheep were his
own. But would he have allowed such
action as a general rule ? One would

184

KATA MAT0AION

XII.

1 Ch. xv. 14. eig ' PoflukOf, oux'i KpaTi'](T£t auTO ical tyepei ; 12. irocrw 01V oiao}>t'pei

1 k w s? - « a 1 "t >ao \- " "

m here and ayppwrros TrpopaTOU ; ware etjecrn. tois crappacu KaXws iroieie.

in parall , - » A / «»e S - ' 1" ^ •

in same 1 3. Totc Xeyei to) dyppwirw, Ektcivoc tr\v X €l P a °~ ou - Kai

sense. Ch. >. f * _ , 'A 5 < * c " »\\ ,. r* e ft*

xvii. 11. €5tT«i^e, Kai airotcaT€CTTat»r| * uyujs ws *] aXXrj. 14. Oi ot

itorestore 4>apio-aioi n aup.Pou\toK * eXa^ov kot' auTou e^eXOofTes ' ottojs auToi-

social

state). Heb. xiii 19 (to friends). n Ch. zxii. 15; xxvii. 1,7; zzviii. 12.

1 fr$BL have crov before ttjv x el P a -

- airtK. in ^BT.AI al. D has airoic. as in T. R.

3 fc^BCDI place €£«X0ovtcs at the beginning of the sentence (X with k«u before
€^«X0o>Tes)-

infer so from the fact that Jesus argued
on such questions ex concesso. In that
case the theory and practice of con-
temporary Pharisees must have been
milder than in the Talmudic period, when
the rule was : if there be no danger,
leave the animal in the ditch till the
morrow (vide Buxtorf, Syn. jud., c. xvi.).
Grotius suggests that later Jewish law
was made stricter out of hatred to
Christians. — Ver. 12. iroVw ovv Stad^epev,
etc. This is another of those simple yet
far-reaching utterances by which Christ
suggested rather than formulated His
doctrine of the infinite worth of man.
By how much does a human being differ
from a sheep ? That is the question
which Christian civilisation has not even
yet adequately answered. This illustra-
tion from common life is not in Mark
and Luke. Luke has something similar
in the Sabbath cure, reported in xiv. 1-6.
Some critics think that Matthew com-
bines the two incidents, drawing from his
two sources, Mark and the Logia. — wore,
therefore, and so introducing here rather
an independent sentence than a depen-
dent clause expressive of result. — icaXws
•rroievv : in effect, to do good = cv iro«!v,
i.e., in the present case to heal, 0tpa-
ireveiv, though in Acts x. 33, 1 Cor. vii.
37, the phrase seems to mean to do the
morally right, in which sense Meyer and
Weiss take it here also. Eisner, and
after him Fritzsche, take it as = praclare
agere, pointing to the ensuing miracle.
By this brief prophetic utterance, Jesus
sweeps away legal pedantries and
casuistries, and goes straight to the
heart of the matter. Beneficent action
never unseasonable, of the essence of
the Kingdom of God ; therefore as per-
missible and incumbent on Sabbath as
on other days. Spoken out of the
depths of His religious consciousness,
and a direct corollary from His benignant

conception of God (vide Holtz., H. C,
p. 91).

Vv. 13, 14. The issue : the hand
cured, and Pharisaic ill-will deepened.
Ver. 13. t<$t* Xiya. He heals by a
word: sine contactu sola voce, quod ne
speciem quidem violati Sabbati habere
poterat (Grotius). — "Etcrfivov crov t. x-
Brief authoritative word, possessing both
physical and moral power, conveying
life to the withered member, and in-
spiring awe in spectators. — ical i%4r. ical
airtxaT. The double ical signifies the
quick result (" celeritatem miraculi,"
Eisner). Grotius takes the second verb
as a participle rendering : he stretched
out his restored hand, assuming that not
till restored could the hand be stretched
out. The healing and the outstretching
may be conceived of as contemporaneous.
— vyi^s *>' T Z^H : the evangelist adds
this to airtKar. to indicate the complete
ness. We should have expected this
addition rather from Luke, who ever
aims at making prominent the greatness
of the miracle, as well as its benevolence.
— Ver. 14. 4|«X6c5vt€s : overawed for the
moment, the Pharisaic witnesses of the
miracle soon recovered themselves, and
went out of the synagogue with hostile
intent.— crvp.povXi.ov cXa^oK, consulted
together = o-vp.f3ovXEVEcr0ai. — Hovr' avTOv,
against Him. Hitherto they had been
content with finding fault ; now it is
come to plotting against His life — a
tribute to His power. —Sinus, etc. : this
clause indicates generally the object of
their plotting, viz., that it concerned
the life of the obnoxious one. They
consulted not how to compass the
end, but simply agreed together that it
was an end to be steadily kept in
view. The murderous will has come to
birth, the way will follow in due course.
Such is the evil fruit of Sabbath contro-
versies.

12—21.

EYAITEAION

1B5

&vo\4owaiv. 15. 'O ot 'Inffous y^ous avt\(<Lpr)acv tKtlQtv • ica! °^Jy^'j M
T)KoXou0r]ora»' auTw oxXoi a iroXXoi, kcu iBtpdivtuaev auTOus Train-as- ^H' ™ h ' -

16. Kat ' eireTiiiTfCrev aoTOis, Iva. fir] v fyavtpbv auTov p TroiTjawaic • ;;;*)• Mk

17. oirus 2 TrXYjpwflrj to pr|8eV Bid 'Haatou tou Trpo4>r|Tou, Xe'yovTos, (withiKa

18. ''iSoo, 6 irais u.00, ov ripe'Tiffa • 6 dyaTrriTos uou, eis of 3 p here and

- . ■> , \ i Mk.iii. 13

n eoSoKTio-eK r\ 4iu\r\ uou ■ (rrjarw to iri'euud uou eir auToy, Kai Kpio-ie q with

\ «. » s / ,., _ , accus. as

tois eflpeo-ii' d-zrayyeXei. • 19. ouk r epicrei, ouoe E Kpauydo-ei • ouoe here (W.

, , ~ x ' »x»>~„ '\ H '' Heb

dKOuaei tis ey Tats TrXaTeiais ttji' <p<>)vr\v auTou. 20. Ka\au.oe x. 6, 8.

. / , /> x»- ,, » o> » r here onI >'

auvJtrpni.fi.ivov ou KaTEagei, tcai hivov Tucpop.eyoi' ou apeaei • ews s John xi.

di> "eV^dXr] els kijcos Trjf icpiffif. 21. Kai eV 4 tw ovoaaxi auTou xxii. 43.

„- ,. „ , t Mk. V. 4 ;

ton) eMriouax. xiv. 3. Lk

ix. 39.
n ver. 35. Ch. xlii. 52. John x 4

1 fc$B omit oxXoi, which is inconsistent with iravTas. 3 fr$BCD have ivo.
• fc$B have simply ov. * Most uncials omit ev, which is found in D it. vg.

Vv. 15-21. Jesus retires; prophetic
portraiture of His character. Verses 15
and 16 are abridged from Mk. iii. 7-12,
which contains an account of an ex-
tensive healing ministry. The sequel of
the Sabbatic encounter is very vague.
The one fact outstanding and note-
worthy is the withdrawal of Jesus, con-
scious of having given deep offence, but
anxious to avoid tragic consequences
for the present. It is to that fact mainly
that the evangelist attaches his fair
picture of Jesus, in prophetic language.
It is happily brought in here, where it
gains by the contrast between the real
Jesus and Jesus as conceived by the
Pharisees, a miscreant deserving to die.
It is not necessary to suppose that the
historical basis of the picture is to be
found exclusively in vv. 15, 16, all the
more that the statement they contain is
but a meagre reproduction of Mk. iii.
7-12, omitting some valuable material,
e.g., the demoniac cry: "Thou art the
Son of God ". The historic features
answering to the prophetic outline in
the evangelist's mind may be taken from
the whole story of Christ's public life as
hitherto told, from the baptism onwards.
Luke gives his picture of Jesus at the
beginning (iv. 16-30) as a frontispiece,
Matthew places his at the end of a con-
siderable section of the story, at a
critical turning point in the history, and
he means the reader to look back over
the whole for verification. Thus for the
evangelist ver. 18 may point back to
the baptism (iii. 13-17), when the voice
from heaven called Jesus God's beloved
Son ; ver. 19 to the teaching on the hill

(v.-vii.), when the voice of Jesus was
heard not in the street but on the
mountain top, remote from the crowd
below ; ver. 20 to the healing ministry
among the sick, physically bruised reeds,
poor suffering creatures in whom the
flame of life burnt low ; ver. 21 to such
significant incidents as that of the cen-
turion of Capernaum (viii. 5-13). Broad
interpretation here seems best. Some
features, e.g., the reference to judgment,
ver. 20, second clause, are not to be
pressed.

The quotation is a very free repro-
duction from the Hebrew, with occasional
side glances at the Sept. It has been sug-
gested that the evangelist drew neither
from the Hebrew nor from the Sept., but
from a Chaldee Targum in use in his
time (Lutteroth). It is certainly curious
that he should have omitted Is. xlii. 4,
" He shall not fail nor be discouraged,"
etc., a most important additional feature
in the picture = Messiah shall not only
not break the bruised reed, but He
shall not be Himself a bruised reed, but
shall bravely stand for truth and right
till they at length triumph. Admirable
historic materials to illustrate that pro-
phetic trait are ready to our hand in
Christ's encounters with the Pharisees
(ix. 1-17, xii. 1-13). Either Matthew has
followed a Targum, or been misled by
the similarity of Is. xlii. 3 and 4, or he
means ver. 20 to bear a double reference,
and read : He shall neither break nor be
a bruised reed, nor allow to be quenched
either in others or in Himself the feeble
flame : a strong, brave, buoyant, ever-
victorious hero, helper of the weak, Hitr,

t86

RATA MAT0AION

XII.

22. Tot€ ■jTpoCTTjfe'xflt] ' auToi 8aip.oeil/)u,ei'os Tucf'Xos kcii KW<p<5s

Kal e'0« 1 oaTT€ucr€i' aoTOf, ware Ten- TucpXoy Kal 2 Ku<p6f Kal XaXeiy Kal

* Mk il. ia. PX^ireiy. 23. Kal T e£iorarro TrdiTes 01 o)(Xoi Kal eXcyoi', " Mtjti

56. Acts outos ecrTtf o uios Aapio ; 24. Oi Oe <Papiaaioi aKoucravTCS enrol/,

'" Outos ouk CKJ3dXXci Ta SaiudVia, ei jxtj eV tw BeeX^efJouX apxorri

13 ; vii. j|. tuv SaifAOviwk. 25. EiSojs 8e 6 'Itjc-ous 8 tos eY6u|x^o~6i9 auTw*'

Kcv.xvii. eiiret' auTcns, " ndcra pacuXeia w uepiCT0€io-a Ka9' eauTTjc; x eprju-ouTai-

16; xviii. \„ <»<>' n - fl'j~ » ar

X (j. Kai iracra ttoXis t) oiKia uepiotteicra KaU iauTrjs, ou OTaWr)rj€Tai.

1 13 Cur. Syr. Cop. have Trpocr-rp'e-yKav with 8aiuovi£op.evov tu<J>Xov Kai ko>4>ov.
Most MSS. as in T. R. W.H. adopt the reading of B, putting T. R. in the margin.

" £^BD and some versions omit tv<j>Xov Kai, also the koi before XaXeiv.

* fc^BD omit o Itjo-ovs.

self a stranger to weakness. — -ripe'-rio-a
(ver. 18), an Ionic form in use in Hellen-
istic Greek, here only in N. T., often
in Sept. = alpc'ouai. Hesychius under
fip£Turap.T]v gives 'sequivalents-qyaTr-ricra,
eiri0vp.Tjcra,T|9t\T]cra,T|pdcr9T)v. — Kpairyd-
crei (vcr. 19), late form for Kpd^cj. Phry-
nichus, p. 337, condemns, as illiterate, '•
use of Kpavyacrjios instead of KeKpavp.6s.
On the words ov8e Kp. Pricaeus remarks :
" Sentio clamorem intelligi qui nota est
animi commoti et effervescentis ". He
cites examples from Seneca, Plutarch,
Xenophon, etc. — aKovcrei is late for
dKovo-erai. Verbs expressing organic
acts or states have middle forms in the
future (vide Rutherford, New Phrynichus,
pp. 138, 376-412). — etos, ver. 20, followed
by subjunctive, with dv, as in classics, in
a clause introduced by ea>s referring to a
future contingency. — to> 6yop.aTi, ver.
21, dative after eX-movo-iv ; in Sept., Is.
xlii. 4, with Itti. This construction here
only in N. T.

Vv. 22-37. Demoniac healed and
Pharisaic calumny repelled (Mk. iii.
22-30; Lk. xi. 14-23 — cf. Mt. ix.
32-34). The healing of a blind and
dumb demoniac has its place here not
for its own sake, as a miracle, but
simply as the introduction to another
conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees.
It is a story of wicked calumny repelled.
The transition from the fair picture of
the true Jesus to this hideous Pharisaic
caricature is highly dramatic in its effect.

Vv. 22, 23. tu^jXos Kai Ka>4>09, blind
as well as dumb. The demoniac in ix. 32
dumb only. But dumbness here also is
the main feature ; hence in last clause
Ko(j>bv only, and XaXeiv before |3Xe'ir£iv. —
ucttc with infinitive, expressing here not
merely tendency but result. — Ver. 23.
«£icrTavTO : no* implying anything ex-

ceptionally remarkable in the cure ; a
standing phrase (in Mark at least) for
the impression made on the people.
They never got to be familiar with
Christ's wonderful works, so as to take
them as matters of course. — p-i^Ti im-
plies a negative answer : they can
hardly believe what the fact seems to
suggest = can this possibly be, etc. ?
Not much capacity for faith in the
average Israelite, yet honest-hearted
compared with the Pharisee. — 6 vios
AaPiS : the popular title for the Messiah.
Ver. 24. Oi 8e 4>ap«raioi. They of
course have a very different opinion.
In Mark these were men come down
from Jerusalem, to watch, not to lay hold
of Jesus, Galilee not being under the
direct jurisdiction of the Sanhedrim
then (vide on Mark). — Ov-rosovKeKBdXXci,
etc. : theory enunciated for second time,
unless ix. 34 be an anticipation by the
evangelist, or a spurious reading. What
diversity of opinion 1 Christ's friends,
according to Mark, thought Him " beside
himself " — mad, Messiah, in league with
Beelzebub ! Herod had yet another
theory : the marvellous healer was John
redivivus, and endowed with the powers
of the other world. All this implies that
the healing ministry was a great fact. —
o-uk ... el p.T) : the negative way of
putting it stronger than the positive.
The Pharisees had to add el utj. They
would gladly have<said: " He does not
cast out devils at all ". But the fact was
undeniable ; therefore they had to in-
vent a theory to neutralise its signifi-
cance. — apxovri, without article, might
mean, (75 prince, therefore able to com-
municate such power. So Meyer, Weiss,
et al. But the article may be omitted
after Be«X£e|3ovX as after BacriXevs, or
on account of the following genitive.

22— 2&

EYAiTEAION

187

26. Kal €t 6 laxavds tok ZaTtti'Si' eKJ3rf\\ei, cty' eauTOv efiepiafirj • irw9
ouv oraSfjo-cTcu r^ (SaoxXeia auTou ; 27. Kal €i cyw *'' BseX£e|3ouX y Rom ix.
£KJ3dXXu to. 8cuu,oVia, ol utol ufAUK e'e Tici €K(3dX\ou<n ; Sid tooto x. 14. Phil.
auTOi upvwv ecrovTcu Kptrat. 1 28. el 8e eyw iv nt'eujAaTi 6eou 2 iihessii
cK^dWoi Tot oaifiowia, apa 7 e^Oaaev e(|>' up.&s iq JSar/iXcia tou 9eou. to reach)

1 fcM3D have KpiTai io-ovtcu ujiuv.

2 Most uncials have ryw after ev flvevixaTi Oeov, on which the emphasis ought to lie

So Schanz. Whether the Pharisees
believed this theory may be doubted. It
was enough that it was plausible. To
reason with such men is vain. Yet Jesus
did reason for the benefit of disciples.

Vv. 25-30. The theory shown to
be absurd. — Ver. 25. elSws -rds ivQv-
HTJceis. Jesus not only heard their
words, but knew their thoughts, the
malicious feelings which prompted their
words, and strove so to present the case
as to convict them of bad faith and dis-
honesty. — iracra fSao-iXcia, etc. : state-
ment of an axiom widely exemplified in
human affairs : division fatal to stability
in kingdoms and cities. — <rT<x8rjcr€Tai :
1st future passive with an intransitive
sense, vide Winer, § 38, 1. — Ver. 26
applies the axiom to Satan, ei, intro-
duces a simple particular supposition
without reference to its truth. — ept pivdt) :
the aorist has the force of a perfect.
Satan casting out Satan means self-
stultification ; if>so facto, self-division re-
sults. Against the argument it might be
objected : Kingdoms and cities do
become divided against themselves, re-
gardless of fatal consequences, why
not also Satan ? Why should not that
happen to Satan's kingdom which has
happened even to the Christian Church ?
Jesus seems to have credited Satan with
more astuteness than is possessed by
states, cities, and churches. Satan may
be wicked, He says in effect, but he is
not a fool. Then it has to be considered
that communities commit follies which
individuals avoid. Men war against
each other to their common undoing,
who would be wiser in their own affairs.
One Satan might cast out another, but
no Satan will cast out himself. And
that is the case put by Jesus. Some,
e.g., De Wette and Fritzsche, take 6
laTavis t. J.. eKpdXXei as = one Satan
casting out another. But that is not
Christ's meaning. He so puts the case
as to make the absurdity evident. Ex
hypothesi He had a right to put it so ;
for the theory was that Satan directly
empowered and enabled Him to deliver

men from his (Satan's) power. — Ver 27.
To the previous convincing argument
Jesus adds an argumentum ad hominem,
based on the exorcism then practised
among the Jews, with which it would
appear the Pharisees found no fault. — 01
■ulol up.u>v, not of course Christ's disciples
(so most of the Fathers), for the Pharisaic
prejudice against Him would extend to
them, but men belonging to the same
school or reh'gious type, like-minded.
By referring to their performances Jesus
put the Pharisees in a dilemma. Either
they must condemn both forms of dis-
possession or explain why they made a
difference. What they would have said
we do not know, but it is not difficult tc
suggest reasons. . The Jewish exorcists
operated in conventional fashion by use
of herbs and magical formulas, and the
results were probably insignificant. The
practice was sanctioned by custom, and
harmless. But in casting out devils, as
in all other things, Jesus was original,
and His method was too effectual. His
power, manifest to all, was His offence. —
KpiTai. Jesus now makes the fellow-
religionists of the Pharisees their judges.
On a future occasion He will make John
the Baptist their judge (xxi. 23-27). Such
home-thrusts were very inconvenient.

Ver. 28. The alternative : if not by
Satan then by the Spirit of God,
with an inevitable inference as to the
worker and His work. — ev irv€vp.aTi dtov.
Luke has Iv SaKTvXtp 8. The former
seems more in keeping with the connec-
tion of thought as defending the ethical
character of Christ's work assailed by
the Pharisees. If, indeed, the spirit of
God were regarded from the charismatic
point of view, as the source of miraculous
gifts, the two expressions would be
synonymous. But there is reason to
believe that by the time our Gospel was
written the Pauline conception of the
Holy Spirit's influence as chiefly ethical
and immanent, as distinct from that of
the primitive apostolic church, in which
it was charismatic and transcendent,
had gained currency (vide my St. Paul's

i88

KATA MATGAION

XII.

29. f] TTWS OuVoTCU TIS €lffeX0€lK CIS T$)V OIKICLK TOU lfT)(UpOU KCU TO

aKCUT] qutou StapTvdorai, 1 car utj irpwTOi' orj(rr] Tor loyyp6v ; kcu
totc tt]i' oiia'af auTou oiaprrdcrei. 2 30. 6 utj we uct' e'p.ou, kcit' f uol

1 BCXI have the simple ap-n-aaai
Mk. or to the next clause.

fr$UI (Tisch.) have 8iopiroo-»j.

Siapiraaai (fr^DLA al.) conforms either tc
BCL al. pi. have Siapirao-ci, as inT.R. (W.H.).

Conception of Christianity, chap. xiii.).
A trace of the new Pauline view may be
found in Mt. x. 20: " It is not ye that
speak, but the Spirit of your Father
speaking in you ". The influence is
within, and the product is not unintelli-
gible utterance, like that of the speaker
with tongues (1 Cor. xii., xiv.), but wise,
sincere apology for the faith. But why
then did Luke not adopt this Pauline
phrase ? Because one of his main aims
was to bring out the miraculousness of
Christ's healing works ; that they were
done by the very finger of God (Exod.
viii. 19). — «4>6acr€v. Fritzsche takes this
word strictly as signifying not merely :
the kingdom of God has come nigh you
(TJY7 lKev > Lk. x. 9), but : has come
nigh sooner than you expected. The
more general sense, however, seems
most suitable, as it is the usual sense in
the N. T. The point at issue was: do
the events in question mean Satan's
kingdom come or God's kingdom come ?
It must be one or other ; make up your
minds which. — Ver. 29. To help them
to decide Jesus throws out yet another
parabolic line of thought. — fj I if all that
I have said does not convince you con-
sider this. The parable seems based on
Is. xlix. 24, 25, and like all Christ's
parabolic utterances appeals to common
sense. The theme is, spoiling the
spoiler, and the argument that the enter-
prise implies hostile purpose and success
in it superior power. The application
is : the demoniac is a captive of Satan ;
in seeking to cure him I show myself
Satan's enemy ; in actually curing him
I show myself Satan's master. — toS
Urxvpov : the article is either generic,
or individualising after the manner of
parabolic speech. Proverbs and parables
assume acquaintance with their charac-
ters. — <tk€vt), household furniture (Gen.
xxxi. 37) ; apirdcai, seize (Judges xxi.
21) — Siapirdo-ei, make a clean sweep of
all that is in the house, the owner,
bound hand and foot, being utterly help-
less. The use of this compound verb
points to the thoroughness of the cures
wrought on demoniacs, as in the case of
the demoniac of Gadara: quiet, clothed,

sane (Mk. v. 15). — Ver. 30. One begins
at this point to have the feeling that
here, as elsewhere, our evangelist groups
sayings of kindred character instead of
exactly reproducing Christ's words as
spoken to the Pharisees. The connec-
tion is obscure, and the interpretations
therefore conflicting. On first view
one would say that the adage seems
more appropriate in reference to luke-
warm disciples or undecided hearers than
to the Pharisees, who made no pretence
of being on Christ's side. Some accord-
ingly {e.g., Bleek, after Elwert and
(Jllmann) have so understood it. Others,
including Grotius, Wetstein, De Wette,
take the c-yw of the adage to be Satan,
and render : he who, like myself, is not
with Satan is against him. Kypke, Ob-
serv. Sac, says : " Prima persona posita
est a servatore pro quacunque alia, pro-
verbialiter, hoc sensu : qui socius cujus-
dam bella cum alio gerentis non est, is
pro adversario censeri solet. Cum igitur
ego me re ipsa adversarium Satanae esse
ostenderim, nulla specie socius ejus potero
vocari." This certainly brings the say-
ing into line with the previous train of
thought, but if Jesus had meant to say
that He surely would have expressed
Himself differently. The Fathers (Hilary,
Jerome, Chrys.) took the ryci to be Jesus
and the 6 p-rj 2>v to be Satan. So under-
stood, the adage contains a fourth con-
cluding argument against the notion of
a league between Jesus and Satan. Most
modern interpreters refer the 6 p,. w. to the
Pharisees. Schanz, however, under-
stands the saying as referring to the
undecided among the people. The only
serious objection to this view is that it
makes ihe saying irrelevant to the situa-
tion. — o-Koprri{ei : late for the earlier
«TK6Sdvwp.i, vide Lob., Phryn., p. 218.
As to the metaphor of gathering and
scattering, its natural basis is not
apparent. But in all cases, when one
man scatters what another gathers their
aims and interests are utterly diverse.
Satan is the arch-waster, Christ the
collector, Saviour.

Vv. 31, 32. yesus changes His font
from argument to solemn warning. Ver.

^9-32.

EYATTEAION

189

com. Kal 6 u,r> (Tvv&yuv u.£t' eVou, * o-Kopirilci.. 31. Aid touto z Lk. xi. 23.

r v » a' ' John x. ii ;

Xe'yw ou.lv, riao-a daapTia itai * {3Xaar4 > 'ip-<-< 1 dd>e9no-eTai tois avopu- xvi. 32. 2

'1 a' -5/1/ < -' or- '*• 9'

irots* *] Be tou flyeuu-aTos |3Xacrct>nu.i.a ouk d<j)>e0r)o-€Tai tois dvOpw- a Ch. xv. 19.

. >»<!«* \ ' ! - « - -'ft' Mk.iii.28;

ttols- 32. tcai os o.v * eiwr] Aoyoe itaTa tou utou too aftfpwirou, vh. 22.

d<}>60i]o-eTai auxu ■ os 8' d.v eiirn KGrrd tou riK£u|xaTos tou 'Ayiou, 31 (evil

jj./w 3 , „ w > > « j., »>.«•> speaking

ouk d^eoriCTtTai^ cwtw, outc ev toutu tw aiwi outc ev to fieWorrt. generally).

Ch. xxvi.
65. Mk. ii. 7 ; xiv. 64. John x. 33 (against God).

1 fr$B omit tois avflpuTrois, which seem to be simply an echo of t. av. in the
previous clause.

5 os eav in most uncials. D has os av, as in T. R.

* For ouk a<f>€9T)oreT<u. found in most uncials B has ov j*tj <uj>t0T), which W.H.
place in the margin.

31. 8id tovto connects not merely with
preceding verse, but with the whole
foregoing argument. Mark more im-
pressively introduces the blasphemy-
logion with a solemn du.t)v Xryw vjaiv. —
irdo-a Lp.aprLa, etc. A broad preliminary
declaration of the pardonableness of
human sin of all sorts, and especially of
sins of the tongue, worthy and charac-
teristic of Jesus, and making what
follows more impressive. — i\ Si t. fl.
p\\ao\ ovk dd)€0rior€Tai : pointed, emphatic
exception. Evidently the Spirit here is
taken ethically. He represents the
moral ideal, the absolutely good and
holy. Blasphemy against the Spirit so
conceived, unpardonable — that is our
Lord's deliberate judgment. —p\ao-4>T)u.ia,
injurious speech (from pXairro* and dVrJiATi),
in such a case will mean speaking of the
holy One as if He were unholy, or, in
the abstract, calling good evil, not by
misunderstanding but through antipathy
to the good. — Ver. 32. So serious a
statement needs to be carefully guarded
against misapprehension ; therefore Jesus
adds an explanatory declaration. — \6yov
Kara t. v. t. dvdpwirov. Jesus dis-
tinguishes between a word against the
Son of Man and a word against the Holy
Ghost. The reference in the former is
to Himself, presumably, though Mark at
the corresponding place has " the sons
of men," and no special mention of a
particular son of man. Christ gives the
Pharisees to understand that the grava-
men of their offence is not that they have
spoken evil of Him. Jesus had no ex-
ceptional sensitiveness as to personal
offences. Nor did He mean to suggest
that offences of the kind against Him
were more serious or less easily pardon-
able than such offences against other
men, say, the prophets or the Baptist.
Many interpreters, indeed, think other-

wise, and represent blasphemy against
the Son of Man as the higher limit of
the forgiveable. A grave mistake, I
humbly think. Jesus was as liable to
honest misunderstanding as other good
men, in some respects more liable than
any, because of theexceptional originality
of His character and conduct. All new
things are liable to be misunderstood
and decried, and the best for a while to
be treated as the worst. Jesus knew this,
and allowed for it. Men might there-
fore honestly misunderstand Him, and
be in no danger of the sin against the
Holy Ghost (e.g., Saul of Tarsus). On
the other hand, men might dishonestly
calumniate any ordinary good man, and
be very near the unpardonable sin. It
is not the man that makes the difference,
but the source of the blasphemy. If the
source be ignorance, misconception, ill-
informed prejudice, blasphemy against
the Son of Man will be equally pardon-
able with other sins. If the source be
malice, rooted dislike of the good, selfish
preference of wrong, because of the ad-
vantage it brings, to the right which the
good seek to establish, then the sin is
not against the man but against the
cause, and the Divine Spirit who inspires
him, and though the agent be but a
humble, imperfect man, the sinner is
perilously near the unpardonable point.
Jesus wished the Pharisees to understand
that, in His judgment, that was their
position. — outc, ovre analyse the nega-
tion of pardon, conceived as affecting
both worlds, into its parts for sake of
emphasis (vide on V. 34-36). Dogmatic
inferences, based on the double negation,
to possible pardon after death, are pre-
carious. Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.) explains
the double negation by reference to the
Jewish legal doctrine that, in contrast
to other sins, profaning the name of God

190

KATA MATOAION

XII.

33. *H TTOii'iCTaTe to SeVSpoi' Ka\oc, ical t6k KCtpTrok auTou KaKoy, f)

Troii^craTC to SeS'Spoy aairp6t', itai rov Kapitov auTou <ra-npov • ck yap

tou Kapirou to SeVSpcv Y^'^ifKiTui. 34.. rtmjjiaTa t^iS^wv, ttws

b l.k. vi. 45. SuVaaOe dyaOa XaXele, Troyrjpol SVt£S ; £K yap tou b Tr€pio"o"£uixa.TOS
Mk. viii. m , » j \ % « av » a »

B. 2 Cor. Tt]9 Kapoias to oroixa XaXeu 35. o dyaGos at opunros «k tou dya0ou

c Cb. xiii. 6t]o-aupou ttjs KapSias 1 'tVPfiXXei Ta 2 dyaOd • ical 6 •iroi'T)p6s dvQpw-

35 (in same iros eK tou Trorrjpou SrjCTaupou €K|3dXX£i. TrokTjpd. 36. Xe'yw Be ujjlIV,

sense). „ „«« , » *'i\\' B c » fl d » e /

d Lk. xvi. j. oti irav pr]u.ct apyoy, o edc Aa\ncr<«jo-i.i' • 01 acopanroi, airoowaouai

Acts xtx. \ > ~ o \ ' '«7 ' „..' > -\<

40. 1 Pet. T'tp'- auTou AoyoK tv 'HF-ep - Kpurcws. 37. ex yap Tun* Koyuv <rov

8tKaiw8r)0"ri, Kal etc tCjv Xoywy aou KaTaSiKarjOrjo-fl."

1 Most uncials omit tt|s KopSias. It comes from Lk. (vi. 45).

2 BD al. omit t«, which, however, is found in fc^CLAI and retained by W.H. on

the margin.

s For o eav XaXT)<rwo-iv fc<$BC have o XaXijo-ovo-iv, D XaXovouv.

could be expiated only by death, un-
pardonable in this life. Blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost, says Jesus, in
conscious antithesis, pardonable neither
here nor there : *' neque ante mortem,
neque per mortem".

Vv. 33-37. Kindred Logia. With the
word concerning blasphemy the self-
defence of Jesus against Pharisaic
calumny reached its culmination and
probably (as in Mark's report) its close.
The sentences following seem to be
accretions rather than an organic part of
the discourse. They substantially re-
produce sayings found in Sermon on
Mount (vii. 16-20), there directed against
false prophets, here against false re-
ligionists. Ver. 35 is found in Luke's
version of the Sermon (vi. 45). They
might have been remarks made to the
disciples about the Pharisees, as in
xvi. 6, though in their present form
direct address is implied (vide ver. 34).
Their essential import is that the nature
or heart of a man determines his speech
and action. Given the tree, the fruit
follows. — Ver. 33. iroiT|o-aT€ = eiirare
(Euthy. Zig.), judge, pronounce; call
both tree and fruit good, or evil ; they
must both be of one kind, in fact and
in thought (vide Kypke, ad loc). The
reference of the adage has been
much discussed : to the Pharisees or to
Christ ? Kypke replies : to Christ if
you connect with what goes before, to
the Pharisees if with what follows. As
an adage the saying admits of either
application. The Fathers favoured the
reference to Christ, whom Meyer follows.
— Ver. 34. r«vvr|(ioTa exlSvuv, vide iii.
7. John and Jesus agree in thinking

the Pharisees a viper-brood. Both con-
ceive them as morally hopeless. The
Baptist wonders that they should com*
to a baptism of repentance. Jesus thinks
them far on the way to final impeni-
tence. But the point He makes here is
that, being what they are, they cannot
but speak evil. The poison of their
nature must come out in their words.
— Ver. 35. 6 dya6ds a. : good in the
sense of benignant, gracious, kindly, the
extreme moral opposite of the malignant
viper-nature. — 0T|o-avpov : in ver. 34 the
heart is conceived as a fountain, of
which speech is the overflow, here as a
treasure whose stores of thought and
feeling the mouth freely distributes. —
EK^dXXci suggests speech characterised
by energy, passion. There was no lack
of emphasis in Pharisaic comments on
Jesus. They hissed out their malevolent
words at Him, being not heartless but
bad-hearted. But cf. texts referred to on
margin. — Ver 36. irdv p. dp-yov : speech
being the outcome of the heart, no word
is insignificant, not even that which is
dpyoV, ineffectual (a, cpyov), insipid,

idle

It is an index of thoughtless-

ness if not of malice. This verse con-
tains an important warning, whether
spoken at this time or not. — Ver. 37. Ik
yap t. \6ydtv o-ov. Judgment by words
here taught ; in Mt. xxv. 31-46
judgment by the presence or absence of
kind deeds. No contradiction, for words
are viewed as the index of a good or bad
heart: bad positively, like that of the
Pharisees, who spoke wickedly ; bad
negatively, like that of the thoughtless,
who speak senselessly. On the teaching
of this passage cf. James iii.

33—41-

EYAITEAION

191

38. Tore dTTCKpiGirjad*' l nves tw^ ypap.^aWuii' Kal 4>apiaaiue,,

Xe'yoi'Tes, " AiSdcrKaXe, 9e'Xou.£y diro aou a-tju-eiov I8eiy." 39. 'O Si

diroxpiGelc curef auTOis, " fevea, iro^Yipd Kal * uoivaXis rrnpeloi. « Ch. xvi. 4.
r » , Mk. viii.

' ctu£t|T£i • <al <rr|u.elo»' ou So&Vjoerai auTT), el p.r) to crr|p.etoi/ 'iwcd 38. Jas.

toO irpoi-nTOU. 40. warrep yap rj c lufds ev ttj KOiXia tou ktjtous f vide at Ch

vi. ^2.
Tpeis ^fie'pas Kal Tpeis fuKras, outws eorai 6 ul6s tou dvOpajirou cv

ttj KapSia ttjs YT S T P £ iS rjpve'pas Kal Tpeis fUKTas. 41. "AeSpes

NiceuiTai dfao-njaorrai eV ttj Kpum pveTa Tfjs yereds Taurns, Kal

KaTaKptcoCffic auTTjf ■ oti p-eTeforjcrat' eis to Kqpuyua 'lum ■ Kal

1 fc^BCDLI insert av-rcn before -rives.

Vv. 38-45. A sign asked and refused,
with relative discourse (Lk. xi. 16,
29-36). Both Matt.'s and Luke's re-
ports convey the impression that the
demand for a sign, and the enunciation
of the Satanic theory as to Christ's
cures of demoniacs, were synchronous.
If they were, the demand was impudent,
hypocritical, insulting. Think of the
men who could so speak of Christ's heal-
ing ministry wanting a sign that would
satisfy them as to His Messianic claims I
— Ver. 38. o-Tjp.tiov : what kind of a
sign ? They thought the cure of de-
moniacs a sign from hell. Elsewhere
we read of their asking a sign from
heaven (xvi. 1). From what quarter was
the sign now asked to come from ?
Perhaps those who made the demand
had no idea ; neither knew nor cared.
Their question really meant : these signs
won't do ; if you want us to believe in
you you must do something else than
cast out devils. The apparent respect
and earnestness of the request are
feigned : " teacher, we desire from you
(emphatic position) to see a sign ". It
reminds one of the mock homage of the
soldiers at the Passion (xxvii. 27-31). —
Ver. 39. ytvia., as in xi. 16, a moral class,
" quae in omni malitia et improbitate
vivit," Suicer, s. v. yeved. — u.oix°-Xls, un-
faithful to God as a wife to a husband,
apt description of men professing godli-
ness but ungodly in heart. — 6-jti£t)T€X,
hankers after, as in vi. 32 ; characteristic ;
men that have no light within crave ex-
ternal evidence, which given would be of
no service to them. Therefore : ov
8o9t]o-«Tai : it will not be given either by
Jesus or by any one else. He declines,
knowing it to be vain. No sign will
convince them; why give one? — ei pr|,
etc. : except the sign of Jonah the
prophet, which was no sign in their
sense. What is referred to ? But for

what follows we should have said : the
preaching of repentance by Jonah to the
Ninevites. So Lk. xi. 30 seems to
take it. Jonah preached repentance to
the men of Nineveh as the only way of
escape from judgment. Jesus points to
that historic instance and says : Beware !
Jonah was not the only prophetic
preacher of repentance ; but, as Nineveh
is held up as a reproach to the persons
addressed, to single him out was fitting.
— Ver. 40 gives an entirely different
turn to the reference. The verse cannot
be challenged on critical grounds. If it
is an interpolation, it must have become
an accepted part of the text before the
date of our earliest copies. If it be
genuine, then Jesus points to His re-
surrection as the appropriate sign for an
unbelieving generation, saying in effect :
you will continue to disbelieve in spite
of all I can say or do, and at last you
will put me to death. But I will rise
again, a sign for your confusion if not
for your conversion. For opposite views
on this interpretation of the sign of
Jonah, vide Meyer ad loc. and Holtzmann
in H.C. — Ver. 41. Application of the
reference in ver. 39. The men of
Nineveh are cited in condemnation of
the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus. Cf.
similar use of historic parallels in xi.
20-24. — irXeiov Mcovd, more than Jonah,
cf. ver. 6 ; refers either to Jesus per-
sonally as compared with Jonah, or to
His ministry as compared with Jonah's.
In the latter case the meaning is : there
is far more in what is now going on
around you to shut you up to repentance
than in anything Jonah said to the men
of Nineveh (so Grotius). — Ver. 42.
(Sao-iXio-o-a v6tov is next pressed into
the service of putting unbelievers to
shame. The form pacriXicrtra was con-
demned by Phryn., but Eisner cites in-
stances from Demosthenes and otLci

192

KATA MAT6A10N

XII.

1 ' k xi ?.' iSou, TrXeioy 'iwyd 1L8*. 42. * Sacri'Xiacra forou c'vcpfii'icrtTai /p tti
Acts vm. ' -r r I r 1 ,|

■7. Rev. K pi CT £i |j.6Ta ttjs ytvtas Taiirrjs, Kai KaTaKpiKti aoTTje • on ijXOeM £K
h Lk. xi. 31. T&p h titpdruv Tris Y'HS dKoGaai ttji' ffO<j>iak IoXouuctos Kai 18011,

K.'ITl. X.

18. Htb. ttXciok IoXouwktos w8e. 43. OTa/ 8e to aKaOapToe irycGua e^e'XOr)
i Lk. xi. 24. diro tou dvOpwTrou, 8i^px«Tai 81' ' dyuSpwy tottoji', ^tjtouc dydTrauCTie,

17. Jude Kai OUY CUplCTKCl. 44. TOT«S X^VCl, ETTtOTpe'vj/W CIS TOV OIKOC JJLOU, 1

12.

vi Cor. vii. 50£k' c£tjX0ok • Kai AOof eupioxei J cry^oXdl^oyra, k ffeaapwueVoi' Kai
5 (to have
leisure). k Lk. xi. 25 ; xv. 8.

1 fc^BDZ read €i« tov oikov aov iTr«TTpc\J>». The reading in T. R. is assimilated
to Lk. (xi. 24).

good writers. J. Alberti also (Observ.
Philol.) cites an instance from Athena us.
lib. xiii. 595 : Pao-iXicro*' ccrci Ba{3v\wvos.
The reference is to the story in 1 Kings
x. and 7. Chron. ix. concerning the
Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. — Ik
tuv TrepaTwv ttjs yrjs. Eisner quotes in
illustration the exhortation of Isocrates
not to grudge to go a long way to hear
those who profess to teach anything
useful. — irXetov I., again a claim of
superiority for the present over the great
persons and things of the past. On the
apparent egotism of these comparisons,
vide my Apologetics, p. 367 ; and re-
member that Jesus claimed superiority
not merely for Himself and His work,
but even for the least in the Kingdom of
Heaven (xi. 11).

Vv. 43-45. A comparison. Cf. Lk.
xi. 24-26. Formerly Jesus had likened
the evil race of Pharisaic religionists to
children playing in the market-place (xi.
16-19). Now He uses expelled demons
to depict their spiritual condition. The
similitude moves in the region of popular
opinion, and gives a glimpse into the
superstitions of the time. We gather
from it, first, that the effects of the arts
of exorcists were temporary; and, second,
the popular theory to explain the facts :
the demon returned because he could
not find a comfortable home anywhere
else. On this vide Lightfoot, Hor. Heb.
The parable was naturally suggested by
the cure of the demoniac (ver. 2t). —
Ver. 43. 81' dvuSpo>v tottuv: the haunts
of demons, as popularly conceived, were
places uninhabited by men, deserts and
graveyards. The demon in Tobit viii. 3
flies to the uppermost parts of Egypt ;
and in Baruch iv. 35 a land desolated by
fire is to become tenanted by demons. —
8tc'px«Tai £t|tovv : the spirit keeps moving
on in quest of a resting place ; like a
human being he feels ill at ease in the mo-
notonous waste of sand.-ouK edpio-Kci:

in Luke cvpfo-Kov. The change from
participle to finite verb is expressive.
The failure to find a resting place was an
important fact, as on it depended the re-
solve to return to the former abode. —
Ver. 44. orxoXd£ovTa <r. Kai k. = un-
tenanted and ready for a tenant, invit-
ing by its clean, ornamented condition.
The epithets simply describe in lively
pictorial manner the risk of repossession.
But naturally commentators seek spiritual
equivalents for them. Ornamented how ?
With grace, say some (Hilary, Chrys.,
Godet), with sin, others (Orig., Jer.,
Euthy., Weiss, etc.). The ornamenta-
tion must be to the taste of the tenant
And what is that ? Neither for sin nor
for grace, but for sin counterfeiting
grace ; a form of godliness without the
power ; sanctity which is but a mask for
iniquity. The house is decorated re-
putedly for God's occupancy, really foi
the devil's.. — acaapufievov ; o-apovv is
condemned by Phryn. ; " when you hear
one say o-dpucrov bid him say irapa-
K(£pr)o-ov ". — Ver. 45. rjrra ?T£pa irvcv-
|iOTa, etc. This feature is introduced
to make the picture answer to the moral
condition of the Pharisees as conceived
by Jesus. The parable here passes out
of the region of popular imagination and
natural probability into a region of
deeper psychological insight. Why
should the demon want associates in
occupancy of the house ? Why not
rather nave it all to himself as before ? —
ovto/5 ecrrat, etc. Ethical application.
The general truth implied is : moral and
religious reform may be, has been,
succeeded by deeper degeneracy. The
question naturally suggests itself: what
is the historical range of the application ?
It has been answered variously. From
the lawgiving till the present time (Hil.,
Jer.) ; from the exile till now (Chrys.,
Grotius, etc.) ; from the Baptist till now
(Weiss, etc.). Christ gives no hint of

>i 50.

EYArrEAlON

193

1 KiKoaiLrmivov. 45. totc Tropeuerai Kal m TrapaXau.|3dvei u«0' lairroG
^TTTa cTepa TVKCufJiaTa "-nro^poTepa eauToG, Kal euxeXQorra KaToiKei
«kci • Kal yikeTai to, eax aTa T0 " av8poSiroo cKeiyou )(eipoka tw
TTpwTwt'. ouTws eorai Kal ttj yeeea TauTtj ttj TTOkTjpa. 46. "Eti Be 1
auTou XaXoGrros tois 5)(Xoi,s, ISou, r\ p.i]TT]p Kal ol d8e\(j>ol auToG
turr^Keuxa*' e|w, ° ^TjToGrres atJTw XaXrjcrai. 47- eure Be tis atJTw,
"'ISou, t) P-^ttiP ffou i*al 01 d8eX(j)OL aou e|a> eaTTJKaai, £-r|ToGrre<j
joi XaXTJaai." 2 48. c O 8e diroKpiOels eiire t£ cittovti 3 auTw, "Tis
«irriv ti ar|TT)p uou ; Kal rives eltriv ol d8«\4>oi uou ; 49. Kal
/xTeiras tt)c X € ^P a auTou 4 eirl tous ua0T]Tds auToG cnrey, "'iSou, r\
u,i]-n]p uou Kal ol dSeXcfjot uou. 50. ocrris yap & v iroiTjair] to 6£kj]^a
roo ivarpos uou toG lv oupayols, auTos uou d8eX<J)6s Kal d8eX(|>T] Kal
aiirrjp i<rriv."

1 ^B omit Sc (Tisch., W.H.).

2 The whole of ver. 47 is wanting in fr^BT. and is omitted by W.H. Tisch. puts
it within brackets. It is an explanatory "loss.

:l XeyovTi in fc^BDZ.

4 NDI omit avrov (Tisch.). BC retain it (W.H. within brackets).

1 Lk. xi. 35.
Cb. xxiii.
29 (of
tombs).

m Ch. xvii.
1.

n compar.
here and
in Lk. xi.
26.

o Ch. xxi.
46. Mk.
xii. 12.
Lk. v. 18.
John v. 18
(with inf.
= to en-
deavour).

what period was in His thoughts, unless
,ve find one in the epithet p.oixaXls
(ver. 3g), which recalls prophetic charges
of unfaithfulness to her Divine Husband
against Israel, and points to the exile as
the crisis at which she seriously re-
pented of that sin. It is not at all likely
that Christ's view was limited to the
period dating from John's ministry.
Moral laws need large spaces of time for
adequate exemplification. The most in-
structive exemplification of the degene-
racy described is supplied by the period
from Ezra till Christ's time. With Ezra
ended material idolatry. But from that
period dates the reign of legalism, which
issued in Rabbinism, a more subtle and
pernicious idolatry of the letter, the
more deadly that it wore the fair aspect
of zeal for God and righteousness.

Vv. 46-50. The relatives of Jesus
(Mk. iii. 31-35 I Lk - viii - 19-21).
Matthew and Mark place this incident
in connection with the discourse occa-
sioned by Pharisaic calumny. Luke
gives it in a quite different connection.
The position assigned it by Matthew
and Mark is at least fitting, and through
it one can understand the motive. Not
vanity : a desire to make a parade of
their influence over their famous relative
on the part of mother and brethren
(Chrys., Theophy., etc.), but solicitude
on His account and a desire to extricate
Him from trouble. This incident should

be viewed in connection with the state-
ment in Mk. iii. 21 that friends thought
Jesus beside Himself. They wished to
rescue Him from Himself and from men
whose ill-will He had, imprudently,
they probably thought, provoked. — Ver.
46. d8«X(j>ol, brothers in the natural
sense, sons of Mary by Joseph ? Pre-
sumably, but an unwelcome hypothesis
to many on theological grounds. —
cio-niKeiarav, pluperfect, but with sense
of imperfect (Fritzsche). They had
been standing by while Jesus was speak-
ing. — «£w, on the outskirts of the crowd,
or outside the house into which Jesus
entered (Mk. iii. 19). — Ver. 47 (wanting

in ^BL) states what is implied in ver.

48 (tu XtyovTi), that some one reported
to Jesus the presence of His relatives. —
Ver. 48. tis 6o-tiv t| p.^TTip jaov. One
might have expected Jesus, out of deli-
cacy, to have spoken only of His
brethren, leaving the bearing of the
question on His mother to be inferred.
But the mention of her gave increased
emphasis to the truth proclaimed. The
question repels a well-meant but ignorant
interference of natural affection with the
sovereign claims of duty. It reveals a
highly strung spirit easily to be mistaken
for a morbid enthusiasm. — Ver. 4g.
EKTeivas t. X' : an eloquent gesture,
making the words following, for those
present, superfluous. — tSov, etc. There

194

KATA MAT0AION

XIII.

• Ch. mvii. XIII. I. *EN Be 1 Tfj i)u.e'pa tKeiVT) e'^eXOwv 6 'Itjctous duo 2 ttjs
iv. i ; vi. oiKtas ^Kci0i]TO trapd TTjf QoKaauav • 2. teal * CTuci'])(0T]aak' irpos auTO»'
(with irpb? o^Xoi ttoXXoi, wore auTov eis to 3 ttXoIov ep.pdi'Ta Ka0TJa6ai • kcu

1 fc^BI omit 8«, which the ancient revisers seem to have inserted regularly as a

transitional particle.

2 fr$Z have ck (Tisch.). B has neither «k nor airo (W.I I. omit airo and have «k in
margin).

* NBCLZI omn T0 -

are idealists, promoters of pet schemes,
and religious devotees whom it would
cost no effort to speak thus ; not an ad-
mirable class of people. It did cost
Jesus an effort, for He possessed a
warm heart and unblighted natural
affections. But He sacrifioed natural
affection on the altar of duty, as He
finally sacrificed His life. — Ver. 50.
Definition of spiritual kinsmanship. The
highest brotherhood based on spiritual
affinity. — oo-tis yap av iroiTJcr-r) ; a general
present supposition expressed by the sub-
junctive with av followed by present in-
dicative. — to 0AT)p.a t. iraTpos p.. t. iv
ovpavois : this probably comes nearest to
Christ's actual words. In such a solemn
utterance He was likely to mention His
Father, whose supreme claims His filial
heart ever owned. Mark has " the will
of God"; Luke "those who hear and
do the word of God " — obviously second-
ary.

Chapter XIII. Jesus Teaching in
Parables. The transition from the
sultry, sombre atmosphere of chap. xii.
into the calm, clear air of Christ's
parabolic wisdom would be as welcome
to the evangelist as it is to us. Yet even
here we do not altogether escape the
shadow of unbelief or spiritual insus-
ceptibility. We read of much good seed
wasted, bad seed sown among good, fish
of all sorts caught in the net. The
adoption of the parabolic method of
teaching, indeed, had its origin in part
in disappointing experiences ; truths
misapprehended, actions misunderstood,
compelling the Teacher to fall back on
natural analogies for explanation and
self-defence. All the synoptists recog-
nise the importance of this type of teach-
ing by their formal manner of introducing
the first of the group of seven parables
contained in Matthew's collection. Cf.
Mt. xiii. 3 ; Mk. iv. 2 ; Lk. viii. 4.
Matthew's way of massing matter of the
same kind most effectually impresses us
with the significance of this feature in
Christ's teaching ministry. That Jesus

spoke all the seven parables grouped
together in this chapter at one time is
not certain or even likely. In the cor-
responding section Mark gives only two
of the seven (Sower and Mustard Seed).
Luke has the Sower only. The Sower,
the Tares, and the Drag net may have
formed a single discourse, as very closely
connected in structure and import.
Perhaps we should rather say had a
place in the discourse from the boat,
which seems to have been a review of
the past ministry of Jesus, expressing
chiefly disappointment with the result.
Much besides parables would be spoken,
the parables being employed to point the
moral : much seed, little fruit, and yet
a beginning made destined to grow ; the
situation to be viewed with patience and
hope. Just how many of the parables
reported by the evangelists were spoken
then it is impossible to determine.

Vv. 1-9. The Parable of the Sower
(Mk. iv. 1-9 ; Lk. viii. 4-8). Ver. 1.
Iv T'jj "np-lpa tKeivn. The parable stands
in the same connection in Mark (not in
Luke), but not as following in immediate
temporal sequence. No stress should
be laid on Matthew's phrase "on that
day". — t|eX9a>v ttjs oiKia? : the house
in which Jesus is supposed to have been
when His friends sought for Him,
though Matthew makes no mention of
it (vide Mk. iii. 19). — Iko9t)to : as at
the teaching on the hill (v. 1), suggestive
of lengthened discourse. The Teacher
sat, the hearers stood. — Ver. 2. oxXoi
ttoXAoi, great numbers of people in all
the accounts, compelling the Teacher to
withdraw from the shore into the sea,
and, sitting in a boat, to address the
people standing on the margin. Much
interest, popularity of the Teacher still
great, and even growing ; yet He has
formed a very sober estimate of its value,
as the parable following shows. — Ver. yi
ev -n-apa|3o\ais : this method of teaching
was not peculiar to Jesus — it was
common among Easterns — but His use
of it was unique in felicity and in the

-IO.

EYMTEAION

195

iras 6 oxXos em tok h alyiakbv claTrJKCi. 3. Kai eX((XirjaeK auTots b j^,* 8 j xJ

■rroXXa eV "irapapoXais, Xeyuf, " NSou, el^XOeK 6 aireiput' tou cnre'ipeiv. JK ^ cts

4. Kal iv tw aireipeir auToV, a uev eirecre irapd ttjc 680V • Kal T)X0e * " v >>- 39-

•ra TTCTeifd, Kal d KaTe'tbavef auTa. K. aXXa 8c lircaev em Ta cf ^ et l uentin
' ■ • J Gospp.

•ireTpwSif), ottou ouk el\e yrji' iroXX^i' • Kal euOe'ws i|af^TeiXe, 8id to ?P d , i "

ut) e'xeiy (3d0os 2 YT S ' ^- ^Xiou 8e deaTeiXarros ' eKauaaTurGt), Kal 9; xi. 19.

8id to fir) e'xeiy pi^a*') ' i£r\p&v8i\. 7. dXXa 8c Imaey em Tas John ii. 17.

dKai'Oas, Kal &i>£ftr\(jav al aKa^Oai., Kal dir^irci^ai' 3 auTa. 8. aXXa Mk. iv. 5,

l6.

8e €TT€ae^ ctti ty)i> vfii' tyji' KaXiny, Kal e8i8ou Kapirov, o ae^ ^KaT<5r, f Mk. iv. 6.

Rev, xvi.
o 8e c^KOfTa, o 8e TpiaKorra. 9. 6 ex "' " Ta dKouetk 4 dKourru." 8,9.

IO. Kal TTpoaeX06VT6S ol uafirjTal eliroc auTW, " AiaTi eV irapaj3oXais 19,20.

Johnxv.6.
J as. i. 11.

1 B has tXOovra Ta ir«T€iva xarifyaytv, which W.H. put in the text, placing tjXOov
t. it. Kai in the margin.

a B has ttjs before yrjs.

8 fr$D have cirvigav (Tisch.). BCZI al. and many min. have airvirvigav (W.H.
with cirvi|av in margin).

* fc^BL omit aKoveiv, which comes from parall.

importance of the lessons conveyed.
Abstract a priori definitions of the word
serve little purpose ; we learn best what
a parable is, in the mouth of Jesus, by
studying the parables He spoke. Thence
we gather that to speak in parables
means to use the familiar in nature or in
human life (in the form of a narrative or
otherwise) to embody unfamiliar truths
of the spiritual world.

Vv. 3-9. The Parable.— Vet. 3. 6
cnreiptov : either 6 generic, or the Sower
of my story. — rov aircfpeiv: the infinitive
of purpose with the genitive of article,
very frequent in N. T. and in late Greek.
— Ver. 4. "irapd ttjv 68<5v : not the
highway, of which there were few, but
the footpath, of which there were many
through or between the fields.— Ver. 5.
tiri to. ircTpwSrj, upon shallow ground,
where the rock was near the surface (ovk
eiX«v yr\v iroM^v). — Ver. 6. €itavp.a-
TiaOrj, it was scorched (by the sun) (cf.
Rev. xvi. 8), which had made it spring
earliest : promptly quickened, soon
killed. — Ver. 7. tirl Tas aKav9a?.
Fritzsche prefers the reading eis because
the seed fell not on thorns already
sprung up, but on ground full of thorn
seeds or roots. But the latter idea,
which is the true one, can be expressed
also by Iirl. — avef2ria-av : the thorns
sprang up as well as the corn, and grow-
ing more vigorously gained the upper
hand. — «firvij;av. Euthy. Zig. finds this
idea in avef3i]<rav, for which he gives as

synonym virepCirxvo-av. — Ver. 8. KaXrjv,
genuinely good land free from all the
faults of the other three: soft, deep,
clean. — ISlSov, yielded. In other texts
(iii. 8, 10 ; vii. 17) iroitiv is used. —
eKci-roV, JIijkovtol, rpiaKovTa : all satis-
factory ; 30 good, 60 better, 100 best
(Gen. xxvi. 12). — Ver. 9. 6 txwv uto o.k.
die. An invitation to think of the hidden
meaning, or rather a hint that there was
such a meaning. The description of the
land in which the sower carried on his
operations would present no difficulties
to the hearers : the beaten paths, the
rocky spots, the thorny patches were al!
familiar features of the fields in Palestine,
and the fate of the seed in each case was
in accordance with common experience. .
But why paint the picture ? What is
the moral of the story ? That Jesus left
them to find out.

Vv. 10-17. The disciples ask an ex-
planation. There is some difficulty in
forming a clear idea of this interlude.
Who asked ? The Twelve only, or they
and others with them, as Mark states
(iv. 10) ? And when ? Immediately
after the parable was spoken, or, as was
more likely, after the teaching of the day
was over ? The one certain point is that
an explanation was asked and given. —
Ver. 10. Sia-ri ev irapapoXals : Matthew
makes the question refer to the method
of teaching, Mark and Luke to the
meaning of the parables spoken. The
two questions were closely connected,

U)0

KATA MATOA10N

XIII.

XaXeis aorois ; IX, 'O oe diroKpi0€is emck auToic;, " - Oti uu.lv

Se'SoTai yediKat. to. uuo-TT)pta ttjs j3aai\eias t&v oupavuv, lueivois ot

oo ScSorai. 12. ootis yap £X €l ' ooGYiaeTai auTu Kai irepicraeuQy)-

aeTai • Saris 8e ouk «X ei > Kai ° *X ei > dp8r]o-€Tai dir' ciotou. 13.

h Hal. vi. 2. Sid too to ef irapaPoXals auToIs XaXai, oti BXcTrorres ou GXtTrouai,

Phil. ii. jo. ^ ,,/ ,^» ~ \k

iActsxxviii. Kai dKOuovTes ook dtcouooffiK, oooc o"uyiouo-i. 14. Kai decurXripoijTcu

27.
jActsxxviii. ^ir* 1 aoTois rj Trpo(pr|Teia 'Hoatoo, r\ X^your/a, ''Akotj aKouaeTe, Kai

k Acts ou u.rj oukt)T€ • Kai pXe'Trorrcs |3Xei[/eTe, Kai ou u,tj i&T|Te. 15.

1 Mk. iv. 13. ' €Traxu''0T| yap r\ KapSia tou Xaou toutou, koI toi$ ticrl J /3ape'u>s

32. Acts fjKoucraw, Kai too; 6c{>0aXu.ous auTan' k eKduu.uo-ay • urj-rroTe iSwat, tois

xxviii'. 27 64>8aXuois, Kai tois waif dKouawo-i, Kai rfj KapSia. cruywcH, Kai

(absol. = ij t . \>/ 2 > ' ' -£«w~^ / «

reform). emcn-peil/wo-i, Kai iaawu.ai ■ auTous. 10. Yp.wy oe uaKaptot ot

1 fr^liC omit •**! which may have been added by the grammarians to make the
const, clearer.

3 10.0-op.o.i in most uncials. Reading of T. R. in XA.

and both doubtless in the minds of the
disciples. A more serious difficulty
arises in connection with Christ's answer
to their question, which seems to say
that He adopted the parabolic method in
order to hide the truths of the kingdom
from unspiritual minds. Nothing is
more certain than that Jesus neither did
nor could adopt any such policy, and if
the evangelists ascribed it to Him, then
we should have no alternative but to
agree with those who, like Holtzmann
(H. C.) and Julicher [DieGleicknissrvden
Jesu, pp. 131, 149, vide also his
Einleitung in das N. T., p. 22S), main-
tain that the evangelists have mistaken
His meaning, reading intention in the
light of result. It is much better to
impute a mistake to them than an in-
human purpose to Christ.

Ver. 11. to, jAoo-TTJpia : the word, as
here used, might suggest the idea of a
mysterious esoteric doctrine concerning
the Kingdom of God to be taught only to
a privileged inner circle. But the term
in the N. T. means truths once hidden
now revealed, made generally known,
and in their own nature perfectly in-
telligible. So, e.g., in Eph. iii. 9, Col. i.
26. Jesus desired to make the truths of
the kingdom of God known to all ; by
parables if they could not be understood
otherwise. His aim was to enlighten,
not to mystify. — Ver. 12. This moral
apothegm is here given only in Matt.
It contains a great truth, whether spoken
or not on this occasion. For the con-
struction, vide at x. 14.— Tr€pio-cr€-u0TJ-
o-erai: again in Mt, xxv. 29, where

the saying is repeated. This use of the
passive in a neuter sense belongs to late
Greek.— Ver. 13. 810. tovto oti. Mark
and Luke have Iva, the former assigning
a reason, the latter ascribing a purpose.
In Matt. Jesus says: I speak in parables
because seeing they do not see, etc. ;
which ought naturally to mean : they are
dull of apprehension, therefore I do my
best to enlighten them. — Vv. 14, 15.
The prophetic citation, given as such by
Matthew only, may be due to him, though
put into the mouth of Jesus. It is con-
ceivable, however, that Jesus might use
Isaiah's words in Isaiah's spirit, i.e.,
ironically, expressing the bitter feeling
of one conscious that his best efforts to
teach his countrymen would often end
in failure, and in his bitterness repre-
senting himself as sent to stop ears and
blind eyes. Such utterances are not to
be taken as deliberate dogmatic teach-
ing. If, as some allege, the evangelists
so took them, they failed to understand
the mind of the Master. The quotation
exactly follows the Sept. The verb
xappvu (ver. 15, €Kapp.vo-av) is con-
demned by Phryn. as barbarous, the
right word being KaTapveiv. — Vv. 16, 17.
In Mk. (iv. 13) Jesus reproaches the
disciples for their ignorance ; here He
congratulates them on their faculty of
seeing and hearing (spiritually).— vp-wv :
in emphatic position, suggesting contrast
between disciples and the multitude. —
uaKapioi, vide on chap. v. 3. — oti f}\.,
because, not for what, they see. — dp.T]y
■yap Xe'-yw : introducing an important
statement. — Trpo<j>f)Tai koi Sikcuoi, same

II — 20.

EYAITEAION

197

6(j>0a\fAoi, oti pX^iroucri • Kal to. a»Ta up-we, 1 on dicouei. 2 1 7. dp.Tje
yap Xeyw iip.lv, oti ttoXXoI irpo^TJTai Kal SiKaioi e-neGupvrjaav iZeiv a
j3\€TreTe, Kal ouk clSo^ • Kal aKooaai d aKou€T6, Kal ouk i^Koucrai'.
18. 'Yueis ovv aKouo-arc Trje irapapoXTje tou aimpoi/Tos. 3 19. flarros
aKOuoirog rbv Xoyoe tt)s PaaiXeias Kal uyj aucie'cTOS, epx^Tai 6
TrovTjpos, Kal m dpird£ei to eo-iTapuecoc iv ty] Kapoia aoTOu • outos m Acts viii.
cotiv 6 Trapd tyjc oode crirapeis. 20. 'O 8e em Ta TreTpworj cnrapeiSj
out6s icrriv 6 Toe Xoyoe aKOowf, Kal cuOus fi6Ta x a P a ? XauPdi/wi'

1 B omits vjiiov (bracketed in W.H.).

2 aKo-jovcri. in fc^BCDXX. aKouei a grammatical correction (neut. pi. nom. ura).

3 a-n-€ipavTo<; in fc$BX.33. u-jrc^.-ovTos conforms to ver. 3.

combination as in x. 41. The felicity
now consists in the things seen and
heard. The perceiving senses and the
things to be perceived imply each other,
neither by themselves yield enjoyment.
This passage is given by Lk. (x. 23, 24)
in a more suitable connection (report on
their mission by the Seventy). Here it
creates an exaggerated impression as
to the extent of the new departure.
The parabolic teaching of Jesus, as
exemplified in the Sower and other
parables here collected, was not an
absolutely new feature. He had always
been speaking more or less in parables
(" Fishers of Men," iv. 19 ; " Salt of the
Earth," "City on a Hill," v. 13, 14;
"Two Builders," vii. 24-27; "Whole
need not a Physician," ix. 12 ; " New
Garment and New Wine," ix. 16, 17,
etc.). Some of the parables in this
connection, the Treasure and the Pearl,
e.g., may be gems preserved from some
otherwise forgotten synagogue dis-
courses, say those delivered in the
preaching tour through Galilee.

Vv. 18-23. Interpretation of the Sower
(Mk. iv. 14-20; Lk. viii. 11-15). Ver. 18.
ridels, emphatic, ye privileged ones. —
ovv referring to the happiness on which
they have been congratulated. — Ver. 18.
aKovtrart t. ir. : not, hear it over again,
but, what it means. — <nr€£pavTos, aorist,
of the man who sowed in the story just
told. — Ver. 19. iravT&s aKovovTos, in
the case of any one who hears, " for the
classical !<£v tus dKo-oo-rj " (Camb. G. T.).
It may be a case of interrupted construc-
tion, the sentence beginning with the
intention to make the genitive de-
pendent on an Ik ttjs KapStas before
apird£ei (so Weiss). — tov Xoyov -rf}s f3a-
«riX.€ias : the Sower, unlike the other
parables in this chapter, contains no
hint that it concerns tiie kingdom. But

in Christ's discourses that almost went
without saying. — p.rj o-wuvtos : " not
taking it in," a phrase which happily
combines the physical fact of the parable
with the figurative sense. — 6 irovr\p6%,
the evil one, Satan, represented by the
innocent birds of the parable. What a
different use of the emblem from that in
vi. 26 1 — ev Tfj KCLpSia : we should hardly
say of truth not understood that it had
been sown in the heart. But heart is
used in Scripture in a wide sense, as the
seat of intellect as well as of feeling.
The word in the case supposed is in the
mind, as the seed is in the ground : on
it, if not in it ; in it as words, if not as
truth. — ovtos Ivtiv, etc., this is he
sown, etc., said of the man, not of the
seed. Sign and thing signified iden-
tified, cf. " this is my body ". Properly,
the seed sown, etc., represents the case
of such a man. So throughout the in-
terpretation. — Ver. 20. p.€Ta x a P a < X. :
this is the new feature in the second type
added to the hearing of the first ; hearing
and receiving with joy characteristic of
quick emotional shallow natures, but not
of them only. Deep earnest natures
also have joy in truth found, but with a
difference. — Ver. 21. ovk exei: instead
of the participle ?x tov under the influence
of Mk.'s text (Weiss). — irpdo-Kaipos. tem-
porary, cf. 2 Cor. iv. 18. — Ver. 22. olkovuv,
hearing alone predicated of the third
type, but receiving both intellectually
and emotionally implied ; everything
necessary present except purity of heart,
singleness of mind. Hearing is to be
taken here in a pregnant sense as distinct
from the hearing that is no hearing (ver.
13). — p.e'pi.p.vaT. a.,a.TrdTt) r. ir. : together
= worldliness. Lust for money and
care go together and between them
spoil many an earnest religious nature.
— oLKapiro? may refer either to the man

198

KATA MATOATON

XIII.

n Mk. iv. 17. auTOk • 31. ouk ?x«i oe pt'£av eV iauru, &XXa " Trp6<7Kaip6c, i<nx •
it. Heb. y€t'0u.^i|s he 6\it|/ewj *"| oiwypou Sid toc Xoyoy, tuOug crKav8aXi£eTai.

oLkviit, 22. 'O ot ei«s to.s dKa^Oas irrrapeig, ootos ^otu> 6 toc Xoyoe dKOu'wv,
34.' 2 Cor. Kal y^ ° ji^pip'a tou alamos toutou 1 Kai r^ v &-narr\ tou ttXoutou

p Mk. Iv. 19. aufiirriyei tow Xoyoe, Kal aKaprro? yiytTai. 23. 'O 8e iwi TT)f yyj*
Col. ii. B.TtJI' KaXrjf 2 0"rrap€is> outos ttrTtv 6 t6c Xoyoe dKOuwf Kal aukiwi' 8 ■
ii. 10. Heb. °S Q orj Kaprrodpopei, Kal ttoici 6* (i.ei' ^KaToe, 6 o« c£r)KO>Ta, 6 8e

iii. 13. a t ■■

Pet. ii. TpiaKorra.
q here and in Lk. U. 15. Acts xiii. a; xv. 36. 1 Cor. vi. 20. a Cor. xii. 1 (?). Heb. ii. 16 (with rov\

1 fc^BD omit tovtov, which is an explanatory addition of the scribes.

2 ^BCLAT have em r-qv KaXrjv yrjv instead of the reading in T.R., which echo**
ver. 8.

3 crvvLtis in fc^BD. * Vide below.

(Meyer) or to the word (XrJyov just
before ; Bengel, Weiss) ; sense the same.
There is fruit in this case ; the crop does
not wither in the blade : it reaches the
green ear, but it never ripens. — Ver. 23.
oiKovtov Kal crvvicis. The specific feature
of the fourth and alone satisfactory type
is not brought out either in Mt. or in
Mk. but only in Lk. by his happy
phrase : iv KapSCa KaX-jj Kal ayaG-jj.
The third type understands (Mt.) and
receives into the heart (Mk.), but the
fourth in addition receives into a clean,
i.e.. a "good and honest," heart. — 8s Stj :
8t| occurs here for the first time in Mt.,
and only a few times altogether in the
N. T., but always with marked expres-
siveness. According to Passow and
Baiimlein (Gramtnatik, § 669, and Unter-
suchnngen uber G. Partikeln, p. g8),
connected with SrjXos in origin and
meaning, and signifying that the thing
stated is clear, specially important,
natural in the given circumstances. — 8s
Stj here = who, observe, or of course.
Given such conditions, fruitfulness cer-
tainly results. — Kapiro^opci, bringeth
forth fruit such as is desired : ripe, use-
ful. — 6 in last clause may be pointed
either 6 u.ev, 6 Si (T. R.) or 8 p.Jv, 8 Si
(W. H.). In the former case the meaning
is : this man brings forth 100 fold, that
man, etc. ; in the latter, 8 is accusative
neuter after woi«i, and refers to the fruit.
Opinion very much divided, sense the
same.

This interpretation of the Sower raises
two questions : Was it needed ? Does it
really explain the parable ? which is in
effect to ask: Does it proceed from
Jesus? As to the former: could not
even the general hearer, not to speak of

the Tv/elve, understand the parable well
enough ? True, no hint that it related
to the kingdom was given, but, as already
remarked, that might go without saying.
Jesus had all along been using similitudes
explaining His meaning rather than need-
ing explanation. Then parabolic speech
was common even in Rabbinical circles,
a source at once of entertainment and of
light to hearers. In Mt.'s report the
disciples do not even ask an explanation,
so that that given comes on us as a
surprise (Holtz. in H. C). Christ's
audience might at least carry away the
general impression that He was dis-
satisfied with the result of His ministry,
in many cases in which His teaching
seemed to Him like seed cast on unpro-
ductive places. It might require further
reflection, more than the majority were
capable of, to comprehend the reasons
of failure. Self-knowledge and observa-
tion of character were needed for this.
As to the interpretation given, it has
been objected (Weiss, Julicher, etc.)
that it is allegorical in method, and
that, while going into details as to the
various persons and things mentioned in
the parable and their import, it fails to
give the one main lesson which it, like
every parable, is designed to teach ; in
short, that we cannot see the wood for
the trees. As to this it may be remarked :
(1) There is a tangible difference between
allegory and parable. Allegory and inter-
pretation answer to each other part by
part ; parable and interpretation answer
to each other as wholes. (2) Christ's
parables are for the most part not
allegories. (3) It does not follow that
none of them can be. Why should the
use of allegory be interdicted to Him ?

21 — 25-

EYAITEAIOiN

199

24. "aXXtji' irapaPoX^K r irape'0T]KeK auTois, Xe'ywv, "'flp-oiwOr] v| r again ver
PacnXcia TaV oupcuw deGpuVrrw a-rrcipotTi 1 KaXoi' air^pp-a iv tw
dypw aoTOu • 35. iv Be tw naGeuSeiv T069 dyflpwirous, TjX0e^ aoTou 6 s Mk. vii
ex^pos Kal eo-ircipc 2 £i£dyia * dyd piaov tou ctitou, Kal dTrfjX0€K. v ii. 17.

1 ^BMXAnZ have a-rrcipavTi.

2 B^b it. vg. several cuisives have the compound c-rrto-irttptv (Tisch., W.H.).

Rev.

May the Sower not be an exception ?
That it is has been ably argued by Feine
in jfahrbucher fur Prot. Theologie, 1888,
q. v. (4) The exclusion of so-called
allegorising interpretation may be carried
to a pedantic extreme in connection with
all the parables, as it is, indeed, in my
opinion, especially by Weiss. Thus we
are told that in the saying " the whole
need not a physician," Jesus did not
mean to suggest that He was a physician
but only to hint the special claims of a
class on His attention. But the question
may be asked in every case : What was
the genesis of the parable ? Flow did it
grow in Christ's mind ? The Sower,
e.g. ? Was it not built up of likenesses
spontaneously suggesting themselves
now and then ; of Himself to a sower,
and of various classes of hearers to
different kinds of soil ? In that case
the " allegorical " interpretation is simply
an analysis of the parable into its genetic
elements, which, on that view, have more
than the merely descriptive value assigned
to them by Weiss. (5) As to missing
the main lesson amid details : is it not
rather given, Eastern fashion, through
the details : the preaching of the kingdom
not always successful, failure due to the
spiritual condition of hearers ? That
is how we Westerns, in our abstract
generalising way, put it. The Orientals
conveyed the general through concrete
particulars. Jesus did not give an
abstract definition of the Fatherhood of
God. He defined it by the connections
in which He used the title Father. That
Jesus talked to His disciples about the
various sorts of hearers, their spiritual
state, and what they resembled, I think
intrinsically likely. It is another ques-
tion whether His interpretation has
been exactly reproduced by any of the
Synoptists.

Vv. 24-30. The Tares. This parable
has some elements in common with that
in Mk. iv. 26-29, whence the notion of
many critics that one of the two has been
formed from the other. As to which is
the original, opinion is much divided.
(Vide Holtz., H. C.) Both, I should say.

The resemblance is superficial, the lesson
entirely different. — The Sower describes
past experiences ; the Tares is prophetic
of a future state o<" things. But may
it not be a creation wf apostolic times
put into the mouth of Jesus ? No,
because (1) it is too original and wise,
and (2) there were beginnings of the
evil described even in Christ's lifetime.
Think of a Judas among the Twelve,
whom Jesus treated on the principle laid
down in the parable, letting him remain
among the disciples till the last crisis.
It may have been his presence among
the Twelve that suggested the parable.

Ver. 24. irape'OrjKev, again in ver. 31,
usually of food, here of parable as a
mental entertainment; used with refer-
ence to laws in Ex. xxi. 1, Deut. iv. 44.
— ip.oia.0T], aorist used proleptically for
the future ; cf. 1 Cor. vii. 28.— dv0paVrra>,
likened to a man, inexactly, for : " to
the experience of a man who," etc.,
natural in a popular style.— o-ireCpavn,
aorist because the seed had been sown
when the event of the parable took place.
— kcl\6v, good, genuine, without mixture
of other seeds. — Ver. 25. iv tg> kclOcvSciv
= during the night. — a. 6 i\dpbs, his
enemy. Weiss (Matt.-Evang., 347) thinks
this feature no part of the original parable,
but introduced to correspond with the
interpretation (ver. 39), no enemy being
needed to account for the appearance of
the " tares," which might grow then as
now from seed lying dormant in the
ground. Christ's parables usually com-
ply with the requirements of natural
probability, but sometimes they have to
depart from them to make the parable
answer to the spiritual fact ; e.g., when
all the invited are represented as refusing
to come to the feast (Lk. xiv. 16-24).
The appearance of the " tares " might
be made a preternatural phenomenon
out of regard to the perfect purity of the
seed, and the great abundance of bad
men in a holy society. A few scattered
stalks might spring up in a natural
way, but whence so many ? — iirto-treipev,
deliberately sowed over the wheat seed
as thickly as if no other seed were there.

200 KATA MAT0A10N XIII.

i Mk. iv. 27. 26. ot« Be ' e'PXdoTTjaey 6 x^P T °S> Kal Kap-mV i ttoitjijc, t(5tc tc^dt'n

Jas. v. is. Kal Ta ^L^dkia. 27.. TrpoaeXGoi'TOS St 01 80GX01 tou oiKooeo-rroTou

el-rroy auTto, Kupie, ouxl KaXow o-rre'pu.a eo"TT€ipa<s ee tw o-u> dypw >

TToGck' ouV e^ei Ta * j^d^ta ; 28. 'O oe «<j>tj auTois, 'E)<0pos ai'Gpw-

TTOS TOUTO CirOlT^O-CC. Ol 8c OOuXot eiTTOC atJTU), 2 GtXf IS GUI' direXSoKTES

auXX^ajj;.€i' auTd ; 29. 'O oe e<J>T], 8 O" ' p-rjiTOTe o-uXXe , yorres Ta

n Ch.xv. 13. £i£dt'ia, u £Kpi^(i'j(TT]T6 aua auTois rbv ctItoc. 30. a<f>£T€ owau^dyeo-fiai
I.k. xvii.6. , » 1 » « - * » » r ~-o •» j «

Jude 12. afi(poT«pa atxpi tou SepicrfAOu • kou eV tu° Kaipo) tou cepiffuou epw

in ver. 30. toTs v OepicrTais, EuXXe"£aT€ TTpwTOf Td j^di/ia, Kal orjcraTe aura

w here and >« w c-» «^ - > / •> s * - > 7

in Exod. «i-S oecruas 7rpo9 to KaTaKauaai auTa ■ toc oe cnroy aukayaycTf

xii. 22. > \ , a , i>

eiS t\\v aTrofrjKYji' uou.

' The art. Ta in T.R. (fc^LX) is wanting in fc$bBCD al.

7 B omits SovXoi (W.H.) and BC have avro> Xryovcrtv for cittov aiiTw (T.R.)
fr^D liave Xey. iivtw (Tisch.).

3 <f)T]criv in fc^BC.

4 BD have tws, which W.H. adopt, putting axpt and p-*X( u in margin.

6 to) (in fc^CL) is omitted in most uncials.

8 eis omitted in LXA and bracketed in W.H.

7 B has <rvvav€T* (W.H. with cmva-yaYfTC in margin).

— £i£dvi.a = bastard wheat, darnel, lolium position, the full phrase is Sua crvv :

fctiiH/m(iim,comiiioniii Palestine (Furrer, "at the same time with," as in 1 Thess.

Wandcrungcn, p. 293), perhaps a Semitic iv. 17, v. 10. On this word vide Bos,

word. Another name for the plant in Ellip. Graec, p. 463, and Klotz, Devar.,

Greek is atpa (Suidas, Lex.).— Ver. 26. ii. 97. The roots being intertwined, and

t6tc cdidvii : not distinguishable in the having a firm hold of the soil, both wheat

blade, not till it reached the ear, then and tares might be pulled up together.

easily so by the form, the ear branching — Ver. 30. IvXXe'i-a/re irpwTov: before or

out with grains on each twig (Koetsveld, after cutting down the crop ? Not said

Dc Gclijk., p. 25). — Ver. 27. ovxi k. cr. which; order of procedure immaterial,

fo-n-eupas, etc.: the surprise of the work- for now the wheat is ripe. — 8-rjo-aTe el?

people arises from the extent of the 8t'ap.as ; the cts, omitted in some MSS.,

wild growth, which could not be ex- is not necessary before a noun of same

plained by bad seed (with so careful a meaning with the verb. Fritzsche thinks

master) or natural growth out of an the expression without preposition more

unclean soil. The tares were all over elegant. Meyer also omits, with appeal

the field. — Ver. 28. tx^P^" 5 av * : an to Kuhner on verbs with double accusa-

inference from the state of the field — tives. — { This parable embodies the gr eat

fact not otherwise or previously known. — principle of had men hemg tolerated for,
e«\€is . . • o-uX\c'£u>u.£v, deliberative sub- "the sake ofthe good. It rele gates to the

junctive in 1st person with Oe'Xeis, 2nd end the judgment which the contem-

person ; no tvaused in such case (Burton, poranes of J esus, including the Baptist,

M. and T., § 171). The servants propose "expeoied at the beginning ol the Messianic~~

to do what was ordinarily done, and is kingdom (Weiss-Meyer),
done still (vide Stanley, Sinai and Pales- Vv. 31-35. The Mustard Seed and the

tine, p. 426, and Furrer, Wandcrungen, Leaven (Lk. xiii. 18-21 (both) ; Mk. iv.

293: "men, women and children were 30-32 (Mustard Seed)). A couplet of

in many fields engaged in pulling up brief parables of brighter tone than the

the weeds," in which he includes "den two already considered, predicting great

Lolch "). — Ver. 29. ov, emphatic ; extensive and intensive development of

laconic "no," for good reason. — |at}- the Kingdom of God ; from Luke's narra-

•rroTe : the risk is that wheat and tive (xiii. 10), apparently part of a

"tares" may be uprooted together. — synagogue discourse. It is intrinsically

du.a, with dative (avrols) but not a pre- probable that Jesus in all His addresses

26-35-

EYA1TEA1GN

20I

3i.'A\\r)v irapapoXV irape'eT]K€.' aoTots, X«?ya>i/, " 'O/xoia law » ™- Lk.
t| PaaiXeia twk oupaewi' "kokku ai^aircus, &V Xa^wv ac8pwiTos ™JJ^
co-impee iv Tfi dypw aoroG • 32. t> piKpoTepoK fieV ^ern. ir&vruv twc j£" 8 | H
o-ircppdTwv' • orav 8e ao^Gfj, jic^ok r&v y Xa X afa)K ccrri, Kal yiverw. |4- ■ iCor
S^Spor, wore eXGelf Ta ireTCira too ouparou, Kal ' KaTao-KTjKoGc J Ik y word). ^
tols icXdoois auToG.

33. "AXXt^ irapapoXTji' i\&\i)<rev auTOi$, 2 "'Opoia iarlv rj PaarXeiu ^ 2^
twc oupacwf *£u>r], ^f b Xa|3oGo-a yon] eee'icpoi{/ei' ets dXcu'poo aaTO Acten.
Tpia, ews 00 ° e£op.ai0rj oXoy.

34. TauTa -Kavra i\d\r\(Tey 6 'It]ctoG$ iv Trapa{3oXais tois oxXois, gj^jy
Kal x^P^S "n-apaPoXTig ouk 3 eXdXei aorois ■ 35. ottcos -n-Xr)pa>6fj to 15. Lk
pnOee Sid too Trpo^rJToo, Xe'yovTos, ' 'AeoI£w eV Trapa(3oXais to oroua iCor.y.6.
u.00 • ep€o£op.ai KeicpoppeVa d-nro tcaTaPoXfjs Koaaoo. 4

b same use of word in ver. 31

1 1;. xi. 42.
Kom, xiv.

26
ciii.
(iv.) 12).
a Ch. xvi. 6,

(proverb-
ially).
c 1 Cor. v. 6. Gal. v. 9.

1 KaTamcrjvoLv in BD. 2 D, Syr. Sin. and Cur. omit «\. avTois. W.H. bracket.
:; ovSev in fc^BCA; ovk in Mk. iv. 34, hence here in T.R.

4 B (and fc^b) omits koo-u.ov. So Tisch., W.H. al. Weiss suggests that the
omission in B is an oversight.

in the synagogue and to the people used
more or less the parabolic method. To
this extent it may be literally true that
"without a parable spake He not unto
them " (ver. 34).

Ver. 31. trivdirtois : from o-(vairi,
late for vd-rrv in Attic, which Phryn. re-
commends to be used instead (Lobeck,
288). — Ver. 32. 8, neuter, by attraction
of trTreppaTwv, instead of ov in agree-
ment with kokkw, masculine. — p.iKp<$-
Tepov, not less perhaps than all the seeds
in the world. An American correspondent
sent me a sample of the seeds of the
cotton tree, which he thinks Christ would
have made the basis of His parable had
He spoken it in America. — p.ei£ov t&v
Xaxavuv, greater than (all) the herbs.
The comparison implies that it too is
an herb. There would be no point in
the statement that a plant of the nature
of a tree grew to be greater than all
garden herbs. This excludes the mus-
tard tree, called Salvadora Persica, to
which some have thought the parable
reiers. — S^vSpov, not in nature but in
size ; an excusable exaggeration in a
popular discourse. Koetsveld remarks
on the greatly increased growth attained
by a plant springing from a single seed
with plenty of room all round it (De
Gelijk., p. 50). — wctts here indicates at
once tendency and result, large enough
to make that possible, and it actually
happened. The birds haunted the plant

like a tree or shrub. Mark refers only
to the possibility (iv. 32). — KOTaaKr)vovv
(cf. KaTao-KT)viio-£is, viii. 20), notnidiilari,
to make nests (Erasmus), but to " lodge,"
as in A. V. The mustard plant is after
all of humble size, and gives a very
modest idea of the growth of the king-
dom. But it serves admirably to ex-
press the thought of a growth beyond ex~
pectation. Who would expect so tiny a
seed to produce such a large herb, a
monster in the garden ? — Ver. 33. opoua
. . . ^p-i), like in respect of pervasive
influence. In Rabbinical theology leaven
was used as an emblem of evil desire
(Weber, p. 221). Jesus had the courage
to use it as an emblem of the best thing
in the world, the Kingdom of God coming
into the heart of the individual and the
community. — ^v«Kpv\J/ev, hid by the pro-
cess of kneading. — ?o>s ov !£vp.w0r| : ?cos
with the indicative, referring to an
actual past occurrence.

Both these parables show how
thoroughly Jesus was aware that great
things grow from minute beginnings.
How different His idea of the coming of
the kingdom, from the current one of a
glorious, mighty empire coming suddenly,
full grown ! Instead of that a mustard
seed, a little leaven !

Vv. 34, 35 contain a reflection more
suitable for the close of the collection of
parables in this chapter, brought in here
apparently because [he evangelist has

202

RATA MATUA10W

XIII.

il same
phrase in
Cb. \ in.
13.

e ver. 49.
Ch. xxiv.
3; xxviii.
20. Heb.
ix. 26.

f Ch. xvi.

23; xviii.

7. Rom.

tiv. 13.
r Rev. i. 15;

ix. 2.

36. Tot€ d4>tis tous 3)(Xoos, T)X0£>' ets ttjc oiKiac 6 'Irjaous 1 ' Kal
TTfiooT^XOof auTu 01 fia0T]Tal aoTOu, Xe'yorres, "4>paaov^ r\li.lv TT]f
irapa{3oXi]y tuk t,il,a.vi(i>v ,tou dypou. 37. 'O 8e drroKpiGels eTiref
auTois, 3 " 'O cnTcipftif to KaXoy cnr€pp.a icmv 6 ulos tou Av&pu>irou ■
38. 6 oe aypos iamv 6 koo-u,os ■ to 8e KaXov OTre'pu.a, outoi eian< ol
olol TTJ9 PacriXcias ■ Tck. 8e £t£dyid eio-iy ol utol tou Trovrjpou ■ 39. 6
8e i\Qpo<s o orreipas auTa eariy 6 8id|3oXos • 6 8e 6epicru.6s c aurrcXcia
tou 4 atwkos eoric ■ ol 8c Geptcrrai dyyeXoi eiaik. 40. wonrcp ouc
auXXeyeTai. Ta £i£dVia, Kal Trupl KaTaKcu'cTai outws corai eV ttj
aurreXcia tou alwyos toutou." 41. dTroareXei 6 ul6s tou dyOpwirou
tous dyyAous auTOu, ical o-uXX^|ouctik c"k ttj? j3aatXcias auTOu TrdeTa
tcI 'oxdfSaXa Kal tous Troiourras "njv dvouiay, 42. Kal PaXouau'
auTOus CIS ttji' E k&\livov tou irup6s * ^K6i corai 6 KXau6p.os Kal 6

1 fc^BD omit o I. a ^B have Siao-a^o-ov. <f>pao-ov probably comes from xv. 15.
' J^BD omit avTots. 4 fc^BI) omit tov. b fc$BD omit tovtov.

under his eye Mark's narrative, in which
a similar reflection is attached to the
parable of the mustard seed (iv. 33-34). —
Ver. 34. x w P ls trapaPoXris, etc. : if this
remark apply to Christ's popular preach-
ing generally, then the parables reported,
like the healing narratives, are only a
small selection from a large number, a
fragrant posy culled from the flower
garden of Christ's parabolic wisdom. —
tXaXti : imperfect, pointing to a regular
practice, not merely to a single occasion.
— Ver. 35. Prophetic citation from Ps.
lxxviii. 2, suggested by irapap^oXais in
Sept,, second clause, free translation
from Hebrew. — ipfvgopcu in Sept. for

}P3,n in Ps. xix. 2, etc. (not in lxxviii.

2), a poetic word in Ionic form, bearing
strong, coarse meaning ; used in softened
sense in Hellenistic Greek. Chief value
of this citation : a sign that the parabolic
teaching of Jesus, like His healing
ministry, was sufficiently outstanding to
call for recognition in this way.

Vv. 36-43. Interpretation of the Tares.
Not in Apostolic Document ; style that
of evangelist ; misses the point of the
parable — so Weiss (Matt.-Evang., p.
351). But if there was any private
talk between Jesus and the Twelve as to
the meaning of His parables, this one
was sure to be the subject of conversa-
tion. It is more abstruse than the Sower,
its lesson deeper, the fact it points to
more mysterious. The interpretation
given may of course be very freely re-
produced. —Ver. 36. <{>pdo-ov (oiao--

d4>T|crov ^B) again in xv. 15 : observe
the unceremonious style of the request,
indicative of intimate familiar relations.
Hesychius gives as equivalents for
4>pd£<i, Scikvvci, o-T]p.a(v€i, Xc'yei* etc.- —
Siao-<£<{>. in Deut. i. 5 = make clear, a
stronger expression. — Ver. 37. 6 inrtl-
pwv : identified here with the Son of man
(not so in interpretation of Sower). —
Ver. 38. 6 Koo-p.09, the wide world ; uni-
versalism. — o-ire'pjjia, not the word this
time, but the children of the kingdom. —
£i£dvia, the sons of the wicked one (tov
irovtjpov, the devil). — Ver.. 39. o-uvtcXcio,
aluvos, the end of the world ; phrase
peculiar to this Gospel. — Ocpio-rai
ayytXoi. Weiss thinks this borrowed
from Mt. xxiv. 31, and certainly not
original. Perhaps not as a dogmatic
interpretation, but quite possibly as a
poetic suggestion. — Ver. 40. This and
the following verses enlarge on the final
separation. — Ver. 41. diroo-TeXet : cf.
chap. xxiv. 31. — crvXXe^ovo-iv, collect,
and so separate. — to. o-KavSaXa : abstract
for concrete ; those who create stumbling
blocks for others. — koi, epexegetical,
not introducing a distinct class, but ex-
plaining how the class already referred
to cause others to stumble. — rroiovvTas
t. avop.iav : cf. vii. 23, where for iroi.
stands cpva^dficvoi. Has dvopiav here the
technical sense of religious libertinism,
or the general sense of moral trans-
gression ? Assuming the former alterna-
tive, some critics find here the sign-mark
of a later apostolic time. — Ver. 42. ixtl
futai. etc. ; held to be inappropriate

36-46.

EYAITEAION

203

Ppuyjxos ~ru>v 6S6Vtwi'. 43. totc 01 Sixaioi eKXapul/outriv is 6 tjXios
iv ttj PacriXeia tou iraTpos auTWK. 'O Zywv a»Ta aKooeic 1 duoueTw.

44. " ndXii' 2 6(j.ota carle ^ |3a(TiXeia Twf oupaewv flnaraupw
K£Kpofip,eVw eV tw dypw, 6> eupwy ayGpuiros €Kpu\j/£ , icai diro ttjs
Xapas auTOu uirdyei, Kal irdrra oaa l^ti irwXei, 8 >cal dyopd£ei TOf
dypof Ik^Ivov.

45. " ndXtK 6fioia cotIk -f\ jBaaiXcia t£>v oupavStv dyOpwirw *
h ejx-iropto, JirjTOuj'Tt KaXous p.apyapiTas " 46. os eupwc 6 eVa l iroXu-
Tip.oe p.apyaptTrjt', direXOw^ iriirpaKe TrdvTa Sera eix«> k<*i Tjyopao-ei'

auTOK.

b Rev. «vii
(4 tiir.es).

i John xii. 3.
1 Pet. i. 7
(compar.).
C/. Ch.
rxvi. 7

(/3opUT.).

1 fc$B omit aKoveir. J BD omit iraXir.

s iruXei before irovTa in fc>$D. B gives irwXei the same position but omits vavra.
So W.H. with iravTa in margin.

* fc$B omit. W.H. relegate to margin.

s evpwi 8* in ^BDL verss. (Tisch., W.H.).

here, because the gnashing of teeth is
caused by cold, not by fire (Holtz. , H. C.) ;
appropriate in viii. 12, where the doom
is rejection into the outer darkness. —
Ver. 43. ItcXdpij/ovcri: vide Dan. xii. 2,
which seems to be in view ; an ex-
pressive word suggestive of the sun
emerging from behind a cloud. The
mixture of good and evil men in this
world hides the characters of both.

Vv. 44-53. Three other parables:
the Treasure, the Pearl, the Net. Ver.
36 would seem to imply that the
evangelist took these as spoken only
to disciples in the house. But as the
Net is closely connected in meaning
with the Tares, it is more probable that
these parables also are extracts from
popular discourses of Jesus, which, like
all the others, would gain greatly if seen
in their original setting. The Treasure
and the Pearl would have their fitting
place in a discourse on the kingdom of
God as the highest good (Mt. vi. 33).
— Ver. 44. iv tu dyp^ : the article may
be generic, indicating the field as the
locality, as distinct from other places
where treasures were deposited. — cKpvtjre,
he hid once more what some one had
previously hidden ; the occurrence
common, the occasions various.— x a pds
aviTov, in his joy rather than through
joy over it, as many take the genitive,
though both are admissible. The joy
natural in a poor peasant ; not less so
the cunning procedure it inspired ;
ethically questionable, but parables are
not responsible for the morality of their
characters. - v-ndy' 1 ' wwXel, etc., four

historic presents one after the other, in
sympathy with the finder, and with lively
effect. — irdvTa Sao.: all required for the
purpose, yet the all might not amount
to much : the field minus the treasure
of no great value. Worth while, the
treasure being a pure gain. The point
of the parable is that the kingdom of
heaven outweighs in value all else,
and that the man who understands
this will with pleasure part with all.
It helps to show the reasonableness
of the sacrifice for the kingdom Jesus
demanded.

Ver. 45. Ip,ir<5pa> £. k. p.. A pearl
merchant who went to the pearl fisheries
to purchase from the divers, of course
selecting the best ; a connoisseur in
valuables. — Ver. 46. 7roAvTip,ov: precious
because exceptionally large, well-shaped,
and pure ; such rare, but met with now
and then.— aireXBiiv: he is taken by sur-
prise, has not as much with him as will
purchase it on the spot, sees it is worth
his whole stock, agrees to buy and
promises to return with the price. —
ireirpaice, -l\y6pacrtv, a perfect with an
aorist. Not to be disposed of by saying
that the former is an " aoristic " perfect
(Burton, § 88).— trc'irpaicc points to
a momentous step, taken once for all
and having lasting effects. A great
venture, a risky speculation. The
treasure in the field was a sure gain
for the finder, but it remained to be
seen what the pearl merchant would get
for his one pearl. After the sale of his
stock the purchase of the one pearl was
a matter of course. In the foi mer of

20.J

KATA MAT9AI0N

XIII.

j hec only
in N.T.

k here only.
*-34

(fntPifi.).

I here only

(iiyyetoy.
Ch.' xxv.
4), vide
critical
note I.

m vide
below and
at Ch.
xxvii. 57.

47. " l"la\i" 6p.oia early T| PaaiXtia ruf ouptti'wf o-ayrjk'T]
p\r]0en7T] cis Trjy GaXatraaK, Kal £k irarros ytVous aovayoYOucrr) .
48. tJi>, otc ^ttXtjpojGt], k d^a|3iP<i(Tarr€s €*Trl to^ alyiaXoy, Kal
Ka8io-aiT€S, cri/i'A^ai' Ta KaXd «i§ ' dyyeia, 1 to. Se aaTrpd e£w
epaXoy • 49. OUTC09 ecrrai iv tt) aurrcXeia tou aiwi/os • elcXcutroi'Tai
ot ayyeXoi, Kal dd)opioGo"i tous Trornpous ck ueVou tw^ Sucaiwi',
50. Kai p'aXoCcrii' auTous els Trjf Kduiyoe too Trupos ' €K€i corai 6
KXau0uo9 Kal 6 /3puyuo9 Twy dooi'Twv." 51. Ae'yei auTOis 6
'ItjctoGs, 2 "Jun'iKaTc TaGra ird^Ta;" Aeyouaii' auTw, "Nai, Ktipie." 2
52. 'O oe euree aurois> "Aid toGto Trds ypajxaaTeus m p.a0Y]-
Teu9els cis tt)*' Pao-iXeiat" 8 t£>v oupai'uiv op.oi6s eori*' deOpcu-rro)
olKooeonTOTTj, Sons cK^dXXci £K tou Grjo-aupou aoToG Kaicd Kal
TraXatd.'

1 ayY*) > n fc"$BC. 2 fr^BD omit Xryei a. o. I., also xvpie after' vai.

8 t^BCI have ttj PacriXeia. The reading in T.R. is a grammatical correction.

these two parables the Kingdom of
Heaven appears as the object of a glad
though accidental finding of a sure
possession ; in the latter as the object of
systematic quest and venturesome faith.
The difference between seekers and
finders must not be exaggerated. The
pearl merchant was also a finder. No
one would set out on a journey to seek
one unique pearl (Koetsveld). The
spiritual class he represents are seekers
after God and wisdom, finders of the
Kingdom of God, of a good beyond their
hope. Such seekers, however, are on
the sure way to find.

Vv. 47-50. The Net. aaytjvTj, vide
on iv. 21. — Ik iravTos yivovs o~uv. : a
matter of course, not intended but in-
evitable ; large movements influence all
sorts of people. — Ver. 48. KaOio-avTts
o-uve'Xt^av : equally a matter of course ;
a thing to be done deliberately, of which
the sitting attitude is an emblem. There
is a time for everything ; the time for
sorting is at the end of the fishing. —
o-aTT-pa, vide on vii. 17. Vv. 49, 50 con-
tain the interpretation in much the same
terms as in 41, 42.

Vv. 51, 52. Conclusion of the parabolic
collection. — Ver. 52 contains an im-
portant logion of Jesus preserved by
Matthew only, and connected by him
with the parabolic teaching of Jesus.
In this connection Kaivd Kal iraXaid of
course points to the use of the old familiar
facts of nature to illustrate newly revealed
truths of the kingdom. But we should
not bind ourselves too strictly to this

connection, keeping in mind Matthew's
habit of grouping ; all the more that, as
Wendt has pointed out (Die Lchre jfesn,
ii. 349), the idea expressed by •ypap.u.a.Tcv?
does not get justice. It naturally point?
to acquaintance with the O. T., and
combined with p.a9T|Te'uf)els t. r. p. teaches
that that knowledge may be usefully
united with discipleship in the lore of
the kingdom. In Wendt's words : "One
remains in possession of the old, recog-
nised as of permanent value, yet is not
restricted to it, but along with it possesses
a precious new element ".— p.o.6r|Te'u€iv is
here used transitively as in xxviii. 19,
Acts xiv. 2i. — £KJ3d\\ci points to free
distribution of treasures by the house-
holder. He gives out new or old
according to the nature of the article.
The mere scribe, Rabbinical in spirit,
produces only the old and stale. The
disciple of the kingdom, like the Master,
is always fresh-minded, yet knows how
to value all old spiritual treasures of
Holy Writ or Christian tradition.

Vv. 53-58. Visit to Nazareth (Mk. vi.
1-6, cf. Lk. iv. 16-30). In Mk. this is
the next section after the parables,
deducting what had previously been
reported in Mt. (chaps, viii. and ix.), a
pretty sure sign that our evangelist has
Mk. under his eye. We can here see
how he handles his source — substantial
reproduction of the contents, no slavish
copying of style, editorial discretion in
reporting certain details. No attempt
should be made to connect with the
foregoing passage, except perhaps by

47-58-

EYAfTEAION

205

53. Kai iyiveTO ore irikeaev 6 'ItjgtoCs Tas TTapa{3o\ds TauVas,
H€Tt)pev €KeI0ey ■ 54, Kal i\Q&>v els Tr)e "iraTpioa auToG, loioaaKey
aurous iv rfj a-uvaY<«»Yjj auTwy, wore €KTrXr)TTea0at. * auTous teal
Xcyeik, "noSey toutw t] ao4>ia aurr) Kal at Suydueis ; 55. oux OUT09
lariv 6 tou Wktokos ulos; oo^l "f\ aT)TT)p auToG Xe'yeTai Maptdu, Kai
ot dSeX(J>ol auroG 'laKu{3o$ Kal 'iwcrrjs 2 Kal Itp.wy Kal 'louoas ; 5^-
Kal at d8eX<J>al auToG ooxl TTacrat irpds Tjp.as eiox ; ir60eK oue toutw
TaGra irdrra; 57. Kal eaKaK8aXt£orro iv auTw. '0 oe 'irjaoGs el-rrec
auTols, " Ouk eon Trpo^TTjs ° aTip>s> «i pf) tK ttj rraTpioi auToG 3
Kal iv ttj oiKia auToG.** 58. Kal ouk eiroi'irjaei/ €kci Su^daeis iroXXds,
Sid Trje dmo-Tiaf auTwt\

n here and
in. Mk.vi.
1.4.

Lk. iv. 23,
24. John
iv. 44.
Ilcb. xi. 14.

o Mk. vi. 4.
1 Cor. iv.
10; <ii. 23.

1 tKTr\r\a-<r. in most uncials.
a lwa-r|4> in BC2. !u»ctt|s is probably from Mk.

3 BD omit cxiTo-v. fc^Z have 181a before TrarpiSi, which Tisch. and W.H. place
in margin.

L OmitS KQ.I £V T. OIK. ttVTOV.

the general category of prevalent un-
receptivity to which also the following
narrative (xiv. 1-12) may be relegated. —
Ver. 53. ptTTJpev : in classics to transfer
something from one place to another.
Hellenistic, intransitive = to remove one-
self; one of Matthew's words (xix. 1). —
Ver. 54. iraTpiSa, in classics father-
land. Here and in parallels evidently =
native town, home. Vide ver. 56 and
Lk. iv. 16. — a-uva-ywy-Q, singular, not
plural, as in Vulgate. One syn. index
of size of town (Grotius). — worre, with
infinitive : tendency and actual result.
They were astonished and said : tto6«v
. . . 8vva|j.eis, wisdom and marvellous
works ; of the latter they had heard, of
the former they had had a sample.
Whence ? that is the question ; not
from schools, parentage, family,
social environment, or mere surround-
ings and circumstances of any kind. —
Ver. 55. 6 t. T€KTavos vl6s : Mk. has
6 t«ktu»v, which our evangelist avoids ;
the son of the carpenter, one only in the
town, well known to all. — Mapidp. . . .
laKivj3os, etc., names given of mother
and brothers, to show how well they
know the whole family. And this other
man just come back is simply another of
the family whose name happens to be
Jesus. Why should He be so different ?
It is an absurdity, an offence, not to be
commonplace. The irritation of the
Nazareans is satisfactory evidence of the
extraordinary in Jesus. — Ver. 57. Proverb,
not Jewish merely, but common property
of mankind ; examples from Greek and
Roman authors in Pricaeub and i/Vetstein,

including one from Pindar about fame
fading at the family hearth (Olymp. Ode,
xii. 3). — Ver. 58. Here also editorial
discretion is at work. Mark states that
Jesus was not able to work miracles in
Nazareth, and that He marvelled at their
unbelief. Matthew changes this into a
statement that He did few miracles there
because of their unbelief, and passes
over the marvelling in silence.

Chapter XIV. Death of the
Baptist : Commencement of a New
Division of the Evangelic History.

Vv. 1-12. Death of the Baptist (Mk.
vi. 14-29, Lk. ix. 7-9). This section
might with advantage have been given
as a short chapter by itself, and a new
start made with the feeding of the
thousands which forms the first of a
series of narratives together giving the
story of the later Galilean ministry (xiv.
13 — xx. 16). In this section (1-12)
Matthew still has his eye on Mark, the
story of the fate of the Baptist being
there the next after the section in
reference to mother and brethren,
excepting the mission of the Twelve
(Mk. vi. 7-13) already related in Mt. (x.
5-15). Indeed from this point onwards
Matthew follows Mark's order. In the
foregoing part of this Gospel the
parallelism between it and Mark has
been disturbed by the desire of the
evangelist to draw largely on his other
source, the Logia, and introduce teach-
ing materials bearing on all the topics
suggested in his introductory sketch of
Christ's early Galilean ministry : Didache,
chaps, v.-vii. ; apostolic mission (iv. 18-

2o6

KATA MATt)AlON

XIV.

bCh x V 'vil' X^V. I. 'EN ^K«u'w tw Kaipi fJKouaci' 'Hpworjs 6 T6Tpdpyj]s * t$)v
Mwifh"' *^ K0 V "h 0,0 "' 2 - Ktti «tTT£ tois iraiali' auTou. " Outos laTlf 'iwuVnrjs
•* T0) - . & BcnruaTjjs ■ auTos k riY^P® 1 ! ft1T o tw** fCKpwi', nal StcL touto ai
ti«l. v. 6. Su^c£|jlcls c c^epYoGaic &' auTto.' 3. 'O ydp 'HpwSrjs Kpan^aas toc

d C « ' "mL Itod^rp' cSrjacK auToc 2 Kal efltTO ^c ^uXaKTJ, 3 Sid 'HpwoidSa ttji*

vi. 18. 1 -yuiaiKa 4>iXiirirou tou dSeX^ou auTou. 4. eXcye yap auTw 6

vii. 2, 29. 'luamris, 4 " Ouk c^eori aot d cycic d auTnv." <• Kal OcXuy auTOK
eCh. xxi.26. ' m »

1 TCTpoapxrjs in fc$CZA. So Tisch. and W.H., though BD spell as in T.R.

1 fr^B omit mtov, which is an undisputed reading in Mk., whence it may have
been imported.

8 fc^B read tv $\>\a.KT) a-ntQiro, which Tisch. and W.H. adopt.

* fc<$D omit art. before I. and BZ place av-ru after I.

22), chap. x. ; Baptist (chap, iii.), chap.
xi. ; Pharisees (chap. iii. 7-9), chap. xii. ;
popular preaching (iv. 23), chap. xiii.
Chaps, viii., ix. disturb the order by
grouping incidents illustrating the heal-
ing ministry.

Ver. 1. iv IxtLvy t$ Kcupui. Mk.
connects with return of Twelve from
their mission (vi. 14), Mt. apparently
with immediately preceding section. But
the phrase recalls xi. 25, xii. 1, and it
may be the evangelist is thinking
generally of a time of prevailing in-
susceptibility (Weiss-Meyer). — 'HpaJS-r)? :
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and
Peraea for many years (4-39 a.d.), married
to the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia;
like his father Herod the Great in
cunning, ambition, and love of splendour
in building and otherwise, whereof the
new city of Tiberias was a monument
(Schiirer, Gesck.,i. 359). — olkotjv, vide iv.
24. The fame of Jesus penetrated at
last even into the royal palace, where
very different matters occupied the atten-
tion, ordinarily. — Ver. 2. iraifflv avrov :
not his sons, but his servants, i.e., the
courtiers, great men in their way, not
the menials in the palace. The king
would propound his odd theory in
familiar talk, not in solemn conclave. —
ovtos «<ttiv, etc. It is this theory we
have to thank for the narrative following,
which in itself has no special connection
with the evangelic history, though doubt-
less Christians would naturally read with
interest the fate of the forerunner of
Jesus. The king has the Baptist on the
brain ; and remarkable occurrences in
the religious world recall him at once to
mind. It is John 1 he (aim) is risen ;

theory begotten of remorse; odd enough,
but better than Pharisaic one begotten
of malevolence ; both witnessing to the
extraordinary in Christ's career.— Sia
tovto : the living John did no miracles,
but no saying what a dead one redivivus
can do ? — Ivtpyovcriv, not : he does the
mighty works, but : the powers (8vvap.eis)
work in him, the powers of the invisible
world, vast and vague in the king's
imagination.

Ver. 3. yap implies that the following
story is introduced to make the king's
theory intelligible. " Risen " implies
previous death, and how that came about
must be told to show the psychological
genesis of the theory. It is the super-
stitious idea of a man who has murder
on his conscience. — xpaT^cras, etc. : fact
referred to already in iv. 12, xi. 2 ; here
the reason given. Of course Herod
seized, bound, and imprisoned John
through his agents. — Sia 'HpcoSiuSa ; a
woman here, as so often, the cause of
the tragedy. — yuvaiKa 4>. : vide on Mk.
— Ver. 4. tXeye yap 6 I. The pro-
gressive imperfect, with force of a
pluperfect. John had been saying just
before he was apprehended (Burton,
Moods imd Tenses, § 2q).-~ovk «f£eon-iv :
doubly unlawful ; as adultery, and as
marriage within prohibited degrees (Lev.
xviii. 16, xx. 21). — Ver. 5. QtXutv : cf.
i. 19. Mark gives a fuller statement as
to Herod's feelings towards John. No
injustice is done Herod here by ascribing
to him a wish to get rid of John. There
are always mixed feelings in such cases.
Compare the relations of Alcibiades to
Socrates as described by Plato (Iv^-
Troaiov). c<))o{3v^6t) t. h. : that ior one

-12.

EYAITEAION

207

6. 'yeeecriwv 8e dvoaevwi' 1 too 'HpwSou, iipx^o"0-TO r\ Guyd-nip rhs tCf. Gen.

xl. 20,
'Hpw8id8os ee tu p-e'cra), Kal r]pecre tw 'HpoiSt] ■ 7. o0€f p,€8' optcou >)M*'pi

< \ ' » - ft -' * >» 2 » ' c «u s> i a T"'" 7 '" 5,

a)p.oAoyT]CT€i' auTfl ooueai o eae " aiTT)0"T]Tai. o. H oe ■ irpopi- g Act3 xix.

o a - « v x , - « a ' " jl ' <f »5 1 > 3}{<rvv-iu

paaOeiaa uiro ri\s piTpos auTT]5, Aos fiot, <j>r|cne, woe eirt w. H.).

h irtvaKi ttjc KecpaXTjy 'iwdeeou tou BaiTTiffToG. 9. Kal tXuTrr]0Y| 8 6 h Lk. xi. 39.

pao-iXeus, 81a 8e 8 tous opKoos Kal tous 0-umeaKeip.eVous eKeXeuae

SoOfjeai • 10. Kal TrepuJ/as ' dTreKctpdXiae Toe 4 '\<j)&vvv\v iv ttj (}>uXaKTJ. i Mk. vi. 16,

II. Kal r\veyQr\ r\ Ke^aXrj auTOu em iricaKi, Kal e860T) tw Kopaaiw • 9.

Kal tjeeyKe ttj pvrjTpl auTfjs. 12. Kai TrpooeXOorre? 01 p.a0T)Tal

auTou T]pae to <rwu,a, 6 Kal e&a\\iav auTO 9 • Kal eXOorres dTrrjyyeiXai'

1 fc^BDLZ have the dat. yeveo-iois and ytvop.evois for a-yopcvuv; the reading in
T.R. is a grammatical correction.
8 av in BD.

8 BD have XvirijOeis and omit 8e. The reading of the T.R. is an attempt by
resolution of the construction to make the meaning clear.

' fr$BZ omit tov.

6 fc^BCDLI several cursives have in-up-a, for which o-upa has been substituted as
more delicate.

6 fc^B have avrov. avTo in Mk. (vi. 29).

thing ; also feared God and his con-
science a little, not enough. It is well
when lawless men in power fear any-
thing. — on . . . etxov : they took John
to be, regarded him as, a prophet. —
elxov does not by itself mean to hold in
high esteem (in pretio habere, Kypke).
The point is that John for the people
passed for a prophet, belonged to a
class commanding religious respect (so
Fritzsche, Meyer, etc.). Vide xxi. 46.

Ver. 6. •ytvecrtois ytvo]i4voi% : one ex-
pects the genitive absolute as in T.R.,
which just on that account is to be sus-
pected. The dative of time. But cf.
Mk. vi. 21, where we have -y€vou.Evr]s
and yeveo-tois occurring together, and
vide Weiss, Mk.-Evang., p. 221, on the
literary connection between the two
texts. Most commentators take yeveo-iots
as referring to Herod's birthday. Some,
e.g., Grotius, think of the anniversary of
the accession to the throne = birthday
of his reign. In classic Greek it means
a feast in honour of the dead on their
birthday, -yeveflXia being the word for a
birthday feast, vide Lobeck, Phryn., 103.
Loesner, Observ. ad N. T. e. Phil. Alex.,
cites instances from Philo of the use of
both words in the sense of a birthday
feast. — t| BvYaTTjp t. 'HpwS. : Salome by
name. — ev tu p-cVu, implies a festive
assembly, as fully described in Mk.— Ver.
7. (ufioXo-yrjcrev, confessed by oath ;
obligation to keep a promise previously

given. Cf. Mk. vi. 22, where the fact is
more fully stated. The account in Matt,
seems throughout secondary. — Ver. 8.
Trpofiifiao-dtla-a. : not " before instructed,"
as in A. V., but " brought to this point " ;
urged on. It should require a good deal of
" educating " to bring a young girl to make
such a grim request. But she had learnt
her lesson well, and asked the Baptist's
head, as if she had been asking a favour-
ite dish (us TT€pi tivos cSeo-p-aTos SiaXc-
yop.€vr|, Chrys., Horn, xlviii.). Kypke cites
two instances of the rare use of the word
in the sense of instruction. — u8e here and
now, on the spot, €|avTvjs in Mk. That
was an essential part of the request. No
time must be left for repentance. If not
done at once under the influence of wine
and the momentary gratification given
by the voluptuous dance, it might never
be done at all. This implies that the
Baptist was at hand, therefore that the
feast was at Machaerus, where there was
a palace as well as a fortress. — Ver. g.
\vitt|0€(.s : participle used concessively,
though grieved he granted the request ,
the grief quite compatible with the
truculent wish in ver. 5. — fBao-iXcvs :
only by courtesy.— opKovs, plural, sin-
gular in ver. 7 ; spoken in passion, more
like profane swearing than deliberate
utterance once for all of a solemn oath.
— Ver. 10. airsKt^dXicre : expressive
word, all too clear in meaning, though
not found in Attic usage, or apparently

2O0

KATA MATOAION

XIV.

tw 'iTjaoo. 13. Kai dKoucras 1 6 'irjaous av€\utp(]atv iticlBtv <V ttXoi'w

ets €pt]fiof ro-nov kot' iSiay. ical duouoavTes 01 oj(\oi y)koXou0t]o-cu'

1 Mk. yj. 33. auTw J ire^rj ' diro twk irdXewK.

14. Kal f^cXdwK 6 'iTjaous * eI8e TroXuy oxXok, k<x! i(nr\ayxviadi]

k If k. vL 5, fir aoTous, 4 ical eGepaTreucrc tous k dppworous auTuf. IS- 'OJuas
13; xvi. 18. ■ ' r w> t

1 Cor. li. 8e Y^op.tTjs, Trpocrr)X8ot' aoTw 01 p.a9t]Tal ciutou 6 Xe'yorrcs, ""EpTjuds

I Acts xxvii. cotik 6 tottos, ical Trj wpa r]8r| ' irapY]X0ek' • dTroXuaok 6 tous 5)(Xous,

sense). IVa dTreXSoires € 'S Tas icwuas dyopdawo-ik' ^auTcus |3p<du,aTa." 1 6.

'O Se 'It)<tous cIitck auTois, " Oo xpeiay e^ouaiK direXGeik' • Sotc

1 axovo-as St tfBDLZ. 8 tr^oi NJLZ. 3 t^BD omit o I.

* avrois in most uncials; «-n - uvtov? only in minusc. ; from Mk.

* fc^BZ omit avrov. * fc^CZ add ovv, which W.H. place in margin.

much used at all ; a plebeian word,
according to Salmasius cited by Kypke,
who gives instances from late authors. —
Ver. 11. Tjve'xdii, not expressly said
" there and then," but all points to im-
mediate production of the head on a
platter in the banqueting hall before the
guests ; gruesome sight ! — €8c>8t), rjvryict :
what a nerve the girl must have had !
her mother's nature in her ; the dancing
and the cool acceptance of the horrible
gift well matched. — icopacricp : not to be
taken strictly ; a young unmarried
woman, say, of twenty (Holtz., H. C).
The dancing of a mere girl would have
been no entertainment to the sensual
revellers. The treat lay in the indecency.
— -Ver. 12. TTT<Lp.a : carcase, used abso-
lutely in this sense only in late writers.
Earlier writers would say irTupa vticpov.
Lobeck, Phryn., 375.

Vv. 13-21. Jesus retires ; feeding of
thousands (Mk. vi. 30-44 ; Lk. ix. 10-17).
— Ver. 13. ixoTJtras, having heard of the
fate of John from John's disciples (ver.
12). — av€x«p T ]0"< v ' exelOsv: withdrew from
where He was when the report reached
Him ; locality not indicated. Mark con-
nects the retirement with the return of
the Twelve from their mission, and the
report they gave, and assigns as motive
rest for the missionaries. The two
events might synchronise, and escape
from Herod's dangerous neighbourhood
might be a joint motive for retirement.
But against this is the speedy return
(ver. 34). — kv ttXoicj) : naturally suggests
a place near the sea as starting-point.
But it may be rather intended to indi-
cate in what direction they were going —
to the eastern side of the lake. — els e. t.
KaT ISiav. These phrases have cer-
tainly more point in Mk. as referring to

a multitude from which they wished to
escape.— ol oxXoi : no previous mention
of the crowds, and no hint that Jesus
wished to get away from them ; looks
like a digest of a fuller narrative, such as
that in Mk. — irtSfj (or tre^ol), on foot, but
not implying that all literally walked;
there were sick among them who could
not. The contrast is between going by
s-ea and going by land. Cf. Acts xx. 13.
Classical instances in philological com-
mentaries (Wetstein, Kypke, Eisner,
etc.). — Ver. 14. €|«\8<1jv, in this place,
naturally means going forth from His re-
treat, in Mk. (vi. 34) going out of the
ship, the crowd having arrived on the
spot before Him. To escape from the
people always difficult, now apparently
more than ever. Evidently a time of
special excitement, popularity at its
height, though according to Fourth Gos-
pel about to undergo a speedy decline.
— ^{nrXoyxv{cr6T|, deponent passive,
pitied ; Hellenistic, and based on the
Hebrew idea of the bowels as the seat of
compassion ; used by Symmachus in
translation of Deut, xiii. 9. — edcpdircucre :
Mark gives prominence to the element of
instruction ; healing alone mentioned
here.

Vv. 15-21. The feeding. — Ver. 15.
6\|/£as -ycvo|X€VT]5 : might mean sunset as
in viii. 16, but from the nature of the
case must mean afternoon from 3 to 6,
the first of the " two evenings ". — fp-rjpos,
comparatively uninhabited, no towns
near. — t\ wpa tjSt) irapT)X0£v;the meaning
not clear. Mk. has : tj8t| <5pas ttoXXtjs
= already the hour is advanced. Various
suggestions have been made : eating
time (Grot.), healing and teaching time
(Fritzsche), daytime (Meyer) is past.
Weiss, with most probability, take? upa

*3— a *

EYArrEAlON

209

nuTots ufiets cjmyeii'." 17. Ol 8c \4youtnv auTw, " Ouk exouey u*ot
a ^i.r] Tv^Tt dpToug Kal Su'o IxOuas." 1 8. 'O 8c dire, "♦e'peW p.01
auTous a/Se." 1 19. Kal KeXetiaas tous oxXous dvaKXifiTJyai em tous
Xoprous,* Kal 8 Xa^a^ tous Trim apTous Kal tous 8uo Ix^uas,
d»'a0Xe'i|/as eis rbv oupayoV, m euXoyrjcre • Kal n KXdcras eSaiKe tois
(j.a0r]Tais tous dpTOus, 01 Se jxaSvjTal tois oxXots. 20. Kal ecpayoi'
wd^res, Kal exopTdcrGrjcrav • Kal Tjpav to irepiffacuov tuc KXaafiaTuv,
8w8cKa KocfnVous TrXrjpeis. 21. ol 8e eaOtoires TJaaK d^Spes ware!
irefTaKiaxiXioi, X w P ts yueaiKwe Kal -iraiSiuc. 22. Kai euOe'ws
•^dyKao-eK 6 'Iyjo-ous 4 tous p.a0T]Tds auTou 5 cu-P^mi els to 6 ttXoiok,
Kal p irpodyeii' auToy els to irepay, Iws ou diroXuaT] tous oxXous.
23. Kal diroXuaas tous oxXous, &viflr\ els to opos kot* iSiav

i!i Ch. xxvi.

26. 1 Cor.

x. 16.
n Ch. xxvi.

26. Acts

ii. 46 al.

o Acts xxvi.
11. Gal. ii.

3. H-
p Ch. xxi.
31 ; xxvi.
32. Mk.
x. 3a.

1 uSe avTovs in fc$BZ.
s B LAI omit Kai.

2 ^BC have eiri tow x°P T0V > D the sing, also, but accus
4 o I. wanting in ^BCDAI.
5 Most uncials omit, but BXI retain avTov.
8 B and several cursives (1, 33, 124) omit to. W.H. place in margin.

= time for sending them away to get
food. — dirtSXvcrov : though late for the
purpose, not too late ; dismiss them forth-
with. — Ver. 16. ov xP e ^ av «x ovo " tv
d-TrcXOetv, etc. : even if, as some think,
what happened was that under the
moral influence of Jesus the people
present generously made the provisions
they had brought with them available for
the company at large, the character of
Jesus appears here in a commanding
light. No situation appears to Him
desperate, no crisis unmanageable. No
need to go. Give ye them to eat,
resources will be forthcoming (cf. Exod.
xiv. 15). And they were, how we cannot
tell. The story is a fact supported by
the testimony of all four evangelists, not
a baseless legend, or a religious allegory.
— Ver. 17. irtvTf apTovs k. S. 5.x- A
very modest supply even for the disciple
circle. They seem, under the influence
of Jesus, to have been a care-free com-
pany, letting to-morrow look after itself.
" Learn the philosophy of the Twelve,
and how they despised food. Being
twelve they had only so much, and they
readily gave up these" (Chrysos., H.
xlix.). Five loaves and two fishes, all
that was known to be in that vast
gathering. — Ver. 18. <j>ep€Tt, etc. :
Christ's imperial way in critical situa-
tions often arrests attention. " Stretch
forth thine hand " (xii. 13). " Bring
them hither to me." — Ver. 19. KeXsvcras,
Xapwv, dva.pXe'\J/as, participles without
copula all leading up to eviXdYTjcrev, the
central chief action : rapid, condensed

narrative, briefly, simply, recounting an
amazing event.— tiXd-yrjcrcv with accusa-
tive (aprons) understood. He blessed
the loaves and fishes. — Kal KXdcras
tSwKtv, then dividing them gave them to
the disciples, who in turn gave to the
multitude. — to» k6yu Kal T-jj eviXo-yta
av^wv Kal Tr\t)Q-6vii>v axirovs, Origen. —
Ver. 20. SuScKa ko$. irX. is in appos.
with to irepiffcrcvov t. k. They took
the surplus of the broken pieces to the
extent of twelve baskets. — kocjhvovs,

answering to the Rabbinical fr^Q^p, a

basket of considerable size (" ein grosses
Behaltniss," Wiinsche). Each of the
Twelve had one. The word recalls the
well-known line of Juvenal (Sat. iii. 14):
" Judaeis, quorum cophinus foenumque
suppellex," on which and its bearing on
this place vide Schottgen (Hor. Tal.) and
Eisner. — Ver. 21. irevTaKiorxCXioi, 5000
men, not counting women and children.
This helps us to attach some definite
meaning to the elastic words, oxXos,
SxXoi, so frequently occurring in the
Gospels. Doubtless this was an excep-
tionally great gathering, yet the inference
seems legitimate that 8xXos meant
hundreds, and ttoXiis oxXos thousands.

Vv. 22-36. The return voyage (Mk.
vi. 45-56). — Ver. 22. r\vdyKa<rev : a
strong word needing an explanation not
here given, supplied in John vi. 15. Of
course there was no physical compulsion,
but there must have been urgency on
Christ's part, and unwillingness on the part
of disciples. Fritzsche objects to specia)

2IO

KATA MATGAION

XIV

irpo<reu£aiT0ai. 'O^ias Se yeyopeVTjs, p.6Vos r\v eicei. 24. to o<

q Ml vi. 48 wkoUt¥ ri8rj u&roK Tfjs 6a\da<rns tJk 1 q Ba<Tavil6ii*vov otto twk

ithere of • •

tbe men, KupaTUM' • rjk yap barrios 6 dVepog. 25. TcTapri] 8e 4 ,u ^ aK fj

the ihip). ttjs kjktos AtttJ\0c 2 Trpos auTOus 6 'irjaous, 8 irepnraTwc €TTl TTJS
6aXdaor7js-* 26. Kal I86rres auToe ot pa9t]Tal 6 itrt t$\v daKaaaay •
r MJ N ,' 49 ircpiiraTourra ^rapaxBrjo-ay, X^yorr«s, ""On '^Arrao-pd ion.'

ivi. 14 Kal diro too <js6|3ou «Kpaj;cu'. 27. euQt'oJS 7 8e eXaXnaey aureus 6
'Irjaous, 8 Xe'ywy, " 6apo-£iTe ■ iyu> eiui, prj fo/Jcio-fle." 28. 'AiroKpi-
0€is 8e aoTfi 6 rieTpos dire 9 " Kupie, cl oru ci, KeXcuaoV p.e -rrpos <re
eX9 C lK 10 ^irl tcl iJSaTa." 29. 'O Se elirev, '"EXee." Kal KaTaBas
Att6 tou ttXoiou 6 n n^Tpos "ir€picirdTT|o-€f itti Ta uSara, eXOetc 12 irpos

1 For peo-ov . . . r\v B, some verss. and minuss. have here crTaSious ttoXXo-us airo
ttj9 y^s a-n-eixev, which W.H. adopt, putting in margin the reading of T.R., which
is the undisputed reading in Mk.

- Tj\e«v in NBI verss. 3 Omit o I. ^BCD.

4 fr$BA several cursives have the accus. here. 5 01 8e pa9. i8ovt«s a. in BD.

8 ttjs BaXacro-rje, in fr^BCD.

7 evOvs in fr^BD here as always in Mk., whence it may have come. In Mk. this
is a standing variation. It need not be again referred to.

"ol. before av-roic. in B, omitted in fc«$D, bracketed in W. H.

■ The order of words varies here. W.H., after B, have airotc. 8* o f/1. ci/rtv a.

10 fr^BCDAX many cursives have cXOclv irpo« trt.

11 Art. omitted in ^BD. » icai r]Xe«v in BD.

emphasis, and renders : " auctor fuit
discipulis, ut navem conscenderent ". —
?o>5 ov airoXvo-r|, subjunctive, here used
where optative would be used in classic
Greek. Cf. xviii. 30, and vide Burton,
§ 324. — Ver. 23. aWp-rj els to opos.
After dismissing the crowd Jesus retired
into the mountainous country back from
the shore, glad to be alone— kot' IStav,
even to be rid of the Twelve for a season.
— irpo<r«v£ao-0ai : " Good for prayer the
mountain, and the night, and the soli-
tude (povuais), affording quiet, freedom
from distraction (to a-rrtpio-TraoTov), and
calm" (Euthy. Zig. ). — 6\|ho.s ycv. refers,
of course, to a later hour than in ver. 15.
— Ver. 24. p&rov, an adjective agreeing
with irXoiov (Winer, § 54, 6), signi-
fies not merely in the middle strictly,
but any appreciable distance from shore.
Pricaeus gives examples of such use.
But the reading of B, probably to be pre-
ferred, implies that the boat was many
stadii (25 or 30, John vi. ig = 3 to 4
miles) from the eastern shore. — viro tuv
KDjiQTuv : not in Mk., and goes without
saying ; when there are winds there will
be waves. — 4vavrios 6 avcu-os : what
wind ? From what quarter blowing ?

What was the starting-point, and the
destination? Holtz. (H. C. ) suggests
that the voyage was either from Beth-
saida Julias at the mouth of the upper
Jordan to the north-western shore, or
from the south end of the plain El-
Batiha towards Bethsaida Julias, at the
north end, citing Furrer in support of
the second alternative, vide in Mk. — Ver.
25. TCTopfrj $vX. = 3 to 6, in the early
morning, -rrpwt. — ivX r. 9. : the readings
in this and the next verse vary between
genitive and accusative. The sense is
much the same. The evangelist means
to represent Jesus as really walking on
the sea, not on the land above the sea level
(Paulus, Schenkel). Holtz. (H. C), re-
garding it as a legend, refers to O. T.
texts in which God walks on the sea. —
Ver. 26. <}>avTacru.a : a little touch of
sailor superstition natural in the circum-
stances ; presupposes the impression that
they saw something walking on the sea.
— Ver. 27. «Xa\T)o-«v: Jesus spoke; the
words given (flapo-tlre, etc.), but the
mere sound of His voice would be
enough.

Vv. 28-33. Peter episode, peculiar to
Mt. The story is true to the character

14— 3«-

E1AITEAI0N

211

toc 'It)oouk. 30. piXivuv 8e rbv afeuop loyupbv 1 l$o(ir\6r\ • Kal
dp£duee05 s KaTaTrocTi£eo-9ai eVpafe, XeyaJK, " Ku'pie, crwcroV u.e."
31. 'EuOe'ws 8e 6 'ItjctoGs inrtivas tt\v X € ^P a EireXdPeTO auToG, Kal
Xc'yci auTw, " 'OXiyoiriore, eis ti * eoiaTacras ; " 32. Kal eu.j3dfT0>i' 2
auTuc eis to irXoToe, a eKoiracrec 6 aveuos * 33. 01 8e ev tw itXoiu
eX0<$rres 3 TrpoaeKuVrjaaK auTw Xe*Yorres, "'AXtjOws ©eoG uios ct."

34. Kal Siairepdcrarres rjXOov eis ttji' yr\v* revvr\arap£r. 35. Kal
emyyoWes aoTOK ol dkSpcs toG tottou CKeifou dire'o-reiXay eis o\y\v
Tt]v ir€pi\(i}pov iK€ivr\v, Kal irpocrrji'SYKav auru Trdiras tous KaKois
?)(OKTas • 36. Kal TrapcicdXouK auToV, i^a uoVoy d<J/wrrcu tou
xpacrrreoou tou IpaTtou auToG • Kal Sam -rjij/arro, T Sicawdrjaa^.

• Ch. xviii
6 only.

t Ch. xxviii.

17 only,
u Mk. iv. 39 ;

vi. 51.

v Lk. vii. x
Acts xxiii.
24; xx vii.

43.44;
xxviii. 1,4.
1 Pet. ili

30.

1 Omitted in fc$B 33. 2 avafJavTwv in fc^BD 33-

4 fr$BD al. have eiri instead of «is and omit -n\v yi\v.

» Wanting in fe^BI.

of Peter. — Ver. 30. pXe'irwv tov avcpov,
seeing the wind, that is, the effects of it.
It is one thing to see a storm from the
deck of a stout ship, another to see it in
midst of the waves. — Karairovrit,taBai :
he walked at first, now he begins to sink ;
so at the final crisis, so at Antioch (Gal.
ii. 11), so probably all through. A strange
mixture of strength and weakness, bravery
and cowardice ; a man of generous im-
pulses rather than of constant firm will.
" Peter walked on the water but feared
the wind: such is human nature, often
achieving great things, and at fault in
little things." — (iroXXdicis to. (irydXa
Ka-rop0o{io~a, iv tois IXaTTOori IXeYX ,Tal >
Chrys., H. 1.) — Ver. 31. eSicrracras :
again in xxviii. 17, nowhere else in N. T.,
from 81s, double, hence to be of two
minds, to doubt (cf. Snj/vxos, James i. 8).
— Ver. 32. dva.pdvTG>v ainw : Jesus and
Peter. — iKoiracriv : used in narrative of
first sea-anecdote by Mk., iv. 3g = ex-
hausted itself (from kottos).— Ver. 33. 01
iv tu> ttXoio) : cf. 01 dvOpuTroi. in viii. 27;
presumably the disciples alone referred
to. — dXT)0ais 0. v. et, a great advance on
iroTairds (viii. 27). The question it im-
plies now settled : Son of God.

Vv. 34-36. Safe arrival.— Siaircpd-
aavTes, having covered the distance
between the place where Jesus joined
them and the shore. — iiri ttjv yi\v : they
got to land ; the general fact important
after the storm. — «ts rewrjcrapfr, more
definite indication of locality, yet not
very definite ; a district, not a town, the
rich plain of Gennesaret, four miles long
and two broad. — Ver. 35. iced itriyvov-
Tfs, etc. : again popular excitement with
its usual concomitants. The men of the

place, when they recognised who had
landed from the boat, sent round the
word : Jesus has come ! They bring
their sick to Him to be healed. — Ver. 36.
irapcKaXovv, etc. : they have now un-
bounded confidence in Christ's curative
powers ; think it enough to touch (pdvov
a\]/wvTai) the hem of His mantle. — Siecru-
Bt)cto,v : they are not disappointed ; the
touch brings a complete cure (81a in com-
position). The expression, Scroi rjiJ/avTo,
implies that all who were cured touched :
that was the uniform means. Mk.'s
expression, 80-01 Sly -fj., leaves that open.

Chapter XV. Washing of Hands ;
Syrophcenician Woman; Second Feed-
ing. The scene changes with dramatic
effect from phenomenal popularity on the
eastern shore, and in Gennesaret, to
embittered, ominous conflict with the
jealous guardians of Jewish orthodoxy
and orthopraxy. The relations between
Jesus and the religious virtuosi are be-
coming more and more strained and the
crisis cannot be far off. That becomes
clear to Jesus now, if it was not before
(xvi. 21).

Vv. 1-20. Washing 0/ hands (Mk. vii.
1-23). — Ver. 1. tot« connects naturally
with immediately preceding narrative
concerning the people of Gennesaret
with unbounded faith in Jesus seeking
healing by mere touch of His garment.
Probably the one scene led to the other :
growing popular enthusiasm deepening
Pharisaic hostility. — irpocre'pxovTai (ot)
a. 'I. If ol be omitted, the sense is that
certain persons came to Jesus from Jeru-
salem. If it be retained, the sense is :
certain persons belonging to Jerusalem
came from it, the preposition iv being

212

RATA MAT9AI0N

xv.

* (with Jirb? XV. I. TOTE irpocT^pxorrai tu) 'irjaou ol 1 dwo 'lepoaoXuuwy

b s'o l"' 3 ' YP a f JL M ,aT '^ Kai ♦ a pio'ttioi» 2 X^yoyTts, 2. "Atari ol p.a8T]Tai aou

' G 1*1 * 'TapapaiVouCTi tJjk b irapdSoau' rCtv TrpecrpuWpwt' ; ou yap yiirroiTai

?.*• Co1 - TCIS \ € ^P a 5 dUTWk', 8 OTttK fipTOI' ^<T0i(i)(TlK." 3. *0 06 dTTOKpiGeiS tliriV

Thew. H. aurois, " AiaTc Kai uptig TrapafJaiveTC ttjc ^ktoXtjc too 0€ou Bid Trp'

c Mk. vil. irapd8oo-ir upwi' ; 4. 'O yop 0e6s iKCTciXaTO, \4ywv* ' Tip.a top

Actixlx.g. iraWpa aoo, 6 Kal -rt)V litlWpo • ' koi, ''O ■ KaKoXovwc TraTe'pa fi
a Ch. xvi. " # . *

26 ; xxvii. p,T)Tcpa Gavd-rw TcXeoTaTU • 5. up.ei§ 8e Xe'yeTC, Os &k eiinj tw

a6| Heb. iraTpl ^ tt] p.T}Tpi, Acopok, S ^Ak {£ iaou d w^cXtiOtjs, Kal 6 ou urn
xiii. 9 al.

1 fc$BD omit ou » 4>ap. *ai ypau. in fc^BD. * fr^BA Orig. omit avTuv.

4 For «v«t«iXoto Xry«v BD have simply ci-mcv. 6 jj^BCD omit aov.

* fc^BCD omit icai, which affects the construction ; vide below.

changed into airo by attraction of the
verb.— 4>ap. Kal yp., usually named in
inverse order, as in T.R. Our evangelist
makes the whole party come from Jeru-
salem ; Mk., with more probability, the
scribes only. The guardians of tradition
in the Capital have their evil eye on Jesus
and co-operate with the provincial rigor-
ists. — Ver. 2. 8ia-ri ol pad. aov irapap*. :
no instance of offence specified in this
case, as in ix. 10 and xii. 1. The zealots
must have been making inquiries or
playing the spy into the private habits
of the disciple circle, seeking for grounds
of fault-finding (cf. Mk. vii. 2). — irapa-
(3a(vovo-i: strong word (Mk.'s milder),
putting breach of Rabbinical rules on a
level with breaking the greatest moral
laws, as if the former were of equal
importance with the latter. That they
were, was deliberately maintained by the
scribes (vide Lightfoot). — tt|v irapdSoo-iv
t. ir. : not merely the opinion, dogma,
placitum, of the elders (Grotius), but
opinion expressed ex cathedra, custom
originated with authority by the ancients.
The " elders " here are not the living
rulers of the people, but the past bearers
of religious authority, the more remote
the more venerable. The " tradition "
was unwritten (a-ypa<po$ SiSao-icaXta,
Hesych.), the " law upon the lip "
reaching back, like the written law (so it
was pretended) , to Moses. Baseless asser-
tion, but believed ; therefore to attack the
irapdSoo-is a Herculean, dangerous task.
The assailants regard the act imputed as
an unheard-of monstrous impiety. That
is why they make a general charge before
specifying the particular form under which
the offence is committed, so giving the
latter as serious an aspect as possible. —
oil -yap viirTovTai, etc. : granting the fact

it did not necessarily mean deliberate
disregard of the tradition. It might be
an occasional carelessness on the part of
some of the disciples (nvots, Mk. vii. 2)
which even the offenders would not care
to defend. A time-server might easily
have evaded discussion by putting the
matter on this ground. The Pharisees
eagerly put the worst construction on the
act, and Jesus was incapable of time-
serving insincerity i thus conflict was
inevitable. — v£irTe<r8ai, the proper word
before meat, oirovCirT€o-0ai,, after,
Eisner, citing Athenaeus, lib. ix., cap.
18. — apTOv to-Oiuo-iv, Hebrew idiom for
taking food. The neglect charged was
not that of ordinary cleanliness, but of the
technical rules for securing ceremonial
cleanness. These were innumerable and
ridiculously minute. Lightfoot, referring
to certain Rabbinical tracts, says : " lege,
si vacat, et si per taedium et nauseam
potes".

Vv. 3-6. Christ's reply ; consists of a
counter charge and a prophetic citation
(w. 7-9) in the inverse order to that of
Mk.— Ver. 3. Kal vo-els : the retort, if
justifiable, the best defence possible of
neglect charged = " we transgress the
tradition because we want to keep the
commands of God : choice lies between
these ; you make the wrong choice ".
Grave issue raised ; no compromise
possible here. — 81a t. it. vpwv : not rules
made by the parties addressed (Weiss-
Meyer), but the tradition which ye
idolise, your precious paradosis. — Ver. 4.
o -yip 6tb% : counter charge substantiated.
The question being the validity of the
tradition and its value, its evil tendency
might be illustrated at will in connection
with any moral interest. It might have
been illustrated directly in connection

I— 9.

EYAfTEAION

213

rifiY]<rrj * tov iraWpa auroG rj Trjy prjTepa auroG • 6. ical *T)KupuaraT€ eMk.vii. 13.

ttjk ivro\i]v 2 toO 6eoG Sid tt)C irapdSoaii' upuf. 7. 'YiroicpiTai, f Mk. vii. 6;

Xaos ootos tw oropaTi auTwv, icai tois x ei ^ 6or1, r 16 Ttpa * t| 8e Ironically

tcapoia auTuf iroppu dir^x et b^ ^poG. 9. * pdnji' 8c aifiovrai pe, g. 2 Cor.

xi. 4.
g here and in Mk. vil. 7 (from Is. xxix. 13).

1 fr^BCDAl have tiut|o-€i.. ti|atjo-t) answers to f iirrj, and being made dependent
on os av by kql is part of the protasis.

2 tok Xoyov in BD (W.H.) ; tov vojxov in fr^C (Tisch., W.H. marg.).

3 Augment at beg., cirpoif*, in ^BCDL.

* The T.R. gives the quotation in full. fr^BDL have o Xaos odtos tois x ft ^«°"i
|i« -riua: Tisch., W.H. (ovtos o Xaos and a-yairt) for npa in margin).

purity versus ceremonial,
selection characteristic of

with moral
The actual
Jesus as humane, and felicitous as ex-
ceptionall'f clear. — vLp> . . . TcXcvraTbt :
fifth commandment (Ex. xx. 12), with its
penal sanction (Ex. xxi. 17). — Ver. 5
shows how that great law is compro-
mised. — vfxcis H Xry. : the emphatic
antithesis of vptis to 0eo« a pointed re-
buke of their presumption. The scribes
rivals to the Almighty in legislation.
" Ye say " : the words following give
not the ipsissima verba of scribe-teaching
or what they would acknowledge to be
the drift of their teaching, but that drift
as Jesus Himself understood it = " This
is what it comes to." — " Aupov " = let it
be a gift or offering devoted to God, to
the temple, to religious purposes, i.e., a
Corban (Mk. vii. ri) ; magic word re-
leasing from obligation to show honour
to parents in the practical way of contri-
buting to their support. Of evil omen
even when the " gift " was bond, fide, as
involving an artificial divorce between
religion and morality ; easily sliding into
disingenuous pretexts of vows to evade
filial responsibilities ; reaching the lowest
depth of immorality when lawmakers
and unfilial sons were in league for
common pecuniary profit from the
nefarious transaction. Were the fault-
finders in this case chargeable with re-
ceiving a commission for trafficking in
iniquitous legislation, letting sons off for
a percentage on what they would have to
give their parents ? Origen, Jerome,
Theophy., Lutteroth favour this view,
but there is nothing in the text to justify
it. Christ's charge is based on the
practice specified even at its best : honest
pleading of previous obligation to God
as a ground for neglecting duty to
parents. Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.) under-
stands the law as meaning that the word

Corban, even though profanely and
heartlessly spoken, bound not to help
parents, but did not bind really to give
the property to sacred uses. " Acl
dicandj. sua in sacros usus per haec
verba nullatenus tenebatur, ad non
juvandum patrem tenebatur inviola-
biliter." — oti p-r) Tipijo-ei, he shall not
honour — he is exempt from obligation
to: such the rule in effect, if not in words,
of the scribes in the ca.se. The future
here has the force ot the imperative as
often in the Sept. (vide Burton, M. and
T., § 67). If the imperative mean-
ing be denied, then oi ut| t. must be
taken as a comment of Christ's. Ye say,
" whosoever," etc. ; in these circum-
stances of course he will not, etc. As
the passage stands in T.R. the clause
Kal oi (xr| ti(it|o-t), etc., belongs to the
protasis, and the apodosis remains un-
expressed = he shall be free, or guiltless,
as in A. V. — Ver. 6. T|icvp«ia-aTe, ye in-
validated, by making such a rule, the
aorist pointing to the time when the rule
was made. Or it may be a gnomic
aorist : so ye are wont to, etc. The
verb a.Kvp6bt belongs to later Greek,
though Eisner calls the phrase " bene
Graeca ". — Sta, . . . vuwv : an account
of your tradition, again to mark it as
their idol, and as theirs alone, God
having no part in it, though the Rabbis
taught that it was given orally by God to
Moses. — Ver. 7. v-rroKpiTai : no thought
of conciliation ; open war at all hazards.
" Actors," in their zeal for God, as illus-
trated in the case previously cited. God
first, parents second, yet God not in all
their thoughts. — icaXws, appositely, to the
purpose. Isaiah might not be thinking
of the Pharisees, but certainly the quo-
tation is very felicitous in reference to
them, exactly describing their religious
character. Mt. follows Mk. in quoting ;

2I 4

KATA MAT9AI0N

xv.

h here »nd giSdo-Korrcs h BtSttOKflXCcw. ' eWdXiiaTa ivtipumuiv.' ' 10. Kai

in pnrsll "* • «

in Cospp. -rrpoCTKaXeacifitKos rbv oxXor, cittck auTois, "'Akouctc Kai owictc.

in Paul. ii, ol J xo tiffCDYOU.ei'OC CIS TO OTfJiia KOIV'OL Tor dVOpwTTOV • dXXd
I Mk. vii. 7. r/\ r r r

Col. ii. a* T o ctcTropeuou.ev'ov ck too otouotos, touto kou'oi tow aVSpwrroK."

(not in ' r

profane 12. Tot€ irpocrcXOcWes 01 iinOiiTcu auTOu 1 cTttok 2 auTw, " OlSas oti

• uthors). c „ , /

j here only 01 ♦apiaaioi dKouo-avres tow Xoyo*' eo-Kav8aXio-0r|o-cn' ; 13. 'O 8e

in N.T. . .

k Cb. xziii. diroKpiOcis cittc, " (ldaa J <f>uTeia, tjk ouk e^uTcuo-ee 6 Tra-TTjp ixou 6

Acts i. 16. oupdVios, eKpi^w0T)O-€Tai. 14. ol^ctc ciutous k oSnyoi clou tuc}>XoI

1 here only TU^XwK 8 ■ Tu4>XoS Sc TO^XoW l&V 68tJYJ), du4>OTepOl CIS porWo*

xiii. 36, ircffourrai." 15. 'AiroKpiOcls 8c 6 fle'Tpos clire*' auTw, " ' ♦pdcro*
T.R.).

1 ^BD and several cursives omit av-rov. J Xcvovo-iv in BD.

s Instead of oStvyoi . . . tv<J>X*>v BDLZ have tv^Xoi curt oSipfOt (W.H.). ^ has
the same inverted, 08. cio*i tu<|>.

neither follows closely the Sept. (Is. xxix.
13).— Ver. 8. •fj 8c Kap&a, etc. : at this
point the citation is particularly apposite.
They were far from the true God in
their thoughts who imagined that He
could be pleased with gifts made at the
expense of filial piety. Christ's God
abhorred such homage, still more the
hypocritical pretence of it.

Vv. 10, n. Appeal to the people: a
mortal offence to the Pharisees and
scribes, but made inevitable by publicity
of attack, the multitude being in the back-
ground and overhearing all. — &kovctc
Kai o-vvUtc : abrupt, laconic address ; a
fearless, resolute tone audible. — Ver.
11. Simple direct appeal to the moral
sense of mankind ; one of those emanci-
pating words which sweep away the cob-
webs of artificial systems ; better than
elaborate argument. It is called a
parable in ver. 15, but it is not a parable
in the strict sense here whatever it may
be in Mk. (vide notes there). Parables
are used to illustrate the ethical by the
natural. This saying is itself ethical : to
£Kiropevd(X€vov ck tov cttohcitos refers
to words as expressing thoughts and de-
sires (ver. 19). — ov to deep, els to o-TOfjia:
refers to food of all sorts ; clean : od taken
with unclean hands, and food in itself
unclean. The drift of the saying there-
fore is : ceremonial uncleanness, how-
ever caused, a small matter, moral un-
cleanness the one thing to be dreaded.
This goes beyond the tradition of the
elders, and virtually abrogates the
Levitical distinctions between clean and
unclean. A sentiment worthy of Jesus
and suitable to an occasion when He
was compelled to emphasise the supreme
importance of the ethical in the law —

the ethical emphatically the law of God
(ttjv cvtoXtjv tov 8co0, ver. 3).

Vv. 12 14. Disciples report impression
made on Pharisees by the word spoken to
the people. Not in Mark. — Ver. 12.
eo-Kav8aXio-9T|crav : double offence — (1)
appealing to the people at all ; (2) uttering
such a word, revolutionary in character. —
Ver. 13. 6 8c airoKpidtlc, etc. : the
disciples were afraid, but Jesus was in-
dignant, and took up high ground. —
$vtc(cl for 4>vTcup,a, a plant, " not a
wild flower but a cultivated plant "
(Camb. G. T.), refers to the Rabbinical
tradition ; natural figure for doctrine,
and so used both by Jesus and Greeks
(vide Schottgen and Kypke). Kypke re-
marks: "pertinet hue parabola ircpl tov
o-ircCpovTOs ". — 6 ira.Trjp p.ov : the state-
ment in the relative clause is really the
main point, that the tradition in question
was a thing with which God as Jesus
conceived Him had nothing to do. This
is an important text for Christ's doctrine
of the Fatherhood as taught by dis-
criminating use of the term iraTijp. The
idea of God implied in the Corban tradi-
tion was that His interest was antago-
nistic to that of humanity. In Christ's
idea of God the two interests are coinci-
dent. This text should be set beside
xii. 50, which might easily be misunder-
stood as teaching an opposite view. —
CKpitwd^rrcTau This is what will be,
and what Jesus wishes and works for:
uprooting, destruction, root and branch,
no compromise, the thing wholly evil.
The response of the traditionalists was
crucifixion. — Ver. 14. acfure : the case
hopeless, no reform possible ; on the
road to ruin. — tv<£Xoi fUriv oStjyoi : the
reading in B is very laconic = blind men

IO — 21.

EYArrEAION

215

TJjUi'TTjK TTapaPoX^K tqwtkjk." J 16. 'O 8e 'Itjctouc, l «lire»' ) " ""'Ax^y" 1 here only.
Kal ojieis ■ drjuVeTOi iorre. ; 1 7. ouirw 2 kocitc, oti tt&k to elcrrropeurj- 3j; X J9-

U6KOK €15 TO OTOfia CIS tJ|K KOlXlOf \wp€t, Kal €IS d^SOpwKa eicj3dX- 21. Lie. U,

XeTat; 18. to. 8e eKTropeuopeva £k tou ordpaTos ck ttjs KapSias xxiv. 38.
... _ „ ~ \ » a >«-» */ x Cor - »"•

e§epxeTat, KdKeiya KOifoi tov afopuiroj'. 19. 4k yap ttjs Kapoias ?°- J»s-

e^e'pxorrai •ot.aXoYio-uolTrovTjpol, p d>oVot, r aortal, iropKeiai, kXottcu, p These are

c- ' o\ ± > - t > \ - , the only

\|/£uoop.apTupiai, pAao^Tjpiai. 20. Taord coti Td Koceourra tov words

»« x«t,/ \.~j ~ \ » a »» common

aycpwrroi' • to be ayiTTTOis X e P at ♦<*Y €l1 ' ou k 011 ' 01 toc avopwrroK. to this list

21. Kal eleXOuc cVcidef 6 'Itjo-ous dKcxwpijo-eK els Td pepTj Topou in Gal. v.

19; both
doubtful there.

1 ^BZ omit tovttjv and Itjctovc, (D also omits I.).

1 ov in BDZ33.

are the leaders, the suggestion being:
we know what happens in that case.
The point is the inevitableness of ruin.
What follows expresses what has been
already hinted. — tu4>X6s %\ t. \. 68. : if
blind blind lead ; oStjytj, subjunctive,
with lav as usual in a present general
supposition. — a^oVepot, both : Rabbis
or scribes and their disciples. Christ
despaired of the teachers, but He tried to
rescue the people ; hence w. 10, 11.

Vv. 15-20. Interpretation of saying in
ver. 11. — Ver. 15. rieTpos, spokesman
as usual (6 Ocppos ical iravraxov
irpo<f>8dy6»v, Chrys., Horn. li.). — irapa-
[3o\tjv, here at least, whatever may be
the case in Mk., can mean only a dark
saying, cncoTeivos Xdyos (Theophy. in
Mk.), "oratio obscura" (Suicer). The
saying, ver. n, was above the understand-
ing of the disciples, or rather in advance
of their religious attainments ; for men
often deem thoughts difficult when,
though easy to understand, they are
hard to receive. The Twelve had been
a little scandalised by the saying as well
as the Pharisees, though they did not
like to say so (Kal av-rol TJpeua 0opv|3ov-
pevoi, Chrys.). — Ver. 16. dicuT|v, accusa-
tive of aicp/rj, the point (of a weapon,
etc.) = KaT' d,KfiT)v \p6vov, at this point
of time, still ; late Greek, and con-
demned by Phryn., p. 123 (dv-rl tov fri).
— do-vv«Toi €<rr«. Christ chides the
Twelve for making a mystery of a plain
matter (" quare parabolice dictum putet
quod perspicue locutus est," Jerome).
Very simple and axiomatic to the Master,
but was it ever quite clear to the
disciples ? In such matters all depends
on possessing the requisite spiritual
sense. Easy to see when you have eyes.
— Ver. 17. d<j>(Spuva: here only, pro-
bably a Macedonian word = privy ; a
vulgar word and a vulgar subject which

Jesus would gladly have avoided, but He
forces Himself to speak of it for the sake
of His disciples. The idea is : from food
no moral defilement comes to the soul;
such defilement as there is, purely
physical, passing through the bowels
into the place of discharge. Doubtless
Jesus said this, otherwise no one would
have put it into His mouth. Were the
Twelve any the wiser? Probably the
very rudeness of the speech led them to
think. — Ver. |i8. lKiroprv^p.cya : words
representing thoughts and desires,
morally defiling, or rather revealing
defilement already existing in the heart,
seat of thought and passion. — Ver. 19.
$6vo\., etc. : breaches of Sixth, Seventh,
Eighth, and Ninth Commandments in
succession. — Ver. 20. Emphatic final
reassertion of the doctrine.

Vv. 21-28. Woman of Canaan (Mk.
vii. 24-30). This excursion to the north
is the result of a passionate longing to
escape at once from the fever of popu-
larity and from the odium theologicum of
Pharisees, and to be alone for a while
with the Twelve, with nature, and with
God. One could wish that fuller details
had been given as to its duration, extent,
etc. From Mk. we infer that it had a
wide sweep, lasted for a considerable
time, and was not confined to Jewish
territory. Vide notes there.

Ver. 21. arexuprjo-cv, cf. xii. 15. —
cU to peprj T. Kal I. : towards or into ?
Opinion is much divided. De Wette cites
in favour of the latter, Mt. ii. 22, xvi. 13,
and disposes of the argument against it
based on airo rmv opiwv ckcivuv (ver. 22)
by the remark that it has force only if
opia, contrary to the usage of the evan-
gelist, be taken as = boundaries instead
of territories. On the whole, the con-
clusion must be that the narrativa leaves
the point uncertain. On psychological

2J6

KATA MATOAION

xv.

kuI Xiofiros. 2 2. Kal i8ou, yin^ Xavavaia dwd tuv opiaiK €k«iVwk
^e\9ou<ra eVpauyaaci' 1 auT<S, s X^youaa, " 'EXctjctoV p.e, Ku'pie, ine *
Aa|3i8 • r] 0uyaTT]p p.00 kokws 8a(.iAOKi£eTai." 23. 'O 8e ook
diTCKpiOr] auTTJ XoyOK. Kal TrpocreXOorres 01 u.a0r)Tal auTou rjpwTwi'*

4 L,K. Hill. » f \ ^ // > « f% 1 / • m

26 (with auToy, Aeyorres, ATroAuaof au-rr)f, on Kpa£ei * omaOe*' tju,wi\ '
here). 24. O 8e dTTOKpi0els enrey, " Ouk AiiecrTakrn' et u.f) els Ta irpoBaTa

r N4 k it 2"

24. Acts' Td diroXuXoTa oikou 'lapar|\." 25. *H 8e cX0oucra irpocrtKoVci auTto,
28. 2 Cor! Xe'youcra, " Kupie, r j3oT]0ei p.01." 26. *0 8c aTroxpideis eiTref, "Ook
ii. 18. «cnri KaXcV 6 XaPely top dp-roy Twy tekkuk, Kal PaXelk tois Korapiois."

1 tKpaUv in BDI (W.H.). The aor. fnpa5«v in fc$Z (Tisch. and W.H. marg.).
The imperfect is truer to life.

* NBCZI omit a^Tu. 3 vio-; in BD. * i)p»TOw in J^BCDX.

• ovk tern xaXov is so weightily supported (all the great uncials with exception
of D) that one can hardly refuse to accept it as the true reading. Yet the reading
of D, ovk c|coti, has strong claims, just on account of the severity it implits and
because the other reading is that of Mk.

grounds the presumption is in favour of
the view that Jesus crossed the border
into heathen territory. After that inter-
view with sanctimonious Pharisees who
thought the whole world outside Judea
unclean, it would be a refreshment to
Christ's spirit to cross over the line and
feel that He was still in God's world,
with blue sky overhead and the sea on
this hand and mountains on that, all
showing the glory of their Maker. He
would breathe a freer, less stifling atmo-
sphere there. — Ver. 22. Xavavaia : the
Phoenicians were descended from a
colony of Canaanites, the original in-
habitants of Palestine, Gen. x. 15 (vide
Benzinger, Heb. Arch., p. 63). Vide
notes on Mk. — IX. p.c, pity me, the
mother's heart speaks. — vU A. The title
and the request imply some knowledge
of Jesus. Whence got ? Was she a
proselyte? (De Wette.) Or had the
fame of Jesus spread thus far, the report
of a wonderful healer who passed among
the Jews for a descendant of David ?
The latter every way likely, cf. Mt. iv.
24. There would be some intercourse
between the borderers, though doubtless
also prejudices and enmities. — Ver. 23.
6 %\ ovk air. : a new style of behaviour
on the part of Jesus. The role of in-
difference would cost Him an effort. —
fjpuTwv (ovv W. and H. as if contracted
from lp«i>Tt), besought ; in classics the
verb means to inquire. In N. T. the
two senses are combined after analogy of

7fc$1£7. The disciples were probably

— T

surprised at their Master's unusual

behaviour ; a reason for it would not
occur to them. They change placei
with the Master here, the larger-hearted
appearing by comparison the narrow-
hearted. — airoXvcrov, get rid of her by
granting her request. — 5-ri Kpd£ei : they
were moved not so much by pity as by
dread of a sensation. There was far
more sympathy (though hidden) in
Christ's heart than in theirs. Deep
natures are often misjudged, and shallow
men praised at their expense. — Ver. 24.
ovk direo-TdXTjK : Jesus is compelled to
explain Himself, and His explanation is
bond fide, and to be taken in earnest as
meaning that He considered it His duty
to restrict His ministry to Israel, to be a
shepherd exclusively to the lost sheep of
Israel (to irpd^ara t. a., cf. ix. 36), as
He was wont to call them with affec-
tionate pity. There was probably a
mixture of feelings in Christ's mind at
this time ; an aversion to recommence
just then a healing ministry at all —
a craving for rest and retirement ; a
disinclination to be drawn into a ministry
among a heathen people, which would
mar the unity of His career as a prophet
of God to Israel (the drama of His life to
serve its purpose must respect the limits
of time and place) ; a secret inclination
to do this woman a kindness if it could
in any way be made exceptional; and last
but not least, a feeling that her request
was really not isolated but representative
= the Gentile world in her inviting Him, a
fugitive from His own land, to come over
and help them, an omen of the transference
of the kingdom from Jewish to Pagan soil.

it— 31.

EYAfTEAION

217

27. "H 8e eTitc, "Nai, Kupie • Kal yap x toL gcufdpia eadtei citto tw

5 <ftxtuv twk * TriTTTorrwf diro ttjs ' TpaTre£TlS twc Kupiwy auTwc. " s Mk. vii.

28. Totc diroKpiOels 6 'irjaous clircf auTrj, "*Q yuVai, peydXtj aou xv'i. 21

rj irloris • yenrjOrjTW trot u»s OAeiS-" Kal id0T] tj Ouyd-rnp auTTJs t same phr .
> « «. ■ » / in Lk. xvi.

diro ttjs wpas eKeinrjs. 2I-

29. Kal p,6Ta|3ds litelfleK 6 'irjaous rjX8e irapd Trp' 0dXaao-aK ttjs

TaXiXaias " Kal dfa/3ds eis to opos, eKd0T)TO eicei. 30. Kal

•jrpoo-TJXOoc auTw 3)(Xoi ttoXXoi, c^oires p.e9' eaurtli' x w ^ "S> tu<|>-

Xou's, K(0<j)OUS, ™ KUXXOUS, 2 Kal ET£pOUS TToXXoUS, Kal Ippul/ar aUTOUS U Ch xviii

K Mk ix
Trapa tous TroBas tou 'irjaou 8 Kal cOepdireuo-eK auTous • 3 1 . wore 43.

•rods SxXous 4 6auado-ai, jBXeirovTas kw<J)ous XaXourras, 6 kuXXous

oywis, 8 x w ^°" s irepiTraTouKTas, Kal tu^Xoos pXeiroiras ■ Kal

1 B omits Yap, which therefore W H. bracket. As Weiss suggests it may have
fallen out per incuriam. It seems needed, vide below. Yet vide Mk.

a The order in which these four words (x<oXo\)s> etc.) are given varies. 1? has
kvXXovs before tv<j>Xovs, which W.H. adopt. The order of T.R. is supported only
by late MSS.

5 avrov ior tov i. in J^BDL. * tov oxXok in ^CDA.

* B has aKovovras. * fr<$ omits this clause.

Vv. 25-28. Entreaty renewed at close
quarters with success. — Ver. 25. i\ Si
tX9ovo-a, etc. Probably the mother read
conflict and irresolution in Christ's face,
and thence drew encouragement. — Ver.
26. ovk €<ttiv KaXov, etc. : seemingly a
hard word, but not so hard as it seems.
First, it is not a simple monosyllabic
negative, leaving no room for parley,
but an argument inviting further dis-
cussion. Next, it is playful, humorous,
bantering in tone, a parable to be taken
cum grano. Third, its harshest word,
iruvapiois, contains a loophole. icvvdpia
does not compare Gentiles to the dogs
without, in the street, but to the house-
hold dogs belonging to the family, which
got their portion though not the chil-
dren's. — Ver. 27. vai, Kvpie * Kal "yap,
etc. : eager assent, not dissent, with a
gleam in the eye on perceiving the
advantage given by the comparison = Yes,
indeed, Lord, for even, etc. Kypke cites an
instance from Xenophon of the combina-
tion vai Kal yap in the same sense.
vJ/iXtwv, diniin. iron: i|/{§, a bit, crumb,
found only in N. T. (here and Mk. vii. 28,
Lk. xvi. 2r T. R.), another diminutive
answering to Kvvdpia — the little pet
dogs, eat of the minute morsels. Curi-
ously felicitous combination of ready
wit, humility and faith : wit in seizing
on the playful Kwdpia and improving on
it by adding tj/ixia, humility in being
content with the smallest crumb:;, faith

in conceiving of the healing asked as
only such a crumb for Jesus to give. —
Ver. 28. Immediate compliance with
her request with intense delight in her
faith, which may have recalled to mind
that of another Gentile (Mt. viii. 10).
u yvvai: exclamation in a tone enriched
by the harmonies of manifold emotions.
What a refreshment to Christ's heart to
pass from that dreary pestilential tradi-
tionalism to this utterance of a simple
unsophisticated moral nature on Pagan
soil ! The transition from the one scene
to the other unconsciously serves the
purposes of consummate dramatic art.

Vv. 29-31. Return to the Sea 0/
Galilee (Mk. vii. 31-37). — Ver. 29. irapa
t. 0. t. TaX., to the neighbourhood of
the Sea of Galilee ; on which side ?
According to Mk., the eastern, ap-
proached by a circuitous journey through
Sidon and Decapolis. Weiss contends
that Mt. means the western shore. The
truth. seems to be that he leaves it vague.
His account is a meagre colourless re-
production of Mk.'s. He takes no interest
in the route, but only in the incidents at
the two termini. He takes Jesus north
to the borders of Tyre to meet the woman
of Canaan, and back to Galilee to feed
the multitude a second time. — els to
opos, as in v. 1, and apparently for the
same purpose : eicd0T)To e., sat down
there to teach. This ascent of the hill
bordering the lake is not in Mk. — Ver.

218

KATA MATOAION

xv.

T Mk. viii 1

ilu<™', "' «^ aora »' T ^> V e «o»' 'icpai^X. 32. 'O he 'Irjaous TrpoaKaX€<rdp.ekOs

|^" e a r s ead "Tous fia6t]Tas au-rou ctire, " iTrXayx^ouai ^m rbv oxXok, oti tjSt)

Lk'i'x c £ r TfA^pas l Tpeis w Trpoo-u^foucu p.01, kcu ouk «x ouai ™ 4>aywo-i. * at

Acts v. 7 d-jToXuo-ai auTous " niorcis ou dAcj, iiTJiroTC iKkuQ&cnv iv -rn 68w."
for const. ' ~ ' .1 .

w Mk. vin. 23. Kal Xe'youaiK outu oi paGuTal aoTOu, 2 " HoQey i^pif eV eprjuia

*'-i3; apTOi toctoutoi, wore x°P Taaai ovXoy too-ootok : " 74. Kal Xc'vei
xiu. 43. I " '

Tim. r. 5. aoTois 6 'Itictous, " lloaous apToos €X €TC '> " O^ °« euroy, " 'Eirra,

x Mk. viii. 3. fJ ■

y Mk. viii.7. Kal 6Xiva T ix6u8ia. 35. Kai ixekeuae tois oxXois 8 * dmTreo-eif

z Mk. vi. 40 y ' \\r>\ \ » \

(absol.) ; em -n)v yfjv ■ 36. Kai Xapwf * tous lirra apTous Kal tous ix^oas, 5

l^iri ttjv y.). cuxapiarr)o-as eicXao-e, Kal ISwkc 8 tois u.a0Y]Tals auTou, 7 61 8e
Lib xi. 37
l = iiaK\(vonai). John xxi. so oi.

1 r|p.cpai in most uncials. ^ and Origen have the accus. (Tjpcpas T.R.),
obviously a grammatical correction.

2 fc$B omit avrov. * For €iceX. tois ox- fc^BD have irapay-yciXas t<* oxXw.

4 For Kai XafJwv fr$BD have tXapt. 8 jf$BD insert icat before cvxapio-rrjo-as.

« eSiSov in fr$BD. 7 fc$BD omit avTov.

30. x "^ ^ 5 ' etc - • tne P c °pl e wanted
healing, not teaching, and so brought
their sick and suffering to Jesus. — ep-
pi\J/av : they threw them at His feet
either in care-free confidence, or in haste,
because of the greatness of the number.
Among those brought were certain classed
as KvXXovs, which is usually interpreted
"bent," as with rheumatism. But in
xviii. 8 it seems to mean "mutilated".
Eu thy. takes tcuXXol = oi oxeipcs. and
Grotius argues for this sense, and infers
that among Christ's works of healing
were restorations of lost limbs, though
we do not read of such anywhere else.
On this view -uy 1 -" 5 ' ver - 3 1 ' Wl ^ mean
apTious, integros. — Ver. 31. XoXovvtos :
this and the following participles are used
substantively as objects of the verb 0Xe-
irovTas, the action denoted by the parti-
ciples being that which was seen. —
*8dfao-av r. 6. 'lo-pai^X. The expression
suggests a non-Israelite crowd and seems
to hint that after all for our evangelist
Jesus is on the east side and in heathen
territory. But it may point back to ver.
24 and mean the God who conferred
such favours on Israel as distinct from
the heathen (Weiss- Meyer).

Vv. 32-38. Second feeding (Mk. viii.
1-9). — Ver. 32. cnrXaYx v ^ P° l . with lv\
as in xiv. 14, Mk. viii. 2, with irepi in ix.
36. In the first feeding Chrisfs com-
passion is moved by the sickness among
the multitude, here by their hunger. —
■f|p.e'pcu Tpcls: that this is the true reading
is guaranteed by the unusual construction,
the accusative being what one expects.

The reading of D adopted by Fritzsche,
which inserts elcri Kal after xpeis, though
not to be accepted as the true reading,
may be viewed as a solution of the
problem presented by the true reading
vide Winer, § 62, 2. — vnjo-Teis, fasting
(vrj, i<r9iu> similar to v^ttios from vt|,
ciros), here and in parallel text in Mk.
only. The motive of the miracle is not
the distance from supplies but the ex-
hausted condition of the people after
staying three days with Jesus with quite
inadequate provision of food. Mk. states
that some were far from home (viii. 3),
implying that most were not. But even
those whose homes were near might faint
(ckXvOucti, Gal. vi. 9) by the way through
long fasting. — Ver. 33. too-ovtoi, wo-r«
X<>pTdo~ai. «o~t€ with infinitive may be
used to express a consequence involved
in the essence or quality of an object or
action, therefore after toctovtos and
similar words ; vide Ktihner, § 584, 2, aa.
— Ver. 34. iroVovs apTovs : the disciples
have larger supplies this time than the
first, after three days, and when the
supplies of the multitude are exhausted :
seven loaves and several small fishes. —
Ver. 36. cvxapio-Tijo-as, a late Greek
word (" does not occur before Polybius
in the sense of gratias agere" — Camb.
N. T.), condemned by Phryn., who
enjoins x°-P lv «i8«vai instead (Lobeck,
p. 18). Eisner dissents from the judg-
ment of the ancient grammarians, citing
instances from Demosthenes, etc.— Ver.
37. ctttoi cr-rrvpiSas : baskets different
in number and in name. Hesychius

3*— 39. XVI. i.

EYAITEAION

219

p-aO^Tal tw oxXw. 1 37- Kal l^ayoy irdrrcs, Kal cxopTdaOTjaac •

koi TJpay 2 to TrepiCTO-euoK rav KXao-uaTW, cttto 'cnrupioas TrXf^peis. aCh.xvi.io

38. 01 8c eaOt'orres fjo-aK TeTpoKio-xiXioi avSpes, x w P l S yuyaiKwy Kai ? 0- Acts

\x. 25.

muoutp.

39. Kal diroXuaos rods oxXous eVc^Tj €is to itXoiok, koi rjXOei' els
Tot opia MayoaXd. 3

XVI. I. Kal irpocrcXOorres 01 ♦apicraioi koi ZoSSoukoioi ircipd-
Jorres cirTjptoTrjaai' 4 auTOP otjuciov ck tou oupacou €TuoeT|ai auTois.

1 tois ox^ois in NBL al. 2 Tjpav after 1cX.a0-p.aTuv in BD.

» MavaSav in ^iiD, adopted in Tiscb., W.H., etc., and doubtless the true
reading. Ma-ySaXa is a known substituted for an unknown.

4 tmrjpcuTtnv in fr$ (Tisch. and W.H. marg.).

defines cnrvpis : to tuv irvpwv ayyos =
wheat-basket; perhaps connected with
o*-irc(pw, suggesting a basket made of
rope-net; probably larger than K6<f>ivo$,
for longer journeys (Grotius). Or does
the different kind of basket point to
different nationality; Gentiles? Hilary
contends for Gentile recipients of the
second blessing, with whom Westcott
(Characteristics of Gospel Miracles, p.
13) agrees. — Ver. 39. MayaSdr: the
true reading, place wholly unknown,
whence probably the variants.

Chapter XVI. Sign Seekers:
Cabsarea Philippi. Again a dramati-
cally impressive juxtaposition of events.
First an ominous encounter with ill-
affected men professedly in quest of a
sign, then in a place of retreat a first
announcement in startlingly plain terms
of an approaching tragic crisis.

Vv. 1-12. Demand for a sign (Mk.
viii. 11-21). — Ver. 1. irpoo-eX06vT«s :
one of Mt.'s oft-recurring descriptive
words. — 4>ap. Kal Ia8S. : a new com-
bination, with sinister purpose, of classes
of the community not accustomed to act
together; wide apart, indeed, in social
position and religious tendency, but
made allies pro tern, by common dislike
to the movement identified with Jesus.
Already scribes by themselves had asked
a sign (xii. 38). Now they are joined by
a party representing the priestly and
governing classes among whom the
" Sadducees " were to be found (Well-
hausen, Die Pharisder und die Sadducaer).
Mk. mentions only the Pharisees (ver.
n), but he makes Jesus refer to the
leaven of Herod in the subsequent con-
versation with the disciples, whence
might legitimately be inferred the
presence of representatives of that
leaven. These Mt. calls " Sadducees,"

probably the better-known name, and
practically identical with the Herod
leaven. The " Herodians " were, I
imagine, people for whom Herod the
Great was a hero, a kind of Messiah,
all the Messiah they cared for or believed
in, one who could help worldly-minded
Israelites to be proud of their country
(vide Grotius on Mt. xvi. 6). It was
among Sadducees that such hero-
worshippers were likely to be found. —
«iri|pwTT)o-av : here like the simple verb
(xv. 23) = requested, with infinitive,
ta-i&cigai, completing the object of
desire. — o-nptiov Ik tov ovpavov : before
(xii. 38) only a sign. Now a sign from
heaven. What might that be ? Chrys.
(Horn, liii.) suggests : to stop the course
of the sun, to bridle the moon, to pro-
duce thunder, or to change the air, or
something of that sort These sugges-
tions will do as well as any. Probably
the interrogators had no definite idea
what they wanted, beyond desiring to
embarrass or nonplus Christ.

Vv. 2-4. Reply of Jesus. — Vv. 2 and
3, though not in B and bracketed by W.
H., may be regarded as part of the text.
Somewhat similar is Lk. xii. 54-56. On
some occasion Jesus must have con-
trasted the shrewd observation of His
contemporaries in the natural sphere
with their spiritual obtuseness. — Ver 2.
ruSfa, fine weather 1 (ev, Ai«fc genitive of
Ztvt ). — irvppd(ci T ap 6 6. : that the sign
= a ruddy sky in the evening (irv£pt£civ
in Lev. xiii. 19, 24). — Ver. 3. x« lu " v > a
storm to-day ; sign the same, a ruddy
sky in the morning. — cTvyva Jcbv, late but
expressive = triste coelum. No special
meteorological skill indicated thereby.only
the average power of observation based
on experience, which is common to man.
kind. Lightfoot credits the Jews with

220

KATA MAT9AI0N

xvi.

• Sir. Hi. 15. 2. o bk diroKpi6cls tltrev outois, "'OiJ/ias 1 yeeou.eVT)s X^ycTe, *Eu8ia-

h Aitsxxvii. iruppd£ci yap 6 oupaeos. 3* Ka ^ Tput, 1i)jxepov h ■^eip.un' • iruppd£ci

smse). y a P oTuyKa^uf o oupafOj. uiroKpuai/ to u.ee •rrpoo-unroi' tou

jo (winter) oupavou yivucrKere hiaKpivetv, to. 8e crnp-eia t£>v Kaipwy ou SuVao^e; 1

Mk. x. 23. 4- ycved iroKTjpol KM poixaXll 0-nu.cioy iiri.l,y\TtZ • Kal o-tjuetW 00

8o0r)a€Tat auTJj, el p.r) to o-rjueioy 'Iwca tou Trpo^TJTOu." 3 Kal

d Mk. viii. KaTaXiTrwk auTOus, dirnXOe.
14 (with ^ e

inf.). Heb. c . Kal eXOorrcs ot uaOnTal auTou 4 et$ to iripav d 6TreXd9ocTO
vi. to; '

xiii. 2, 16 apTous XaJ3etk. 6. 6 8e 'irjo-oug clirci' auTois, " 'OpaTe Kal Trpooe'xeTe

Phil. iii. 13 diro Trjs £um-t]S T & y ♦apioatuv Kal laSSouKaiwy." 7. Ot 8e 8teXoyt-

(accus.).

1 From oij/ias to SvvaaOe, end of ver. 3, is bracketed as doubtful by modem editors
The passage is wanting in fr^BVXr, Syr. Cur., and Syr. Sin., Orig., etc.

1 DLA omit. 3 fc^UDL omit -rov Trpoifurj-rov. * ^lX'D omit avrov.

special interest in such observations, and
Christ was willing to give them full
credit for skill in that sphere. Mis com-
plaint was that they showed no such
skill in the ethical sphere ; they could
not discern the signs of the times (twv
Kaipuv : the reference being, of course,
;hiefly to their own time). Neither
Pharisees nor Sadducees had any idea
that the end of the Jewish state was so
near. They said evSta when they should
have said x (l H L " v - They mistook the
time of day ; thought it was the eve of
a good time corning when it was the
morning of the judgment day. For a
historical parallel, vide Carlyle's French
Revolution, book ii., chap, i., Astraea
Redux. — Ver. 4. Vide chap. xii. 39.

Vv. 5-12. The one important thing
in this section is the reflection of Jesus
on what had just taken place. The
historical setting is not clear. Jesus left
the sign seekers after giving them their
answer. The disciples cross the lake ;
in which direction ? With or without
their Master ? They forget to take
bread. When ? On setting out or after
arrival at the other side ? iXfiov-rts et?
t. ir., ver. 5, naturally suggests the
latter, but, as Grotius remarks, the verb
<PX€ct0cu in the Gospels sometimes
means ire not venire (vide, e.g., Lk. xv.
20). Suffice it to say that either in the
boat or after arrival at the opposite side
Jesus uttered a memorable word. — Ver.
6. opart Kal Trpo<re'x«T* : an abrupt,
urgent admonition to look out for, in
order to take heed of, a phenomenon of
very sinister import ; in Scottish idiom
" see and beware of ". More impressive
still in Mk. : ipdre, pXeir€T«, a duality

giving emphasis to the
(dvaSi-rrXuxris, iu4>a.lvov<ra.

t^s TrapaYyiXiaq, Euthy.

command
^Trirouru

leaven, here conceived as an evil in-
fluence, working, however, after the same
manner as the leaven in the parable (xiii.
33). It Is a spirit, a Zeitgeist, insinuat-
ing itself everywhere, and spreading
more and more in society, which Jesus
instinctively shrank from in horror, and
from which He wished to guard His
disciples. — twv <t>ap. koI laS. : one
leaven, of two parties viewed as one,
hence no article before 2a8. Two
leavens separately named in Mk., but
even there juxtaposition in the warning
implies affinity. The leaven of Pharisaism
is made thoroughly known to us in the
Gospels by detailed characterisation.
Sadducaism very seldom appears on the
stage, and few words of Jesus concerning
it are recorded ; yet enough to indicate
its character as secular or " worldly ".
The two classes, antagonistic at many
points of belief and practice, would be
at one in dislike of single-hearted
devotion to truth and righteousness,
whether in the Baptist (iii. 7) or in
Jesus. This common action in reference
to either might not be a matter of
arrangement, and each might come
with its own characteristic mood : the
Pharisee with bitter animosity, the
Sadducee with good-natured scepticism
and in quest of amusement, as when
they propounded the riddle about the
woman married to seven brothers. Both
moods revealed utter lack of appreciation,
no friendship to be looked for in either
quarter, both to be dreaded. — Ver. 7. it
tavrois : either each man in his own

a— ii.

EYAITEAION

221

£oito iv lauToig, \4yovTts, ""On apTous ouk €\df3ojj.€i\ ' 8. r>ous
8e 6 'Itjctous direy auTots, 1 " Ti oiaXoyt^eo-Oe iv eauTois* oXiyomorou
on apTous ouk eXdf3eTe 2 ; 9. ouiru yoeiTe, ouoc * p.njp.oi'cu'eTe tous e
ire'rre apTous tuc irckTaKiaxiXiuK, Kal irocrous ko^icou; eXd|3eT€ ;
IO. ooSe tous eTrra apTous tui/ TeTpaKio-xiXiwy, Kal TroVas o-irupiSas
cXd^eTC ; II. ttws ou cocitg, on ou irepl apTou 4 etiroi' up.iV irpoo-e-
Xeie 6 duo ttjs £up-Tjs Ttuy ♦apio-aiow Kal laooouKauoK ; 12. Totc
a\svr\K.av, on ouk etire Trpoae^eii' dird ttjs ^up^S tou apTou, dXX
diro ttjs SiSaxTjs tw^ ♦apiaaiwc Kal laooouKatwf.

1 Thess. ii.
9. 2 Tim.
u. 8. Rev.
xviii. 5
(with
accus.).
Gal. ii. 10.
Col.iv. 18.
Heb. xi.
15 ; xiii. 7
(with
gen.).

1 J^BDLAZ al. omit av-rois.

* £7c()vpi8as in BD.

6 For irpoo-cxeiv fr^BCL have irpoo-exCTc 8c.

* NBD have ex*" (W.H.).
4 apTu>v in ^BCL.
9 tcdk aprwv in BL.

mind (Weiss), or among themselves,
apart from the Master (Meyer).— on
may be recitative or = " because ". He
gives this warning because, etc. ; sense
the same. They take the Master to
mean : do not buy bread from persons
belonging to the obnoxious sects ! or
rather perhaps : do not take your direc-
tions as to the leaven to be used in
baking from that quarter. Vide Light-
foot ad loc. Stupid mistake, yet pardon-
able when we remember the abruptness
of the warning and the wide gulf between
Master and disciples : He a prophet with
prescient eye, seeing the forces of evil
at work and what they were leading to ;
they very commonplace persons lacking
insight and foresight. Note the solitari-
ness of Christ. — Ver. 8. iXivd'TrurTot :
always thinking about bread, bread,
instead of the kingdom and its fortunes,
with which alone the Master was
occupied. — Vv. 9, 10. And with so little
excuse in view of quite recent experiences,
of which the vivid details are given as if
to heighten the reproach. — Ver. 11.
irpoo-£x«T«, etc. : warning repeated with-
out further explanation, as the meaning-
would now be self-evident. — Ver. 12.
ervvTJKav, they now understood, at least
to the extent of seeing that it was a
question not of loaves but of something
spiritual. One could wish that they had
understood that from the first, and that
they had asked their Master to explain
more precisely the nature of the evil
influences for their and our benefit.
Thereby we might have had in a sentence
a photograph of Sadducaism, e.g. —
8i8axTJs, "doctrine"; that was in a
general way the import of the £vp.T).
But if Jesus had explained Himself He
would have had more to say. The

dogmas and opinions of the two parties
in question were not the worst of them,
but the spirit of their life : their dislike
of real godliness.

Vv. 13-28. At Caesarea Philippi (Mk.
viii. 27 — ix. 1 ; Lk. ix. 18-27). The
crossing of the lake (ver. 5) proved to be
the prelude to a second long excursion
northwards, similar to that mentioned in
xv. 21 ; like it following close on an en-
counter with ill-affected persons, and
originating in a kindred mood and
motive. For those who regard the two
feedings as duplicate accounts of the
same event these two excursions are of
course one. " The idea of two journeys
on which Jesus oversteps the boundaries
of Galilee is only the result of the
assumption of a twofold feeding. The
two journeys are, in truth, only parts of
one great journey, on which Jesus,
coming out of heathen territory, first
touches again the soil of the holy land,
in the neighbourhood of Caesarea
Philippi." Weiss, Leben Jesu, ii. 256.
Be this as it may, this visit to that
region was an eventful one, marking a
crisis or turning-point in the career of
Jesus. We are at the beginning of the
fifth act in the tragic drama : the shadow
of the cross now falls across the path.
Practically the ministry in Galilee is
ended, and Jesus is here to collect His
thoughts and to devote Himself to the
disciplining of His disciples. Place and
time invite to reflection and forecast,
and afford leisure for a calm survey of
the whole situation. Note that at this
point Lk. again joins his fellow-evan-
gelists in his narrative. We have missed
him from xiv. 23 onwards (vide notes on
Lk.).

Ver. 13. 'EXOutr: here again this verb

222

KATA MAT0AION

XVI.

13. 'E\0a>e 8e 6 'irjaous els Ta fie'pr) Kaiaapeias ttjs ♦iXi'-mrou
T|pwTa tous ficiflij-ras auTou, \iyotv, " Tim fie l Xcyouaic 01 aeOpwTToi
elvai, Toe oIok toO deSpwTrou ; " 14. Oi 8e eiTrov, " Oi fiee 'lament]*'
Toe Bcnrno-rrfK • aXXoi 8e 'HXiok • erepoi 8c 'lepefiiae, ^ iVa twk

1 £>$B and most versions omit fit, which has probably come in from the parallels.
1 he omission of fie requires the , after tivot to be deleted.

may mean not arriving at, but setting
out for, or on the way: unterwegs, Schanz.
So Grotius : cum proficisceretur, non cum
venisset. Fritzsche dissents and renders :
postquam venerat. Mk. has Iv -rjj 68&> to
indicate where the conversation began.
On the whole both expressions are
elastic, and leave us free to locate the
ensuing scene at any point on the road
to Caesarea Philippi, say at the spot
where the city and its surroundings came
into view. — KaicraptCas t. fl>. : a notable
city, romantically situated at the foot of
the Lebanon range, near the main
sources of the Jordan, in a limestone
cave, in the province of Gaulonitis, ruled
over by the Tetrarch Philip, enlarged
and beautified by him with the Herodian
passion for building, and furnished with
a new name (Paneas before, changed
into Caesarea of Philip to distinguish
from Caesarea on the sea). " A place of
exceedingly beautiful, picturesque sur-
roundings, with which few spots in the
holy land can be compared. What a
rush of many waters ; what a wealth
and variety of vegetation 1 " Furrer,
Wanderungen, 414. Vide also the de-
scription in Stanley's Sinai and Palestine,
and in Professor G. A. Smith's Historical
Geography of the Holy Land. — rivet
Xe'yovcnv, etc. : with this grand natural
scene possibly or even probably (why
else name it ?) in view, Jesus asked His
disciples a significant question meant to
lead on to important disclosures. The
question is variously reported by the
synoptists, and it is not easy to decide
between the forms. It would seem
simpler and more natural to ask, " whom
do, etc., that I am ? " (fie elvai, Mk. and
Lk.). But, on the other hand, at a
solemn moment Jesus might prefer to
speak impersonally, and ask: "whom
. . . that the Son of Man is ? " (Mt.). That
title, as hitherto employed by Him,
would not prejudge the question. It
had served rather to keep the question
who He was, how His vocation was to
be defined, in suspense till men had
learned to attach new senses to old
words. It is intrinsically unlikely that
He would combine the two forms of the

question, and ask : " whom, etc., that I,
the Son of Man, am ? " as in the T. R.
That consideration does not settle what
Mt. wrote, but it is satisfactory that the
best MSS. leave out the fie. The ques-
tion shows that Jesus had been thinking
of His past ministry and its results, and
it may be taken for granted that He had
formed His own estimate, and did not
need to learn from the Twelve how He
stood. He had come to the conclusion
that He was practically without reliable
following outside the disciple circle, and
that conviction is the key to all that
follows in this memorable scene. How
the influential classes, the Pharisees, and
the priests and political men = Sadducees,
were affected was apparent. Nothing
but hostility was to be looked for there.
With the common people on the other
hand He had to the last been popular.
They liked His preaching, and they took
eager advantage of His healing ministry.
But had they got a definite faith about
Him, as well as a kindly feeling towards
Him ; an idea well-rooted, likely to be
lasting, epoch-making, the starting-point
of a new religious movement ? He did
not believe they had, and He expected
to have that impression confirmed by the
answer of the Twelve, as indeed it was.

Ver. 14. Reply of disciples : the
general effect being : opinions of the
people, favourable but crude, without re-
ligious definiteness and depth, with no
promise of future outcome. — 'ludv.,
'HXiav., 'lepefi. Historic characters,
recent or more ancient, redivivi — that
the utmosL possible : unable to rise to
the idea of a wholly new departure, or a
greater than any character in past his-
tory ; conservatism natural to the common
mind. All three personages whose re-
turn might be expected ; the Baptist to
continue his work cut short by Herod,
Elijah to prepare the way and day of the
Lord (Mai. iv. 5), Jeremiah to bring back
the ark, etc., which (2 Maccab. ii. 1-12)
he had hid in a cave. Jeremiah is
classed with the other well-known
prophets (fj tva t. it.), and the supporters
of that hypothesis are called tTepoi, as
if to distinguish them not merely numeri-

13—17-

EYAITEAION

223

•npo^r\T(ay." 1 5. Acyci auTots, ut Yp.ei9 8c riv a jte \4yere itvai ; " f Ch. xxvi.
16. 'AiroKpiOeig 8e Itu-we fleTpos dire, "lu ei 6 Xpioros, 6 ulos tou iii. 12; ix.
6eoo tou *£wrros." I7» Kal diroKpifiei? 1 6 'Ikjctous cittck auTu>, (an attri-

bute of

"Maxdpios el, Ziu.uk Bap Mum, on g o-ap§ ical e aTu,a ouk h direKd\u\J^ God).

SO. Gal. i. 16. Eph. vi. 13. Heb, ii. 14 (the tame phrase in all).
1 airoKpiOcis St in ^BD, cursives.

g 1 Cor. xt.
h Ch. xi. 25. Gal. i. 16.

cally (dXXoi) but generically : a lower
type who did not connect Jesus with
Messiah in any way, even as forerunner,
but simpiy thought of Him as one in
whom the old prophetic charism had
been revived.

Vv. 15, 16. New question and answer.
— Ver. 15. vpieis 8«, and you ? might
have stood alone, perhaps did originally.
Jesus invites the Twelve to give Him
their own view. The first question was
really only introductory to this. Jesus
desires to make sure that He, otherwise
without reliable following, has in His
disciples at least the nucleus of a com-
munity with a definite religious con-
viction as to the meaning of His ministry
and mission. — Ver. 16. Ztpuv rWTpos :
now as always spokesman for the Twelve.
There may be deeper natures among
them (John ?), but he is the most ener-
getic and outspoken, though withal
emotional rather than intellectual; strong,
as passionate character is, rather than
with the strength of thought, or of a will
steadily controlled by a firm grasp of
great principles : not a rock in the sense
in which St. Paul was one. — <rv ct . . .
tov ££vtos : " Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God," in Mk. simply
" Thou art the Christ," in Lk. " the
Christ of God ". One's first thought is
that Mk. gives the original form of the
reply ; and yet in view of Peter's
vehement temperament one cannot be
perfectly sure of that. The form in Mt.
certainly answers best to the reply of
Jesus, vide on ver. 17. In any case the
emphasis lies on that which is common to
the three reports : the affirmation of the
Christhood of Jesus. That was what
differentiated the disciples from the
favourably disposed multitude. The
latter said in effect : at most a forerunner
of Messiah, probably not even that, only
a prophet worthy to be named alongside
of the well-known prophets of Israel.
The Twelve through Peter said : not
merely a prophet or a forerunner of the
Messiah, but the Messiah Himself. The
remainder of the reply in Mt., whether
spoken by Peter, or added by the evan-

gelist (to correspond, as it were, to Son
of Man in ver. 13), is simply expansion
or epexegesis. If spoken by Peter it
serves to show that he spoke with
emotion, and with a sense of the gravity
of the declaration. The precise theo-
logical value of the added clause cannot
be determined.

Vv. 17-19. Solemn address of fesus to
Peter, peculiar to Mt., and of doubtful
authenticity in the view of many modern
critics, including Wendt (Die Lehre
Jesu, i., p. 181), either an addendum by
the evangelist or introduced at a later
date by a reviser. This question cannot
be fully discussed here. It must suffice
to say that psychological reasons are in
favour of something of the kind having
been said by Jesus. It was a great
critical moment in His career, at which
His spirit was doubtless in a state of
high tension. The firm tone of con-
viction in Peter's reply would give Him
a thrill of satisfaction demanding ex-
pression. One feels that there is a
hiatus in the narratives of Mk. and Lk. :
no comment on the part of Jesus, as if
Peter had delivered himself of a mere
trite commonplace. We may be sure
the fact was not so. The terms in which
Jesus speaks of Peter are characteristic
— warm, generous, unstinted. The style
is not that of an ecclesiastical editor lay-
ing the foundation for Church power
and prelatic pretensions, but of a
noble-minded Master eulogising in im-
passioned terms a loyal disciple. Even
the reference to the " Church " is not
unseasonable. What more natural than
that Jesus, conscious that His labours,
outside the disciple circle, have been
fruitless, so far as permanent result is
concerned, should fix His hopes on that
circle, and look on it as the nucleus of a
new regenerate Israel, having for its
raison d'etre that it accepts Him as the
Christ ? And the name for the new
Israel, £KK\-r]o-£a, in His mouth is not an
anachronism. It is an old familiar name
for the congregation of Israel, found in
Deut. (xviii. 16; xxiii. 2) and Psalms
(xxii. 26), both books well known to

224

KATA MAT9AION

XVI.

i here and in croi, dX\' 6 iran^p |100 6 eV TOlS l oupacoi?. 1 8. KAvw Oe" croi X/vw,

Gospels, an <ru ei ileTpos, Kai eiri Taurrj ttj ireTpa oiKooou^aat itou ty|C
j Lk. xxi. 36 . , . . ' „

(W.H.); CKKMjcriay, tcai iruAai aoou ou ' Kano-)(uo-ou<nv auTTjs, 1 9. Kar Suau

V Lk. xi. 52. aol Tas kXcis 8 ttjs ^aaiXeias took oupavite ■ ical 5 eav 4 ' Scorns em

iii. 7; ix.TTjs Y'H 5 ' « 0Tai OeSep-eVoK ^K TOlS oupcu'ois ■ tea! 5 cap 6 'Xuctyis eiri
1 ; xx. 1.
1 Cli. xviii. 18.

1 B omits tois, which W.H. bracket.

* K\«i8a« in fc$BL (W.H.). * o av in BD.

1 NBD omit Kat. (W.H.).
* o av in D.

Jesus. — Ver. 17. paicapios : weighty
word chosen to express a rare and high
condition, virtue, or experience (" hoc
vocabulo non solum beata, sed etiam
rara simul conditio significatur," Beng.).
It implies satisfaction with the quality of
Peter's faith. Jesus was not easily satis-
fied as to that. He wanted no man to
call Him Christ under a misappre-
hension ; hence the prohibition in ver.
20. He congratulated Peter not merely
on believing Him to be the Messiah,
but on having an essentially right con-
ception of what the title meant. — I.
Bapibiva : full designation, name, and
patronymic, suiting the emotional state
of the speaker and the solemn character
of the utterance, echo of an Aramaic
source, or of the Aramaic dialect used
then, if not always, by Jesus. — «rap£ Kai
alfia : synonym in current Jewish speech
for " man ". " Infiniti frequcntii hanc
formulam loquendi adhibent Scriptores
Judaici, eaque homines Deo opponunt."
Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. Vide ver. 23.
There is a tacit contrast between Peter's
faith and the opinions of the people just
recited, as to source. Flesh and blood
was the source of these opinions, and
the fact is a clue to the meaning of the
phrase. The contrast between the two
sources of inspiration is not the very
general abstract one between creaturely
weakness and Divine power (Wendt,
Die Begriffe Fleisch und Geist, p. 60).
" Flesh and blood " covers all that can
contribute to the formation of religious
opinion of little intrinsic value — tradition,
custom, fashion, education, authority,
regard to outward appearance. Hilary,
and after him Lutteroth, takes the re-
ference to be to Christ's flesh and blood,
and finds in the words the idea : if you
had looked to my flesh you would have
called me Christ, the Son of David, but
higher guidance has taught you to call
me Son of God. — 6 ira-o^p p.on : this is
to be taken not in a merely ontological
sense, but ethically, so as to account for

the quality of Peter's faith. The true
conception of Christhood was inseparable
from the true conception of God. Jesus
had been steadily working for the trans-
formation of both ideas, and He counted
on the two finding entrance into the
mind together. No one could truly con-
ceive the Christ who had not learned to
think of God as the Father and as His
Father. There were thus two revelations
in one : of God as Father, and of Christ
by the Father. Peter had become a
Christian.

Ver. 18. Kayo* : emphatic, something
very important about to be said to Peter
and about him. — irtTpos, irerpa, a happy
play of words. Both are appellatives to
be translated "thou art a rock and on
this rock," the two being represented by

the same word in Aramaean (NQ^j).

Elsewhere in the Gospels ricYpos is a
proper name, and tcirpa only is used in
the sense of rock (vii. 24). What
follows is in form a promise to Peter as
reward of his faith. It is as personal
as the most zealous advocates of Papal
supremacy could desire. Yet it is as
remote as the poles from what they
mean. It is a case of extremes meeting.
Christ did not fight to death against one
form of spiritual despotism to put
another, if possible worse, in its room.
Personal in form, the sense of this
famous logion can be expressed in
abstract terms without reference to
Peter's personality. And that sense, if
Christ really spoke the word, must be
simple, elementary, suitable to the
initial stage ; withal religious and ethical
rather than ecclesiastical. The more
ecclesiastical we make it, the more we
play into the hands of those who main-
tain that the passage is an interpolation.
I find in it three ideas : (1) The cKKXrjo-ta
is to consist of men confessing Jesus to
be the Christ. This is the import of eiri
t. t. it. oiKo8op.-qcr [lov t. ex. Peter,
believing that truth, is the foundation,

18— 21.

EYAITEAION

225

rrjs Y*l s > co*™ 1 XeXuji^i'oi' iv tois oupacois." 20. T<Jre SieoreiXcvro 1
tois (J.a0T]Tats auToG 2 iKa p.r|8e/i eiirwcru', on aur<5s iativ 'It|o-oGs 8 6
Xpioros.

21. "'Atto totc rjp|aTo 6 'Itjo-ous 4 SciKKueif tois jx,a0T]Tais auToG, mCh.iT.17;
on 8ei auToy aireXOeti' cis 'icpoaoXojJia, 6 ical iroXXa TraOeiv diro r&v Lk. xvi. 16.
trpeafivTepuv kcu apytepiuv kou ypap.p.aT^cat', Kal dTroKTakOrjcai, kcu

1 «TrtTi(iTjo-€v in BD. W.H. place it in text with Sito-TciXaTO in margin. Mk.
has tTT€Ti(XT)o-«v in the corresponding place.

2 fc^BCD omit awTov, which so often stands in T. R. where the best texts want it.

* NBLXrA omit Itjo-ovs.

* For o It|o-ov9 fc^B, Cop. have It)o-ovs Xpio-Tot ; D itjo-ovs without the art.
Vide below.

6 ti« I. before aTreX8eiv in fr$BD cursives.

and the building is to be of a piece with
the foundation. Observe the emphatic
position of p.ov. The IkkXt)o-io. is Christ's;
confessing Him as Christ in Peter's
sense and spirit = being Christian. (2)
The new society is to be = the kingdom
realised on earth. This is the import of
ver. 19, clause 1. The keys are the
symbol of this identity. They are the
keys of the gate without, not of the doors
within. Peter is the gate-keeper, not
the oticovo'u.os with a bunch of keys that
open all doors in his hands (against
Weiss) — tcXtiSo-uxov tp-yov to tto-ayeiv,
Euthy. Observe it is not the keys of the
church but of the kingdom. The mean-
ing is : Peter-like faith in Jesus as the
Christ admits into the Kingdom of
Heaven. A society of men so believing
= the kingdom realised. (3) In the new
society the righteousness of the kingdom
will find approximate embodiment. This
is the import of ver. 19, second clause.
Binding and loosing, in Rabbinical
dialect, meant forbidding and permitting
to be done. The judgment of the
Rabbis was mostly wrong: the reverse
of the righteousness of the kingdom.
The judgment of the new society as to
conduct would be in accordance with the
truth of things, therefore valid in heaven.
That is what Jesus meant to say. Note
the perfect participles SeSep-t'vov,
XtXv^vov = shall be a thing bound or
loosed once for all. The truth of all
three statements is conditional on the
Christ spirit continuing to rule in the
new society. Only on that condition is
the statement about the TriSXat aSov,
ver. 18, clause 2, valid. What precisely
the verbal meaning of the statement is —
whether that the gates of Hades shall
not prevail in conflict against it, as

ordinarily understood ; or merely that
the gates, etc., shall not be stronger
than it, without thought of a conflict
(Weiss), is of minor moment ; the point
is that it is not an absolute promise.
The ^kkXtjo-lci will be strong, enduring,
only so long as the faith in the Father
and in Christ the Son, and the spirit of
the Father and the Son, reign in it.
When the Christ spirit is weak the
Church will be weak, and neither creeds
nor governments, nor keys, nor ecclesi-
astical dignities will be of much help to
her.

Ver. 20. Si€o-t€iXcito (T. R.), " charged "
(A. V.) not necessarily with any special
emphasis = graviter interdicere, but =
monuit (Loesner and Fritzsche). Cf.
Heb. xii. 20, where a stronger sense
seems required. For €-ir£Tip.T)o-« in BD
here and in Mk. Euthy. gives kott)-
o-4>aXiaraTo = to make sure by injunc-
tion. — tois p.a6T)TaIs: all the disciples
are supposed to say amen to Peter's
confession, thinking of God and of Jesus
as he thought, though possibly not with
equal emphasis of conviction. — iva . . .
6 Xpio-T<5s : no desire to multiply hastily
recruits for the new community, supreme
regard to quality. Jesus wanted no man
to call Him Christ till he knew what he
was saying : no hearsay or echoed con-
fession of any value in His eyes. — avTds,
the same concerning whom current
opinions have just been reported (ver.
14). It was hardly necessary to take
pains to prevent the faith in His Messiah-
ship from spreading prematurely in a
crude form. P'ew would call such an
one as jfesus Christ, save by the Holy
Ghost. The one temptation thereto lay
in the generous beneficence of Jesus.
Vv. 21-28. Announcement of the

226

KATA MATBAION

XVI.

n Mk. viii. tj} Tpirp ^p.^pa tyepOfjyai. 22. Kal " TrpocrXa|3(5u.e»'os auTO** & n^rpos

Acts xvii. n.p£aTO ^TriTip.a*' auTu Xeywy, 1 t,, "lXews ooi, Kopic • oo fir) eaTai aoi

26. touto." 23. 'O 8e aTpa^els etire t£ n^rpw, ""Yiraye ottio-gj p.00,

viii. ia. Xo/rayd, aKdVoaXoV p.ou el 2 • on 00 P 4 ) P°*' e ^ T0 - T0 " ©«ou, dXXd ra
p Mk. viii.
53. Kom. viii. 5. Phil. ii. 5; iii. 19.

' For T|p. €iriTi(xav a. Xrywv, which conforms to Mk., B has Xcyci a. fjriTipMv
(W.H. marg.).

* ti tfiov 'n NB (Tisch., W.H.).

Passion with relative conversation (Mk.
viii. 31 — ix. 1 ; Lk. ix. 22-27). — Ver. 21.
oltto tc»t€ TJp£a-ro (vide iv. 17) marks
pointedly a new departure in the form of
explicit intimation of an approaching
final j.nd fatal crisis. Time suitable.
Disciples could now bear it, it could not
be much longer delayed. Jesus could
now face the crisis with composure,
having been satisfied by Peter's con-
fession that His labour was not going to
be in vain. He then began to show,
etc., for this was only the first of several
communications of the same kind. —

XpicrTOs after It)ctovs in ^B is an in-
trinsically probable reading, as suiting
the solemnity of the occasion and greatly
enhancing the impressiveness of the
announcement. Jesus, the Christ, to be
crucified 1 But one would have expected
the article before Xp.- — iroXXa. ira0€iv, the
general fact. — airb . . . ypap^arewv, the
three constituent parts of the Sanhedrim — •
elders, priests, scribes. — diroicTavG'fjvai :
one hard special fact, be killed. —
lyepO-rjvai : this added to make the
other fact not altogether intolerable.

Ver. 22. Peter here appears in a new
character ; a minute ago speaking under
inspiration from heaven, now under in-
spiration from the opposite quarter. —
rjplaTo, began to chide or admonish. He
did not get far. As soon as his meaning
became apparent he encountered prompt,
abrupt, peremptory contradiction. — TX-
eu; croi : Eisner renders sis bono placi-
doque animo, but most (Erasmus, Grotius,
Kypke, Fritzsche, etc.) take it = absit I
God avert it 1 Vehement utterance of a
man confounded and horrified. Perfectly
honest and in one sense thoroughly
creditable, but suggesting the question :
Did Peter after all call Jesus Christ in
the true sense ? The answer must be :
Yes, ethically. He understood what
kind of man was fit to be a Christ. But
he did not yet understand what kind of
treatment such a man might expect from
the world. A noble, benignant, really

righteous man Messiah must be, said
Peter ; but why a man of sorrow he
had yet to learn. — ov p.T) &ttou, future
of perfect assurance : it will not, cannot
be. — Ver. 23. \5irayc 6. p.. X. : tremendous
crushing reply of the Master, showing
how much He felt the temptation ; calm
on the surface, deep down in the soul a
very real struggle. Some of the Fathers
(Origen, Jerome) strive to soften the
severity of the utterance by taking
Satanas as an appellative = dv-riKcCpcvos,
adversarius, contrarius, and pointing out
that in the Temptation in the wilderness
Jesus says to Satan simply vircrye =
depart, but to Peter vir. 6iricru p.ov =
take thy place behind me and be fol-
lower, not leader. But these refinements
only weaken the effect of a word which
shows that Jesus recognises here His
old enemy in a new and even more
dangerous form. For none are more
formidable instruments of temptation
than well-meaning friends, who care
more for our comfort than for our
character.— cricavSaXov : not " offensive
to me," but "a temptation to me to
offend," to do wrong ; a virtual apology
for using the strong word Xa.Ta.va. — ov
cfjpoveis to, etc., indicates the point of
temptation = non stas a Dei partibus
(Wolf), or 4>pov€iv, etc. = studere rebus,
etc. (Kypke), to be on God's side, or to
study the Divine interest instead of the
human. The important question is:
What precisely are the two interests ?
They must be so conceived as not
entirely to cancel the eulogium on Peter's
faith, which was declared to be not of
man but of God. Meyer's comment on
ra t. A. — concerned about having for
Messiah a mere earthly hero and prince
(so Weiss also) — is too wide. We must
restrict the phrase to the instinct of self-
preservation = save your life at all
hazards. From Christ's point of view
that was the import of Peter's suggestion ;
preference of natural life to duty = God's
interest. Peter himself did not see that
these were the alternatives ; he thought

22 — 28.

EYAITEAION

227

twc avQpiiitiav." 24. Tore 6 'Irjaous eiTre tois u.a0T|Tais auTou, q ^ k - ^}jj-

" Et tis 0eXei otocKj p.ou eXGeir, * d.Trap»'T]a<la9u ccautoV, iccu dpdTw ^ x { V p e ^ r .,

to*' 'orraupov o.utou, koI dKoXouOeiTw p.01. 25 • os yap &" 1 ®^U ch" 3 '* 1 '' 8

TTji' ^"XT 1 ' auT0 " awo-ai, d-rroXeVei aoTi^r ■ os 8* fie " aTroXecrr] -n]v Mk - vili

vj/u)(T)»' auTou eVeKek eu.oG, eupf)o-ei avT?\v ■ 26. ti yap w^eXeiTai 2 T.R.).

dyfipanros, e'di' tok * K($o-fJ.oe 'SXoy K€p8r)(TTj, ttjc 8e <\>uxh v °-UTOU xiv. 27.

■ £r|p.iw0Tj ; rj ti Sweet aySpwiros dKrdXXayp.a tt)s ^"X'HS auTou ; Mk. via.

27. u.e'XXei yap 6 ulos toC dcOpwiroo ZpyeaQai eV ttj S6|t| tou iraTpos xvii. 33.

, - x - » rv • - » 1 5 ' j ' , t Ch. xxvi.

auTou jicTa twc dyyeAa))' auTou • kcu totc airoowcret CKaoTw koto 13. Rom.

ttjv T irpa^ic aurou. 28. 'Ajat)c Xe'yw fifiii', etat Tires twk «8e u Mk. viii.

eoTTiKOTWK, 3 oiTiwes ou fir) w yeu'o-wrrai OayaTou, ews &v iSwcri rhv ssdavroy).

c% «,«/ % > ' > ~ o \ ' »_ « " v Lit. xxiii.

oiov too ayppumou epxou.ei'oi' ck tt) pa.o-LA.eta auTou. 5 , Acts

xix. 18.
Rom. viii. 15. w John viii. 5a. Heb. ii. 9. x Lk. xxiii. 42.

1 tav in fc^BC. ■ 6><|>eXT]6T]o-«Tai in fr^BL cursives. 8 €<ttwtci>v in ^BCDLI.

the two opposite interests compatible,
and both attainable.

Vv. 24-28. General instruction on the
subject of the two interests. — Ver. 24.
elire tois p-a.6. : in calm, self-collected,
didactic tone Jesus proceeds to give the
disciples, in a body, a lesson arising out
of the situation.— tt tk Bl\u: wishes,
no compulsion ; ov pid£op.cu, Chrys.,
who remarks on the wisdom of Jesus in
leaving every man free, and trusting to
the attraction of the life : civtt) tov irpdy-
iia-ros r\ $>vcn.s iKavr) ^eXKuaaaOai. —
dirapvr]o - d<rfl eavTov : here only, in-
timates that discipleship will call for
self-denial, or self-subordination. Chrys.
illustrates the meaning by considering
what it is to deny another = not to
assist him, bewail him or suffer on his
account when he is in distress. — rbv
o-TavpoK looks like a trait introduced
after Christ's passion. It need not be,
however. Punishment by crucifixion
was known to the Jews through the
Romans, and it might be used by Jesus
as the symbol of extreme torment and
disgrace, even though He did not then
know certainly that He Himself should
meet death in that particular form. It
became a common expression, but the
phrase dpoTu t. <t. would sound harsh
and startling when first used. Vide on
Mt. x. 38. —Ver. 25. Vide x. 39. The
Caesarea crisis was the most appropriate
occasion for the first promulgation of
this great ethical principle. It was
Christ's first contribution towards un-
folding the significance of His suffering,
setting it forth as the result of a fidelity
to righteousness incumbent on all.

Ver. 26. 1'his and the following verses
suggest aids to practice of the philo-
sophy of " dying to live ". The state-
ment in this verse is self-evident in the
sphere of the lower life. It profits not
to gain the whole world if you lose your
life, for you cannot enjoy your possession ;
a life lost cannot be recovered at any
price. Jesus wishes His disciples to under-
stand that the same law obtains in the
higher life : that the soul, the spiritual
life, is incommensurable with any out-
ward possession however great, and if
forfeited the loss is irrevocable. This is
one of the chief texts containing Christ's
doctrine of the absolute worth of man as
a moral subject. For the man who grasps
it, it is easy to be a hero and face any
experience. To Jesus Christ it was a
self-evident truth. — (T)p.ib>0-Q< not suffer
injury to, but forfeit. Grotius says that
the verb in classics has only the dative
after it = mulctare morte, but Kypke and
Eisner cite instances from Herod., Dion.,
Hal., Themis., etc., of its use with accus-
ative. — dvTttXXayp.o : something given in
exchange. Cf. 1 Kings xxi. 2, Job xxviii.
15 (Sept.), a price to buy back the life
lower or higher ; both impossible. — Ver.
27. tit'XXei points to something near and
certain ; note the emphatic position. —
tpX«o-9ai iv t. 8., the counterpart ex-
perience to the passion ; stated objec-
tively in reference to the Son oj Man,
the passion spoken of in the second person
(ver. 21). In Mk. both are objectively
put; but the disciples took the reference
as personal (Mk. viii. 32). — Ver. 27.
This belongs to a third group of texts
to be taken into account in an attempt

228

RATA MATUAION

XVII.

« Mk. Ix. t. XVII. I. KAI p.e8' T|p./pa.<$ e£ TrapaXcip-PdVei 6 'irjaous toc n^TpOf

51 (T.R.). Kal '\&K<t>fiov Kal '\uavvr\v t6k d8eX<j>6>' auTou, teal * d.i-a.$lpci auTOtis

b Nik. ix. a. , „ . ■ » j > » S / _ « b . //» • a » -

Rom. in. €is opos uyrjAot' KttT lOiay. 2. ko.1 p.eT€u,op<pwUT| ejATrpoaoty auTwf,

iii. 18. »cal eXajjuJ/e to irpoarwiroi' auTOu a»s o "rjXios, to. Se Ijianu auToo

to fix the import of the title — those which
refer to apocalyptic glory in terms drawn
from Daniel vii. 13. — t<$t« diroScicrei :
the Son of Man comes to make final
awards. The reference to judgment
comes in to brace up disciples to a
heroic part. It is an aid to spirits not
equal to this part in virtue of its intrinsic
nobleness ; yet not much of an aid to
those to whom the heroic life is not in
itself an attraction. The absolute worth
of the true life is Christ's first and chief line
of argument ; this is merely subsidiary.—
Ver. 28. A crux interpretum, supposed
by some to refer to the Transfiguration
(Hilary, Chrys., Euthy., Theophy., etc.) ;
by others to the destruction of Jerusalem
(Wetstein, etc.) ; by others again to the
origins of the Church (Calvin, Grotius,
etc.). The general meaning can be
inferred with certainty from the purpose
to furnish an additional incentive to
fidelity. It is: Be of good courage,
there will be ample compensation for
trial soon ; for some of you even before
you die. This sense excludes the Trans-
figuration, which came too soon to be
compensatory. The uncertainty comes
in in connection with the form in which
the general truth is stated. As to that,
Christ's speech was controlled not merely
by His own thoughts but by the hopes
of the future entertained by His disciples.
He had to promise the advent of the
Son of Man in His Kingdom or of the
Kingdom of God in power (Mk.) within
a generation, whatever His own forecast
as to the future might be. That might
postulate a wider range of time than
some of His words indicate, just as some
of His utterances and His general spirit
postulate a wide range in space for the
Gospel (universalism) though He con-
ceived of His own mission as limited to
Israel. If the logion concerning the
Church (ver. 18) be genuine, Jesus must
have conceived a Christian era to be at
least a possibility, for why trouble about
founding a Church if the wind-up was
to come in a few years ? The words of
Jesus about the future provide for two
possible alternatives : for a near advent
and for an indefinitely postponed advent.
His promises naturally contemplate the
former; much of His teaching about the
kingdom easily fits into the latter. —

Yevo-wvTai 9. : a Hebrew idiom, but not
exclusively so. For examples of the figure
of tasting applied to experiences, vide
Eisner in Mk. For Rabbinical use, vide
Schottgen and Wetstein. — eu>% av iSgxtl,
subjunctive after t. av as usual in classics
and N. T. in a clause referring to a
future contingency depending on a verb
referring to future time.

Chapter XVII. The Transfigura-
tion ; The Epileptic Boy ; The
Temple Tribute. Three impressive
tableaux connected by proximity in
time, a common preternatural aspect,
and deep moral pathos.

Vv. 1-13. The Transfiguration (Mk.
ix. 2-13, Lk. ix. 28-36). — Ver. 1. p.e0'
T)p.epas l£. This precise note of time
looks like exact recollection of a strictly
historical incident. Yet Holtzmann
(H. C.) finds even in this a mythical
element, based on Exodus xxiv. 16: the
six days of Mt. and Mk. and the eight
days of Lk., various expressions of the
thought that between the confession of
the one disciple and the experience of the
three a sacred week intervened. Of these
days we have no particulars, but on the
principle that in preternatural experience!
the subjective and the objective corre-
spond, we may learn the psychological
antecedents of the Transfiguration from
the Transfiguration itself. The thoughts
and talk of the company of Jesus were
the prelude of the vision. A thing in
itself intrinsically likely, for after such
solemn communications as those at
Caesarea Philippi it was not to be ex-
pected that matters would go on in the
Jesus-circle as if nothing had happened.
In those days Jesus sought to explain
from the O.T. the Set of xvi. 21, showing
from Moses, Prophets, and Psalms (Lk.
xxiv. 44) the large place occupied by
suffering in the experience of the
righteous. This would be quite as help-
ful to disciples summoned to bear the
cross as any of the thoughts in xvi. 25-
28. — I"Ut., I<£k., ludv. : Jesus takes with
Him the three disciples found most
capable to understand and sympathise.
So in Gethsemane. Such differences
exist in all disciple-circles, and they
cannot be ignored by the teacher. — -
dvacf>€pei, leadeth up ; in this sense not
usual; of sacrifice in Jas. ii. 21 and in

EYAITEAION

229

ly^e-ro XeuKcL w? to (f>o>s. 3. Kal ISou, 2><bBv]<jav 1 aorols Mwcr-rjs c ^'^"J
Kal 'HXtas, ue-r' auTOo c <tu\Xo\oGkt€9.' 2 4. diroKpi0€i<! 8e 6 fleTpos T ^} x
ctire tu 'Itjctou, " Ku'pic, 4 xaX6V i<mv TjjAas w&e efraf el GAeis, "jj x-30:
iroiT)crw(j.€v 3 w8e Tpeis <TKT]va<;, aol uiay, Kal Mwcrfj uia^, Kal ULay jda*0- Lk.
c H\ia." q. "Eti aurou XaXouvros, ISou, vt&ik-n 4>wt€i^y) eireaKiaaeK (17** «*-

F J A>)Aov?).

aoTou's • Kal ISou, fyuvT] ck ttjs ^ccjjAtjs, Xcyoucra, " Outos l<mv 6 d Ch. xviii.
ul6s iiou ° ayainjTos, ef w euSoKTjaa ■ auTOU dKOucTC." 4 6. Kal xxvi. 24.

IX. 1 Cor. vii. 8; ix. 15.

1 w<f>8Ti NBD, which, the verb coming before the two nom., is legitimate. The
T. R. is a grammatical correction of ancient revisers.

2 fc^B place fiti-' avTov after <ruXXaXovvT«s.

* iroiT)<rw in fc$BC. Vide below. 4 aKOV€T« av-rov in NBD33.

Heb. vii. 27, xiii. 15. — Spos vivJnrjXov :
Tabor the traditional mountain, a tradi-
tion originating in fourth century
with Cyril of Jerusalem and Jerome.
Recent opinion favours Hermon. All
depends on whether the six days were
spent near Caesarea Philippi or in con-
tinuous journeying. Six days would
take them far. " The Mount of Trans-
figuration does not concern geography "
— Holtz. (H. C). — Ver. 2. p.cTcp,opu0r|,
transfiguratus est, Vulgate ; became
altered in appearance. Such trans-
formation in exalted states of mind is
predicated of others, e.g., of Iamblichus
(Eunapius in I. Vita 22, cited by Eisner),
and of Adam when naming the beasts
(Fabricius, Cod. Pseud. V. T., p. 10). —
€|iirpoo-6ev aviTwv, so as to be visible
to them, vide vi. 1. Luke's narrative
seems to imply that the three disciples
were asleep at the beginning of the
scene, but wakened up before its close.
— Kal *Xap.\J/e • • • <f>«S '■ these words
describe the aspect of the transformed
person ; face sun-bright, raiment pure
white. — Ver. 3. Kal tSov introduces a
leading and remarkable feature in the
scene : w<|>6tj avrois, there appeared to
the three disciples, not necessarily an
absolutely real, objective presence of
Moses and Elias. All purposes would
be served by an appearance in vision.
Sufficient objectivity is guaranteed by
the vision being enjoyed by all the three,
which would have been improbable if
purely subjective. Recognition of Moses
and Elias was of course involved in the
vision. For a realistic view of the
occurrence the question arises, how was
recognition possible ? Euthy. Zig. says
the disciples had read descriptions of
famous men, including Moses and Elias,
in old Hebrew books Another sugges-

tion is that Moses appeared with the law
in his hand, and Elias in his fiery
chariot. — ovXXaXovvTcs a. a., convers-
ing with Jesus, and, it goes without
saying (Lk. does say it), on the theme
uppermost in all minds, the main topic
of recent conversations, the cross ; the
vision, in its dramatis persona and their
talk, reflecting the state of mind of the
seers. — Ver. 4. diroKpidcls 6 I"!. Peter
to the front again, but not greatly to his
credit. — KaXov ^cttiv, etc., either it is
good for us to be here = the place is
pleasant— so usually ; or it is well that
we are here — we the disciples to serve
you and your visitants — Weiss and
Holtzmann (H. C). Pricaeus, in illus-
tration of the former, cites Anacreon :
(lapa TTjv o-kitjv BadvXXc
KdGicrov • koX&v to SevSpov.
T£s av ovv opuv irap^Xfloi
Karayiiyiov toiovtov.

— Ode 22.
This sense — amoenus est, in quo com.
moremur, locus, Fritzsche — is certainly
the more poetical, but not necessarily on
that account the truer to the thought of
the speaker, in view of the remark oi
Lk. omitted in Mt., that Peter did not
know what he was saying. — Trou]o-&»,
deliberative substantive with fle'Xeis pre-
ceding and without Xva ; the singular —
shall I make ? — suits the forwardness of
the man ; it is his idea, and he will
carry it out himself. — Tpcis o-ktjvcLs :
material at hand, branches of trees,
shrubs, etc. Why three ? One better
for persons in converse. The whole
scheme a stupidity. Peter imagined
that Moses and Elias had come to stay.
Chrys. suggests that Peter here in-
directly renews the policy of resistance
to going up to Jerusalem (Horn. lvi.).
Vv. 5-8. v«£eXi] <{>6>t€i,vt), a luminous

23°

KATA MATOAION

XVII.

c Ch. xwl dKOuaarres 01 p.a0T]TCu iirecrov lir\ irp6ownov aiiTdv, Kai ' ^4 >0 P 1 1-
u; xvii. 6i]crav acjxJSpa. 7- Ka * 1 irpoaeXGwi' * 6 'itjaous Tjvl/aTO auTaic, Kal
const.). etiref, u 'Eyip6r]Te Kai * p.Y) 4>of3€io-0€." 8. 'EirapawTCS 8e toos

54. 6<f30aXu.ous auTuik', ouScVa etSoc, ei p.T) top 'ItjctoCi' \i6vov.

g Ch. xxviii. „ „. x k 01 I • J_iJ » ! I ^ >~

5,10. 9. Kai KaTapcuyorrwv auTwy diro * tou opous, eycTciAaTO auToi?

h Ch. viii. 1. , , <« \ » «« ij e » » i I • " t c n «

(witharr,,, o Irjaou?, Aeywv, Mtjocv-i enrrjTe to opap.a, ca>s ou o uios tou

more com- , a / , -> -"3 „ « ix S ' ' H_J c

monly artfpwTTou £K venpuiv avacnr). ° IO. Kai eTr^pwTTjffac outoc 01

with <it, as a x > « 4 \ / <<-t-' * « \ ' "

herein fiatft]TCu auTou,* Atyorres, 11 ook 01 ypauu.aT€i9 Acyouo-ii', oti

W.H.).
i here only in GoBpels and in Acts (vii. 31, etc.).

1 irpoo-T)\6tv o I. Kai in fc$BD ; a\J/a|ievos avmif ciir«y in fr«$B.
1 tK in fc^BCD al. ; oiro in 2.

3 eY«p9ti in BD ; avatrTTj in fr$C. W.H. place the former in the text and the
latter in margin.

* avTov in BCD but wanting in ALZ33.

cloud, still a cloud capable of casting a
shadow, though a faint one (" non
admodum atram," Fritzsche). Some,
thinking a shadow incompatible with
the light, render iireo-Klao-tv tegebat, cir-
cumdabat. Loesner cites passages from
Philo in support of this meaning. —
avrovs . Whom ? the disciples ? Jesus,
Moses, and Elias ? all the six ? or the
two celestial visitants alone ? All these
views have been held. The second the
more probable, but impossible to be
certain. — Kal ISov, again introducing a
main feature : first the visitants, now
the voice from heaven. Relation of the
ear to the voice the same as that of the
eye to the visitants. — ovtos : the voice
spoken this time about Jesus ; at the
baptism to Him (Mk. i. 11), meant for
the ear of the three disciples. The voice
to be taken in connection with the
announcement of the coming passion.
Jesus God's well-beloved as self-sacrific-
ing. — aKovcTc ovtov : to be taken in the
same connection = hear Him when He
speaks to you of the cross. Hunc audite,
nempe solum, plena fide, perfectissimo
obsequio, universi apostoli et pastores
praesertim, Eisner. — Ver. 6. Kal olkov-
cravTcs, etc. : divine voices terrify poor
mortals, especially when they echo and
reinforce deep moving thoughts within.
— Ver. 7. d\l/dp.evos . . . ftirev : a touch
and a word, human and kindly, from
Jesus, restore strength and composure. —
Ver. 8. And so ends the vision. —
lirdpavres t. 0., etc., raising their eyes
they see no one but Jesus. Moses and
Elias gone, and Jesus in His familiar
aspect ; the dazzling brightness about
face and garments vanished.

Vv. 9-13. Conversation while de-
scending the hill. — Ver. 9. p.T)8cvi tLirr\rt :
injunction of secrecy. The reason of the
injunction lies in the nature of the ex-
perience. Visions are for those who are
prepared for them. It boots not to re-
late them to those who are not fit to
receive them. Even the three were
only partially fit ; witness their terror
(ver. 6). — to opaua, the vision, justifying
the view above given of the experience,
held, among others, by Eisner, Herder,
Bleek and Weiss. Herder has some
fine remarks on the analogy between the
experiences of Jesus at His baptism and
on the Mount, six days after the
announcement at Caesarea Philippi, and
those of other men at the time of moral
decisions in youth and in the near pre-
sence of death (vide his Vom Erlbser der
Menschen, §§ 18, 19). — fws ov, followed
by subjunctive without dv ; in this case
(cf. xvi. 28) one of future contingency at
a past time. The optative is used in
classics (vide Burton, § 324). Not till
the resurrection. It is not implied that
Jesus was very desirous that they should
then begin to speak, but only that they
could then speak of the vision intelli-
gently and intelligibly. Christ's tone
seems to have been that of one making
light oi the recent experience (as in Lk.
x. 20). — Ver. 10. tL ovv, etc. : does the
ovv refer to the prohibition in ver. 9
(Meyer), or to the appearance of Moses
and Elias, still in the minds of the three
disciples, and the lateness of their coming
(Euthy., Weiss), or to the shortness oi
their stay ? (Grotius, Fritzsche, Olsh.,
Bleek, etc.). Difficult to decide, owing
to fragmentariness of report ; but it it

7—14-

EYATTEAION

231

II. 'O 8e 'irjcrous 1 onvoKpiOels diree

HXiay oei i\Qelv irpwToi' ;
UUT0T9,'- " 'HXlos ueV epxexai irpwroi', 8 «al ' d7TOKaTao"ri](X€i TrdvTa • j vide -a Ch

12. X^yw 8e ujiif, on HXias r\&f\ ^X0€, Kai outc eTr^yfwo-av auTOf)
dXX' eTroincray Iv aurw oaa T^Ano-ay ■ outw Kal 6 utos tou dvOpw-rrou
(ieXXei irdcrx 61 *' uir auTwy. 13. Tore owfjicai' 01 ua0T]Tai, on
irepl 'Iwdwou tou BairriaTou eiTref auToig.

14. Kal eXOoWui' auTwv 4 ttpbs Toy oj(Xof, irpocrfjXOci' ciutui dVCpw-

xii. 13.

1 fc^BDLZ #0111 It](tovs. * BD omit avrois.

3 fc^BD omit irpuTov, which probably has come in from ver. 10.

4 fc$BZ sah. omit avTwv.

most natural to take oZv in connection
with preceding verse, only not as re-
ferring to the prohibition of speech pro
tern., but to the apparently slighting tone
in which Jesus spoke. If the recent
occurrence is not of vital importance,
why then do the scribes say etc. ? To
lay the emphasis (with Weiss) onwp&Tov,
as if the disciples were surprised that
Moses and Elias had not come sooner,
before the Christ, is a mistake. The
adventwould appear to them soon enough
to satisfy the requirements of the scribes-
just at the right time, after they had re-
cognised in Jesus the Christ = Thou art
the Christ we know, and lo 1 Elias is
here to prepare the way for Thy public
recognition and actual entry into
Messianic power and glory. The sudden
disappearance of the celestials would tend
to deepen the disappointment created by
the Master's chilling tone, so that there
is some ground for finding in ovv a
reference to that also. — Ver 11. epx«T<ii :
present, as in ii. 4, praesens pro futaro,
Raphel (Annotationes in S. S.), who cites
instances of this enallage temporis from
Xenophon. Wolf (Curae Phil.), referring
to Raphel, prefers to find in the present
here no note of time, but only of the
order of coming as between Elias and
Christ. It is a didactic, timeless present.
So Weiss. — airoKaTao~n]o-€i irdvTa. This
word occurs in Sept., Mai. iv. 5, for which
stands in Lk. i. 17: liri<rrpe\|/ai. ; the
reference is to restitution of right moral
relations between fathers and children,
etc. Raphel cites instances of similar
use from Polyb. The function of Elias,
as conceived by the scribes, was to lead
Israel to the Great Repentance. Vide
on this, Weber, Die Lehren des T ., pp.
337-8. — Ver. 12. Xe'yu Si : Jesus finds
the prophecy as to the advent of Elias
fulfilled in John the Baptist, so still
further reducing the significance of the

late vision. The contrast between the
mechanical literalism of the scribes and
the free spiritual interpretation of Jesus
comes out here. Our Lord expected no
literal coming of Elijah, such as the
Patristic interpreters (Hilary, Chrys.,
Theophy., Euthy., etc.) supposed Him
to refer to in ver. n. The Baptist was
all the Elijah He looked for. — ovk Itri-
Yvoxrav : they did not recognise him as
Elijah, especially those who profes-
sionally taught that Elijah must come,
the scribes. — aXX* eTroirjo-av iv aiiru,
etc. Far from recognising in him Elijah,
and complying with his summons to
repentance, they murdered him in re-
sentment of the earnestness of his
efforts towards a moral airoKardo-Tao-is
(Herod, as representing the Zeitgeist.). —
iv ai™ : literally, in him, not classical,
but similar construction found in Gen.
xl. 14, and elsewhere (Sept.). — ovtus :
Jesus reads His own fate in the Baptist's.
How thoroughly He understood His
time, and how free He was from
illusions 1 — Ver. 13. tots cruvrJKav : the
parallel drawn let the three disciples see
who the Elijah was, alluded to by their
Master. What a disenchantment: not
the glorified visitant of the night vision,
but the beheaded preacher of the wilder-
ness, the true Elijah 1

Vv. 14-21. The epileptic boy (Mk.
ix. 14-29 ; Lk. ix. 37"43)-— Very brief
report compared with Mk. — Ver. 14.
eXOdvTwv : the avTwv of T. R. might
easily be omitted as understood from
the connection. — yovvirtTuv, literally,
falling upon the knees, in which sense it
would naturally take the dative (T. R.,
avTy) ; here used actively with accusa-
tive = to beknee him (Schanz, Weiss). —
Ver. 15. <r€\K]vid£eTai, he is moon-
struck ; the symptoms as described are
those of epilepsy, which were supposed
to become aggravated with the phases 0/

232

KATA MAT6AI0N

XVII.

L with mo

here (W.

I! 1 and in

Mk. x. 17 ;

-.vith

ifJLirpO<r9*V

Tii'oc, Ch.

xxvii. jg.
1 Phil. ii. 15.

(Petit.

xxxii. 5).
in Mk.is.19.

Ik ix. 41.

2 Cor. xi.

19. Eph.

iv. a. Col.

iii. 13 (nil

with gen.,
acctis.more

common
in classics).

ttos k yoKUTreTWr 1 auTui, 1 Kal \lyut>, 15. " Kupie, eXe'rjcroV p.ou tok utoV,
oti. creXrp'id^eTai Kal kokws Tfdo-)(ei 2 • ttoXXcikis yap WllTTil £is rb
Trop, Kai TroXXtiKis eis to uoojp. t6. Kal Trpor/Yj^cyKa auToy tois
paOnTal? crou, Kal ook rjSuerjOrjo-ai' aurov 8epaTrcurjai." 17. 'Atto-
Kpi0€is oe 6 'irjcrous cIttc^, "*fi yeved dmo-ros Kal ' oi€OTpap.peVr|,
!w$ tt6t€ eaop.ai pe0' opwf 8 ; ews ttotc "" dve£opai ujjiuv ; e^'pere
p.01 auTov tLSc." 18. Kal €Ti€Tip.r|cr€r' auTw 6 'irjcrous, Kal e^fjXOcr-
air' auTou to oaip.6vt.oy, Kal ^OepaireuOrj 6 irals diro Tf)s wpac, eKCiK-rjs.
19. T<$T€ TTporjeXSorres ol paSrjTal tuj 'irjo-ou KaT' loia»» euroy,
" AiaTi fjpeic, ouk t| 8 uvrj Or) pey eKPaXeiv auTO ; " 20. 'O 8e 'irjaous 4
el-rrei' 5 auTois, "Aid -n]v d-mariaf 6 upwy. dprjc yap Xt'yw upiv,

1 avTov in nearly all uncials. avT« is a " mechanical repetition " (Weiss) of the
previous ovitw.

2 «x €l > n t^BLZ ; as the more usual word it is to be suspected. VV.H. introduce
it with hesitation.

3 fieG vfiwv co-open in ^BCDZ33- 4 fr^BD 33, omit Itjo-ovs.

* fr^BD 33, etc., have \ey«u

8 oXiYOTrio-Tiav in ^B cursives, and adopted by most editors, though airurriav
in CD and other uncials, as involving a severer reflection, has much to recommend
it. The tendency would be to tone down.

the moon (cf. iv. 24). — KaKuis irao-xei
(J?Xti W. H. text), good Greek. Raphel
(Annot.) gives examples from Polyb.=
suffers badly. — Ver. 16. tois pat)T)Ta!s :
the nine left behind when Jesus and the
three ascended the Mount. The fame of
Jesus and His disciples as healers had
reached the neighbourhood, wherever it
was. — ovk ^SwrjOTjo-av : the case baffled
the men of the Galilean mission. — Ver.
17. uycvea: exclamation of impatience
and disappointment, as if of one weary
in well-doing, or averse to such work
just then. Who are referred to we can
only conjecture, and the guesses are
various. Probably more or less all pre-
sent : parent, disciples, scribes (Mk. ix.
14). Jesus was far away in spirit from
all, lonely, worn out, and longing for the
end, as the question following (Iws
ttotc, etc.) shows. It is the utterance of
a fine-strung nature, weary of the dul-
ness, stupidity, spiritual insuscepti-
bility (aTrio-Tos), not to speak of the
moral perversity (Sieo-Tpappevrj) all
around Him. But we must be careful
not to read into it peevishness or un-
graciousness. Jesus had not really
grown tired of doing good, or lost
patience with the bruised reed and
smoking taper. The tone of His voice,
gently reproachtul, would show that.
Perhaps the complaint was spoken in an
undertone, just audible to those near,

and then, aloud : 4>c'p£Tc poi : bring him
to me, said to the crowd generally, there-
fore plural. — Ver. 18. to Saipdviov : the
first intimation in the narrative that it is
a case of possession, and a hint as to
the genesis of the theory of possession.
Epilepsy presents to the eye the aspect
of the body being in the possession of a
foreign will, and all diseases with which
the notion of demoniacal possession was
associated have this feature in common.
" Judaeis usitatissimum erat morbos
quosdam graviores, eos praesertim,
quibus vel distortum est corpus vel mens
turbata et agitata phrenesi, malis
spiritibus attribuere." Lightfoot, Hor.
Heb., ad loc. The airo after iirtri-
|ay)o-£v naturally refers to the demon.
This reference to an as yet unmentioned
subject Weiss explains by the influence
of Mk.

Ver. 19. KaT' ISiav : the disciples
have some private talk with the Master
as to what has just happened. — 8io.ti
ovk TjSwrjO'rin.ev : the question implies
that the experience was exceptional ; in
other words that on their Galilean
mission, and, perhaps, at other times,
they had possessed and exercised healing
power. — Ver. 20. 8iq tyjv 6XtY07ricrTiav,
here only, and just on that account to be
preferred to dirio-Tiav (T. R. ) ; a word
coined to express the fact exactly : too
little faith for the occasion (cf. xiv. 31)

15—23-

EYAITEAION

*33

iav ?x T l T€ T'iotiv is kokkok ctikciitcws, ipelre tu Spec toutw Mct(£Pt]0i
"crrcuOei' 1 'ckcT, Kal u£Tap^o-6Tai • Kal ouSeV * dSueaTrjaci v\ilv.
2 1. toCto 8c to yivos ouk cKiTopeueTai, el ut) eV iipoaeu)(TJ Kal

cTjaTeia. z

22. 'ANAITPE4>OMENQN 3 8e auTwK eV ttj TaXtXaia, stire? outoIs
6 Itjctous, " MeTvXei 6 0109 too avOpwirou TrapaSi8oo-0ai £is x e ^P a S
df0po5iruv, 23. Kal aTroKTEK>Go"iK auToV, Kal ttj TpiTrj i|ue'pa lycpSf]-
acTai. 4 Kal €XuTrr|0T)O'a»' o~4>68pa.

n evBtv (W.
H.) here
and in Lie
xvi. 26
(vide
critical
note there),
o vide Ch. ii.
22 for
similar use.
P Lk. i. 37
(Gen. xviii.
14).

1 u.eT<x0a in fr$B ; evBev in ^BD.

2 This whole verse is wanting in ^B 33, some Latin verss., Syrr. verss. (Cur.

Hier. Sin.). CDLA2 and many other uncials have it.
foisted into the text.

It is doubtless a gloss

8 fr$B 1 it. vg. have <n;<rTp€<|>opet'wv ; changed into the more easily understood
avao-Tp. (T. R.).

4 B has avaaTTjo-erai (W.H. margin).

That was a part of the truth at least,
and the part it became them to lay to
heart. — dpT)v, introducing, as usual, a
weighty saying. — eav ex 1 l T€ ' 'f ve bave,
a present general supposition. — k<5kkov
trivaTTtois proverbial for a small quantity
(xiii. 31), a minimum of faith. The
purpose is to exalt the power of faith,
not to insinuate that the disciples have
not even the minimum. Schanz says
they had no miracle faith (" fides miracu-
lorum"). — to opci tovtw, the Mount of
Transfiguration visible and pointed to.
— u.£Ta{3a (-0T|0i T. R.), a poetical form
of imperative like avd0a in Rev. iv. 1.
Vide Schmiedel's Winer, p. 115. — ZvBtv
Ik61 for ivrivdev cK6i<r£. — peTapyjaeTai :
said, done. Jesus here in effect calls
faith an " uprooter of mountains," a
phrase current in the Jewish schools for
a Rabbi distinguished by legal lore or
personal excellence (Lightfoot, Hor.
Heb., ad Mt. xxi. 21, Wunsche). —
oS-uvaT^crci used in the third person
singular only in N. T. with dative = to
be impossible ; a reminiscence of Mk.
ix. 23 (Weiss). — Ver. 21. Vide on Mk.
ix. 29.

Vv. 22-23. Second announcement of
the Passion (Mk. ix. 30, 31 ; Lk. ix. 44,
45). — Ver. 22. <ru<TTp£(pou.cvci>v a., while
they were moving about, a reunited band.
— Iv t. T. : they had got back to Galilee
when the second announcement was
made. Mk. states that though returned
to familiar scenes Jesus did not wish to
be recognised, that He might carry on
undisturbed the instruction of the
Twelve. — jieXXei, etc. : the great engross-
ing subject of instruction was the

doctrine of the cross. — vapaSiSoo-Bai : a
new feature not in the first announce-
ment. Grotius, in view of the words tls
X«ipas avOpwTTojv, thinks the reference is
to God the Father delivering up the Son.
It is rather to recent revelations of dis-
affection within the disciple-circle. For
if there were three disciples who showed
some receptivity to the doctrine of the
cross, there was one to whom it would
be very unwelcome, and who doubtless
had felt very uncomfortable since the
Caesarea announcement. — rrapoS. con-
tains a covert allusion to the part He is
to play. — Ver. 23. IXv-rr-rjOTjcrav u<£>o8pa,
they were all greatly distressed ; but no
one this time ventured to remonstrate or
even to ask a question (Mk. ix. 32). The
prediction of resurrection seems to have
counted for nothing.

Vv. 24-27. The temple tax. — In Mt.
only, but unmistakably a genuine historic
reminiscence in the main. Even Holtz-
mann (H. C.) regards it as history, only
half developed into legend. — Ver. 24. cl$
Kair. : home again after lengthened wan-
dering with the satisfaction home gives
even after the most exhilarating holiday
excursions. — Ver. 24. irpoo-fj\0ov oi, etc. :
home-coming often means return to
care. Here are the receivers of custom,
as soon as they hear of the arrival, de-
manding tribute. From the Mount of
Transfiguration to money demands
which one is too poor to meet, what a
descent 1 The experience has been often
repeated in the lives of saints, sons of
God, men of genius. — toi 8i8paxp.a : a
8(8pcLxpov was a coin equal to two Attic
drachmae, and to the Jewish half shekel

234

KATA MATOAlOiN

XVII.

q here only 24. 'EXOrjkTwi' Be auTuu' tts Kairepi-aouiji, Trpoar)X8ot' 01 tu

Frequent q 8i8pa)(p.a Xau,pdi'oeT«$ tu Re'Tpa), Kal cIttoc, "'0 Si&doxaXos

j . up-u^ ov T T«Xei tq 1 8i8paxp.a;" 25. Ae'yci, " Nai." Kal ore

' '■•■ ••■... €itni\0€i'- els ttiv oiKiac, upoe'iOa.crci' auTov 6 'lT)aoG<;, X/vwy, " Ti

r Rom. xni. ' ' ' . '

6 <roi 8ok€i, Iiuuk; 01 BacriXcis tvis yiis Atto tivoji/ 8 XauSdeouffi

e Ch. xxn. ' 111 «

17. Mk. tAtj ?j "KTJk'aoi'; dTrd tw^ uloic aoTwi/, ?) dnS tuk ' dXXoTpiwc ; "

XII. 14

tjohn x. 5. 26. Ae'vei auTw 6 lle'Tpos, 4 " 'Airo tuk dXXoTpiWK." "EAti uutcj 6
Acts vii. ■ » ■ 1 1 .

6. Heb. xi. 9, 34-

1 fc$D omit ra here (Tisch.) ; BC retain it (W.H.).

2 eicrtXGovTa in fr$ (-ti D) ; e\0ovTa in B. Tisch. adopts the former ; W.H. the
latter, with iiatXAovra in margin.

s B has tivos, which W.H. place in the margin.

♦For Xryti . , . n. ^BCL have furovxos 8e (Tisch., W.H.). The T. R. is a
grammatical correction. The adoption of iiirovTos requires a comma before c^>tj
instead of a full stop as in T. R.

= about fifteen pence ; payable annually
by every Jew above twenty as a tribute
to the temple. It was a tribute of the
post-exilic time based on Exodus xxx.
13-16. After the destruction of the
Temple the tax continued to be paid to
the Capitol (Joseph. Bel. I. vii. 6, 7). The
time of collection was in the month
Adar (March). — r<? U. Peter evidently
the principal man of the Jesus-circle for
outsiders as well as internally. — ov
i-sXei. The receivers are feeling their
way. Respect for the Master (SiSdo-naXos)
makes them go to the disciples for in-
formation, and possibly the question was
simply a roundabout hint that the tax
was overdue. — Ver. 25. vaC : this
prompt, confident answer may be either
an inference from Christ's general bear-
ing, as Peter understood it, or a state-
ment of fact implying past payment. —
«X8(5vTa I. r. o. The meeting of the tax
collectors with Peter had taken place
outside ; it had been noticed by Jesus,
and the drift of the interview instinctively
understood by Him. — irpoe'<f>0acr€v, antici-
pated him, here only in N. T. Peter
meant to report, but Jesus spoke first,
having something special to say, and a
good reason for saying it. In other
circumstances He would probably have
taken no notice, but left Peter to manage
the matter as he pleased. But the
Master is aware of something that took
place among His disciples on the way
home, not yet mentioned by the evan-
gelist but about to be (xviii. 1), and to be
regarded as the key to the meaning of
this incident. The story of what Jesus
said to Peter about the temple dues : s

really the prelude to the discourse follow-
ing on humility, and that discourse in
turn reflects light on the prelude. — tiTctoi
Sokci ; phrase often found in Mt. (xviii.
12, xxi. 28, etc.) with lively colloquial
effect : what think you ? — ts'Xtj f\ ktjvo-ov,
customs or tribute ; the former taxes on
wares, the latter a tax on persons = in«
direct and direct taxation. The question
refers specially to the latter.— aXXorpiwv,
foreigners, in reference not to the nation,
but to the royal family, who have the
privilege of exemption. — Ver. 26. apa-ye
on the force of this particle vide at vii.
20. The -ye lends emphasis to the
exemption of the vloC. It virtually
replies to Peter's vat = then you must
admit, what your answer to the collectors
seemed to deny, that the children are
free. The reply is ajeu d" 'esprit. Christ's
purpose is not seriously to argue for
exemption, but to prepare the way for
a moral lesson.

Ver. 27. Xva p,T) o-xavSaX., that we may
not create misunderstanding as to our
attitude by asking exemption or refusing
to pay. Nosgen, with a singular lack of
exegetical insight, thinks the scandal
dreaded is an appearance of disagree-
ment between Master and disciple ! It
is rather creating the impression that
Jesus and His followers despise the
temple, and disallow its claims. And
the aim of Jesus was to fix Peter's
attention on the fact that He was
anxious to avoid giving offence thereby,
and in that view abstained from insist-
ing on personal claims. Over against
the spirit of ambition, which has begun
to show itself among His disciples, He

24—27.

EYAITEAION

235

'Irjaous, ""Apaye cXeu'Oepoi elaiv 01 utoi. 27. Tm be jjlt] cncayba- u here only

Xia-amey " auTods, iropeuGcts eiS Trie 2 0dXa<ro-ai/, £dXe m ayKurrpoe, v here only

in N.T.
kcu t6i' ayaPdrra irpwToi' 1yJ)uv apoy • Kal ayoi£as to orou-a auTou, vr Cf. kvfi

eupi]cr£is T crraTr}pa- ckcikov Xapwv bos auTois curi tu-ou kcu aou. Ch.xx.28.

1 o-Kav8aXi£cop.fv in ^LX, adopted by Tisch. and placed in marg. by W.H.
3 Many uncials (fc^BLAa/.) omit np'.

sets His own spirit of self-effacement
and desire as far as possible to live
peaceably with all men, even with those
with whom He has no religious affinity.
— iropcvOcis t. 9. Generally the instruc-
tion given is : go and fish for the money
needful to pay the tax. — a-yieio-Tpov, a
hook, not a net, because very little would
suffice ; one or two fish at most. —
irpwTov l\6vy '• the very first fish that
comes up will be enough, for a reason
given in the following clause. — avo(£as
. . (TTarijpa: the words point to some-
thing marvellous, a fish with a stater,
the sum wanted, in its mouth. Paulus
sought to eliminate the marvellous by
rendering tvp^aeis not "find" but
" obtain," i.e., by sale. Beyschlag (Das
Leben Jesu, p. 304) suggests that the
use of an ambiguous word created the
impression that Jesus directed Peter to
catch a fish with a coin in its mouth.
Ewald (Geschichte Christus, p. 467)
thinks Jesus spoke very much as re-
ported, but from the fact that it is not
stated that a fish with a coin in its
mouth was actually found, he infers that
the words were not meant seriously as a
practical direction, but were a spirited
proverbial utterance, based on rare
examples of money found in fishes.
Weiss is of opinion that a simple direc-
tion to go and fish for the means of pay-
ment was in the course of oral tradition
changed into a form of language imply-
ing a miraculous element. This view
assumes that the report in Mt. was
derived from oral tradition (vide Weiss,
Das Leben Jesu, ii. 47, and my Miraculous
Element in the Gospels, pp. 231-5). In
any case the miracle, not being reported
as having happened, cannot have been
the important point for the evangelist.
What he is chiefly concerned about is to
report the behaviour of Jesus on the
occasion, and the words He spoke re-
vealing its motive. — avrl l(xov koI <rov :
various questions occur to one here.
Did the collectors expect Jesus only to
pay (for Himself and His whole com-
pany), or did their question mean, does
He also, even He, pay ? And why pay

only for Peter along with Himself?
Were all the disciples not liable :
Andrew, James and John there, in
Capernaum, not less than Peter ? Was
the tax strictly collected, or for lack of
power to enforce it had it become prac-
tically a voluntary contribution, paid by
many, neglected by not a few ? In that
case it would be a surprise to many that
Jesus, while so uncompromising on
other matters, was so accommodating in
regard to money questions. He would
not conform to custom in fasting,
Sabbath keeping, washing, etc., but He
would pay the temple tax, though refusal
would have had no more serious result
than slightly to increase already existing
ill-will. This view sets the generosity
and nobility of Christ's spirit in a clearer
light.

Chapter XVIII. Moral Training
of the Disciples. In this and the
next two chapters the centre of interest
is the spiritual condition of the Twelve,
and the necessity thereby imposed on
their Master to subject them to a stern
moral discipline. The day of Caesarea
had inaugurated a spiritual crisis in the
disciple-circle, which searched them
through and through, and revealed in
them all in one form or another, and in
a greater or less degree, moral weak-
ness : disloyalty to the Master (xvii. 22),
vain ambition, jealousy, party spirit.
The disloyal disciple seems to have
taken to heart more than the others the
gloomy side of the Master's predictions,
the announcement of the Passion ; his
more honest-hearted companions let
their minds rest on the more pleasing
side of the prophetic picture, the near
approach of the kingdom in power and
glory, so that while remaining true to
the Master their hearts became fired with
ambitious passions.

Vv. 1-14. Ambition rebuked (Mk. ix.
33-50 ; Lk. ix. 46-50, xv. 3-7, xvii. 1-4).—
Ver. 1. iv Ik. t. wpq., in that hour ; the
expression connects what follows very
closely with the tax incident, and shows
that the two things were intimately asso-
ciated in the mind of the evangelist.—

KATA MATOAlON

XVIII.

■ Ch. xi. m;

wiii. II.

Mk. ix. 34

Lk. ix. 4b.
b John xii.

40 («irtar.

T.R.).

Acts vii.

39-
c Ch. xxiii.

12. Lk.

xiv. II ;

xviii. 14.
d Ch. xxiv. 5

parall.

XVIII. I. 'EN ^kcict) rjj wpa TrpoaqXfloc ol aa0r|Tai tu *lr|o-ou,
X^yorre?, " Tis apa *uei£wi/ ^orlf iv tij )3aoiXeia tCjv oupaewv ;
2. Kai irpoo-KaXeaduevos 6 'irjaous l iraiSior iViTTjacf auTo ^ ji^au
auTwy, 3. Kal dirty, "'Ap.r|i> X«?yw uuiv, ^ui/ utj b crrpad)i]Te ical
y^Tja0€ ws to TraiSia, ou jatj tla€X0T|Te eis tt\v PaaiXciae tw^
oupaywk. 4. ootis ovv ' Taireivdcn] 2 eauroy ws to TraiSioy touto,
out^s £<mv 6 p.et^wk' ^f T[j pao-iXeia twv oupaeuii'. 5. Kal 05 lav
8e'£nTai iraiSioc toioutoi' tv 8 d ^iri tw 6vop.aTi p.ou, ep.e 8e')(eTat •

1 fr<$BL al. omit o I. * raircivwaci in all uncials.

s cv before iraiSiov in BDLZ ; toiovto in ^BLA for the more usual toiovtov in
T. R. (cv iraiSiov toiovto in Tisch. and W.H.).

tis apa (A€i£wv : who then is greater, etc. ?
The £pa may be taken as pointing back
to the tax incident as suggesting the
question, but not to it alone, rather to it
as the last of a series of circumstances
tending to force the question to the
front : address to Peter at Caesarea
Philippi ; three disciples selected to be
with the Master on the Hill of Trans-
figuration. From Mk. we learn that
they had been discussing it on the way
home. — Iv r. {Jaor.T.ovp.,inthe Kingdom
of Heaven ; this Is wanting in Mk.,
where the question is a purely personal
one ; who is the greater (among us,
now, in your esteem) ? In Mk. the
question, though referring to the present,
who is, etc., points to the future, and
presents a more general aspect, but
though it wears an abstract look it too
is personal in reality = which of us now
is the greater for you, and shall there-
fore have the higher place in the king-
dom when it comes ? It is not necessary
to conceive every one of the Twelve
fancying it possible he might be the
first man. The question for the majority
may have been one as to the respective
claims of the more prominent men,
Peter, James, John, each of whom may
have had his partisans in the little band.
— Ver. 2. iraiSiov : the task of Jesus is
not merely to communicate instruction
but to rebuke and exorcise an evil
spirit, therefore He does not trust to
words alone, but for the greater im-
pressiveness uses a child who happens to
be present as a vehicle of instruction.
The legendary spirit which dearly loves
certainty in detail identified the child
with Ignatius, as if that would make
the lesson any the more valuable 1 —
Ver. 3. lav p.T) o-Tpa(j>TjT€ : unless ye
turn round so as to go in an opposite
direction. " Conversion " needed and

demanded, even in the case of these men
who have left all to follow Jesus! How
many who pass for converted, regenerate
persons have need to be converted over
again, more radically 1 Chrys. remarks:
" We are not able to reach even
the faults of the Twelve ; we ask not
who is the greatest in the Kingdom of
Heaven, but who is the greater in the
Kingdom of Earth : the richer the more
powerful " (Horn, lviii.). The remark is
not true to the spirit of Christ. In His
eyes vanity and ambition in the sphere
of religion were graver offences than the
sins of the worldly. His tone at this
time is markedly severe, as much so as
when He denounced the vices of the
Pharisees. It was indeed Pharisaism
in the bud He had to deal with. Resch
suggests that o-Tpa<j>i)T« here simply re-
presents the idea of becoming again
children, corresponding to the Hebrew

idiom which uses ^tT = """aXtv (Ausser-

canonische Paralleltexte zu Mt. and Mk.,
p. 213). — <Ls to iraiSia, like the children,
in unpretentiousness. A king's child
has no more thought of greatness than a
beggar's. — ov pr\ £io-€'X9t]T€, ye shall
not enter the kingdom, not to speak of
being great there Just what He said to
the Pharisees (vidt on chap. v. 17-20). —
Ver. 4. Taimvijo-ei ea-uTov: the most
difficult thing in the world for saint as
for sinner. Raphel (Annot. in S. S.) dis-
tinguishes three forms of self-humiliation :
in mind (Phil. ii. 3), by words, and by
acts, giving classical examples of the latter
two. It is easy to humble oneself by
self-disparaging words, or by symbolic
acts, as when the Egyptian monks wore
hoods, like children's caps (Eisner), but to
be humble in spirit, and so child-like ! —
6 uc(£uv. The really humble man is as
great in the moral world as he is rare.

EYAITEAION

237

6. os 8' &v oxav8aXicnr] eva t£>v e puKpuiv toutwv t<T>v maT€udvT(i»v e Cf. i\a.x*

(TTU)V ID

eiS €jjl^, *o-up.d)epei aurw, iva Kpefiao-Orj jjujXos ovikos lirl tov Ch. xxv.
TpdxTjXo^ auTou, Kal e KaTairovTicrdTJ ev tu h ireXdyei rfjs 0aXdcrcrr|S. f Ch. v. «g,

7. Oual tw Kocfiw diro twv cncavodXwv ■ dfdyKT) yap ecmv 2 eXGelv g here and

tci cncdvSaXa. itXtjv oual tw dcOpwirw eKeivw, 3 Si* ou to cncdvSaXov 30 .

h here and
Acta xxvii. 5. The phrase iv t. n. t. OaAacroT)? here only

• For ciri fc^BLZ have irepu

a Omitted in BL (W.H.) ; found in }tfD (Tisch.).

3 cK6ivw wanting in J^DLI ; found in B but not adopted by W.H. It looks
like an echo of xxvi. 24, yet it answers well to the solemn tone of our Lord's
utterance on this occasion.

Vv. 5-7. — Ver. 5. S^tjTai: the dis-
course passes at this point from being
child-like to gracious treatment of a
child and what it represents. — Iv iraiSiov
toiovto : the real child present in the
room passes into an ideal child, repre-
senting all that the spirit of ambition in
its struggle for place and power is apt to
trample under foot. So in effect the
majority of commentators ; a few, in-
cluding Bengel, De Wette, Bleek,
Weiss, hold that the reference is still to
a real child. In favour of this view is
Luke's version : " Whoso receiveth this
child," etc. (ix. 48). But the clause «irl
t£ 6v(S|io.Tt p.ov raises the child into the
ideal sphere. The reception required
does not mean natural kindness to
children (though that also Christ valued),
but esteeming them as fellow-disciples in
spite of their insignificance. A child
may be such a disciple, but it may also
represent such disciples, and it is its
representative function that is to be em-
phasised. — Ver. 6. irKavSaXforr) : the
opposite of receiving ; treating harshly
and contemptuously, so as to tempt to
unbelief and apostasy. The pride and
selfish ambition of those who pass for
eminent Christians make many infidels.
— evo t. p.. t. : one of the large class of
little ones ; not merely child believers
surely, but all of whom a child is the
emblem, as regards social or ecclesias-
tical importance. Those who are caused
to stumble are always little ones :
" majores enim scandala non recipiunt,"
Jerome. One of them : " frequens unius
in hoc capite mentio," Bengel. This is
the one text in which Jesus speaks of
Himself as the object of faith (vide The
Kingdom of God, p. 263). — <rup.<f>ep6i . . .
iva: vide on v. 29. Fritzsche finds
here an instance of attraction similar to
that in x. 25 — «al 6 SovXos, i>% 6 k. a.
Instead of saying <ru^«pei a. xpcpa-

Both these ex-
toned down by
drowning was

ct6tjvo.i . . . Xva tcaTairovTio-Ojj, the

writer puts both verbs in the subjunctive
after iva. — jj.tjA.os oviko9. The Greeks
called the upper millstone ovos the ass
(6 avurepos \i0os, Hesychius), but they
did not use the adjective ovikos. The
meaning therefore is a millstone driven
by an ass, i.e., a large one, as distinct
from smaller -sized ones driven by the
hand, commonly used in Hebrew houses
in ancient times. " Let such a large
stone be hung about the neck of the
offender to make sure that he sink to
the bottom to rise no more " — such is
the thought of Jesus ; strong in con-
ception and expression, revealing intense
abhorrence. — Iv t«J> irtKayei r. 8. : in
the deep part of the sea. So Kypke,
who gives examples ; another signifi
cantly strong phrase,
pressions have been
Luke. — KaTairovTicrO-Q
not a form of capital punishment in use
among the Jews. The idea may have
been suggested by the word denoting
the offence, <rKavSa\£<rrj. Bengel re-
marks : " apposita locutio in sermone de
scandalo, nam ad lapidem offensio est " =:
" let the man who puts a stone in the
path of a brother have a stone hung
about bis neck," etc. Lightfoot suggests
as the place of drowning the Dead Sea,
in whose waters nothing would sink
without a weight attached to it, and in
which to be drowned was a mark of
execration. — Ver. 7. oval t£ Koo-p.a),
woe to the world, an exclamation of
pity at thought of the miseries that
come upon mankind through ambitious
passions. Some (Bleek, Weiss, etc.)
take koo-jios in the sense of the ungodly
world, as in later apostolic usage, and
therefore as causing, not suffering from,
the offences deplored. This interpreta-
tion is legitimate but not inevitable, and
it seems better to take the word in the

238

KATA MAT9AI0N

XVIII.

epxerai. 8. Ei 8e f\ x«ip °*ou $\ 6 irous aou o-KavSaXi^ei ere, «?KKO\J/or

auTd ■ Kal f$d\€ &tto aou • KaX6V ctoi iarlv eiaeXGeii' eis tt\v £wr)>'

XwXot' ?| kuXX6V, 2 f\ 8uo x«ip«S $1 8uo iroSas e\oyra pXrjOTjyai els to

irup to alwtaof. 9. koi «i 6 o^daXpos aou o-Kay8aXi£€i ac, e£eXe

i here and in auTOK Kal pMXe &tto aou • KaXoV aoi earl ' povo4>0aXpof els tt|k ^wtjv

jMk.v. v claeXOeiK, fj 8u'o 64>6aXpous eyoyra |3XT|6f|Kai eis Tfp' y^efeay T0 "

53. Acts ii. irup6s. IO. c Op&T6 pr) KaTatppofrjarjTe £v6s t&v puepwe toutw •

xi. 10 al. X^yu yop upiK, on 01 ayyeXoi auTWK tV oupavois J 8id J irarros

1 atiTov in ^BDLI. avTa a grammatical correction.
a kvXXov t] x<-Xov in tfB (Tisch., W.H.).

more general sense of humanity con-
ceived of as grievously afflicted with
" scandals " without reference to who is
to blame. They are a great fact in the
history of mankind, by whomsoever
caused. — airo t. <r. : by reason of; points
to the ultimate source of the misery. —
tuv <ricav8aXwv : the scandals ; a general
category, and a black one. — avo-yitT) yap :
they are inevitable ; a fatality as well as
a fact, on the wide scale of the world ;
they cannot be prevented, only deplored.
No shallow optimism in Christ's view of
life. — ttXtjv : adversative here, setting
the woe that overtakes the cause of
offences, over against that of those who
suffer from them. Weiss contends that
it is not adversative here any more than
in xi. 24, but simply conducts from the
general culpability of the world to the
guilt of every one who is a cause of
scandal, even when he does not belong
to the world.

Vv. 8, 9. These verses are one of
Mt.'s dualities, being found with some
variations in the Sermon on the Mount
(w. 29-30). Repetition perhaps due to
use of two sources, but in sympathy
with the connection of thought in both
places. Since the offender is the greater
loser in the end, it is worth his while
to take precautions against being an
offender. — Ver. 8. X"P» iro ^5 : men-
tioned together as instruments of
violence. — icaXdv . . . t\ : the positive
for the comparative, or fj used in sense
of magis quam. Raphel and Kypke cite
instances of this use from classics. It
may be an imitation of Hebrew usage,
in which the comparative is expressed
by the positive, followed by the preposi-
tion min. " A rare classical usage tends
to become frequent in Hellenistic Greek if
it be found to correspond to a common
Hebrew idiom " (Carr, in Camb. N. T.).
— kvXXov : with reference to hand, muti-

lated ; wanting one or both hands. —
X«o\<$v : in a similar condition regarding
the feet (cf. xi. 5 ; xv. 30). — Ver. 9.
6<|>8a\u.os, the eye, referred to as the
means of expressing contempt ; in chap. v.
29 as inciting to lust. — p.ov6<f>0a\p.ov,
properly should mean having only one
eye by nature, but here = wanting an
eye, for which the more exact term is
€T«p6(fj6a\jios, vide Lobeck, Phryn., p.

136.

Vv. 10-14. Still the subject is the
child as the ideal representative of the
insignificant, apt to be despised by the
ambitious. From this point onwards
Mt. goes pretty much his own way,
giving logia of Jesus in general sympathy
with the preceding discourse, serving the
puvpose of moral discipline for disciples
aspiring to places of distinction. — Ver.
IO. opart p.T] ko.tcx4>. : prj with the
subj. in an object clause after a verb
meaning to take heed ; common N. T.
usage ; vide Matt. xxiv. 4 ; Acts

40, etc. — tvos, one,
something solemn
oyyeXoi avTuv, etc.

xin.
again. — Xiyu> yap :
to be said. — ol
In general abstract

language, the truth Jesus solemnly
declares is that God, His Father, takes a
special interest in the little ones in all
senses cf the word. This truth is ex-
pressed in terms of the current Jewish
belief in guardian angels. In the later
books of O. T. (Daniel), there are guar-
dian angels of nations ; the extension of
the privilege to individuals was a further
development. Christ's words are not to
be taken as a dogmatic endorsement of
this post-exilian belief exemplified in the
story of Tobit (chap. v.). The same
remark applies to the passages in which
the law is spoken of as given through
angelic mediation (Acts vii. 53 ; Gal. iii.
19 ; Heb. ii. 2). The Xryw -yap does not
mean " this belief is true," but " the
idea it embodies, God's special care for

8— iC.

EYAfTEAION

2.39

k fiKiivouai, to vrpcicranrov tou TraTpos (aoo tou iv oupayois* 1 1, k this phrase

♦ \a \e«\ «>a/ « > ^ \ \ f 9 /«"■» here only

T]\0e yap o otos tou dfSpwTrou o-iocrai to diroXcoXos. 12. Ti Op.iv

Sotcei; tdv yeVwTat Tift dt'Spwirw €KaToc Trp6{3a,Ta, Kal TrXavT|0TJ Ik 1 Acts xx. 16.

i£ auTwv • ou)(l dcfsels 8 to. ivvev^Kovraevvia, eirl to. opri 4 iropeuGels (same
" \ » i / -« const.

^t]T€i to iT\avwu.ei/oi' ; 13. <ai ede yevTjTat eup€if auTO, duTjv Xlyw with inf.
.-« / , > , ~ -nx * , x - , , - as here,

UJUV, OTt X ai P €t elT OIUTW uaMOV, T] £TTl TOIS t»'>'€VT]KOl'Ta€l'Vea TOIS c/. in ver.

12).

p.Tj 7reirXacT]p.eVoi9. 14. outws ouk Ioti 0eXT|u.a m euTrpoorGcv tou m Ch. xi. 26.
Trcrrpos up.tuk 5 tou Iv oupavois, tea diroXifjTat els 6 Ttoe pviKpuiv toutcov.

^ »r- \ O * e / » *7c?C\A/ * R n s\ > n Lk. 111. ig.

15. Eac 0€ ajxapTYjoTf] cis o"€ ' doe/vepos crou, uirayc Kai ° eXey^ov 1 Tim. v.
auTOf p.eTa£u crou Kal auTou uoVou. i&v crou dKOucrn, ° eK^pSrjaas o 1 Cor. ix.
tov dSeXcj>6V aou ■ 1 6. cdv 8e p,T) dKOucnn, -rrapd\aj3e ueTa crou Iti If a p et . jjj. It

1 B has €v t«d ovpavw (W.H. margin, bracketed).

2 Ver. n is wanting in fr$BL, 1, 13, 33, Egyptian verss., Syrr. Jerus. Sin., Orig.,
etc. ; doubtless imported from Lk. xix. 10.

s a4>t]CT£t in BL (Tisch., W.H.); D has ac^i-no-iv. * icai after oprj in BL.

6 aov in B al. 6 ev in ^BDL. ti% is a grammatical correction.

7 fr$B omit cis cr«. 8 fc«$BD omit Kau

the little, is true ". This is an important
text for Christ's doctrine of the Father-
hood. It teaches that, contrary to the
spirit of the world, which values only
the great, the Father-God cares specially
for that which is apt to be despised. —
pXc'irovo-i t. irp. In Eastern courts it is
the confidential servants who see the
face of the king. The figure is not to be
pressed to the extent of making God like
an Eastern despot. — Ver. 11 an inter-
polation from Lk. xix. 10, q. v.

Vv. 12-14. Parable of straying sheep
(Lk. xv. 4-7) ; may seem less appropriate
here than in Lk., but has even here a
good setting, amounting to a climax =
God cares not only for the lowly and
little but even for the low — the morally
erring. In both places the parable
teaches the precious characteristically
Christian doctrine of the worth of the
individual at the worst to God. — Ver. 12.
ri v. SoKtt as in xvii. 25. — lav yevi)Tai r.
a. I. irp^Para : if a man happen to have
as large a number, yet, etc. — Kal it. Iv :
only one wanderer, out of so many. —
iropevflels i^Tci : does he not go and
seek the one ? — Ver. 13. Kal . . . avr6 :
if it happen that he finds it. In Lk. he
searches till he finds it. — du.Tjv X£yw :
specially solemn, with a view to the
application to the moral sphere of what
in the natural sphere is self-evident. —
Ver. 14, application of the parable less
emphatic than in Lk. — 8€'Xi]u.a, a will,
for an object of will. — tp/n-pocrOev t. it.
u. : before the face of = for, etc.

Vv. 15-17. How to deal with an
erring brother. — The transition here is
easy from warning against giving, to
counsel how to receive, offences. The
terms are changed : uiicpos becomes
o8e\«f)6s, giving offence not suiting the
idea of the former, and for o-KavSaXit^iv
we have the more general duapi-dveiv.
— Vv. 16 and 17 have something
answering to them in Lk. xvii. 3, coming
in there after the group of parables in
chaps, xv. and xvi., in which that of the
Shepherd has its place ; whence Wendt
recognises these verses as an authentic
logioii probably closely connected with
the parable in the common source. Ver.
17 he regards as an addition by the
evangelist or a later hand. Holtzmann
(H. C.) regards the whole section (15-17)
as a piece of Church order in the form of
a logiou of the Lord.

Ver. 15. au.apT>]<rn : apart from the
doubtful els ere following, the reference
appears to be to private personal offences,
not to sin against the Christian name,
which every brother in the community
has a right to challenge, especially
those closely connected with the offender.
Yet perhaps we ought not too rigidly to
draw a line between the two in an ideal
community of love. — ueTa£v <r. k. a. a. :
the phrase implies that some one has
the right and duty of taking the initia-
tive. So far it is a personal affair to
begin with. The simpler and more
classical expression would be uovos
uovov. — dKovcqj, hear, in the sense of

240

KATA MATOAION

XVIII

^ 8uo, iVa tirl o-rdu,a.TOs 8uo u.apTu'pwi/ fj Tpiwf rrraOrj iraK p^p-a.

p here only 1 7. lav 8e p TrapaKou'aT] auTwc, citte ttj ^kkXtjo-io. • ^dc Be Kal ttjs
(E5ther « \ / • « n

iii. 3, 8). €KK\T]aias TrapaKou<rr], earw aoi ulcnrcp 6 to^iKos Kai 6 TeXcSiTjs.

18. 'Ap.Tjy X/yw ujiti', oaa ^de SrjcrnTe lirl T-qs y»)S, ccrrai SeScueVa

q Ch. xx. a, lv tw 1 ouparw ■ Kai oaa lav XuoTf)Tt ^m tt]9 yrjs, torai XcXuu^ea

34. Acts lv tw 1 oupacui. 19. TrdXiv 2 Xe'yw ufii^, on lav 8uo up-ate * aufJKJxitpri-

jj. awaiy ° €tti rir)s yns "rrepi irarros TTpayaa-ros 00 eae aiTTpwKTai,

1 B omits to» first time and fr$B second time.

* B and many other uncials add op.T|v after iraXiv (W. H. in brackets).

' o-vp.<f>cuvr)<rova-iv in fc^BDLA (Tisch.).

submitting to admonition. — JKlpSr}<ras :
gained as a friend, as a fellow-member
of the Kingdom of God, or as a man =
saved him from moral ruin ? All three
alternatives find support. Is it necessary
or possible to decide peremptorily
between them ? — Ver. 16. *dv Ze p.rj d.
After a first failure try again, with added
influence. — -rrapaXape . . . Iva r\ Svo.
This bears a juridical aspect (Schanz),
but it does not really pass out of the
moral sphere : ethical influence alone
contemplated ; consensus in moral judg-
ment carries weight with the conscience.
— tva eirl aTojiaTOS, etc. : reference to
the legal provision in Deut. xix. 15 in a
literary rather than in a legal spirit. —
Ver. 17. cdv 8J ir. a. Try first a mini-
mum of social pressure and publicity, and
if that fail have recourse to the maximum.
— «tTr« t-q etctcXTjoria. : speak to the
" Church " — the brotherhood of believers
in the Christ This to be the widest
limit for the ultimate sphere of moral
influence, as ex hypothesi the judgment
of this new community will count for
more to its members than that of all the
world beyond. — ?<ttcu <roi, etc. : this
failing, the offender puts himself outside
the society, and there is nothing for it
but to treat him as a heathen or a pub-
lican ; which does not mean with in-
difference or abhorrence, but carefully
avoiding fellowship with him in sin, and
seeking his good only as one without.
There is no reference in this passage to
ecclesiastical discipline and Church cen-
sures. The older interpreters, in a
theologico-polemical interest, were very
anxious to find in it support for their
developed ideas on these topics. The
chief interest of historic exegesis is to
divest it of an ecclesiastical aspect as
much as possible, for only so can it suit
the initial period, and be with any pro-
bability regarded as an utterance of

Jesus. As such it may be accepted,
when interpreted, as above. If, as we
have tried to show, it was natural for
Jesus to speak of a new community of
faith at Caesarea, it w?s equally natural
that He should return upon the idea in
the Capernaum lesson on humility and
kindred virtues, and refer to it as an in-
strument for promoting right feeling and
conduct among professed disciples. —
Ver. 18. Renewed promise of power to
bind and loose, this time not to Peter
alone, as in xvi. 19, but to all the
Twelve, not qua apostles, with ecclesias-
tical authority, but qua disciples, with
the ethical power of morally disciplined
men. The Twelve for the moment are
for Jesus = the ecclesia : they were the
nucleus of it. The binding and loosing
generically = exercising judgment on
conduct ; here specifically = treating sin
as pardonable or the reverse — a particu-
lar exercise of the function of judging.

Vv. ig, 20. Promise of the power and
presence of God to encourage concord. —
Ver. ig. irdXiv duTjv : a second amen,
introducing a new thought of parallel
importance to the former, in ver. 18.
— edv 8vo : two ; not the measure of
Christ's expectation of agreement among
His disciples, but of the moral power
that lies in the sincere consent of even
two minds. It outweighs the nominal
agreement of thousands who have no
real bond of union. — o-v|x<t>(i>vT)<ruo*iv :
agree, about what ? not necessarily only
the matters referred to in previous con-
text, but anything concerning the King-
dom of God. — irepi iravTo? irpayfjiaTOS !
concerning every or any matter, offences
committed by brethren included of
course. — -ytvTjo-eTai : it shall be ; what
absolute confidence in the laws of the
moral world ! — irapd t. tt. p.. : from my
Father. The Father-God of Jesus is
here defined as a lover of peace and

17—22.

EYAITEAION

241

yevqacTCu aoTois irapd tou iTarpos u,ou tou iv oupayois. 20. ou r Ch. xxviii
yap eiai Suo r\ Tpet? awr)yu-evoi r els to e'p.oy ocojia, eitei eip.1 eV viii. 16;

» ♦ 9 1 (allofbap-

21. T0T6 iTpoaeX0cj»' auTw 6 rieTpos eiirc, ° Kupie, •iroadias tism into

dpapTYjO-et els ep-e 6 dSe\<j>°S p- 00 ' Kat d(J>qo-w auTw ; eus *£TrTdias ; " namei-

2 2. Aeyei auTw o I'ncrous, Qu Acyw croi eus eirraKis, aKK eu§ 37. Lk.

xiii. 34.
t Lk. xvii. 4.

1 This verse in Codex Bezae runs "for there are not (ovk «io-iv -yap), etc., with
whom (trap' 01s) I am nr' in the midst of them ". Syr. Sin. has a similar reading.

2 avTu after enr« in BD (Tisch., W.H., bracketed). ^ omits <x\jto>.

fraternal concord. In this verse we
have a case of attraction, of the main
subject into the conditional clause.
Resolved, the sentence would run : irdv
irpdypa, o io-v aiT^crojcriv, cdv crvu.4>&j-
vricrovcrivTrepi avi-roG, yevs}0"eTai cuitois. —
Ver. 20. Svo tj Tpets. Jesus deals in
small numbers, not from modesty in His
anticipations, but because they suit the
present condition, and in jealousy for the
moral quality of the new society. —
<rvvrryu.evoi eis, etc., not gathered to con-
fess or worship my name, but gathered
as believers in me. It is a synonym for
the new society. The ecclesia is a body
of men gathered together by a common
relation to the name of the Christ : a
Christian synagogue as yet consisting of
the Twelve, or as many of them as were
really one in heart. — Ikci elp.1 Iv, etc. :
there am I, now, with as many of you,
my disciples, as are one in faith and
brotherly love ; not with any more even
of you : far away from the man of am-
bitious, not to say traitorous, mind.
There am I in reference to the future.
His presence axiomatically certain,
therefore expressed as a present fact,
even with reference to a future time — a
promise natural from One looking forward
to an early death. Similar in import to
Mt. xxviii. 20. For similar sayings of
the Rabbis concerning the presence of
the Divine Majesty, or the Shechinah,
among two or three sitting in judgment
or studying the law, vide Lightfoot and
Schottgen.

Vv. 21, 22. Peter's question about for-
giving. — The second of two interpella-
tions in the course of Christ's discourse
{vide Mk. ix. 38-41 ; Lk. ix. 49, 50).
Such words touch sensitive consciences,
and the interruptions would be wel-
comed by Jesus as proof that He had
not spoken in vain. — Ver. 21. iroodias,
etc. : the question naturally arose out of
the directions for dealing with an offend-

ing brother, which could only be carried
out by one of placable disposition. Their
presupposition is that a fault confessed is
to be forgiven. But how far is this to
go ? In Lk. xvii. 3 the case is put of
seven offences in a day, each in turn re-
pented of and confessed. Is there not
reason for doubting the sincerity of
repentance in such a case ? Or is this
not at least the extreme limit ? Such
is Peter's feeling. — dpapr^crci., afy-qw :
two futures instead of irocr. dp-aprovTi.
d<J»r|or<i) : Hebrew idiom instead of Greek.
— c'ojs cirTaKis : Peter meant to be
generous, and he went considerably
beyond the Rabbinical measure, which
was three times (Amos i. 6) : " quicunque
remissionem petit a proximo, ne ultra
quam ter petat," Schottgen. — Ver. 22.
ov : emphatic " no " to be connected
with lus cirTaicis. Its force may be
brought out by translating : no, I tell
you, not till, etc. — dXXi «. i. i. : Christ's
reply lifts the subject out of the legal
sphere, where even Peter's suggestion
left it (seven times and no more — a hard
rule), into the evangelic, and means :
times without number, infinite placability.
This alone decides between the two
renderings of cf38op.T]KovTdKis cirrd :
seventy-seven times and seventy times
seven, in favour of the latter as giving a
number (490) practically equal to infini-
tude. Bengel leans to the former, taking
the termination -ki§ as covering the
whole number seventy-seven, and re-
ferring to Gen. iv. 24 as the probable
source of the expression. Similarly
some of the Fathers (Orig., Aug.), De
Wette and Meyer. The majority adopt
the opposite view, among whom may be
named Grotius and Fritzsche, who cite
the Syriac version in support. On
either view there is inexactness in the
expression. Seventy times seven re-
quires the termination -kis at both words.
Seventy-seven times requires the -kis at

242

RATA MAT0A1ON

XVIII.

u here only
(Gen iv.

14).

» e and

inCh xw.

19 (same
const ).
w here and
inCh.xxv.

15-
x Lk. xviii.
7. 1 Cor.

j;ii. 4.
James v.7.

" ^pSofjtT)KOiT(lKis ttrri. 23. Aid touto &u,oiiu9r| ^ PaaiXeia twv
oiipavuy di'Opwiriu pVaiXel, os >|6t'Xr)a-e * auydpai Xoyoe u,€Ta toiv
Sou'Xojv' auTou. 24. dp£ap.eVou St auToG auvaipav, Trpoari^e'^Or] J
auTil eis 2 6^)etX^TT]S p-upiw^ w TaXdyTioy. 25. jit) cxo^tos 8e auToo
dTroSoui'ai, lKi\tuaev auTOf Kupiog auTou 8 irpaQr^vai, Kal ttji'
yu^aiKa auToG 4 Kal Ta TtKva, Kal TrdVTa ocra e*X c 6 Ka ' 1 dTroSoO-fji'ai.
26. -nttriov ouc 6 8oGXos -irpo<T€KuV«i auTcu, Xe'ywi', Kupie, 6 * fiaKpo-
Oup-Ticroy l-n ip.0'1, 1 Kal irdiTa aoi 8 diroSwaw. 27. ati\ay\yaxOtl$ 8c

1 wpoo-rjxer! in BD (W.H.) ; as in T. R., f^LA al. (Tisch.)
* ti9 avTu in N B (Tisch., W.H.). * fc^BDL omit qvtov.

4 fc^B omit this avTov also (Tisch., W. H.).

6 B has €x<i. which, just because of its singularity as a present among preterites,
is to be preferred to *ix £ > though found in most uncials.

8 BD omit. .' DL have fir' qi«. 8 0-01 after airoSwcra) in fc«$BL.

the end of the second word rather than
at end of first : either cttto. Kal c|38o . . .
kis, or tfSSoji . . . Ta cirraKis.

Vv. 23-35. Parable of unmerciful ser-
vant. — Ver. 23. 81a tovto suggests
that the aim of the parable is to justify
the apparently unreasonable demand in
ver. 22 : unlimited forgiveness of in-
juries. After all, says Jesus, suppose
ye comply with the demand, what do
your remissions amount to compared to
what has been remitted to you by God ?
— avOpcSiro) pacrtXei : a man, a king;
king an afterthought demanded by the
nature of the case. Only a great
monarch can have such debtors, and
opportunity to forgive such debts. —
o-uvcipai Xdyov (found again in xxv. 19),
to hold a reckoning. — SovXuv : all alike
servants or slaves in relation to the
king. So human distinctions are
dwarfed into insignificance by the dis-
tance between all men and God. — Ver.
24. tls : one stood out above all the
rest for the magnitude of his debt, who,
therefore, becomes the subject of the
story. — 6(j>€iX^TT)s p.. t. : a debtor of, or
to the extent of, a thousand talents — an
immense sum, say millions sterling ;
payment hopeless ; that the point ; exact
calculations idle or pedantic. It may
seem to violate natural probability that
time was allowed to incur such a debt,
which speaks to malversation for years.
But the indolence of an Eastern monarch
must be taken into account, and the
absence of system in the management
of finance. As Koetsveld (De Gelijk.,
p. 286) remarks : " A regular control is
not in the spirit of the Eastern. He
trusts utterly v/hen he does trust, and

when he loses confidence it is for ever."
— Ver. 25. irpaBrjvai . . . €x«i : the
order is given that the debtor be sold,
with all he has, including his wife and
children ; hard lines, but according to
ancient law, in the view of which wife
and children were simply property.
Think of their fate in those barbarous
times l But parables are not scrupulous
on the score of morality. — Kal diroSo-
0TJvai : the proceeds of sale to be applied
in payment of the debt. — Ver. 26. p.aK-
po6vp.Ticrov : a Hellenistic word, some-
times used in the sense of deferring
anger (Prov. xix. n (Sept.), the corre-
sponding adjective in Ps. lxxxvi. 15 ; cf.
1 Cor. xiii. 4 ; 1 Thess. v. 14). That sense
is suitable here, but the prominent idea
is : give me time ; wrath comes in at a
later stage (ver. 34). — irdvTa diroSutrw :
easy to promise ; his plea : better wait
and get all than take hasty measures
and get only a part. — Ver. 27. cnrXay-
Xvi<r6«ls : touched with pity, not un-
mixed perhaps with contempt, and asso-
ciated possibly with rapid reflection as
to the best course, the king decides on
a magnanimous policy. — airs'Xvcrev, to
Sdvciov ad)T)Kfv : two benefits conferred ;
set free from imprisonment, debt abso-
lutely cancelled, not merely time given
for payment. A third benefit implied,
continuance in office. The policy adopted
in hope that it will ensure good be-
haviour in time to come (Ps. exxx. 4) ;
perfectly credible even in an Eastern
monarch.

Vv. 28-34. The other side of the pic-
ture. — Ver. 28. Iva t. crvvSovXuv a. : a
fellow -slave though a humble one, which
he should have remembered, but did not.

23— 3*.

EYMTEAION

243

6 Kupios tou SouXou ^Ketfou * direXucrev auToe, Kal to r Sdveioc d(j>f|Kef y here only
auTu. 28. 'E^eXvW 8e 6 SoGXos Ikcii'os 1 eupey iva r&v owSouXwy 8; xxiv.
auTou, os dj^eiXce auTw ^KaToy 8r|fdpia, Kai KpaTr')o-as auTOK * eTrmye, 2 here and
Xe'ywv, 'AttoSo? p.01 2 o ti 8 d<peiXeis. 29. mvliv ouV 6 o-uV8ouXo$ 13 (of
auToG els tous iroSas auToG 4 TrapeKdXei auToV, Xt'ywf, MaKpoOupvrjow ing),
ctt' €jxoi, 6 Kal Trdrra c diroSwo-a) ctoi. 30. 6 8e ouk rjGeXee, dXXd
direXOwy e'PaXci' auToy cis 4 >u ^ aK1 1 l '» ^ < °5 ou 7 dTroSw to d<p€tX6p.€yoi».
3/. t86rr£S 8e 8 01 auVSouXot auTou Ta y£f6u,eya eXuTff^Grjaac o"<f>68pa*

1 B omits cictivov here (W.H. in brackets) and ckcivos in ver. 28.

2 NBDL omit p.01.

3 fc^BCD and other uncials have et tw o ti (T. R.) only in minus., rejected by
modern editors.

* «is t. ir. ttvTov omitted in fc^BCDL and by modern editors.

8 So in fc^B and many uncials. CDL have eir' ep.e.

6 iravTa is feebly attested and unsuitable to the case.

7 €ws in fc^BCL. 8 *vy in NBD 33 e.

— Ikotov 8i]vdpta: some fifty shillings;
an utterly insignificant debt, which,
coming out from the presence of a king,
who had remitted so much to him, he
should not even have remembered, far
less been in the mood to exact. —
KpaTirj(ra9 a. swiyt : seizing, he choked,
throttled him, after the brutal manner
allowed by ancient custom, and even by
Roman law. The act foretokens merci-
less treatment: no remission of debt to
be looked for in this quarter. — dird8o$ ei
ti 6<f>. In the et ti some ingenious com-
mentators (Fritzsche, e.gj have dis-
covered Greek urbanity ! (" Non sine
urbanitate Graeci a conditionis vinculo
aptarunt, quod a nulla conditione sus-
pensum sit.") Weiss comes nearer the
truth when he sees in
of " merciless logic ".
payment of whatever
only a penny. — Ver. 29.
etc. : the identical words he used him-
self just a few minutes ago, reminding
him surely of his position as a pardoned
debtor, and moving him to like conduct.
— Ver. 30. otiK t)0£X.€v : no pity awakened
by the words which echoed his own
petition. " He would not." Is such
conduct credible? Two remarks may
be made on this. In parabolic narra-
tions the improbable has sometimes to be
resorted to, to illustrate the unnatural
behaviour of men in the spiritual sphere,
e.g., in the parable 01 the ieast (Lk. xiv.
16-24) a M refuse; how unlikely 1 But
the action ot the pardoned debtor is not
so improbable as it seems. He acts on

it an expression

He will have

is due, were it

p.a.KpO0U|AT]O'OI' |

the instinct of a base nature, and also
doubtless in accordance with long habits
of harsh tyrannical behaviour towards
men in his power. Every way a bad
man : greedy, grasping in acquisition of
wealth, prodigal in spending it, un-
scrupulous in using what is not his own.
— Ver. 31. ISovtcs ot <r. ^XvirTJ8r)o-av ;
the other fellow-servants were greatly
vexed or grieved. At what ? the fate of
the poor debtor ? Why then not pay
the debt ? (Koetsveld). Not sympathy
so much as annoyance at the unbecoming
conduct of the merciless one who had
obtained mercy was the feeling. — Steo-d-
«j>Tjo-av : reported the facts (narraverunt,
Vulg.), and so threw light on the charac-
ter of the man (cf. Mt. xiii. 36, W. and
H.). — Ty k. cavTwv, to their own master,
to whom therefore they might speak on
a matter affecting his interest. — Ver. 32.
8. TrovTjpe : the king could understand
and overlook dishonesty in money
matters, but not such inhumanity and
villainy. — ir. t. 6(J>€iXtjv. i. : huge, un-
countable. — lire! irapeicdXcads p.c, when
you entreated me. In point of fact he
had not, at least in words, asked re-
mission but only time to pay. Ungenerous
himself, he was incapable of conceiving,
and therefore of appreciating such mag-
nificent generosity. — Ver. 33. ovikcSci;
was it not your duty ? an appeal to the
sense of decency and gratitude. — Kal <ri
. . . TjXeT|o-a. There was condescension
in putting the two cases together as
parallel. Ten thousand acts of forgive-
ness such as the culprit was asked to

-44

KATA MATOAION

XVIII. 32-35.

Kai eXootTts biead(pi]«jai' Tip Kupiaj aunLf 1 rtdvTO. Ta yeyopeya.

32. Totc irpotfKaXtadp.ei'os auTiH' o Kupios auTou Xeyei auTio, AouXt

> Kom. xiii. Trornpt, irilaai' Tip' " dcpeiXip' tKCiHijc ui}>>|ku ctoi, eirel irapcKaXcads

vii. 3. pt • 33. ouk eSei Kai ae eXeTJaai rov owbouXdV aou, ws Kal eyoJ ae

T)X/naa; 34. Kal opyio-Oels 6 Kupios auTou irap^SojKey auToc tois
b here only b paaaKioTais, £109 ou d-rroSw Tray to 6<pei.X6pei'Ok' auTw. 3 35. Outw

Kal 6 TraTi']p pou 6 ^TToupdvios 8 Troii^orei upli', edc prj d<f>T)T€ tKaonros

tw dSeX(pu> auTou diro Tioy Kapoiuy up.wi' to irapairTolpaTa auTwv." *

1 cavTwv in fc^BC. D has avnov as in T. R. Vide below.

5 avTu omitted in BD (W.H.).

' ovpav los in jf^BDL. tirovpavio* is not found elsewhere in Mt

4 to irap. avTuv axe wanting in fc^BDLJ and most editors omit them.

perform would not have equalled in
amount one act such as he had got the
benefit of. The fact in the spiritual sphere
corresponds to this. — Ver. 34. opyio-Ocls:
roused to just and extreme anger. — (3ao-a-
vio-rals : not merely to the gaolers, but
to the tormentors, with instructions not
merely to keep him safe in prison till the
debt was paid, but still more to make
the life of the wretch as miserable as
possible, by place of imprisonment,
position of body, diet, bed, etc., if not by
instruments of pain. The word, chosen
to suit the king's mood, represents a
subjective feeling rather than an objective
fact.

Ver. 35. Application. — ovtus : so,
mutatis mutandis, for feelings, motives,
methods rise in the moral scale when
we pass to the spiritual sphere. So in
general, not in all details, on the same
principle ; merciless to the merciless. —
6 iraTrjp p. 6 ovp. : Jesus is not afraid to
bring the Father in in such a connection.
Rather He is here again defining the
Father by discriminating use of the
name, as One who above all things abhors
mercilessness. — pov : Christ is in full
sympathy with the Father in this. —
vipiv : to you, my own chosen disciples.
— eKao-Tos : every man of you. — airi
rwv KapSidiv : from your hearts, no sham
or lip pardon ; real, unreserved, thorough-
going, and in consequence again and
again, times without number, because
the heart inclines that way.

Chapter XIX. Farewell to Gali-
lee. In Mt.'s narrative the journey of
Jesus to the south, reported in ver. 1,
marks the close of the Galilean ministry.
Not so obviously so in Mk.'s (see notes
there), though no hint is given of a return
to Galilee. It is not perfectly clear

whether the incidents reported are to be
conceived as occurring at the southern
end of the journey, or en the way within
Galilee or without. The latter alterna-
tive is possible (vide Holtz., H.C., p. 214).
The incidents bring under our notice
a variety of interesting characters :
Pharisees with captious questions,
mothers with their children, a man in
quest of the sumtnum bonum, with words
and acts of Jesus corresponding. But
the disciplining of the Twelve still holds
the central place of interest. Last chap-
ter showed them at school in the house,
this shows them at school on the way.

Vv. 1, 2. Introductory, cf. Mk. x. 1. —
Ver. 1 . Kal lyt vcto . . . Xdyov; tovtous :
similar formulae after important groups
of logia in vii. 28, xi. I, xiii. 53. —
peTfjpev : also in xiii. 53, vide notes
there ; points to a change of scene
worthy of note, as to Nazareth, which
Jesus rarely visited, or to Judaea, as here.
— airo t. TaXiXaias. The visit to
Nazareth was a movement within Gali-
lee. This is a journey out of it not
necessarily final, but so thought of to all
appearance by the evangelist. — elsTaopia
t.'I.it. t. '!.: indicates either the desti-
nation = to the coasts of Judaea beyond
the Jordan ; or the end and the way =
to the Judaea territory by the way ol
Peraea, i.e., along the eastern shore of
Jordan. It is not likely that the writer
would describe Southern Peraea as a
part of Judaea, therefore the second
alternative is to be preferred. Mk.'s
statement is that Jesus went to the
coasts of Judaea and (Kal, approved read-
ing, instead of 81a tow in T. R.) beyond
Jordan. Weiss thinks that Mt.'s version
arose from misunderstanding of Mk.
But his understanding may have been a

XIX. i—5.

EYATTEA10N

245

XIX. i. KA1 lyivero ore. crtXeo-cv u 'Itjctous toi)s Xoyous toutous,
4 acr^pey diTO ttjs TaXiXaias, »cai rjXOer els Td opia Tqs 'louoaiaq aCh.xiii.53.
b Tre'pay tou 'lopodyou. 2. Kal TjKoXou'Qno-ai' auTw SxXoi ttoXXoi, Kal b Ch. iv. 15.
eOepdireuaev auTOus €K€i. 3. Kal TrpcxrfjXGoe aoTw 01 1 $apicraioi
rreipd£orr€9 auToV, Kal Xe'yorres auTw, 2 " Ei IIcotik dyGpwTrw s
d-n-oXikTai Tqy Y u,,a ^ Ka ttUTou ica-rd irdaaK atTiaK ; " 4. 'O Se
diroKpi8els eliref auTois, 4 " Ouk &viyv<t)Tt otw 6 Troiqaas 6 air'
dpxTJS ap<7Cf Kal Qr\\u eTroiir](T6K auTou's, 5. Kal etircv, '"EveKev
toutou KaTaXeiyei avapwiros Toy TraTepa Kai rr\v fiT]Tepa • Kai Eph.v.3i,
TrpoaKoXXTjSriaeTai tjj yuyaiKl outou, Kal eo-ovrai ol Su'o eis adpKa ^

1 01 omitted in BCLA al " avrto omitted in ^BCLZ al. D has it.

3 ^BL omit av9po>irci>. 4 fc^BDL omit aureus.

5 KTicras in B, I, 22, 33, 124, sah. cop. (W.H.).

8 The simple KoXXr]0T]creTai in BD al. (modern editors). The compound (T.R.) is
from the Sept.

true one, for Mk.'s statement may mean
that Peraea was the first reached station
(Holtz., H. C), implying ajourney on the
eastern side. The suggestion that the
writer of the first Gospel lived on the
eastern side, and means by irepav the
western side (Delitsch and others), has
met with little favour. — Ver. 2. tjkoXov-
6-qo-av : the crowds follow as if there
had been no interruption, in Mt. ; in
Mk., who knows of a time of hiding
(ix. 30), they reassemble (x. 1). — edcpd-
irevo-cv a. Ikci : a healing ministry com-
mences in the south ; in Mk. a teaching
ministry (x. 1).

Vv. 3-9. The marriage question (Mk. x.
2-9). — Ver. 3. <t>. ireipd£ovTes : Pharisees
again, tempting of course ; could not ask
a question at Jesus without sinister
motives. — A €|€o-riv : direct question in
indirect form, vide on xii. 10. — diroXWai
. . . Kara iraaav aiTiav : the question
is differently formulated in the two
accounts, and the answer differently
arranged. In Mk. the question is abso-
lute = may a man put away his wife at
all ? in Mt. relative = may, etc. ... for
every reason ? Under the latter form
the question was an attempt to draw
Jesus into an internal controversy of the
Jewish schools as to the meaning of
Deut. xxiv. 1, and put Him in the
dilemma of either having to choose the
unpopular side of the school of Shummai,

who interpreted ""D^ TVDV strictly,

or exposing Himself to a charge of
laxity by siding with the school of
Hillel. It was a petty scheme, but

characteristic. Whether the interrogants
knew what Jesus had taught on the sub-
ject of marriage and divorce in the
Sermon on the Mount is uncertain, but
in any case all scribes and Pharisees
knew by this time what to expect from
Him. For ica-rd in the sense of propter,
vide instances in Hermann's Viger, 632,
and Kypke. — Ver. 4. ovk avt'-yvurs : the
words quoted are to be found in Gen. i.
27, ii. 24. — 6 KTicras : the participle with
article used substantively = the Creator.
— d-rr' apxTJs goes along with what
follows, Christ's purpose being to em-
phasise the primitive state of things.
From the beginning God made man, male
and female ; suited to each other, need-
ing each other. — cipcrev ical 8f\\v : " one
male and one female, so that the one
should have the one ; for if He had
wished that the male should dismiss one
and marry another He would have made
more females at the first," Euthy. —
Ver. 5. Kal etirev : God said, though the
words as they stand in Gen. may be a
continuation of Adam's reflections, or a
remark of the writer. — cvckcv tovtov :
connected in Gen. with the story of the
woman made from the rib of the man,
here with the origin of sex. The sex
principle imperiously demands that all
other relations and ties, however inti-
mate and strong, shall yield to it. The
cohesion this force creates is the greatest
possible. — ol Bvo : these words in the
Sept. have nothing answering to them
in the Hebrew, but they are true to the
spirit ol the original.— els o-dpKa p.£av :
the reference is primarily to the physical

246

KATA MATBAION

XIX.

fiiac;' 6. ware ouk^ti etai 8uo, dXXd adp£ p.ia • 8 ouv 6 0eos
1 ncre «nd d aui'€^eo|ek', dVGpwrros p.)] x w P l ^ TW - 7- Atyoucrii' aim!, " Tt ouV

9. Mwaijs ^£Tei\aTo SoCyai PipXiov diTOcrraaiou, Kal dTToXuaat aurrje 1 ;"

t Mk. x. 5; 8. At'yei auTois, ""On Mwarjs Trpos tt)c •o-KXnpoica.poiak' up-wk eW-

(Deut. x. Tped/ey up.IV diroXOaai Tas yufaiKas up.UK ■ dir' dpxrjs $e 00 yeyofcv

xvi. 10) outu. 9. X^yw 8« up.iK, on 2 os dy diroXuar] tt]*' yuKcuKa auToG, ci

(Johnxviii. . , x ' 3 < ' »\\ - v 1 ? \ \ 1

14 (accus. p.*| eiri ■n-opkeia, Kai ya.u.ii(rr| aArXrji', p.oixuTai • Kai o a7ro\€Aup.t^r|i'

and inf.). , „ 114 .- ■• >^c a * » » k k _i

a Cor. xii. yap.r|CTa9 u.oixaTCu. * IO. Atyourjii' auTw 01 p.aOr|Tai ciutou, Ei

here). outws ^crrii' f\ aiTia tou dvflpwTrou p.«Td ttjs yuvaiKos, 00 ' avpfyipei

1 fc^DLZ omit ovttjv. a BDZ old Lat. verss. omit on.

: p.T] for ft p/r) in most uncials. The explanatory it (T. R.) is only in minus
BD have TraptKros \oyou rropveias, followed by iroiei avTTjv p.oix«v9r|vai in B.

4 The clause icai o a-rroX. yapi-jo-as poixo-Tai is omitted in fc^DLI but found in
BCAZ. The true reading is doubtful and the passage has puzzled editors.

8 fc$B omit ovtov, found in the greater number of uncials.

fleshly unity. But flesh in Hebrew
thought represents the entire man, and
the ideal unity of marriage covers the
whole nature. It is a unity of soul as
well as of body : of sympathy, interest,
purpose. — Ver. 6. ware with indicative,
expressing actual result as Christ views
the matter. They are no longer two,
but one flesh, one spirit, one person. —
o oviv : inference from God's will to
man's duty. The creation of sex, and
the high doctrine as to the cohesion it
produces between man and woman, laid
down in Gen., interdict separation. Let
the Divine Syzygy be held sacred !
How small the Pharisaic disputants must
have felt in presence of such holy teach-
ing, which soars above the partisan
views of contemporary controversialists
.nto the serene region of ideal, universal,
eternal truth 1

Vv. 7-9. t( oviv, etc. : such doctrine
could not be directly gainsaid, but a
difficulty might be raised by an appeal to
Moses and his enactment about a bill of
divorce (Deut. xxiv. 1). The Pharisees
seem to have regarded Moses as a
patron of the practice of putting away,
rather than as one bent on mitigating its
evil results. Jesus corrects this false
impression. — Ver. 8. irpos t., with
reference to. — o~K\T|poKap8£av : a word
found here and in several places in O. T.
(Sept.), not in profane writers ; points to
a state of heart which cannot submit to
the restraints of a high and holy law,
literally uncircumcisedness of heart
(Deut. x. 16 ; Jer. iv. 4).— lirirpetytv,
permitted, not enjoined. Moses is re-
spectfully spoken of as one who would

gladly have welcomed a better 6tate of
things ; no blame imputed except to the
people who compelled or welcomed such
imperfect legislation (vpwv twice in ver
8). — Air' dpxrjs, etc. : the state of things
which made the Mosaic rule necessary
was a declension from the primitive
ideal. — Ver. 9, vide notes on Mt. v. 31,32.
Vv. 10-12. Subsequent conversation
with the disciples. — Christ's doctrine on
marriage not only separated Him toto
ccelo from Pharisaic opinions of all
shades, but was too high even for the
Twelve. It was indeed far in advance of
all previous or contemporary theory and
practice in Israel. Probably no one
before Him had found as much in what
is said on the subject in Gen. It
was a new reading of old texts by one
who brought to them a new view of
man's worth, and still more of woman's.
The Jews had very low views of woman,
and therefore of marriage. A wife was
bought, regarded as property, used as a
househo'd drudge, and dismissed at
pleasure — vide Benzinger, Heb. Arch.,
pp. 138-146. — Ver. 10. atria: a vague
word. We should say: if such be the
state of matters as between husband and
wife, and that is doubtless what is
meant. So interpreted, alria would =
res, conditio. (So Grotius.) Fritzsche
regards the phrase ^ atria t. a. p.. r. y.
as in a negligent way expressing the
idea: if the reason compelling a man to
live with a wife be so stringent (no
separation save for adultery). If we inter-
pret alria in the light of ver. 3 (Kara ir.
alriav) the word will mean cause of
separation. The sense is the same, but

5—14.

EYAITEAION

247

ya|AT]crai." II. "O oe etirei' auTois, "Oo irdrres 'x^poucri rbv \6yovgt Cor. vii.
toutoj', 1 d\X' 01s Se'SoTm. 12. ear! ydp h euVou)(oi, oitikcs €K h Acts viii
KotXtas /XT)Tpos €yevvr\9f](rav outw • nai dcriv euVouxoi, oiTif«s euVou-
\icr9r\aav uiro rutv &e6p(tf-rrwi> ' icai eiai** euVouxoi, oiTifes euVouxicray
eauTOus cud t^\v flacnXtiay twc oupaf&e. 6 Suydu.cyos x u P € "'
X^peiTW." iLk. xxiii.2

13. Tots -irporrnf^x^ 1 '] 2 ciutw iraiSta, iva Tas x e ^P a S «"""L0-rj auTois, 6;xxiv.aj!
xal irpocreu|r]Tat • 01 8^ jiaflnTal ^TrcTi|AT|crav aurois • 14. o 8e 2J (same
'lupous elirec.* ""A4>€T€ tA ircuSia, xal u.t) * kwXuctc auTa eXOeti' and inf.).

1 B Orig. omit tovtov (W.H.).

1 fc$BCDL and most other uncials have the pi. irpo<rr)vex9T]crav. The sing. (T.
R. after late uncials) is a gram. cor. to correspond with neut. pi. nom. (iraiSia).

* fc^CDL add av-roi«. (Tisch., W.H. in margin).

in any view the manner of expression is
somewhat helpless, as was not unnatural
in the circumstances. Euthy. gives both
meanings — aiTia o"u£vyias and al-rta
SiaHe-uyvvova-a, with a preference for the
former. — AvOptiirov here = vir, maritus ;
instances of this use in Kypke, Palairet,
etc.

Ver. 11. ASiclTrev. Jesus catches up
the remark of the disciples, and attaches
to it a deeper sense than they thought
of. Their idea was that marriage was
not worth having if a man must put up
with all the faults and caprices ofa woman,
without possibility of escape, except by
gross misconduct. He thinks of the
celibate state as in certain cases desirable
or preferable, irrespective of the draw-
backs of married life, and taking it even
at the best. — rbv \6yov thus will mean :
what you have said, the suggestion that
the unmarried condition is preferable. —
Xpov<ri = capere, receive, intellectually
and morally, for in such a case the two
are inseparable. No man can understand
as a matter of theory the preferableness
of celibacy under certain circumstances,
unless he be capable morally of appre-
ciating the force of the circumstances. —
AXX* ots 8c'8oto.i : this phrase points
chiefly to the moral capacity. It is not
a question of intelligence, nor of a
merely natural power of continence, but
of attaining to such a spiritual state that
the reasons for remaining free from
married ties shall prevail over all forces
urging on to marriage. Jesus lifts the
whole subject up out of the low region
of mere personal taste, pleasure, or con-
venience, into the high region of the
Kingdom of God and its claims. — Ver.
12 is an explanatory commentary on

SlSoTai. — eivovx°s : keeper of the bed-
chamber in an Oriental harem (from
«{ivt), bed, and ex w )> a jealous office,
which could be entrusted only to such
as were incapable of abusing their trust ;
hence one who has been emasculated.
Jesus distinguishes three sorts, two
physical and one ethical : (1) those born
with a defect (l-yevv^frntrav oiJtcjs) ; (2)
those made such by art (evivovxta-OTjaav
vnri Twy avOpcuTrwv) ; (3) those who
make themselves eunuchs (tvvovxwav
JavTovs).— 81a tt)v p. t. o., for the King-
dom of Heaven's sake. This explains
the motive and the nature of ethical
eunuchism. Here, as in xv. 17, Jesus
touches on a delicate subject to teach
His disciples a very important lesson,
i/ig., that the claims of the Kingdom of
God are paramount; that when necessary
even the powerful impulses leading to
marriage must be resisted out of regard
to them. — 6 Svvafievos x t "P € ' y X^P*^™ :
by this final word Jesus recognises the
severity of the demand as going beyond
the capacity of all but a s«lect number.
We may take it also as an appeal to the
spiritual intelligence of His followers =
see that ye do not misconceive my mean-
ing. Is not monasticism, based on vows
of life-long celibacy, a vast baleful mis-
conception, turning a military requirement
to subordinate personal to imperial in-
terests, as occasion demands, into an
elaborate ascetic system ?

Vv. 13-15. Children brought for a
blessing (Mk. x. 13-16; Lk. xviii. 15-17).
— Ver. 13. tots : if the order of the
narrative reflect the order of events,
this invasion by the children was a
happy coincidence after those words
about the sacred and indissoluble tie of

248

KATA MAT9AI0N

XIX.

j f»r «onst. wpos f*.€ * • J Tiif ydp toiou'twv early r| fiaaiXeia twi' oupavwy."

iii. 11 ; vi. r S' Kal ^wiOeU auTOis Tas x c ip a ?<" tTopeu'Or] tKei0cv.

k h?'re and J 6. KAI iSoii, els TTpoaeXSwv eltrev ciutw, 3 " AiodaKaXe dyaOc', 4 Tl

and parai!. d Y atfo " t^ 1 ™ ^ ^a «x w tw^v aiuviov ; 17. O 8s tliTci' auT<o,

Ch. xxv.

*6. Lk. x. J 5> *' or '^ e iummum bonum in Synop. Gospels.

1 fie in BCD ; tpc in fc^LA.

2 fc^BDLA place avrois after x €t p a s (Tisch., W.H.). 3 ^B have avTco ciirev.

* fc$BDL Orig. Hil. omit aya6«, which probably comes in from the parall., to which,
indeed, Mt.'s version has been assimilated throughout (ver. 17) in T.R.

* trxw in BD Orig. (W.H.).

marriage and the duty of subordinating
even it to the claims of the kingdom.
— irpoornv€'x0T]o-av, passive, by whom
brought not said, the point of the story
being how Jesus treated the children. —
iva t. x- ctt 1.0-jj, that he may lay His
hands on them : the action being con-
ceived of as present (Klotz ad Devar,
p. 61S). — koA irpoo-«v|T)Tai : the imposi-
tion of hands was a symbol of prayer
and blessing, possibly in the minds of
those who brought the children it was
also a protection from evil spirits (Orig.).
— «ir€Ti(AT)o-av avTois : the av-rois ought
in strict grammar to mean the children,
but it doubtless refers to those who
brought them. The action of the dis-
ciples was not necessarily mere officious-
ness. It may have been a Galilean
incident, mothers in large numbers
bringing their little ones to get a parting
blessing from the good, wise man who
is leaving their country, unceremoniously
crowding around Him, affectionately
mobbing Him in a way that seemed to
call for interference. This act of the
mothers of Galilee revealed how much
they thought of Jesus. — Ver. 14. o4>£T€.
pr] kuXtjcts : visits of the children never
unseasonable; Jesus ever delighted to
look on the living emblems of the true
citizen of the Kingdom of God; pleased
with them for what they were naturally,
and for what they signified. — toiovtcov,
of such, i.e., the child-like ; repetition
of an old lesson (xviii. 3). — Ver. 15.
liropevO-n €K€i9ev ; He departed thence,
no indication whence or whither. The
results of this meeting are conceivable.
Christians may have come out of that
company. Mothers would not forget
Him who blessed their children on the
way to His cross, or fail to speak of the
event to them when they were older.

Vv. 16-22. — A man in quest of (he
" summum bonum" (Mk. x. 17-22; Lk.
xvifi. 18-23). A phenomenon as welcome

to Jesus as the visit of the mothers with
their children : a man not belonging to
the class of self-satisfied religionists of
whom He had had ample experience ;
with moral ingenuousness, an open
mind, and a good, honest heart; a mal-
content probably with the teaching and
practice of the Rabbis and scribes coming
to the anti-Rabbinical Teacher in hope
of hearing from Him something more
satisfying. The main interest of the
story for us lies in the revelation it
makes of Christ's method of dealing
with inquirers, and in the subsequent
conversation with the disciples.

Ver. 16. ISov, lo ! introduces a story
worth telling. — els : one, singled out
from the crowd by his approach towards
Jesus, and, as the narrative shows, by
his spiritual state. — AiSdo-icaXe : this
reading, which omits the epithet ayaQe,
doubtless gives us the true text of Mt.,
but in all probability not the exact terms
in which the man addressed Jesus. Such
a man was likely to accost Jesus
courteously as " good Master," as Mk.
and Lk. both report. The omission of
the epithet eliminates from the story the
basis for a very important and charac-
teristic element in Christ's dealing with
this inquirer contained in the question ;
" Why callest thou me good ? " which
means not "the epithet is not applicable
to me, but to God only," but " do not
make ascriptions of goodness a matter of
mere courtesy or politeness ". The case
is parallel to the unwillingness of Jesus
to be called Christ indiscriminately. He
wished no man to give Him any title of
honour till he knew what he was doing.
He wished this man in particular to think
carefully on what is good, and who, all
the more that there were competing
types of goodness to choose from, that
of the Pharisees, and that exhibited in
His own teaching. — ri aYaOov Troi^crw .
the d-YaGov is omitted in the parallels,

15 — 20.

EYAITEAION

249

" Ti fie Xeyeig AyaOov ; ouSels dya66<;, ei fjuj e*s, 6 0€<5s. €i Se

9A.cis eio-eXOeu- ei? Tqv £wrjv, 2 ' T^p-ncrof 3 Tas evToXag." 18. Ae'yeil Ch. xxiii.

1 ^ ; xxvui.

auTw, " m ["lotas;" 'O os 'irjaous elite, "To, ou (poveucreis • ou 2o(insense

' > c> r \ ofobscrve).

u.oi)(€uo"€is • ou kXe'i|;€is • ou \j/co8ou.apTupria€is • 19. Tipa tov m Ch. xxii.

iraTe'pa o-ou 4 Kal rr\v u.r)T€pa • kcu, dyaTrqo-eis tov ttXyjctioi' ctou us

aeauToV." 20. Aryei auTw 6 veaviaKos, " ndrra TauTa 5 e<puXa|d-

1 For the clause ti |i€ Xeyeis . . . fooq in T. R., JtfBDL, many verss. (including
Syr. Cur. and Sin.) Orig. read ti u.« eporas irepi tov a-ya0ov ; «is €o-tiv o a-yaGos.
which the R. V. and most modern editors adopt. Harmonistic assimilation is
probably responsible for the T. R.

2 NBCDL P lace «<«X0eiv after Jwrjv.

s Ti)p» in BD. * ^ BCD omit o-ow. s t<m»toi iravTa in BD.

but it is implied: of course it was some-
thing good that would have to be done
in order to obtain eternal life. What
good shall I do ? Fritzsche takes this as
not = quid boni faciam ? but = quid,
quod bomtm sit, faciam ? that is, not =
what particular good action shall, etc.,
but = what in the name of good, etc.
This is probably right. The man wants
to know what the good really is . .
that by doing it he may attain eternal
life. It was a natural question for a
thoughtful man in those days when the
teaching and practice of the religious
guides made it the hardest thing possible
to know what the good really was. It is
a mistake to conceive of this man as
asking what specially good thing he
might do in the spirit of the type of
Pharisee who was always asking, What is
my duty and I will do it ? (Schottgen).
Would Jesus have loved such a man, or
would such a man have left His presence
sorrowful ? — Jwtjv aVuvtov : an alternative
name for the summum bomtm in Christ's
teaching, and also in current Jewish
speech (Wiinsche, Beitr&ge). The King-
dom of God is the more common in the
Synoptics, the other in the fourth Gospel.
— Ver. 17. ti (is tpcoTas, etc. : it seems
as if Jesus thought the question super-
fluous (so Weiss and Meyer), but this
was only a teacher's way of leading on
a pupil = "of course there is only one
answer to that : God is the one good
being, and His revealed will shows us
the good He would have us do ". A
familiar old truth, yet new as Christ
How opposed to current
know from Mt. xv. 4-9. —
etc., but, to answer your
etc. — Ti^p-ei (-tjctov)
a vaguer direction then than it
to us now. We now think only

meant it.
teaching we
ei 8e bi\t>.<
question directly, i

T. €V.

seems

of the Ten Words. Then there were
many commands of God besides these ;
and many more still of the scribes,
hence most naturally the following ques-
tion. — Ver. 18. iroias ; not =Ttvas
(Grotius), but what sort of commands:
out of the multitude of commands divine
and human, which do you mean ? He
had a shrewd guess doubtless, but
wanted to be sure. Christ's reply
follows in this and subsequent verse,
quoting in direct form prefaced with r6
the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and
fifth commands of the Decalogue with
that to love a neighbour as ourselves
from Lev. xix. 18. This last Origen re-
garded as an interpolation, and Weiss
thinks that the evangelist has introduced
it from xxii. 39 as one that could not be
left out. If it be omitted the list ends with
the fifth, a significantly emphatic position,
reminding us of Mt. xv. 4, and giving to
the whole list an antithetic reference to
the teaching of the scribes. In sending
the. inquirer to the second table of the
Decalogue as the sum of duty, Jesus
gave an instruction anything but common-
place, though it seem so to us. He was
proclaiming the supremacy of the
ethical, a most important second lesson
for the inquirer, the first being the
necessity of using moral epithets care-
fully and sincerely. From the answer
given to this second lesson it will appear
whereabouts the inquirer is, a point
Jesus desired to ascertain.

Vv. 20-22. 6 vcavurieot, the youth ;
whence known ? from a special tradition
(Meyer) ; an inference from the expression
ex veoTTjT^s [i.ov in Mk. x. 20 (Weiss). —
e<j>v\a|a (-ajjujv). Kypke and Eisner take
pains to show that the use of this verb
(and of ry\ptlv, ver. 17) in the sense of
obeying commands is good Greek. More

2 5

KATA MAT0A10N

XIX.

firjf ^k fe<5Ti]T<5s uou ■ • ti en uorepui;" 2T. 'E$r\ ciutu) A *lr](roCs,
a vidt Ch. v. " Ei 0<Xeis " tAcios ctvcu, u-rraye, ° TrwXiiaov aou to inrdpxovTa,
0Ch.xlii.44. Kai 86s tttoixois • Koi e£cis drjoaopii' iv oupaeu * • kcu p Seupo,

xi. j8 (pi. d.Ko\ou'0€i pot." 22. 'AKOuaas 8« 6 peaeiaKo? top Xoyov, 8 dirT]X0«

J«uTt). Xoiroujiek-os • fjl* yap ex t0K KrrjpvaTa* iroXXd.

23. O 8e 'lr](ToCs €itt€ tois ua0t]Tais outou, " 'ApV Xfyu ifl.lv,
q here nnd -, „ 5 ,. x , n > \ » « \ r> \ ' •>

In parail. 0T1 * ouctkoaws rr\ouo-ios eiffCAeuacTai eis tt|k pao-iXeiap TWf

1 For c4>v\a£anTiv (K vcottjto? (tov (from the parail.) ^BL have simply €<J>vXa£a.

• «v ovpavoi; in BCD.

8 tov Xoyov (as in T. R.) in CD ; tov Xo-yov tovtov in B (W.H. in brackets).

4 B has xp*ltA°-Ta, which even W.H. have disregarded.

6 irXovo-ios SvotkoXus in J^BCDLZ 33.

important is it to note the declaration
the verb contains : all these I have kept
from youth. To be taken as a simple
fact, not stated in a self-righteous spirit
(Weiss- Meyer), rather sadly as by one
conscious that he has not thereby reached
the desired goal, real rest in the highest
good found. The exemplary life plus
the dissatisfaction meant much : that he
was not a morally commonplace man,
but one with affinities for the noble and
the heroic. No wonder Jesus felt in-
terested in him, " loved him " (Mk. x. 21),
and tried to win him completely. It may
be assumed that the man appreciated
the supreme importance of the ethical,
and was not in sympathy with the
tendency of the scribes to subordinate
the moral to the ritual, the commands of
God to the traditions of the elders. —
rl ?ti vo-Ttpw : the question interesting
first of all as revealing a felt want : a
good symptom ; next as betraying per-
plexity = I am on the right road, accord-
ing to your teaching ; why then do I not
attain the rest of the true godly life ?
The question, not in Mk., is implied in
the tone of the previous statement,
whether uttered or not. — Ver. 21. «1
8^Xes tAcms clvoi (on rAeios vide v.
48) : if you wish to reach your end, the
true life and the rest it brings. — vvayt,
etc. : go, sell off, distribute to the poor,
and then come, follow me — such is the
advice Christ gives: His final lesson for
this inquirer. It is a subjective counsel
relative to the individual. Jesus sees he
is well-to-do, and divines where the evil
lies. It is doubtful if he cares passionately,
supremely for the true life ; doubtful if
he be tcXcios in the sense of single-
mindedness. It is not a question of one
more thing to do, but of the state of the
heart, which the suggestion to sell off

will test. The invitation to become a
disciple is seriously meant. Jesus, who
repelled some offering themselves, thinks
so well of this man as to desire him for a
disciple. He makes the proposal hope-
fully. Why should so noble a man not
be equal to the sacrifice ? He makes it
with the firm belief that in no other way
can this man become happy. Noblesse
oblige. The nobler the man, the more
imperative that the heroic element in
him have full scope. A potential apostle,
a possible Paul even, cannot be happy as
a mere wealthy merchant or landowner.
It is " a counsel of perfection," but not
in the ascetic sense, as if poverty were
the sure way to the higher Christian
life ; rather in the sense of the adage : of
him to whom much is given shall much
be required. — Ver. 22. . aTTTjXOtv : he
would have to go away in any case, even
if he meant to comply with the advice in
order to carry it into effect. But he
went away Xvirovjievos, in genuine dis-
tress, because placed in a dilemma
between parting with wealth and social
position, and forfeiting the joy of dis-
ciplehood under an admired Master.
What was the final issue? Did "the
thorns of avarice defile the rich soil of
his soul " (Euthy. ), and render him per
manently unfruitful, or did he at last
decide for the disciple life ? At the
worst see here the miscarriage of a really
noble nature, and take care not to fall
into the vulgar mistake of seeing in this
man a Pharisee who came to tempt
Jesus, and who in professing to have
kept the commandments was simply a
boastful liar. (So Jerome: " Non voto
discentis sed tentantis interrogat . . .
mentitur adolescens ".)

Vv. 23-27. Conversation ensuing (Mk.
x. 23-27 ; Lk. xviii. 24-27). — Ver. 23.

21 — 27»

EYAITEAION

2qi

oupciywe. 24. irdXiv' Se Xeyw up-ty, euKoirwrepoV ^<rri r KdfiTjXoc 8m r Ch. iii. »
TpuTrvjfj.aTos l pa<pi8os JieXOetc, tj TrXouaiOf els tJji' [3acriXeiai> tou
0€ou eiCTeX^eic." 25. 'AKOu'acurcs Sfi 01 p.a0>]ral uutou 9 e^eTrXqc-
dorro a4>d5pa, XeyofTeSj "Tis Spa SuVotch crwQfjv'ai; 26. EjipXe*-
\J/as Se 6 'iqarous curef auTOis> ""llapd dkOpwirois touto dSuVaToy
e'ffTi, * -rrapd 8e 0ew irdvra SucaTa Ioti. * sRom. ii. 11

27. Tots airoKptosis o neTpos curey auTu, looo, t)ja«is a<pi]Kau,ev I4 ).

1 TpT)fiaTos in fc^B.

2 The majority of uncials have etoreX8eiv (i isch.), but EDX have SieXfieiv as in T. R.
This reading requires «ur€X8eiv in the next clause (so in BD).

3 clvtov wanting in fc^BCDLZA.

4 can is omitted in BCA al. Though found in parall. (Lk.), from which it has
probably been imported, the sentence is more impressive without it.

ap,T)v, introduces as usual a solemn utter-
ance. — irXov<rios : the rich man is brought
on the stage, not as an object of envy or
admiration, which he is to the worldly-
minded, but as an object of commiseration.
— 8vctkoX<i)s elcreXevatTai, etc. : because
with difficulty shall he enter the Kingdom
of Heaven. This is stated as a matter of
observation, not without sympathy, and
not with any intention to pronounce
dogmatically on the case of the inquirer
who had just departed, as if he were an
absolutely lost soul. His case suggested
the topic of wealth as a hindrance in the
divine life. — SvckoXus : the adjective
SwkoXos means difficult to please as to
food (Svs, k<5Xov), hence morose ; here
used of things, occurs only in this saying
in N. T. — Ver. 24. irdXiv SJ \iyw : re-
iteration with greater emphasis. The
strong language of Jesus here reveals a
keen sense of disappointment at the loss
of so promising a man to the ranks of
disciplehood. He sees so clearly what
he might be, were it not for that miserable
money. — evKoirwTepov.etc: a comparison
to express the idea of the impossible.
The figure of a camel going through a
needle-eye savours of Eastern exaggera-
tion. It has been remarked that the
variation in the parallel accounts in
respect to the words for a needle and its
eye shows that no corresponding proverb
existed in the Greek tongue (Camb.
G. T.). The figure is to be taken as it
stands, and not to be " civilised " (vide
H. C.) by taking Kap.i]Xos (or icdp-iXos.
Suidas) = a cable, or the wicket of an
Oriental house. It may be more legiti-
mate to try to explain how so grotesque
a figure could become current even in
Palestine. Furrer suggests a camel
driver leaning against his camel and

trying to put a coarse thread through
the eye of a needle with which he sews
his sacks, and, failing, saying with
comical exaggeration : I might put the
camel through the eye easier than this
thread (Tscht., fur M.und R.). — Tpi]p.aTos
from TiTpdw, to pierce. — pacfuSos, a
word disapproved by Phryn., who gives
peXovT| as the correct term. But vide
Lobeck's note, p. 90. It is noticeable
that Christ's tone is much more severe
in reference to wealth than to wedlock.
Eunuchism for the kingdom is optional ;
possession of wealth on the other hand
seems to be viewed as all but incom-
patible with citizenship in the kingdom.
Ver. 25. l5 £-7r X-ricr<rovTO acfioSpa : the
severity of the Master's doctrine on
wealth as on divorce (ver. 12) was more
than the disciples could bear. It took
their breath away, so to speak. — tIs
dpa, etc. : it seemed to them to raise the
question as to the possibility of salva-
tion generally. The question may re-
present the cumulative effect of the
austere teaching of the Master since the
day of Caesarea. The imperfect tense of
l£cirXi]o-(rovTo may point to a continuous
mood, culminating at that moment. — Ver.
26. ep-PXeij/a? denotes a look of observa-
tion and sympathy. Jesus sees that He has
made too deep an impression, depressing
in effect, and hastens to qualify what He
had said : " with mild, meek eye sooth-
ing their scared mind, and relieving their
distress " (Chrys., Horn, lxiii.). — irapa
dvOpwirois, etc. : practically this re-
flection amounted to saying that the
previous remark was to be taken cum
grano, as referring to tendency rather
than to fact. He did not mean that it
was as impossible for a rich man to be
saved as for a camel to pass through a

252

KATA MATBAION

XIX. 28—30

wdira, nal f|KoXou0vj<raiifV aoi • Ti opa eorai tJjiii';" 28. 'O St

It](tous tliTev aoTOis, " 'Au.rji' \4yta ofiif, on u|ieus 01 dKoXou9r'|crai'Tt'S

1 Tltn»ili. j. u.01, £v Tjj ' ■nahiyytvtaia, oTac Kadia-p, o uio? tou dfdpuiTou ijt\

Qpovov 86'r)<; auTou, Ka9icrecr9e ical up.eis l liri SwBeKa Opovous,

n I.k. xiii. " Kpivorre9 tAs SwSeKa AuXds tou 'lapariX. 20. Kal iras 6s 2
30. 1 Cor. #

vi. a, 3. de^xey oUias, fj dSeXi$>ous, fj d8eX<pds, fj iraTefpa, fj u.rjWpa, f|

»Lk in. 13. yuyaiica, 8 fj T^Kj'a, i] dypous, y Zvtn.*v too rVouciTos pou, 4 <?KaTorra-

TrXaaioKa 9 X^erai, Kal £wt)k aiuviov KXv]pofou.r]o-€i. 30. iroXXol

8« ecorrai irpuToi e<r\aroi, icai ?<T)(aToi irpuToi.

1 fc>*;DLZ have kol cm-rot (Tisch.), Kai vp«is in BCX, which Weiss thinks
a mechanical conformation to vu.ci« in first clause. W.H. retain i/peis, but in
brackets.

J oo-Tis in most uncials. ' BD omit tj yvvaiKa — a most probable omission.

4 tov «fiov ovou.oTos in fr$B. B TroXXairXatriova in BL.

needle-eye, but that the tendency of
wealth was to act powerfully as an ob-
structive to the spiritual life.

Vv. 27-30. A reaction (Mk. x. 28-31;
Lk. xviii. 28-30). — Ver. 27. elirtr Si PI. :
from depression the disciples, repre-
sented by Peter, pass to self-complacent
buoyancy — their natural mood. — tBov
points to a fact deserving special notice
in view of the recent incident. — •f||«is,
we, have done what that man failed to
do : left all and followed Thee. — ti apa,
etc. : a question not given in Mk. and
Lk., but implied in Peter's remark and
the tone in which it was uttered : what
shall be to us by way of recompense ?
Surely we shall attain what seems so
hard for some to reach. — Ver. 28. ifitjv :
introducing a solemn statement. — vp,«is
ol 4k. : not a nominative absolute
(Palairet, Observ.), but being far from
the verb, vp.«is is repeated (with koA)
after Ka0ic-£o-9«. — tv r. iraXivytveo-Ca to
be connected with ica0ccr<o-0e following.
This is a new word in the Gospel vocabu-
lary, and points to the general renewal
— " re-genesis (nova erit genesis cui
praeerit Adamus ii., Beng.)" — in the end
of the days, which occupied a prominent
place in Jewish apocalyptic hopes. The
colouring in this verse is so strongly
apocalyptic as to have suggested the
hypothesis of interpolation (Weizsacker),
or of a Jewish-Christian source (Hilgen-
feld). It is not in the parallels, but
something similar occurs in Lk. xxii. 30.
Commentators translate this promise, so
strongly Jewish in form, into Christian
ideas, according to their taste, reading
into it what was not there for the
disciples when it was spoken. — Ver. 2q.
General promise for all faithful nnes. —

dStX^o-u?, etc. : detailed specification of
the things renounced for Christ. — ttoXXo-
irXaaiova Xtj\|(«tou : shall receive mani-
foldly the things renounced, i.e., in the
final order of things, in the new-born
world, as nothing is said to the con-
trary. Mk. and Lk. make the com-
pensation present. — xeX £wt)v aluviov :
this higher boon, the summum bonum,
over and above the compensation in
kind. Here the latter comes first; in
chap. vi. 33 the order is reversed. — Ver.
30. woXXoi Si co-ovTdi, etc., but many
first ones shall be last, and last ones
first. Fritzsche reverses the meaning =
many being last shall be first, so making
it accord with xx. 16. The words are so
arranged as to suggest taking irpiT. «rx>
and ?o-x- irp«T. as composite ideas, and
rendering : many shall be first-lasts, and
last-firsts = there shall be many reversals
of position both ways. This aphorism
admits of many applications. There are
not only many instances under the same
category but many categories : e.g., first
in this world, last in the Kingdom of
God (e.g., the wealthy inquirer and the
Twelve) ; first in time, last in power and
fame (the Twelve and Paul) ; first in
privilege, last in Christian faith (Jews
and Gentiles) ; first in teal and self-
sacrifice, last in quality of service through
vitiating influence of low motive (legal
and evangelic piety). The aphorism is
adapted to frequent use in various con-
nections, and may have been uttered on
different occasions by Jesus (cf. Lk. xiii.
30: Jew and Gentile), and the sphere ol
its application can only be determined
by the context. Here it is the last of
those above indicated, not the first, as
Weiss holds, also Holtzmann (H. C),

XX. i—6.

EYAITEAION

253

XX. I. 'Oiiota yap ^° rTtv ' "*] PauiXc a tujv oupavuie dvOpwTra)
oiicoSecnroTT], Saris t^TjXOei' ap.a -frpan aia9<oo-aa0ai epyaTas els
to*' diiircXwva auTou. 2. (rup.<jjwvqaas $e ueTa Twy epyaTwc * eK
'Srji'apiou tt)c r|p.epaf, dire'ffTeiXec auTous els toc dp-ireXwca auTou.
3. Kal t^eXOwe b iV€pl Tijf 1 TpiTT]f (Spay, elSec dXXoug eorwTas iv
tt] dyopa * dpyous ■ 4. KaKeieois 2 diree, 'YudyeTC Kal up.ets eis toc
dpyireXwea, Kal o edv t] oiKaioe Swa-w ujxIk. 01 8e dTrrjXOof.

5. fldXic 3 e|eX0wi' ircpl Ikttji' Kal el'i'dTTjf wpar ^iroujaey uoauTws.

6. riepl he. TT]f evSeKaTTji' wpac 4 e|eX0a>f, ivpev dXXous eaTwras
dpyous, 5 Kal Xe'yei auTots> Ti wSe ^OTqKaTe d oXn/ TTjf Tjuepay dpyoi ;

a Cf. Ch.

xxvii. 7.

Lk. xvi. ci

Acts i. 18
b Ch. xxvii.

46. Act-

x. 9.
c Ch. xii. 36

1 Tim. v.

13. Titus

i. 12.

d Rom. viii
36; X. 21.

1 -rrjv (T. R.), found in A, is omitted in ^BCD.

2 So in CDLI ; icai ctceivois in fc$B and many others.

3 Sc after iraXiv in ^CDL,33. BX omit 8c (W.H, in brackets).

* NBDL omit oipav (Tisch., W.H.). B ftBDL omit apyovs (Tisch., W.H.).

though admitting that there may be
reference also to the self-complacent
mood of Peter. The 8« after iroXXoi
implies that this is the reference. It
does not introduce a new subject, but a
contrasted view of the same subject.
The connection of thought is : self-
sacrifice such as yours, Peter, has a
great reward, but beware of self-com-
placency, which may so vitiate the
quality of service as to make one first in
sacrifice last in the esteem of God.

Chapter XX. Parable of the
Hours ; Two Sons of Zebedee ;
Blind Man at Jericho.

Vv. 1-16. Parable of the hours, peculiar
to Mt., and, whatever its real connection
as spoken by Jesus, to be interpreted
in relation to its setting as here
given, which is not impossible. The
parable is brought in as illustrating the
aphorism in xix. 30. — Ver. 1. 6p.oia
Yap etc. : "yip points back to previous
sentence about first-lasts and last-firsts.
— dv9. oIkoS. : vide xiii. 52. — ap.a •n-put: at
early dawn (similar use of £p.ain classics),
at the beginning of the day, which was
reckoned from six to six. — p,io-0wcrao-0ai :
hiring has a prominent place in this
parable, at the first, third, sixth, ninth,
eleventh hour. Why so many servants
wanted that day ? This feature obtains
natural probability by conceiving that it
is the season of grape-gathering, which
must be done at the proper time and
promptly ; the more hands the better
(Koetsveld, De Gelijk.). — Ver. 2. Ik
Srjvaptov : on the basis of a penny ; the
agreement sprang out of the offer, and
acceptance, of a denarius as a day's wage

(so Meyer,Weiss,etc.).— tt)v ripepav = per
diem, only a single day is contemplated
in the parable.— Ver. 3. rp(.rt\v St. : the
article ri\v before Tpfrrrjv in T. R., omitted
in W. H., is not necessary before an
ordinal. — tiriiras I. t. d*y. : the market-
place there as here, the place where
masters and men met. — ap-yous (a and
ep-yov), not = idle in habit, but unem-
ployed and looking for work. — Ver. 4.
Kal vucls : he had got a fair number of
workers in the morning, but he is pleased
to have more for an urgent piece of
work. The expression has reference to
the Master's mood rather than to the
men's knowledge of what had taken
place at the first hour. — o 4dv Sikqiov :
no bargain this time, only a promise of
fair equitable dealing, will be just at
least, give in proportion to length of
service ; privately intends to do more, or
at least is that way inclined. — Ver. 5.
eiroitjcev uiravTu; : repetition of the
action at sixth and ninth hours ; more
men still on similar footing. — Ver. 6.
irepi 82 t^|v IvSck. : the Se marks this
final procedure as noteworthy. We
begin to wonder at all this hiring, when
we see it going on even at the last hour.
Is the master a humorist hiring out of
benevolence rather than from regard to
the exigencies of the work ? Some have
thought so (Olshausen, Goebel, Koets-
veld), and there seems good ground for
the suggestion, though even this un-
usual procedure may be made to appear
probable by conceiving the master as
anxious to finish the work on hand that
day, in which case even an hour's work
from a sufficient number of willing hands

254

RATA MAT6AI0N

XX.

e Lk. viii. 3.
Gal. iv. ;.

I I W xxiii. 5;
xxiv. 27,
47. A. is
i. 22, etc.

K Lk. ix. 3;
x. 1. John
ii. 6. Rev.
Iv. 8; xxi.
21.

h Lk. t. 30

(rrpos Ttra).

John vi.

41,61 (ir«pi

Tieo?); vi.

43 (M"'
aXAijAcui').
I Cor x.
io(absol.).
i Acts xv. 33

7. Xfyouaiy auTui, "On ouSels i?jpas £|j.to0ojaaTo. \lyei atJTOis,
YirdytTC Kal uutls els Toy dp.TreXwftt, Kal 8 ia.v r\ oiKatof Xi]t|/ca0e.*
S. Ot|uas 8e yefope'rns Xeyet, ° xuptos tou dfxneXwt'os tw * eiriTpoTTuj
auToG, KdXeaok tous ipyuTas, Kat diroSos auTOts 2 Toy piaGor, ' dp£d-
pefos ' diTo twc l(j\d.jii)v tws Tail' irpwTWf. 9. Kal eXGorres 8 01 Trepl
•n]v e^SeKarrjf wpay eXaPov * &va * Bi)pdplOl'. 10. e'XGofTes 8e 4 ol
irpuiTOi evoptaav on TrXetoya 6 XrjvJ'oeTai • Kat eXa|3oK Kal auTol &.va
SYjfdptoK. II. XaPocTes 8c eydyyu^oy xaTa too oiKoScairoTou,
1 2. Xeyorrcs, "Oti 7 outoi 01 ctrxaToi play wpay ' 6TroiT)o-af, Kal
iffous T^fJitK outous 8 eiroiTjaas, tois paaTdaaai to |3dpos Tijs ^pepas
2 Cor xl. 25. James it. 13.

1 The words *ai o tav . . . Xr|v|/cor0< come in from vei. 4, and are wanting in

NBDLZ.

3 avT-ois wanting in J^CLZ, but found in BD and many other uncials (W.H. in
margin).

1 So in fr$CL and many other uncials ; cXOovtcs 8c in BD (W.H.).

• K at tXeovTts in BCD (W.H.). * wXeiov in BCNZI.

6 ava 8t)v. Kal avroi in fc^BLZ. 7 fr$BD omit oti.

8 avTovs Tjutv in fr^DLZ. BCN as in text. W.H., former in text, latter in mar-
gin.

may be of value. — t£ &8t to-TiJKaTe, etc.,
why stand ye here (lo-nJK., perfect
active, neuter in sense, and used as a
present) all the day idle ? The question
answers itself: no man would stand all
the day in the market-place idle unless
because he wanted work and could not
get it. — Ver. 7. viraycTe Kal •ufiels :
these words said this time with marked
emphasis =you too go, though it be so late.
This employer would probably be talked
of among the workers as a man who had
a hobby — a character ; they might even
laugh at his peculiar ways. The clause
about payment in T. R. is obviously out
of place in this case. The pay the last
gang were entitled to was not worth
speaking about.

Vv. 8-12. The evening settlement. —
Ver. 8. dpSapevos ; a pregnant word,
including not only the commencement of
the process of paying but its progress.
There is an ellipsis, Kal cX0uv being
understood before ecus (Kypke). Grotius
thinks this does not really mean
beginning with the last comers, but
without regard to order of coming in,
so that no one should be overlooked.
He fails to see that the idiosyncrasy of
the master is a leading point, indeed the
key to the meaning of the parable. This
beginning with the last is an eccentricity
from an ordinary everyday-life point of

view. The master chooses to do so :
to begin with those who have no
claims. — Ver. g. avd 8r)vdpiov, a denarius
each ; ova is distributive = " accipiebant
singuli denar.". For this use of dvd vide
Herrmann's Viger, p. 576. — Ver. 10. ol
irpwToi : the intermediates passed over,
as non-essential to the didactic purpose,
we arrive at the first, the men hired on
a regular bargain in the morning. —
cvoptcrav : they had noticed the paying
of the last first, and had curiously
watched to see or hear what they got,
and they come with great expectations :
twelve hours' work, therefore twelve times
the sum given to the one-hour men.— Kal
axiroi: surprising 1 only a penny 1 What
a strange, eccentric master 1 He had
seen expectation in their faces, and
anticipated with amusement their chagrin.
The money was paid by the over-
seer, but he was standing by enjoying
the scene.— Ver. n. lyoyyvt,ov : im-
perfect ; the grumbling went on from
man to man as they were being paid ; to
the overseer, but at (koto) the master,
and so that he could overhear. — Ver. 12.
Their grievous complaint. — ov-rot, these,
with a workman's contempt for a sham-
worker. — «-7roiT|o-av. Some (Wetstein,
Meyer, Goebel, etc.) render, spent =
they put in their one hour :