an MMi ______ ,,m m »m.mmmm*».* m . 8KNS885 V,. . ...— HHI . _.. ' p0* t t\\c ^hcoJojjini/ », ""in,,,.. PRINCETON, N. J. >, Shelf. Division J. \Q. ( S<»<-/»0« (t.jA..l.Vt?.W Mtmter..l.Q Christ Teaching in tub SrNAGOorB From Alexander Bida. THE New Testament, WITH Notes and Comments. ACCOMPANIED WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS, By Rev. LYMAN ABBOTT. MATTHEW AND MARK. NEW YORK AND CHICAGO: A. S. BARNES & COMPANY. LONDON, ENGLAND : HODDER & STOUGHTON. 1876. BY THE EDITOR OF THIS WORK. A POPULAR COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW AND MARK, with Notes, Comments, Maps, and Illustrations ; also, an Introduction to the study of the New Testament, a condensed Life of Christ, and a tabular Harmony of the Gospels. 400 pp. 8vo. Cloth, bevelled. Price $2.50. LUKE AND JOHN; in preparation. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, with Notes, Comments, Maps, and Illustrations ; also, an Introductory Treatise, Chronological Table and Gazetteer. 262 pp. 8vo. Cloth, bevelled. $1.75. Copyright, 1875, A. S. Barnes & Co. HEC. NOV 18o0 THBOLOGIG^ PREFACE,\^ THE object of this Commentary is to aid in their Christian work those who are endeavoring to promote the knowledge of the principles which Jesus Christ came to propound and establish — clergymen, Christian parents, Sunday-School teachers, Bible-women, lay-preachers. Intended for Christian workers, it aims to give the results rather than the processes of scholarship, the conclusions rather than the controversies of scholars ; intended for laymen as well as for clergymen, it accompanies the English version of the New Testament, in all references to the original Greek gives the English equivalent, and translates all quotations from the French, German, Latin and Greek authors. The introduction on pages 31-34, contains a statement of those principles of interpretation which appear to me to be essential to the correct understanding of the Word of God. This Commentary is the result of a conscientious endeavor to apply those principles to the elucidation of the New Testament. It is founded on a careful examination of the latest and best text ; such variations as are of practical or doctrinal importance are indicated in the notes. It is founded on the original Greek ; wherever that is inadequately rendered in our English version, a new translation is afforded by the notes. The general purpose of the writer or speaker, and the general scope of the incident or teaching, is indicated in a Preliminary Note to the passage, or in an analysis, a paraphrase, or a general summary at the close. Special topics, such as The Baptism, The Temptation, The Trial, and The Crucifixion of Jesus are treated separately in preliminary or supplementary notes. This volume contains thirty such excursus. The results of recent researches in Biblical archaeology have been embodied, so as to make the Commentary serve in part the purpose of a Bible Dictionary. A free use is made of illustrations, from antiques, photographs, original drawings, and other trustworthy sources. They are never employed for mere ornament, but always to aid in depicting the life of Palestine, which remains in many respects substantially unchanged by the lapse of time. Since the Commentary is prepared, not for devotional reading, but for practical workers, little space has been devoted to hortatory remarks or practical or spiritual reflections. But I have uniformly sought to interpret the letter by the spirit, and to suggest rather than to supply moral and spiritual reflections, a paragraph of hints is affixed to each section or topic, embodying what appears to me to be the essential religious lessons of the Yl PREFACE. incident or the teaching ; sometimes a note is appended elucidating them more fully. The best thoughts of the best thinkers, both exegetical and homiletical, are freely quoted, especially such as are not likely to be accessible to most American readers ; in all such cases the thought is credited to the author. Parallel and contrasted passages of Scripture are brought together in the notes ; in addition, full Scripture references are appended to the text. These are taken substantially from Bagster's large edition of the English version of the Polyglot Bible, but they have been carefully examined and verified in preparing for the press, and some modifications have been made. For the convenience of that large class of Christian workers who are limited in their means, I have endeavored to make this Commentary, as far as practicable, a complete apparatus for the study of the New Testament. When finished it will be fully furnished with maps ; — there are four in this volume ; a Gazetteer gives a condensed account of all the principal places in Palestine, mentioned in our Lord's life ; and an introduction traces the history of the New Testament from the days of Christ to the present, giving some account of the evidence and nature of inspiration, the growth of the canon, the character and history of the manuscripts, the English version, the nature of the Gospels and their relation to each other, a brief life of Christ, and a complete tabular harmony of the four Gospels. The want of all who use the Bible in Christian work is the same. The wish is often for a demonstration that the Scripture sustains the reader's peculiar theological tenets, but the want is always for a clearer and better knowledge of Scripture teaching, whether it sanctions or overturns previous opinions. I am not conscious that this work is written in the interest of any theological or ecclesiastical system. In those cases in which the best scholars are disagreed in their interpretation, the different views and the reasons which lead me to my own conclusions have been given, I trust, in no controversial spirit. For the sole object of this work is to ascertain and make clear the meaning of the Word of God, irrespective of systems, whether ecclesiastical or doctrinal. No work is more delightful than that which throws us into fellowship with great minds ; of all work the most delightful is that which brings us into association with the mind of God. This is the fellowship to which the student of the Bible aspires. I can have for those who use this work no higher hope than that they may find in its employment some of the happi- ness which I have found in its preparation, and that it may serve them as it has served me, as a guide to the Word of God, and through that Word to a better acquaintance with God himself. CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON, May, 1875. LYMAN ABBOTT. TABLE OF CONTENTS. / INTRODUCTION. PAGE Nature op the New Testament 11 Origin and Authority 13 Evidences of Inspiration 14 Limits op Inspiration 16 New Testament Canon 17 The Text 25 Ouk English Version 28 Principles of Interpretation 31 Relation of the Gospels to each other 34 Origin of the Gospels 36 Harmony of the Gospels 38 Life of Christ 40 Tabular Hakmony of the Gospels 44 THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW. Introduction to the Gospel of Matthew 49 Map of Palestine 50 Gazetteer 51 Supplementary Notes in Matthew — Names of Jesus 57 Birth of Jesus 64 Baptism of Jesus 72 Temptation of Jesus 77 The Sermon on the Mount 83 Christ's Principles respecting Retaliation 96 Christ's Teaching respecting Care 108 Judging our Fellow-men 109 Demoniacal Possession 123 The Publicans 126 yiii TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE The Twelve Apostles : Their Liyes and Character 147 John's Embassy to Jesus 152 Brethren of our Lord 187 The Foundation op Christ's Church 201 Lessons of the Transfiguration 210 Christ's Law of Divorce 224 Christ's Blessing of Little Children 226 Christ's Discourse on the Last Days ^ 253 Marriage Ceremonies in the East 268 The Lord's Supper 283 The Lessons of Gethsemane 293 The Trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrim 297 The Denial of Peter 301 Lessons from Peter's Denial 304 Character and Career of Judas Iscariot 307 The Crucifixion 312 The Nature of Crucifixion 315 The Resurrection of Jesus 330 THE GOSPEL OF MARK. Introduction to the Gospel of Mark 335 Supplementary Notes in Mark — Ceremonial Washings 366 Authenticity of Mark 16 : 9-20 39 9 LIST OF ILLUSTR. Chkist Teaching in the Synagogue. Frontispiece. page Bethlehem. Looking west from the Convent of the Nativity 57 Fisherman Casting his Net. Near Magdala 81 The Posture at Meal 127 Ancient Bottle 130 Staff and Scrip 138 Grain Basket ; Travelling Basket 198 Ancient Key 203 Tetadrachm or Stater 212 Denarius — A Penny 242 Phylactery in use 247 Fringed Garment 247 The Temple of Herod 257 The Cloak 261 An Eastern Mill 266 A Modern Marriage Procession in Jerusalem 269 Assyrian Lamps 270 Lamp and Trimmer 271 A Shekel 281 Reclining at Meal 282 Roman Wine Cups 285 Egyptian Cups 285 Garden of Gethsemane : Jerusalem in the Background 290 The Mach^era ^ 295 Interior Courtyard of Oriental House 303 Plan of Oriental House 303 Scourges 311 Scarlet Robe 312 Crown of Thorns 312 The Reed 312 Golgotha 314 The Three Crosses 315 Hyssop 318 X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Two Centurions 320 Road from Bethany to Jerusalem 333 A Grabatus 344 Ancient Candle-stick 350 Ancient Skiff 353 Tomb at Gadara 355 Ancient Mourning Women 359 Tools of an Egyptian Carpenter 360 Staff, Scrip and Skin Bottle 362 Sandals— Shoes 362 The Charger 363 Executioner 363 Modern Hand- washing 366 Loaves of bread 371 Tower of Tiberias 371 Treasury Boxes 389 Diagram of jEwisn Sepulchre 396 Plan of Tomb Door or Golal 397 Tomb Door 397 MAPS AND PLANS. Sketch Map illustrating the Journeyings of our Lord 41 Map of Jerusalem in the Times of Christ 278 Map of Galilee. Showing the miracles and journeyings of our Lord in its neigh- borhood • • 342 P R I IT El TON THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, THE New Testament consists of twenty-seven distinct documents, written by nine, perhaps ten, different authors. They were written without concert of action, at different times, for different purposes, and addressed to different readers. They differ also in character and style ; some of them are historic, some of them philosophic and didactic, one is poetic and prophetic. They were all composed during the first century after Christ, in the Greek language— unless Matthew's Gospel was first written in Hebrew — and the manuscript copies have long since perished. Thus our English New Testament is a translation from a Greek original, which is itself a copy of copies, the original bein°- no longer in existence. I propose in this Introduction to trace the history of the New Testament from its origin to the present day ; to point out the central principle which unites these documents in one harmonious book ; to state the reasons which have led the Christian Church to regard them as in a peculiar sense inspired by God; to give briefly the evidences which satisfy the Church that these books were really written by the authors whose names they bear; to describe the difficulties which Christian scholars have encoun- tered in ascertaining what was the text of the original manuscripts, and how they have overcome those difficulties ; and to narrate the history of our present English translation, indicate some of its defects, and the principles adopted in this Commentary in the endeavor to afford the Christian student aid in its interpretation. I propose then further to describe the characteristics of the Gospels, and their relations to each other ; to point out the seeming discrepancies and real harmony in their accounts ; to indicate the prin- cipal features in the earthly life of Jesus Christ ; and finally to furnish a table of the Evangelical narratives, arranged in parallel columns, so as to enable the student to fill out and complete this sketch in detail. PART I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. I. Its Nature. — The word Testament means covenant or agreement. It is gener- ally so translated. 1 This meaning lingers in the phrase " last will and testament," The will of a deceased is his last testament because it is his last covenant, the last agreement which he can make, one which often has to be accepted and finally executed by his heirs. It appears very clearly in the institution of the Lord's Supper. In the hospitable East a meal was the customary method of at once celebrating and sealing a treaty or compact, as is smoking the pipe of peace among the North American Indians, or the payment of a sum to bind the bargain in our more commercial age and nation. Christ, therefore, imme- diately before his death, arranged for a supper with his disciples, as a method of both 1 Ab in Acts 3 : 25; Gal. 3 :1B, 17 ; 4 : 34 ; and in many places in Hebrews. 12 THE NEW TESTAMENT. sealing and celebrating bis compact or covenant with his Church ; and taking the cup of wine, he pledged his disciples in it with the words, " This cup is the new testament (i. e., the new covenant) in my blood, which is shed for you." 1 Thus every recurring communion season emphasiz.es the meaning of this word Testament, and repeats the solemn ratification of the compact between Christ and his people. The New Testament, then, is God's own covenant or agreement with man.' The opening chapter of Matthew intimates the character of this covenant. The angel, in announcing the advent of the Son of God, says to Joseph, " Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." The closing chapter of the Book of Revelation intimates the answer to the question, Who are his people ? " Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." The New Testament, then, is God's promise to save from the present and future punishment of sin all those who come to Him for such salvation. It is not a book of rules for the government of conduct ; that is, it is not a new law. It is not a book of philosophy, respecting either human or divine nature ; that is, it is not a new theology. It is simply what its name implies, a new covenant on God's part to save from sin those who come to him, in child-like trust, for such salvation. This is a very simple truth ; but it is fundamental to a right interpretation of the book. The New Testament may be regarded as consisting of three kinds of books, (1) his- toric, (2) philosophic and didactic, (3) prophetic ; though each of these elements is to be found in all the books. 1. The four Gospels and the Book of Acts are mainly historic. The first afford us our only information concerning the life and teachings of Jesus Christ ; the second gives an account of the results, in the early church, of the work of the Divine Spirit, whom Christ, at the time of his death, promised to send to the disciples after his ascension. These five books constitute the foundation on which the superstructure of the New Testament is built; the historical basis for the new covenant which Paul in his Epistles analyzes and interprets, and the fulfilment of which John, in the Book of Revelation, pictorially describes. 2. The Epistles, most of which were written by Paul, are philosophic and didactic. They explain the necessity for such a covenant as the New Testament, its nature, the conditions on which we can avail ourselves of it, the consequences of rejecting it, the results of accepting it, in spiritual life, in the individual and the community, in the present world and the hereafter; they contain wise counsels to Christians how best to promote the general acceptance of this covenant by Jew and Gentile ; and with vehement rhetoric they urge its acceptance upon the reader. These Epistles, of which I shall write more fully in the introduction to the volume which contains them, differ in character, scope, and purpose. Some of them were written as circular letters to the church at large, some of them to individual churches, some of them to personal friends. They contain, therefore, some personal allusions and practical advice, which are only indirectly applicable to our own time, and some counsels in respect to church organization and church work, which are not, however, to be interpreted as ecclesiastical laws, but as illustrations of those principles of organic action which will render the church efficient in proclaiming the privileges of the new covenant to others. 3. The only purely prophetic book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation. Its object is to disclose the final fulfillment of the new covenant or agreement of God in 1 Luke 22 : 20. ■ Thin covenant is distinctly stated in .Tcr. 31 : 31-34, qnotcd in Ilebrews 8 : 8-12. The difference between the old covenant and the new is indicated by comparini: tbfl IngMga Of the third commandment, "Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandment* " (Exod. 20 : 6), with that of Paul, " God who is rich in mercy, for his preat love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Ephee. 2 : 4, 6. ITS ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY. 13 the second coming of Jesus Christ, the complete and final overthrow of sin and suffering, and the manifest and perfect triumph of God and godliness throughout the universe. Thus it will be seen that the New Testament is not a mere collection of independent and disconnected treatises, but a harmonious whole, in which the new agreement or promise of God is first set forth in the life and death of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit ; second, explained and enforced by the arguments of Paul and his apostolic contemporaries ; and finally disclosed in its fulfillment in the vision of John the prophet- apostle. II. Its Origin and Authority. — If the New Testament is a new covenant, there must be a covenantor. If it is a promise that God will do for man what man cannot do for himself, it must in a peculiar sense come from God, or it is not what it pretends to be. For example, if we suppose the declaration, " He shall save his people from their sins," was directly authorized by God, it is a divine promise on which we can with assurance rely ; if not, it only expresses the opinion which a Roman tax-gatherer of the first century entertained upon the subject, and is of no particular value. In other words, the divine origin and authority of the book is involved in its nature, and indeed in its very title. If it were a book of moral philosophy, i. e., if its object were to tell us how to conduct ourselves in this life, or if it were a book of theological philosophy, i. e., if its object were to teach, either by analogies drawn from nature, or by appeals to our own intuition, truths about God and our own souls, it might be uninspired and still valuable. But if it is an agreement on God's part to save his people from their sins, it must be inspired by God; otherwise it is not a divine covenant to do, but only a human opinion concerning what God is likely to do. If it is not inspired it is no New Testament. Accordingly we find throughout the book the claim, or rather the quiet assumption, of that divine origin and authority which is implied in its very title. Jesus Christ himself, at twelve years of age, declares to his mother that he has come to earth to do hi3 Father's business; 1 he is repeatedly said by the Evangelists to be acting under the influence of the Divine Spirit; 2 he declares to the Jews in Jerusalem that he speaks to the world those truths which he lias received from his Father; 3 he declares to his disciples that the Father dwells in him, and that the words which he speaks he speaks not of himself, but from the Father which sent him and dwells in him ; 4 and in solemn prayer he reasserts that the words of truth which he has taught them the Father gave to him for that purpose. 5 He promises to his disciples before his death that he will not leave them alone, but will come unto them and dwell in them ; 6 that the Holy Ghost shall be their teacher and shall quicken their remembrance of their Master's teaching ; 7 and after his resurrection, when he gives them their final commission, he promises to be with them in all their work, even to the end of the world. 8 The opening chapter of the Book of Acts records the beginning of the fulfillment of these promises in the visible manifestation of the presence of the Spirit of God. In the first apostolic sermon Peter refers to a prophetic promise of inspiration contained in the Old Testament, and declares that the day of its fulfillment has arrived ; 9 and the subsequent portions of the Book of Acts contain on almost every page accounts of its further fulfilment. 10 Throughout the Epistles the writers assume to speak, not their own opinions, but the truths which they have been taught of God. They not only declare in general terms that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 'Luke 2 : 49 'Matt. 3: 16; Luke 2: 40; 4: 14,18; John 3: 34; Actsl:2; 10:38; Romans 1: 4 » John 8 : 28 4 John 14 : 10, 24. ... 5 John 17 : 8 e John 14 : 17-19 7 John 14 : 26 ; 16 : 7, 13-15. Com- pare Matt. 10 : 19, 20 ; Luke 12 : 12 ■ Matt. 28 : 20. Compare Acts 1 : 4. 5, 8 'Acts 2 : 4, 16-18, 33 10 Acts 4: 8, 31; 6 : 10; 7 : 55; 8 : 29; 10 : 19, 20; 13:2,4,9-11,52; 15:28; 16:6; 19 : 6 ; 20 : 22, 23, 28. 14 THE NEW TESTAMENT. Holy Ghost ' — these declarations apply primarily only to the Old Testament— but they also declare of their own ministry and of the Gospel of the New Testament, that it is the "power of God," the "word of God," the "word of the Lord," "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God," " the commandments of the Lord," the " word of Christ," a " more sure word of prophecy " even than the Old Testament, spoken " in demonstration of the Spirit," in " words which the Holy Spirit teacheth," and preached " with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 3 If this claim be not true, the book not only ceases to be trustworthy as a promise or covenant of God, it also ceases to be trustworthy as a moral or spiritual guide. For, if the writers of the New Testament were not thus guided and impelled by the Spirit of God, if they w 7 ere not the authorized bearers of a Divine promise to man, then they were either impostors or visionaries, the perpetrators of a fraud or the victims of a delusion. And neither impostors nor visionaries are safe and trustworthy spiritual guides. III. Evidences of its Inspiration. — The claim of the New Testament writers that they speak by the authority of God, and under the impulse and inspiration of the Spirit of God, has been generally regarded as well founded by the great majority of those who have studied their writings and the history of the effects which they have produced upon the human race. It is impossible to do more here than summarize very briefly some of the principal considerations which have led to this conclusion. 1. It is the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, confirmed by the history and expe- rience of the Christian Church, that God dwells in the hearts of his children, that he guides, comforts, and strengthens them, that the soul was not made to live alone, but in constant communication with God, and that the influence of the Spirit of God, thus vouchsafed to the spirit of man, is always adapted to his needs. Thus the doctrine of the special inspiration of the sacred penmen is only part of the more general doctrine of the inspiration of all who will accept the divine guidance. 2. The history of the human race shows that there is a need of some more definite and explicit instruction concerning moral and spiritual truth and life than is afforded by the analogies of nature or the intuitions of uninstructed conscience. Without it no people have attained a high state of intellectual, political, or social civilization, still less a high state of moral and spiritual culture. 3 Without an inspired book the human race is with- out any adequate knowledge of God or the future life, without any reliable assurance of pardon for past sin or provision of escape from future sin, and without any trustworthy and immutable standard of human duty or ideal of human character. 3. This need, interpreted by the universal craving for inspired oracles, writings, or priests, is supplied by the Bible. This book or series of books reveals a paternal God, whose love satisfies the filial yearning of the soul for a heavenly Father ; it reveals a future life, which satisfies both the requirements of justice and the aspirations after immortality; it not only promises divine pardon on the condition of repentance ami faith, but upon such an historical basis that its assurances do actually afford peace of mind to the believer, as no other religion does; it promises, on like conditions, divine help in change of life and character, and the help afforded in innumerable instances, in moral and ■2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1 : 21 MCor. 1 : 18 ; 2:4, 12, 13; 11:37; Col. 3 : 16; 1 These. 2; 13; 1 Tim. 1:11; I Peter 1:13,95; BPeterl:19. Compare, also, Acta 10: 88; 80:84; Bom. 15 : 88 ; 16:85,88; 80or.4:4; 6:4; Gal. 1:11, 12, Hi; Ephea, 3 : !t ; C: 17; Col. 1 : 26 ; Ileb. 2 : 4 ; 1 Tim. 6i 8; I John I : 6. It can hardly h.- Decenary to refer the reader to passages in the Book of Revelation, un ■<• that lean unmeaning dream except it be rega rded an an Inspired virion. ■ Let him who doubts this statement, and cites the Greeks and Romansas exceptions, study Pressense's The Religions before Christ, or even Gibbon's or Lecky's descriptions of Roman and Grecian civilization. Or let the reader compare Paul's description of Roman morals, in Romans, chapters I and II, with any of the ancient historians, for they fully justify it. EVIDENCES OF ITS INSPIRATION. 15 spiritual changes, not only in individuals but in entire communities, is the best evidence of the origin and trustworthiness of these promises ; it affords in the law of love a perfect and an inflexible standard of character, applicable to all ages, classes, and conditions of men ; and it affords in the life of Jesus Christ a perfect ideal of human life and character, which all can follow and which none have ever surpassed. 4. The supreme excellence of the precepts and principles of the Bible negative the hypothesis that they were the uninspired productions of the men who transcribed them. It is easier to believe that the Ten Commandments were inspired by God than to believe that they were wrought out by a man whose sole training was derived from a Hebrew slave mother, an Egyptian court, and the life of a Midianitish shepherd ; easier to believe that the Sermon on the Mount, and the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John, were inspired by God, than to believe that they were the intellectual production of a Galilean carpenter. The lives which then, and ever since, those have lived who have received the Bible as the Word of God, when compared with the lives of the heathen who have not received its influences, afford also a perpetual evidence that those precepts and principles are of superhuman origin, and possess a superhuman inspiring power. 5. The unity of the Bible indicates that one Supreme intellect directed the various writers by whom its books were composed. It consists of sixty-six separate treatises, written by between forty and fifty different writers, living centuries apart, sj>eaking dif- ferent languages, subjects of different governments, brought up under different civiliza- tions. Over fifteen hundred years elapsed between the writings of Moses and those of John. All forms of literature — law, history, biography, poetry, oratory, and philosophy — are contained in the Bible. Yet the same substantial truths are taught by all these various writers, and the moral and spiritual unity of the Bible is such that probably few of its readers ever realize that it is, humanly speaking, the product of so many individual minds. Unity of design in the Scriptures proves that there was one designer, as the unity in the architectural design of the cathedral, which is the construction of many dif- ferent hands, proves the supervising skill of the architect who planned and directed its construction. 6. The fulfilment in the New Testament of prophecies recorded in the Old Testament, and the fulfilment in later times of prophecies recorded in the New Testament, prove that at least those portions which are prophetic were the work of Him who sees the end from the beginning, and afford a sign and seal of the inspiration of the other portions of the sacred writings. 7. The miracles authenticate the divine authority of those who wrought them. Chris- tianity as a system of truth and duty does not, indeed, depend upon the miracles. But to those who accept the New Testament as an authentic narration of actual events, the miracles demonstrate that Christianity possesses the divine sanction, since they could have been wrought only by divine power. To this authentication of their authority frequent reference is made by the writers of the New Testament. 1 8. The testimony of those writers is in itself not a demonstration of their inspiration, but it is an evidence thereof. That they claim to be inspired, and that Christ promised them such inspiration, we have already seen. If this claim is unfounded we must believe either that they were impostors, pretending to an inspiration which they knew they did not possess, or visionaries, believing themselves to possess an inspiration which they did not in fact possess. The heroism and self-sacrifice of their lives prove that they were not impostors ; the excellence of their doctrine proves that they were not visionaries. In brief, to the great body of thoughtful men it will always seem more natural to believe that the writers of the Bible wrote and spoke under the special influence of the Spirit of 1 Mark 16 : 20 ; John 10 : 25 ; Rom. 15 : 18, 19 ; Heb. 2: 4. 16 THE NEW TESTAMENT. God, than to suppose that they belong in the same category with either Mohammed or Joe Smith. 9. Finally, if the New Testament be not inspired, Christianity is not a divine covenant, but only a human system of theology and ethics. There is no trustworthy revelation con- cerning the nature and will of God, no assurance of divine pardon for sin, no provision of divine grace for the tempted. And in fact those philosophies which reject the Bible as the inspired Word of God teach that God is unknowable, or that there is no other God than nature, that his will cannot be ascertained, or is only manifested in natural law, physical and social, and that there is no forgiveness of sins, but that every man must bear in his own person the penalty of his transgressions, and work out by the force of his own will his own redemption. IV. Limits of Inspiration. — The word Inspiration means literally "in-breath- ing." The doctrine that the New Testament is inspired of God is the doctrine that the penmen in writing it acted under an influence from God, which conferred upon their minds and hearts a pow T er greater than their own, or, as stated by Peter, that " holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 1 The manner in which this Divine influence acted upon their minds, and the extent to which it affected them and their writings, is nowhere distinctly stated in Scripture. There are various theological theories upon this subject, which I do not think it necessary to recount here. They may all be reduced to two general classes — the doctrines respectively of verbal inspiration and of moral inspiration. By verbal inspiration is meant the immediate communication by God to the writers, of every word which they wrote. " I believe," says Tregelles, " the sixty-six books of the Old Testament and New Testament, to be verbally the Word of God, as absolutely as were the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God upon the two tables of sto ie." 2 So Hooker 3 says of the prophets, " they neither spake nor wrote any word of their own, but uttered syllable by syllable as the Spirit put it into their mouths." That certaii .passages may have been written thus, as it were, by Divine dictation, the writers b ing mere amanuenses, is possibly true ; that the chief portions of the New Testament vere thus written, is, I think, clearly not true. This method does not accord with God's general principles of action, which are to work in us and icith us, helping our infirmities, not to relieve us of all responsibility and do the work in our stead. It does not accord with the claims of the sacred writers, who indeed, nowhere distinctly define the limits of inspiration, but who do very distinctly imply the existence of a human element, of personal thought and study in tl e writing. 4 It does not accord with those variations in style, expression, thought, and eve i teaching, which give individuality to each of the sacred books, which make the three Gospels so different in style, that of John so different from the other three in subject-mat' er, and the Epistles of James and of Paul so different in the phases of truth which they respectively exhibit. It does not accord with the verbal, and even more than verbal discrepancies which are notable where two or more writers narrate the same event. Many such instances are afforded by a comparison of the parallel accounts of the three Synoptic Gospels. In the four variant reports of the inscription on the cross 5 is a striking illustration of a discrepancy which is just such as we should expect from independent historians, who to a large extent relied upon their own memory, or upon the recollection of others, but is utterly irreconcilable with the theory that they recorded as amanuenses what the Holy '2 Peter 1 : 21. The true rendition of this passage, "holy men spake from God," intensifies its meaning i but does not otherwise modify it ■ Quoted in McWhorterV Hand Book of the New Testament, page 23 ■ Quoted in Lee on inspiration, page 35 * See for example Luke 1 : 3 ; 2 Pet. 1 : 21 * Matt. 27 : 37 ; Mark 15 : 26 ; Luke 23 : 38 ; John 19 : 19. THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON. 17 Spirit dictated to them. 1 This theory does not accord with the subsequent history of the New Testament. For we have not the original words in which the books were written ; with the exception of a few scholars, the great majority of Bible readers are dependent upon a confessedly uninspired translation of a confessedly uninspired copy. Finally, the apostle distinctly declares that the letter killeth, while the Spirit maketh alive ; and a theory of verbal inspiration, i. e. of the inspiration of the words and letters, so far from quickening the spiritual impulse to a reverent study of the essential truths of the Bible, produces a directly opposite effect, and is neither productive of Scriptural scholarshij) nor true spiritual culture. By moral inspiration is meant such a divine quickening of the natural faculties of the sacred writers, that, while they used their own memory, reason, and religious and intellectual culture, they were protected from all such errors as would impair the value of their writings as instruments for religious instruction and spiritual impulse, or, in other words, that they were inspired just so far as was necessary to make their writings ''profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Minor errors in science, in chronology, in dates, diversities in forms and methods of expression, partial and fragmentary utterances, 2 immaterial discrepancies and apparent inconsistencies in different narrations of the same event, do nothing to shake the faith of those who hold this theory of inspiration. It allows, too, the opinion that the inspiration of different books is of a different kind, and that the same degree of authority is not to be attached to the books of Ruth and Esther as to the Ten Commandments, the purely personal epistle to Philemon as to the general epistle to the Romans, or to such a direction as that of 2 Tim. 4 : 13, as to the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the doctrine of inspiration whicli throughout this Commentary I have assumed to be the correct one. The evidences of its correctness will appear in the notes themselves. At the same time there are passages in which the language, as well as the idea, appears to me to have been supernaturally inspired. This is especially the case in many instances in the Evangelical reports of our Lord's discourses, where a peculiar significance is involved in the words used by our Lord and preserved by his reporters — a significance which is often lost in our English translation. 3 I believe, then, that the New Testament is God's covenant with man ; that it is not an. outgrowth of human thought, but comes from God ; that he has chosen to impart it through imperfect men, as he chooses imperfect men to proclaim and to interpret it; that in writing this New Covenant they had all the divine guidance and impulse necessary to make it a safe and sufficient guide to man in moral and spiritual life; and that their authority to speak for God is attested by the miracles they wrought, by the fulfillment of the prophecies they recorded, by the superhuman excellence of the doctrines and the life they inculcated, but yet more by the divine fulfillment of the compact which in God's name they professed to record, and in the beneficent effects, temporal and spiritual, which have resulted in the case of all individuals and of all communities which have accepted it and complied with its conditions. V. The New Testament Canon.— The word Canon means literally a carpen- ter's rule. Hence, by an easy transition, it is used to signify a rule or test in language, art, or religion. As applied to Scripture it may mean either the rules or principles by which the right of any book to be in the Bible is determined, or the authority of such book or books as a rule of faith and practice. It is in the latter sense that the word is now generally used. The term "Canonical books " means the bodks which afford an- 1 See for examples the arrest of Christ, the trial, and Peter's denials. Matt, chap. 26, and notes "Snch as Romans 13 : 8, 9 ' See for example Notes on Matt. 5 : 19, 44 ; 6 • 25 ; 7 : 1-5. The instances are very nnmerous : these may serve to illustrate my meaning. 18 THE NEW TESTAMENT. authoritative rule, in contrast with those which arc uninspired and hence afford only human instruction. The history of the formation of the New Testament and the princi- ples which determine what books belong to it and are authoritative, constitute there- fore the theme of this section. What evidence have we that the New Testament which we now possess includes the inspired productions of the Apostles and excludes spurious imitations ? in other words, what evidence is there that we have the true canon or rule ? The evidence is of two kinds : external or historical, and internal or spiritual. I. External or Historical Evidence. — To the question, When, where, and by whom were the books of the New Testament collected into one volume ? no answer can be given. The New Testament was not formed ; it grew. The external evidence of its authenticity and authority is to be found in a history of that growth, and of the testimony of writers immediately succeeding the apostolic age. The Gospels bear the evidence in themselves that they were written for the informa- tion of the disciples of Jesus Christ, especially for those who had not directly received the Master's instructions, and who had not access to the verbal teaching of eye and ear witnesses. 1 The Epistles were written, either to local churches or to particular individ- uals, to impart, in a more systematic form, the precepts and principles of Christianity, to correct particular errors, or to afford instruction or inspiration needed in particular churches. Both apostles and churches anticipated the speedy second coming of Jesus Christ, and there is nothing to indicate that either recognized in these separate treatises a contribution to a permanent and universal book. But that the writers claimed to speak by authority of God, and in a peculiar sense under his inspiration, we have already seen. 1 The writers of the New Testament were, moreover, all immediate disciples of Jesus Christ, excepting Paul, who claimed to have received instruction directly from the risen Lord, and to be therefore not less an apostle than the twelve. 3 The epistles thus received by the church from the immediate disciples of the Lord would be naturally held as a sacred possession. They were read publicly in the church services ; 4 churches exchanged their epistles one with another ; B they were unmistakably regarded by both writers and recipients as authoritative ; r ' and in one significant passage Peter expressly classifies the writings of Paul with the Old Testament Scriptures. 7 Thus, toward the close of the first century the materials for the New Testament had been accumulated. Each church pos- sessed, in addition to a copy of the Old Testament in common with the Jewish Syna- gogue, a letter or a gospel, or two or three letters, obtained by a system of exchange, while no church probably possessed the entire New Testament collection. It existed, but in fragments, and divided among the different churches. 8 The apostles died, leaving these writings as a legacy to the infant churches. As tradi- tion grew more and more remote, and direct counsel from the apostles in the solution of questions of ritual, government, discipline, and doctrine was no longer attainable, these writings appreciated in value, and the authority of the letter was established by the death of the writer. Meanwhile, with the growth of the church, heresies sprang up. The h retics were often unprincipled. They sometimes mutilated the apostolic writings, sometimes denied their authenticity and authority. SOmetime9 endeavored to palm off upon the churches spurious doctrines, with the sanction of a forged apostle's name. These practices, of which we get some hints even in the New Testament,' and some indi- cations in very early corruptions of the text, increased after the death of the inspired 1 Lukel: 1^*; John 20 : 30, 31 • Sec under Section in ■ 1 Cor. <) : 1; 15:8; Gal. I : 15. 10; 2:2; Bphes. 3:3 • l Then. r. : 27 ; Col. 4 : 16 ° Acts 15: 98-81; 2 Cor. 10 : l L0; Rev., chap. 9:8 ' i ivt. :j; iii. • Mr. Norton, Ocnuineness of the Gospels, estimates that us many U (VO.000 copies of the Qoepell were in circulation by the end of the second century, by which time, however, the N. T. canon had been substantially organized • 2 Tim. l : 16; Titus t : 10-14; Ber.tt: 18, 10. THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON. 19 writers. Thus at once the value of the genuine writings, and the evident necessity of a critical examination into all doubtful gospels and epistles, increased. Thus, too, in the controversies which ensued, and which reached their climax in the conflict between Arius and Athanasius (A. D. 325-336), quotations from the inspired writings of the Evangelists and Apostles grew more frequent. These quotations rendered necessary a larger inter- change of the original documents. Each church, dissatisfied with a second-hand report of an apostolic writing, sought and obtained a copy of the original, and thus gradually book was added to book, every claimant to inspired authority was subjected to a search- ing examination, the false were thrown out and the true alone accepted, until at length, by the close of the second century, the New Testament, substantially as we now have it, had grown into a book whose authenticity and authority all parties in the Christian church alike acknowledged. 1 Thus the canon of the New Testament is established, not by the judgment of a single man, whose authority to select it would be difficult to estab- lish, not by the judgment of an ecclesiastical council, which might labor under the just suspicion of ecclesiastical prejudice, but by the general consent of thousands of local churches, and an innumerable body of individual Christians, whose combined judgmeut must ever be free from all possible suspicion of local prejudice or personal interest, and from any just charge of theological prepossessions. The evidence of the canonicity of the New Testament — that is, the evidence that we have in the New Testament the books written by the immediate disciples of our Lord, and only such — is to be found, not in the opinions of individual scholars, or the decrees of early councils, but in the abundant ref- erence to these books in the controversial writings of the three or four centuries which immediately followed the apostolic age. Without attempting to give this evidence in detail, which would be foreign to my purpose, I shall give such a summary of it as will afford the reader an idea of its character and the student a suggestion for more elaborate investigation. 2 1. Clement of Rome. Of his history little is known. He was Bishop of Rome at the end of the first century, is probably referred to by Paul in Philippians 4 : 3 as one of his " fellow workers," and was certainly a disciple of the apostles. Of the various works attributed to him, only the so-called 1st Epistle to the Corinthians is certainly known to be his. In this epistle, certainly published during the first century, and very probably as early as 64-70 A. D., he quotes, " as the words of the Lord Jesus," expressions in sub- stance identical and in phraseology similar to those reported in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; in a similar manner embodies sentiments and expressions found in James, 1 Peter, and several of Paul's Epistles; while his quotations from or similarities of expres- 1 " With the exception of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the two shorter Epistles to St. John, the second Epistle of St. Peter, the Epistles of St. James and St. Jude, and the Apocalypse, all the other books of the New Testament were acknowledged as apostolic and authoritative throughout the church at the close of the second century."— Westcott on the Canon of the New Testament, p. 306. 2 To comprise in a few pages the results of discussions which fill hundreds of volumes, which have been conducted on both sides too often with unseemly acerbity, in which not unfrequently strong assertion has served for proof, and special pleading for critical scholarship, which depends on an examination and analysis of the literature of the first three centuries, its own authenticity sometimes involved in donbt, has been a matter of no small difficulty. It was possible to accomplish such a condensation only (1) by giving results and discussions ; (2) omitting all authors whose works are really involved in any reasonable doubt, such as Ignatius and Barna- bas ; (3) passing by without notice, though not without careful examination, the objections of rationalistic critics to the conclusions of Christian scholarship. Whatever on a fair examination has seemed to me doubtful I have omitted; there is enough that is certain. The English student who wishes to examine the subject more thor- oughly is referred to Westcott, History of the Canon of the N. T., Scrivener's Plain Intro, to the Criticism of the iV. T., Davidson's Intro, to the If. T., Hone's Intro, to the Scripture'!, and Smith's Bible Diet., art. Canon, pre. pared by Dr. Westcott. A popular statement of results is given by Edward Case Bissell in The Historic Oiigin of the Bible, and a condensed statement of the argument in a little tract by Tischendorf, entitled " When were our Gospels Written f " The most complete rationalistic argument against the canonicity of the N. T. in the English language is given by the anonymous work Supernatural Religion. 20 THE NEW TESTAMENT. sion to the Epistle to the Hebrews is so great that by some its authorship is attributed to him. In addition, his doctrinal statements accord -with, and are apparently derived from, the writings of the apostles. 2. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, born probably A. D. 70-80, martyred A. D. 166. One short epistle of his, to the Philippians, is extant, concerning the genuineness of which there is no reasonable question. It contains far more references to the writings of the New Testament than any other work of the tirst age ; and still, with one exception, 1 all the phrases which Polycarp employs are woven into the texture of his letter, without any sign of quotation. " In other cases it is possible to assign verbal coincidences to acci- dent ; but Polycarp's use of Scriptural language is so frequent that it is wholly unreason- able to doubt that he was acquainted with the chief parts of our canon." 2 His testimony to the genuineness and the then recognized value of the books of the New Testament is the greater because (1) it is incidental and indirect, and therefore demonstrates that the facts and doctrines referred to were already generally accepted in the church, and indi- cates that the books from which he apparently quotes were widely and popularly known, and regarded as an authority ; and (2) because he was personally a disciple of the apos- tles, especially of John, and was by the apostles ordained to the office of bishop or pastor of the church at Smyrna. His character seems to have resembled that of John in piety and loveliness; he was esteemed even by his ecclesiastical opponents, and loved devotedly by his own disciples; by Jerome he is called the most emineut man of Asia. His quota- tions from the first epistle of Peter and the epistles of Paul are especially abundant. 3 8. Papias. Of his history little is known with certainty. He appears to have been born toward the close of the first century, and to have been contemporary with Polycarp, but there is no adequate evidence that he ever saw any of the apostles. He refers expli- citly to a Gospel of Matthew, which he says was originally written in Hebrew, to a Gospel of Mark, whom he describes as writing as the interpreter of Peter, and also to 1 Peter. 1 John, and the Book of Revelation. He does not refer to Paul's epistles, which Westcott explains by the supposition that he belonged to the Judaizing portion of the church ; "in such a man any positive reference to the teachings of St. Paul would have been unnatural." 4. Justin Martyr. His birth is uncertain, probably toward the close of the first cen- tury. In his early life a Platonist, he was converted to Christianity A. D. 119-132. and wrote A. D. 140-147. His extant works are arguments for the truth of Christianity, which he mainly rests on the facts of Christ's life. Nearly all the principal events in that life may be gathered from his writings, which are founded on what he entitles "the .Memoirs of the Apostles." These he describes as containing a record of all things con- cerning Jesus Christ, and as read customarily in the public services of the churches on the same footing as the prophets, i. c, as inspired and authoritative ; in one passage lie says that "they are called Gospels." That the " Memoirs" thus described are our lour Gospels seems to me unquestionable, though the fact has been questioned. All Justin Martyr's facts not directly traceable to the Gospels, as we have them, are said not to exceed six in number, and there is but one inconsistent with them, which may possibly be accounted for by a variation of manuscript, Besides the Gospels his writings show an 1 The exception ia as follows: The blessed and glorious Paul wrote letters to yon (the Philippians). into which if yc look diligently ye will be able to be built up into the faith given to you. ' Westcott on the Canon of the New Testament. ' The apostolic fathers— under which general title are included such as were contemporary with any of tli.- api.-tlr- (A. I). TO-ltfO—whosc works are now extant, namely. Clemen I of Rome, IgnatluB(T), Polycarp, and Barnabas(r), and possibly Hermlae, contain reference- more <>r less distinct to the three Synoptic Gospel*, the Epistles to the Romans, 1st and 2d Corinthians, Galatlans, Bpheslans, Philippians, 1st and 3d Timothy, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, and 1 John. The allusions to Thessalonians, Colossians, Titus, Philemon, and 2d Peter arc very uncertain. The render will find a full and classified account of these references in McChntock and Strong's Cyclopedia, article Apostolic Fathers. THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON. 21 acquaintance with all the remaining books of the New Testament except the epistles of James, Peter, Jude, and John, and those to Philemon and Titus. He refers by name to the book of Revelation. 1 5. The Canon of Muratori. This is a Latin manuscript, which derives its name from its discoverer. It is an imperfect copy of a Greek original, written either in Africa or Rome, both the beginning and the end being lost. It claims to have been originally written during the second century, and scholars regard the claim as sustained by internal evidence. Hence " it may be regarded as a summary of the opinion of the Western church on the Canon shortly after the middle of the second century;" 2 that is, when men were still living who had seen and possibly conversed with the apostles. It commences with a frao-- ment of a sentence evidently referring to Mark's Gospel. It goes on to state that the Gospel of St. Luke stands third in the canon, and the Gospel of St. John, a disciple of the Lord, fourth. That the lost fragment refers to Matthew is probable, since four Gospels are distinctly recognized. In the list which follows all the books included in our present canon are embraced, except the Epistles of James and Peter and that to the Hebrews, and possibly 3d John. Two epistles of John are referred to, but it is not improbable that the 2d and 3d are included in one epistle, in this list. According to Westcott, the chasms found in the text of this writing afford the probable explanation of the omission of epistles which are known to have been in use in the churches at the time when the list is believed to have been prepared. An apocryphal "Apocalypse of Peter" is also mentioned, with the remark that some do not choose that it shall be used in the churches. It is a noteworthy and important fact that this Canon of Muratori does not give the writer's individual opinion, but the general consent and judgment of the Christian church of the age, that is, of the second century. 6. Irewms, born 120-140, a disciple of Polycarp, became bishop of Lyons A. D. 177, died probably about A. D. 200. His only extant work is a treatise against heresy. In this work "he maintains the co-ordinate authority of the Old and New Testaments; finds a characteristic reason, in the four quarters of the globe, why there should be just four Gospels, and no more ; assigns the authorship of these Gospels to those whose names they now bear; quotes as Scripture the Acts, twelve Epistles of Paul (omitting Philemon), the Apocalypse (or book of Revelation), 1st and 2d John, 1 Peter, and is said by Euse- bius to refer, in a work now lost, to the Epistle to the Hebrews." 3 He does not profess to give a complete list of canonical writings ; hence his omissions prove nothing against the authority of the books not referred to, while his references are sufficient to prove that in his day the greater portion, if not the whole, of our New Testament was recognized as authority in the church. This testimony is the more significant because it comes from a disciple of a disciple of one of the New Testament writers. 7. Clement of Alexandria was a contemporary of Irenaeus, and his life covers about A. D. 165-220. His birthplace is thought to have been Athens ; the major part of his life was spent at Alexandria. A Christian in faith, he devoted himself to the study of philos- ophy, with apparently a supreme love for truth, which he was ready to welcome in whatever school he found it. In his writings he treats the Law and the Gospel of equal authority, refers to them as " the Scriptures of the Lord," as though they constituted one recognized collection, and makes unmistakable references to and quotations from the four Gospels, the Acts, all of Paul's Epistles, except that to Philemon, the Epistle to the Hebrews (which he imputes to Paul), 1 John, 1 Peter, Jude, and the Book of Revelation. 1 For a full list of his works, genuine and doubtful, see Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biographies, article Justinus Martyr ; for a full account of the bearing of his writings on the authority of the Gospels, see Westcott on the Canon of the N. T. * Westcott. Even the anonymous author of " Supernatural Religion" concedes to this canon as early a date as the third century 3 BisseU's Historic Origin of the Bible. 22 THE NEW TESTAMENT. But he also, as well as Irenams, cites as "divine writings" some works now universally regarded as apocryphal, thus indicating that the final collection of the New Testament writings into one recognized volume was not completed. 8. Te?'tullian, born at Carthage about A.D. 160 ; the time of his death is uncertain, probably about A.D. 240. In middle life he abandoned the orthodox party and became identified with the Montanists, a sect of enthusiasts and ascetics. He was a voluminous author. His writings recognize the Old and New Testament Scriptures as one "divine instrument," the integrity of which he defends against heretics. He gives no complete catalogue of the New Testament books of his d;iy, but incidentally refers to the four Gospels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul (including Philemon), 1 Peter, 1 John, Jude, and the Book of Revelation. Certain apocryphal books recognized by Tertullian he characterizes as unauthentic. Origen, A.D. 186-254, a pupil of Clement of Alexandria. His scholarship not only was remarkable for that age, but would be so in any age. He was a voluminous writer, especially upon Biblical topics; he prepared two editions of the Old Testament, together with commentaries upon it. His independence was such that he was excommunicated and exiled from Alexandria for holding and promulgating opinions which were regarded as not orthodox by his ecclesiastical superiors. His courage, his intellectual independence, and the thoroughness of his scholarship are now generally acknowledged. He distinctly recognizes the four Gospels, 1 Peter, the Book of Revelation, and one of John's Epistles, and refers in general terms to Paul's Epistles, and to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the authorship of which he says is not certainly known. In addition, his quotations from the New Testament are so voluminous that Tregelles asserts that at least two-thirds of it may be found in his extant writings, simply in the form of citations. The Heretics. The writings of the heretics of the first three centuries are among the not least significant testimonies to the genuineness of the New Testament books. Some- times they write to disprove the authority of these books, sometimes they quote from them in support of the heretical doctrine; but in either case their quotations afford indubitable evidence that the books referred to were generally accepted as authoritative by the Christian church. Simon Magus 1 and his followers not only recognized the facts in the life of Jesus Christ as recorded by the four Gospels, but also the peculiar weight attached by the church to the writings of the apostles. Gerinthus (probably beginning of second century) recognized the facts as reported by the four Gospels respecting Jesus Christ, though he denied the supernatural birth, and taught that the Divinity entered Jesus at his baptism and departed previous to his crucifixion. Barilides, probably a younger contemporary of Cerinthus, living in the age immediately succeeding the apostles, refers more or less explicitly to Matthew, Luke, John, Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, ami Colossians. Marcion (A.D. 130), published a canon of books on which he founded his system of modified or reconstructed Christianity. It includes a revised edition of St. Luke and ten Epistles of Paul, excluding the Pastoral Epistle and that to the Hebrews. lie set the others aside, however, not because their authorship was in doubt, but because, according to him, the apostolic writers themselves had but an imperfect apprehension of the truth. Finally Celsus (second century), and Porphyry (third century), distinguished opponents of Christianity, refer in their attacks upon it to the writings of the disciples of Jesus Christ, in such a way as to leave no doubt that the substantial facts reported in the lour Gospels, and the substantial doctrines taught in the Epistles, were recognized l>\ both friend and foe, as constituting the historical and doctrinal system of the Christian church. Versions and Collections. The Peshito Version, in the Syriac tongue, is still the recognized 1 Acts 8 : 9-!M. * THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON. 23 authority among the various sects of Syrian Christians, who claim to have derived it from the church at Antioch, which sent out Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. It almost certainly dates as far back as the second century, possibly is of still earlier date. It contains in its earliest forms the four Gospels, Acts, fourteen Epistles of Paul, including the Epistle to the Hebrews, James. 1 Peter and 1 John, and perhaps the Book of Revelation. An ancient Latin Version was almost certainly in common use in the second century, which, according to Westcott, included the books embraced in the Muratorian Canon, i. e., the four Gospels, Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul (excluding the Epistle to the Hebrews), three Epistles of John, 1 Peter, Jude, and the Book of Revelation. Evsebius, by order of Constantine, prepared (A.D. 332), fifty copies of the Scriptures for public use in Constan- tinople. The New Testament as prepared by him, embraced all the books of our present New Testament, except the Book of Revelation. Finally, the Council of Carthage (about A.D. 397), officially declared what were the books of the Canonical Scripture to be read in the churches. In their list the books of the New Testament are exactly those which are generally received at present. And it must be remembered that their action, like that of Eusebius, was not in the nature of an individual and authoritative decision of a doubtful question, but only an official declaration of the judgment which had been reached by the universal consent of the Christian church. Summary. The result of this investigation into the historical evidences of the canonicity of the books of the New Testament may be thus briefly stated. It is to be presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that books are the product of the authors whose names they bear. This reasonable presumption is greatly strengthened when they have borne that name for years and even centuries without question. In the fourth century the books of the New Testament, as we now possess them, were universally attributed to the authors whose names they bear, except the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is, in fact, an anonymous work. 1 In the absence of evidence to the contrary this universal opinion is to be presumed correct. But its correctness is not merely a reasonable presumption. The extant writings of a series of authors, extending from the days of the apostles to the fourth century, form an unbroken testimony to the genuineness of the collection. If the New Testament were destroyed, every important fact in the life of Christ, every important doctrine in the writings of the Apostles, and a considerable part of the words of both Evangelists and Apostles could be gathered from the extant writings of these unconscious and unintentional witnesses. They embrace representatives of every section of the Christendom of the first centuries — Europe, Asiatic Greece, Syria, Alexan- dria, Africa. They include orthodox and heretics, friends and foes of Christianity. Among them are to be found the ripest scholars, the most critical students, the ablest, most courageous, and most independent thinkers of their times. Many of them wrote before the church had become organized into a hierarchy, or Christianity into a system of recognized theology, and therefore before there was any considerable ecclesiastical or theological temptation to misstatement or misinterpretation. Their testimony is not, indeed, entirely unanimous ; some of them accept, as canonical, single books which are now rejected, and others reject, as uncanonical, single books which are now accepted ; but there is a substantial accord in their testimony ; not a single doubt is raised by any author, friendly or inimical, as to the authorship of the four Gospels, 2 and none as to any of the more important Epistles, excepting, perhaps, the Epistle to the Hebrews ; and if every book not supported by their nearly unanimous testimony were laid aside, the substantial teaching of the New Testament would not be affected. It is true that the earlier authors 1 There is nothing in the Epistle to indicate the authorship ; the title " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews" is no part of the original document. 3 Dr. Peabody says that they were never doubted till the last century. " Christianity and Science," p. 24. §ce Sec. I. for some other evidences of genuineness of the Gospels, in their language, their geographical accu- racy, and their undesigned coincidences. 24 THE NEW TESTAMENT. do not cite the New Testament writers by name. But this might naturally be expected. The author of to-day, in writing of the well-known events of the Civil War, would refer to the fact without citing his authority, while in referring to the more distant events of the American Revolution, he would refer to Sparks, or Hildreth, or Bancroft ; so the Apostolic Fathers, assuming that their readers are acquainted with the facts and the doctrines of which they write, abound in references to the facts recorded in the four Gospels, and the doctrines contained in apostolic writings, and even iu quotations of words, phrases, sentences, and metaphors from the sacred books, without accompanying them with citations, while the writers of the succeeding ages refer by name to the authors from whom they quote. It is true that no list of the sacred writings appears till toward the close of the second century. But this might naturally be expected. For the New Testament was not written as a book, nor with any conference between the writers of its different documents, but by different writers to different churches and for different purposes. A list of contents could not therefore be made until, by a mutual interchange of these documents, the collection itself grew into a book. This testimony of the ancient fathers is confirmed by that of the ancient manuscripts. While of Plato and Herodotus we have less than thirty manuscripts, and not one of them one thousand years old, we have forty-seven of the New Testament which are more than one thousand years old, four of which certainly date from the fifth century or earlier, and one, the Siuaitic, which is believed by one of the ablest scholars of the age to date from A.D. 325. These manuscrij:>ts, though some of them are imperfect, unite in confirming the authorship and authenticity of our New Testament books. 1 Finally, it must not be forgotten that this testimony has not only been weighed carefully by a large number of Christian scholars, but has also been severely scrutinized by a large number of rationalistic critics. As no ancient book has run the gauntlet of so much hostile criticism, so none is sustained by evidence so irrefragable. The most elaborate analyses of this evidence have been made by hostile critics. As interpreted by them it shows that the writings of the early fathers abound in quotations from certain widely-diffused and generally accepted Gospels and Epistles ; that these quotations embody the facts and doctrines of our New Testament, not infrequently in nearly its exact words ; that in the middle of the second century Gospels by Matthew, Mark aud Luke were in existence ; that before the middle of the third century our New Testament, substantially as we now possess it, was generally recognized and accepted in the churches. Unless our Gospels and Epistles existed from the days of the Apostles, these quotations were made from books most of which are not now extant and some are even hypothetical ; the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, referred to by Papias and Marcion, were not our Gospels, but other productions which have perished so utterly that not a trace of them is left in manuscript or quotation ; and all our Gospels and many of our Epistles were forged in lieu of the genuine and now lost books, and were accepted by the age which produced them, with a faith so unquestioning and so universal, that no one, heretic or orthodox, in African, Alexandrian, Syrian, or Roman Church, questioned the authorship of any Gospel or any important Epistle. And even this skepticism concedes, what the most hostile criticism cannot deny, that in the present Gospels we have the substantial facts rning the life and death of Christ, and in the Epistles the substantial teaching of the Apostles, or, in the words of one of the most eminent leaders iu infidel belief, 5 " whatever else may be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left— a unique figure not more unlike all his precursors than all his followers, even those who had the direcl benefit of his personal teaching." In view of this examination it is perfectly safe to say that, while the canonicity of all •Sec below Section V, the text 'Joan Stnart Mill, " Three Essays on Religion." THE TEXT. 25 the books of the New Testament does not rest upon the same evidence, while some are involved in an uncertainty which does not attach to the others, 1 the genuineness of the collection as a whole is better established than that of any book or collection of books of ancient times — better than that of Homer in Greek, Virgil in Latin, or Shakespeare in English literature. II. The Internal and Spiritual Evidence of the canonicity of the New Testament books consists in a simple comparison of those books with those which are now univer- sally regarded as apocryphal and spurious. The limitations of my space forbid me from giving such a comparison, nor is it necessary. The contrast is so marked that no school, Protestant, Papal, or Rationalistic, attaches any value to the Apocryphal New Testament, and the contrast would be valuable only because it would indicate the nature of those mythical Gospels and spurious Epistles which really were the production of the sub- apostolic age, and with which modern skepticism desires to confound those of our New Testament. The reader who desires to trace the argument, the nature of which I here merely indicate, will find the material in The Apocryphal New Testament, or, less perfectly, in the articles Epistles Spurious, and Gospels Spurious, in McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia. VI. The Text. — The books of the New Testament were originally written on papyrus paper, with pens made of reeds, and ink composed of lamp-black or burnt ivory. The material was not such as could be expected to survive a century of use, and in the first centu- ries there were no adequate libraries or archives where they could be preserved. They were probably written and used in the early churches, as the Old Testament Scriptures still are in the Jewish synagogues, in the form of scrolls ; but the form in which the most ancient manuscripts of the New Testament now extant are found is that of the modern book, generally folios or quartos. The earliest manuscripts now extant were written on parch- ment, i. e., the skins of sheep and goats, or vellum, i. e., the skins of abortive or at least sucking calves. The famous Sinaitic manuscript was manufactured of the skins of ante- lopes. It was not until the tenth century that paper came into use, manufactured from cotton rags ; and not till the twelfth century that paper was made from linen rags. The monks in the middle ages devoted much of their time to copying the books of the Old and New Testament, oftentimes with elaborate and rich illuminations. The libraries of the monasteries aflbrded a safe repository for these sacred treasures of art and literature, in an age when only superstitious reverence could have preserved them from vandalism. Thus there are now scattered throughout Europe these manuscript copies of the Scrip- tures, a few complete, more copies of single books, or of incomplete collections of books. There are said to be preserved now more than 2,000 of these manuscripts, bearing date from the fourth to the fifteenth century, aud the ablest scholars have devoted their best energies to a careful comparison of them, for the purpose of ascertaining what is the original reading. Among scholars whose judgments are generally regarded as most trust- worthy are Griesbach, Lachmann, Tregelles, and Tischendorf ; to their opinions on ques- tions of text the reader will find constant references in this Commentary. For the Ameri- can scholar there is no better method of ascertaining the correct text than that which is afforded by Dean Alford's " Greek Testament." This contains the text which he himself regards as the correct one, with an accompanying statement of the different readings afforded by the various manuscripts of recognized critical value. The difficulty of determining the original reading is of two kinds. There is first a difficulty in deciphering the manuscript. The more ancient and therefore the more valu- able manuscripts, are written not only without division into chapters and verses, but without accents, or breathings, or punctuation, or any indication of the separation between 1 The canonicity of each book will be considered separately in the introduction to it. 20 THE NEW TESTAMENT. the words. The introduction of chapters and verses dates from about the fifth century ; they were employed probably for convenience of public service, and also for reference. The introduction of punctuation bears about the same date. That the reader may appre- hend the difficulty of deciphering a manuscript without these divisions of a later date, we place side by side an ancient manuscript version of John 1 : 1, 2, with the Greek ver- sion from Bagster's Greek Testament : Ucub;\oyoa>/p~-T3op »,, ,.,. pro^j e y t J^o* e any TO „ &*6v, ™i &*<>$ & O f-tf\/0 V • O VTTD OHUl ° X6yooo > to The accompanying reproduction in English of a style and combination of letters answering to the ancient Greek manuscript, will give the English reader a partial idea of its character and the difficulty of deciphering it, enhanced as it is by variations in the form of the letters and obscurity in the manuscripts : * * * * ANDTHEWORDWAS WITHGD-ANDGDWASTHEWORD HEWASINTHEBEGINNINGWITIIGD ALLWEREMADEBYHIMANDWITII OUTHIM W ASM ADENOTONE THING' TnATWASMADEINHIML/i^WAS' ANDTHELIFEWASTHELIGHTOFMN" ANDTHELIGHTINDARKNESSSniN ETIIANDTHEDARKNESSDIDNOTITCOMPRE HEND- THEREWASAMNSE NtFROMGODWHOSENAMENvI.S' IOHNTII IXPERSONCAMK ASA U ' I TX I.SSTIIATIIEMIGIITTESTI FYCONCERNINGTHELIG1ITTIIATA LLMIGIITBELIEVETIIROUGIIIIIM' The difficulty of deciphering is not, however, the only nor the principal one. Tlicse various manuscripts present varieties of readings. A few of these varieties consist in what was probably a deliberate addition or a mutilation of the text for doctrinal reasons; in other instances an addition which one copyist has made, perhaps in the margin, perhaps parenthetically, in order to explain the original text, has been by subsequent Copyists incorporated in it. The greal majority of variations, however, are insignificant and unimportant, and are t he result, simply, of a natural error in transcribing. Of the first kind of alteration I John ."i • 7 is an illustration : " For there are three that b< ar record in heaven, die Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these time are one." Th now known to be an interpolation, added to the Greek text as late as the sixuenth century. Of the second, the statement in John B : 4 is an example : " For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool," etc. This was probably added by the copyist for the purpose of explaining wh> the impotent folk gathered about the pool of Bethesda. So, in some of the ancient manuscripts, Barabbas is called Jesus Barabbas, the name Jesus THE TEXT. 27 having been perhaps omitted by subsequent copyists from a sentiment of reverence. Such modifications are, however, very rare. Out of nearly one hundred and twenty thousand variations ' very few affect the sense, and fewer still have any bearing on the doctrinal and practical teachings of the Bible. Nearly all are merely differences in orthography (as in the English, favor and favour), or, in the order of words (as, then went there out to meet him, and then there went out to meet Mm), or in the names of the same person (as Cephas and Peter), or similar variations incident to manual transcription. In ascertaining which of various readings is the correct one, resource is had to two kinds of evidences, external and internal. The external evidence is derived from an examination of the manuscripts themselves. Where the more ancient manuscripts are uniform in their reading, their testimony is generally considered conclusive ; where they are not so, recourse is had to internal evidences, that is, to a consideration of the question which reading is inherently most probable. For example : John 5 : 4 is wanting in some of the best manuscripts and is found in others ; thus the external evidence is somewhat conflicting. But it is easy to understand how a copyist might have inserted this verse as an explanation of the account, while it is not easy to understand how it should have become expunged from the record if it was originally there, since the angelic interference thus described would not seem strange to the writers of the first centuries. Thus internal evidence is against the genuineness of the passage. The manuscripts differ not only in the matter of which they are composed, but also in the form of the letters. In the Uncial manuscripts, which are the oldest, the letters are all capitals ; in the Cursive manuscripts, which seem to have come into existence in the tenth century, the letters run together, often with no capitals except in the case of initial letters. Sometimes the original writing has been almost or altogether obliterated, and the parchment has been used for other writing. This has been subsequently removed and the original restored. Such manuscripts are called palimpsest manuscripts; that is, manuscripts re-written. When the text is accompanied by a version, the manuscripts are termed codices belingues or double-tongued. The age of the manuscript can be determined with substantial accuracy by the materials of which it is composed, the form of the letters and words, the presence or absence of punctuation, and other marks of division. The following are the most important Uncial manuscripts. For convenience of reference they are lettered by scholars as here, though in the notes I refer to them by name and not by letter. A. Alexandrine Manuscript {Codex Alexandrinus), now in the British Museum. It is on parchment, in four volumes, three of which contain the Old and one the New Testament. The first twenty-four chapters of Matthew are wanting. It is now generally agreed that it was written in Alexandria, and during the fifth century. B. Vatican Manuscript {Codex Vaticanus), in the Vatican Library at Rome. It is on vellum, contains the Old and New Testaments, but Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the Book of Revelation, and Hebrews 9 : 14 to the end are wanting. It is thought to have been written in Egypt during the fourth century. No really satisfactory edition of this manu- script has ever been published. C. The Ephraem Manuscript {Codex Ephraemi), in the Imperial Library at Paris. It is a palimpsest manuscript consisting of the works of Ephraem, the Syrian, written over fragments of manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments. It is believed to have been written in Alexandria in the fifth century. It contains only portions of the New Testament. D. Cambridge Manuscript {Codex Cambridgiensis), called also Codex Bczce, because presented by Beza in 1581. It is in the University Library at Cambridge, is on parch- ' The estimates are very various ; in the whole Bible they have been estimated as high as 800,000. 28 THE NEW TESTAMENT. ment, and contains the four Gospels, the Acts, and a fragment of the Catholic Epistles, together with a Latin version. Its origin is uncertain, and its value is a matter of dispute ; it is now generally attributed to the fifth or sixth century. n. Sinaitic Manuscript {Codex Sinailicus) in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. It derives its name from the fact that it was discovered by a singular accident by Tischendorf in 1859 in the convent of Mt. Sinai. His first hint of its existence was afforded by the fact that fragments of it were brought to him (in 1844) by the ignorant monks in a basket of rubbish with which to kindle his fire ! It contains part of the Old Testament and the whole of the New. It is one of the oldest and the most valued of the manuscripts. Tischendorf attributes it to the fourth century. There are Uncial Manuscripts and a great number of cursive manuscripts. Some of them of considerable value. The English reader will find a good account of them in Kitto's Cyclopedia, article Manuscripts. See also Alford's Greek Testament and Bissell's Historic Origin of the Bible. Our English New Testament is translated from a Greek text printed from very late Greek manuscripts, in the sixteenth century. This text, since it is the basis of our English version, is known as the Received Text or Textus Eeceptus. 1 The discovery of ancient manuscripts since that time, the careful and critical collation and comparison of them, and the development of critical scholarship, by this very process, has led to the discovery of errors in the Received Text, and to the elucidation of a text which probably much more nearly conforms to the originals of the sacred writers. In this Commentary I have generally followed the text of Alford's Greek Testautmt wherever any variation in the reading affects the sense. In all such cases I have indicated the variation in the notes, and wherever there is any material question respecting the reading I have also indicated that fact, with a brief reference both to the different manuscripts and to the opinions of the leading critical scholars. These differences in the text, the reader must not forget, are for the most part of very minor importance. There are a few passages of some significance, as John 8 : 1-11, and Mark 16 : 9-20, the genuineness of which is involved in doubt. But for the most part the variations are verbal and trivial. " So great, in fact," says Mr. Bissell, 2 " is the harmony of teaching in all these documents, though we compare the earliest with the latest, that while three of the most important Uncials had not been discovered Avhen our present English translation was made, and one that was known to exist was inaccessible (the Vatican), and only a single specimen of the less valuable of these most ancient witnesses was used (the Cambridge Manuscript), yet no person would hazard the opinion that in our English Bibles we have not, for substance, the teaching of the best documents brought to light during the last two hundred and fifty years." The slight variations in the readings, and the careful and critical examination to which they have given rise, enhance our assurance, that in all substantial respects we have the text of the original documents, whose character is testified to by so many and so independent witnesses. VII. Our English Version. — From a very early time the endeavor has been made by the church to supply the Bible in the vernacular tongue. A Greek version of the Old Testament Scriptures was in popular use in Palestine in the days of Christ, and the quotations from I lie Old Testament by Christ and the Apostles are generally from this version. It is known as the Septuagint, a word meaning seventy; the name is derived 1 The "Received Greek Text" | Textut /;,<; /,/r/s) mi the continent of Europe, is that of the Elzevir edition of 1688 and 1684. In England and America the " Received Text " is Mill's reprint, with a few typographical errors corrected, of Stephen's edition of 1500, often differing from the Ehm Ir edition. The groandleameaa ol it- pretensions to he accepted as the' Received Texl of the New Testament, 1b shown by a writer in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1851. —Dr. T. I. Conant, iu AbbotCs lUHgioug Dictionary. ' Historic Origin of the Bible. OUR ENGLISH VERSION. 29 from an ancient though now discredited account of its origin. According to this legend, the Septuagint was prepared under the authority of Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 309-247), by seventy-two scholars, who were commissioned for the purpose by Eleazar, the high- priest at Jerusalem, and were by the king shut up in the island of Pharos at Alexandria, till their task, which required just seventy-two days, was completed. That the translation was made in the third century before Christ, and at Alexandria, is probable ; the rest of the story is apocryphal. The Septuagint is rejected by the Jews and regarded by Christian scholars as imperfect. But, notwithstanding its errors, it is of inestimable value, not only in the study and interpretation of the Old Testament, but also in throwing light upon the proper rendering of the Greek of the New Testament. Next in importance to the Septuagint, which contains, of course, only the Old Testa - tament, is the Vulgate, an ancient Latin version of both Old and New Testaments. This translation was prepared by Jerome, A.D. 385-405, and since the seventh century has been adopted in the Romish Church as the authentic text of Scripture. By the Council of Trent it was ordained that this version alone should be esteemed as the authorized text, and that no one should dare to reject it under any pretence whatever. There are two principal editions of this version, called respectively, from the popes under whom they were prepared, the Sixtine and the Clementine. The latter is the standard in the Romish Church at the present day, and is the basis of the Roman Catholic English version of the Bible. This is commonly known as the Douay Version, from the fact that the Old Testament translation was prepared in the sixteenth century at Douay, in France. The New Testament translation was first published at Rheims, and is known as the Rhemish version. The translation is not from the original Greek and Hebrew, but from the Vulgate. It thus perpetuates the errors which the imperfect scholarship of the fifth century had not discovered and corrected; while the literalness of the translation renders it sometimes quite unintelligible. The best Roman Catholic scholars concede the imper- fections of the Douay and Rhemish versions, and the superiority of the Authorized or King James' version. 1 The history of this version 2 carries us back to the beginnings of English history. An attempt was made to translate portions of the Bible into the English, or rather Anglo- Saxon, as early as the seventh century, by the venerable Bede ; and another, in the ninth century, by Alfred the Great ; but all these attempts were fragmentary and imperfect. They were, for the most part, loose paraphrases — poems founded on Bible narratives, or abridgments; and clown to the year 1360, the Psalter was the only book of the Scriptures literally translated into the English language. About this time Wyckliffe, lamenting the degeneracy of the Church and the irreligion of the people, commenced and completed a translation of the New Testament from the Vulgate or Latin version. For this offence he was cited to appear before the Court of Rome, and probably nothing saved him from condemnation except his failing health and early death in 1324. Although before the days of printing, his translation seems to have been extensively circulated; one hundred and seventy manuscript copies, more or less, are still extant, some of them bearing the names of their royal owners. It is said that the yeomen were so anxious to obtain the word of God, that they often gave a load of hay for a few chapters. One and a half centuries later, William Tyndale published the first part of the Holy Scriptures ever printed in the 1 In Smith's Bible Dictionary, article Versions Authorized, the reader will find a list of passages indicating the nature of the imperfections in this translation. They are chiefly of three kinds : (1) A few that are due to theological bias, such as the substitution of "do penance" for "repentance;" (3) Some that are due to the nseof obsolete or un-English words, as •'azymes," " pasche," "longanimity ; " (3) Some that are due to the avowed principle that the Scriptures were not intended for the common people— a principle which manifests itself occasionally in a translation that is absolutely unmeaning, as in the rendition of Ephes. 6 : 12, " Against the spirituals of wickedness in the celestials." a The following epitome is taken chiefly from my Dictionary of Religious Knowledge. 30 THE NEW TESTAMENT. English language. They were printed at Hamburg, Cologne, and subsequently at Worms; for Rome had still the control of England, and the first edition was so effectually destroyed, that only two copies of it are known to exist. The priests, however, overreached them- selves; for they bought up Tyndale's Testaments at a high price, and publicly burned them, but by the operation unwittingly put Tyndale out of debt, and gave him the means to issue a larger and better edition. By treachery he was betrayed into the hands of the priests and put to death ; but his work lives to-day as the basis of our English Bible. Almost simultaneously with his death was published the whole Bible, translated by Myles Coverdale, and soon after the (so-called) Matthew's Bible, published under that name by John Rogers, the martyr. The accession of Bloody Mary drove the Reformers from England, and gave rise to the Genevan Bible, so entitled from the fact that it was pre- pared and published at Geneva. After her death the leading dignitaries in the English Church, under Queen Elizabeth, took measures for the publication of an official transla- tion, which went by the name of the Bishops' Bible. And toward the close of the six- teenth century, yielding to the pressure which had become too great to be longer resisted, the Roman Catholic authorities prepared and published the Douay and Rhenish versions already alluded to. These various versions were, in God's providence, only preparations for the great work of rendering the Bible in an authorized manner into the English tongue. On the acces- sion of James I., fifty-four of the first scholars of the kingdom, without regard to sect or party, eminent alike for learning and for piety, were appointed to make a new translation. They were engaged in the work for seven years — A. D. 1604-1611. Three years were occupied in individual investigations; three more in systematic and united work. Only forty-seven of the fifty-four scholars were actually engaged. They were divided into six classes — two at Westminster, two at Oxford, and two at Cambridge. The books of the Bible were divided among these classes. Each member of each class translated all the books intrusted to the class. Then the whole class met, and, after thorough revision, adopted a common text. Then that text was transmitted in succession to each of the other classes for revision. Then the text of the whole Bible, approved by the entire six classes, was submitted to the final revision of six elected delegates, with six consulting assistants, and their approved manuscript was placed in the skilful hands of Dr. Smith, distinguished for his knowledge of ancient languages, to examine and prepare it for the press. In their work, not only the former English versions, but the Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, Syriac, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch, were all consulted ; and among the commission were not only men eminent for Biblical learning, but men distinguished as linguists, naturalists, antiquarians, and historians. A single significant circumstance indicates how desirous the translators were to bring the reader into contact with the very letter of the originals. Every word which had no direct representation in the original Hebrew or Greek was printed in italics, that it might be seen what the translators had supplied; and in the marginal readings was added further information where the minds of the translators were in doubt. Thus it will be seen that the English version of the Scriptures is really the fruit of a century of study ; to which should be added the reflec- tion that it was prepared at a time when the Reformation was yet fresh, and the Reform- er-, scarcely free from the trammels of Rome, had not yet begun to divide into different denominations. There probably had never been an era in the history of the Church so favorable for the preparation of an unsectarian translation of the Scriptures as that in which the King James version was prepared. Still, though a remarkable translation, it is not claimed by any to have been inspired or to he infallible. The state of the original text was imperfect ; the knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew grammars was less accurate and thorough than it is now ; the same PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 31 Greek and Hebrew word is not infrequently rendered by different Englisb words, and the English language itself has undergone changes which require in the translation some modifications. 1 . These facts have at various times induced individual scholars to attempt further revisions of the whole or of parts of the Bible ; and at length a voluntary commis- sion has been organized, including representatives from the different Evangelical churches of England and America, and embracing the ablest Biblical scholars of both lands, to pre- pare a new and revised translation of the Bible. Their avowed purpose is, however, to accept the Authorized Version as a basis, and to introduce as few alterations in the trans- lation as is consistent with fidelity to the original. These committees, for there are two, one on the Old Testament and one on the New Testament, are now engaged upon their work. The notes in this Commentary accompany the Authorized or King James Version. VIII. Principles of Interpretation. — The Bible is not a substitute for thought ; it is a stimulant to thinking. Its office is not merely to reveal necessary truth to the unlearned, but also to stir to the highest activity the faculties of all men. It is the store- house of divine truth, whence the centuries gather their supply. It is the widow's cruse of oil, which, forever drawn upon, never grows less. Thus it abounds with apothegms, proverbs, germinant philosophies enwrapped in single seed texts, which yield their fruit- fulness only to the careful and conscientious student. It treats of experiences which transcend thought; it deals with themes which lie beyond the utmost vision of the imagi- nation. Its supreme teachings are hidden alike from the careless and superficial reader, and from the prejudiced and dogmatic controversialist ; and are revealed only to the humble, earnest, and thoughtful student. For the assistance of such students, I embody here certain essential principles of interpretation, as they have been evolved in my own study of the New Testament, and have been applied and employed in its interpretation. 1. I have sought to secure the best Greek text. In general, I have followed that of Alford's New Testament; but wherever there appeared, on careful study, any adequate reason for varying from his conclusion, I have done so. Generally the external evidences should outweigh the internal; that is, we are generally to accept as the true text that which is indicated by the most ancient Greek manuscripts ; rarely, if ever, may we justly set aside their concurrent testimony, because the reading they afford is difficult to inter- pret or to reconcile with other passages of Scripture. 2. I have sought, by a careful study of the original, to ascertain the exact literal meaning of the words. When that has been doubtful the translations of the best scholars, in Latin, German, and English, have been compared. In determining the exact meaning of a doubtful Greek word the New Testament usage is always, and the Septuagint usage is generally to be preferred to that of the classical writers. I have founded the notes on the English version, but my studies on the original Greek ; and wherever a new transla- tion seemed likely to convey more adequately or more freshly the meaning of the origi- nal, it lias been given in the notes. 3. The original text and its meaning being understood, the student is next to master the general scope of the address or document which he is studying, and the aim of the speaker or writer. Texts are not to be taken out of their connection — still less to be woven into new connections and relations— to afford a basis for a doctrine, a ritual, or a discipline. The rule of legal interpretation is, in this respect, fundamental to a true interpretation of the Scripture, viz., that the ])arts of a document, law, or instrument are to be construed with reference to the significance of the whole. In many cases the neglect, on the part of Bible students, to put themselves en rapport with the sacred writer involves the writing 1 For a full account of the errors in our English version and the necessity fora new or revised translation, aee The Revidon of the Neio Testament, combining three papers by Lightfoot, Trench, and Ellicott respectively. 32 THE NEW TESTAMENT. in needless obscurity. Thus the key to the famous parable of the laborers in the vine- yard, in Matt., ch. 20, is given by the question of Peter in the preceding chapter, to which it is an answer ; and the still more difficult parable of the unjust steward, in Luke, ch. 16, is relieved of much if not of all its difficulty, by observing the fact stated in verse 14, " the Pharisees also, which were covetous, heard all these things : and they derided him." This hint that the parable is aimed at covetousness is the key to its right interpretation. 4. In studying the aim of the speaker or writer we may generally assume that he is to be understood as those to whom he spoke or wrote would have understood him. We are therefore to acquaint ourselves with their customs, their philosophies, their errors, their sins ; we are to put ourselves in their place, and to hear and understand as they would have done. It is indeed often true that there is more in Scripture than they could have perceived, a fullness of truth which only time could interpret. But this deeper meaning is rarely if ever inconsistent with the less profound truth, which the contemporaries of Christ and the apostles might, and generally would, have apprehended from the discourse or the letter. The failure to apprehend and apply this principle has involved the familiar passage concerning the power of the keys in much of its mystery. 1 5. Everything in the New Testament is written for a practical or spiritual purpose. It is not a book of abstruse metaphysics; its aim is always the development of a divine life in the soul. It is therefore essential to a correct apprehension of its wording that the student weigh well its practical or spiritual significance. A careful and prayerful pon- dering of the question, How is this passage to make men better, to bring them nearer to God, or to render their manifestations of the divine life more luminous ? will often give the interpretation to passages which remain unsolved enigmas to unspiritual students. The spiritual and the critical study of the Scriptures must go together. The substitution of the critical for the spiritual deprives the New Testament of its soul ; the substitution of the spiritual for the critical supplants the doctrine of the Word of God with the imagi- nation of the commentator. Critical study has made great advance in modern times ; but I have found no better spiritual interpreters of the New Testament than Chrysostom and Matthew Henry, i. e., none that realize more fully, and employ more constantly, the truth that the words of the New Testament are life. In this Commentary I have devoted little space to drawing doctrinal or ethical conclusions from the text ; but I have sought always to ascertain its spiritual purpose, as a necessary condition of interpreting its true meaning. G. According to the Roman Catholic doctrine the Bible is made for the church, and the church is its interpreter to the people. It is thus like a ship's chart, which the officers, not the passengers, are to consult. Protestant commentators have sometimes practi- cally adopted this view, while theoretically repudiating it. Believing that the Bible is given by God for the people, that it is meant to be their illumination and their inspira- tion in the divine life, I think it safe to assume that those interpretations which are abstruse, involved, or obscure, those which require peculiar logical and metaphysical acumen, those which do not illumine but darken, do not inspire but deaden, which con- fuse the mind and benumb the soul, arc always to be rejected. And of two interpreta- tions, one of which is characteristically ingenious and the other is characteristically simple, the preference is always, other things being equal, to be given to the latter. Ingenuity in interpretation is a fatal encomium to bestow upon a commentator. Often a knowledge of ancient life is necessary to an understanding of Scripture; often some proficiency in divine truth ; still more frequently some attainment in spiritual experience, without which its BUblimest declarations are incomprehensible. ' But these attainments are open to the unlearned many as to the cultured few. Whenever after careful study I have not been ' Sec Mntt. 1G : 19, note ■ Matt. 13 : 11-16 ; 1 Cor. 2 : 7-16. PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 33 able to find a simple and natural interpretation, I have contented myself with frankly pointing out the difficulty, stating briefly the principal interpretations of other commen- tators, and so leaving the passage for the elucidation of the future. 7. A reasonable regard is to be paid to the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the sacred writers and their peculiar circumstances. That Paul should inculcate faith, and James works and John love; that Matthew should recount the miracles and the ethical instructions of Jesus Christ, and John his spiritual teachings, accords with the free spirit of the Gospel. The truth is divine ; its expression is human. Some consideration, therefore, of the temper- aments and mental characteristics of the writers, as indicated by their writings, and some allowance therefor is essential to the best elucidation of the truth. 1 From Paul's expres- sion in Rom. 9 : 3, " I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren," a literal interpretation has deduced the doctrine that we ought to be willing to be damned for the glory of God. The interpreter who thus ignores the ardency and warmth of Paul's nature, and his constant use of hyperbole in the endeavor to give utterance to unutterable feeling, loses the truth which is really conveyed, a truth of experience, not of philosophy, the ardent desire for souls which should always characterize the disciple of Jesus Christ. A not less striking illustration of the consequence of ignoring or denying this principle of interpretation is afforded by the doctrine of the Real Presence. This doctrine is founded upon Christ's declaration, This is my body, but with singular if not deliberate inattention to the circumstances under which it was uttered, the symbolic language of the Passover for which it was a substitution, and the fact that Christ often clothed his teaching in poetic forms, or, in other words, was a true poet. 8. Subject to these principles, due consideration is to be paid to the parallel or the contrasted teachings of Scripture. In this Commentary the material for a study of these is afforded by the full marginal references, and by those which are incorporated in the notes. Where the meaning of any writer is in doubt, it is always legitimate to examine other utterances of the same writer, and to interpret what is enigmatical by what is clear. It is also legitimate to examine the utterances of other writers of the same general school or faith, and employ the one in interpreting the other. It is customary, upon this principle, to refer to the debates of the Constitutional Convention, and to the writings of Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and their contemporaries, in order to ascertain the meaning of doubt- ful phrases in the United States Constitution. The substantial harmony of doctrine of the various writers of the New Testament, and the consistency of each writer, is to be pre- sumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, and that inteqDretation is to be pre- ferred which sustains this presumption. For this reason it is true that in many cases Scripture is its own best interpreter. Thus Christ's paradoxical saying in Luke 14 : 2G, " If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother * * * he cannot be my dis- ciple," is to be interpreted in the light of the humanizing influence of his general teach- ings, and his example of filial love to his own mother. 9. But it is not legitimate to deny, limit, or interpret away the plain and unenigmati- cal declarations of a writer, in order to make them accord with his other utterances, or with the utterances of other writers. This has been often done in the predetermined endeavor to construct a system of theology and ethics out of the Bible. As in science it is the duty of the investigator to accept the plain facts of nature, to harmonize in his sys- tem such as he can, and to leave the rest to other investigators, denying nothing because he cannot understand it, so it is the duty of the Bible student to accept the plain facts of Revelation, to interpret in accord such as he can, and to leave such as do not adjust themselves to his system for the study of those that will come after him. It is my simple endeavor in this work to unfold the meaning of the New Testament, passage by passage, 1 See Section IV., on the Limits of Inspiration. 34 THE GOSPELS. leaving to others to adjust the teachings in one harmonious whole. This is the work of the theologian, not of the commentator. The one constructs, the other simply gathers the materials. If there appear to be unreconciled views iu the notes, there are also un- reconciled (I do not say irreconcilable) teachings in the Scripture text. 10. Finally, there is no book that has been such a battle ground as the Bible. The great body of those who accept its teachings as adequate authority, agree in respect to the fundamental truths which it teaches ; the chief differences in interpretation are between Protestant students and Iloman Catholic theologians on the one hand, who deny that it is adequate without the church, and Rationalistic students on the other, who deny that it is authoritative. Still there are passages concerning the interpretation of which there are important and honest differences of opinion between Congregational, Presbyterian, Epis- copalian, Baptist, and Methodist students. In respect to all the more important of such passages, where a reasonable room exists for a difference of interpretation, I have endea- vorecfto set forth the different opinions briefly, usually indicating my own conclusion. Whether I have succeeded or not in laying aside denominational bias, it is certain that the student who wishes to get, unmixed, the teachings of the Scripture, must disabuse his mind of theological prepossessions. An unprejudiced mind is as essential to a fruitful study of God's word as a clear lens to the telescopic study of the stars. Next to the prejudices bred of sinful habits and affections, those which spring from a determination to find in the Bible a support for a previously accepted system of doctrine, or a means of assault upon a system prejudged, are the most fatal to a true understanding of the Divine Word. We must approach that Word like little children, in that we must approach it, as they their early studies, with unbiased minds, ready to receive whatever our inspired Instructor has to teach us. That I have always succeeded in applying these principles I do not claim ; to those that would build their religious faith and life upon the Bible, and the Bible only, they are none the less sincerely commended, as the conditions of a successful study and inter- pretation of the Word of God. PART II. THE GOSPELS. I. Relation of the Gospels to Eaeli Other.— The word Gospel is composed of two Anglo-Saxon words, God spel, meaning good news. It is a translation of a Greek word cwvvjdwn (eiayyatov). From a cognate word is derived our English word Evan- gelist, who is, literally, a messenger or herald of good news. The title, which is com- monly given to each of the first four books of the New Testament, is interpreted by, and perhaps derived from, the announcement by the angels to the shepherds of the birth of Jesus Christ : " Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy." ' The Gospel is, then, the announcement to the world of good news, namely, the advent, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of One whose life is our example, and in whose death is our pardon, and whose peqjetual spiritual presence is the source and the assurance of spiritual life, both here and in the hereafter, to all those who accept him. Thus the word Gospel accords with and carries out the idea embodied in the title New Testament, as explained above. 2 A very marked difference is noticeable between the first three Gospels and the last. This difference is both external and internal. Matthew and Mark narrate chiefly Christ's ministry in Galilee, with only a brief account of teachings in Perea. 3 Luke narrates also the events and teachings in Galilee, but adds • Luke 2 : 10 'See Part I., Section I ■ Matt., ch. 19 : - ; 20 : 16 ; Mark 10 : 1-31. RELATION OF THE GOSPELS TO EACH OTHER. 35 several chapters devoted to the report of what I believe to have been his ministry in Perea. But no incident of his ministry in Judea is related by any one of the three. " Had we only their accounts," says Dean Alford, " we could never with any certainty have asserted that he went to Jerusalem during his public life, till his time was come to be delivered up." John's Gospel, on the other hand, is chiefly occupied with a narrative of the ministry in Judea. Only in the sixth chapter does he give any account of Christ's teachings in Galilee ; only in a sentence does he refer to a ministry in Perea. 1 The mira- cles he records as performed in Galilee are, with one exception, not mentioned by the other Evangelists ; 2 and the resurrection of Lazarus, the most remarkable of all the mira- cles, if a comparison can be instituted between them, is narrated only by him. The feed- ing of the five thousand is indeed narrated by John (ch. 6) in common with the others, but this is apparently only because it was the text to the discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum, which John alone reports. Even in the history of the Passion Week, where all the Evangelists narrate substantially the same events, a characteristic difference is observa- ble. Incidents which we should most expect to find in John's Gospel are omitted. He gives no account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, though fully and exclusively re- porting Christ's memorable discourse on that occasion, and makes no reference to the agony in Gethsemane, though he describes both Christ's going thither and his arrest there. A glance at the tabulated Harmony of the Gospels, given at the end of this Introduction, will further indicate to the reader how small a portion of the fourth Gospel is occupied with the narration of events or teachings given by the other Evangelists. I believe the expla- nation of this fact to be that John, who undoubtedly wrote after the others, had their narratives before him, and wrote to supply elements and incidents which they had omitted. But this view is by no means universally accepted. It is strenuously resisted by Alford. The difference in internal characteristics, between John and the other Evangelists, is even more remarkable. Matthew, Mark and Luke, are historians, John is a theologian ; they write simple historical narratives, he with a definite and an avowed doctrinal pur- pose ; they record most fully our Lord's life, he our Lord's teaching and character ; they rarely refer to our Lord's divine character and mission, except either by a reference to the fulfillment of ancient prophecy in him, or by the narration of his own teaching respecting himself, 3 John opens his gospel with what is, perhaps, the most explicit declaration to be found in Scripture of Christ's divinity, lingers reverentially over every utterance in which Christ brings to light this truth, hidden, for the most part, from common appre- hension during his earthly life, and closes his account by declaring that, from the various signs wrought by Jesus in the presence of his disciples, he has selected those written in this book, " that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye might have life through his name." 4 The bearing of this contrast between John's Gospel and the other Gospels, on the authority of the former, will be considered hereafter. 5 It must suffice here to state the fact, as one to be constantly borne in mind, in studying the Gospel narratives. The first three Gospels are commonly known as the Synoptic Gospels, from the fact that, to a large extent, they cover the same ground, so that from a combination and com- parison of them, a synopsis of Christ's life, though not a complete or perfect one, may be obtained. These three Synoptic Gospels, however, by no means duplicate each other. Each con- tributes its own peculiar element. Referring the student to the sections below on the ■John 10:40-42 a John 2:1-12; 4:45-54 'Matt, 1:23; 16:16-20; 26:63,64 4 Ch. 21 was probably added by John as an appendix some time after the completion of his Gospel s See Intro, to John's Gospel. 36 THE GOSPELS. several Gospels, for a fuller account of their characteristics, we may here sum up the con- trasts between them in Bishop Ellicott's brief but admirable note. 1 " (1.) In regard of the external features and characteristics, we are perhaj>s warranted in saying that (a) the point of view of the first gospel is mainly Israelitic ; of the second, Gentile; of the third, universal; of the fourth, Christian: that (b) the general aspect, and, so to speak, physiognomy of the first, is mainly Oriental ; of the second, Roman ; of the third, Greek ; of the fourth, spiritual : that (c) the style of the first is stately and rhythmical ; of the second, terse and precise ; of the third, calm and copious ; of the fourth, artless and colloquial : that the most striking characteristic of the first is symmetry ; of the second, compression ; of the third, order ; of the fourth, system : that (e) the thought and language of the first are both Hebraistic ; of the third, both Hellenistic ; while in the second the thought is often occidental, though the language is Hebraistic ; and, in the fourth, the language Hellenistic, but the thought Hebraistic. (2.) Again, in respect of subject-matter and contents, we may say, perhaps, (a) that in the first gospel we have narrative; in the second, memoirs ; in the third, history ; in the fourth, dramatic portraiture ; (b) that in the first we have often the record of events in their accomplishment ; in the second, events in their detail ; in the third, events in their connection ; in the fourth, events in relation to the teaching springing from them : that thus (c) in the first we more often meet with the notice of impressions ; in the second, of facts ; in the third, of motives ; in the fourth, of words spoken : and that, lastly, (d) the record of the first is mainly collective, and often antithetical ; of the second, graphic and circumstantial ; of the third, didactic and reflective ; of the fourth, selective and supplemental. (3.) We may conclude by saying that, in respect of the portraiture of our Lord, the first gospel presents him to us mainly as the Messiah ; the second, mainly as the God-man ; the third, as the Redeemer ; the fourth, as the only-begotten Son of God." II. Origin of the Gospels. — Whence did the Evangelists derive their informa- tion ? Matthew and John were eye and ear witnesses of the events and teachings which they recorded. Doubtless their personal recollection, quickened by the Spirit of God, was one chief source whence they derived their histories. But Luke and Mark were not of the Twelve. Moreover, there is, as already observed, a remarkable correspondence in the narratives of the Synoptic Gospels. Of Mark, nine-tenths; of Matthew, a little more than half; of Luke, a little less than half, is common to the other Evangelists. In some cases the parallel passages are almost identical in language; more generally the resem- blance is substantial, not verbal. These facts indicate that the Evangelists employed, at least to some extent, the same sources of i information, yet wrote independently of each other. To account for the resemblance between them, lour hypot hes e s have I 1. It has been suggested that the narrators made use of each other's work, and many have endeavored to ascertain which gospel is to be regarded as the first, which is copied from the first, and which is the last, and copied from the other two. But the theory, in its crude form, is in itself most improbable; and the wonder is that so much time and learning have been devoted to it. It assumes that an Evangelist lias taken up the work of his predecessor, and, without substantial alteration, has made a few changes in form, a few additions and retrenchments, and then has allowed the whole to go forth under his name. 2. It has been suggested that there may have been a common original gospel, since extinct, from which the three gospels were drawn, each witli more <>r less modification. But if all the Evangelists bad agreed to draw from a common original, it must have been widely, if not universally, accepted in the Church; and yet there is no record of its 1 Ellicott's Life of Christ, p. 46, note. ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 37 existence. If the work wa9 of high authority, it would have been preserved, or at least mentioned ; if of lower authority, it could not have become the basis of three canonical gospels. Nor is it easy to see why, if the Evangelists were transcribers, they should have made such remarkable modifications in the work from which they copied. 3. It has been surmised that our Lord spoke in the Greek language ; that the Evan- gelists reported him independently, but reporting the same words, naturally repeated each other in many cases. It is true that the most notable verbal agreements in the Synoptists are in their reports of the sayings of our Lord ; but that he spoke in Aramaic, is implied by Mark, 1 and it is almost certain that Aramaic was the language of the common people, to whom he addressed himself. Nor does this hypothesis suggest any explanation of the source whence Mark and Luke derived their knowledge. 4. The fourth hypothesis, the one which is now generally adopted by the most advanced Christian scholars, and which I think the most probable, is that the three Evangelists, in the preparation of their respective Gospels, made use of what is termed an "oral Gospel." This hypothesis — and the reader must bear in mind it is only that — may be thus stated : 2 The apostles were chosen by Christ to be his companions while he lived, in order to be the personal witnesses of his life, his death, and his resurrection. Almost immediately after his ascension they were scattered abroad. Driven out from Jerusalem by the Provi- dence of God, they went forth, we are told, " preaching the Gospel." 3 This preaching of the Gospel was not with them, as it is with us, the unfolding of a system of truth, or its application to the heart and life of believers. It was just what the original words sig- nify, a heralding of good tidings. The early disciples went forth as witnesses to the fact that the Messiah had come; and their preaching at first consisted chiefly in a simple description of the life, death, and resurrection of their Lord, a simple narration of the mighty works by which he had authenticated his divine mission, and to which the apostles especially were personal witnesses. This historic character of their preaching is illustrated by the few glimpses of it which we obtain in the Book of Acts, 4 and is further indicated by the fact that when the history to which they had been witnesses had become generally accepted, their mission appears to have come to an end. Of them all, John and Peter alone appear in subsequent New Testament history, as either theologians or ecclesiastical organizers. The result of their witness-bearing, taken up and rejjeated by others, would be, in a brief space of time, agenerally accepted belief in respect to the fundamental facts, and the more important teachings of Jesus Christ. But this belief, though widespread, would not be systematized. Different localities and different churches would become possessed of different fragments of the whole, and in forms more or less diverse. When at length, however, the church began to spread from Judea into Greece, and Asia, and Africa, both the churches and the apostles would become sensible of the need of some more permanent record of this oral Gospel, this good news, and the demand and the supply would spring up together. Those less adapted to the work of oral teaching would reduce the current traditions to writing. And gathering their information from this common source, we should expect to find in their accounts a certain similarity in sul> 1 Mark 5 : 41 ; 7 : at, notes 5 For a fuller exposition and defence of it, consult Alford's Greek Testa- ment, Prolegomena, and Westcott's Introduction to the Study of the Gospels s Acts 8:4; 11 : 19-21. * The same cardinal events which are described with the greatest fullness in the written Gospels are noticed with the most minute detail in the speeches in the Acts : the betrayal (2 ; 23); the condemnation by the San- hedrim (13 : 27) ; the failure of the charge (13 : 28) ; the condemnation by Pilate (3 : 13), and by Herod (4 : 27) ; the choice of Barabbas (3 : 14) ; the urgency of the people and rulers at Jerusalem (13 : 27, 28) ; the crucifixion (4 : 10; 5 : 30 ; 10 : 39) ; by the hand of Gentiles (4 : 27, 28) ; the burial (13 ; 29) ; the resurrection on the third day (10 : 40) ; the manifestation to fore-ordained witnesses (10 : 41), for many days (13 : 31), who did eat and drink with him after he rose (10 : 41) ; the charge to the apostles (10 : 42) ; the ascension to the right hand of God (2 : 33 ; 3 : 21)." — Westcott on the Study of the Gospels. 38 THE GOSPELS. stance, indicative of their common means of information, and certain discrepancies of form, indicative of the differences in the respective writers and in the different phases of the current faith to which they had access. If we were to suppose that this oral tradition was not embodied in written narratives till after the death of the apostles, we might con- sider the authority of the Gospels questionable. But if, as I believe, our Gospels were all of them written by contemporaries of our Lord, two of them by his life companions, the third (the Gospel of Mark) partially under the guidance of an apostle (Peter), and all of them under the inspiration of God, there is nothing in this supposition of common origin in an oral Gospel to weaken, in the least, their credibility. Their authenticity is further assured by the consideration that after they were written and were current in the churches, John wrote his Gospel, and could and presumably would have corrected any material errors if they had contained any. The following considerations render this hypothesis a reasonable and probable one. It is the customary method of preparing history or biography. The conscientious modern biographer visits the most familiar friends of the subject of his work, gains by conversation with them the various incidents in the life to be described, and the traits in the character to be portrayed, and, even if himself a companion and friend, enlarges and corrects his own knowledge by such an examination of oral tradition. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, this customary method may be presumed to have been pursued by the Evangelists. It best explains the verbal discrepancies and substantial harmony of the three Synoptic Gospels, and accords with their broken, unchronological, and frag- mentary character. It accords with Luke's explicit statement of the sources of informa- tion whence he derived his own Gospel. 1 The early post-apostolic writers refer to such an oral tradition as one of the sources of information in their own day. Thus Irenaeus distinctly states that the great outlines of the Life of Christ were received by the barba- rous nations, without written documents, by ancient tradition; and Papias similarly refers to his personal research among the traditions of his own day respecting the apostles and their teachings. The existence and importance of such a body of tradition apriears thus to be well authenticated. I believe, then, with Dean Alford, "that the Synoptic Gospels contain the substance of the apostles' testimony, collected principally from their oral teaching current in the church, partly also from written documents embodying portions of that teaching ; that there is, however, no reason from their internal structure to believe, but every reason to disbelieve, that any one of the three Evangelists had access to either of the other two Gospels in its present form ; " to which I add that in their use of this " oral Gospel " the Evangelists were aided either by their own personal recollections, as in the cases of Matthew and John, or in part by that and in part by the personal recollections of one or more of the apostles, as in the case of Mark, and perhaps of Luke ; that they wrote and pub- lished during the lifetime of the apostles, and when therefore any errors, it there had been any, would have received correction; and, finally, that John's Gospel was written some time after the three Synoptic Gospels, with the knowledge of their contents, and in part to supply elements which were wanting in them, and which were necessary to a full com- prehension of Christ's character and mission. III. Harmony of Hie CJospcls.— No one of the Gospels gives a connected and chronological life of Jesus Christ. They arc not biographies, but biographical memora- bilia; not connected histories, but collections of the teachings ami the events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. No one of them follows a chronological order; no one of them gives a single date. Even the years of Christ's birth and death are left uncertain. Their 1 Luke 1 : 1-4. HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS. 39 records are in these respects exactly what their origin, an oral Gospel, and the inspiration of their writers, moral, not verbal, would lead us to expect. 1 There are, consequently, numerous discrepancies between the Gospel narratives. These are of several descriptions. Sometimes one Evangelist simply omits events recorded by another. Thus Mark gives no hint of the Sermon on the Mount, and no one of the Synoptists mentions the resurrection of Lazarus. Sometimes the order indicated in one narrative is different from that indicated in another. Thus if we only had Matthew's Gospel we should presume that the healing of the leper was performed immediately after the Sermon on the Mount, while Mark indicates another and a more probable time.' Sometimes the discrepancy is only apparent, not real. Thus Luke mentions the ordina- tion of the twelve aj>ostles in connection with the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew gives their names in connection with the subsequent commission to preach the Gospel through- out Galilee. A careless or casual reader might easily imagine the accounts to be dis- crepant, though they are so only in appearance. Sometimes the difference is simply one of language. Thus the four accounts of the inscription over the cross differ in phrase- ology, as do the three accounts of the stilling of the tempest in their reports of the language of the disciples in awakening our Lord, and of his language in reply. 3 Some- times the discrepancy is such as would naturally arise from a difference in the point of view of the observers. Thus the variations in the four accounts of the arrest of Jesus Christ are just such as would naturally arise in reporting such a scene of confusion. Again, the accounts of the birth of Jesus given by Matthew and Luke are entirely differ- ent, but not inconsistent, one Evangelist recording one class of incidents, the other a dif- ferent class. There are a few discrepancies which, with our limited knowledge, it is difficult or perhaps impossible completely to remove. Such is the apparent difference between John and the Synoptists as to the true occasion of the Lord's Supper. 4 There are others which were formerly a serious stumbling-block to the Christian, but in which a fuller knowledge has discovered singular evidences of the truthfulness of Scripture. Such is the seeming geographical discrepancy in the narrative of the miraculous cure of the demoniac, which Matthew describes as performed in the "land of the Gergesenes," and Mark and Luke in the " land of the Gadarenes." 5 A careful comparative study of the four Gospels may not afford a satisfactory solution of all these apparent discrepancies, but it will conduct the conscientious and unprejudiced student to the conclusion of Dean Alford, who gives, indeed, undue weight to these natural variations in the Evangelists' narratives, but who says : " We may be sure that if we knew the real process of the trans- actions themselves, that knowledge would enable us to give an account of the diversities of narration and arrangement which the Gospels now present to us." In conducting such an investigation the following principles are to be borne in mind by the student : 1. The true chronological order of Christ's life is not to be found in any one Gospel, but is to be ascertained, if at all, by a comparison of the four accounts. It must often be only a matter of surmise. 2. No one of the Evangelists ordinarily gives a literal report of the language used. The habit of ancient authors was to embody in dramatic forms the substance of the inci- dent narrated. Of this literary habit not only the ancient histories, as Caesar and Sallust, but the Old Testament also, furnish many examples. 6 Where a modern historian, narrat- ing the stilling of the tempest, would say, " The disciples awoke Christ and reproached 1 See above pages 3 See Matt. 8:1, note s See Mark 4 : 35-41, notes * See note on the Lord's Supper, Matt. 26 : 12, 13, 30 5 See for explanation of this discrepancy Matt. 8 : 28, note. Thus, " God said, ' Let there be light. 1 " To whom should he say it ? This is evidently simply a dra- matic and graphic portraiture of the act of divine creative will. So throughout the O. T. history the conferences are given, not in the manner of a modern historian, but in a dialogue form. 40 THE GOSPELS. him for his indifference to their danger," the Evangelists put the language of reproach into the disciples' mouths, in forms verbally different, and representing slightly different shades of feeling. 3. Christ often repeated substantially the same teaching, and often, apparently, clothed it in the same words. Certain aphorisms became even characteristic of his teaching. Moreover, to meet the same or similar needs, he repeated, on different occasions, substan- tially the same miracle of mercy. Thus the denouncing of the Pharisees reported by .Matthew, in chap. 23, is in some sense a repetition of the previous philippic reported in Luke, chap. 11, and the feeding of the four thousand in Matt. 15 : 32-39 is in almost all respects a repetition of the previous feeding of the five thousand, reported in chap. 14 : 15-21. 4. Hence we often find the same event or teaching reported by different Evangelists, in phraseology and in chronological connections slightly different ; and we also find teach- ings and miracles similar, yet not to be confounded, occurring on different occasions ; and again we find some cases in which it is not easy to determine whether the two accounts are of the same or of different events. In general we may say that when the differences are merely verbal and chronological it is probable that the event is the same, only the narrative different ; but that when the end or object in view, or the important circum- stances, are different, the events are not to be regarded as identical because similar in cer- tain minor or external respects. Thus, to suppose that Christ healed one blind man as he entered Jericho and two as he went out of it, in order to reconcile the discrepant accounts of Luke 18 : 35, etc., and Matt. 20 : 29, etc., is as unreasonable and improbable on the one side, as to suppose that the anointing described in Luke 7 : 36-50 and Matt. 26 : 6-13 are the same, because in both cases performed at a supper table and by a woman. 5. It is possible to determine with tolerable accuracy what were the great eras of Christ's life, what its outlines, what the general course and development of his ministry, and of the opposition which ended in his death. But the chronological order of the spe- cific events and teachings which belong in the several eras must probably always be largely a matter of conjecture. Applying these principles, we give, for the aid of such as wish to study the life of Christ in its connections, a sketch of that life in outline, and add, at the close of this Introduction, a tabulated harmony of the Gospels, cautioning the student that the latter, in its arrangement in detail of the Gospel narratives, represents only the best conjectures of Bible students. BV. The Life of Christ. — The life of Christ may be divided into eight eras, as follows: His birth and early education ; the inauguration of his public ministry; his min- istry in Galilee ; his period of retirement ; his ministry in Judea; his ministry in Perea ; his Passion ; his Resurrection. His birth probably took place four years before tin- time indicated by our present chronology, i. e., B. C. 4; his baptism at thirty years of ago. A. I). 26 ; and his death, alter a ministry of between three and four years, A. D. 30.' 1. Win birth mid education. — He is born in Bethlehem, whither his mother and reputed lather have come from Galilee, on the taking of a census. From Bethlehem be is taken to Egypt, to escape the malice of Herod the Great, and on the king's death is earned to Nazareth in Galilee. Here he dwells till his manhood. Only one incident of his youth is narrated, viz., his disputing with the doctors in the Temple.- Matthew (chaps. 1,2) ami Luke (chaps. 1, 2) narrate Christ's birth, each of them incidents apparently unknown to the other. 1 K<>r a fuller sketch of the Life of Christ, from which this epitome is taken, see Abhott's Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, article Jesus. See also Abbott's Je«us qf Nazareth ' Luke 2 : 40-B- THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 41 2. The inauguration of his public ministry. — He first enters upon his life-work by receiving baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, in the Jordan ; prepares for it by his mysterious experience of temptation in the wilderness ; signalizes it by his attendance on and miracle at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, and his expulsion of the traders from the temple at Jerusalem. Here, in conversation with Nicodemus, he reveals privately the truths of atonement and regeneration, which are not publicly preached till much later. But he does not commence the public preaching of the Gospel till the arrest and impris- onment of John the Baptist, some months subsequent, though one miracle and some teaching in Samaria, consequent upon his conversation with the woman at the well, are recorded by John. This era is reported by Matt., chaps. 3, 4 : 1-11 ; Mark 1 : 1-13 ; Luke, chaps. 3, 4 : 1-13; and John, chaps. 1 to 4. To this period belong the journeys 1, 2, 3, and i on the accompanying map. Mi * w-s ; Jericho' Emmauio \%: : 98.. ■• •g^J±,£ e t7iany leyond Jordan JERUSALEM^, Russell j- Sirutheri.N. F. Sketch Map Illustrating the Journettngs op Our Lord. Reference. 1 and 2. First journeys : Nazareth, Bethany, beyond Jor- dan, Desert of Temptation. Re- turn : Bethany, beyond Jordan. Capernaum, Nazareth. 3. First Passover: Nazareth, Jerusalem. Return through Judea and Samaria (Si- chem, Jacob's Well), Cana, Naza- reth. 4. To Capernaum, &c. ; Nazareth, Capernaum (dwelling there). 5. Feast of Purim : Capernaum, Nazareth, Nain, Bethany, Jerusalem. Return to Capernaum. 6. In Galilee, &c. : Capernaum, Bethsaida - Julias, Capernaum, Borders of Tyre and Sidon, Coasts of Decapolis, Coun- try of Dalmanutha, Bethsaida-Ju- lias, Cresarea-Philippi, Mount Ta- bor, Capernaum. 7. Feast of Tabernacles : Capernaum, Borders of Samaria, Jerusalem. Return to Perea. 8. Feast of the Dedication, &c. : Perea, Jerusalem, Bethany. Ephraim, Jericho. 9. Last Passover: Jericho, Bethany, Jerusalem. 3. His ministry in Galilee. — He begins his ministry by preaching a sermon at Nazareth, where he is mobbed, and whence he departs to make Capernaum his home; calls four disciples by the seashore to follow him ; then Matthew ; then the rest of the twelve. These he ordains, and to them, in the Sermon on the Mount, he explains the fundamental principles of his kingdom. During this ministry he attends the Passover at Jerusalem, 42 THE GOSPELS. where, by his healing on the Sabbath, the first open opposition to him and his teaching is excited. He then returns to Galilee; his ministry there is one of constantly increasing popularity, though also of increasing opposition, mainly stimulated by emissaries from Judea. He begins to employ parables, as a means of integrating the nature of the king- dom he had before simply announced. He commissions his apostles to preach it also, and by their aid the Gospel is proclaimed throughout all Galilee. At length the popular enthusiasm reaches its height in a determination to make him king by force ; he declares, in the sermon which John alone (chap. 6) has reported, the spiritual character of his kingdom, and the self-sacrifice it entails; the popular feeling, tested by this revelation, proves itself untrustworthy ; many that were inclined to follow abandon him, and his public ministry in Galilee comes to an end. This period of Christ's ministry is reported by Matt., chap. 4 : 12 to chap. 15 : 20; Mark, chap. 1 to chap. 7 : 23; and Luke, chap. 4 : 14 to chap. 9 : 17. John reports Christ's journey to Jerusalem to attend the Passover, and his miracle of feeding the five thousand and subsequent sermon thereon, but nothing else of this period of his life. 1 To this period belong the largest number of our Lord's miracles, and his simplest and most fundamental teaching, and most of his longest public discourses, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, the Parables by the sea-shore, and the Sermon or Commission to the twelve. 4. The period of his retirement. — After the close of his ministry in Galilee, Christ spends a few brief months in retirement with his disciples, during which time he visits succes- sively the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, the region about Cesarea Philippi, and the eastern coast of the Sea of Galilee. The miracles i^erformed during this time are comparatively few, and are kept, as far as practicable, from public notice ; the indications of a constant endeavor to avoid the people are many ; and the instructions are chiefly in private, to the twelve, and concerning the principles which are to actuate them in the future conduct of the church. To this period belongs the healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman's daughter, Peter's confession of our Lord's divinity, the Transfiguration, and the feeding of the four thousand. The accounts of it are found in Matthew, chap. 15 : 21 to chap. 19 ; Mark, chap. 7 : 24 to chap. 9; Luke, chap. 9 : 18-62. John does not refer to any portion of it. This and the previous era include the journeys marked 5 and 6 on the accompanying map, and all the journeys indicated on the Map of the Sea of Gennesaret which accompanies Mark, chap. 1. 5. The ministry in Judea. — This lasted for three months, from the feast of Tabernacles in October, to the feast of Dedication in December. It is reported exclusively by John, chap. 7 : 1 to chap. 10 : 39, unless, as may be the case, the parables of the Good Samaritan, and the Pharisee and Publican, and the incident in the house of Martha and Mary ■ belong to the same epoch. 6. The ministry in Perea. — This name was given to all that part of Palestine which lay beyond the Jordan. It was occupied by a population partly Jewish, partly heathen. Driven out of Jerusalem I believe that Jesus went into Perea, where he prosecuted his ministry during the winter months, and where he commissioned the seventy to aid him, as before in Galilee he had commissioned the twelve. This is a more probable account of his life than that which supposes his retirement to Galilee and the resumption of his teaching there, after he had tinned his hack nponitand pronounced his denunciation upon the cities ofChorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. According t<> this view the chief portion of the teachings and events recorded in Luke, chap. 10 to chap. 18 : 34, together with those recorded in Matthew, chap. 19 : 1 to chap. 20 : 16, and Mark 10: 1-31, belong to this period. From the ministry in Perea < 'heist wob called by the intelligence of the sickness of Lazarus, and after the resurrection of Lazarus, recorded alone by John, chap. 11, retired • John, chaps. 6 and 6 • Luke 10 : 25-12 ; 18 . 9-14. THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 43 to Ephraim, where he remained till the time for his Passion had arrived. The journeys marked 7 and 8 on the map, belong to this and the previous era, though I do not agree with the map in supposing tbat Christ went at this time into Galilee, a supposition which is not supported by evidence. 7. The Passion week. — The events of this week are recorded by all the Evangelists. Christ's triumphal entry into the city took place on Sunday. The two following days, Monday and Tuesday, were occupied with the instructions in the Temple, reported most fully by Matthew, ending with a terrible denunciation of the Pharisees, and followed by a prophecy, given to the disciples alone, of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and Judaism. These discourses are much more fully reported by Matthew than by Mark or Luke. Wednesday was spent in retirement at Bethany, at which time, as I think, the supper was given to Christ and he was anointed by Mary, his rebuke of Judas Iscariot at that time being the immediate occasion of the latter's treachery. The Passover supper with the twelve in Jerusalem, took place on Thursday evening, and was followed by the agony in Gethsemane, the arrest, the mock trial, and finally the crucifixion on Friday. Compare for accounts of this week, Matthew, chaps. 21 to 27 ; Mark, chaps. 11 to 15 ; Luke, chap. 19 : 29 to chap. 23; John 12 to 19. 8. The Resurrection. — The accounts of the resurrection are given by Matthew, chap. 28 ; Mark, chap. 16 ; Luke, chap. 24 ; and John, chaps. 20, 21. These outlines of Christ's life I believe to be tolerably clear and certain. For the more detailed harmony of the Gospels, and the probable though confessedly conjectural order of the events narrated, the student is referred to the following Harmony, which, however, he must remember is largely conjectural. TABULAR HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS. Where the same incident or teaching is treated by more than one of the Synoptic Evangelists in substantially the same manner, the notes are given in lull in one Gospel, and only peculiarities of statement or diction are treated in the other. In this table the black-faced type indicates that the reader may expect to find full notes on the passage so marked. The notes on John are lull throughout. I. BIRTH AND EDUCATION. From b.c. 6 to a.d. 8.* " The Word " Preface, to Theophilus Annunciation of the Baptist's birth. . Annunciation of the birth of Jesus... Mary visits Elizabeth Birth of John the Baptist Birth of Jesus Christ Two Genealogies The watching Shepherds The Circumcision Presentation in the Temple The wise men from the East Flight to Egypt Disputing with the Doctors Jerusalem. Nazareth. Juttah. Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Jerusalem. Bethlehem. Jerusalem. 18-25. 1-17. 1-12. 13 23. 1-4. 5-15. 26-38. 39-56. 57-80. 1-7. 23-38. 8 20. 21. 22-38. 39- 2 : 40-52. 1 : 1-14 II. INAUGURATION OF PUBLIC MINISTRY Jordan. From Summer, a.d. 26, to Dec, a.d. 27. Ministry of John the Baptist Baptism of Jesus Christ The Temptation An Irow and another see Jesus Si. 11 in, now Cephas (Peter) Philip and Nathanael The water made wine Passover (1st) and cleansing the Temple Nicodemus Christ's disciples and John baptizing. . . The woman of Samaria (?) Jordan. "(?) Cana. Jerusalem. Jordan. Samaria. 3 : 1-12. 3 : 13-17. 4:1-11. 3 : 1-18. 3 : 21, 22. 4 = i-i3- III. MINISTRY IN GALILEE. From March, a.d. 28, to Summer, John the Baptist in prison Return to Galilee The nobleman's son Capernaum. Four Apostles called Demoniac healed there Simon's wife's mother healed First Circuit round Galilee Healing a leper Healing the paralytic Journey to Jerusalem to 2d Passover. . Pool of Bztnesda. Power of Christ — Plucking ears of corn on Sabbath The withered hand. Miracles Matthew the Publican " Thy disciples fast not " !ii r. Woman healed Hlin 1 men, an 1 demoniac The S rmon on the Mount Tn • I snturion's servant The widow's son at Naln fro o John Woe to I lie cities of Galilee Call to the meek and Buffering ■in r [\ U - feet of [esus it round Galilee Parabl • of the Sower " " « M 11 under .1 Bushel.. " " Growth "i Seed " " Wheat and Pares " " Grain of Mustard Seed. . " " Leaven < in teat hiiiL,' by parables l The ti' CondirJ in 1 oi following • hi i .1 Christ stills th Demoniacs in land of Gadarenes . ... Healing of Demoniac and discourse) thereon ( Machrerus. Galilee. Jerusalem. Galilee. 4:12; 14:3.1 1 4 : 12. 4 : 13-22. 8 : 14^7. 4 : 23-25. 8 : 1-4. 9 : 1-8. Sea of Galilee, Galilee. 12 : 1-8. 12 : 9-21. 9 : 9-13. 9:14-17. 9: 18-26. 27-34. 1 to 7: 29. 5-13. 11 : 2-19. 11 : 20-24 11:25-30. 13 : 1-23. 13 : 24-30. 13: 31, 32. 13:33. 13 : 34, 35- 13 : 36-43. 13 : 44-52. 8 : 19-22. 8.28-34. 12 : 22-45. 14; 6 : 17. M, 15- 16-20. 21-28. 29-34. : 35-39, 2 : 23-28. 3 : 1-12. 2 : 13-17. 2 : 18-22. 5 : 21-43. 3 = »3-«9« 21-25. 26-29. 30-32- 33. 34- 35-41. 1-20. 20-30. A.D. 29. 19, 20. : i-ii. 3!-37- 38-41. 42-44. 12-16. : 17-26. i-5- 6-11. 27-32. 33-39- 40-56. 12-49. \ i 18-& : 36-50. : 1-3. 4-1 s- 16-18. 18, 19. 20, 21. : 57-62. 22-25. a6 39. r (-.-' . 15-31. 32-34. : 35-40. : 41, 42. ; 43-51. : 111. : 12-22. :23to3: 3 : 22-36. 4 : 1-42. 21. 3:24. 4 : 43-45. 4 : 46-54. 5:1. 5 : 2-47 4 : 46-54 * Thli chronology usumi-i, with Andrew!, that Chrlit m born B.C. 4. See Mitt. 1 : H, note. It followi Androwi, " Life of our Lord." TABULAR HARMONY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 45 MINISTRY AT GALILEE— Continued. Location. Matthew. Mark. Luke. John. Galilee. Machaerus. Galilee. 12 : 46-50. 13 : 53-58. 9 : 35-38. 10 to 11: 1. 14 : 1, 2 14 : 3-12. 14:13-21. 14 : 22-28. 14 : 28-32. 14 : 34-36. 15 : 1-20. 3 : 31-35. 6 : 1-6. 6: 6. 6 : 7-13. 6 : 14-16. 6 : 17-29. 6 : 30-44. 6 : 45-52- 6 : 53-56. 7 : 1-23. 8 : 19-21. 4 : 14-32. 9 : 1-6. 9 = 7-9- 9 : 10-17. 6:4. 6 : 1-15. 6 : 16-21. Peter's attempt to walk on the sea.. . . The bread of life 6 : 22-65. IV. PERIOD OF RETIREMENT. The Syro-Phcenician woman. Miracles of healing Feeding of the four thousand The sign from heaven The leaven of the Pharisees. . Blind man healed Peter's profession of faith The Passion foretold The Transfiguration Elijah The lunatic healed The Passion again foretold . . Fish caught for the tribute . . . The little child One casting out devils Offences The lost sheep Forgiveness of injuries Binding and loosing Forgiveness. Parable " Salted with fire " Fire from heaven Phoenicia. Galilee. Samaria. From Summer, a.d. 29, to Fall, a.d. 29. 15 : 21-28. 15 : 29-31. 15 : 32-39. 16 : 1-4. T6 •• 5-12. 16 : 13-20. 16 : 21-28. 17 : 1-9. 17 : 10-13. 17 : 14-21. 17 : 22, 23. 17 : 24-27. 18 : 1-5. 18 18 18 18 18 6-9. 10-14. 15-17. 18-20. 21-35. 24-30. 31-37. 1-9. 10-13. 14-21. 22-26. 27-29. 30 to 9 : 1 , 11-13- : 14-29. : 30-32. 33-37- : 38-41. : 42-48. 9 : 49, 50. 21-27. 28-36. 37-42. 43-45- 9 : 46-48. 9 : 49i 50. 17 : 1, 2. 9 : 51-56. V. MINISTRY IN JUDEA. From Oct. to Dec, a.d. 29. Going to Jerusalem ! Jerusalem. Discussions at Feast of Tabernacles. . . | " Woman taken in adultery Dispute with the Pharisees The man born blind The good Shepherd Feast of Dedication MINISTRY IN PEREA. Perea. I VI Beyond Jordan The Seventy disciples The Good Samaritan Mary and Martha , Discourses of Jesus : time and occa- sion uncertain Woman healed on Sabbiith ... " Arc th are few that b? saved ? " , Warmn 3; against 1 Icrod Instructions at a Pharisee's house Following Christ with the Cross Parables of Lost Sheep, Piece off Money, Prodigal Son, Unjust Stew- ard, Rich Man and Lazarus , Forgiveness and faith | S g M % The ten lepers How the kingdom cometh Parable of the Unjust Judge " " Pharisee and Publican. Divorce Infants brought to Jesus The rich man inquiring Promises to the disciples Laborers in the vineyard Raising of Lazarus Bethany. Meeting of the Sanhedrim Jerusalem Christ in Ephraim Judea. Death of Christ foretold Request of James and John Blind man at Jericho Jericho. Zaccheus Parable of the Ten Pounds From Dec, a.d. 29, to March, a.d. 30. 19 : 1-12. 19: 13-15. 19 : 16-26. 19 : 27-30. 20 : 1-16. 20 : 17-19. 20 : 20-28. 20 : 29-34. 13-16. 17-27. 28-31. 32-34- 35-45- 46-52. 10 : 1-24. 10 : 25-?7. 10 : 38-42;. j 11 : 37 to I 13 : !). 13:1 0-1 7. is.i ?.-: 0. 13:31-35. 14 : 1-24. 14 : 25-35. chs. 15, 16. 1-10. 11-19. 20-37. 1-8. 18 : 9-14. 18 : 15-17- 18 : 18-27. 18 : 28-30. 18 : 31-34. 18 : 35-43. 19 : 1-10. 19 : 11-28. 6 : 66-71. 7 : MO. 7:11-53. 8: 1-11. 8 : 12-59. 9 : 1-41. 10 : 1-21. 10 : 22-39. 10 : 40-42. 11 : 1-44. 11 : 45-53. 11:54-57- 46 TABULAR HARMONY OF TUE FOUR GOSPELS. VII. PASSION WEEK. From Sunday, 2 April, to Friday, 7 April, a.d. 30. Christ enters Jerusalem Cleansing of the Temple (2d) The barren fig-tree Pray, and forgive " By what authority," etc Parable of the Two Sons " " Wicked Husbandmen.. " " Wedding Garment The tribute-money The state of the risen The great Commandment David's Son and David's Lord Against the Pharisees The widow's mite Greeks visit Jesus. Voice from heaven Reflections of John Christ's second coming Parable of the Ten Virgins " " Talents' The last Judgment The anointing by Mary Plot against Jesus and Lazarus Last Passover (4th). Jews cor Judas Iscariot Paschal Supper Contention of the Apostles Peter's fall foretold Last Discourse The prayer of Christ , Gethsemane The betrayal Before Caiaphas. Peter's denial Bef jre the Sanhedrim , Before Pilate Jerusalem. ; conspire The Traitor's death. Before Herod Accusation and condemnation The daughters of Jerusalem. .. The Crucifixion The penitent thief Darkness and other portents. . , The by-standers The side pierced The burial , The guard of the sepulchre,. Bethany. Jerusalem. 21 : 1-11. 21 : 12-16. 21 : 17-22. 21 :' 23-27. 21 : 28-32. 21 : 33-46. 22 : 1-14. 22 : 15-22. " 23-33. 34-40. 41-46. 1-39. 22 22 22 23 24 : 1-51. 25 . 1-13. 25 : 14-30. 25 : 31-46. 26 : 6-13. 1-5. 14-16. 17-30. 26 26 26 26 : 31-35. 26 : 36-46. 26 : 47-56. 126:57,58 r 69-75. 26 : 59-68. I 27 : 1. 2, 11-14. 27 : 3-10. 27 : 15-26. 27 :" 27-50. 27 :' 45-53. 27 : 54-56. 27:57-61. (27:62-66: 28:11-15. 11 : 1-10. 11 : 15-18. Ill: 12-14, ) 20-23. 11 : 24-26. 11 : 27-33. 12 : 13-17. 12 : 18-27. 12 : 28-34. 12 = 35-37- 12 : 38-40. 12 : 41-44. 14 : 1, 2. 14 : 10, 11. 14 : 12-26. 14 : 32-42. 14 : 43-52. 14 : 53. 54. 66-72. 14 : 55-65. 15 : i-5- 15 : 6-15. 13 : 16-37. 15 = 38-41- 15 : 39-4J- 19 : 29-44. 19 : 45-48. 20 : 1-8, 20 : 9-19. 14 : 16-24. 20 : 20-26. 20 : 27-40. 20 : 41-44. 20 : 45-47- 5-38. 7 : 36-50- 22 : 1, 2. 22 : 3-6. 22 : 7-23, 22 : 24-30- 22 : 31-39. 22 : 40-46. 22 : 47-53- 22 : 54-62. 22 : 63-71. 23 : 1-3. 23:' til. 23 : 13-25- 23 : 26-32. 2,1 ': 3^43. 23 : 44-46. 23 : 47-49. 23 : 50-56. 12 : 12-19. 12 : 20-36- 12 : 36-50. 12 : 1-9. 12: 10,11. 13 : 1-35. 13 : 36-38. chs. 14-16. 17 : 1-26. 1. 2-11. 18 18 18 : 12-27. 18 : 28. (18 119 29-10 ; 1-16. 19 : 16-30. 19 : 31-37. 19 : 38-42- VIII. THE RESURRECTION. From 9 April to 18 May, a.d. 30. The Resurrection Disciples going to Emmaus. Appearances in Jerusalem. . At the Sea of Tiberias On the Mount in Galilee Unrecorded Works Ascension Jerusalem, er. Emmaus. Jerusalem. Galilee. (?) Bethany. 28 : 1-10. 28 : 16-20. 16 : i-ii. 16 : 12, 13. 16 : 14-18. 24 : 1-12. 24 : 13-35. 24 : 36-49- 16 : 19, 20. 24 : 50-53. 20 : 1-18- 20: 19-29. 21 : 1-23. I 20 ! 30, 31; \ 21: 24. 25. The Gospel ACCORDING TO MATTHEW NOTES AND COMMENTS. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. INTRODUCTION. By whom written. The testimony of an- tiquity is unanimous that the Gospel of Matthew was written by the apostle whose name it bears.* Its characteristics are such as one might expect from the writer. He was a publican or tax- gatherer by profession, and was thus trained to orderly and methodical habits of thought ; and of all the Gospels his is the most orderly and systematic in its arrangement. He gives more fully than any other writer the public discourses of our Lord. Thus it is that we find in Matthew by far the fullest accounts of the Sermon on the Mount, the apostolic commission, the discourse on blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, that on the duties of the disciples to forgive one another, and the whole series of invectives against the Phari- sees, as well as the parables by the sea and those that are prophecies of the destruction of the Jewish nation.f Original language. But though the au- thorship of the Gospel was never called in question until the last century, and is as well established as that of any ancient book, it is not certain that we possess this Gospel in its original form. The testimony of the early Church is unanimous that Matthew wrote originally in the Hebrew lan- guage ; and some confirmation is lent to this opinion by the fact that there are indications that he wrote his Gospel with special reference to exerting his influence upon the Jews, and from the statement of at least one of the fathers that he belonged to the Jewish party in the Christian Church. On the other hand, doubt is thrown over this opinion, both by an examination of the statements of the fathers, and by a consid- eration of peculiar forms of language employed in the Gospel itself. The question is unsettled, the best scholars not agreeing in their judgment concerning it. If there was a Hebrew original, * For account of his life see Commentary, p. 111. For some account of this testimony see Intro., pp. 16-19. + Matt., chaps. &-7; 10-12 : 21-85. it disappeared at a very early age. The Greek Gospel which we now possess was, it is almost certain, written in Matthew's lifetime, and it is not at all improbable that he wrote the Gospel in both the Greek and Hebrew languages. Time of composition. There are no data for determining with accuracy the exact time when it was written. The testimony of the early church, however, is unanimous that it was the first written of the Gospels ; and this is confirmed indirectly by the fact that in all copies of the N. T., and in all translations, this Gospel has been placed first. It was probably composed about the middle of the first century. Object. Whether originally written in the He- brew language or not, it is reasonably certain that it was written originally for Jewish readers. The ancient opinion that Matthew wrote in Hebrew indicates this, and the inference is confirmed by its character. "We have," says Dean Alford, "fewer interpretations of Jewish customs, laws, and localities than in the two other Gospels. The whole narrative proceeds more upon a Jewish view of matters, and is concerned more to estab- lish that point, which to a Jewish convert would be most important — that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. Hence the com- mencement of his genealogy from Abraham and David ; hence the frequent notice of the neces- sity of this or that event happening, because it was so foretold by the prophets ; hence the constant opposition of our Lord's spiritually ethical teach- ing to the carnal formalistic ethics of the Scribes and Pharisees." Characteristics. Of these I have already in- cidentally spoken. His diction is the Hebraistic Greek of the Septuagint ; his external character as a writer is order, method, and simplicity ; his view of Jesus Christ is of him as the Messiah-King, come to establish on the earth the Kingdom of God ; and of that kingdom he affords the most perfect delineation in his report of the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables by the Sea, PALESTINE Scale of Miles From Mouteith's Comprehensive Geography. GAZETTEER. Bethany (house or place of dates). A well- known village about 2 miles from Jerusalem, on the eastern slope of the Mt. of Olives. Matt. 21 : 17 ; 26 : 6-13 ; Mark 11 : 1, 11, 12 ; 14 : 3-9 ; Luke 19 : 39 ; 24 : 50, 51 ; John 11 : 1^6 ; 11 : 18. Bethlehem (house of bread) a village 5 miles south of Jerusalem and east of the road to Hebron. It occupies part of the summit and sides of a narrow ridge which shoots out east- ward from the central chain of the Judean mountains, and breaks down abruptly into deep valleys on the north, south, and east. The village at the present time contains about 500 houses. Gen. 35 : 19 ; Ruth 1 : 19 ; 1 Sam. 16 : 4 ; 2 Sam. 23 : 15-17 ; Matt. 2 : 1-18 ; Luke 2 : 1-20. Bethphage (house of unripe figs). A village on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem, and near to Bethany, but whether east or west of it is not known. Matt. 21 : 1 ; Mark 11 : 1 ; Luke 19 : 29. Bethsaida (house offish). A town of Galilee, on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret. Some scholars suppose two towns of the same name. This is an improbable and unnecessary hypoth- esis. See note on Mark 6 : 45. Bethsaida Julias, the only one known to have existed, was on the north shore of the sea, near the mouth of the river Jordan. Matt. 11 : 21 ; Mark 6 : 45 ; Luke 9 : 10 ; 10 : 13 ; John 1 : 44 ; 12 : 21. Caesarea Philippi. A city about 4 miles east of Dan, the Hazor and Baal-Gad of Josh. 11 : 10, 17. Its ruins are found in the little village of Banias. Matt. 16 : 13, note. Cana (reedy). A village in the hill country of Galilee, about 9 miles north of Nazareth, and about 6 or 8 hours from Capernaum. John 2 : 1-11, notes ; 4 : 46-54 ; 21 : 2. Capernaum. A city on the sea of Galilee, the centre of Christ's missionary operations throughout Galilee. Its site is involved in un- certainty ; probably it is to be identified with Tell-Hum, an uninhabited ruin. Matt. 8 : 5, 14; 9 : 1, 9 ; Mark 1 : 16, 17, 21, 23 ; Luke 5 : 27 ; 7 : 1, 8 ; John 6 : 59. Chorazin (district of Ziri). A town of Galilee. The site is uncertain, but recent researches tend to identify it with Kerazeh, two miles north of Tell-Hum. Matt. 11 : 21 ; Luke 10 : 13. Dalinanutha (branch). A village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, perhaps iden- tical with Magdala. Mark 8 : 10, note. Dead Sea. Called the Salt Sea, The Sea, The Sea of the Plains, i. e., the Arabah, the East Sea, Asphaltic Lake, and Sea of Sodom. The Arabs term it Bahr Lut, the " Sea of Lot." It is of an elongated oval shape, broken by a peninsula which projects from the eastern shore, near its southern end, and virtually divides the expanse of the water into two portions. It is about 46 miles long by 10 miles wide in the widest part ; its area is about 250 square geographical miles. The northern portion is of great depth, the southern is shallow. The sea, in its present extent, covers what was once the Vale of Siddim. Decapolis (of ten cities). A region in the north-eastern part of Palestine, near the Sea of Galilee. Matt. 4 : 25, note. Emmaus. A village, site unknown, 6 or 8 miles from Jerusalem. Luke 24 : 13-35. Eiion. The place where John baptized. Its location is uncertain. Robinson places it near the north-eastern border of Judea, in the vicinity of Samaria. John 3 : 23. E phi-aim. A city described as near the wil- derness ; that is, perhaps, the wild hill country north-east of Jerusalem. John 11 : 54. Gadara. A Roman town south-east of Tibe- rias, giving name to the country of the Gadarenes. Matthew 8 : 28, note ; Mark 5:1; Luke 8 : 26. Galilee (circle). A name originally confined to a little " circuit " of country round Kadesh- Napthali, in which were situated twenty towns given by Solomon to Hiram, King of Tyre. In Christ's time, it embraced the whole northern section of Palestine, including the ancient terri- tories of Issachar, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali. It extended from the Mediterranean to the Jordan Valley, and from the base of Mt. Carmel and the hills of Samaria, to Phoenicia and the Lebanon range. Remains of splendid synagogues still exist in many of the old towns and villages, showing that from the second to the seventh century the Jews were as prosperous as they were numerous. Josh. 20 : 7 ; 1 Kings 9:2; Matt. 4 : 15 ; Mark 14 : 70 ; Luke 17 : 11 ; John 1 : 46 ; 7 : 52. See Matt. 2 : 22, note. Galilee, Sea of. Called also Sea of Gen- nesaret, of Chinnereth or Chinneroth, and the Lake of Tiberias. For map and description, see Mark 1 : 30, note. Jericho. An ancient city of the Canaanites, situated in the valley of the Jordan, at the entrance of two passes through the hills, — one to Jerusalem, the other to Ai and Bethel. It is called in Judges 1 : 16; 3 : 13, "City of Palm Trees." The N. T. Jericho was 2 miles from the fountain of Elisha, the present Ain-es- Sultan. Josh.2: 1-21; 6:1; 2Sam.lO:5; lKingsl6:34; 2 Kings 2 : 1-22 ; Ezra 2 : 34 ; Neh. 3:2; 7 : 36 ; Jer. 39 : 5 ; 52 : 8 ; Matt. 20 : 29-34 ; Mark 10 : 46- 52 ; Luke 10 : 30-37 ; 18 : 35, 48 ; 19 : 1-10. Jerusalem. A city built on a promontory of rock that juts out from the table-land of Judea. GAZETTEER. Deep but narrow gorges separate it from sur- rounding hills. It is 25 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and 3000 feet above the valley of the Jordan. A valley divides its rocky foundation into two hills, and the city itself into an upper and lower town. Josh. 18 : 28 ; Judg. 1 : 8 ; 2 Sam. 5 : 6-9 ; 1 Kings 3 : 1 ; 2 Chr. 25 : 23, 24 ; Neh., chaps. 2-G ; 2 Kings 24 : 10-10 ; 25. For map, see Matt., ch. 20, p. 257. Jordau. The only considerable river of Palestine. It rises in the Lebanon range, flows for six miles through a marshy plain, enters the waters of Merom, thence descends about nine miles to the Sea of Galilee, falling in that distance about GOO feet ; after quitting this lake at its southern extremity it becomes a headlong torrent, widening in its course, with many a precipitous fall through a strange, lonely valley, occupying in its serpentine course 200 miles in traversing a direct line of not over 00 ; and finally empties into the Dead Sea, 1310 feet below the Mediterranean sea level. From the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, it descends nearly, if not quite, 700 feet. Its width varies from 70 feet, at its entrance into the Sea of Galilee, to 180 yards at its entrance into the Dead Sea. For some of the historical events connected with the Jordan, see Josh, chaps. 3, 4 ; Judg. 8:4; 10 : 9 : 2 Sam. 2 : 20 ; 17 : 22 ; 19 : 15-30 ; 2 Kings 2 : 7-14; 5 : 10-14 ; : 2-7 ; Matt. 3 : 0, 13 ; Mark 1 : 5, 9. Judea. This name is now frequently applied to the whole of the Holy Land, more generally designated as Palestine. Properly speaking, however, it only signifies one of the three prov- inces into which Palestine, west of the Jordan, was divided at the time of Christ — Galilee, Sa- maria, Judea. The province of Judea comprised the territories of Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, and parts of Dan, from the Jordan to the Mediter- ranean ; it extended from the wilderness on the south to Shiloh on the north, running up, how- ever, on the B6&-COa8t west, of Samaria to a point north of Caesarea. After the disgrace of Arche- laus, a.m. 6, Jaded was attached to the Roman province of Syria ; the procurator, subordinate to the Governor of Syria, residing at Caesarea. Miiclinerus. See Matt. 11 : 2, note. Hagdalat A town on the Bea of Oalilce, Identified with the modern d-Mtfdel, a little north of Tiberias. Matt. 15 : 89; Mark 8 : 10, note. Na in. A city mentioned only in Luke 7 : 11. Its remains lie on the south side of the Little Mention, tWO or three boors' distance from Naza- reth, on the road to Jerusalem. Nazareth. A town situated in a beautiful val- ley about live miles west of Tabor. The modern town is supposed to have been built upon the ancient site ; it has a population of 8120 persons. Matt. '.' : 33, 38, note; Luke :.' ; B9 ; I : 10. Palestine. This name is now universally applied to the country formerly inhabited by the Jewish people, though in the Bible it has other names, as Canaan, Land of the Hebrews, Land of Judea, Land of Promise, Land of Jehovah, and sometimes simply The Laud. In size and shape Palestine does not differ widely from the State of Vermont ; its length is about 180 miles, its average breadth 05. But its variety of cli- mate, productions, and geographical features have no parallel in any section of equally limited area on the American continent. By its physical features it is divided into three long and narrow parallel sections- -the valley of the Jordan, the hill country of Central Palestine, and the rich and fertile lowlands which border on the Medi- terranean. On the north the hills rise into mountains, reaching, in the Lebanon and Anti- Lebanon, a height of from 0000 to 8000 feet above the level of the ocean. In the south they drop down into the level plains of the des- ert, while the waters of the Dead Sea are 1310 feet below the Mediterranean. Politically, at the time of Christ Palestiue was divided into four sections — Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and Perea. See Luke 3 : 1, note and map. Perea (beyond). The region east of the river Jordan, including Bashan and Gilead, because lying beyond the river Jordan, so called ; in mod- ern literature it is often entitled the trans- Jordanic region. In the time of Christ it was fertile and populous, and inhabited by a mixed population, partly Roman, parti; Jewish. It is said that the Jordan valley alone c< intains the ruins of 127 villages. Most of the events and incidents in Luke, chaps. 10-18, occurred in this district. Salim. Site unknown. Samaria. The province of Samaria once included all of Palestine north of Judea. That portion east of the Jordan which originally be- longed to it was taken away by the kings of Assyria; then the northern portion, Galilee, shared the same fate ; and Samaria was reduced to the dimensions which it possessed in the time of Christ. 1 Chron. 5 : 20 ; 2 Kings 15 : 20 ; Luke 9 : 51-50 ; 10 : 25-37 ; John 4 : 30-42. Sidon, or Zidon. An ancient citj of Phoeni- cia, about 30 miles north of Tyre, and nearly 40 miles south of Beirut, See Matt. 11 : 21, note. Sycliar. A celebrated city of Palestine ; called also Siehem, Sheeliem, and Syehem. The mod- ern town is called Nablous, and contains about K0(K) inhabitants. It is beautifully located in a fertile valley between Mt. Ebal and (brizim, about seven miles south of Samaria. Gen. 88 : 18-80; Josh. 24 : 1-38, 88; Judges 9 ; 1 Kings 12 : 1-86 ; 2 Chron. 10 j .Ter. II : 5 ; John I 5, Tyre. A commercial city of Plucnicia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Its pres- ent population numbers bet ween 3000 and 4000, the half being Christians. See Matt. 11 : 21, note. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. CHAPTER I. THE bosk of the generation 11 of Jesus Christ, the son of David, b the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham d begat Isaac ; and Isaac e begat Jacob ; and Jacob f begat Judas and his brethren ; 3 And Judas begat Phares? and Zara of Thamar ; and Phares begat Esrom ; h and Esrom begat Aram ;> a Luke 3 : 23, &c b ch. 22 : 45 ; Ps. 132 : 11 : Acta 2 : 30 c Gen. 22 : 18 ; Gal. 3 : 16 d Gen. 21 : 2-5 e Gen. 25 : 29 : 35, &c....'.g Gen. 38 :29, 30, &c h Gen. 46 : 12 i Ruth 4 : 19. 1 : 1-17. THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST.-The Old Testament prepares for the New.— Christ is the consummation of jewish history. — har- LOTS (Rahab, Thamar, Bathsheba) share in the preparation for his coming. — jew and gentile, saint and sinner (abraham, ruth, and rahab) are among his ancestors ; thus the lowliest ancestry prepares for the noblest birth. — the son of a peasant, the son of david, the son of God are all one.— God preserves for his pur- pose THE PIOUS FAMILY. " It MAY GO DOWN, BUT NOT GO OUT; IT STANDS BECAUSE IT WITHSTANDS." 1. The book of the generation, i. e., the genealogical register of Jesus Christ. This is the title of the first seventeen verses of this chapter, not of the whole Gospel as has sometimes been supposed. It was customary for the Jewish fam- ilies to keep with care records of their pedigree. Among the Jews the land was divided among the tribes, and according to families, the monarchy and the priesthood were both hereditary ; and these facts gave to such genealogical registers of the Jewish families a peculiar value. Instances of such records are afforded by Gen. 5:1; 3-32 ; 35 : 23-26. First Chronicles is full of such gene- alogies. These records were revived at the time of the restoration, and the re-settlement of the land of Israel under Ezra and Nehemiah, and the allotment of priestly and other offices was appa- rently determined according to them (Ezra, chaps. 2, 8 ; Neh., chaps. 7, io, 12). Son of, i. e., descendant of. The term son is frequently used in Scripture in this enlarged sense. The Messiah promised by the prophets was to be a son of David (jer. 23 ; 5 ; Ps. 132 : 10, 11), and the chief object of this genealog- ical register of Jesus Christ appears to have been to show the Jews that he was a descendant of David, and a child of Abraham, and so fulfilled the prophecies respecting the Messiah. Another genealogical register is given in Luke 3 : 23-28. The wide differences between them have occasioned biblical students some difficulty. Luke gives the whole record from Adam ; Mat- thew begins at Abraham, and omits many names which appear in the O. T. history. Such omis- sions of unimportant names in the genealogical register are, however, common. But between David and Joseph the two lists are almost en- tirely different. This is a more serious difficulty. Without entering here into a full explanation of the difficulty and its solution, for which the reader must be referred to the treatises which have been written on the subject, it must suffice to say : 1st. That both genealogies were undoubt- edly taken from the public registers, that of Luke probably from the record made out for the purpose of the census ordered by Augustus, and referred to in Luke 2 : 1, 3. 2d. That both are unquestionably the genealogy of Joseph : gene- alogies of women were unknown to the Jews, and a careful comparison of the two refutes the old hypothesis that one is the genealogy of Jo- seph, and the other of Mary. 3d. That David had four sons by Bathsheba, and that Luke traces the genealogy from Nathan, one of these four sons (Luke 3 : 31), while Matthew traces it from Solomon, another son, and the inheritor of his father's throne. Thus Matthew's register shows the regal descent of Jesus Christ from David through Solomon, and his consequent right, so to speak, to sit on the throne of his father David — while Luke gives his natural and actual de- scent through Nathan, and the two come togeth- er at Salathiel. 4th. That it is probable that Mary was the cousin of Joseph, her husband ; so that in point of fact, though not in form, both genealogies are hers as well as his. 5th. That the fact that Jesus was a descendant of David does not rest alone upon the testimony of these genealogies. Psalm 132 : 11 ; Luke 1 : 32 ; Kom. 1 : 3 show very clearly that Mary also was of the family of David. The reason why Jesus is shown to be of the family of David, by tracing his de- scent through Joseph, his putative father, and not through Mary, his real mother, is to be found in the fact that the Jews would not have recog- nized any fulfillment of the ancient prophecy in a genealogy through the mother, which that age never recognized. 2-6. Judas, Greek form of patriarch Judah, eldest son of Jacob, and progenitor of the tribe of Judah, to which Jesus Christ belonged. From his name come the words Judea and Jews. Phares and Zara, same as Pharez and Zarah (Genesis 38 : 29, 30). The rest of the genealogy to 54 MATTHEW. [Ch. I. 4 And Aram begat Aminadab ; and Aminadab begat Naasson ; ' and Naasson begat Salmon ; k 5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab ;' and Booz begat Obed m of Ruth ; and Obed begat Jesse ; 6 And Jesse begat David" the king ; and David the king begat Solomon of her that liad been the wife of Urias ; 7 And Solomon begat Roboam f and Roboam begat Abia ; and Abia begrat Asa ; 8 And Asa begat Josaphat ; and Josaphat begat Jo- ram : and Joram begat Ozias ; 9 And Ozias begat J oat ham j and Joatham begat Achaz ; and Achaz begat Ezekias ; io And Ezekias' begat Manasses ; and Manasses be- gat Amon ; and Amon begat Josias ; n And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon ; 12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jecho- nias begat Salathiel : r and Salathiel begat Zorobabel ;■ 13 And Zorobabel begat Abiud ; and Abiud begat Eliakim ; and EliaJr pretended to belong, Simon the Sorcerer (Acto8:«-ll) and Bar-jcsus (Aota M •. k). In classic history they are treated as a despicable class. But the itinerant magi, Booking personal aggrandisement among the Ignorant, by the use <>f an honored name, may have been Impostors, and yet the true magi in their own country, studying nature as the sole revelation given to them of an unknown God, may have been honest, honorable, and learned men, and sincere seekers after the truth ; and this appears to have been the case with those magi who followed the star in the East in their search for the Messiah. Of the later legends respecting them it must suffice to say that there is nothing historical in any of them ; the legend that they were kings possibly grew out of such passages as Psalms < Solomon again (» cimm. 8 1 »). The people had intermixed with other and heal lien races, ami thus had lost both Jewish purity and Jewish pride. Their very speech was provincial (Matt. I. Galilee was the scene of Christ's most abundant labors ; and all Ids apostles, except Judas [scariot, were Galileans, '2'.i. Nazareth. Here Brat mentioned In the Bible. It reposes in the bosom of a beautiful valley on the northern edge of the plain of Es- draelon and about five miles west of Tabor. The modern Nazareth is one of the better class of Eastern villages and has a population of three or four thousand. All the inhabitants of Galilee were looked on with contempt by their wealthier and more cultured neighbors of Judea ; but Nazareth suffered under special opprobrium, and this among the Galileans as well as among the Jews (John i : 46). The origin of this disrepute is not known. Called a Nazarene. No spe- cific prophecy is referred to ; but probably (this at least we think to be the better interpretation) those declarations in the prophets which declare of the Messiah that he should be despised and rejected of men. In fulfillment of this prophecy, he was, from the very beginning, known as a cit- izen of despised Nazareth (isaiah 53 and Ps. 22). The Bibth of Jesus. — The incidents connected with the birth of Jesus are narrated only by Mat- thew and Luke. Mark and John begin his life with his baptism. Matthew and Luke do not relate the same incidents ; it is only by comparing them that we get the entire story. To Matthew we are indebted for the account of the betrothal, the divine warnings to Joseph, the visit of the magi, the flight into Egypt, the return to Naz- areth. None of these incidents are mentioned by Luke. To Luke we arc indebted for the ac- count of the annunciation, Mary's psalm of thanksgiving, the cause of the visit of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, the birth of Christ in a stable, the visit of the shepherds, the presenta- tion of the child at the Temple, and the prophecy of Simeon. The probable order is as follows : Mary is espoused to Joseph (m»u. 1 : is) ; the birth of Jesus is announced to her, possibly be- fore her betrothal (Luke 1 : 26-3S) ; and she visits her cousin Elizabeth and utters her psalm of thanksgiving (39-66) ; Joseph discovers that she is with child, and is told by God to take her, notwithstanding, as his wife ( \i.ut. 1 : 18-Si). They go up to Bethlehem together, where Jesus is born, and the same night the Bhepherds visit the child, having been told of his advent by the angels (Luke 2: 8-20) ; the child is presented in the Temple and the prophecy Of Simeon Is uttered (si-88). Meanw bile the star in the cast has ap- peared to the magi, and they have commenced their Journey toward Palestine. After a journey which occupies several months, they And Che child, now removed to a house, and oiler their gifts I Miii. ■-■: 1-1.'). The flight into Egypt and the massacre of the infants follow (is-ss) ; and the accounts of the two Evangelists come to- [Ch. III. MATTHEW. 65 CHAPTER III. ' N those days came John" the Baptist, preaching in . the wilderness of Judsea, 2 And saying. Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 For this is he that was spoken of T by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilder- u Luke 3:2; John 1 : 6 v Isa. 40 : 3. gether again with the return of Joseph and Mary and the child to Nazareth (Matt. 2 : 23 ; Luke 2 : 39, 40). There is no inconsistency in the accounts ; but each narrates incidents which the other passes by in silence. 3 : 1-12. PREACHING AND BAPTISM OF JOHN.— See on Luke 3 : 1-18. 1. In those days. A general term, indica- ting possibly the days when Jesus was living with his parents at Nazareth, but more probably simply synonymous with " in that age or era." The phrase is used in this way by the Old Testa- ment writers, e.g. Exod. 2 : 11, where a long in- terval is evidently to be supplied between the 10th and 11th verse, Moses having grown to manhood meanwhile, and similarly by us at the present time, e. g. in such phrases as "in these days of steam and electricity." An interval of about thirty years (Luke 3 : 23) occurred be- tween the birth of Jesus and the first public preaching of John the Baptist. Concerning the life of Jesus meanwhile, only one incident is re- corded by the sacred writers (Luke 2 : 41-52). Con- cerning Christ's education meanwhile, nothing is positively known. He certainly did not receive an education in the Rabbinical schools (joim 1 ■. 15, and note there). Jewish law required every man to teach his son a trade, even though he were des- tined to a learned profession as a theologian, and it is therefore probable that Christ worked at his father's bench learning the art of the car- penter (Mark 6 : 3). It is probable, too, that he at- tended the synagogue school ; for there was one connected with every Jewish synagogue, in which the children of the village were taught to read and to cipher, and were instructed in their own national history and in the Jewish Scriptures, and to some extent in the commentaries of the scribes thereon. It is certain, from the incident recorded in Luke 2 : 41-52, that Jesus early showed a great aptitude for religious studies, and particularly for the deeper truths of re- ligion. Meanwhile, great political changes had taken place in Palestine. Archelaus had been banished, the semblance of kingly authority pos- sessed by Herod the Great had been taken away, and Judea was ruled directly by the Romans, through a governor or procurator, Pontius Pi- late. Galilee continued under the rule of Herod Antipas, and all of Christ's life and ministry con- tinued under the civil administration of these two men, Antipas in Galilee and Pontius Pilate hi Judea (Luke 3 : l). John the Baptist. He was the son of Eliz- abeth, a cousin of Mar}', and was, therefore, a second cousin of Jesus. The circumstances of his birth are recorded in Luke 1. He was a Naz- arite (Luke 1 : 15, and note there; for an account of the vows of a Nazarite, see Numb. ch. 6) ; had shut himself Up to a solitary life of prayer and meditation (Luke 1 : so), from which he emerged to preach the doctrine of repentance as a preparation for the coming of the kingdom of God. His character was that of an ascetic ; he dressed in a rough garment woven of camel's hair, and lived on locusts and wild honey, food furnished him by the wilderness (see below, ver. 4). A fuller account of his preaching is given in Luke 3 : 4-18 ; it, however, changed in its nature after the baptism of Christ, from which time he preached not only repentance and good works as a fruit of repentance, but also faith in the Lamb of God that taketh away sin (john 1 : 29-36 ; 3 : 25-36). Preaching, literally, pro- claiming as a herald. As one runs before a king announcing his coming, so John the Baptist came before Christ proclaiming the eoming of the kingdom of God. Wilderness of Judea. The region between Jerusalem and the river Jordan and the Dead Sea. " This tract was not strictly a desert, but thinly peopled, and abounding in pasture for flocks." — (Alford.) The idea em- bodied is simply that he was ministering, not in the city and under the influence of the hierarchy, but in the country, and had rural habits and a rural education. The region is more definitely fixed by Luke 3 : 3, and by his baptism of the people, as being in the immediate vicinity of the river Jordan. He was at this time about thirty years of age, the age when, if he had intended to enter the priesthood inherited from his father, he should have come up to Jerusalem to be ex- amined by the Sanhedrim. 2. Repent. This word in the Greek is com- posed of two words— (uiru\ after, and (voiot), to perceive, i. e., to perceive afterwards ; hence, to change one's view, mind, or purpose. It has been even translated change your minds. But this, in the sense in which those words are ordi- narily used, appears to be clearly inadequate. No idea of sorrow for sin is involved in the word; and though certainly genuine repentance does necessarily involve sorrow for the past, the radi- cal and fundamental idea is, not so much sorrow as a change ; a change, however, be it observed, not merely of conduct, but of the thinking and immortal part— a change of one's view of life and truth, and a consequent change of one's pur- MATTHEW. Oh. III.] ness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4 And the same John had his raiment" of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins ; and his meat was locusts 1 and wild honey. 5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judzea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing* their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sad- w ch. 11 : 8 ; 2 Kings 1:8 1 Lev. 11 : 22 y Acts 1 : 5 ; 2 : 38 ; 19 : 4, 5, 18. pose regarding life. It is interpreted by John himself in his directions to the people when they asked him what they should do (Luke 3 : 10-14), and by Jesus in the parable of the Prodigal Son, who gave evidence of his repentance not by tears, but by leaving the far country and his old companions, and his sins and consequent wretch- edness, and returning to his father with confes- sion and a humble prayer for pardon. " In the N. T., especially in St. Luke and in the Revela- tions, it denotes a change of moral thought and reflection;" hence, "to repent of anything is not only to forsake it, but to change one's mind and apprehensions regarding it." — ( <.'rcmcr\ Bib- lical Theol. Diet. ofN. T. Greek.) Another Greek word is used in four passages in the N. T., which is unfortunately translated repent (Matt. si: 29, 82 j 27 : 3 ; '2 Cor. 7:8; Heb. 7 : 2l). This Word involves more distinctly the idea of sorrow, and it is evident from its use in Matt. 27 : 3, that the idea which it embodies — sorrow in consequence of sin — is not the fundamental or principal element in a true re- pentance. Kingdom of Heaven. This phrase is used only by Matthew. The synonymous phrase, Kingdom of God, is used by Mark and Luke, "writing more especially for the Gentiles, who wen- to be disabused of their notion of local Deities, and taught the unity of God." — (Words- worth.) Sometimes the phrase Kingdom alone is used, without any explanatory word (Matt. 8: 12; »:35,,t.i. The phrase appears, at first sight, to be used in different senses, but the meanings are really essentially the same. It always indicates a state of cheerful submission to the will of God as the Supreme King. Winn applied to the in- dividual, it denotes that state of heart in which God's will is recognized as the Supreme author- ity (Matt. 6 : a). Applied to tin' community, it in- dicates the advent of the Messiah as the Supreme Lord (in which sense it is used here by John the Baptist), or his final advent, when all will recog- nize his supreme authority ( Matt it 188). Applied to the future life, it Indicates thai state in which there shall tie perfect submission by every heart to the I > i \ i 1 1< ■ will (M'.tt. 1 ■:. 1 .-.ii. The expressions " Kingdom of Heaven " and " Kingdom of God " an- common in the rabbinical writers, who gen- erally mean the theocracy, and who expected in the c-talili-lmicnt of the Kingdom Of Heaven the restoration of political power to the .lews and Jewish rulers, and hence to themselves, jut a- to the Romanist the supremacy of the church indicates, not the triumph of the principles of Christ in all organizations, but the political su- premacy of the pope and the priesthood. The peculiarity of the preaching of John the Baptist was that he taught that all the people, Jews as well as Gentiles, priests as well as people, must change their views of truth, their moral concep- tions of God and his kingdom, and their moral purposes respecting their own life, in order to enter into this kingdom. Thus it approached the preaching of Jesus to Nicodemus in his de- claration, "except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 3. Esaias — Greek form of Isaiah. The pas- sage is chap. 40 : 3. The prophet, contemplat- ing the restoration of the Jews from their cap- tivity in Babylon, announces the mission of John the Baptist as a herald of the Messiah. Some commentators regarded this passage as primarily a prophecy of the restoration of the Jews from Babylon, and so fulfilled long before the birth of John the Baptist, to whom they regard it as only applicable by a sort of accommodation (see Mr. Bamet on isaiah 40 : 3). The better opinion (so Alford, Henderson and Cowles) regards it as more prob- ably referring wholly to John ; " first, because the words are expressly quoted by three of the inspired Evangelists as receiving their fulfillment in John (Matt. 3:8; Mark 1 : 8 ; Luke 8 : 4-6) \ and Sec- ondly, because the way was to be prepared not for the Jews but for Jehovah himself." The language here is not that of John the Baptist but that of Matthew respecting him. It is not "I am," but "this is." But John himself refers to tie same prophecy, and to himself as its fulfill- ment (John l : 88). Isaiah's symbol is borrowed from a common practice among Eastern mon- archs, whose kingdoms possessed no such broad highways as modern civilization has formed for all the people, and who therefore, on selling out on any great Journey, were accustomed to send out pioneers to open roads through the wilderness for them, cutting through the hills and the forests, and tilling up the hollows. Such a preparation for Christ's coming was the preaching of John the Baptist; it was his mission tO awaken the expectations of an inert and sluggish people; and he succeeded wonderfully In this work (Luk« 4. Camel's hair. Not the camel's skin with the hair on, but a garment made of the shaggier earners hair, woven into a coarse fabric like our drugget. It was recognized as a garb of the [Ch. III. MATTHEW. 67 prophets (zech. 13 : 4), and is still worn in the East by the poor or those who affect austerity. His dress resembled that of Elijah, and in this respect also he fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi 4 : 5, being in other respects than his attire and ascetic habits an antitype of Elijah (Matt. 11 : 14). Lo- custs and wild honey. "Zocwsto" have been thought to designate, not the insect of that name, but the long sweet pods of the locust tree, which are still called St. John's bread by the monks of Palestine. This is a mistake. The locust proper was permitted as an article of food by Moses (Lev. 11 : 22). Different species of the family are referred to in the Bible, generally in connection with their great numbers, or the dev- astations which they commit (Exod. 10 : 12-15 ; Deut. 28:38; Joel 1:4-7). They are, however, eaten in all parts of the world which they frequent, and in some places form an important article of food, especially among the peasantry and lower classes. In Palestine they are eaten either roasted or boiled in salt and water ; but when preserved for future use they are dried in the sun, their heads, wings and legs picked off, and the bodies ground into dust. This dust has natural^ a rather bitter flavor, which is corrected by mix- ing it with camel's milk or honey, the latter being the favorite substance ; hence we may sup- pose that the food of John the Baptist was, like his dress, that of those of the people who lived at a distance from towns, and that there was no more hardship in the one -than in the other. Wild honey. This existed in such abundance in the trunks of trees and the crevices of the rocks that to the ancient Israelites the land was described as "flowing with milk and honey" (Exod. 3 : 8). There is a "honey," so called, which exudes from the trees, and which has been supposed to be referred to here and in 1 Sam. 14 : 25 ; but the supposition is unnecessary and improbable. In some parts of northern Ara- bia the bees are said to be so abundant that no sooner is a hive deposited than it is filled. Com- pare Samson's experience in Judg. 14 : 5-9. 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, etc. Not merely persons from these localities, but such multitudes that it might be said that all Judea was there ; so we say now on the occa- sion of a great procession, all New York turned out to see it (compare ii : 7-u). About Jordan — i. c, the regions in the vicinity of Jordan besides Judea and Jerusalem. It would include parts of Perea, Samaria, Galilee, and Gaulonitis. (See map.) Among those that came were a delega- tion from the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and sev- eral Galileans who subsequently became Christ's disciples (John 1 : 15, 35-45). It should be added that the best chronologists are of the opinion that John commenced his preaching in the Sabbatical year (see Andrews' Life of our Lord, p. 139), when the laws of Moses forbade all agricultural labor, and the people, relieved from their ordi- nary toil, were at leisure for the hearing of the truth (Exod. 23 : 10, 11 ; Lev. 25 : 2-7 ; Deut. ch. 15). The Jordan — the principal river of Palestine. It rises among the Lebanon mountains in the north of Palestine, and flows almost exactly due south, first through a marshy plain to the Lake Huleh or Merom (josh. 11 : 5), then about nine miles to the Lake of Gennesaret or Sea of Galilee, de- scending in this distance 600 feet, and reaching, at the surface of the lake, a point 653 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean, and thence issuing a headlong torrent, crooked and precip- itous, through a narrow and desolate valley, occupying 200 miles in its course, though trav- ersing but 60 in a straight line, falling rapidly meanwhile, and finally issuing in the Dead or Salt Sea, whose surface is over 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. Its average width between the two seas is from TO to 80 yards, though at its mouth it is 180 yards. (Mr. Barnes says ninety feet, but this is evidently an error. See Lieut. Lynch's report.) The Jordan thus divides the Holy Land into two sections very clearly separated, * partly by its waters, yet more by the valley or gorge through which it flows. This separation exerted an important in- fluence on the history of the Jewish people, a part of the tribes, Reuben, Gad, and half of Ma- nasseh remaining, in the distribution of the land, east of the /Jordan, and never fully assimilating with their brethren. In O. T. times this region is described sometimes as the land "on this side Jordan " (Numb. 32: 19), and sometimes as the land "beyond Jordan" (josh. 13 : s), or "the other side Jordan " (josh. 7 : 7), according as the location of the writer is east or west of the river. But the phrase "beyond Jordan," in the N. T. (johni: 28; 3 : 26), signifies the district east of the river. It is known in secular history by the name Perea, sig- nifying "beyond." 6. And was baptized. See note below on baptism of Jesus. Confessing their sins. The idea of a public and united confession ap- pears to be involved in the original Greek word, which is composed of three words (ex opoc Zeyw) and signifies to speak out together. It is clear, both from this word and from Luke 3 : 10-15, that it is not a private confession to John which is indicated, and that the passage affords no foundation for the doctrine of auricular confes- sion, in support of which it has been quoted. The same word is used in Acts 19 : 18, where the confession evidently was open and public, and in James 5 : 16, where the original shows that a mutual and common confession of faults, not a private confession to the ear of the priest alone, is intended. 7. Pharisees and Sadducees. Phari- G8 MATTHEW. Ch. III.] Decs. This term meets us here for the first time m the Bible. The Pharisees are generally defined as a Jewish sect, but in fact they constituted the orthodox party in Judaism, and embraced the great body of the people. Historically the Phar- isees were the reformers of the second century before Christ. The 6ect arose as a protest against heathen corruptions during the period subse- quent to the captivity. The two characteristic features of their creed were faith in immortality and faith in the absolute decrees of God. They believed that all things were ordered by his will, that nothing therefore went wrong. They bor- rowed their hope from the future, and believed that whatever appeared to go wrong here God would set right hereafter. But the laws of Moses contain no clear revelation of any future state. In the main they represent God's gov- ernment as administered by temporal rewards and punishments. The Pharisees, accordingly, invented a singular fiction to give authority to their belief. They asserted that during the forty days which Moses spent in the Mount, Jehovah gave him an additional revelation, in which he promulgated the doctrine of a future life and the duty of prayer, and afforded an authoritative interpretation of all the written law. This addi- tional revelation, it was said, had been handed down orally from generation to generation, and it was regarded by the rabbis as of equal bind- ing force with the Scriptures. Such a doctrine opened wide the door to corruption. These oral traditions soon outgrew the written word, and became to the Pharisees what, in the middle ages, the decrees of the Church were to the Romanist. The Scriptures took a subordinate place ; to read them, except in the light of the authoritative interpretation, was denounced as equivalent to atheism. This doctrine led in the first century, as in the middle ages, to a rigorous but fruitless ceremonialism. All outward forms of the law were observed by the Pharisaic lead- ers ; but to personal morals they were for the most part profoundly indifferent («ee Matt, 15 s s-6, •od note there). It is true that some of the rabbis inculcated a pure and high-toned morality, but more frequently the spirit of even their purest ethics was mercenary. The basis of their moral- ity was the maxim, "Consider for whom thou dost work, and what is thy master who will pay thee thy wages." There were among the Phari- sees some pure spirits, who desired if they did not fully appreciate a more spiritual religion, and who thus were in some measure prepared for at least the ethical teachings of Jesus (Lata 10 1 jt-*Sj Mark 12: 33; IS: 43; John 7 : 60; Acta IS ! 5). But this party was neither strong in numbers nor in cour- age. Thus despite some pure precepts in their Inculcations, the characteristic feature of their religion was a pious formalism thinly covering an intensely selfish spirit. They fasted and prayed with great regularity and precision, but generally in public and for applause. They paid tithes of all they possessed, but their almsgiving was without genuine love. They ignored the precepts of religion in their lives, but were care- ful to inscribe them on pieces of parchment bound on their foreheads, and to engrave them upon the lintels of their doors. Religion became a trade. "Three things," so ran their proverb, "will make thee prosper — prayer, alms, and penitence. ' ' They were not all hypocrites ; there were many honest but mistaken souls among them. Such was Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Their hypocrisy, too, was for the most part unconscious, and they hid from themselves more effectually than from others the selfishness of their hearts by the rigor of their lives. This was the school which consti- tuted Christ's bitterest foe while he lived, which compassed his death, and which endeavored in vain to destroy the effect of his teachings. And it is hardly too much to say that the spirit of Pharisaism has continued to be in all ages the most dangerous and deadly enemy of Christian- ity, even when it has assumed the name and pre- tended to revere the memory of Jesus Christ. Sadducees. The infidels and materialists of the first century. They probably derive their name from one Zadok, who is supposed to have been their founder. They maintained that jus- tice is administered in this life, denied the exist- ence of the soul beyond the grave, repudiated not only the oral tradition of the Pharisees, but also the books of the Bible, except the Penta- teuch ; insisted, theoretically, that virtue should be practiced for its own sake, not for the sake of any hoped-for reward ; denied, not the existence of a God, but his control over and interest in the affairs of men ; were naturally led by this theol- ogy into a loose and easy morality, the motto of which was, "Let us cat and drink, for to-morrow we die ;" and were quite ready to affiliate with the Gentiles if place, power, or wealth could be obtained by so doing. The Pharisees were pop- ular with the common people, who revered them for the real austerity of their doctrine and the seeming austerity of their lives. The Sadducees consisted wholly of men of B cold and heartless culture, but embraced a considerable portion of the priestly class, who performed with uncon- cern ceremonies in which they no longer had any faith. Their philosophy was a purely negative philosophy, though the same principles reappear in new forms from age to age, in the same or a similar class of minds. Sadducceism, as a dis- tinct school of philosophy, has long since per- ished from Judea, and not even a trace of its in- fluence or a remnant of its literature has survived, except that which ia incidentally found in the Ch. III.] MATTHEW. 69 ducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O gen- eration?, of vipers, who hath warned you to flee a Irom the wrath to come ? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance : 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our lather : for I say unto you, that God z ch. 12 : 34 ; 23 : 33 ; Isa. 59 : 5 ; Luke 3:7 a Jer. 51:6; Rom. 1 : 13. four Gospels and in the writings of the theologi- cal opponents of the Sadducees, the Pharisees. To this mention of the two principal Jewish sects or schools of philosophy should be added, perhaps here, a paragraph concerning a third, which is not, however, directly referred to in the N. T. — the Essenes, who may be briefly described as the Shakers of their age. "They lived in communities by themselves. They discouraged marriage. The higher orders forbade it. They maintained an absolute community of goods. They abhorred alike war, slavery, and commerce. Their wages were regulated by an inflexible sys- tem, administered by an absolute ecclesiastical superior. The hours of prayer, meals, labor, were all fixed by rigorous rules. Their doctrine was simple, but mystical. Their morals were pure, but austere. Their religious forms were observed with a rigor which even surpassed that of the Pharisees, but were accompanied with a life of practical virtue which rarely found a par- allel in the Pharisaic life. They were initiated into the order by a secret service and a novitiate of three years, and were, at its close, bound by the most solemn oaths ' to observe piety, justice, obedience, honesty, and secrecy.' For violation of his oath, the offender was excommunicated. Having sworn that he would receive no food save from his own sect, and driven by excommunica- tion from their table, he perished miserably of starvation. Four thousand of these ascetics lived in settlements of their own, chiefly in the wild region which borders the Dead Sea. They did not intermingle with their own countrymen. They exerted no influence upon the religious opinions and practices of their neighbors. They never seem to have come in contact with Christ." — (Abbott's Jesus of Nazareth.) It has been soberly maintained by De Quincy that this latter sect were disciples of Christ, who were misrepre- sented by Josephus, from whom most of our knowledge of them is derived, while other and skeptical critics have endeavored to maintain that Christianity was itself an outgrowth of Es- senism. Neither view, however, has any warrant in history. The strongest antagonism exists be- tween the life of bondage of the one and the spirit of freedom of the other. Doubtless the monastic habits of early and mediaeval Christian- ity were analogous to those of the Essenes, but they were not in accordance with the precepts of Jesus Christ. Come to his baptism. Why ? Some think to oppose it. This is not probable, and there is nothing in the account to indicate it. It is clear, on the other hand, from Matt. 21 : 32, and Luke 7 : 30, 33, that the Pharisees were not in any con- siderable number baptized by John. Apparently, his preaching had produced a very'great agita- tion, and they came as onlookers, and to some extent as inquirers. The latter fact is indicated by the statement of John (1 : 19), that a delega- tion were sent out from Jerusalem to inquire re- specting him. Offspring of vipers, in contrast with their proud belief that they were the favor- ites of God because the children of Abraham (verse 9 ; and compare analogous contrast in Christ's teaching, John 8 : 39, 44). The viper was a species of serpent ; but the term is here used as a general term, and equivalent to serpent, which was among the Jews a symbol of cunning (Gen. 3 : 1), and malice (Pa. 58 : 4), and an emblem of the devil (Gen. 3, Rev. 12 : 9, 14, is) ; so that this phrase, offspring of vipers, was analogous to the subse- quent declaration of Christ, that the Pharisees were of their "father the devil." Vehemence of invective may be rarely right ; but it cannot be always condemned. There are times when noth- ing else will awaken the conscience and start the sluggish soul. The wrath to come. The prophet Malachi, who had foretold the coming of John the Baptist, also foretold that his advent would be followed by "the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mai. 3 : 1-3; 4 : s), as it was by the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews among all lands, witnessed by some of that generation and probably by some of John the Baptist's auditors. For among his audience is believed to have been John the Evangelist (John 1:35; 41, and note there), wllO Was Still living at the destruction of Jerusalem. The primary ref- erence here undoubtedly is to this wrath so soon to come upon the nation, though it as undoubt- edly refers secondarily to that greater and more dreadful day of the Lord, the day of final judg- ment, of which we have, in Matt. ch. 24, Christ's own warrant for asserting the destruction of Je- rusalem to be a symbol. 8. Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of a change of heart. Compare Matt. 7 : 16, 19. For a catalogue of the fruits of the new life, see Gal. 5 : 22, 23 ; and 2 Peter 1 : 5-7. Observe, first, that John and Christ, as well as the apos- tles, call for something more than fruits, viz. : a Change Of Character (compare John 3:3; 2 Cor. 5 : ll) J and second, that they recognize as an evi- dence of a change of heart, not a creed, a cere- mony, or a profession, but fruits worthy of repent- ance. Compare Matt. 7 : 21-23 ; John 14 : 21 ; Romans, ch. 12 ; James 2 : 1-1-17. See the whole 70 MATTHEW. [Ch. IIL is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abra- ham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees : therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn 6 down, and cast into the fire. ii I indeed baptize you with water unto repent- ance : but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you J with the Holy Ghost, and with fire : 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly b John 15 : 6 c Luke 3:16; Acts 19:4 d Acts 1 : 5. truth embodied in Ephes. 2 : 10. We are God's workmanship, but we are created unto good works. '.). And do not fancy that you may say in yourselves. He interprets their own plea, not uttered, but secretly nourished in their own hearts. We have Abraham to our father. Contrast with verse 7 above. The common Jewish idea, especially the Pharisaic idea, was that the children of Abraham were fa- vored of God. Says the Talmud : "A single Is- raelite is worth more before God than all the people who have been or shall be." A similar feeling underlies the pride of birth, wherever it exists. The ideas set in contrast are that which regard moral character as an inheritance, and so the exclusive prerogative of a few, and that which declared it to be the gift of God, and avail- able to all. Compare John 1 : 18, and note there. Of these stones. The pebbles or shingle on the beach of the Jordan. Out of the unlearned and despised fishermen of Galilee he raised up his apostles (John i ■. a). Out of the hated and outcast Gentiles he built up the new church, the "new Jerusalem." The head of the corner was itself a "stone which the builders despised" (Matt. 21 : 42). So God daily raiseth up children to himself from the stones of the desert ; the church is not made up from the rich and wise (1 Cor. i : 26-28) ; stony hearts he converts to hearts of flesh (Eiek. 36 : 26). 10. Is laid at the root, ready for use. The 1 catting down of the unfaithful nation has not yet commenced, but everything has been made ready for it (compare Luke 13 : 6-9,1. Every tree, etc. The only measure of character is its fruit-bearing character (compare John is : »). Is cut down. The present form of the verb indi- cates that John speaks of a law always operat- ing in God's kingdom. He always destroys what has ceased to serve a useful purpose ; the nation that no longer serves humanity, as Persia, Baby- lon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, is dissolved; the tree that no longer bears fruit for food, or leaves for shade, perishes ; the soul that ceases to bear any fruit for God and humanity is destroyed. The destruction may be, and often is, delayed to give space for repentance ; but, it is Inevitable, ezcepl by repentance and faith the character is changed aild made fruitful (i.uki- 13 : 6-9; Rom. 2 : 4-10). Cast into the fire. The destruction is final. There Is 110 restoration (compare Matt. i;i : 30; Luke.'. : 17; John u : «; ikb. t -.8). In these and similar passages lire is used as a symbol of utter destruction, not of purification. 11. In water. Not vrith water. The Greek preposition (ir), here translated with, properly signifies in, and certainly should be so trans- lated here. It implies that John's baptism involved a going into the water, though not neces- sarily complete immersion in it. See note below. Unto repentance. It was not Christian bap- tism, i. e., in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, which was not established until after Christ's resurrection. See below. Is mightier than I. "I call to repentance, he remits sin ; I preach the kingdom of heaven, la- bestows it. I baptize with water, he with the Spirit also." — [Wordsworth.) Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. In the other Gos- pels it is " to Unloose " (Mark 1:7; Luke 8 : 16 ; John 1 : 27). It was the office of the slave to loose the shoe, to tie the same, or to carry it with other necessary articles of apparel before his master to the bath. Shoes proper were worn by the Greeks and Romans, but it appears to be the better opinion of biblical scholars that the -lews wore only, or at least chiefly, sandals which con- sisted simply of a sole fastened to the foot, and protecting its lower but not its upper surface. It was fastened to the foot by thongs or straps. It was sometimes beautifully ornamented, in- wrought with lines of gold, silver, or silk, and occasionally embroidered with jewels. The ma- terials were either leather, felt, cloth, or wood. It was occasionally shod with Iron. Palm-leave-, and papyrus-stalks were also sometimes used. Shoes or sandals do not appear to have been worn at all periods as with our.-clves : they wen- laid aside when indoors, and only put on by per- sons about to leave home. In the Holy Spirit and fire. A prophecy literally fulfilled at the Pentecost (Acu2:i-«). Observe that the same language is used here as before respecting water, in not With. Yet the apostles were not im- merted in lire. There is, says Jerome, a three- fold baptism with fire: the fire of the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost (so termed because it makes the recipient fervent, that Is, burning in spirit, Rom. L2 : 11), the lire of earthly trials (which are compared to a tire because of their purifying power, 1 Pet 1 : 7; 4 : 12, Hi), and the lire which at the last shall try every man's work, the great trial which is to test all life and character (i cor. ;i;t. While .John simply oilers a symbolical test of character, the willingness of his hearers Ch. III.] MATTHEW. 71 nurge e his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner ; I be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfill all right but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. 13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan, unto John, to be baptized? of him. 14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? 15 And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to eousness. Then he suffered him. 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God 1 * descending like a dove, and lighting upon him : 17 And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved 1 Son, in whom I am well pleased. u Mai. 3: 2,3.. .1 Ps. 1 :4; Mai. 4 : 1; Mark 9 :44....g Mark 1:9; Luke 3 : 21.... h Isa. 11 : 2 ; 42 : 1 j 61 : 1 ; John 3 : 34... Luke 9 : 35 ; Eph. 1:6; 2 Pet. 1 : 11. to acknowledge publicly their sins, and profess their change of purpose by a water baptism, Christ would test them by earthly trials and by his final judgment. While John could only bid them repent, and symbolize their purification by the washing of water, Jesus would really purify them, and give them a new heart by the Holy Spirit, and the fire of divine life and love. 12. Whose fan, etc. A metaphor drawn from the method of threshing and winnowing pursued in the Holy Land. A level spot was selected for the threshing-floor, in a situation where advan- tage might be taken of the wind for winnowing or separating the grain from the chaff ; the sheaves, being thickly spread on the floor, were trodden down by oxen driven over them, or by a threshing instrument or sledge made of thick planks, the bottom being studded with sharp stones or pieces of iron, or sometimes made with rollers of wood, iron or stone. Sometimes for lighter grains flails or rods were used. By these processes the straw was broken up, and the grain separated from it. A shovel or "fan" was also used for winnowing. This was done by throwing the grain against the wind, and thus separating it from the chaff. Chaff. All that is not wheat, including the straw, which was commonly used in the East for fuel. Unquenchable fire. " Lest after the winnowing the chaff should be blown back and mingled with the wheat, the Jews were accustomed to put fire to it at the windward side, which was only extinguished when it had utterly consumed the chaff. In this sense it was an 'unquenchable fire.' " — (Burders 1 Oriental Customs. See Isaiah 5 : 24.) For the spiritual significance of this passage compare Matt. 13 : 24-30, 36-43, 47-50. It is not only in the future that Christ will sift out the straw from the wheat. His fan is in his hand ; the 6ifting process is going on now ; his Gospel is measuring men ; every day is a day of judg- ment. For a consideration of John the Baptist's char- acter and preaching see Luke 3 : IS, and note there. Ch. 3 : 13-17. BAPTISM OF JESUS.— See note BELOW. 13. Then. The time is uncertain. Jesus was about thirty years of age (Luke 3 : 23). To Jordan. Beyond Jordan (John 1 : 28 ; see note there) ; the exact site is unknown. 3 14. John forbad him. Rather sought to hinder him. " The word implies the active and earnest preventing with the gesture, or hand, or voice." — (Afford.) (Compare John 1:33, and note there.) I have need to be baptized of thee. With the Holy Spirit and fire (verse 11). 15. Now. Compare John 13:7, 8. Us. Not merely me, but you and me. To fulfill all righteousness. You by yielding to the will of your Lord, even in a matter the propriety of which you do not understand (John 13 : 7) ; me by taking my place under the law, and acting as one made in the image of sin, though I know no sin (Matt, n : 2?). See note below. 16. From the water, not out of the wafer. The Greek preposition here is not (tx) out of, but (un<>) from. The same preposition is used in Matt. 8 : \,from the mountain, which clearly does not mean out of the mountain. In Mark 1 : 10 the preposition is (ix), out of, in the best manuscripts. But nothing is very clearly indi- cated as to the mode of baptism by the phrase- ology employed in either place. (See note be- low.) And, lo, the heavens. The Greek word here employed sometimes signifies the starry firmament, the blue canopy (Mark is : 25; Rev. 6 : 13, u) ; sometimes the clouds and the cloud region (Matt. 6:26; air, 26 : 64). Opened. Com- pare the experience of Stephen (Acts 7 : se) and of Peter (Acts 10 : n). He saw. Christ, and also John the Baptist (John l •. 30-34). There is nothing to indicate that the opening of the heav- ens or the descending of the dove were seen by any others. The vision in Stephen's case appears to have been confined to him ; and at the time of Saul's conversion, while a sound was heard by the men who accompanied him, they 6aw no man and understood not the meaning of the Words addressed to Saul (compare Acts 9 : 7, wit!i 22:9). Moreover, it was not the divine way to manifest the character of Jesus by such mani- festations to the multitude. These were af- forded only to those who already believed on him because of the supreme excellence of his character and teachings, as in the transfigura- tion, which was seen only by Peter, James, and John, and in the ascension, which was witnessed Only by the disciples (Matt. 17 :1; Acts 1 : 9; compart Matt. 12:39). Descending like a dove. In Mark, 1:10, the language is, "like a dove descending." The plain meaning is, not merely 72 MATTHEW. [Ch. III. that the Spirit descended as a dove descends, but that John and Jesus saw the Spirit taking on the form and appearance of a dove, and so descend- ing. The dove was a sacrificial animal which the poorest could afford, and which, in the case of the poor, was permitted as a substitute for a more costly sacrifice (Lev. 5 : t). If the worship- per could buy none, he could catch one of the wild pigeons which dwell among the hills of Palestine ( jer. 4S : 2s ; Sol. Song 2 : u). Its coming was one of the prophecies of spring (Sol. Son;? 2 : 12, where " turtle " signifies a turtle-dove). It Was histor- ically connected in the Jewish mind with the abatement of the waters after the flood, and has become, as well as the olive-branch, a symbol of peace among all Christian people (Gen. 8:8-11), and it is referred to by Christ as a symbol of harm- lessness and gentleness. It was thus a fitting emblematic form for the Holy Spirit to take on in giving a divine endorsement to him who is a sacrifice for all, whose coming brings life to the world, and the assurance of the peace of God to the soul which accepts him, and who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners (iieb. 7 : 26). There is not a shadow of basis for the old gnostic notion, which some have since attempted to revive, that Christ received at this time the gift of the Holy Spirit, and though before a mere man, now first became in a true sense the Son of God. Lighting upon him. He was praying at the time (Luke 3: 21 ». "The ordinances of re- ligion will commonly be ineffectual without prayer." — (Barnes.) John (1:33) tells us that "it abode upon him." That is, it was not a mere transient vision. 17. A voice from heaven. Compare Matt. 17 : 5 ; John 12 : 28 ; 2 Pet. 1 : 17. My beloved Son. Christians are called "sons of God" (1 John 3:2); but nowhere is the term beloved Son applied by God to any one but Jesus Christ, to whom it is given both here and in the hour of liLs transfiguration (Matt. 17 : 5). NOTE ON THE BAPTISM OF JESUS BY JOHN. The ceremony of baptism performed by John, which has given him his title, the Baptist or Baptizer (Matt. 8.1; H :ii, 12, etc), is intimately con- nected with the rite of Baptism maintained in the Christian Church ever since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, if not during his lifetime. John 4 : 1, 2, is the only reference to baptism by Jesus or his disciples during his life. This connection gives it an importance which it would not other- wise possess, and leads me to group here such scanty information as the Bible and other au- thentic sources give concerning it. History. The origin of baptism as a religious rite is unknown. It is certainly very ancient; Grotius even imagines that it is as old as the Deluge, and was established in commemoration of that event. Ceremonial ablutions of some sort were certainly common in the time of Christ, not only in Palestine, but also in adjoining lands. The Egyptian priests bathed twice a day and twice in the night, and Inaugurated their feasts with a grand ceremony of purification. — 1 WUkin- son, 1 :'A2\.) The G recks and Romans prepared for sacrifice and other religions rites by lustra- tion ; and not only the priests performed this ceremony — it was also performed by private in- dividuals when they had polluted themselves by any real or supposed criminal action, from the Btain of which they desired purification. A sim- ilar rite was performed at times by the shepherd on his sleep, and even on the army or the fleet before entering on a campaign. It was In such cases performed by sprinkling t hi- water on tin- person or persons, usually from a branch of olive or laurel. (See Smith's Dictionary of Antiq., Art. 'Lustratio, and authors there cited.) The O. T. abounds with examples of lustrations of various descriptions, of the person, the clothing, and objects ollercd for sacrifice. It was per- formed on both priests and people (Exod. 12:10 ; £3 : 4; SO : 20; 40: 12-15; Lev. ch. 8; 16:26,28; 17:15; 22:4,6; Deut. 23: io, ii; 2 chron. 4 : 2, 6). The spiritual signifi- cance of these lustrations is rendered evident by other passages which refer to washings as a sym- bol of moral purification, in a way to leave no doubt that it was recognized by pious and intel- ligent Jews that a mere washing of the person in water was not enough, but that the soul must be cleansed through repentance by the power of God (Pb. 26 : 6 ; 51 : 2, 7 ; 73 : 1 :: ; Is:iia>i 1 : 16 ; 4 : 4 ; Jlt. 4:14; Zech. 13: l). The act of Pilate iu washing his hands before the people, and declaring himself innocent of the blood of Jesus (Matt. 27 : zt), would have pos- sessed no significance if both Jew and Roman had not recognized the moral meaning of washing as a sign of purification from sin. The N. T. also contains frequent reference to ceremonial wash- ings which had b sen instituted by the Pharisees, and through their traditions engrafted on the laws of MoseS Mark 7:4,8,14] Luk • 1 1 :..->; 11,1,. 9 : 10). Baptism qf Proselytes. — of these washings none was more significant or more universally recog- nized, if we may Judge from the rabbinical writings, than the baptism of Jewish proselytes. Beathen converts on entering the Jewish church ratified their Change of faith by two ceremonies, baptism and sacrifice; in tin- case of males cir- cumcision was added. The baptism was admin- istered in the daytime by the immersion of the whole person; and while standing in the water the proselyte was instructed in certain portions of the law. The whole families of proselytes, including infants, were baptized. (See Light foot on Matt. 3:0.) By this act of baptism the Ch. III.] MATTHEW. 73 proselyte signified that he was washed of his past sins and errors and entered his new life, cleansed and purified, a new man. John's Baptism. — When, therefore, John com- menced his public ministry by preaching the ne- cessity of repentance, and added to it baptism as a symbol, its meaning would be readily under- stood. It was interpreted by his declaration that it was not enough to be a child of Abraham, but that Israelite and Gentile alike needed to repent of sin, a doctrine subsequently more em- phatically repeated by Paul (Matt. 3 : 9, 10 j Rom. 2 : 12, 17-24; 3 : 9, etc.). By baptizing the people, John em- phasized this declaration and said to them, by a formal and solemn ceremonial, You need, no less than the despised Gentile, to wash away the past, to be cleansed, morally and personally, as a preparation for the Kingdom of God. Every one who submitted to baptism at his hands pub- licly recognized the truth that personal repent- ance of sin was as necessary to the Jew as to the Gentile. And it is a noteworthy fact that the delegation from the Sanhedrim who inquired by what authority he baptized (joim 1 : m), did not in- quire the meaning of the rite, showing evidently that they understood its significance. Baptism of Jesxis. — Why Jesus should have been baptized is a question which has given rise to much discussion. The same perplexity which John felt then, the Christian Church has felt since ; for Jesus had no sins that needed to be washed away, and could not, therefore, become strictly a disciple of the doctrine of repentance, as by submitting to baptism he appeared to do. Various answers have been given, some of them certainly fanciful, others mystical, needing ex- planation more than the fact itself. Thus it has been said that the object of the baptism was to point out Jesus Christ as the sacrificial Lamb of the World, and to prefigure his death for sin, as baptism symbolizes death to sin ; that he was baptized as a priest, and because the priests re- ceived a like lustration before entering on their priestly duties, that by his baptism he pledged himself to the whole righteousness of the law, promising to fulfill all ; that, he brought the baptism of John to its consummation and inau- gurated Christian baptism in its place, as by par- taking of the Last Passover he converted it into a Christian ordinance ; that he sanctified by this act the water to the mystical washing away of sin ; and that in him the whole Christian Church were baptized into a new life, he acting as the type and representative of humanity. But here, as everywhere throughout Scripture, the rational and simple meaning is the best. The significance of John's baptism, as interpreted above, explains the significance of the baptism of Jesus. It was not merely like his submitting to circumcision and the purification (Luke 2 : 21, 22), because they were rites required by the law, while baptism I was not. It was a public renunciation of sin and a public profession of religion. It is true that Christ himself knew no sin and needed no re- pentance (John 8 : « ; 14 : 30), but he was numbered with the transgressors, was made sin for us, and bore our infirmities and carried our transgres- sions (isniah 53 : 12 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 2l). In taking Upon him luman nature he took all its humiliation and all its duties, though none of its real degradation, and fittingly commenced his public life by a public renunciation of sin for himself and his fol- lowers. Observe, too, that the religion which by this act he professed, was that of the sjririt as opposed to the religion of foi-m and ceremonies. His baptism was a public and solemn enunciation of his position as a teacher of personal righteous- ness, and his endorsement of the fundamental doctrine of which John the Baptist was a her- ald, but which received its fullest exposition in the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, that they only are the true children of God who, whatever their birth or place in humanity, repent of their personal sins and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. The true follower of Christ must follow him in this public renunciation of sin and profession of religion. It is not true, as sometimes said, that Christ professed religion only by his life. Form of Baptism. — There is no clear and cer- tain information in the Scripture as to the mode in which John the Baptist administered baptism. The question is important only in its bearing upon another, viz., what is the proper mode of Christian baptism. Without considering the latter question here, it is enough to say that the indications are that the baptism of John was performed by a partial or total immersion. These indications are the following : 1. The Greek word (jJajrriuu), generally translated "baptize" in our version, and the corres- ponding Hebrew word sometimes rendered "baptize" and sometimes rendered "dip," im- ply primarily a partial or complete immersion. At the same time it appears clear that in biblical usage neither word necessarily involves the idea of complete submersion. Thus, in Mark 7 : 4, we have a reference to the washing (Gr. pajitKJftoc) of tables (perhaps couches or beds, see note there), which certainly does not indicate a sub- mersion of the table or bed in water as a means of purification. The only passages in the O. T. in which the original Hebrew word is used, are the following : Lev. 4:6; 14 : 6-51 ; Num. 19 : IS ; Ruth 2 : 14 ; Ex. 12 : 22 ; Deut. 33 : 24 ; Ezek. 23 : 15 ; Job 9 : 31 ; Lev. 9:9; 1 Sam. 14 : 27 {twice) ; 2 Kings 5 : 14 ; 8 : 15 ; Gen. 37 : 31 ; Josh. 3 : 15. In the N. T. the only passages where the word occurs in which it is not trans- lated baptize or baptism, which is in fact no translation but only an English form of the orig- inal Greek word, are Mark 7 : 4, 8, and Hebrews 74 MATTHEW. [Ch. IV. 9 : 10. The word translated dip, in Luke 16 : 2i ; John 18 : 26 ; and Rev. 19 : IS, is etymologically the same, however, though slightly different in form. The English reader who La desirous to investigate more fully the biblical use of the word can do so by an examination of these pas- sages. The result of a fair and impartial exam- ination will be that which the best scholarship has reached, viz., that the word does generally involve the idea of dipping Into water, though not necessarily a complete immersion, still less a complete submersion in it, 8. Although cere- monial washings were performed both by Greek and Romans, and by Jews by means of sprink- ling (see above, and Numb. 1:7; 19 ; 19 ; Etok. 26 : 85), yet the baptism of proselytes, from which probably the baptism of John was borrowed, was by immersion. It was regarded as indispensable that this should be complete. "If," said the rabbinical writers, "any wash himself all over except the very top of his little finger, he is still in his uneleanness." 3, The language of the passage descriptive of his baptism, "I baptize yOU in Water" (see note on veree ii, above), tends to confirm this impression, as does the fact that John baptized in the Jordan. The catacombs contain rude pictures of the baptism of Jesus by John. They never represent it as done by sprinkling, or by immersion, but by pouring, Jesus stands in the water and John pours water upon his head from a vessel, in a manner analogous to that pursued in the anoint- ing of a priest according to the O. T. ritual (Exod. 29:7). There are some other considerations which throw light on the method pursued in the N. T. times in later Christian baptism, but they will be considered hereafter. It should be added that nothing is known as to the formula, if any, used by John; he certainly did not baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (Matt. Sh : 19; Acts 10 : l-. r , ; compare uls.. Rom. 6 : 8, -l). Evidently baptism into "Christ's death" could not precede his death. Bee an able essay on the essential difference between Christ's baptism and the baptism of John, by Robert Hall. Ch. 4:1-11. TEMPTATION <>K JS8D8 CHRIST.— See Thoughts on the Temptation, below. Preliminary Note. This incident Is recorded also fully in Luke 4 : 1-18, and briefly in Mark 1 : 12, 18; it la nol mentioned In John. It is confessedly one of the mOSt difficult passages ill the Gospels to understand. The various Inter- pretations may he conveniently classed under sis different heads. 1. That no such event really occurred, but thai Christ, in the form of a parable, of which he made himself a central figure, taughl his dis- ciples how it is that temptations assail us all, and how we are to resisl them. This interpreta- tion Ifl rejected by nearly all Christian commen- tators ; for while this lesson is taught by Christ's example, the language is that of historical nar- ration, not of a parable. 2. That it is an historical narrative, but of a natural event ; that the devil was a human tempter, or animated a human tempter, and of- fered the temptation through him ; for example, that the tempter was one of the delegation which came up from Jerusalem to attend the preaching of John the Baptist (John l: 19), and that the temptation really consisted of proposi- tions which they made to him to join their party. "Probably," says Lange, "he was transported in a figurative sense to the summit of the temple pinnacle by the ostentatious offers of the depu- ties of the Sanhedrim." "The mountain on which they placed him was Mount Zion, accord- ing to its spiritual significance, in the last age of the world. The tempter displayed to him the prospect of the theocratic government of the world. Probably into this disclosure plots against the Romans were introduced. And Christ was urged to approve of their hierarchi- cal plan for the conquest of the world." This view, though defended by Lange and Bengel, is unmistakably an afterthought. There is noth- ing in the narrative itself to suggest or to war- rant it. It has, so far as I know, no other respectable endorsers. 3. That it is a vision or a dream, having its parallel in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of bones (Ezek. ::■ ■. 1-11), and of Paul's experience of being caught up into the third heaven (s Cor. is : i-j). But there is nothing whatever in the narrative to imply a vision or a dream, and the true spirit- ual significance of the hour, as one of real temp- tation, is taken away by such an interpretation. 4. That it is a personal and internal experi- ence, in which certain circumstances suggest temptations which .Jesus overcomes only after a bitter struggle. "A stone by its shape or color suggests to an imagination affected by bodily cravings the appearance of a loaf of bread, and gives rise to the first temptation. His foot strikes against a stone and he stumbles; perhaps is ill danger of a serious fall. Instantly there occurs to him another passage of Scripture, ' lie will give his angels charge over thee, h st at any time tin hi dash thy foot against a stone.' Since he has angels attending him, why may he not go to the city, ascend one of the pinnacles of the Temple, cast himself off and display to 1hc as- tonished crowd his miraculous power? Once more he finds himself upon an eminence which commands an extensive view ; he feels (he -tir- rlng of personal ambition, and bethinks him how, if he WOUld only fall down and worship the evil thought, he mighl pOSBeSS himself of imher- sal dominion. The tempter and the temptation were within his own bouL" (Condensed from Funic-,,'. Notes on Schenckel'a Character of Ch. IV.] MATTHEW. 75 CHAPTER IV. THEN was Jesus led up of j the Spirit into the wil- derness, to be tempted 1 ' of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man 1 shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. j 1 Kings 18 : 12 ; Eze. 11 : 1, M ; Acts 8 : 39 k Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1; Heb. 2 : 18 1 Deut. 8 : Jesus.) This view will at once be rejected by all those who hold that Jesus Christ was the sinless Son of God, in whose pure heart no solicitations of evil could arise of themselves to lure him to sin. If we accept the narrative at all, we must accept, as the very essence of it, that the sugges- tion of recreancy did not spring spontaneous in his heart from evil desires which lurked unrec- ognized there, but that they were suggested in him by the tempter only to be instantly and in- dignantly rejected. 5. That it is a literal narrative ; that Satan really appeared in tangible form to Jesus, and proposed to him to convert the stones into bread, carried him bodily to the pinnacle of the temple, and showed him from some high eminence a view which at least suggested all the kingdoms of the world. This is a common view among evangelical interpreters ; to it there are serious objections, objections which 6eem to me to be conclusive, a. We must either im- pute to the devil a degree of supernatural power, which the Bible nowhere else attributes to him, or must suppose that Jesus exercised it in his flight to the pinnacle of the temple, and this for the very purpose of entering into temptation. b. There is no mountain from which all the king- doms of the known world could be seen ; in part, then, the narrative cannot be a literal our. c. The Bible nowhere else represents the devil appearing undisguised to man ; on the contrary, his power lies in his disguises and concealments (Gen. ch. 8; SCor. ii: 3). d. In this particular case the temptation, especially the last, would be robbed of all its power if the devil had been rec- ognized before his proposition. It seems impos- sible that the suggestion of literal worship to a bodily fiend could offer any temptation — we will not say to Jesus — to any one of ordinary purity of heart and strength of conscience. ; Satan, (. c, an ad- versary 1 job 2: 1). See also for descriptive titles : John 8 : 44; 13 : 81; 2 Cor. 4:4; Ephes. 6 : 12 ; 1 Pet. 5 : 8 ; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 12 : 7 ; 20 : 10. Less is disclosed concerning him in Scripture than many suppose ; much of the popular im- pression concerning him is derived from mediae- val theology, and yet more from Milton's Para- dise Lost. It certainly is not true that the idea of a personal devil was derived by the Jews from Persian philosophy during their captivity, for he appears by Implication, though not expressly named, in the history of the fall (o«n. ch. s), and more distinctly, probably, in Job, one of the oldest books of the Bible, if not the very oldest, than anywhere el>e (jobl :6j :■.:;--,■ , onipan also 1 Chron. si : 1). He is represented In the N. T. as an adver- sary of human souls, endeavoring by various snares to take as captive, suggesting evil thoughts to our minds, or erasing good Impres- sions which have been produced there, or putting hindrances in the way of Christian work, or in- spiring persecutors of the faithful, and as cer- tain at last to be bound in chains, and finally cast into torment I Matt. U I 19; Luke H I 81 ; John II I I| 2 Cor. 2: 11; 11:3,14; Ephes. 6 : 11 ; 1 Then. 9:18; 2Tuu.2:96; 1 Pet. 1 : 8, 9 ; Rev. 9 : 10 ; 19 : 9 ; 90 : 1-3 and 7-10). 2. Fasted. This does not necessarily imply that he ate nothing (Dan. 10: 2, 3). Some commen- tators think that his fasting may have consisted simply of abstaining from all ordinary food and subsisting only on the scanty supplies of the desert (compare with Matt. 3:4; 11 : la). But the language of Luke 4 : 2, taken with Exod. 34 : 28, and 1 Kings 1!) : 8, implies that he literally ate nothing, being miraculously sustained dur- ing the period of fasting. Observe that the duration of Christ's fast was the same as that of Moses and that of Elijah, who were transfigured with him (Matt. it : 8). According to Luke 4:2, and apparently Mark 1 : 13, he was subjected to temptations during this whole period of forty days ; those here recorded would seem to be the culmination of these temptations. 3, 4. The i-irst temptation. It appeals to a natural and sinless appetite — hunger. It sug- gests an act seemingly innocent. Why should not Christ make bread of the stones, and so sup- ply his wants? Because he had taken upon him- self the nature of man and the condition and sufferings of mankind ( Phil. 2 : 6-8). To have availed himself of his divine power to escape the bodily discomforts of humanity, would have been to fail in his mission of becoming our pattern and our sympathizing high priest at the very outset. Accordingly, there is no case in the N. T. in which Christ exercises miraculous power for his own benefit. The escapes recorded in Luke 4 :30, John 8 :59, and 10 :39, are sometimes re- garded as miraculous, but there is no Scripture authority for so regarding them ; and the taking of the tax-money from the fish's mouth i Uatt n : 2?) was for a moral purpose. ^See note there. | I doubt whether there is any case in Scripture in which a genuine miracle is recorded as being wrought for the beueiit of him at whose bidding it is performed. 3. If thou be. Rather, Since thou art. The "if," says Alford, "implies no doubt." 4. It is written, in Deut. 8:3. The refer- ence there is to the feeding of Israel with manna in the wilderness, and may be literally rendered, "by every outgoing of the mouth of the Lord ; " i. c, by the whole course of God's providential care over those who obey his word. The mean- ing is the same as that involved in Matt. 6 : 21-34, viz. : that he who seeks first the kingdom of God and his right ei lUSneBS may leave all questions of food and raiment to God. If man obeys the divine will, he may trust himself to the divine providence. The divine will respecting Christ was that he should be found ill condition as a man. He obeys that will, and leaves to God to provide for his phydcal wants (compan Dot, 99:6,6). "They that taunted him on the (Toss, 'He saved others, himself he cannot save,' bore an unconscious testimony to the unselfishness of Ch. IV.] MATTHEW. 77 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, m and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, He" shall give his angels charge concerning thee : and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou° shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. m ch. 27: 53; Neh. 11 : 1 n Ps. 91 : 11, 12 o Deut. 6: 16. his spirit and the thoroughness with which he took upon himself the life of common humanity. He that fed five thousand in the wilderness, from two small loaves and five little fishes, would not supply himself, except by ordinary means, with one." 5-7. The second temptation. The devil appeals to love of fame, and proposes to Christ to found his kingdom upon fame. A single mir- acle wrought before all the people shall secure their reverence and allegiance. A single trial of the divine power which belongs to the Son of God will put an end to all doubts, in Christ's own mind and in the mind of the people. "If he would have a prosperous following and an easy victory over the world, let him become the mas- ter of marvels. Let him show men that a Divin- ity was among them, not by the inspiration of a higher life in their souls, but by such a use of divine power as should captivate the fancy of all who saw the wonders of skill, of beauty, of dar- ing, which he should show." — {Bencher's Life of Christ.) This, I think, is the true interpretation of the second temptation, which is one of ambi- tion, or rather vain glory, not one of mere pre- sumption, as supposed by Alford. The same demand for a wonder-working evidence of his divine authority is frequently reported through- out Christ's life (Matt. 12 : 38, 39), and always refused. It reappears in demands of modern skeptics for modern miracles, and in the language of Rcnan, who treats Christ as a thaumaturgist, i. e., a mere wonder-worker. 5. The holy city. Jerusalem. Pinnacle of the temple. The temple was built on Mount Moriah, on a foundation built up of solid ma- sonry, so as to present a nearly perpendicular wall of over 200 feet from the floor of the temple to the valley below, "almost equal in height to the tallest of our church spires." On this wall, overhanging the valley of the Kedron, was Her- od's royal portico. From the roof of that por- tico to the valley below was not less than S00 feet. "The valley was very deep, insomuch that if any one looked down from the top of the bat- tlements, he would be giddy, while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth." — (Josephus.) According to Alford, it was the roof of this porch which is intended by the descrip- tion here. According to others, it was the apex of the temple proper from which he was called upon to cast himself down into the court below among the people who were always assembled there. If we suppose the whole event to have taken place in thought only, the location could not have been very definitely described, because it would not necessarily have been very definitely conceived. The essence of the temptation ap- pears to me to be its publicity, and, therefore, whatever point of the temple was brought to Christ's mind, it must have been one from which the miracle proposed could have been generally observed. 6. It is written, in Psalm 91 : 11 ; not, how- ever, as a prophecy of the Messiah, but as appli- cable to all the children of God. Christ has re- plied to the devil's first suggestion as a man, and the devil cites a promise of God applicable to all men in his second temptation. Observe that the devil misapplies Scripture, using it to lead into error. "If," says Jerome, "the text which he quotes refers to Christ, he ought to have added what there follows against himself — the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet " (verse is). 7. It is written, in Deut. G : 10; thou shalt not tempt, i. e., try him, put him on trial, pre- sume on his aid, and therefore attempt exploits which he does not command, or neglect precau- tions which reason dictates. 8= 10. The thif.d temptation. An appeal to ambition. The Pharisees expected a literal establishment of a universal Jewish domain. As Alexander had conquered all the world, so they expected Judaism would conquer all the world, and Jerusalem would be its capital. This was unmistakably the expectation :>f Christ's own disciples, even to the close of his life (Matt. 20:20, 21 ; Luke 19 : ii ; 24 : 21 ). The third temptation of the devil was an appeal to Christ to realize this dream of the nation. " There was a tremendous temptation to exhibit before men his real place and authority ; to appear as great as he really was ; to use his energies that men should admit him to be greater than generals, higher than kings, more glorious than temple or palace." — (Beecher's Life of Christ. ) "It was a proposition to use physical force for the accomplishment of moral results — to turn from the path of suffer- ing and labor and martyrdom for the truth." — (Deems' "Jesus.") '"All this power and glory will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and wor- ship me.' In other words, the glory and power shall be the Messiah's, if he consents to act in the spirit of the prince of this world."— (Pressense's 78 MATTHEW. [Ch. IV 10 Then saith Jesus unto him. Get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, Thouf shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. ii Then the devil lcaveth him, and behold, angels • came and ministered unto him. p Dcut. G : 13 ; 1 Sam. 7:3 q Heb. 1 : 6, 14. Life of Christ.) "The reductive promise was whispered In the oar of Jesus, 'This victory shall be thine. Only yield something of your religious zeal ; only consent to join hands with the priestly aristocracy of Judea ; only consent to look in silence on their sins ; only compromise a little with conscience ; only employ the arts of policy and the methods of state diplomacy, by which, always and everywhere, men mount to power. Be not righteous overmuch, for why shouldst thou destroy thyself." — (AbbotVs Jesus of Nazareth.) This temptation was repeated in different forms several times in Christ's life, especially in the effort of the people to make him king (John 6 : is), and in the endeavors of the disciples to dissuade him from his voluntary sac- rifice of himself (Matt, 16 : as, ss). Compare his language to Peter in the last-quoted passage with verse 10 here. 8. Of course there is no such mountain, and on a round globe can be none. The language "all the glory of them" indicates a picture 6een in imagination rather than a literal view from any height. We must at all events dismiss at once all such puerile explanations as that the devil showed him the entire Holy Land, i. e., the Jewish domain, or the Roman Empire, which could not all be seen from any elevation, or pointed out the direction of all kingdoms. Either the sight was one afforded in imagination only, or there was a miraculous extension of Christ's vision for the purpose. But the whole theory of a series of miracles wrought for the ex- press purpose of affording (); John IS :27; and if. :82, and In such direct declara- tions MS those of Hebrews 9 : 10, and "> : 8. III. In this threefold temptation there is noticeable a regular progression. The first ap- pealed to the body; the second to love of ad- miration ; the third to love of power. The first to a mere bodily appetite ; the second to a more honorable desire of fame, founded on human sympathy; the third to a noble ambition which Ch. IV.] MATTHEW. 79 12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee: 13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the bor- ders of Zabulon and Nephthalim : 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet/ saying, 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephtha- lim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles r las. 9 : 1, 2. Satan tried to pervert. The first called for an act seemingly miraculous ; the second for one ostentatious and presumptuous, the third for one blasphemously wicked. The first disguised itself under an appeal to reason; the second sustained itself by an appeal to Scripture ; and in the third all disguise was cast off, and Satan revealed himself. The first was the most decep- tive ; the second the most plausible ; the third the most audacious. In the first, Satan tried to mislead by hiding the sin ; in the second, by sanctioning the sin because of a greater good to be accomplished by it ; in the third, to compen- sate for the sin by a promised reward. IV. Christ receives the temptation as a man and resists it as a man. As he is tempted in all points like as we are, so his resistance is an exam- ple to us how to resist. He conquers the temp- tation through bodily hunger by trust in God, the temptation to presumption and ostentation by humble obedience to and patient waiting on God, the temptation to worldly ambition by su- preme love and reverence for God ; thus in every onset it is faith in God which is the shield that quenches the darts of the adversary (Epbes. c : 16). V. We share Christ's first experience when poverty tempts us to violate God's law that we may provide for our daily wants ; we share the second experience when we are tempted to neg- lect duties which God's providence lays upon us or to run into needless dangers or difficulties, or to assume uncalled-for hazards, and trust the re- sult to God, or to make an ostentatious display of our faith in God ; we share the third experi- ence when we are tempted, for the sake of power, wealth, or influence, to conform to the world and to employ Satan's instruments in even seeming to do God's service. We yield to the first temptation when we distrust God's provi- dential care ; we yield to the second when we presume unwarrantably on his grace, or make a show of our reliance on his word ; we yield to the third when we are conformed to this world and adopt its policies and methods and imbibe its 6pirit for the sake of its rewards. The first sin is forbidden by Matt. 6 : 25, the second by 6 : 1-7, the third by 6 : 24. We resist the first tempta- tion when we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and trust food, raiment, and shelter to Him ; we resist the second when, in humble trust in Him, we do all that God has given us power to do, looking to Him only to protect us from ills against which we cannot, by reasonable precaution, guard ourselves, and pa- tiently waiting for Him to bring about his own results in his own time and way ; we resist the third when we make a supreme love to God the sole inspiration of our hearts, and a supreme al- legiance to Him the sole rule of our lives. Ch. 4 : 1 2-25. CHRIST'S FIRST MINISTRY IN GALILEE. —The mission of Christ : to gite light to those in darkness, life to those in death. the message of Christ : Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The call of Christ : to Christian labor: I will make tou fishers of men.— How to accept Christ's call: immediately, though it require us to leave property, business, friends.— christ, the model for the preacher ; christ, the model for the physician. 12. Now. An interval of about a year, perhaps more, elapses between verses 11 and 12. During this time Christ goes from the wilderness to Cana of Galilee, where he performs the miracle at the wedding feast (John 2 : 1-11), goes up to Jei'usalem to inaugurate his ministry there (John 2 : 13-25; 3 : 1-21) ; after the Passover, joins the Bap- tist in Enon (John 3 : 22-36) ; leaves Judea to avoid threatened controversy, going through Samaria on his way, and arriving at the residence either of his mother or some friends in Cana, where he heals the sick child by a word (John, ch.4), and where he hears of the imprisonment of John the Baptist, which takes place about this time. There is some uncertainty as to the chronology, but this I think to be the most probable order of events. See AbboWs Jesus of Mzareth, p. 139, note. Jesus had heard. John (the Evan- gelist) says the reason why he departed into Gal- ilee was that " the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John," i. e. the Baptist (John 4 : 1, s). The true explanation seems to be that this was the reason of his leaving the vicinity of the Jor- dan, viz. : to avoid the collision of his disciples with those of the Baptist, but that he did not commence public preaching in Galilee until after John's imprisonment. John was cast into prison. For account of this imprisonment and its result, John's death, see Matt. 14 : 3-12 ; Mark 6 : 14-29. 13. And leaving Nazareth. Hewasdriven out of it by a mob, in consequence of a sermon in which he disclosed the opening of the door of salvation to the Gentiles (Luke 4 : ls-ai). Alford places this sermon later ; hut his reasons for dif- fering from the opinions of most other scholars 80 MATTHEW. [Ch. IV. 16 The people which sat in darkness" saw great light : and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent : for 1 the kingdom ot heaven is at hand. 18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon" called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea : ers. for they were fish- iq And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers" of men. 20 And they straightway left" their nets, and fol- lowed him. 21 And going on from thence, he saw other two B Isa. 45 : 6, 7; Luke 2 : 32.... t ch. 3:2; 10: 7....U John I Luke 5 : 10; 1 Cor. 9 : 20-22; 2 Cor. 12 : 16.... w Mark 10 : 28-31. are not satisfactory. Indeed, his views in gen- eral on chronology are not more satisfactory than might be expected of one who in express terms asserts the "impracticability of constructing a formal harmony of the three synoptic Gospels." Capernaum. One of the chief cities of Galilee. It had a synagogue, in which Jesus often taught, a Roman garrison, and a customs station, and was the residence of Andrew, Peter, James, and John, and probably also of Matthew (Matt. 9: 1-9 ; Mark 1:21; Luke 7: 1,8; 5:27; John 6 : 59). It Was de- nounced by our Lord for its rejection of him (Matt, n : 20), and its destruction has been so com- plete that its very site is a matter of uncertainty. The better opinion fixes it at Tel Hum, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The new name corresponds with the old, Cafar or Kefer, signifying village, and Tel a deserted site. The ruins of an ancient synagogue have been recently discovered at Tel Hum, not impossibly the very one in which Christ preached. 14-16. That it might be fulfilled. As the life of the individual is ordered by God in such a way as to fulfill the divine but undisclosed pur- pose, so the life of Christ was ordered in such a way as to fulfill the divine will concerning him disclosed in the prophets, and for the purpose of so doing. Esaias. Isaiah 9: 1,2. The quotation does not follow the original literally, nor indeed are the quotations in the New Testament from the Old Testament generally verbally exact. Zabulon and Nephthalim. The territories allotted to the tribes of Zcbulon and Naphthali are referred to. They embrace the territory west of the Sea of Galilee, and constituted one of the most important, if not the most import- ant, field of Christ's ministry. The way of the sea, beyond Jordan. Our version is un- fortunate, if not inaccurate. These words are not descriptive of Zabulon and Nephthalim, hut descriptive of other regions, the whole being em- braced in the last term of the sentence, Galilee of the Gentiles. (See paraphrase below.) (Gal- ilee of the Gentiles* So called because of the intermixture of heathen with the Jewish population in Galilee. Which sat in dark- ness. A symbol of hopeless gloom. It signifies more than " walked in darkness;" they do not even attempt to escape from it. Zabulon and Nephthalim occupied the most northerly portion of the Holy Land, and were the tribes most dis- tant from Jerusalem. The history and char- acter of Galilee (see note on Matt. : 2, 22) had brought it into contempt among the Judeans, and its people, intermixed with Gentiles, were certainly in ignorance of the ecclesiastical rules and the traditions and ceremonies which prevailed in Judea, and constituted in all respects a more . common and simple population. The prophet declares that this region of darkness and ignor- ance should be the scene of the Messiah's illus- trious appearance. Shadow of death. A common metaphor in the Old Testament (job 10 : 21 ; Fs. 23 : 4 ; Jer. 2:6; and many other similar pr.6S;iges). Death is represented like a cloud that intervenes between the sun and the landscape ; it thus casts a gloom on the face of the nation. Light is sprung up. " The light of itself sprung up and shone forth ; it was not that they first ran to the light." — (Ckrysostorn.) Compare Ephes. 2 : 4, 5; John 4 : 10. The whole passage then may be paraphrased thus : "The territories of Zabulon and Nephthalim, the region about the Sea of Gennesaret, the country beyond the Jordan, yea, the whole of Galilee, which you contemptuously designate Galilee of the Gentiles, whose inhabit- ants sit in the darkness of ignorance and under the gloom of impending death, from which there is no one to deliver, shall be the first to see the light which the Messiah brings." 17. From that time. Though he had com- menced his ministry at Jerusalem by casting out the traders, and by his conversation with Nico- demus (joimJ: 13; rh. 3\ and some public instruc- tion in Samaria is implied by John 4 : 40-42, his sermon at Nazareth appears to have inaugurated his entry upon his life-work as a preacher of righteousness. There is no cessation of that work from this time until his death. Even dur- ing his retirement, after his rejection by the Galileans (jntm g : 6a and Matt. 15 : 21), he occupied himself with instructing his disciples in the principles of Christianity, and the nature and work of the Christian Church. His preaching is, however, at first only a preaching of repent- ance, like that of John the Baptist. It grows more explicit in its disclosures of the true nature of the kingdom of heaven afterwards. 18-22. The call of four disciples. The ac- count in Luke "> : 1-11, Is much more full. See notes there. Sea of (ialilee. Also called Lake of Gen- nesaret (i.uku 5 : i), Sea of Chinnereth (Numb. 34 : 11), of Cinnereth (join. 11 : »), of Clnneroth (1 Kin B i 15 : w), and of Tiberias (John 6 : 1). See map, Mark, ch. 1. Ch. IV.] MATTHEW. 81 brethren," James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets : and he called them. 22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him. 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching? in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel 1 of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease a among the people. 24 And his fame went throughout all Syria : and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which Mark 1 : 19, 20 y ch. 9 : 35 ; Lake 4 : 15, 44 z ch. 24 : 14 ; Mark 1 : 14 a ch. 8 : 16, 17 ; Ps. 103 : I FISHERMAN CASTING HIS NET. Simon called Peter. The name Peter had been previously given to him by our Lord at or about the time of his own baptism by John the Baptist (John 1 : is). The reason of the new name is given in Matt. 16 : 18. See note there. And Andrew his brother. Simon Peter, Andrew, and John had already met Jesus at the ford of the Jordan, where they had partially attached themselves to him under the influence of John the Baptist's preaching (John 1 : 35-42, note). The fact of their acquaintance with him, coupled with the miraculous draft of fishes recorded in Luke, accounts for the readiness with which they responded to his call. It was not the call of a stranger, but of one whom they had already recognized as a prophet if not as the Messiah. 20. And they straightway left their nets, etc. " Mark both their faith and their obedience. For though they were in the midst of their work (and ye know how greedy a thing fishing is), when they heard his command they delayed not, they procrastinated not, they said not, ' let us return home and converse with our kinsfolk,' but they forsook all and followed, even as Elisha did to Elijah." — (Chrysoxtom..) Compare Matt. 7 : 21, 22, and eh. 19 : 27-30. 21. Zebedee. The husband of Salome. The latter became a follower of Christ, and watched him on the cross, and ministered to him even in the grave (Matt. 27 s 55, 66 j Mark 15 : 40 ; 16 : 1). It is in- ferred from the mention of Zebedee's hired servants (Mark 1 : so), and from the acquaintance of John with the high priest (John 18 : 15), that the family were in easy circumstances ; and that the father and sons were actively engaged in manual labor does not militate against this opinion. Zebedee is never mentioned after this incident, and there is no reason to believe that he ever became a disciple of Jesus. Corn- are Matt. 24 : 40, 41. One is taken and the other left in the call of Christ, as in his final coming. 22. Left the ship and their father. Not only their property and then business, but their home and their father — for Christ's sake. Com- pare Matt. 10 : 37, and contrast Luke 14 : 18-20. 23. Jesus went about. John preached in one locality to the people who came to him. Jesus went about seeking the people (Mark i : 37, 88). Teaching in their synagogues. Places of religious assembly among the Jews. Synagogues were first con- stituted during the captivity in Babylon, when access to the Temple was denied, and received their full development on the return of the Jews from captivity. They were built gener- ally on elevated ground ; worshippers, as they entered and as they prayed, looked toward Je- rusalem. When finished, they were set apart, as the Temple had been, by a special prayer of dedication. The common acts of life, such as eating, drinking, reckoning up accounts, etc., were forbidden in them. Even if the building ceased to be used for worship, it was not to be applied to any base purpose. At the Christian era there were synagogues in every town, and in Jerusalem, according to the rabbinical writings, there were upwards of 450. The people assem- bled in them on Sabbath and other sacred days, for public prayer and the hearing of portions of Scripture (Luke 4 : 16; Acts 13 : 15). In the interior ar- rangements of the synagogue may be traced an obvious analogy to those of the Tabernacle. At the upper end stood the ark or chest which con- tained the Book of the Law. Here were the " chief seats " (Matt. 23 : 6 ; James 9 : 2, s). In front of the ark was a lamp kept constantly burning, and an eight-branched lamp, lighted only on great 82 MATTHEW. [Ch. IV. were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy ; and he healed them. 25 And there followed him great multitudes 6 of peo- ple from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jeru- salem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan. b Luke 6 : 17, 19. festivals. A little farther toward the middle of the building was a raised platform ; and in the middle of this rose a pulpit, in which the Scrip- ture was publicly read and the sermon or address was delivered. The officers of the congregation were composed of a college of elders (Luke 7 : 3; Mark 5 : 22; Acts u : is), presided over by one who was the ruler of the synagogue (Luke 8 : 41, 49 ; Acu is : 8, 17). These managed the affairs of the synagogue and possessed the power of excommunicating. There were also an officer who was the chief reader of prayers, a minister of the synagogue (Luke 4 : 20), who had duties of a lower kind, resembling in part those of the modern sexton, in part those of the Christian deacon or sub-deacon, and who also often acted during the week as schoolmaster of the town or village, and ten men whose func- tions are not well ascertained. The latter were to be men of leisure, able to attend the week-day as well as the Sabbath services, and were proba- bly simply a body of men permanently on duty making up a congregation (ten being the mini- mum number), so that there might be no delay in beginning the service at the proper time. The service was a ritual, probably borrowed and modified from the established service of the Temple. The first five books of the Old Testa- ment were read through in a course of lessons, one lesson being read every Sabbath ; the proph- ets were read as second lessons. There was also a sermon or exposition of the passage of Scrip- ture which had been read, on which, however, any rabbi present might speak, by invitation of the ruler of the synagogue (Luke 4 : 16, n ; Acu 9 : 20 ; 13 : is). The liberty of preaching was not ordina- rily granted to any who were not versed in the lore of the rabbinical schools ; but it was ac- corded to prophets and others who were recog- nized as leaders of new sects or representatives of new opinions, in order that they might not be condemned unheard. Hence the permission granted to Christ, and subsequently to his apos- tles, to speak in the synagogues. The synagogue was a place of trial, and even, strange as it may seem, of the infliction of punishment (Matt. 10 : 17 ; tB 1 84) AcU22 : 19). And heralding the Rind tidings of the kingdom. The word translated /innc/thi;/, sig- nifies literally proclaiming as a herald or public crier; the word gospel is composed of two words, god — spell, can possibly explain these manifestations of Christ's power. His miracles, too, were charac- teristically unlike the acts of a necromancer. He never shrouded them in mystery ; he cured in his own name (Matt. Bit), in open day, and before all the people (MaAsts-sj list), by aword (Mui a touch (Matt. 9 : 29), a command (John s : 8). For a full consideration of Jesus Christ as a preachei and healer, see Jeans of Na/.areth, by Lyman Abbott, Chapters 11, 18, and 13, from which this note is condensed. Ch. V.] MATTHEW. 83 24, 25. Comp. Mark 1 : 28. The Sea of Galilee was the centre of a busy traffic, and on the high- way between Damascus and the Mediterranean. The caravans would carry his fame in both direc- tions. Possessed with devils. See note on Matt. 8 : 28-34. Lunatic. Literally, moon- struck ; probably subject to epilepsy. The same word is employed in describing a specific case in Matt. 17 : 15 ; see note on Mark 9 : 7, 8. Palsy. See, for cure of a specific case of palsy, Matt. 9 : 1-8 ; Mark 2 : 1-12 ; Luke 5 : 17-26 ; and for descrip- tion of disease, notes on the passage in Mark. Decapolis (ten cities), a region in the northeast- ern part of Palestine, near the lake of Gennesa- ret, and so called because it contained ten cities, which seem to have been endowed by the Ro- mans with some peculiar privileges. Their pop- ulation was mostly heathen. Jerusalem : in- cluding the territory round about Jerusalem. Beyond Jordan. East of the Jordan. In sec- ular history and in modern books of travel it is known as Perea (beyond). It is even to this day a comparatively unknown land. See as to its character, note on Matt. 19 : 1. Ch. 5, 0, 7. SERMON ON THE MOUNT.— The relig- ion op Jesus Christ is a religion op spiritual blessedness (1-16), of spiritual obedience (17-48), op humble piety (6 : 1-18), of singleness of service (19-24), of childlike trust in god (24-34), of charity and purity (7 : 1-6). it is a divine gift, is to be attained by prayer (7-12), by self-denial (13, 14), by practical obedience (15-27). the kingdom op Christ contrasted with earthly kingdoms (1-16), with the Mosaic commonwealth, i. e.< the law (17-48), and with the religion of formalism (6 : 1 to 7 : 6). The conditions op citizenshd? in Christ's kingdom (7 : 7-27).— See note on Object of Discourse, and Analysis below. Preliminary Note. — Of this sermon there are two reports having some points in common and some marked differences, one and the fullest here, the other in Luke 6 : 20-49. The sermon is not reported by Mark or John. In reconciling these two accounts there are several hypotheses proposed, of which the principal are the follow- ing : I. That Luke has given a report of the ser- mon, and that Matthew has grouped around it a collection of the sayings of our Lord, uttered at different times during this period of his minis- try. But this is inconsistent with ch. 5 : 1, 2, which represents the discourse as given at one time, and no less so with the structure of the dis- course, which is as remarkable for its unity of thought as for the richness and the power of isolated passages (see analysis below). II. That Matthew has given a full report and that Luke has condensed from it. But Luke adds matter which Matthew does not give (Luke 6 •. 24-26), nor is there anything in his account to indicate that it is borrowed or condensed from the previous report of another. III. That there were two distinct discourses, one preached by Christ to the disciples alone and recorded by Matthew, the other and briefer preached to the multitude, and reported by Luke. This opinion is maintained by Dr. Eddy (Life of Christ, pages 312, 313), Lange (Life of Christ, ii. 380-383), H. W. Beecher (Jesus the Christ, chap, xiv), following Tholuck, "Sermon on the Mount," and apparently Augus- tine. This hypothesis is pronounced " clumsy and artificial" by Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown, and "unlikely and unnatural" by Al- ford, and is rejected by Ellicott (Life of Christ, page 171, note), because it " has so much the ap- pearance of having been formed simply to recon- cile the differences as to locality and audiences, which appear in the two Evangelists, and in- volves so much that is unlikely and indeed unnat- ural." It can at best be said to be but a possibly true explanation. IV. That there was but one discourse, that it was delivered to the disciples in the presence of the multitude, and with refer- ence to the Avants of both the infant church and the great body of the people, and that of it we have different reports, with such variations as would naturally occur in the subsequent record by different writers. This is the view of Pres- sense (Life of Christ, page 361), Ebrard (Gospel History, pages 270-272), Neander (Life of Christ, page 224), Bengel (Gnomon on Matthew 5:1; Luke 6 : 17), Olshausen ( Commentary, Matt. 5 : 1), Wordsworth (Commentary, Luke 6 : 20), Robin- son (Harmony of the Gospels, § 41), and Town- send (New Testament, page 75, PI. Ill, note 42). Those who believe in the verbal inspiration of the Scripture will reject this view. Those who believe that the Evangelists were left to use their natural faculties in recalling and recording the events and discourses they reported, being guarded by the Spirit of God from all material error, such as could affect the truth they were appointed to teach, will generally regard it, as I do, as the most rational and probable opinion. "It is," says Alford, "the view taken by ordi- nary readers of Scripture," and is "also taken by most of the modern German commentators." Object of the discourse. Luke has given the time of the discourse ; Matthew has not. Jesus had carried on his ministry for some time in Galilee ; his fame had extended throughout the Holy Land ; he had wrought the cures which Matthew subsequently records. While his popu- larity was constantly increasing among the com- mon people (Mark i : 45; Luke 5 : is, 16), his declaration that the Gospel was for the Gentiles (Luke 4 : 24-28), his disregard of the Pharisaic ceremonials, and his controversies with the Pharisees respecting Sabbath observance, as recorded in Matt. 12 : 1-9 ; Mark 2 : 23-28 ; 3 : 1-6 ; John, ch. 5, which had taken place previous to this time though re- 84 MATTHEW. [Ch. V. CHAPTER V. AND seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain : and when he was set, his disciples came unto him : 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, say- ing, 3 Blessed are the poor in d spirit : c for their's is the kingdom of heaven. c Lake 6 : 20, etc. . . .d Isa. 67 : 15 ; 66 : 2 e Jas. 2 : 6. corded by Matthew subsequently, indicated the collision which was inevitable between his teach- ing- and those of the Scribes and Pharisees. He summoned from the many that followed him, twelve to be his apostles (Lute 6 : 13-16) and the founders under him of the church which was to carry on the preaching of the Gospel after his death, and having consecrated them to their work he preached this sermon, primarily to them, but also to the great multitude who crowded to hear (Luke 6 : n). It was thus in a proper sense an in- augural discourse. It sets forth to his disciples and to the people the character of that kingdom of heaven which he had declared to be at hand, but it does this by contrasting it, firstly, with the old theocracy which it was to fulfill, and sec- ondly, with the righteousness of which the scribes were the expositors, and which it was to overthrow. Analysis. — The sermon may be briefly ana- lyzed as follows. The kingdom of God is one of blessedness, a blessedness which does not consist, however, in wealth and honor, but in character, in a lowly spirit, a merciful disposition, a pure heart. It brings earthly persecution but eternal reward (versos 1-12), and no one is worthy of it who has not the spirit to endure suffering for its sake (i8-u). To make clear the nature of this king- dom, Christ points out its contrast with, first, the Mosaic law, and second, the traditional and ceremonial religion of the Scribes and Pharisees. He has been accused of disregarding the laws of Moses (Mark 2: 24; John 5: 10, 16). It is not true. The Messiah comes to fulfill, not to repeal, the Old Testament law. He has been charged with irre- UgiOD ; he replies that the religion of his disci- plea mnst exceed that of their accusers or they can never enter the kingdom of God (17-20). He explains his first declaration l>y showing how the laws of the. kingdom of heaven require all that the Mosaic law required, and much more, and illustrates this truth by pointing out that while the Mosaic law forbade murder, adultery, and perjury, and restrained revenge within certain definite bounds, Christ's law forbids anger and unhallowed thoughts, and requires simplicity in all speech, and love toward all men (-.1-48). He next illustrates the second declaral Ion by depict - ing the vices which nullify all that is seemingly good in Pharisaism, the ostentation of the three good works of all formal religions— alms-giving, prayer, and Casting; the freed which accompa- nies their pre tended piety; andthecensoriousuess which is the result of their self-righteous spirit (ch. 6 ; ch. 7 : 1-6). He finally, in a few brief aphor- isms, points out the way by which the soul may enter the kingdom of God (ch. 7 : 7-14) ; cautions his hearers against preachers of false doctrine ; gives a simple test of truth which every man, however unlearned, can easily apply for himself (15-23) ; and he closes by the declaration that discipleship consists not in hearing the truth, nor in profess- ing the truth, but in living the truth (24-29). The fact that this discourse possesses a unity as characteristic as that of any address of equal length in the Bible, if not in any literature, is a sufficient refutation of the idea that it is a mosaic of Christ's sayings, put together by Matthew ; the fact that it was preached for a specific pur- pose, viz., to exhibit the contrast of the religion of the Spirit with that of external observance, sufficiently indicates the reason why it contains no distinct enunciation of those doctrines of an atoning sacrifice, and a new and spiritual birth, which Jesus had already enunciated in private conversation with Nicodemus (John 3 : 1-8), and which he at a later period emphasized, not only in addresses delivered to his own disciples, but in those delivered to the people (Matt. 22: 11-13; 25: 1-1.3. John ch. 6; ch. 10, etc). At the same time the fundamental truth that the kingdom of heaven is the gift of God, is indicated clearly in chapter 7 : 7-11. See notes there. 1. And seeing the multitudes. To escape from them and to secure a private interview with his disciples (compare Mark 3: 9, n't. Moun- tain. Not necessarily a particular mountain; rather into the "hill-country." Luke says (ch. o: 1:) that he came down and stood in the plain literally, level place). Nothing more is indicated by this than that he descended from one of the higher peaks to the plateau to give this dis- course, where it might be heard by the people as well as by the twelve. A tradition points out a hill, known as Mount Ilattin, as the place where the sermon was delivered. The tradition is of no weight, but the hill itself contains a platform "evidently suit able for the collection of a multi- tude, and corresponding precisely to the 'level place' to which he would 'come down,' as from one of Its higher horns, to address the people." — Stanley'' 8 Sinai and Rtlesiine, page 860. 1 And When li«' was set. The Jewish rabbis gave their Instruction Bitting, both in the schools and in the public preaching in the synagogues (i...k, 4: 20). His disciples. It is evident from Luke Ch. V.] MATTHEW. 85 4 Blessed are they that mourn : f for they shall be comforted.^ 5 Blessed are the meek : for they h shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness : for' they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful : fori they shall obtain 7 mercy f Isa. 61 : 3 ; Eze. 7 : 16 g John 16 : 20 ; 2 Cor. 1:7 h Ps. 37 : 11 i Ps. 145 : 19 ; Isa. 65 : 13. . . .j Ps. 41 : 1, 2. 6 : 13-16, that the twelve had been chosen and 6et apart to the apostleship immediately preced- ing this sermon. The account of their selection is given later by Matt. (10 : 1-5) in connection with the command given to them to preach the gos- pel. This commission must, however, have been preceded by some preparatory special in- struction. Comparing Luke and Matthew, the whole narrative will read as follows : "And it came to pass in those days that he went up into a mountain (rather, the hill country) to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles (Matt. 5:i; Luke 6 : 12, 13) ; and he came down with them, and stood in the plain (rather, a level place) with the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judea, etc., which came to hear him (Luke 6 : n) ; and he opened his mouth and taught them saying" (Matt, 5 : 2). 2. And he opened his mouth. A not in- frequent introduction to a solemn and weighty discourse (Job 3 : 1 ; Psalm 7S : 2, referred to in Matt. 13 : 35 ; Dan. 10 : 16 j Acts 8 : 35 ; Ephes. 6 : 19). In the light of these references such deductions as those of the fathers, " He who before had opened the mouth of Moses and the prophets opens now his own mouth " (Gregory), " in his very silence he gave instructions, and not when he spoke only " (Chry- sostom), though true, must be regarded as fanci- ful and far-fetched. Ch. 5 : 3-16. FIRST GENERAL MVISION.-The chab- ACTERISTICS OP CHRIST'S TRUE DISCIPLES. 3-12. The Beatitudes. These, which are eight in number (Luke adds four woes, 6 : 24-26), are not promises of blessings to be fulfilled in another life ; they are enunciations of certain general principles, according to which each grace of dis- position receives its own peculiar experience of blessedness. The Jewish people were looking for political supremacy, a kingdom like that of Greece and Rome, when the long promised and now more lately heralded kingdom of God should come. In these beatitudes Christ teaches, first, what are the characteristics of the kingdom of God, and second, what is its true pomp and glory. It is in some sense a contrast with the earthly rewards promised by the Old Testament (Deut. 30 : 20 ; Isaiah i : 19, 20). Yet a hint of the beati- tudes is to be found even in the Old Testament (see references below). " Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament ; adversity is the blessing of the New ; which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to Da- vid's harp you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols ; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon." — (Lord Bacon.) 3. Poor in spirit. Those who possess a dis- position the reverse of proud in spirit and haugh- ty. The world still honors the high and haughty spirit ; it is the lowly in spirit whom Christ de- clares blessed. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 7s now, not shall be hereafter. The kingdom of heaven represents not a future state, but the condition of obedience to God here. (See note on chapter 3 : 2, and compare Rom. 14 : 17.) To the lowly in spirit repentance and confession are not difficult, and, therefore, to them the door of en- trance into the kingdom of heaven swings open readily. A parallel teaching is that of Psalm 51 : 17, and Isaiah 66 : 2. "By spirit he hath here designated the soul, and the faculty of choice. Since many are humble not willingly, but com- pelled by stress of circumstances, letting these pass (for this were no matter of praise), he blesses them first who by choice humble and con- tract themselves." — (Chrynostom.) This beati- tude comes first because it is the foundation of all that follow, as repentance and confession are the entrance door into all the blessings which are attributed to the other graces — graces that be- long alone to the kingdom of God. 4. Blessed are they that mourn; not merely for their sins. It is an absolute promise to all those who in the kingdom of heaven are brought into the experience of mourning, and is to be interpreted by such passages as Romans 5 : 3-5, Hebrews 12 : 11, and Rev. 7 : 14. " Tears like rain-drops have a thousand times fallen to the ground and come up in flowers." — (H. W. Bcccher.) "Every praying Christian will find that there is no Gethsemane without its angel." — (Binney.) Compare with this promise Eccles. 7 : 2, 3 ; Isaiah 61 : 2, 3 ; 66 : 13. 5. Blessed are the meek. The Greek word here rendered meek (rtQcttlg) occurs also in Matt. 21 : 5 and 1 Pet. 3 : 4, and in a slightly different form in James 1 : 21 ; 3 : 13, and 1 Pet. 3 : 15. A comparison of these passages, together with those where the English word is the same, but the Greek is different in form, though from the same root, indicates its significance in the Scrip- ture. Meekness is a spirit the opposite of the ambitious and self-seeking one which is charac- 80 MATTHEW. [Ch. V. 8 Blessed are the pure in k heart : for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the 1 peacemakers : for they shall be called the children of God. io Blessed are they which are persecuted for right- eousness'"' sake : for their's is the kingdom of heaven. ii Blessed are ye. when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil acainst you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great is your reward" in heaven : for so persecuted they the proph- ets which were before you. k Pa. 24 : 3, 4 ; Heb. 12 : 14 ; 1 John 3 : 2, 3 1 Ps. 34 : 14 ml Pet. 3 : 13, 14. teristic of kings (Matt. 21 : b), the opposite of the ambitious and self-assertive one which is charac- teristic of controversialists (1 Pet. 3: 15). The root of meekness is the dominance of spiritual over earthly desires. It is the characteristic of one who seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and leaves all other things to God's care (Matt. 6:33). Inherit the earth. Not the new heavens and the new earth, nor the land of promise, i. c, the heavenly kingdom here- after, nor great spiritual blessings here, but lit- erally the earth. Christ declares that the enjoy- ment of earthly blessings belongs not to those who grasp for them, and assert and maintain with vehemence and care their right to them, but to those who hold them lightly, and who, ranking them inferior to spiritual blessings, are not burdened by them while they possess them, nor harassed lest they lose them. " Selfish men may possess the earth ; it is the meek alone who inherit it from the heavenly Father, free from all defilements and perplexities of unrighteous- ness." — (John Woolman's Journal, page 36.) This beatitude is found almost in the same form in Psalm 37 : 11 ; and the substance of the same truth is contained in Isaiah 57 : 13 ; CO: 21. See also Matt. 19 : 29. 6. Hunger and thirst. Not merely desire, but so desire that we cannot be denied. Though it is Satan who said, "All that a man hath will he give for his life" (joL2:4), it is, nevertheless, substantially true ; and he who has a similar de- sire for righteousness will count no sacrifice too great to Secure it (Matt. 10 : 37-39, and parallel passages). Righteousness. Perfect conformity to the will of God respecting us, as represented to us in the life and character of Christ, our example. Shall be filled. All other desires are liable to be dis- appointed ; the desire for righteousness, if it be supreme — not merely the wish, but the choice ot the soul, can never be disappointed. Even suc- cess fails to satisfy other desires ; the desire for righteousness shall be filled. Compare Psalm Li : 15; 05:4; 107:9. 7. Merciful. Mercy as a feeling is that habit of mind which leads one to feel pity and compas- sion rather than resentment toward a wrong- doer; and as an act, it is the exercise of forgive- ness in tilt; largest sense, i. c., of good-will and helpfulness toward those who have wronged us and who are deserving of punishment. It is the highest exercise of love, because it is love to- ward not only the undeserving, but the ill-deserv- ing, and involves sympathy not only for the un- fortunate, but for the wrong-doer. Shall ob- tain mercy. Not only from men, because the tender consideration of the merciful from others reacts in tender regard of others for ourselves, but alSO from God (Ps. 18 :26; Prov. 3 : 34 i compare Matt. is : 23-35). " Mercy turns her back to the unmer- ciful." — (Quarks.) 8. Pure in heart. They who are not merely clean ceremonially or morally, i. c, in external conduct, but in motive and purpose. Compare Psalm 51 :6; Prov. 4 : 23. Shall see God. Not merely hereafter, but now. True knowl- edge of God comes not through an intellectual study of his attributes, but through a spiritual conformity to his character (John 14 : 15, n, 21,23; 2 Cor. 3 : 18 ; Heb. 12 : 14 ; 2 Pet. 1 : 8). As We gl'OW in grace we grow in the knowledge of God (2 Pet. 3:i8). The converse is also true ; when we see him as he is, we shall be by the Bight made like him (1 John 3 : 2). For parallel to this promise, see Psalm 24 : 4, 5. " We must be in some way like God in order that we may see God as he is." 9. Peace-makers. Not merely they who reconcile differences between man and man, though such peace-making Is included, but they who, by their presence and disposition, as well as by their conscious acts, carry with them the spirit of peace and quietness, and bring peace to others who are perturbed and troubled. See for a wondrous illustration of sueli peace-making John 14: 27. One condition of such peace-making is the maintenance of a quiet and peaceful heart amidst all experiences of turmoil. As Solomon contrasts him who maintains peace in himself with the conqueror (Prov. is : bs), so Christ con- trasts him who produces peace with the war- makers whose victories were the envy of the Jews, and by whose prowess the\ expected to see the kingdom of God ushered In. shall be called. Shall not only be the children of God, but shall also be recognised as such. It is this peace-giving quality which above all others is counted among men as saintliness. Observe that, as in .lames 8 : 17, so here, purity precedes peace, and that there is no true peace-making which is not also hi so Ear pure-making. "No peace was ever WOD from fate by subterfuge or agreement; DO peace is ever in store for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin— victory over the sin that oppresses Ch. V.] MATTHEW. •87 13 Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are the light? of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorifyi your father which is in heaven. o Mark 9 : 50 p Phil. 2:15 q 1 Pet. 2 : 12. as well as over that which corrupts." — (Buskin.) In this truth is found the reconciliation of such passages as this with Matt. 10 : 34. 10. Compare 1 Peter 3 : 14. Not merely be- cause a heavenly reward compensates the perse- cuted for their sufferings, though this is true (see Luke 16: 25; and Rev. 7; 14), but more because the persecution itself intensifies the martyr's abhor- rence of evil, and drives him to a closer refuge in God. The truth is illustrated in many a Chris- tian experience, is embodied in the hymns of the Christian Church, as in the lines, Man may trouble and distress me, 'T will but drive me to thy breast, and is exemplified in the fact that the greatest purity of the Christian Church has been in times of persecution, its greatest corruption in the time of its wealth, its honor, and its worldly prosperity. "So long as the waters of persecu- tion are upon the earth, so long we dwell in the ark ; but where the land is dry, the dove itself will be tempted to a wandering course of life, and never to return to the house of her safety." — (Jeremy Taylor.) 11, 12. The preceding verse is the last of the beatitudes, each of which is seen to be the enun- ciation of a law which connects with each seem- ing lowliness of character, or bitterness of sorrow, a real experience of grace and glory. The 11th and 12th verses are addressed more di- rectly and immediately to Christ's own disciples, as an encouragement in view of approaching contumely and persecution. In the other prom- ises Christ says not, blessed are ye, but blessed are the poor, they that mourn, the meek, etc. Observe the qualifications of this blessing: "Lest thou shouldest think that the mere fact of being evil spoken of makes men blessed, he hath set two limitations ; when it is for his sake, and when the things that are said are false ; for without these he who is evil spoken of, so far from being blessed, is miserable." — (Chrysostom.) Reward. Of grace, not of debt. See Romans, ch. 4, and parable of the laborers, Matt. ch. 20, and note there. For so persecuted they, etc. Compare Matt. 23 : 29-31. Every age persecutes its own prophets, and reveres the prophets whom the preceding age has persecuted. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth. The significance of the metaphor consists not merely in the fact that salt is the great antiseptic, but also in its peculiar quality of imparting a flavor to everything with which it is mixed. Livy calls Greece "the salt of the nations." Observe that salt must be mingled with whatever it is to fla- vor ; and Christians are to mingle with men, not to live in monkish solitude apart from them ; they are to carry religion into daily life, not to keep it for the closet and the church. Lost its savour. " It is a well-known fact that the salt of this country (Palestine), when in contact with the ground, or exposed to rain and sun, does be- come insipid and useless. From the manner in which it is gathered much earth and other impu- rities are necessarily collected with it. Not a little of it is so impure that it cannot be used at all, and such salt soon effloresces and turns to dust — not to fruitful soil, however. It is not only good for nothing itself, but it actually de- stroys all fertility wherever it is thrown; and this is the reason why it is cast into the street. So troublesome is this corrupted salt that no man will allow it to be thrown on to his field, and the only place for it is the street, and there it is cast to be trodden under foot of men." — (Thompson 's Land and Book, vol. ii, p. 44. ) Good for nothing. Salt is a great antiseptic. Its func- tion in ordinary culinary purposes is to prevent decay and corruption. This is the function of the Christian Church. It does this by its spirit of self-sacrifice ; by showing itself willing to suffer for truths and principles which the world but dimly recognizes, or not at all. If the church loses this spirit of self-sacrifice, it be- comes itself corrupt, ceases to be a purifier and preserver, and is "good for nothing." Observe, that the salt cannot restore that which is decayed, but only preserve from decay. "That men should be set free from the rottenness of their sins was the good work of Christ ; but their not returning to it again any more was the object of these men's diligence and travail." — (Chrysos- tom.) 14. Light of the world. Because Christ is in the midst of his church, which otherwise pos- sesses no light (John 1 : 9 ; 8 : 12 ; Ephes. 5:8; Pvev. 1 : 13). It is not truth in abstract forms, but truth em- bodied in living men, and chiefly incarnate in the man Christ Jesus, which is the light of the world ; i. e., example is more than precept, life is more than philosophy. A city set on a hill. Pos- sibly an allusion to Jerusalem. There is no au- thority for the notion that some city was in sight 83 MATTHEW. [Ch. V. 17 Think not that I am come to destroy' the law t or the 8 prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to' lul- filL 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle" shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. r ch. 3 : 15 s Isa. 42 : 21 t Ps. 40 : 7, 8 u Luke 1G : 17. at the time of the delivery of this sermon, though that may have been the case. 15. Caudle. This word often occurs in our version of the Scripture, where a lamp is more probably meant (job is : 6 ,- Pa. is : 28). But candles made of wax or tallow, with the pith of a kind of rush for the wick, were used at this time among the Romans and probably among the Jews. 16. Good works. Does this conflict with what Paul says about good works? No! for though we are saved by faith, it is unto good works (Ephcs. 2 : 10). Let your light so shine . . . that they may glorify your Father. The Pharisee displays his light (see ch. 6) ; the true Christian simply lets his shine. The Pharisee glorifies himself by his works ; the true disciple of Christ glorifies only his heavenly Father. Ob- serve that in these verses (13-16) Christ teaches that the pre-eminence which Christian character and conduct gives to the true disciple is a part of the divine intention ; and hence rebukes the fear of being odd, and the tendency to conform to the world in its habits and usages ; also that he puts example above precept, and thus impli- edly teaches, what Paul declares most clearly, that the greatest heresies are not in doctrine, but hi life (l Tim. 1 : o-io). Ch. 5:17-48. BECOKD GENERAL DIVISION.— The Laws of the kingdom of Christ contrasted witu trose of Moses. 1 7. Think not that I am come to destroy. This charge had already been made against Jesus (j..hn B:i6,i8); was substantially made against Paul (Arts 21 : 20, 21 ; Rom. 3 : 8, 31 ; 6 : 1) ; in the sixteenth century was made against Luther ; and is still made against every one who preaches the liberty of the Gospel. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill, i. c, to li 11 to the full the am dent laws with their own true and spirit- ual meaning. Hut see further below. In these words ( hri -I declares the relations of the law and the Gospel, a theme to which we must con- stantly recur, especially in Paul's writings. Without essaying a full Interpretation, a work which belongs to the preacher rather than to the commentator, it must, suffice to say here : I. That by the term In if the : whole Mosaic sys- tem is meant. The Bible nowhere makes a Ste- tbtetton between the moral ami the ceremonial law. The whole is treated as one system, and the relation of the Gospel to the one is its rela- tion to the other. Observe that it is a portion of the ceremonial law which is apparently retained by the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15 : °8, 29) ; and the moral law, written in the hearts of the Gen- tiles as well as in the books of the Jews, which is treated of in Romans, chaps. 2 and 3. It is tam- pering with the plain meaning of Scripture to suppose that Christ destroyed the ceremonial but retains and enforces the moral law. See par- ticularly verse 18, and James 2 : 10. II. The N. T. nowhere treats any part of the law as abolished or repealed. The popular idea that it repeals the Jewish Sabbath and re-enacts a new one has no warrant in Scripture. There is no repealing clause in the New Testament; and nothing in it to set aside the O. T., or any part of it, as obsolete, common, old-fashioned, and useless. Paul may seem to treat a part of the law as repealed, in such passages as Ephes. 2 : 15 and Col. 2 : 11 ; but he carefully and indignantly repudiates this inference in Rom. 3 : 31, and im- pliedly so in 1 Timothy 1 : 8. III. The proximate object of law is the protec- tion and welfare of the community ; its ultimate object is the development of character ; but this it essays to accomplish only by forming right habits of conduct. Law, therefore, regulates only the external conduct. In the nature of the case, civil laws, enforced by civil penalties, can- not deal directly with the heart. While, there- fore, the ultimate object of law (1 Tim. 1 : 5) and its indirect effect (f«. u : t, 8) is the improvement of character, it is composed necessarily of specific precepts commanding or forbidding actions. It prohibits adultery, not Inst ; murder, not anger ; because this is all mere law can do. IV. The Gospel operates directly on the heart. It not only requires purity in thought and love, and forgiveness iu feeling (iMbdaw); it bestows moral and spiritual power (John It 19); and so, by making the character divine, n moves all ocea- sion for laws regulating the conduct. When the character is conforms I to the divine Image, the end of the law is fulfilled, and the law itself be- comes useless and is forgotten. "As the shell breaks when the bird is batched; as the sheath withers when the bud bursts into leafj as the rough sketch is done with when the picture is finished; as the toys of boyhood arc laid h\ in adolescence ;" bo the system of law, which i- pre- paratory only, is superseded, Dol repealed or de- stroyed, and this just In the proportion to which the individual, the community, or the race comes into a moral state in which it no longer needs to be commanded and forbidden (Gal. 3 : u, u 1 4 : 1-'. ). Ch. V.] MATTHEW. 89 V. The mere external law regulating conduct was all that was recognized by the Pharisees or by the great majority of the Jews ; just as even now the precepts of Christ constitute in the thought of many the chief part of Christianity. Yet in the O. T. are hints that the law looked to- wards something higher than a well-regulated conduct. See, for example, such commands as Exod. 20 : 17 ; Lev. 19 : 18 ; Deut. 6:5; 10 : 12 ; and such passages as Isaiah 1 : 16, 17 ; 66 : 2 ; and Micah 6 : 8. Indeed, the prophets are full of a constant protest against a mere obedience to the letter of the law, and insist on a spiritual life. Thus Christ does not destroy even that concep- tion of the law which the ancient Jews — that is, the best among them — entertained, but fulfills the meaning of the ancient statutes by the dis- closure of a Ufe more deeply spiritual than aDy of which the prophets had ever conceived. It is to the contrast between the mere legal obedience rendered by the Pharisees and the spiritual life to which the law, rightly interpreted, should conduct, that Christ refers in verse 20. In three ways, then, does Christ fulfill the law ; first, by giving it in his exposition a fuller and more spiritual meaning than the Pharisees im- puted to it or than we now ordinarily impute to it, or even to his precepts ; second, by illustrat- ing its end and object, the development of a per- fect character, by his own life, free from re- proach, even by the Pharisees (John 8 : 46), because perfect in spirit ; and third, by giving to his dis- ciples the power, which the law never gave, of obedience, by changing the desires and aspira- tions of the heart, and so making the character to act out, naturally and free from restraint, the life which the lam alone required from unwilling subjects through fear, but was unable to secure (Rom. 8:3, 5; Heb. 2 ; 15). These principles will be recurred to hereafter in this work, and are em- bodied here in a brief statement partly for that purpose. They explain and are explained by the illustrations which follow. What becomes of the law against murder to one who is never under the dominion of anger, or of the law against adultery to one who is perfectly pure in thought, or of the law against forswearing to one who has been cured of the evil, from which all exaggera- tions and undue expletives come (see verse 37), or of the law against excessive punishment and re- venge to one who loves his enemies ? Observe in this connection how Christ set him- self before the people as the one that was to come, and as the fulfiller of the whole imperfect and prophetic system of Moses. "When you know what it means and how long mankind had been kept waiting for it, there is sublimity in the composure with which this simple preacher of God sets himself forth as the fulfiller." — (Dykes.) Observe, also, that he declares it his mission to fulfill the prophets as well as the law ; that is, in him and the kingdom he has come to establish, the whole system of O. T. prophecy, type, and symbolism, is fulfilled. 18. Verily. A common precursor of a sol- emn and weighty declaration ; but so used only by Christ. See, for examples, 6 : 2, 5 ; John 3 : 3, 5, 11 ; and Concordance, word verily. It is the Greek word Amen, and is used in the N. T. as an appellation of Christ (Rev. 3 : 14), and also as a solemn close of prayer, being repeated by the people as their ratification or endorsement of it (1 Cor. 14 : 16 ; Rev. 5 : H ; 19 : 4), in which case it is ren- dered in our version by the word Amen. I say unto you. Christ appeals to himself as author- ity, here and elsewhere, in his most solemn and weighty disclosures of truth; his "I say unto you" is equivalent to the prophetic formula, "thus saith the Lord." Jot or tittle. Jot is the Hebrew Jod, the smallest letter in the He- brew alphabet ; tittles, literally horns, are the little turns of the strokes by which one Hebrew letter differs from another similar to it. At the time of Christ the O. T. scripture existed of course only in manuscript. In the Hebrew Bible are over 66.000 jots. The Hebrew copyists were scrupulous to the last degree, and regarded the slightest error in their copy fatal. For the purpose of illustration, Christ takes this well- known veneration of the copyists for the most minute details in their copying. Till all be fulfilled. Just in the proportion in which, by the baptism of the spirit and the regeneration and sanctification of the character, the law is fulfilled, it ceases to bind, but no farther. If lust and anger are still in the heart, the law against adultery and murder are not superseded. It is in the failure to recognize this truth that the Antinomians fell into capital error. The note of Dean Alford on this verse appears to me so important that I transcribe the most essential portion of it in full : "It is important to observe in these days how the Lord here in- cludes the Old Testament and all its unfolding of the divine purposes regarding himself , in his teach- ing of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. I say this, because it is always in contempt and set- ting aside of the Old Testament that rationalism has begun. First, its historical truth, then its theocratic dispensation and the types and prophe- cies connected with it are swept away ; so that Christ came to fulfill nothing, and becomes only a teacher or a martyr ; and thus the way is paved for a similar rejection of the New Testament, beginning with the narratives of the birth and infancy, as theocratic myths, advancing to the denial of his miracles, then attacking the truth- fulness of his own sayings, which are grounded on the Old Testament as a revelation from God, and so finally leaving us nothing in the Scriptures 90 MATTHEW. [Ch. V. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but Ivhosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great v in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say unto you, That except your righteous- ness shall exceed™ the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. 21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old v 1 Sam. 2 : 30 w ch. 23 : 23-28 ; Phil. 3 : 9. but, as a German writer of this school has ex- pressed it, 'a mythology not so attractive as that of Greece.' That this is the course which unbelief has run in Germany should be a preg- nant warning to the decriers of the Old Testa- ment among ourselves. It should be a maxim for every expositor and every student, that Scripture is a whole, and stands or falls together." 19. Break. Kather relax. The Greek word here used (Ivto) is generally translated loose, and when not used metaphorically embodies the idea of freeing from restraints, as in Mark 1:7; Luke 13 : 15 ; 19 : 80, 81 ; John 11 : 44. The same idea appears to be generally involved in its metaphor- ical use, as in Matt. 10 : 19 ; Acts 2 : 24. And even when it embodies the idea of destruction, a general dissolution is ordinarily involved, as in 2 Pet. 3 : 11, 12. Least in the kingdom of heaven. See note on next clause ; and on mean- ing of phrase, kingdom of heaven, see note on Matt. 3 : 2. Whosoever shall do— in the spirit and fulness with which Christ fulfilled all right- eousness — and teach — expounding the law as Christ in this chapter expounds it, so as to bring out its spiritual meaning, and accomplish its spir- itual purposes — shall be called great iu the kingdom of heaven. Chrysostom, and following him Owen, interpret the phrase "king- dom of heaven " here as equivalent to the "time of the resurrection and that awful coming," and " least in the kingdom " as equivalent to cast out from it. But our Lord does not say that he who loosens the obligations of the law shall be ex- cluded from the kingdom, but shall be least in it, and our duty is to find out what he says, not to substitute for it something which we re- gard as equivalent. The question of admis- sion to or exclusion from the kingdom is not raised here at all, and to regard "least in the kingdom" as equivalent to excluded from it, and great "in the kingdom" as not denoting grade or rank, but a full and free entrance into it, is not only to miss the meaning of this pass- age, but to make admission Into the kingdom to rest upon obedience to law, whioA is never rec- ognited in the X. T. at the eondUhm <>/ oebnte" sion. The natural and plain meaning of Christ's woids affords the true Interpretation. To relax the obligation of law either by precepl or exam pie is not the way to attain eminence Id piety ourselves, or to promote It mothers. The true way to overcome the Bpirit of externalism and legalism in the church is not by reUu&nQ the obligations of obedience, but by teaching men the doctrine of a higher obedience. The true way, for example, to correct a formal technical and servile observance of the Sabbath, is not by re- laxing the Sabbath-law, but by leading up to a higher appreciation of Sabbath rest and Sabbath worship ; and so of all law. Of such true teach- ing Paul's Epistle to the Romans affords, when studied as a whole, a wondrous illustration. 20. Scribes. This term, which is sometimes used in the N. T. to designate certain officers whose duty it was to keep the official records of the Jewish nation, or to act as private secreta- ries of distinguished individuals, is ordinarily applied in the N. T. to persons devoted to read- ing and expounding the law. They generally appear in connection with the Pharisees ; but it would appear from Acts 23 : 9, that there were Scribes attached to the other sects also. The Scribes customarily opposed themselves to our Lord ; watching him to find matter of accusation (Luke e : v, n) ; perverting his sayings and his ac- tions (Matt. 9:3; Luke 5 : 30; 15 : 2) ; and Seeking to entangle and embarrass him by questions (Matt. 12 : 38; 21 : 23; Luke 20 : 21, 22). They took the place, though they did not fulfil] the functions, of the ancient prophets ; and their authority as expounders of the law is recognized by our Lord himself (Matt. 23 : 1, 2). They kept schools for the teaching of the law and the com- mentaries thereon (Luke 2 : 46: Acts 5 : 34 ; campus with 2:> ; 3, and see Jos. Antiq. 17 : 6, 2) ; they also Copied tllC law, and at a later date wrote commentaries upon it, and engaged with each other in fruitless and often heated discussions, respecting questions in rab- binical theology and casuistry. Pharisees. See note on Matt. 3 : 7. Their righteousness was one of external obedience to law merely ; that of Christ's disciples must be higher — the Obedience of the heart and the spirit. Observe, that Christ docs not denounce the obedience of the Pharisees, here Or anywhere in the N. T (oom- pn ■:.; | :■:) ; lie denounce- their hypocrisies ; but be overturns formalism and legalism, not by de- nouncing it, but by propounding a higher stand- ard. The true way to overcome evil is always by pointing OUt and inciting to a better way. Y<- shall in no case enter, etc. Compare 7 :-'l; 35 : :;i 46; John 8 : •'» ; Phil. 3 : 4-10. 21-1N. These verses embody In five examples illustrations of the general principles laid down iu verses 11 -80. They BhOW how it is thai Christ fulfills the law, and in what sense the Christian Ch. V.] MATTHEW. 91 time, x Thou shalt not kill : and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment : 22 But I say unto you, 'lhat whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his broth- er, Raca, shall be in danger of the council : but who- soever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. x Ex. 20 : 13 ; Deut. 5 : 17. righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees. 21-26. First example. Law against murder. 21. Ye have heard — viz., in the synagogues where the O. T. Scriptures were read in a course of leSSOnS, 011 the Sabbath (compare Luke 16 : 29 ; Acts 13 : 27) — that it was said by them of old time — rather, probably, to them of old time. Either rendering is grammatically correct, but the weight of authority appears to sanction the latter, and the contrast throughout this chapter is not between Christ and Moses as law-givers, but between the laws addressed to the world in its childhood, and those addressed to the disci- ples of Christ as the children of God ; between the law of servitude of the old time, and the law of liberty which Christ ushers in (Gai. 4 : 1-3, 7 ; James 1 : To). Thou shalt not kill. Murder was prohibited (Exod. 20 : 13) ; the penalty w r as death (ch. 21 : is) ; but provision was made for the escape of one accidentally killing another, from the re- venge of the next of kin, and for determining whether the killing was or was not intentional (Numb., ch. 36). Judgment. Not the final judg- ment ; the laws of Moses, like any other code of civil laws, depended for their enforcement on temporal rewards and punishments. Judges were appointed in every city (Deut. la : is), accord- ing to Josephus, seven to each city. It was by this tribunal the case of the manslayer was de- termined (compare Numb. 35 : 13, 24, 25 with Josh. 20 : 4). It is to this judgment Christ here refers. The tri- bunal might, if they could not determine the case, certify it for decision to the Sanhedrim, the chief court of the Jews at Jerusalem. — (Jose- phus' Ant. 4 : 8, 14.) 22. Without a cause. There is some doubt whether this word has not been inserted by the copyists to soften the apparent rigor of the pre- cept. However that may be, the Bible recog- nizes elsewhere a righteous anger (Ephes. 4:26; James 1:19; Ps. 7 : 11 ; Rev. 6 : 16). Judgment, l. t\, in Christ's kingdom, not as in verse 21, judgment in the Jewish commonwealth. There is between verses 21 and 22 a transition from the ancient law, which was enforced by temporal punish- ments, to the spiritual law, which is enforced by the judgments of God. But the Jewish terms "judgment," "council," and "hell-fire" are used metaphorically to indicate degrees in the divine penalties of the future world. Raca — empty. A general term of contempt. Coun- cil. The Sanhedrim, the highest court of judi- cature, answering as a judicial body to our Su- preme Court, or rather to the English House of Lords, since it exercised both judicial and legis- lative functions. Fool. Rather, probably, rebel. Raca is a Hebrew word ; probably the word used here was also, in the original, Hebrew ; but in at- tempting to preserve the Hebrew sound in Greek characters, a Greek word was used. The Greek word means fool, the Hebrew rebel. If we pre- serve the Hebrew significance here the climax is preserved. Fool and Raca would, on the contrary, be nearly synonymous. If I am right in this the obnoxious word embodies a bitter judgment of one's spiritual state, decrees him to certain de- struction, and answers to the most common form of modern profanity. Hell-lire. There are two words in the N. T. translated hell. One is Hades (?#ijs), and always signifies sim- ply the place of departed spirits ; the other is Gehenna (yeeva), and is the word used here. It indicates, by a significant metaphor, the place of future punishment. To the southeast of Jerusalem was a deep and fer- tile valley called the vale of Hinnom, or, in Greek, Gehenna. In a particular portion of this' Valley, known as Tophet (isa. 30 : 33; Jer. 7 ; 31,32; 19 : 6, ii ), the idolatrous Jews burned their chil- dren in sacrifice to Moloch. In the reformation instituted by Josiah (s Kings 23 : 10) this valley was polluted, and thereafter became the place for casting out and burning offal and the corpses of criminals. Hence the phrase, " fire of Gehenna," translated "hell-fire," was employed to indicate the place of future punishment. Here and in Matt. 10 : 28 ; 18 : 9 ; 23 : 15, 33 ; Mark 9 : 43, 45, 47 ; Luke 12 : 5 ; Jas. 3 : 6, the word translated by hell is Gehenna ; and the idea conveyed is, undoubtedly, a place of punishment. In all other passages in the Bible where the word hell occurs, the meaning of the original would be more appropriately expressed by the word Hades. Observe : 1. That the comparison of judgment, council, and hell-fire indicates that future punish- ment is adjusted according to the sin of the con- demned ; 2. That adjustment of punishment is graded exactly according to the sin, "to unjust anger the just anger and judgment of God, to public reproach a public trial, and hell-fire to that censure that adjudgeth another thither." — (Liyhtfoot) ; 3. That the outward expression of anger in words enhances the sin ; the highest duty is not to be angry ; nevertheless, if one is angry, it is a secondary duty to restrain all ex- pression of it. Observe, also, how these two verses illustrate the meaning of the general prin- 92 MATTHEW. [Ch. V. 23 Therefore, if thou bring thy gift? to the altar, and there rememberesl that thy brother hath aught against thee, 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, ami go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him ; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee 1 to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. 27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery : 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh* on y Deut. 16 : 16, 17. . . .z Prov. 25 : 8 ; Luke 12 : 58, 59 a Job 31 : 1 ; Prov. 6 : 25. dple laid down in verse 17. "Is 'Be not angry' contrary to 'Do no murder?' or is not the one commandment the completion and the develop- ment of the other? Clearly, the one is the ful- filling of the other, and that is greater on this very account. Since he who is not stirred up to anger will much more refrain from murder, and he who bridles wrath will much more keep his hands to himself. For wrath is the root of mur- der, and you see that he who cuts up the root will much more remove the branches, or, rather, will not permit them so much as to shoot out at all. ' ' — ( (Jh rysostom. ) 23, 24. Gift. Sacrifice. Compare Matt. 8:4; 23:18, 19. Altar— in the Temple. To bring a sacrifice to the altar was the Jewish method of public worship. The modern equiva- lent would be, "If thou goest to church." Jlntli aught. Justly or unjustly. The question whether you are in the right or wrong does not arise. If there is a variance, it is to be reconciled. As God in Christ sought to reconcile the world onto himself (2Cor.5 : 19), so are we to seek to rec- oncile those that are in enmity to us. He that is sure he is right is the one to seek reconcilia- tion. Against tare. If others have any com- plaints against us, and we have not done all we can to remove them, our worship is unacceptable ; on the other hand, if we have aught against others, we are to forgive before we bring our offering (Mark 11:25, 2c). Leave there thy gift. . . . then come and offer thy gift. The whole language implies the urgency of the case. It is better to let even the worship of God be in- terrupted than that brotherly love should not continue; and indeed there is no true worship where the heart fails in brotherly love. Compare with this teaching John 14:21,28, with 16:12, 17; and 1 John 4 : 7, 8, 20. It gives a hint why prayer is often unavailing and worship unsatisfy- ing. Compare John '.» ::il and Isaiah 1 : 10-15. /s Christ 1 8 directum hereto be lib raSLy fnterpn ted . Mn -t the Christian, fur example, stay away from the communion table if there la an unrec- onciled variance between himself and another? Xu! not if either, lirst, he has d all he can to remove it, »r, second, he la ready to do all that he can and will put his resolution in execution at the firet opportunity, if, however, he la unwil- ling to obey Christ's law ol love, hie worship la Worse than aseleM. "The important thing la to go to thy brother, not with the feet, but with the heart." — {Augustine.) Provided, however, that the feet go as soon as possible. It is the love, not of sentiment, but of action, which is commanded. Compare James 2 : 15, 16. 25, 2G. Officer. An official among the Jews whose position and duties were substantially those of a modern constable or police-officer. There is some difficulty in the interpretation of these verses, and an effort has been made to give them a symbolical meaning. But such a meaning is certainly secondary, not primary. Adver- sary. Not the devil, for we are not to agree with him ; nor God, who is never represented In the N. T. as our adversary. The Roman law directed the plaintiff and defendant to make up the matter on their way to the judge ; after the case came before the judge, the law must take its course. The primary reference is perhaps to this provision. It is, at all events, counsel on the side of earthly prudence. Worldly wisdom, as well as duty toward God, advises to speedy reconciliation ; and the more imperious your op- ponent and the farther the quarrel has gone, the wiser is it to seek reconciliation. This is sub- stantially the view of Chrysostom, of Lightfoot, and of Barnes. Alford adds a spiritual deduc- tion, which is legitimate and may have been in- tended, but is not necessarily involved in the words. "As in worldly affairs it is prudent to make up a matter with an adversary before judgment is passed, which may deliver a man to a hard and rigorous imprisonment, so reconcilia- tion with an offended brother in this life is abso- lutely necessary before his wrong cry against us to the Great Judge, and we be casl into eternal condemnation." Farthini;. A small coin equal to two mites and equivalent to aboul seven mills of our money. "These words, as in the earthly example they imply future liberation, because an earthly debt can be paid in most cases, so in the spiritual counterpart the; amount to a nega- tion of it, because the debt can never be dis- charged"— {AJford.) Matt. 18:80; Luke 7: 48, 27-32. Second exami i. r. /.airni/iiiiixttiiiulterjf. 27. Thou shalt not commit adultery. > : ii.) By the Mosaic law the punishment Ol this crime was the death of both parties by atoning, Lev. 80 : 10 ; Deut. 82 : 88-87 ; but if the woman wen' a slave she was to be whipped, not put to death, and the man was to bring a tree- Ch. V.] MATTHEW. 93 a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee : for it is profitable lor thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee : for it is profitable tor thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement : c 32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, d saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery : and whosoever shall marry her that is d'lvorced, committeth adultery. 33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, e but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths : 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all : r neither by heaven ; for it is God's throne : 35 Nor by the earth ; for it is his footstool : neither by Jerusalem ; for it is& the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea j Nay, b Rom. 8: 13; 1 Cor. 9 : 27.... c Deut. 24 : 1 ; Jer. 3:1; Mark 10 : 2-9.... d ch. 19 : 9 ; 1 Cor. 7 : 10, 11.... e Lev. 19 : 12 ; Nil Deut. 23 : 23. . . .f ch. 23 : 16-22 ; Jas. 5 : 12. . . .g Rev. 21 : 2, 10. 30 : 2 ; pass offering (Lev. 19 : 20-22). In case a wife were suspected of adultery by her husband, a singular ordeal was provided for her trial, the only case of trial by ordeal known to the Jewish law (xumb. 5 : ll-3l). 28. Looketh .... to lust. Not every ris- ing of evil inclination is classed with adultery ; not every lust, nor every looking, but the looking to lust, i. e., the indulgence in an evil imagination. Whether the evil act be outwardly committed, or be committed in imagination only, the out- ward act being restrained by fear or shame, does not determine the question of guilt. Neither does our Lord say that there is no difference be- tween the act of imagination and the actual overt sin ; but that God sees, recognizes, and con- demns the former as a real violation of the law against adultery : as a civil statute it affects only the conduct ; as interpreted by Christ, it applies tO the inward man also. (Compare Job 31 : 1 ; Prov. 6 : 25.) For illustration of the violation of this law, thus interpreted, and the crimes to which it led, see the story of David and Bathsheba, 2 Sam., ch. 11. 29. If thy right eye— the more important of the two — offend thee — i. e., tempts thee to 6in. The original means primarily to cause one to stumble, or to fall. It is used in the N. T. generally, if not exclusively, in the sense of lead- ing one into sin, or at least into moral perplexity. The following passages will suffice to indicate its various uses : Matt. 15 : 12 ; 17 : 27 ; 18 : 6 ; John 6 : 61 ; 1 Cor. 8 : 13. Pluck it out. A symbol of the thoroughness of the work. If self-denial is required, it is best to do it quickly and com- pletely. For it is better. The greatest self- sacrifice is really for our self-interest. " The eye to be plucked out is the eye of concupiscence, and the hand to be cut off is the hand of violence and vengeance ; i. e., those passions are to be checked and subdued, let the conflict cost us what it may."— (Fbrteus.) But much more than that is meant ; these verses make short work of all defenses of habits and recreations confessed to be injurious in their effects, but defended on the ground that they are not wrong per se. The hand and eye are not only in themselves innocent, they are, in their right use, highly important. To deprive one's self of them is both to maim the person and to lessen one's means of usefulness. Whatever, then, tempts the individual, or his neighbor, or the community, into sinful courses, even though it be not only in itself innocent, but in its right employment important, is to be put away until it ceases to be a source of temptation. Asceticism — that is, the denial of a real good for the sake of a higher good — has its root in a right principle, though its common manifestations have many of them been egregiously wrong. Compare for other illustrations of this general principle, in its wider application, Matt. 18 : 6-10 ; Rom. 14 : 19-21. 31, 32. The law referred to is to be found in Deut. 24 : 1. Fornication. This is not cited as another example of the contrast be- tween the external law of Moses and the spirit- ual law of Christ, but as a further illustration of the subject of adultery. To put away one's wife, save for the one cause, or to marry one that has been put away, Christ declares to be embraced among the sins which the law against adultery, spiritually interpreted, prohib- its. The general subject of divorce is more fully considered by Christ in Matt. 19 : 3-9. See notes there. 33-37. Third example. Law against swearing. 33-35. Thou shalt not forswear thyself— swear falsely. False swearing and profane and idle use of the name of God are both prohibited by the third commandment (Exod. 20 : 7). The Hebrew word which answers to in vain may certainly be rendered either way, and probably includes both. Compare Lev. 19 : 12. False swearing is yet more distinctly forbidden by Numb. 30 : 2 and Deut. 23 : 21-23. The false witness received the same punishment which was due for the crime to which he testified. (Deut. 19 : 16-19.) Neither by heaven . . . nor by the earth. "The Jews held all those oaths not to be binding in which the sacred name of God did not directly occur." —(Alford quoting Philo.) So Lightfoot quoting from the rabbinical books, "If any one swear by the heavens, by the earth, by the sun, it is not an oath." See, however, Matt. 23 : 16-22. Swearing, in ordinary conversation, is much 94 MATTHEW. [Ch. V. nay : for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of eviL h 38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An' eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : h Jas. 5 : 12 i Ex. 21 : 24. more common in the East than here. "The people now use the very same sort of oaths that are mentioned and condemned by our Lord. They swear by the head, by their life, by heaven, and by the Temple, or what is in its place, the church. The forms of cursing and swearing, however, are almost infinite, and fall on the pained ear all day long." — {Thompson 's Land and Book, 2 : p. 284.) God's throne .... God's footstool . . . the city of the great King, The significance of an oath consists in its calling God to witness the truth of the assertion. All such quasi oaths do this indirectly. 36. Neither by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. Protestations of friendship were fre- quently confirmed by touching the forehead and swearing by it ; and this custom is still main- tained in the East. Christ says : Even your head is not your own ; to swear by it is to swear by him who made it. Christ here condemns all those " half -veiled " blasphemies which, common in our times as in his, are nearly all traceable, historically, to an appeal, more or less direct, to the name of God. They are either, (a,) like I swan, I twtno, I > That ye resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite thee 11 on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 41 And whosover shall compel thee to go a mite, go with him twain. 42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou' away. j Prov. 20 : 22 ; 24 : 29 ; Rom. 12 : 17-19 k Isa. 50 : 6 1 Deut. 15 : 7, 11. 263 crimes in the same manner, while those of Moses provided capital punishment but for twelve crimes. The Mosaic law of retaliation was permissive, not compulsory. The injured party might require retaliation in kind at the hands of the magistrate ; hut except in the case of murder (Numb. 35 : 31) he might take satisfaction in money, in which case the damages were ad- justed according to the injury done (see Exod. 21 : 30). Such money redemption was ordinarily substi- tuted for the infliction of the penalty. This law was for the regulation of the administration of justice by the government. Christ does not condemn it as a law of justice, but he declares in this and the next section (43-43) that his followers are to be governed in their personal relations by the law of love. 39. Resist not the evil — literally the evil, i. e., the evil one. Christ implies here what the Scripture elsewhere abundantly asserts, that the malice aad wrong-doing of the world to the dis- ciples of Christ is the work of the devil (compare 1 Joim 2 : 13, 14 ; Rev. 2 : io). So he transfers our anger from the instrument to the real cause of the wrong-doing. "What then, it is said ; ought we not to resist the evil-one ? Indeed we ought, but not in this way, but as he hath commanded, by giving one's-self up to suffer wrongfully ; for thus shalt thou prevail over him." — (Uhrysos- tom.) So Christ conquered Satan by yielding himself an unresisting victim to his malice. 40. Coat . . . cloak. The coat was a tunic made commonly of linen, and extending to the knees. The cloak or mantle was larger and more expensive, was commonly made nearly square, and was wrapped round the body like a cloak, but was thrown off for the purposes of labor. It was also used as a wrapper at night, hence might not be taken by a creditor (Exod. 22 : 26, 27). Christ's precept, then, is in principle, Submit to even a palpable injustice, without color of law, rather than resist even by an appeal to the law. This is not merely a precept of worldly wisdom, though worldly wisdom justifies it, nor an obso- lete requirement applicable only to the heathen tribunals of Christ's day, nor an absolute law, so that a follower of Christ cannot ever apply to the courts for redress without violating Christ's prohibition. These aphorisms are expressions of a Christian spirit, not enactments of a new law. See below. It is, nevertheless, noticeable that the tendency of Christianity has been, first, to lessen personal resistance to evil, and sec- ond, to discourage lawsuits ; and that while the commentators have difficulty with this passage, Christian lawyers constantly advise their clients, as matter of worldly wisdom, to submit to almost any injustice rather than to involve themselves in a lawsuit. "To seek the redress of grievances by going to law is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble-bush." — (Sel- wyn.) "To go to law is for two persons to kin- dle a fire at their own cost to warm others, and singe themselves to cinders." — (Bentham.) A lawyer "is a learned gentleman who rescues your estate from your enemies, and keeps it him- self." — (Brougham.) So far has this conviction gone that the abolition of all laws for the collec- tion of debt, except in cases of fraud, is seriously considered by able jurists in this country. And yet English and American justice is immeasura- bly superior to that administered by Oriental or Roman courts in the time of Christ. Compare with this precept 1 Cor. 6 : 7. 41. Whosoever shall compel thee to go, etc. The word translated compel is of Persian origin. Footmen were employed from a very early period of history in carrying despatches (1 Sam. 22 : 17 ; 2 chron. 30 : 6, io). At a later period this service was performed with mules and camels (Esther 3 : 13, with 15 ; 8 : io, u). It was continued under the Roman government, and these heralds were authorized to compel any person to accompany them as guides or assistants, or to lend them a horse, boat, or other means of transportation. A simi- lar law is in force in Persia to this day. The Jews particularly objected to the duty thus im- posed on them. Christ's disciples were to yield to the demand, though oppressive and injurious. 42. Give to him that asketh of thee. Compare for a proper understanding of this verse Christ's promise to his disciples (John 14 ■. 14), and his own practical interpretation of it. He does not always give what we ask, but often far dif- ferent (2 cor. 12 : 8, 9). Sometimes, too, we do not receive because we ask amiss (James 4 : 3). In this, as in all else, Christ is his own interpreter, and his example explains his precept. "To give every thing to every one — the sword to the mad- man, the alms to the impostor, the criminal re- quest to the temptress — would be to act as the enemy of others and ourselves." — (Alford.) It must never be forgotten that Christ throughout this sermon is speaking of the spirit which should animate his followers ; and the spirit of Christi- anity is one which leads the followers of Jesus 9G MATTHEW. [Cii. V. 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said,™ Thou shalt I 44 Hut I say unto you, Love" your enemies, bless love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy : them that curse you, do good to them that hute you, m Deut. 23 : 6 n Rom. IS : 14, 20. Christ to give to every true want ; judgment keeps it from becoming ^discriminating, and so injurious. Borrow. Contrast with this verse the spirit of the heathen world, as exem- plified in the saying of Cicero, that alms should be given to a stranger only when it involves no privation to ourselves. Compare with it, as an evidence and illustration that Christ does but fulfill the spirit of the ancient law, the provision in Deut. 15 : 8-10. CllKlST'S PRINCIPLES RESPECTING RETALIA- TION. In considering the significance of this en- tire passage respecting retaliation (vs. 38-12), it is to be remembered, (a,) that Christ throughout this 6ermon inculcates principles for the government of the individual, not of the community ; and that, therefore, it does not affect, except indi- rectly, the right or duty of the community to use force in protecting itself or its members from evil ; (&,) that it does not affect the question of the right of the community to overturn a tyran- nical government, and substitute another and more just and equable one in its stead ; (c,) that it d tee not necessarily deny the right or duty of to use force, it need be, in defending others intrusted to his protection, as the husband his wife, or the father his child; (<7,) that it incul- cates the spirit in which the disciple of Christ is to receive injuries personal to himself, and that to interpret it as a series of mere rules for the regulation of conduct is to fall into the very crmr of Pharisaism, which the Sermon on the Mount is aimed to correct. With these qualifi- cations (if they are to be regarded as qualifica- tions) the precepts are not difficult to be under- stood ; the only serious difficulty Is in complying with them. To set them aside, by treating them as Oriental forms of speech, as exaggerations which we are to qualify, as Impracticable rules proposed only to stimulate us to greater gentle- ness, as an ideal which we are not to expect to realize in the present state of society, but only to strive toward, appears to me to be sub- versive of all right reading of the Bible. Let US cither frankly say that .Jesus was mistaken, and laid down principles which cannot be applied in the common Intercourse of life, or let us ac- cept, those principles as coining with divine au- thority from a divine master, 1 measure our common intercourse of life by them. So accept ed they will be seen to cover the whole ground of personal rt tstanoe and retaliation to wrong. They include injustice inflicted by personal vio- lence (v. 39), that attempted to be Inflicted by BO appeal to the law (v. •!«), and that Inflicted by an oppressive and tyranical government (v. 4i). In each case Christ counsels submission to wrong, rather than resistance to it ; and he has abun- dantly interpreted these precepts by his own illustrious example ; the first precept by his pa- tient suffering of personal indignity (Matt. »e : 67,68; and compare isa. 53 : t) ; the second by his payment of a tax UnjUStly exacted (Matt, n : 24-27, and note there) ; the third by his yielding to the infliction of scourging and crucifixion after a trial which vio- lated the forms of law as palpably as it contra- vened justice, and his refusal to permit the use of violence as a means of rescue. See report of his trial, and notes there, and compare Matt. 26 : 51-53 ; Luke 22 : 50, 51. Observe that, yielding himself, he protested against the injustice to which he nevertheless submitted (Matt. 20:55 ; John 18 : 19, 23), and, set mingly by a miracle, provided for the escape of his disciples (John 18 : 6-s). On the other hand observe that, errn regarded merely as lairs, these aphorisms do not require un- limUe /yielding to wrong. Turning the other cheek docs not require continued submission if experi- ment proves it unavailing ; giving the cloak docs not forbid the Christian from having recourse to the law; going two miles is not going indefinitely. Paul's precept, "If it be possible, as much as lit th in you, live peaceably with all men" (Rom. 12: a I, evi- dently implies limits to non-resistance. He recog- nizes a right use of the sword (Rom. 13 :4) ; and he bim K If appealed to Roman law for protection (Acu 16 : ::: ; >9 : U I, and directly to Caesar from an unjust judge and a malignant prosecutor t \,ts .;, til). i:j-18. Fifth example. The law regulating our relations with enemies. 43. No law is to be found in the 0. T. answer- ing the description here given. But the O. T. does inculcate in many passages an abhorrence of heathen character and heathen habits (d«il 1 1 1, 2,16,23-26; 12:27,32; Josh. 23 : 12, II : P». 1M : SI, SS) J while the law of love has HO appearance of being con- lined in its application to the Israelites (ur, u i it, i- ; com] «n n, Hi. ■.-. : :;-r.i. As we teach our children to abhor that which is evil in character and con- du< t, and to avoid all ei il companions, hut after- ward build up on thai a love for tb.086 Who are evil and a spirit thai seeks them out to redeem them, so God, in the childhood of the race, taughl it only to abhor the evil practices and character of the heathen; bu1 00 this Christ built ap the higher law of personal love to the wrong-doer, a love which is practically perfectly consonant with an abhorrence of their sinful prac- tices, and of the sinful character of which those practices are the fruit. The Pharisee had con- Ch. V.] MATTHEW. and pray" for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you ; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise p on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 97 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye ? do not even the publicans the same ? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others ? do not even the publicans so ? 48 Be ye therefore perfect,"] even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. o Luke 23 : 34 ; Acts 7 : . .p Job 25 ; 3 q Gen. 17 : 1 j Deut. 18 : 13 J Luke 6 : 36, 40 ; Col. 1 : 28. founded the moral abhorrence of the sin with personal hate of the man ; and the exact parallel to the precept here condemned is to be found in the rabbinical writings ; e. g., " An Israelite who sees another Israelite transgressing and admon- ishes him, if he repents not, is bound to hate him." 44. Love your enemies. This is in a meas- ure interpreted by what follows. Yet it is a law of the heart, not of conduct merely ; it means more than bless, do good, pray for ; it is inter- preted by God's love for us when we were yet enemies (Rom. 5:8; Ephes. 2 : 4, 5), and it is quite con- sistent with the utmost abhorrence of their wrong-doing, from which by love we seek to re- deem them. Bless them that curse. Seek God's blessing on those who call down upon you God's curses (compare Rom. 12 : 14, 19-21). The Greek word (si/'/lo/ity), which in our version is here trans- lated "bless," never means in the N. T. to speak well of, nor does the word (xuru^dojxai), trans- lated curse, ever mean to slander. The one sig- nifies to invoke the divine blessing, the other to imprecate a curse. The latter is composed of two Greek words, signifying prayer against. For parallel to the direction of this verse, see Ephes. 4 : 3:1 ; for illustration of the precept Joseph's treatment of his brethren, Gen. ch. 45, especially verses 5, 10, 11, 15, and ch. 50 : 15-31. It should, perhaps, be added that the clauses in this verse, "Bless them that curse you and do good to them that hate you," are omitted from some of the best manuscripts. But as they appear in Luke 6 : 27, 28, where there is no question of their genuineness, there is no reason to doubt that they were uttered by Christ as we have them in our present report, though Matthew may have omitted them and they have been transferred from Luke to Matthew by some of the copyists of the latter. The 44th verse is the climax to which the sermon from verse 21 has conducted. "Seest thou how many steps He hath ascended, and how He hath set us on the very summit of virtue ? Nay, mark it, number- ing from the beginning. A first step is, not to begin with injustice ; a second, after he hath begun, not to vindicate one's self by equal retal- iation ; a third, not to do unto him that is vexing us the same that one hath suffered, but to be quiet ; a fourth, even to give one's self up to suffer wrongfully ; a fifth, to give up yet more than the other wishes, who did the wrong; a sixth, not to hate him who hath done so; a sev- enth, even to love him ; an eighth, to do him good also; a ninth, to entreat God Himself on his behalf. ' ' — ( Chrysostom. ) 45. In this \v*y ye shall become the children of your Father. Both a reason for and the reward of so loving and doing good to our enemies. As the climax of Christian duty is loving one's enemies, so the climax of Christian reward is the becoming like God (compare Ephes. 5: 1. 46. The publicans. The Roman tax-gath- erers. See note on Matt. 9 : 10, 11. They are here a type of purely worldly men. If the Christian acts on the same principles as the man of the world, what right has he to expect any different regard or treatment from God '? 47. Salute. The Oriental salutation was generally in form a prayer for divine blessing (Gen. 43:29; Ruth 2:4; 1 Sam. 15:13; Ps. 129:8). The Pharisees only saluted members of the same re- ligious faith ; the modern Mohammedan con- fines his salutation to Mohammedans. Hence, Christ's inculcation was a direct innovation on the almost universal usage of his day. Its ap- plication to professing Christians who refuse to speak to those who have offended them is so plain as to need no enforcement. More than others. The Christian may not compare him- self with others and be satisfied because he is a* others. Both God and men expect more of him than of others, and this in the common inter- course of daily life. 48. Perfect. Rather complete. The word never signifies in N. T. usage sinlessness, but completion in Christian character in contrast with a half- finished and partial character, a character that is Christian in some parts and worldly and selfish in others. This verse sums up that portion of the Sermon on the Mount in which Christ has developed the Christian ideal of character. It is the complement of verses 17 and 20. In it Christ explains in what consists the ful- fillment of the law and the prophets. "The an- cient statutes," says Christ in effect, "forbade murder, adultery, false-swearing, cruelty in re- venge. A complete obedience embraces the whole man, and brings the spirit as well as the members under allegiance to these laws. The ancient statute commanded love to your neigh- bor ; the spirit of that statute requires love to all mankind. You arc to aim not at an external 98 MATTHEW. [Cn. YL CHAPTER VI. TAKE heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them : otherwise ye have no reward ol' your Father which is in heaven. obedience to laws and regulations, but at the at- tainment of a character which in all its conduct shall conform to the law, and in all its faculties to the image of Him whose sons you are called to be." In brief, one may be an imperfect, but one cannot be a partial Christian. He may obey Christ imperfectly, but he cannot obey in part and disobe J* in part (6 : 24 ; compare Ephes. 4:13; Col. 1 : 28 ; 4:12). The lesser interpretation, as Alf ord, ' ' Com- plete in your love of others, not one-sided or ex- clusive," has grown out of a fear of giving coun- tenance to the doctrine of human perfectibility. But the passages which require perfection, i. e., completion of character, are numerous and can- not be explained away. God requires perfection of his disciples as the wise teacher continually holds perfection before his pupils ; not condemn- ing those who fall short (see Rom. 8 : i), but not al- lowing them to rest satisfied with incomplete attainment. "The goal is not brought to the racers, but the racers must strive to reach the goal." — (Conder.) Ch. 6:1-34) 7*1-6. THIRD GENEEAL DIVISION.— The principles of life in Christ's Kingdom con- trasted WITH THE PRACTICES OF THE PHARISEES. 1-18. The first eighteen verses of this chapter constitute a warning against the dangers of os- tentation in religion, applied to almngivi7i{j, 2-4 ; prayer, 6-15 ; and fasting, Ki-18. The word almsgiving in the first verse should be ren- dered righteousness (see below), and the verse itself itutee a general precept of which the verses following are particular applications, and consti- tutes, as it were, the text of this portion of the discourse, as do verses 17-20 of chapter 5 of the rest of that chapter. It may be paraphrased thus: I have set before you the nature of thai righteousness of the spirit which the laws of God, as spiritually interpreted, require of you ; I now warn yon to be on your guard lest you fall Into the snare of doing the deeds of your righteous- ness before men for the Bake <>f securing their approval, instead of seeking only the approval of your heavenly Father. 1.1. Fibs! example. Almsgiving. 1. Take heed. For the danger of ostenta- tion in religion is one tli;it musl be watched against, one thai easily ensnares the unwary dis- ciple (compare bod. 98: 18j Drat. 11: It; Matt. 16:41 j l <', T . io: u). Not to do your righteousness. The best manuscripts have here righteon [dixaioavrtj), not alius [iXtijfioavvtj), as in the re- ceived text and in our English version. There is some uncertainty about the reading; that 2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory ot men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. which I have adopted is sustained by Lange, Sehaff, Wordsworth, Alford, Tregelles, Tischen- dorf, Lachmaun, Griesbaeh. To be seen. This qualifies the preceding clause. Not all doing of righteousness before men is condemned, not all public almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, but that the object of which is human applause. "We are to be seen to do good, but not to do good to be seen (g*i. i : io)." — ( Wordsworth.) Otherwise, i. c, as explained below, if your object is human applause. No reward of your Father. Not no reward, but no reward from God. They who do righteousness for public applause receive public applause, i. e., the very reward for which they strive. 2. Therefore. A specific deduction from the general principle. When thou doest alms. There is no question here as to whether almsgiv- ing is or is not a wise form of charity, nor how far it is to be carried ; nor in the sections below are the general questions of prayer and fasting considered. Christ simply takes the three chief "good works" of Pharisaism to illustrate the principle that in our religious life we are to avoid ostentation. Almsgiving, however, is abund- antly enforced as a religious duty both in the Old and the New Testaments. The laws of Moses required provision to be made for the poor (Lev. 19 : 9, 10; 23: 22; Deut. 14 : is, 29 ; 15 : 11 ; 24 : : and the importance of obedience to these pre- cepts is recoirnized elsewhere in the Scriptures (Job 29:13; Ps. 41 : 1 ; 111': 9; Prov. 14 : 8l). The N. T. abounds not less in precepts whose spirit requires charity toward the poor (Luke 14:13; Aits ll : 27-30; 20 : 35; Rom. 15 : 25, 27; 1 Cor. 16 ; 1-4; Gal. 2 ; 10; 1 Tim. 5 : io) ; while at the same time the systematic begging carried on by the mendicant monks finds no sanction in its pages, and we are impliedly guarded against encouraging idlem bs by h criminate giving (s Then. 8 ; 10). Do not sound :i trumpet. " Not that they had trumpets, but in means to display the gp atness of their frenzy by the use of this figure of speech, deriding and making a show of them thereby."- — Chv\ torn.) It was customary to call the people together by a trumpet to see ;i ele (Xumb. 10:3; 8 Kings 9 : 18 ; Pi. 81: 8); and even up to as late a period as the fifth century, when bells were first Introduced in the church I wt re summoned to public worship by the blowing of a trumpet. It is probable the reference is to this custom. It is possible that Mr. Barnes' conjec- ture may be correct, and that the I'harisees really did summon the beggars by the use of a trumpet, blown ostensibly to call them together, Ch. VL] MATTHEW. 99 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Fa- ther, which seeth in secret, himself shall reward r thee openly. 5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are : for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 3 r Luke 8:17; 14 : 14 s Prov. 16:5; Jas. 4 : I really to make public proclamation of the charity about to be bestowed. It is said that the Mus- sulmen to this day are accustomed to call the poor together by a trumpet to receive gifts of rice and other kinds of food. Hypocrites. Literally, stage-player or actor; i. e., one who puts on his religion as an actor puts on his char- acter for the evening's performance. The vir- tues which he assumes as Hamlet and the vices which he represents as Macbeth are not his own. The word is said to be found in a religious sense only in the N. T. Our translation and our habit- ual usage of the word hypocrite deprives the sentence of its keen but delicate satire. They have. Gr. (u/ii/^w), receive in full. In Phil. 4 : 18, "I have all," the verb is the same. Their re- ward. The reward they seek. 3. Let not thy left hand know. Simply a pithy enforcement of the doctrine. Compare with it the Eastern proverb, "If thou doest any good, cast it into the sea ; if the fish shall not know it, the Lord knows it ;" or the rabbinical maxim, "He who gives in secret is greater than Moses himself ;" or the saying of Dryden, " The secret pleasure of a generous act is the great man's great bribe." For illustration of this pre- cept, see Ruth 2 : 15-17. 4. Openly. Not only in the judgment at the last day (iiatt. 25 : 40; Luke 12 : s), but also in the be- stowal of the divine favor, in the recognition of the invisible world now (Hei>. 12 : 1), and some- times in providential disclosures in this "life. See for example the case of Cornelius, Acts 10 : 4, whose secret almsgiving has been published to the whole world. Observe that Christ does not condemn the desire for the approval of others ; but he lifts it up into a higher sphere. Strive, he says, not for the approval of men, whose standard of moral judgment is low, but for the approval of God and his holy angels. "It were not meet for him who desires glory to let go this our theatre, and take in exchange that of men. For who is there so wretched as that when the king was hastening to come and see his achievements, he would let him go, and make up his assembly of spectators of poor men and beggars ? " — (Chrysostom.) In this passage Christ does not forbid public giving which he elsewhere commends (Mark 12 : 44), which the apostles by their example approved and by their words commanded in connection with the services of the early church (Acts 4 : 34, 35; :i : 30; Romans 15 : 26, 27 ; 1 Cor. 16 : 1, 2), but giving for the sake of publicity to be seen of men. It is the spirit of ostentation which our Lord here con- demns, as it is the spirit of purity and love which he has before commended. Neither does he directly condemn all appeals to men to give for the sake of what is expected of them by us ; and Paul based appeals to the Corinthians on this ground (2 Cor. 8 : 24 ; and see that chapter throughout). But all exhibiting charities, whether given with pub- lic announcement in great congregations or with a blazoning forth in the newspapers, are, when bestowed thus publicly in order to be seen and ap- plauded of men, contrary to the spirit of these precepts ; of such givers we may say, as our Lord did, They receive here their full reward. 5-15. Second example. Prayer. The significance of this passage is interpreted by an acquaintance with the prayer customs of the East formerly in existence among the Jews and still among the Mohammedans. The former had eighteen stated prayers which the pious were expected to repeat every day ; a summary of these was composed for those who had not the time or the memory to repeat the fuller forms. Special prayer was given by individual rabbis to their disciples for special occasions. Ejaculations, prayers, and blessings were added, to be repeated on various occasions. Certain set times for prayer were established, which the pious observed, leaving their work and repeating their prayer wherever they chanced to be. Long pauses were added before and after these prayers, so that it was not unfrequent to see a Jewish Rabbi in a praying position for three hours to- gether. In their liturgies they repeated over and over again the same petition in slightly dif- ferent phraseology ; and it was a proverb with them, "Every one that multiplies prayer is heard." The same practices still exist among the Mohammedans. The rules for daily and es- pecial prayer are prescribed with a most minute detail. Five daily canonical prayers are pre- scribed ; they must be uttered at the appointed time, wherever the Mussulman may chance to be, whether in the mosque, the market-place, or the house ; each prayer must be repeated a pre- scribed number of times and in a prescribed pos- ture ; any failure in the slightest particular ruins the whole, and the prayer must be repeated again from the beginning. Notwithstanding Christ's precepts, the same ritualism was introduced into the Christian church. In the fourth century seven times of devotion were required to be ob- 100 MATTHEW. [Ch. VI, 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father, which secth in se- cret,' shall reward thee openly. 7 Hut when ye pray, use not vain repetitions," as the heathen do : for they think that they shall be heard for* their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them : for your Fa- ther knoweth" what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. t Ps. 34 : 15 ; Isa. 65 : 24. . . .u Ecc. 5:2 v 1 Kings 18 : 26, etc w Lute 12 : 30 ; John 16 : 88-27. served at least by all the clergy and members of religious bodies ; prayers were appointed to be 6aid and Psalms to be repeated for each hour ; and to such an extent was the ritualism carried, that if the entire service were observed, it would have required nearly the whole twenty -four hours. These canonical hours of prayer are still maintained by the religious devotees of the Ro- man Catholic church. 5. Standing. This was not in itself a sign of ostentation ; it was a common attitude of prayer v l Sam. 1 : 26 ; 1 Kings 8 : 22). It is UOt the Standing, but standing in public places, which Christ con- demns ; and this not as an act, but as an indica- tion of an ostentatious spirit. Synagogues. As with the Roman Catholic the cathedral, and with the Moslem the mosque, so with the Jews the synagogue stood open for purposes of prayer. G. Closet. Sometimes in the women's apart- ments, sometimes over the porch or on a part of the roof, is a room in most Oriental houses, from which all are excluded except the women, their domestics, and the master of the house. This was, perhaps, the inner chamber referred to in 1 Kings SO : 30 and 22 : 25, and the closet referred to here and in Matt. 21 : 26 ; Luke 12 : :i. The true significance of these verses is lost if they arc m ide a rule for the regulation of times or places of prayer. The whole gist of the caution is in the words, "that they may be ween of men.' 1 '' If one makes an ostentation of his secret prayer, he violates the spirit of this law ; if he prays in public places, but In secrecy of li md feeling, he obeys its. spirit. Cer- t ly Christ does not condemn public prayer, nor even all private prayer in public places; at 1 .i t his own disciples did not so understand him, for they went to the Temple to pray (Acts :: : i i. The habit of employing the church place of private prayer, anivi real Id the Roman Catholic church, and borrowed by thai church from the Ea t, probably grew out of the Eacl the worshippers had oot, and many of them oot, any privacy at home. To such the church Is the closet. Compare Luk i i : 10 Cor an Instance Id which it was a closel to the publican and b public place to the Phar- isee There may c\vn be cases in which il be- comes a , but is simply employed as a ve- 102 hiclc for the expression of his real desires. Our Father. Observe the significance of the word our. "IIow can we look round upon the people whom we habitually feel to be sepa- rated from us, those of an opposite faction, or whom we have reason to despise, or who have made themselves vile and are helping to make others vile, and then teach ourselves to think that in the very highest exercise of our lives they are associated with us, that when we pray we are praying for them and with them, that if we do not carry their sins to the throne of God's grace we cannot carry our own?" — {Condensed from Maurice on the Lord's Prayer.) So Chrysostom, referring to the use of the plural number throughout (see Ttr».a ii, ii and is), deduces the doctrine that, whether we pray alone or in com- mon with others, we are always to pray for our brethren. To the same effect Augustine : "The Prayer is fraternal ; he does not say ' My Father,' but 'Our Father.'" The Fatherhood of God does not here appear for the first time. Some traces of it are to be found in the O. T. (isa. 1 : sj 63:16; Mai. 1:b). The simile was not unknown in heathen religions. Among the North American Indians the Great Spirit was sometimes known as the "Father and Mother of Life." In the Hymns of the Vedas, of the Hindoos, he is act- ed sometimes as "Father." In the Zend- Avesta, i le Persian sacred writings, is an appeal to him "who was from the beginning the Father of the pure creatures." In Plato's Timsens is a reference to "the supreme God, Father and Maker of all things." And Plutarch both em- bodies and interprets the symbol in the declara- tion, "Since, therefore, the world is neither I a piece of potter's work nor joiner's work, but there is a great share of life and divinity in it, which God himself communicated to and mixed with matter, God may properly be called Father of the world." But in all heathen use of this 1 ol, so far as I have been able to discover, the Idea involved is not parental 1<>i<', or pa t.ii care, but simply production ». d begetting, God is represented as the Father, nol particu- larly of humanity but of all life, because all comes forth from him. The Bame in 1 1 • • f" under- laid even the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, who personified the producing powers of nature, hi tlie person of a male, the other in the person of a female. But nowhere In literature, outside of tin- Bible, and that, which has lucii Inspired by the Bible, Is lo be found a recognition of the truth that I he relation of a father to his child, and the government of a father over his child, that is, the governmenl of a personal, providing, sympathizing love, Is the best symbol for the In- terpretation of the relations between God ami . EV6H the early father.- would 001 allow any but communicants to use this passage, be- MATTHEW. [OH. VI cause "no one that was not baptized could pre- sume to say 'Our Father which art in heaven.' " — (Theodoret, quoted in Bingham'' 6 Antiquities. 10 : 5.) And some relic of this idea lingers in modern theology. Yet that there is a peculiar sense in which those are the children of God who have been adopted into the household of faith through Jesus Christ, is implied in such passages as Rom. 8 : 14 ; Gal. 3 : 20 ; 1 John 8:1. For practical deductions from this truth see Gal. 4 : ti ; Ephes. 5:1; 2 Pet. 1 : 4 ; 1 John 8 : 10 ; 5:1. Which art in heaven. The abode of the blessed, which is generally represented in the Bible as in the heavens. The Bible, while it recognizes and teaches the omnipresence of God, teaches also, and nowhere more clearly thai; here, his proper personality. We are not, how- ever, to conclude from this or other parallel pa- sages (e. g.,Fs. 116:8; In. 67:16; 66: l) that God less, in any proper sense of the term, a local habita- tion; on the contrary, while it sometimes pie tures him to our thought as in the heavens, in order to give deliniteness to our conception, it also declares that he dwells in the hearts of the Contrite and humble (isa. 57 : 15 ; compare John 1 1 : and that no place is without his presence irsaim 139 : 7-10). Contrast with the spirit of this opening address of our Lord's Prayer the modern phil- osophy which declares that "God is the highest dream of which the human soul is capable," of that he is " an Inscrutable Power," whose " na- ture transcends intuition and is beyond imagina- tion," and whose mode of being may "transcend Intelligence and Will.'' Let any one who wishes to contrast modern philosophy and the religion of Jesus essay a prayer to "The Inscrutable Power," or "The Infinite," or "The Ultimate I the "Uncondition.il," the common appellations which rationalism employs. Hallowed be thy name. At first it i seem this should be a commandment ad- dressed to us rather than a prayi My us. In truth, however, the whole prayer Is an amplification of this. God's name is hallowed, honored, lifted up for wor.-hip and adoration, just in the measure in which his kingdom comes, his will is done, his providential care and his for- giving Kindness is manifested among men. The highesl appeal we can make to him is for his own name's sake, for his great mercy'i Bake, or for Jesus' sake, which Is, in fact, the same thing ' r J :«j winj Mi ■. i'-: •*:»»). To sup- pose thai we are required to begin every prayer with an ascription Of pral S to God is entirely to miss the meaning. Bui underlying every true prayer is the deep wish, born of a Bupreme and filial love for God, thai In all that he does for as, and enables us to do, his name may be hallowed. We come into the true spirit of prayer Only KB, in all our praying, his name is in our thought Ch. VI.] MATTHEW. 103 ii Give us this day our 1 daily bread : 12 And forgive us our debts, e as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into f temptation, but deliver us» from evil : For thine b is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. d Prov. 30 : 8 ; Isa. 33 : 16 e ch. 18 : 21-35 ; Luke 7 : 40-48 f ch. 26 : 41 ; Luke 22 : 40, 46 g John 17 .h Rev. 5 : 12, 13. above every name, and we have the desire to see it everywhere so recognized. 10. Thy kingdom come, (see on Matt. 3 : 2.) Here the kingdom of God means all that the words in all their applications involve ; the per- fect obedience and allegiance of all created beings to the will and word of God. Thy will be done — respecting us, in God's providential dealings (Luke 22 : 42 ; Acts 21 : m); by us, in our daily life (John 6 : 38 ; 17 : is ; Ephes. 6:6.); in us, by the con- formity of our character to the divine image (John 17 : 23 ; Rom. 12:2; Col. 4 : 12 ; 1 Thess. 4 : 3). Ob- Serve that this is much more than a mere sub- mission to the will of God. It is not "Give us such and such things, nevertheless thy will be done." This petition stands first in the prayer as it should stand first in our hearts ; the ex- pression of the pre-eminent desire of our souls that God's will, not our own, may be accom- plished, and that ours may be made subject to it. In heaven. Not among the heavenly bodies, though the. perfect conformity of the stars to the divine law may serve as an illustration of that perfect obedience for which we are to look and pray, but in the spiritual heavens. "Not by blind agents, but by intelligent, spiritual crea- tures ; by wills which might have fallen but which stood in holy, cheerful obedience." — (Maurice.) 11. Our daily bread. There is some diffi- culty in translating the Greek word rendered in our version daily. The better opinion appears to be that it signifies not daily but necessary for our sustenance. It is, then, a prayer simply for suffi- cient bread to satisfy our real wants, and receives an interpretation from Paul's exhortation, "hav- ing food and raiment, let us be therewith con- tent" (i Tim. c:s). The word translated bread (aoroc) is said to stand generally for food, and by Mr. Barnes to denote everything necessary to sustain life. Tet literally it signifies only bread, and the fact that this word is used, and not one of the more general ones (i^v>uu or toocptj) translated respectively meat and food, is an indi- cation of the simplicity which should characterize our earthly desires, and our petitions for their satisfaction. The ancient commentators con- sidered that the term bread, as here used, signi- fies food for the soul as well as food for the body, and some of them even referred it directly to the body of Christ, and from it framed an ar- gument for the daily celebration of the Lord's Supper. But the word bread (uqzov) is never used in the N. T. to signify anything but mate- rial food, except in cases where the context clearly indicates a purely metaphorical use, as in John, ch. 6, where Christ employs it emblemati- caUy, but distinguishes spiritual from material food by such phrases as "bread from heaven," or "true bread," or "bread of life." We are to take the words of Scripture in the sense in which the speaker or writer would have expected his audience or readers to have taken them, except where he himself gives a different interpretation, or peculiar circumstances compel the belief that he was willing to be misunderstood for the time ; and it is very clear from John 6 : 34 (compare John 4 : 15, and Mark 8 : 15, 10', that the disciples WOUld not have understood this passage in a spiritual sense. This petition is not, then, a prayer for a supply of all our wants ; so to interpret it is to lose its significance. It is our warrant for carry- ing to God owe physical wants. The lowest and most annual of them all, hunger, is taken be- cause that includes by necessary implication all the rest ; and the limits on our right of petition, so to speak, are given in the fact that we are taught to pray for just so much bread as is neces- sary day by day for our sustenance, leaving aL the future in God's hands. He who can be con- tent with to-day's loaf, and trust the morrow wholly to God, has learned the spirit of this prayer as interpreted by verses 25-34 below. 12. And forgive us. The Greek word translated forgive is the same translated left in Matt. 4 : 50, 22 ; sent away in ch. 13 : 36 ; Mark 4 : 36 ; put away in 1 Cor. 7 : 11, 12. I refer to these passages to give the English reader an idea of the primary meaning of the word, which is to send away, dismiss, set free. The Bible idea of forgiveness is not merely a remission of penalty or an absence of vengeance, but an absolute put- ting away of the sins, so that he who is wronged remembers them no more against the wrong- doer, and he who has done the wrong carries them no more in his memory as a burden. It is interpreted by such passages as Isa. 1 : 18 ; 43 : 25 ; Micah 7 : 19 ; John 1 : 29 ; and by the annual ceremony among the ancient Jews of binding the sins of the nation upon the scape-goat, and send- ing them away into the wilderness (Lev. 16 : 21, 22). But these symbols are not satisfied by a mere literal forgetting of the transgression ; on the contrary, it is clear from Matt. 5 : 44 that we a:- • often to remember the wrong we have suffered that we may repay it by love, and from Paul's experience (1 Tim. 1 : 12-n), the wrong we have done that we may augment our love to Ilim who 104 MATTHEW. [On. VI. has forgiven us. As. Not merely inasmuch as, or because, but literally as, i. e., in the manner in which we forgive. As elsewhere the Bible makes the divine forgiveness a type and model for us in the forgiveness of personal wrong, so here we are required to make our forgiveness interpret to God the forgiveness which we ask from him (compare Ephes. 4:32; Col. 3: 13 ). If any Christian is perplexed by the question — How does Christ's law of forgiveness require that I should feel toward him who has wronged me ? he may an- swer it by another question — How do I wish Christ to feel toward me '? Debts — debtors. Sins are compared to debts because they repre- sent all that duty and love which we owe to him but have never by our past lives paid, all that in which we have come short of the glory of God. Not merely our positive sins need forgiveness, 1 -ut our failures as children and servants of God to fulfill the mission in life he lays upon us. So the phrase "our debtors" includes not only those who owe us confession and reparation for positive wrong-doing, but also all those who are in a more literal sense our debtors, all who in the common walks of life have come short of their duty to us. As we treat, not merely our ene- mies, but our children, our servants, our em- ployees, all who are under obligations of service to us, so we may expect God to treat us ; as we are willing he should exact of us, we may exact of them. Observe, the prayer assumes that we have forgiven and do habitually forgive or re- lease. If we understand this as a mere rule of prayer we miss its meaning; the whole relates to the spirit rather than to the form of prayer, and this petition is interpreted by eh. 5 : 23, 21. 13. Lead us not into temptation. More strictly and properly, trial; i. c., experiences that try the character. The term is general, but it includes those experiences that in- volve temptation to sin. Though God never tempts any man, that is, never solicits him to evil (.run. -3 1 : 13), yet he orders our life and de- cides what shall be the measure of its trials and temptations U Cor.l0:18; compare Job 1 : 12; 2: 6). Directly contrary to the spirit of this prayer is the temper which courts trial for the sake of displaying to others or to one's self the strength of resistance; the temper which twice led Peter into presumption end consequent danger (\i.at. i4:S8-8 I ■ accordant e \\ ii b the spirit which, when God's providence does bring us into temptation, boldly faces it, and, by faith in him, Vanquishes it, and even rejoice- in the Conflict and Hie Victory (compare Jam. « 1:9; 1:71. Observe the spirit with which Christ met the tempter In the wilderness, and observe thai it Is after that experience of temptation thai he Instructs his disciples to include this petition in their prayer. To lead into temptation is not equivalent to bringing under the power of temp- tation ; God never does that. Deliver us from the evil one. Not merely evil, either in the moral or the physical sense ; but the devil, the author of all temptation. Compare with this petition Christ's prayer for us (juim u ■. is). For thine is the kingdom, etc. There is consid- erable doubt whether this doxology was not added subsequently, when the prayer came into use as a liturgy. This appears to be the opinion of the best scholars, among whom may be men- tioned Teschendorf, Wordsworth, Alford, Bloom- field, Lange. On the other hand, Chrysostom comments on it without any apparent doubt of its authenticity. For a statement of the argu- ments for and against it, see note by Dr. Schaff in Lange on Matthew, Addenda, 5G7. It grounds the entire petition on the royalty of God, being an appeal of a subject to his Lord and King ; on the power of God, being an appeal of weak- ness to One mighty and able to help (compare 8:2); and on the honor and good name of God (compare End. ss : ii, 12), our victory over the evil one be- ing not to our glory, but to God's (compare 5 : ic ; 1 IVt. 3 : 12; Ephes. 2 : S-lo). The commentators have undertaken to ana- lyze the Lord's Prayer, to divide it into sec- tions, to trace in it a parallel to the Ten Com mandments on the one hand, and to the beatitudes on the other, and even to find in its arrangement an evidence of the doctrine of the Trinity, all of which the reader will find at some length in Lange's Commentary. To me this all seems quite foreign to a prayer whose beauty is its perfect simplicity. The best analysis is the quaint one which Matthew Henry affords : "This prayer, as indeed every prayer, is a let- ter from earth to heaven. Here is the inscrip- tion, Our Father ; the place, in heaven; the con- tents, in the several errands ; the close, for thiru i< tin' kingdom; the seal, Am: ,i ; and, if \ on will, the date too, this dug." More important to study than any analysis of this prayer is the spirit which breathes through it all, and which it is its chief object to inculcate. It approaches God not with fear and awe, but with childlike confi- dence ; it finds him not hard to be entreated; its petitions arc framed in the simplest possible forms; it is humble, without being groveling; submissive, without being abjed ; earnest, with- out being clamorous. We have in Christ's his- tory two records of prayer offered by him (Matt. , is, 44 and John, on. i"». The same spirit breathes in his example as in his precept. The true >ie,- olflcance of both is Interpreted by the contrast which is afforded in the prayers of the prophets pi Baal (l King. 18 : 96). Alas! that so much of public prayer should conform more to the ex- ample of tin' heathen prophets than to that of JeSUS of Nazareth. Ch. VI.] MATTHEW. 105 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father torgive your trespasses.' 16 Moreover, when }'e fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance : for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men-* to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, r.nd wash thy face ; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret : and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon k earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal : 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in- heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal : 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye :™ if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light : 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole bod} - shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ! 24 No man can serve two masters : n for either he i Eph. 4 : 31 j Jas. 2 : 13. 14, 15. Compare 18 : 23-35, and 5 : 7, and ref- erences there. "He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass him- self ; for every man has need to be forgiven." — (Lord Herbert.) 16-18. Third example. Fasting. For a gen- eral discussion of the question whether fasting is appropriate under the Christian dispensation, and for some information respecting Jewish fasts, see Matt. 9 : 14, 15, and notes. 16. Disfigure their faces. By leaving them unwashed and by covering them with ashes (Es- ther 4:3; Job 2 : 8 ; Lam. 3:16; Dan. 9:3; Jonah 3:6). This use of ashes, which, with sackcloth, had been at first a symbol of mourning, and was its nat- ural expression in an age and among a people who gave expression to feeling by symbolic acts rather than by words, had been perverted by the Pharisees, and they employed the symbols of mourning without the real sorrow which alone gave the symbol significance. They for- bade all washing or anointing of the body dur- ing fasting ; and it was a rabbinical proverb, "Whoever makes his face black in this world, God shall make his face to shine in the world to come." The spirit of Christ's precept forbids not merely disfiguring of the person, but all simulating of feeling of sorrow, and impliedly of any feeling, for the purpose of appearing unto men to possess it. Compare, on the spirit of true fasting, Isaiah 58 : 3-7. 19-34. Further contrast of Pharisaism and the Christian religion. From a rebuke of the ostentation of Pharisa- ism Christ passes to a rebuke of its spirit of greed. The two vices generally accompany each Other (Matt. 23 : 14; compare Luke 16 : 14). Through this discourse Christ does not merely nor chiefly re- buke the wrong, but points out a more excellent way ; so here, from a mere condemnation of greed (19-23), he proceeds to set forth the. prin- ciple upon which and the spirit in which his dis- ciples are to solve the problem presented by the twofold demands which this life makes on the body and the higher life makes on the soul (24-34). For a paraphrase of the passage and a consideration of its general significance, see note below. 19. Treasure not for yourselves treas- ures. All laying in store is not forbidden ; but hoarding ; i. e. , the accumulation of wealth as our treasure in which our heart is. Compare, for an illustration of the spirit forbidden, Luke 12 : 16-21. Where moth and rust. The first reason for not laying up our treasures upon earth. All such treasures are transient ; they are liable to be taken from us, and we are certain to be taken from them (Prov. 23 : 5; 1 Tim. 6 : 7, S ; compare also Eccies. 5 : 10 ; 6:2). One of the most common forms of riches in the East was garments, which were liable to moth ( Josh. 7 : 21 ; 2 Kings 5 : 22 ; compare James 5 : 2, 3). Rust. The Greek word would be more literally rendered "eating" and it is so translated in 1 Cor. 8:4. It signifies here the whole corro- sive influence of time, " which eats into and con- sumes the fairest and the best-protected posses- sions." 20. But treasure up for yourselves treas- ures in heaven. Compare Luke 12 : 33. How? By charity administered as unto Christ (Matt. 25 : 40 ; 1 Tim. 6 : 18, 19) ; by spiritual labors for others (james 5 : 19, 20) ; by personal growth in grace (2 Peter 1 : 5-ll). 21-23. The second reason for not hoarding ; its corrupting influence on the soul. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The heart is, in Scripture, used for the seat and centre of man's life, especially the de- sires and aspirations, out of which are the issues of life (Prov. 4 : 23). If we amass our treasures on earth, our desires and aspirations, and so our life, will be of the earth earthy. 22, 23. The light of the body is the eye. If thine eye be clear, thy who'.e body shall be full of iight; but if thine eye be diseased, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. What the eye is to the body, the heart, not the intellect, is to the soul. If the heart be pure, we see God and heavenly things, and take hold on the truth, and are made right- eous (Matt. 5:8; Rom. io : lo) ; if it be corrupt, all is corrupt (Matt. 12 : 33, 35; 15 : 19), and the very power 10G MATTHEW. [Oh. VI. will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot" serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore 1 say unto you, Take no thought? for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet lor your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the fife more than meat, and the body than raiment ? 26 Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yi t your heavenly Father' feedeth them. Are ye not much bet- ter than they ? 27 Which i'f you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider Gal. 1 : 10 ; 2 Tim. 4:10; Jas. 4:4 pi Cor. 7 : 32 ; PhU. 4 : C q Job 38 : 41 ; Luke 12 : 24, etc. of moral and spiritual discernment is abated and finally destroyed ; for the soul which begins by practically disregarding spiritual truths, ends by losing the power of perceiving them (1 Cor. 2 : 14). If the light be darkness, etc. If that which is intended to be the light of the soul be dark- ened, in what total darkness will the whole soul be plunged? " When the pilot is drowned and the candle is put out, and the general is taken prisoner, what sort of hope will there be after that for those that are under command." — (Chrysostom.) See Luke 11 : 34r-36, note. 24. The connection appears to be this : Not only you must not make it your object to accu- mulate your treasures on earth ; you cannot have two objects and two treasures, one on the earth end one in heaven. Serve. Literally, be the slave of, belong to. Evidently one may serve two masters if one is subordinate to the other, as Live serves both the overseer and the owner, or the soldier both the captain and the colonel. He who keeps the world always in subordination to the Lord obeys this precept ; he who attempts to below) to both contravenes it. Ma in 111 on. A I iyriac origin, meaning riches. It has boon said to be the name of an idol worshipped as tlii' god of riches. But this assertion rests on ler authority and is probably incorrect. Ob- serve that in this passage Christ does not con- demn the possession of riches, but the serving of them; mid the. poor and successful man may re, while the rich man may master wealth, lie thai serves riches labor.; for them ; be who is t r master of riches knows bow to make them labor for him, and through him for others. "Job was rich, but he served not mammon, but possessed it and ruled over it, and was master, not slave." — {Chrysostom.) (sei Jobw: n-is). 2~t. Therefore. The whole of the following VI PSefl to the end of the chapter are :i deduction verse Mi. and arc to be interpreted accord ingly. i say onto you. See on 5 : is. Here this expression is the seal of a divine promise which underlies all that follows. Take no thong • e original Greekword Bignifle b divi ion of 1, end. The command la literally, "be nol divided la - icting your life." It Hoi J foil llj from the prohibition of the preceding verse, against serv- ing God and mammon, and I sads naturally tol 1 of the whole, 'Seek iir.-t the king- dom of God and bis righteousness "(v. 33). See note at close of chapter. The word thought has the significance of anxiety in old English. Lord Bacon speaks of one who "died with thought and anguish." Compare, for similar use, 1 Sain. 9:5. Is not the life, etc. First reason for not being anxious. Our anxiety is about matters of trivial importance. As the life is more than meat which serves it, and the body than raiment which clothes it, so the soul is more than either ; for both life and body exist ODly for the devel- opment of the soul. But our anxieties are not for the soul, but only about the outer things, the mere food and raiment. This appears to me to be the meaning, not, as most of the commenta- tors interpret it, God, who has given you life, will much more give you food. Compare Matt, 10:38. 2G. Behold the fowls of the air. fl reason for //<>/ In in;/ anxious, viz. : our Father's care for us, as illustrated in his care of the birds. Compare with this Psalm 101, especially 10-12, 21, 27, 28. It is very evident from our Lord's il- lustration that he does not forbid foresighl and provision for the future. For though the birds neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet while winter storms linger afar off theyfon the evil, 1 1 1 by their flight into southern climes guard themselves against it; and when spring comes, they provide beforehand for the little ones yel to come, the father foraging in the fields and the mother plucking from her own bosom the down to furnish for them a resting-place. Rightly considered, therefore, there is nothing in this verse inconsistent with wise forethought, nothing to conflict with the lesson from the ant drawn in Prov. : G-S. Chrysostom, and, fol- lowing him, Alford, notice that Christ does no1 say we must not sow, nor reap, but thai we must not be distracted and anxious. The illustration is an argument from the less to the greater, anal- ogous to the argument in Luke is : 1-T, from tin' unjust judge to the just (iod. If the birds, incapable of Bowing, reaping, Btoring, arc cared for in the way <■ its to them, how much more wid you be cared for in tie w a\ of your duty, to whom God gives the capacity of fore- thought and the means of providing for tutu re ae- . Much better. Bather of more value (,!,. i,. : -i . It is noi that we ore better, mon Uy, than the birds, and BO more deserving of I father's Ch. VI.] MATTHEW. 107 the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? 31 Therefore take no thought,' saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. r Ps. 37 : 3 ; 55 : 22 ; 1 Pet. 5 : 7. care, but of a higher order, to whom suffering is sharper and life larger and grander, and to whom, therefore, the divine care is more important, and for and in whom it will produce more important results. 27. Which of you by thought can add to his age one cubit. A third reason for not being anxious; viz., the uselessness of anx- iety. A cubit is equivalent to about a foot and a half in length. It would be not a small but a very considerable addition to a man's height. The word here translated stature is rendered age in John 9 : 21, 23. This would better convey the meaning here. Measures of space are sometimes employed by a metaphor in estimates of life (see for example Psalm 39 : 5). The idea, then, here is that anxiety and care do nothing to lengthen out the duration of life ; and this is in truth the object of all our solicitude. 28, 29. Consider the lilies of the field. This whole series of illustrations is an incidental enforcement of the truth that nature is full of unobserved lessons for us, an incidental appeal to us to study nature for the ascertainment of her moral and spiritual meaning (compare Job 12 : 7, s). The lilies of the field. Several flowers have been suggested as answering to the lily of the field. Dr. Thompson's Land and Book describes one of these, the Huleh lily. "It is very large, and the three inner petals meet above and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approached and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. And when I met this incomparable flower, in all its loveliness, among the oak woods arouud the northern base of Tabor and on the hills of Nazareth, where our Lord spent his youth, I felt assured that it was this to which he re- ferred." It seems quite as likely that no special flower was intended, but that the language is general for wild flowers. These of the most brilliant hue — lilies, daisies, anemones, wild tu- lips and poppies — abound in the Holy Land. Solomon in all his glory, etc. Solomon represented to the Jewish mind the ideal of re- gal magnificence (sec 1 Kings, ch. 10). In two respects this declaration is literally true ; first, because hi3 glory was external, a glory put on, while that of the flower is its own, being developed from within ; second, because the beauty of the most perfect fabric is imperfect and shows itself rough and coarse under the microscope, while the beauty of the flower has no imperfection, but, on the contrary, discloses under the microscope glories unseen by the naked eye. These verses indicate a fourth reason for not being anxious and troubled about earthly needs. Our worry and anx- iety are for the most part not for the food and clothing which is necessary for our life and usefulness, but for the means to equal or sur- pass our neighbors in display ; and yet, with all our striving, the wild flowers of the field sur- pass us. 30. The grass of the field * * * cast into the oven. Weeds and grass were and still are used in the East as fuel. Ovens were construct- ed in various ways : som'etimes of earth ; some- times a pit, lined with cement, served the pur- pose ; sometimes baking was done simply on stones heated by fire previously kindled on them, the oven here mentioned was a large round pot of earthen or other materials, two or three feet high, narrow towards the top. This being first heated by a fire made within, the dough or paste was spread upon the sides to bake, thus forming their cakes. In all these cases the fuel was cast into the oven, and when the oven was sufficiently heated, was raked out again to make room for the bread, after the manner in vogue in the use of the old brick oven. The verse recurs to the underlying reason for not being anxious ; God who cares for birds and flowers much more cares for us his children. Oh ye of little faith. He cares even for the untrusting (2 Tim. 2 -. 13). 31-31. These verses sum up the conclusion of Christ's warning against greed and its con- comitant care. 32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. An additional argument, in- terpolated by Christ in his summing up. If you are as anxious and concerned about food and raiment as the heathen, how are you any better Off than they (compare chap 5 : 46, 47 ) V 33. Seek ye first. Not in order of time merely, but in order of importance. Interpret this command by verse 24. The kingdom of God (sje on Matt. 3 : »). RighteOUSlieSS (s2e on Matt. 5:6). And all these things. All what things ? Not an accumulation of food and rai- ment ; piety is not a short road to wealth ; but all of those things of which your heavenly Father knoivs you have need ; i. c, enough day by day to supply daily need. The promise is interpreted by David's testimony (Psalm 37 : 25), and by Paul's experience and assurance (Phil. 4 : 11, 19). So in- 100 MATTHEW. [Cn. VI. 3-3 But seek ye first' the kingdom of God, an 1 his righteousness, and all these things shall be added 1 unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall take thought lor the things of itself." Sufficient unto the da)- is the evil thereof. , 1 Tim. 4:8 t Lev. 26 : 20, 21 ; 1 Kings 3 : 13; Ps. 37 : 25 ; Mark 10 : 30. ...u Deut. 33 : 25 ; 1Kb. 13 : 5, 6. terpreted, life proves it true ; those that give themselves wholly to God's service often live in poverty, but they rarely or never suffer for want of necessary food and raiment. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. That is, the future will bring not only its own trouble, but also with it the grace that is needed to bear it, or the guidance that is needed to escape it (Deut. 33 . 25 j 1 Cor. 10 : 18 : Heb. 13 : 6 . Sufficient Ullto the day is the evil thereof. "Every day brings its own troubles, and to anticipate is but to double them." — (David Brown.) This verse indicates the line between the forethought that is a duty and the care that is a sin. Forethought considers a future possible ill only in so far as it is necessary to determine present duty. Care brings, by imagination, the possible evil from the future, and iuilicts it on us here and uow. NOTE ON CHRIST'S TEACHING RESPECTING CARE (vs. 19-34). The general significance of this passage may b3 indicated perhaps by a Paraphrase. — Do not make it your object to ac- cumulate treasures on the earth, because all such treasures are transitory, and the life which is devoted to accumulating them darkens and destroys the soul. Nor think to divide your energies, and to devote a part to God's service and a part to the accumulation of wealth. This you cannot do. You must choose your master, and serve him with single devotion. Having chosen God, do not allow your life to be distracted by the ambition for wealth, or by fears respecting the future. This is folly ; for your soul alone is worthy of your care. It is needless ; for your heavenly Father, who feeds the birds, will care for you. It is useless ; for with all your worry you cannot prolong your life. It is wasted energy ; for it is spent, in truth, not on satisfying the real necessities of the body, but on vicing in display with others, and the highest success leaves you at last inferior to the wild flowers of the field. It is unchristian ; for he who is guilty of it is in so far no better off than the heathen who know of no heavenly Father on whom they can cast their cares. God, your heavenly Father, knows what is Decessary for you and will pro- vide it. You have only to do day by day your daily duly, making the sole object of your life to promote in your own heart ami in the hearts of others, allegiance to him, and attending faith- fully to each day's cares and duties, sure that the present duty is all that God means you to perform, and thai with to-morrow's problems will come grace and wisdom for their Bolntion. A fair and reasonable interpretation ol Christ's words doe- qoI forbid forethought or provision for the future, as is evident from, tirst, the gen- eral significance <>f the whole passage if read as it should be together, no1 dissected into separate and Independent precepts; second, from the very illustrations employed, particularly that of the birds (v. w), who do exercise forethought, and from the express declaration that v., have needs which God recognizes (v. 32), and for which as they arise we are to provide fV. ?a) ; third, from the example of Christ himself, who appointed a treasurer of his little band of disciples, provided a bag with money to meet their simple wants, and carried provisions on their journeys (.Matt. u:i7; joimi2:6; 13:29); fourth, from other pre- cepts and examples in the Bible (Gen. «: 88-86; Ephcs. 4:28; 1 Tim. 5 : 8; an.! :ii i compare Pi ■ . i"> : 6 with ch. 22:3). It is clear, on the other hand, that it does forbid, as essentially unchristian, all mak- ing of acquisition and accumulation of wealth the object of life, and all attempt to divide the mind between two objects, one the promotion of the divine life in ourselves and others, the other the accumulation of wealth, or the vieing with others in external signs of earthly prosperity. This is alike forbidden by the general tenor of this passage, by the example of Christ, and by Other biblical precepts (compote especially Luke 12 : 10-21 ; Col. 3:2; Heb. 13 : 5, irnen conTemttoa means "course of life"; l John 2: 16). In brief, Ihis passage offers a cure of care by forbidding its real cause, a divided heart and life, and by pointing to the true rem- edy, moderate desires and trust in God for their gratification, That the original verb translated "take no though! " bears the significance I have given it throughout these notes, is agreed to by all the commentators. " No thought," says Mr. Barnes, "means no anxiety." "Take DO thought," Bays Alford, "does not express the sense, but gives rather an ex iggeration of the Command, and this makes it unreal and Dugatory. •"■ It is, He not anxious, ; it sea tossed about between hope and fear." "Our Lord," says Wordsworth, "does not forbid provident forethought, bui he forbids anxious, restless, distrustful solicitude ab ml earthly things." Oh. VIL] MATTHEW 109 CHAPTER VII. JUDGE" not. that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged ; and with what measure ye mete, w it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why behoklest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye ? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye ; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam" out of thine own eye ; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. 6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither? cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Luke 6: 37; Rom. 2:1; 1 Cor. 4 : 5....W Judges 1 : 7....X Gal. 6 : l....y Prov. 9 : 7, 8 ; 23 : 1-6. The censoriousness of Pharisaism re- buked. These verses continue the contrast be- tween the principles which must actuate Christ's disciples and those which do actuate the Pharisees. Censoriousness is the common accompaniment of a self-righteous spirit (Luke 7 : 39 ; 18 : 11), and against that spirit these verses are directed, except the last, which is a qualification of the general pre- cept of the first verse. 1. Judge not. See, on the meaning of this verse, note below. 2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. Firstly, by ourselves, be- cause by judging others we condemn ourselves, being guilty of the same sins, not necessarily in form, but in spirit (Rom. 2 : 1) ; secondly, by our fellow-men, for men habitually judge leniently those that exercise lenient judgments, and se- verely those that judge severely (Lute 6 : 37, 3s) ; and rightly, because he who customarily suspects the motives of others thereby testifies to the ground of his suspicion, which is the consciousness of evil motives in himself ; and thirdly, by God, who will at the last judge us severely if we have so judged our fellow-men (jamea 2 ; 13). And with what measure, etc. In Mark 4 : 24 the same aphorism is employed and the same princi- ple is applied to those that impart truth to others ; and in Luke : 38 to all beneficence. It may here be equivalent to "the standard by which you measure others, they will use in measuring you ;" but it is more probable that it is the amplification of a general principle, that Luke's report is fuller, and that it is as if Christ had said, As you judge you shall be judged, in accordance with the gen- eral and universal principle that as you give to others they will give to you, charity for charity, severity for severity, generosity for generosity, niggardliness for niggardliness. 3. And why beholdest thou, seeing it from without, — the mote, — the lesser fault, — in thy brother's eye, and eonsiderest not, — by weighing well from within, — the beam, — the larger fault, in thyself? Our own faults ought to be to us beams ; our neighbor's faults should be but motes. In our common estimates the re- verse is the case ; we magnify the faults of others and palliate our own. So runs the old proverb : Men carry their own sins on their back and those of their neighbors bsfore. But besides this, the spirit which rejoiceth in iniquity is always a beam, generally a more flagrant violation of the spirit of love (1 cor. 13 : 5) than the sin over which it rejoices and which it condemns. 4. Or how wilt thou say. The preceding verse asserts that the Christian spirit will lead us to consider more carefully our own faults than those of our neighbor ; this and the next asserts that we cannot cure our neighbor's faults except in a spirit of humility, because of our own. It is interpreted by Gal. 6:1. In the rab- binical books is this saying : "If any one says to another, ' Take out the mote from thine eye, ' he will be answered, ' Take out the beam from thine own.' " If this was really a proverb in the time of Christ, he gives it a new significance and di- rection. From a mere expression of the spirit which resents reproof, it becomes a direction to him who would administer reproof. Victory over evil in ourselves can alone give the clearness of moral vision necessary to perceive, and the sympathy necessary to eradicate, evils from our neighbors. 5. Hypocrite. Every man who pretends to zeal in reform, but is zealous only to reform his neighbor, but indifferent respecting himself, is but a pretender — a hypocrite, though sometimes a self-deceived hypocrite. Shalt thou see clearly. He that rids himself of the spirit of censoriousness and seeks to discern the good and not the evil in his neighbor, is prepared to help him to get rid of the evil. It is not the spirit of criticism, but the spirit of charity, which is cura- tive. Before he had only beheld the mote ; now he sees to cast it out. " The beholding was vain and idle ; the seeing clearly is for a blessed end, viz. : (is : 15) to gain thy brother." — (Alford.) Of Judging our Fellow-men.— This passage has given rise to much difficulty from failing to note the proper meaning of the word judge. The Greek word (xqLvu>) here translated judge signifies primarily to separate ; then to form a judicial sentence, because that involves a separation of the good from the evil, as illustrated by the par- ables in Matt. 13 : 30, 49 ; 25 : 32. It is frequently used in the N. T. in this strict sense to express a judicial and official decree, as in 1 Cor. : 2, and in Acts 15 : 19, in which latter passage it is rendered by my sentence is. It is also frequently used metaphorically for a quasi judicial decision (see 110 MATTHEW. [Ch. VII. illustrations bdow), and in one or two cases it is em- ployed to express a personal conclusion, but ■ always one thai is irrevocably fixed. Of this use an illustration is afforded by 2 Cor. 5 : 14 : "We thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead," where not an opinion or probable conclu- sion, but a deliberate and settled conviction is expressed ; and another in Acts 20 : 10 : " Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus," where not a mere purpose, but a settled determination is indi- cated, one so unalterable that the subsequent en- treaties of his friends could not swerve him from it (Acta 21 : u). Our translators have then almost exactly preserved the meaning of the original word in this passage. It is not equivalent to condemn nor to condemnatory judgment on the one hand, nor does it, on the other, signify every mental opinion concerning others ; but such opin- ions as are judgments, i. c, in their nature judicial. Christ certainly does not prohibit all formations of opinions respecting our fellow-men ; this is not only necessary to be done, but directly com- manded both by Christ and his apostles (Matt. 18 = 16-17; i Tim. 5:20; 2 Tim. 4 : 2), and it is impliedly required in this very passage in verse 0. Nor is his prohibition of judging satisfied by interpret- ing it as a mere warning against harsh, unkind, and censorious condemnation of others. It in- cludes this, but both here and in the parallel pas- 3 (Luke C : 37, where condemnation of others is also rebuked ; Rom. 2:1; 14:4,10,13; 1 Cor. 4:3,5; James 4:12) nilU'll more is indicated than this. We get to the gist of the command here, "as I am persuaded we •hall do generally in Christ's sayings, not by de- parting from, but by adhering to his exact words. All assuming of God's judgment-scat, all undertaking to reach any final and conclusive judgment concerning our fellow-men, is prohib- ited by the spirit and the words of this passage its parallels in the New Testament. It pro- hibits absolutely all attempts by man to fix the eternal state of any soul, or to declare what it is or will be, and so all excommunication which in- volves an Imprecation of an everlasting curse; all imprecation of men in the mass, as by the is of the Roman Catholic church and the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian creed ; Ions respecting the character and eternal destiny of individuals as often occur after the death especially of public men — and this whether conducted In public or private ; all for- mation of ineradicable prejudices or final and settled judgments against any, such as cannot be readily Bel aside bj clearer evidence or by their repentance and reformation i op* n .,■. , ■ ■,. und ail Judging of men's mural char- rid itns before God and their final con dition by reason of their divergence from di Id ] minis of doctrine or <>f practice (Rom., ch. 14,1 But it docs nut forbid such tentative and partial judgments both of conduct and character as are formed in the spirit of love and meekness, as are accompanied in our own minds with the recognition of the truth that they are imperfect, and that all the data for a perfect judgment are not and cannot be before us, as are held subject to revision or reversal on adequate evidence or in case of repentance and reform, and as are necessary for our own guidance in determining what shall be our conduct toward or in respect to the persons in question. Such passages as 1 Cor. 16 : 22 ; 2 Pet., ch. 2 ; and Jude, v. 4, do not militate against this precept, which does not for- bid our judging of principles and practices, but of assuming to judge individuals ; nor does Christ's example in Matt., ch. 23, contradict his precept, because he knew what was in man, and could judge then as he will judge finally (John 5 : 22, 21). G. This verse can scarcely be regarded as a qualification, but rather as an interpretation, of what precedes. If one is evidently past our in- fluence, whether violent as the dog or given over to sensuality as the swine, we may adjudge him to be so, and need not go on casting pearls before him (compare Prov. o : 7, s). But observe that it was never the practice of the apostles to account any unworthy to receive the Gospel till by their own act they had rejected it, and so counted them- selves unworthy (Acts 13 :46 ; TKus3: 10). Holy. The meat offered for sacrifice, a part of which was re- served for the priests (Lev. 2:3, etc \ was regarded among the Jews as peculiarly sacred, as much as the bread and wine, when consecrated for the Eucharist, were regarded in the early church and still are in many of the modern churches. To give such meat to the dogs would be, to the Jewish mind, the extreme of profanation. No unclean person was permitted to eat of it (Lev. 22 : 8, 10, 14, etc. ; compare Exod. 22 : 3l). DOSJS — swilie. The dog was never a pet or a favorite among the Jews. They lived and still live in Oriental cities in packs, half wild, generally without masters or owners, and barely tolerated as scavengers. Both dogs and swine are common symbols in the Bible of vdleness and uncleannessu.*. ii:T; a ■. 10, n ; pwt. !i : Mj M:.it. 15: 27; PUL B:9; Re*. »: 16). Turn again and rend you. Proclaiming the truth to those thai are determined against It only provi their anger. Bee, for Interpretation, Matt, i" Ch. 7:7-27. FOURTH GENERAL DIVISION.— How TO BNTBB TiHC KlMiHi'M or BEATON. The connection in this part of Christ's die- cour i i nol b - do e as In the preceding por . Neither must it be forgotten thai East- ern teaching was more, aphoristic than ours. Nevertheless, thi re is a connection which would be recognised more readily were it nol for our division of the aennon Into chapters and Ch. VII.] MATTHEW. Ill 7 Ask, and it shall be given you ; z seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you ■ 8 For every one that asketh a receiveth ; and he that seeketh 1 ' rindeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone ? io Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? ii If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him ? 12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for d this is the law and the prophets. 13 Enter ye in e at the strait gate : for wide is the gate, z Isa. 55 : G ; Pr. :4, 5 a Ps. 81 : 10. 16 ; Luke 11 : 11, elc. Jnhn 14 : 13, 14; 16 : 23, 24 ; 1 John 3 : 22; 5:14: 15 b Prov. 8 : 17; Jer. 29 : 12, 13 ..d Lev. 19 : 18; Rum. 13 : 8-10; Gal. 6 : 14.... e Luke 13 : 24. verses. The two conditions of entering into the kingdom are faith (7-11) and obedience (13-21).' Character is the gift of God and is to be sought by prayer from him (7-11). Nevertheless, not every praying receives, but that which accompanies a life of non-conformity to the world (13-14) and of practical righteousness, from which many false prophets will seek to turn men away. They are to be known by their fruits, for the product of moral teaching is its best test (15-2.3). And though the false religion will find many to applaud it now, he whose religion consists in practical obe- dience to Christ's precepts, and he alone, has built upon a rock (24-21). It is noticeable that in this portion of the sermon, which gives the con- dition of entering into his kingdom, neither any public ceremony nor any formal creed is pre- scribed. 7-11. First condition. The prayer of faith. 7. The connection is thus given by Chrysostom: " For inasmuch as he had enjoined things great and marvelous, and had commanded men to be superior to all their passions, and had led them up to Heaven itself, and had enjoined them to strive after the resemblance, not of angels and archangels, but of the very Lord of all (ch. 5 : is), * * * * that they might not say these things are grievous and intolerable * * * * he adds also the pinnacle of all facility, devising us no or- dinary relief to our toils, the assistance derived from persevering prayers." This is not all, how- ever. He puts prayer first, the striving after- wards, so signifying that the first step toward the kingdom of God is seeking of God. Com- pare with this command John 1 : 10 ; Kom. : 23 ; and in the O. T. Isa. 55 : 1. Observe that even here where character is represented as be- stowed on the soul by the Spirit of God, we are represented not as mere passive receivers of an irresistible grace, but as agents asking, seek- ing, knocking. For the kind of seeking, see Prov. 2 : 3, 4 ; 18 : 17 ; Jer. 29 : 13 ; Luke 13 : 24, and note there. Contrast with this teaching, where man is represented as seeking and knock- ing, other passages where the Lord is represented as the one seeking and we as the found (Luke 15 : 3, 10 ; Rev. 3 : 20). And compare ch. 5 : 6, where the mental state is described as hunger and thirst after righteousness, of which asking, seeking, knocking, is the expression or utterance, the activity to which it leads. 8. For every one that asketh. The ar- gument here is from the greater to the less and from the general to the specific. In the whole realm of life energetic faithful endeavor is gen- erally crowned with success. Even the Pharisee who seeks the praise of men by his public alms, prayers and fasting, has his reward. How much more shall he that asks, seeks, knocks, receive in the kingdom of God's grace. 9-10. Or what man is there of you. Second reason for faith in prayer ; analogy from the earthly to the heavenly parent. Observe that the N. T. almost never, and the O. T. but rarely, employs nature as a symbol to represent God. He is represented to us by images drawn from the higher and better experiences of human nature ; or, in theological language, the N. T. symbolism is anthropomorphic. Modern philoso- phy argues from the apparent inflexibility of nature that God does not hear prayer ; Christ answers from the mobility of the soul, as il- lustrated by the common parental experience, that God does hear and answer. The root of modern unbelief lies just here, in an assumption that God is like nature. But the Bible does not say, As mountains stand immovable, as thunder- bolts strike irresistible, as the sea, as the river, as the earth, but "As a father pitieth his chil- dren," " as one whom his mother comforteth," "as a shepherd feedeth his sheep." Observe, too, that there is here implied, not merely a promise to give some answer to the prayer, but to give the thing asked for or sometlring better. God may do more for us than we ask or think ; but never less. The argument here, as in the preced- ing verse, is from the less to the greater. This is brought out clearly in the verse following. Com- pare with this passage Luke 11 : 12, where is added, " If he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" 11. Being- evil. "He said this not to con- demn our race as bad ; but in contrast to his own goodness he calls parental tenderness evil, so great is the excess of his love to man." — Chry- sostom.. Yet Stier well observes that the remark is a strong indirect support of the doctrine of original sin. Even in our highest holiest rela- tions there is evil ; selfishness is mingled with 112 MATTHEW [Ch. VII. and broad is the way, that lcadeth to destruction, and man}- there be which go in thereat : 14 Because strait is the gate: and narrow is the way, which lcadeth unto lile ; and few* there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, 2 which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening h wolves, 16 Ye shall know them by their' fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? f ch. 20 ; 16 ; 25 : 1—19 ; Rom. 9 : 27, i .g Deut. 13 ; 1-3 ; Jcr. 23 : 13-16 : 1 John 4:1 h Acts 20 : 29-01 i on. 12 our most unselfish love. Good things. Luke (11 : is) says Holy Spirit. But the greater in- cludes the less. "He that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with hhn also freely give us all things." (Rom. 8 :32.) 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men, etc. From the general theme of his discourse, which is here a statement of the conditions of entering the kingdom of heaven, Christ turns aside to enforce a high standard of human duty by his consideration of the goodness of God to us. Therefore connects the golden rule directly with the preceding teaching, respect- ing divine compassion. The connection is the same in substance in ch. 5 : 48 ; and ch. : 14, 15. Be- cause God is so ready to answer our prayers, we ought to show like sympathy and love to our fel- low-men. This precept is found not alone in the teaching of Christ. In a negative form the same rule of conduct is found in the rabbinical writ- ings : " Thou shalt not do to thy neighbor what eful to thyself." Do ye even so to them. Observe that it is not said do that to them, but so to them, i. e. in like manner. The rule does not require us to do the things which they ask, but to act toward them in the manner and spirit in which we should wish them to act toward us. Observe, too, that this rule works in two ways ; while directly it requires us to act toward others as we should wish them to act toward us, in spirit and by implication it requires us to wish from others no more than we should be willing to render to them if our positions were reversed. This is the law and the proph- ets (Lev. 19:18) Isr.iah 1:17; Rom. 1:! : 10). That is, the object of the law and the prophets is to produce that state of heart ami life of whirl, the golden rule is the natural expression in daily conduct. 13-20. Tin: SECOND condition. Ob Verses 13, 14, state simply that obedience in- volvi • a -ion conformity to and a separation from tin- world; 15-20 warns the disciples agi False teachers who will attempt to substitute some other conditions than faith and obedience, and so, under one pretence or another, attempt to Widen the gate (Ephw. • : 6, tnd refo BJld \ei i .'i -27 emphasize the doctrine that there Is no true religion which does not show its spirit by its actual obedience to the precepts of tin' Master .i ih n n : ■.>! ; r, : n | i..„ >. 13, I i. The strait gate, (. e., a ami difficult gate. The void i,. not the sai i gtraight. The Idea of nan-own i- pre en I in our use of the word straits to indicate a pass- age either in the mountains or from one sea to another, as "Straits of Gibraltar" ; the idea of difficulty is illustrated by its use in the verse, " I am in a strait betwixt two." Observe, the gate is put before the way. It is not, therefore, the gate out of life at the end of the pilgrimage, but the gate into Christian life, as Bunyan represents it in Pilgrim's Progress (compare Psalm us : ia, 20). The entrance into Christian life is narrow, i. e. requires a true spiritual separation from the world (Ephcs. 5 ■. 11), and the life is beset with diffi- culties which must be counted on before entering (Luke 9 :57, 58, and notos). As Used hei'C, the gate is not equivalent to the door in John 10 : 2. The strait gate is the spirit of real and hearty alle- giance to Jesus Christ, by which we enter in to him. It is the patient continuance in welldoing described in Romans 2 : 7 as the condition of en- trance into eternal life ; it was too strait for the rich young mau described in Matt. 19 : 16-22 ; through it the apostles entered into the way (ch. 19 : 27, and Beoch.4 : 20, 22 ; ch.9 :9) ; Clll'i>t has entered into glory by the same door and way (PhU. 2 : 9, 10; Heb. 12:2). It is not because the gate is difficult to find, but because we are unwilling to find and to enter 'm through this gate, that there arc few who enter. It is wide enough to admit any soul, but too narrow to admit any sin. Observe, too, that not only the gate is strait, but the subse- quent way narrow. Like a mountain path cut in the rock, a little deviation is attended with dan- gerous consequences — deviation not from circum- scribed rules but from the spirit of Christ's pre- cepts. There is possible significance in the fact that the word here translated narrow, is the participle of the verb elsewhere translated trou- bled .< -.-.::■'. Tic way is narrow bc- it isawaj hemmed in bj persecution, es- pecially to the early < Ihristians, from which perse- cution they were constantly tempted to escape bygoingout of the narrow path. The tempta- tion was the strait gate to Christ ; the trial-hour of Qe 1: 1 Calvary a pari oi the narrow way. Contra I with tin- teaching Ps. 119:45; I-a. 85 : < s . Though the wa\ Is narrow, it is a highway in which mere Ignorance cannot go astray; (hough compressed, it is to him wb bait Is Colly set to walk in it the way of ![!'■ ami rty. 15.20. Warmings a unbt 1 llbb tba< hbbs. TheHebrew word translated prophel to derived I: mi 1 Ifying to boil over, and embodies Ch. VIL] MATTHEW. 113 17 Even so every good treei bringeth forth good fruit : but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every" tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 1 shall enter into the kingdom of heaven : but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied™ in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works ? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me," ye that work iniquity. 24 Therefore' whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise p man, which built his house upon a rock : 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.i 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish/ man, which built his house upon the sand : 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, 3 and beat upon that house ; and it fell : and great was' the fall of it j Luke 6 : 43, 45. . . .k ch. 3 : 10 ; John 15 : 2, 6. . . .1 ch. 25 : 11, 12 ; Isa. 48 : 1, 2 ; Luke 6 : 46 ; 13 : 25 ; Rom. 2 : 13. . . .m Num. 24 : 4 ; 1 Kinjs 22: 11, etc. ; Jer. 23 : 13, etc. ; Acts 19 : 13-15; 1 Cor. 13 : 2. . . .n ch. 25 : 41 ; Ps. 5 : 5 ; Rev. 22 : 15.... o Luke 6 : 47, etc. . . .p Ps. Ill : 10; 119 :99, 130.... q Pj. 92 : 13-15.... r 1 Sam. 2 : 30 ; Jer. 8 : 9.... 3 1 Cor. 3 : 13.... t Hub. 10 : 26, 27. the idea of a fountain bursting forth from the heart of man into which God has poured it. It thus signifies not merely a foreteller, nor, on the other hand, every religious teacher, but such as teach under divine inspiration. A false prophet is not merely an erroneous teacher, but a lying teacher, strictly speaking one pretending to an inspiration which he does not possess ; seconda- rily, any teacher deliberately deceiving others ; it does not properly signify one deceiving himself, and so unconsciously deceiving others (see ch. 24 : 24 ; 2 Tim. 2: 17, 18 ; 2 Pet. 2: 1; 1 John 4: 1-3). The Caution ap- plies directly to such in our time as claim to pos- sess communication with the spirit-world, or to be invested with direct and infallible authority to speak for God ; indirectly to all who put on a semblance of piety for selfish purposes, and so get a position of honor as teacher in the church ; or who, without even that pretence, maintain the position for worldly purposes. Its application, as is made clear in the next verse, is not so much to open and avowed teachers of error, men who deny the fundamental principles of the Gospel, as to those who pretend to maintain but really under- mine and destroy them. SoChrysostom: "By false prophets I think he shadows out not the heretics, but them that are of a corrupt life yet wear a mask of virtue, whom the majority are wont to call by the name of impostors." Sheep's cloth- ing. The metaphor is of a wolf putting on the sheep's skin ; the thing signified is a selfish and designing man putting on the garb of meekness, gentleness and piety (2 cor. 11 : 13, 15 ; 2 Tim. 3:5). Ye shall know them. Literally fully, per- fectly know them. The infallible test of all re- ligious teaching is its practical result in the lives of those that receive it. The answer to modern eulogists of Buddhism and Confucianism is India and China ; the answer to the papal claim of in- fallibility is Spain and Italy ; the answer to the eulogists of "pure reason" and a Bible over- thrown is Paris during the Revolution and Paris during the Commune. New England is the best refutation of those that sneer at Puritanism ; and Christendom, contrasted with the heathen world, is a short but conclusive reply to all ad- vocates of a universal and eclectic religion. Here the test is applied only to religious teach- ing ; but elsewhere the same test is applied to the estimate of individual character (John 15 : 6, s). 21-23. The fruits of true religion. Practical obedience in daily life. He that doeth the will. That will embraces trust in Christ as our strength (John 6 : 29), love to our fellow-men (John 15 : 12), personal purity of character (1 Thess. 4 : 3), and the cultivation of the graces that are the fruit Of the Spirit (l Thess. 5 : IS ; 1 Pet. 2 : 15 ; 4 : 2, etc.). It is by God's Spirit alone that we are en- abled to do his Will (Heb. 13 : 21 : Rev. 7 : 17). Devils. See note on demoniacal possession (ch. 8 : 28-34).. Then will I profess. Greek, publicly profess. The disclosure of the false character of the fruit- less professor of religion will be before men and angels (Matt. 25 : 32). Depart from me. God, now abides even with the ungodly, that he may. lead them to repentance (Rom. 2 : 4). He will then separate them from him for ever (2 Thess. 2 : 9). Compare with this entire passage 1 Cor. 13 : 1-3, and observe that in the only passage where Christ pictorially describes the judgment-scene, the judgment is portrayed as dependent upon: the course of daily life (Matt. 25 : 31-46) ; and that the sentence, as recorded in Rev. 22 : 11, is a simple fixing, eternally and irreversibly, of the character formed here. 24-27. Conclusion of the discourse. The test of true religion. The symbol which Christ employs here, would possess a significance for his hearers which it has not for us. In the East the peasants' huts are often unsubstantial structures, built of mud or sun-burnt brick, and sometimes washed away by a single furious rain- storm. Their mountain streams, too, are of a peculiar character. These water-courses, called wadies, are in the summer perfectly dry, in the rainy season they are swollen streams. The shepherd builds his hut by one of these water- courses, which often in the summer weather affords the only herbage which is not burnt up by the sun. If the house is built high up on the rock it is safe ; if down on the sandy soil, though there is no water at the time, the treacherous 114 MATTHEW. [Ch. VIU. 28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished" at his doctrine : 29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. CHAPTER VIII. HEN he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. w 2 And, behold, there came a leper' and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will ; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell" no man ; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer u Jer. 23 : 29 ; Mark 6 : 2. . . .v Mark 1 : 40, etc. ; Luke 5 : 12, etc. . . ,w ch. 9 : 30 ; Mark 5 : 43. foundation gives away with the first freshet ; and these often come with almost no note of warning, and as a result of rains further up the stream. A friend of the writer, journeying through Palestine, pitched his tent, one fair night, in one of these toadies, and was before morning awakened by the sound of water, from which he and his party had barely time to escape with the loss of clothing, books and instruments. So the trial of the last great day will come, with- out warning (Matt. 24 : 36-39, 42-44), and overwhelm- ing those whose exterior was fair, but the foun- dation of whose life was insecure. As the builder would know, or easily might know, the danger of building on the sand, and yet build there for the sake of ease and transient conven- ience, so many, who confess that it is not safe to build on any other foundation than a practical obedience to Jesus Christ, yet do build other- wise, and trust to a vague hope to escape the day of trial when it comes. The building on the rock is building on Christ Jesus. " The Rock, as signifying him who spoke this, is of too frequent reference in Scripture for US tO Overlook it here (2 Sam. 22 : 2, 47 ; 23 ; 3 ; Ps. 28 : 1 ; SI : 2 j Isa. 20 : 4; 32 : 2 ; 44 : 8 ; 1 Cor. 10 : 4, etc.)." — [Alforil.) Yet the contrast is not between those who build on him and those who lay other foundations, but between those who build on him by mere intel- lectual belief and external profession, and those who build by practical obedience to his precepts. Compare ch. 21 : 28-32. See for a similar meta- phor of the judgment-day, Isaiah 28 : 15-18. This close gives a solemn significance to the whole discourse, which indicates the super- structure of character to be reared, while this metaphor indicates the foundation on which alone it can be built d Cor. ?, ■. n). No building of kindness and good-will towards others, and of purity, and of Beeming simplicity, complies with the Sermon on the Mount, unless the foundation is laid in faith in Christ, and the building is that of a real and hearty obedience to him. 28y 2!). Ch. h: l. Effect of Christ's PBBACHTJra. Doctrine, i. e., teaching. Not only what he taught, but the method and spirit of his teaching. As one having iiutliority. Not only because, as ChrysOBtom, "He did not say what he said on the authority of others, quoting Moses or the prophets, but everywhere alleging himself to be the One who had the power ;" but also because his appeal was not to any external authority but to the moral con- sciousness of his hearers, to the law of God writ- ten in their own hearts, and because he spoke out of a perfect and personal assurance of the truth of every utterance ; for he was the (ruth. In this sense every religious teacher should imi- tate the example of him who is the great preacher. He will speak with authority just in so far as the truth is a part of his own being, not merely an external dogma intellectually appre- hended, and as he appeals to the dormant con- sciousness of moral truth, which is in the heart and conscience of every man. Ch. 8:1. Great multitudes followed him. His preaching not only singularly and powerfully affected his hearers, but it attracted hearers to him. During this early period of his ministry he was thronged by multitudes, not only curious to see or desirous to receive the benefit of his miracles, but also fascinated by the moral and spiritual power of his teaching. Ch. 8 : 2-4.— Cube of the leper. — Leprosy a type OF SIN, INSIDIOUS, DEADLY, HEREDITARY, OFTEN CON- TAGIOUS. — The spirit of true prayer : if thou wilt tuou canst. — Christ touches the leper ; Christ is the touch of God's hand on a sinful world. — Christ's cleansing ; perfect, immediate, cleanses from the foulest and the most ineradicable dis- EASES (1 John 1 : 9).— The duty of the cleansed; A PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS PURIFICATION, AND A rUBLIC RETURN TO THE CHUBCH. 2-4. This incident— the healing of the leper— also recorded in Mark 1 : 40-15; Luke 5:12-15, occurred during Christ's first missionary tour through Galilee, as described in Mark 1 : 31-45. Its apparent connection with the Sermon on the Mount is due to the modern division of the N. T. into chapters. Verse 1 of this chapter properly belongs with the preceding chapter, and the words "and behold " mark a transition from the preceding narrative. If Christ were on a tour of healing, and the leper bad heard of the cures Christ bad wrought, his appeal for help would not be extraordinary; but it ia incredible that SUCh faith as he manifested should have been awakened by a sermon which he could not pos- sibly haVl heard. Nor is it probable that lie would have been found in the midst of the multitude mentioned in verse 1 ; nor, if the Oh. VIIL] MATTHEW. 115 cure had been performed in their hearing, would the caution of verse 4 be likely to have been given. These considerations lead most harmon- ists to prefer the order indicated in Mark to that which seems to be implied by Matthew. The cure took place in a city (Luke 5 : 12), apparently not Capernaum (Mark 1 : ss-io). 2. There came a leper. Luke says "full of leprosy ; " an indication that it was an aggra- vated form of the disease from which he suffered. In coming to Christ, in the city, for cure, the leper violated the letter of the ancient law (Lev. 13 : 46), but not its spirit. See on verse 3, below. In the absence of accurate medical knowl- edge the term leprosy was used in ancient times to designate diseases whose natures were radi- cally different, but whose symptoms were some- what analogous. In its worst forms, leprosy (elephantiasis Graicorum) is the most terrible of all diseases. From a commencement slight in appearance, with but little pain or inconven- ience, it goes on in its strong but sluggish course, generally in defiance of medical skill, till it re- duces the patient to a mutilated cripple, with dulled or obliterated senses. This disease as- sumes several forms, the most common of which is known as the tuberculatcd elephantiasis. It generally first shows itself by inflamed patches in the skin, on the face, ears, or hands, of a dull red or purplish hue, from half an inch to two inches in diameter. These soon change to a brownish or bronze color, with a metallic or oily lustre, and a clearly defined edge ; and in this state they very often remain for weeks or months. By degrees the discolored surface be- comes hard, and rises here and there into tuber- cles, at first reddish, but afterward either bronzed or white. The scarf-skin often scales off. After another period of weeks, months, or even years, many of the tubercles subside, and leave a kind of cicatrix thinner than the sur- rounding skin. The tubercles which do not sub- side, or which break out again, may vary from the size of a pea to that of a pigeon's egg, and, after continuing, it may be, for years, they ulcer- ate, discharging a whitish matter. The ulcers often eat into the muscle till they expose the bones ; should there be any hair on the tuber- cles it either falls off or turns white, and the hair of the head and eyebrows mostly disappears. When the disease is fully formed, the distorted face, and the livid, encrusted, and ulcerated tu- bercles, the deformed, sightless and uncovered eyes, the hoarse whispering voice, the foetid breath and cutaneous excretion, the contorted joints, which are often buried in or absolutely dislocated by tubercles, the livid patches on those parts of the body not yet tuberculous, all form a picture which is not exceeded in the hor- ror of its features by any other malady. The disease for the most part creeps on with irresis- tible progress until it attacks some vital organ and occasions death. Whether leprosy is contagious or not has greatly perplexed both the divines and physi- cians. The cases of Naaman and Gehazi (2 Kings 5 : 1, and 27, with ch. 8 : 4) indicate very clearly that some forms of the disorder were not so regarded. It is also asserted by Trench that the leper was allowed a place, though apart from the rest of the worshippers, in the synagogue, and in later times in Christian churches. On the other hand leprosy is universally regarded as a contagious disease in the East, where it is chiefly prevalent. "No healthy person would touch them, eat with them, or use any of their clothes or utensils, and with good reason." (Thompson's Land and Book, 2 : 517. ) And it is only upon the theory of con- tagion that it is possible to account for the Mo- saic precepts and provisions referred to below. The fact appears to be, that of the several dis- eases designated in the Bible as leprosy, the worst form (tubercular leprosy) is contagious, but the milder (squamous leprosy) is not; and that the provisions contained in Lev. ch. 13 were for the purpose of determining officially whether the person suspected of having the leprosy really had the contagious or only the milder form of the disease. In its worst form leprosy was universally re- garded by the Jews as a divine punishment ; and the disease was several times inflicted by God in judgment for flagrant transgressions (Numb. 12 : 10 ; 2 Kings 5 : 27 ; 15 : 5 ; 2 Chron. 26 : 19). The leper Was ex- iled from the haunts of men, bore about with him the emblems of death, and wherever he went cried, as a warning of his coming, "Unclean, Unclean " (Lev. 13:45; compare Numb. 12 : 12; Ezek. 24 : 17) J his disease was regarded by universal consent as hopeless of cure ; and this opinion, so far as re- gards its worse forms, is confirmed by modern science. The same opinions and sentiments re- specting it reappear at a later date, as in Europe during the middle ages, when the leper was clothed in a shroud, and had mass for the dead read over him ; and at the present day, not only in Palestine but also in Persia, China, Japah, and indeed throughout the East where the disease is well known. Lepers associated together in com- munities of their own as they still do (2 Kings 7:3; Luke 17 : 12), and the leper-houses which now exist in the vicinity of Jerusalem, Damascus, Nablus, and Ramleh probably originated at a very early period. The Mosaic law provided for the official determination of the question whether a person suspected of being afflicted by leprosy was really subject to it or not, and whether the leprosy was of the more dangerous forms or no. These provi- sions are recorded in Lev. ch. 13. If the leprosy were the milder form, affecting the skin only, or 116 MATTHEW. [Ch. VIII. if it covered the whole body with a white erup- tion (verses is, 13), a sign that it was not the conta- gious form of the disease, but what is known as the lepra vulgaris, the patient was to be pro- nounced clean and discharged. The whole character of this disease made it a type of sin ; it was a "living death" appeared in- sidiously, was incurable except by divine grace, and separated its victim from the people of God. " The Jews called it 'the finger of God,' and emphati- cally 'the stroke.' It attacked, they said, first a man's house, and then, if he refused to turn, his clothing ; and lastly, should he persist in sin, himself." — (Trench.) "The same emblems were used in his misery as those of mourning for the dead ; the same means of cleansing as for un- cleanness through connection with the dead, and which were never used except on these two occa- sions. Compare Numb. l'J : 0, 13, 18, with Lev. 14 : 1—7. All this exclusion and mournful separation imported the perpetual exclusion of the abom- inable and polluted from the true city of God, as declared in Rev. 21 : 27." — (Afford.) Worshipped. No great stress can be laid upon this word, or the word "Lord," as indica- ting the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Greek word (nimaxwitxi), translated worshipped, is a general one, expressive of the homage paid by an inferior to a superior. "According to Herod- otus, the ancient Oriental, and especially Per- r-i in mode of salutation was, between persons of equal rank, to kiss each other on the lips ; when the difference of rank was slight, they kissed each other on the cheek ; when one was much inferior, he fell upon his knees and touched his forehead to the ground, or prostrated himself, kissing his hand at the same time towards his superior. This latter mode Greek writers ex- press by (nqooxwito) proskumeo." — (Bobinson's Lexicon. ) This word is uniformly translated, in the N. T., worship. The act of the leper is more fully described by Mark 1 : 40, as "beseeching him and kneeling down to him." Similar hom- age was paid !>y Lot to the angels (Gen.i9:i); Joseph's brethren to Joseph (oh. 48:6); and by Joseph to his father (ch. 4s : u). And in the Beptuagint, the Greek version of the O. T., the same Greek word | rtQooxvvito) is used. Compare Matt. 20:20, and Rev. 8 : 9. On the other hand, the same word is used in the N. T. to express the highest worship of God, as in John 4 : 20-24, and Rev. 7:11; 19 : 10, etc. It should also be noted that the term Lord (xvoioi is not used exclusively as an appellation of the Deity. It is employed as a common form of ad- dress to a superior, answers to our "sir," and is so occasionally translated (Mitt. U: ST i BliSOjSTiu); it is addressed to the apostles in one important instance, and received by them without rebuke (Acui6:3o); aud it is rendered "master" and " owner " (Matt. 6 : 24 ; Luke 19 : 33) ; and if translated lord is spelt with a small I in those passages where the translators regard it as not involving any idea of divine homage (Matt, a ■. 45-50 : 25 : is, 19). The same English word " lord " is employed in England to this day as a title of nobility. But though the fact that the leper paid this homage to Christ does not indicate that he conceived him to be possessed of a divine character, the fact that Christ in this and other instances received the homage without question, indicates that he assumed at least a super-human character. Com- pare his instructions to his disciples in Matt. 2o : 8-10, and Peter's reception of similar hom- age when offered to him in Acts 10 : 25, 26. If thou wilt. Contrast Mark 9:22. The leper does not doubt Christ's power, he does not dictate to his will. "He did not say, 'If thou request, it of God,' nor 'If thou pray,' nor 'Lord, cleanse me,' but leaves all to him, and makes his recovery depend on him, and tes- tifies that all the authority is his." — (Chrysos- torn.) Observe that the pra} r er is not for a spirit- ual benefit, but for a temporal blessing, which Christ may refuse to impart (2Cor. 12:8, 9), and which must always be asked for subject to the higher will of God. In this the leper's prayer is a model in spirit for us. Observe, too, that if the leper were mistaken in attributing to Christ the power to cleanse from leprosy, it was Christ's place to correct the error, and to attribute the power to God, as the apostles did in a somewhat similar case (Acts 3: 12). On the contrary, he con- firms it with his "/ will." Contrast with this assumption of power to heal, Moses' prayer for the healing of Miriam (Numb. 12 : 13). It was a general belief among the Jews, taught by their rabbinical books, that one of the signs of the Messiah would be his power to cure leprosy. Clean. The curse of leprosy was not merely in the suffering it caused, but yet more in the odium it entailed, and in the fact that it made the Jew "unclean," (, <\, an outcast, and classed with swine and dogs and all odious and abhorrent creatures. The leper's prayer is not therefore, Make me well, but, Make me ci.rw, take away the shame and the moral pollution of this disease. 3. He thou clean. The diseases, as the devils, obey Christ. Touched him. Mark gives the reason, "moved with compassion;" the touch was a touch of pity, the more wonder- ful because not only a universal prejudice, but also the Levitieal law forbade touching any un- clean thing (i,ov. 6:3). Yet even In this net Christ exemplifies the truth that he had come to fulfill the law, though he seemed to violate it, and did violate its letter. For the object of the law was the preservation of purity ; but Christ did better than preserve himself from impurity ; by his Ch. VIII.] MATTHEW. 117 the gift that Moses commanded, 1 for a testimony unto them. 5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion/ beseeching him, x Lev. 14 : 3, etc. . . .y Luke 7 : 2, etc. touch he communicated purity to the impure. It is never wrong to come in contact with evil for the purpose of curing it, if we are strong in God to ac- complish our beneficent purpose. To touch the dead was forbidden, yet both Elijah and Elisha did SO (l Kings 17 : SI j 2 Kings 4 : 34), for the law Of love is always superior to any mere ceremonial regu- lation. Immediately. Mark says, "As soon as he had spoken." Observe that, assuming that we have a true account, there was no room for mistake or for the operation of natural causes. The leper was "full of leprosy," and was cured "immediately." 4. Shew thyself to the priest. TheLeviti- cal law provided that when a leper claimed to be healed, he should present himself to the priest, his healing should be officially passed upon by the priest, and certain sacrificial ceremonies per- formed, among which was the giving by the man of three lambs, with fine flour and oil ; if he were poor a less costly gift might be substituted. The directions are contained in Lev. ch. 14. The birds and cedar-wood, and scarlet and hyssop, there referred to (verse 4) were no part of the gift, but were provided by the priest. The object of this ceremonial was both sanitary and ceremo- nial. It secured the community against the con- tagion of lepers who had not been really healed, by requiring the official sanction of the priest, and it also kept alive the symbolism which rep- resented leprosy as a type of sin which, for its cleansing, requires divine pardon as well as phys- ical cure. It must be remembered that the priests were the learned class of the early ages, and that the practice of medicine was chiefly confined, in ancient lands, to the priesthood and the temples. Jesus directed the leper to comply with this law, and thus reunite himself with the church from which his leprosy had separated him. See thou tell no man. Because, (a,) Jesus would not have the leper make a boast of his miraculous cure, glory in it and in himself as a special object of divine favor ; (&,) if the reputa- tion of his marvellous cure preceded him to Je- rusalem, the priests might deny that the man had ever been a leper, or was now truly cleansed, otherwise they would condemn themselves and their opposition to Jesus out of their own mouth ; (c, ) Christ customarily imposed silence on the sub- jects of his cures, because he would not that the faith of the people should rest upon the external evidence afforded by miracles, but upon their spi- ritual apprehension of the truth itself, (see Matt. 12 : 15-21, 38, 39.) The evidence from miracles he always treated as less valuable thafc the evidence which the truth carried in itself (John 14 : 11). Christ and Christian truth are always the best evidence of Chris- tianity. Testimony unto them. These words are to be connected with Christ's command, not with that of Moses. The original may be trans- lated as in our version, or u for a testimony against them." Both ideas are involved. Their official recognition that the leper was truly cleansed would render the miracle a conclusive testimony to them of Christ's healing power ; it would be no less a testimony against them, be- cause by accepting the gift and recognizing the cure the priests would testify against their own incredulity and rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. Ch. 8 : 5-13. THE CURE OP THE CENTURION'S SER- VANT.— Exemplification OP FAITH (10) ; IT IS HUMBLE (8), CONFIDENT (8, 9), ACCOMPANIES PRACTICAL BENEVO- LENCE (6, Luke 7:1), has its reward (13).— Christ's KINGDOM IS COMPREHENSIVE, INCLUDES THE OUTCASTS OF EARTH (11) ; IS EXCLUSIVE, CASTS OUT THE NATU- RAL BUT UNWORTHY HEIR (12).— In THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ARE LIGHT, JOT, CHRISTIAN SOCIETT (11) ; IN THE KINGDOM OF SATAN DAKKNESS, DESPAIR, OUT- CASTS (12). This incident is recorded by Luke (7 : 1-10) more fully than by Matthew ; for that the two ac- counts are -of the same incident is beyond rea- sonable doubt. It is not to be confounded with the cure of the nobleman's son ( John 4 : 46-54 ; see notes tbere). It appears from Luke that the miracle was wrought immediately after Christ's Sermon on the Mount, and on his descent from the moun- tain; that the sick person, who is here called boy or child (see on verse g, below), was a servant who was dear to the centurion ; that the centurion was a favorite with the Jews, having built a syn- agogue for them ; that he did not go in person, but sent the elders of the Jews to intercede for him ; and that when he heard that Jesus was coming he sent a second delegation with the message, "lam not worthy," etc. The careful study of these two accounts is itself a lesson in biblical interpretation. They show that the Evangelists give only the essential facts, those that are necessary to an understanding of the moral significance of the teaching or the miracle. 5. Capernaum. See Matt. 4 : 13. Centu- rion. A Roman military officer. All Palestine was under Roman military government ; this centurion was probably connected with the gar- rison at Capernaum. The Roman army was di- vided into legions, answering to our army corps, varying in size from three thousand to six thou- sand men ; each legion was divided into ten co- horts, usually called in the N. T. the "baud;" 118 MATTHEW. [Ch. VIII. 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8 The centurion answered and said. Lord, I am not worthy 1 that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only," and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me : and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my ser- vant, Do this, and he doeth it. io When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, b no, not in Israel. ii And I say unto you, That c many shall come from i Pi. 10 : 17 ; Luke 15 : 19, 21 a verse 3 ; Ps. 33 : 9 ; 107 : 20 b ch. 15 : 28 c Isa. 2 : 2, 3 ; Luke 13 : 29 ; Acts 11:18, EpK 3:6; Rev. 7 : 9. the cohort was divided into three maniples, and each maniple was divided into two centuries. These last contained from fifty to one hundred men, answering to our company, and each one was commanded by a centurion, answering to our captain. There were thus in each legion sixty centuries, each under the command of a centurion. 6. My servant. The Greek word (xal$), translated servant, answers very nearly to the French term garcon, and to our term bog ; but it indicates that the relation between this centurion and his servant or boy was one unusually tender (see Luke 7 : 2). Such instances of affection are more common in military than in domestic service. The regard which the master should have for his servant, especially in case of sickness, has been noted by the commentators as one of the morals indicated by this incident. "This centurion did not act as many masters do when their servants are afflicted — have them immediately removed to an infirmary or a work -house." — (Adam Clarke.) Lieth at home sick of the palsy. The dis- ease indicated is not certain, for the ancients grouped many diseases together because of a certain similarity in symptoms which modern science discriminates, on account of their differ- ent causes and their intrinsic nature. It may have been a form of paralysis, which is some- times accompanied with severe pain ; or it may have been tetauus, or lock-jaw, which in the East is not infrequently connected with paralysis. He was in great pain, "grievously tormented," and was " ready to die " (Luke 7 : 2). 8. Answered. By a second delegation which the centurion sent when he heard that Christ was coming (Luke 7 : e). What is done through another is often spoken of in Scripture, as in other books, as done by the person who directs it. See Gen. 40 : 23 ; 11 : 66 ; and compare Mark 10 : 85 with .Matt. 20 : 20. I am not worthy. Observe three estimates of the centurion's char- acter; first, his own, /ml worthy, because a Gen- tile, and because a sinner; second, the Jewish estimate, worthy, because he had built a Jewish synagogue, the highest encomium on character which a Jewish elder could pass on a Gentile outcast (Luke 7 : 4, t) ; third, Jesus' estimate, wor- thy, bcriut.se <>f i,u faith, and needing no commen- dation from Jewish elders, but himself an exam- ple and a rebuke to them. Come under my roof. "Counting himself unworthy that Jesus should enter into his doors, he was counted wor- thy that Jesus should enter into his heart." — (Augustine.) Speak the word. Contrast the centurion's faith, who trusts all to the word of Christ, with Martha's, who trusts only to his prayer to God. John 11 : 21, 22. 9. Under authority. The military author- ity of the East is even greater than in our own country. "No one ever inquires into the reason of an order of the rajah." — (Burdens Oriental Literature.) The idea appears to be, I am under authority ; yet my servants do my bidding with- out questioning ; you are no subordinate, how much more will disease obey you without ques- tioning or requiring your presence to confirm your command. But it is in no way probable that the centurion had any clear comprehension of an Almighty power in Christ, or regarded him in any other light than as a prophet and a worker of miracles. To deduce from this an argument for the divine power and character of Jesus is to attribute to the uninstructed centurion not only & faith but a knowledge which the apostles did not acquire untd after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 10. When Jesus heard it he marvelled. The significance of such declarations as this is not to be impaired by such interpretations as that of Augustine, "for our good that we may imitate the centurion's faith.*' It is difficult to understand how Christ, endowed with perfect knowledge of what was in man, could marvel at any disclosure ; but not more difficult than to understand how he could rejoice, weep, be tempted, have spiritual struggles. It is a part of that inexplicable mystery which belongs to a nature too deep for our comprehension. It is not to be explained away in the vain endeavor to make a clear and easily comprehensible analysis of his character. What David said of the knowl- edge of God (F»ta IMjB) we may say of the char- acter <>f Christ: It is too wonderful for us, we cannot attain unto it. So sreat faith. u To have high imaginations concerning him, this especially is of faith and tends to procure the kingdom and his Other blessings."— (ChrytOttom.) Bui this surely is not all. It was not merely be- lief, or hope, or expectation, which was exempli- fied, but J'oVA, as a moral power Impelling to ac- tlon against moral obstacles. Itwasnol merely an intellectual perception, bul also a moral reed*- Hon, which made life naturally skeptical Roman Ch. VIIL] MATTHEW. 110 the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom 11 shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping e and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way ; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. 14 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid/ and sick of a fever. d ch. 7 : 22, 23 e ch. 13 : 42, 50 f Mark 1 : 30, 31 ; Luke 4 ; 38, 39. apply to a messenger of the God of the Jews, which made the naturally proud Roman apply to a prophet of a people whom the Romans de- spised and classed with slaves, which made a naturally haughty military officer recognize the superior authority of one who was under his military control, but whose power was from above, which made the naturally callous Roman appeal for help, not on his own behalf, but on that of a mere chattel servant. 11. Many shall come. The question is sometimes still asked whether any of the hea- then, who have never known of and received Christ, will be admitted to heaven. Christ an- swers the question, at least by implication, here and in Luke 13 : 29. Compare Romans 2 : 8-11, and observe that the Gentiles referred to in the latter passage, and to whom Paul declares there is at least a possibility of salvation, are those that never have received a written law, i. e., the Bible (verses 12-15), and that in the case of the centurion the spirit of faith preceded any knowledge of Christ, and that there is nothing to show that this Roman had any clear and correct intellec- tual apprehension of Christ's character, or of his kingdom. Sit down. To sit at table with other immortals is a common metaphor among ancient writers to express future felicity. 12. Cast out into outer darkness. "An emblem of such as are rejected and cast out of the door at the marriage-feast to which they had come. In despair they weep and gnash their teeth. The Jews generally had their great feasts in the evening ; those cast out are therefore in darkness." — (Burder , s Oriental Literature.) See for fuller interpretation notes on Matt. 25 : 1-13. Observe that, (a,) the kingdom of heaven is rep- resented as one of light and joy ; (&,) that punish- ment consists in exclusion from God and the companionship of the holy. There is no sugges- tion here of positive torments, and although there are such intimations elsewhere (Matt. 13 : so j 18 : 34, 35 ; Mark 9 : 43-18 ; Luke 16 : 23), yet the Contrast is Very marked throughout Christ's teachings between his representations of future punishment and those found in heathen literature. See, for ex- ample, the following quotation from the (Hin- doo) Institutes of Manu : "Multifarious tor- tures await the wicked. They shall be mangled by ravens and owls, and shall swallow cakes boiling hot, and shall walk over inflamed sands, and shall feel the pangs of being baked like the vessels of the potter ; they shall assume the form of beasts continually miserable, and suffer alter- nate afflictions from extremes of cold and heat, surrounded with terrors of various kinds. They shall have old age without resource, diseases at- tended with anguish, pangs of innumerable sort, and lastly unconquerable death." For the most part the Bible representations of future punish- ment are of a fixity in a state of sin (Rev. 22 : 11), and of banishment from the presence of God (2 Thess. 1 : 9). 13. Was healed. Evidently this cure is not one which can be attributed to any known natural causes ; not merely because severe paralysis is extremely difficult of cure, if not incurable (on this much stress cannot be laid since we are not sure of the disease), but because Jesus did not even see his patient, so that no remedy could have been employed, and there could have been no opportunity even for the operation of mental causes in relieving the sufferer. Ch. 8 : 14-17. HEALING OF PETER'S MOTHER-IN- LAW AND OTHERS.— Christ cures in the household AS WELL AS IN THE CHURCH.— He CURES INSTANTLY, WHOLLY.— HE THAT CASTS OUT DISEASE ALSO IMPARTS stength (2 Peter 1 : 3).— He that is healed by Christ should immediately begin to serve Christ — He heals not only his friends but the multitude. — He suffers that he may heal, and thus exem- plifies THE LAW OF BURDEN-BEARING FOR OTHERS (Gal. 6 : 2). — We may bring to him not only our PAST SINS, BUT ALSO OUR PRESENT INFIRMITIES OF TEM- PER AND SICKNESSES OF SOUL. These incidents are reported in Mark 1 : 20-34, and Luke 4 : 38-41, more fully than here. They occurred before the Sermon on the Mount, dur- ing Christ's first missionary tour of Galilee, on Sabbath evening, and immediately after his heal- ing of the demoniac in the synagogue (Mark l : 23-26, 29, etc ; Luke 4 : 33-35, 38, etc.). The house was in Caper- naum where Peter lived, and near which town he had been called to follow Christ (Matt. 4 : is-20). The healing followed almost immediately after this call. Thus Peter, who left all to follow Christ, gained by it a mother (Matt. 19 : 29). Peter, Andrew, James, and John were all with Christ at the time. The three had followed Peter with Christ from their fishing just previously (Matt. 4 : 18-22 ; Mark 1 : 29). 14. Fever. Malarious fevers, of a malignant type, are common in the vicinity of Capernaum ; they are due, probably, to marshes near by. In the very imperfect medical language of that day fevers were simply divided into little and great fevers. Luke, who was a physician, character 120 MATTHEW. [Oh. VIII. is And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. 16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many* that were possessed with devils : and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick * 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias 1 ' the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmi- ties, and bare our sicknesses. 18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. 19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, 1' will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the ait have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 2i And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord,' suffer me first to go arid bury my father. 22 But Jesus saith unto him, b ollow me ; and let the dead bury their dead. 23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. g Mark 1 : 32, etc h Isa. 53 : 4 j 1 Pet. 2 : 24 1 Luke 9 : 67, 68. . . .j 1 Kings 19 : ! izes this as a "great fever." That she was en- tirely prostrated by it is evident from the lan- guage here, "laid and sick of a fever." 15. And he touched her hand. Accord- ing to both Mark and Luke he was asked to cure her. He not only touched her hand but lifted her up (Mark i : 31). The fever left her. Mark says immediately, which is implied here. She ministered unto them. Such a fever invari- ably leaves the patient weak. The period of convalescence is always long and trying, often full of danger. The fact that she ministered to them, i. e., served in the ordinary duties of the household, 6hows that Christ in healing the dis- ease also imparted health and strength, and it demonstrates the miraculous character of the cure. 16. When the even was come. It was on the Sabbath day (Mark, ch. l), on which the Pharisaic law allowed no works of healing. The Sabbath ended at sunset. The Talmud says, "If in the going out of the Sabbath one do any work after one star is seen, he is bound to a sacrifice for sin ; if after two, to a sacrifice for transgression ; if after three, he is clear." It was during this twilight hour that the people brought their sick to Christ. Observe, that he heals Peter's mother-in-law without waiting for sunset, and thus privately teaches his disciples that it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day, a lesson which he subsequently repeated publicly (Matt, is in j John 5:M, it). They brought unto him. i. c., the people generally. Mark gives an idea of the throng by his expression, "All the city was gathered together at the door." Many. " In one word the Evangelist traverses an unspeakable sea of miracles." — (Vhrysostom.) Compare John 20 : 80. Devils. See note at end of this chapter. Mark and Luke both add that he Buffered them not to speak. IT. That it miu'ht be fulfilled. The pas- sage referred to is Isaiah r»:; : 1, , r ». There the reference Is clearly to sins and heart-sorrows; here to physical disease. Matthew interprets the one by the other, ami leaves us to draw the <■ -i ii ~i< in thai at Christ bore the sicknesses of those he healed, 'm like manner he bean the si /is qf those he redeems; (. <■ his character as a physician is the symbol of his character as a savior. How, then, did he bare the infirmities of the sick ? Not lit- erally. He removed them from others, but did not become diseased himself. Neither in remov- ing sins from others does he become stricken With Sin himself. (Compare John 1 : 29 with Hebrews 4 : 15.) But he did not merely heal the sick, he truly bore their sicknesses, not in his body, but in his heart. The metaphor both here and in Isaiah is of one who removes a burden by putting his own shoulder under it, and bearing it away ujion him- self. This Christ did, because he entered through compassion into the sorrows and sicknesses he healed (Mark 7 : 34 ; John ii : 33, 35). So, not by any lit- eral transfer of sins from others to himself, but by a spiritual and symjjathetic bearing of the bur- den of the world's sins in his own heart, he bore them away from all those who cast their burden 011 lliin. (Compare Gal. 6 : 2; 1 Pet. 2 : 24.) 18-22. Conditions of following Christ. There is some uncertainty when this incident oc- curred. Mark does not record it, but he nar- rates the miracle of the stilling of the tempest, which he places immediately after the parables recorded in Matt. ch. 13 (Mark 4 : «), and with that miracle Matthew connects this incident (verse is) ; Luke places it at a later period in Christ's life (Luka9:57) The hypothesis that the same inci- dents occurred twice is utterly indefensible. On the whole, the probability appears to be that it occurred on Christ's taking ship to depart to the other side of the lake, after preaching the para- bles on Mie kingdom of God, as recorded in Mat- thew, ch. l:!. But as Luke's account is the full- est, I reserve comments on the practical and spiritual significance of the incident for the pas- sage in Luke. 18. The other side, 1. c., of the Sea of Gali- lee. His object whs tn escape the throng, and secure qniet with his disciples. The offer of the scribe was there tore, if not an impertinence, cer- tainly an intrusion. 21. Another of his disciples. According to an ancient tradition this was Philip. It seems more probable that the phrase disciple is here used only in the more general sense of one who had loosely attached himself to Jesus as a learner. I i. appears from Luke that his request was in response to Christ's command, " Follow me." Ch. VIII] MATTHEW. 121 24 And behold. k there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves : but he was asleep. 25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us : we perish. 26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith ? Then he arose, and rebuked' the winds and the sea ; and there was a great calm. 27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him ! 28 And™ when he was come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two pos- sessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, \\ hat have k Mark 4 ; 37, etc. ; Luke 8 : 23, etc. . . .1 Job 38 : 11 ; Pa. 89 : 9 ; 107 : 29 m Mark 5:1; Luke 8 : 26, etc. 23-27. Stilling the tempest. Recorded also in Mark 4 : 35-41 and Luke 8 : 22-25. The account is fullest in Mark. It there appears that Christ departed as he was, i. e., without making any preparations ; that there were other ships or boats accompanying him ; that the waves filled the boat so that it seemed to be in danger of foundering ; that Christ was asleep in the hinder part of the boat on a pillow or cushion ; and that the disciples not only aroused him, but did so with words which implied fault-finding, because of his supposed indifference to their danger. The incident occurred immediately after the preaching of the parables concerning the king- dom of God, recorded in Matt. ch. 13. See notes on Mark 4 : 35-41. Ch. 8 : 28-34. HEALING OF THE DEMONIACS. The DEVILS CANNOT KEEP THE SOUL FROM CHRIST. — THEY HATE NOTHING TO DO WITH JESUS THE SAVIOUR ; BUT MUCH TO DO WITH THE SON OP GOD, THE JUDGE.— THE CREED OF THE DEVILS IS THE SAME AS PETER'S CREED (Matt. 16 : 16) ; the belief is the same but not the faith (James 2 : 19).— The holt are a torment to the wicked.— Sin protests against interference. Its crt is alwats Let us alone ; what have we to do with thee (1 Kings 18 : 17 ; Acts 16 : 20 ; 17 : 6). —The devil's possession is always for destruc- tion.— The devil promised all the kingdoms of THE EARTH to Jesus (ch. 4:8); HIS agents cannot even take possession of a herd of swine without Christ's permission. — The power and the power- lessness of the devil both exemplified. — to the covetous swine are worth more than the sav- IOUR. — THE SENTENCE OF THE JUDGMENT-DAT, "de- part " (Ch. 23 : 41), WILL ONLT ECHO THE PRATER OF THE SINNER. This miracle is recorded also in Mark 5 : 1-21 and Luke 8 : 26-40, which, with the notes on the latter passage, see for some details omitted here. 28. The other side. The eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Gergesenes. Mark and Luke have Gadarenes, and some manuscripts substitute that word here. For a time the seem- ing conflict between the sacred writers in this respect caused great perplexity to biblical stu- dents, and in the minds of rationalistic critics threw doubt over thetwhole narrative. The city of Gadara is three hours to the south of the southern shore of the lake, and the miracle could not have been performed in its vicinity ; and it is hardly probable that the citizens of so distant a city would have turned out en masse for a jour- ney of three hours to see the one who had wrought this miracle. But recently Dr. William Thompson has discovered a Gergesa, now called Chersa or Gersa, on the eastern shore of the lake, and on the borders of the district or prov- ince which took its name from Gadara, one of the chief cities of Decapolis. This Gersa or Ger- gesa, so insignificant that it has escaped the at- tention of most travelers, was unknown to the Roman world. Mark and Luke therefore, who wrote for the Gentiles, described the miracle as occurring in the country of the Gadarenes, a de- scription which would have been readily com- prehended, since Gadara was one of the chief Roman cities of Palestine, and widely known. Matthew, who had been a tax-gatherer on this very shore, was familiar with every village and hamlet, and wrote for Jewish readers, described it as occurring in the country of the Gergesenes, thus fixing its locality more definitely. Chersa or Gersa answers to all the conditions of the nar- rative : it is within a few rods of the shore ; a mountain rises immediately above it, so near the shore that the swine, rushing madly down, could not stop, but would be inevitably driven on into the water and drowned ; the ruins of ancient tombs are still found in this mountain- side, and Capernaum is in full view on the other side, "over against it" (Luke 8: 26). See Thomp- son's Land and Boole, vol. ii., pp. 34, 35. Two possessed with devils. Mark and Luke mention but one ; probably the fiercer of the two. lie was naked (Luke 8 : 27), had been chained but had broken his chains, and had cut himself with stones until he was doubtless cov- ered with blood. He ran to Jesus and wor- shipped him, i. e., as the devils worship, not by paying him a true reverence, but by a compul- sory acknowledgment of his power. See Mark for a graphic picture of his condition. On the nature of demoniac possession, see below. Out of the tombs. These were caves formed by nature or cut in the rocks, with cells at the sides for the reception of the dead. They were ceremonially unclean (Numb. 19 : 11, if. ; Matt. 23 : 27 ; Luke ii : 44), and dwelling in them was of itself a sign of degradation. Trench (Notes on the Miracles) quotes from Warburtou's Crescent and the Cross a striking illustration of this account : "I found myself in a cemetery, whose sculp- tured turbans showed me that the neighboring 122 MATTHEW. [Cn. VIII. we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ? art thou come hither to torment us before the time ? 30 And there was a good way off from them, an herd of many swine, feeding. 31 So the devils besought him, Baying, If thou cast us out, suffer" us to go away into the herd of swine." 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they wire come out, they went into the herd of swine : and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33 And they that kept them fled, and went their n Job 1 : 10-12 ; 2:3-0 Dcut. 14 : 8 ; Isa. C5 : 3, 4. village was Moslem. The silence of the night was now broken by fierce yells and bowlings, which I discovered proceeded from a naked ma- niac, who was fighting with some wild dogs for a bone. The moment he perceived me he left his canine comrades, and bounding along with rapid strides, seized my horse's bridle, and almost forced him backward over the cliff by the grip he held of the powerful Marmeluke bit." Exceeding fierce. Mark adds that he could neither be tamed nor bound, and Luke that the evil spirit drove him into the wilderness. 29. Comparing this account with Mark and Luke, the facts appear to be that the maniac made a rush towards Jesus and the twelve, per- haps purposing to destroy them; that Christ stopped him by word of command, requiring the evil spirits to leave the man, and that the expos- tulation given in this verse was the devil's re- sponse to that command. Christ then asks his name, and is told it is " Legion." The devils be- seech that they may not be sent "out into the deen " (Luke- 8:31, nndnok), literally into the abyss, i. c, back into their prison-house, but Instead may be suffered to enter into the herd of swine. What have we to do with thee t A com- mon Jewish phrase, signifying a wish not to be troubled by the importunity or the interference of another (jndgei 11 : l»j 8 Bun, 14 i i»; 9 Klngi9 : 1-; Boa 4:3; John 2 : 4). To torment us. Compare Mark 1 : 24. "Herein the true devilish spirit- speaks, one which counts it a torment not to be Buffered to torment others, and an injury done to itself when it is no more permitted to be Injurious to others."— 1 Trench.) Before the time. When the 1 1 < ■ v i 1 and his ;ingds shall be shut, up In the lire prepared lor them (Matt. 8« 1 41 j Jude 6 j Rst.SOsIO). 3d. And there was * * * an herd of many swine. Mark irives the number, aboul 2000. The flesh of swine was forbidden as food by the Levltical law (ur. ii»tj d™i. n: ->. Ii is generally believed that its use in hot countries tends to induce cutaneous disorders, and would render the eater more liable to leprosy and kin- dred diseases, it is to the present day held in great abhorrence among the Jews I oe-.s.n). The rabbinical law forbade the keeping Of swine. Whether this herd was kept by JeWB or by heathen is a matter of uncertainty. The cities of Decapods were largely filled with Ro- mans, with whom swine's flesh was deemed a luxury. 31. So the devils besought him, etc. This, as appears in both Mark and Luke, was in response to Christ's command to the evil spirit to come out of the man. Adam Clark remarks on this passage that since the evil spirit cannot enter the body of even a swine without divine • permission, those need not fear the devil whose trust is in God. 32. It is impossible for an honest interpreter to understand this narrative in any other than its plain and natural sense, viz., that there were evil spirits in the man controlling his personality, that they left him and entered into the herd of swine, and that in consequence, either driven by fright or acting under the impulses of the evil spirits, the entire herd rushed headlong into the sea. Any such pseudo interpretation as that offered by Lange, in his Life of Jesus, but appar- ently abandoned in his Commentary, that the cries of the demoniac man, when the evil spirit came out of him, frightened the herd and threw them into a panic, are not interpretations at all, but the substitution of a new narrative for those which the Evangelists have given us; the sup- position of Mr. Livcrmorc that "Jesus miracu- lously transferred the insanity from the men to the swine " (Liuermore's Commentary, Matt. 8: 32) needs only to be stated ; it bears its own re- futation on its face. The general question of demoniac possession I consider below ; but some special questions, raised by this part of the nar- rative, may be briefly answered here. Why should Christ have permitted tJte evU spirits to enter the swine? A difficult question; but less so than the question why God should have permitted them to enter into the man, or indeed sin to enter into the world at all. Why should they ha\ strayed the herd of swine, and so deprived themselves, so to speak, of a terrestrial abode f Perhaps the act of the bw ine was the resull of panic, and in spite Of the evil spirits. But Trench Well remarks that it is the very nature of evil thus to outwit itself; "stupid, blind, Belf-contradlctory, and suicidal, it can only destroy, and will involve it- M'lf in the common ruin rather than not destroy." Whatrighi had Christ to allow the destruction qf the property of another i IU- had the same right Which be constantly exercises through the de- structive agencies of nature to do what he will with his own. His destroying cattle by murrain, cities b\ earthquakes, ships with their living freight by storm, is all a part of the same in- Ch. VIII.] MATTHEW. 123 ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. 34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus : and when they saw him, they besought Aim that he would depart? out of their coasts. CHAPTER IX. AND he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. 2 And, 1 ) behold, they brought to him a man sick of p Job 21 : 14 ; Luke 6:8; Acta 16 i .q Mark 2 : 3, etc. ; Luke 6 : 18, etc. scrutable mystery. Here we can at least see that the destruction of the herd of swine, standing in contrast with the salvation of the man, has given the cure a significance it could not have possessed otherwise, and their panic-stricken flight affords a sort of testimony, coming from the lowest animals, against the consent which alone allows the devil ever to gain possession of us. If the herdsmen were Jews, they deserved the loss of their herd. How are we to understand the devils entering into the swine, i. e., " the working of the spiritual life in the bestial V We know so little of the means by which even through physical organs of speech, sight, and hearing, one spirit acts upon the other, that we may well admit the mystery of this possession of the swine by an evil spirit. But we daily see the horse and the dog catching the spirit of their master, emboldened by his courage or panic-stricken by his fear ; facts which may illustrate, if they cannot fully explain, how a herd of swine might be possessed by evil spirits. " The very fierceness and gross- ness of these animals may have been exactly that which best fitted them for receiving such impulses from the lower world as those under which they perished." — {Trench.) 33. Went * * * into the city. Not Gadara, which was three hours distant, but Chersa or Gergesa, which was close at hand. See on verse 28. Told everything, and what had be- fallen to the possessed. Evidently first what had befallen the swine entrusted to their keeping, next what salvation had come to the man. 34. The whole city. See note on Matt. 3 : 5. Besought him that he would depart. It appears from Mark and Luke that the sight of the well-known maniac clothed and in his right mind filled the people with fear. Awe at the miracle, mingled with dread because of the de- struction of their property, led them to beseech Christ to depart. The loss of 2000 swine was more to them than the saving of a soul. Ch. 9:1. And he took ship. This verse belongs with the preceding chapter, and narrates Christ's response to the people's request. It does not connect the embarkation for the western shore of Galilee with the miracle following — the healing of the paralytic. See on verse 2. Twice in this narrative Christ hears the prayer whose petition is for evil — the prayer of the evil spirit, which ends in the destruction of the swine and in the exile of the evil spirits and their being driven back from earth into their own place again, and now the prayer of the people that he would depart from their coasts. "God sometimes hears his enemies in anger (Numb. 22 : 19, 20), even as he [sometimes] refuses to hear his friends in love (2 Cor. 12 : 8, 9). ' ' — ( Trench. ) Christ appears never to have visited the country of the Gadarenes again, lie does not abide where he is not wanted (compare Ezod. io: 28, 29; Acta 24 : 25). Mark and Luke add to this account that the demoniac "published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him ;" an incidental evi- dence of the completeness of his cure. And came into his own city, i. e., Capernaum (Matt. 4 : 13). OF DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. Of all the cases of demoniacal possession record- ed in the N. T. this is the most striking. The difficulties peculiar to it have been considered above. It remains to speak briefly of the general subject. The N. T., and especially the Evangelists, re- peatedly mention individuals whom they describe as possessed by devils. For the most part these persons seem to have been harmless ; sometimes, however, of a violent and dangerous character. The possession was often accompanied by physi- cal disease — blindness, dumbness, epilepsy. In one case it accompanied a disorder which was congenital, if not hereditary. The victim seems usually to have been possessed of a double con- sciousness. His acts were unwitting. And when, by the word of Jesus, the devil was cast out, and he appeared clothed and in his right mind, he was with peculiar significance a new creature in Christ JeSUS (Matt. 12 : 22 ; Mark 9 : 18, 20, 21 ; Luke 8 : 29 ; and see references below). In respect to the narratives of these cases two important questions arise : 1st. What are we to suppose the writers meant by their narratives ; i. e., how did they understand these cases. 2d. Is their understanding to be ac- cepted? i. e., did they correctly interpret the phe- nomena which they recorded, or are we to give to those phenomena, in the light of modern sci- ence, a different interpretation ? In respect to the first question there is really no difficulty. It was the universal belief of their age, both among the Jews and among the hea- then, that evil spirits operated upon and some- times controlled both nature and the human 124 MATTHEW. [Ch. VIII. 60ul. Disease was often, and lunacy was gen- erally, attributed to the influence of evil spirits. The Evangelists unquestionably believed and intended to be understood as asserting that the persons described as possessed with evil or un- clean spirits were really and literally under the control of disembodied spirits, agents of Satan. They are frequently distinguished from those afflicted with mere physical disorders (Mark 1 : 32; it;:i-,i8; Luke 6 : n, is) ; the demons are distin- guished, nowhere, perhaps, more clearly than in this narrative, from the persons whom they con- trol, and are represented as recognizing in Jesus the Son of God, a title not given to him even by his disciples until toward the close of his minis- try (see vane 29 ; Mark 1 : 24 ; 5:7; Luke 4:41; compare Matt. 16 : 16). No honest interpreter can doubt that the Evangelists shared the common opinion of their day, and intended to be understood as asserting that these individuals were under the control of evil spirits, and that Christ literally emancipated them from this diabolical servitude, and cast the evil spirits out. The second question is really the only one in the case, viz. : Did they correctly interpret the phenomena which they recorded, or are we to give to those phenomena, in the light of modern science, a different interpretation ? It is certain that they bear a curiously strik- ing resemblance to cases of what is in modern scientific language called "moral insanity." In both there is a clear recognition of the dif- ference between right and wrong ; in both there is the testimony of the patient that he is impelled by a power beside himself ; both are accompa- nied sometimes by acts of violence, sometimes by attempts at suicide ; both are, iu their worst forms, attended with epileptic convulsions ; both are frequently manifested in periodic returns of disorder, with intervals of sanity ; both are some- times traceable to willful self-indulgence in some form of sin as their provoking cause; and in both there is at times, in a remarkable degree, an appreciation of the character of persons with whom the insane are thrown in contact, who are sometimes peculiarly affected by the presence of persons of a pure and holy character (Mark 1 : 21 ; 5 : 6, 9; 9 : 17, 18—99; Luke 4 : :i:i). The reader who is CU- rious to investigate this parallelism will find the material iu Abbott's Jesus of Nazareth, chap. 18, and still more full reports of modern cases analogous to the demoniacal possession of the N. T., in Ray's Medical Jurisprudence, chap. 7, $5, pp. 203-360; Henry Maudsley's Physiology and Pathology "f the Mind, chap. 8, pp. 808-816, and Forties Window's Obscure Diseases of the Brain a, ni Mi nil, pp. L79-311. These parallels have led a certain class of <-rit [CS to tin- conclusion that the persons described in the N. T. as possessed of eviJ spirits were in fact only lunatics, and that the narrative of their disease and their cure is to be interpreted accordingly. The great majority of Evangelical scholars agree, however, in the opinion that the individuals described as pos- sessed by evil spirits, were really under their control, and that the cures described consisted in fact, as well as in appearance, in the casting out of the evil spirit. This opinion, which I think is the only one consistent with belief in the his- torical trustworthiness of the Scriptures, or con- fidence in the truthfulness of Christ, rests on the following grounds : — 1st. It best accords with the facts testified to by modern science, if not best with its hypotheses. In certain of the cases of so-called "moral insanity," the patient not only recognizes the difference between right and wrong, and ab- hors the crime to the commission of which he is impelled, seemingly by a will stronger than his own, but subsequently, in his sane moments, or previously, in anticipation of the paroxysm, de- clares himself conscious of the indwelling of another spirit too strong for his resistance, and asserts that he is "prompted by Satan," while on the other hand medical examination, in many cases, fads to find any physical cause for the phenomena. These circumstances have led some of the highest authorities in mental disease to acknowledge the cause of those forms of "moral insanity" to be inscrutable (see both Henry Maudsley and Forbes Winslow), aud others to recognize demoniacal possession, as a modern phenomenon, to be the most probable and rational explanation of them. This is the view of Es- quirol, who stands at the head of the French school, if not of all schools, as a student of men- tal disorders. 2d. It best accords with other teach- ings of Scripture. This represents that there is a world of disembodied spirits, both good and bad ; that they are not wholly separated from man, but exert a powerful influence upon him ; that their influence is not a thing of the past, but that the Christian has still need to watch and pray against it (judges 9 : 2a ; 1 Sam. 16 : 14-23 ; 18 : 10, 11 ; 19 : 9, 10 ; 1 Kings 22 : 22 ; Luke 22 : 31 ; John 13 : 27 ; Acts 5 : 3 ; 2 Cor. 4:4; Epha. 6:11,19) 1 Tim. 3:7; 1 Pet 5 : s). 3d. // OCCOTdS with the teaching and conduct of Jesus Christ. He distinctly recognized the personality and presence of demons, distinct from the man in whom they were, and from whom they were cast out (Mark 1 :•..'.;.'.: 9 ; 9 :.'.'. : Luke 10 : 17-20 ; 11 : 17-26). Either his words are falsely reported, i. e., demoniacal pos- session is a mythical addition of a later date, or he was himself under a delusion respecting these cases, i. c, he shared the Ignorance and supersti- tion of his age, or lie ratified and confirmed that superstition for the purpose of adding to his preBtlge by seeming to cast out spirits that had u<> existence ; ''. < ., he lent himself to imposture, or evU spirits really exercised a control over tin im- pulses dial the will of those whom they were sent to Cn. IX.] MATTHEW. 125 the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, r be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee. 3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. 4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts, 8 said, Where- fore think ye evil in your hearts ? 5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; or to say, Arise, and walk ? 6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive' sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. 7 And he arose, and departed to his house. 8 But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified" God, which had given such power unto men. 9 And' as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a •Mark 5: 34....aPs. 139 : 2 ; John 2 : 4, 25 ; Heb. 4 : 12, 13 ; Rev. 2 : 23. . . .t Micah 7 : Luke 5 : 27, etc. 18. . . .u Acts 4 : 21 ; Gal. 1 : 24. . . .v Mark 2 : 14 ; possess, and Christ really drove them out from their possession, and emancipated the soul from their con- trol. If the question is asked why this demoniac possession is unknown now, the answer is, that it is not unknown ; that, on the contrary, demo- niacal possession is the most natural explanation of certain forms of so-called " moral insanity ; " that it should exist in less degree and extent is just what we should expect from the declarations of Scripture (zech. 13 : 2; uohn3:8). How far the victim of demoniacal possession was responsible for his condition, how far he is to be regarded as guilty, and how far as simply unfortunate, is a difficult if not an insoluble question. "The com- mon characteristic of all was cowardice, a cow- ardly surrender of a weak and lowered conscious- ness to wicked influences." — (Lange.) Every such surrender by the soul is one step toward a com- plete enthrallment of the soul by evil, though that enthrallment rarely becomes complete in this life. Ch. 9 : 2-8. Healing of the paralttic. The accounts of thi3 miracle in Mark 2 : 1-12, and Luke 5 : 17-26, are fuller than that given here. From these accounts it appears that the crowd was so great that the friends of the para- lytic could not reach the house in which Christ was teaching, and that they uncovered the roof and let the patient down with the bed or mat- tress on which he was lying. This constituted the evidence of their faith, commended by the Lord. The miracle took place, not, as might be supposed, on Christ's return from the country of the Gadarenes, but more probably at about the time of the healing of the leper, recorded in Matt. 8 : 2-4. For notes on the miracle see Mark 2 : 1-12. Ch. 9 : 9-13. THE CALL OF MATTHEW.— A bad busi- ness IS A POOR EXCUSE FOR NOT FOLLOWING CHRIST ; FOLLOW HIM OUT OP IT.— THE POWER OF CHRIST'S CALLING : IT SUMMONS FROM ALL RANKS AND ALL AVO- CATIONS.— Christ's sociability the true model op Christian sociability.— A right and a wrong way to associate with sinners ; a right and a wrong way to be separate from them. christ ate with 8inner9 but was separate from them ; the phari- sees scorned them but were one with them. — mat- thew an example of a fisner of men : called him- self, he calls others. — sln is both a weakness and A DISEASE ; PERSONAL SYMPATHY AFFORDS SPIRITUAL STRENGTH AND IS A SPIRITUAL MEDICINE. — THERE IS LESS RELIGION IN SACRIFICE WITHOUT MERCY THAN LN MERCY WITHOUT SACRIFICE ; TRUE RELIGION CONSISTS IN SACRIFICE AND MERCY. — THE EXCLUDED AND THE INCLUDED IN CHRIST'S CALLING: THE EXCLUDED ALL THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS J THE INCLUDED ALL CONSCIOUS OF SIN. The call of a publican, and a subsequent feast given by him in honor of the Lord, are recorded by Mark 2 : 13-17, and Luke 5 : 27-32 ; but in Mark and Luke the publican is called Levi. Matthew never speaks of himself as Levi in his own gospel, and is never spoken of as Levi by the other Evangelists in any other passage. This has led some commentators to suppose that there were two persons and two feasts, a suppo- sition which is quite improbable, and is now universally rejected. Changes of name in com- memoration of any great event were not uncom- mon among the Jews, of which the cases of Abram or Abraham, Jacob or Israel, and Saul of Tarsus or Paul (Gen. 17 : 5 ; 32 : 28 ; Acts 13 : 9) are strik- ing illustrations ; that of Simon changed to Peter (John 1 : 42, and note there) i8 Still HlOre in point. If, as is probable, the name Matthew means the same as the modern name Theodore, Gift of God or Given to God, its very significance would help to ac- count for the change. Chrysostom and Jerome note the "self-denial of the Evangelist who dis- guises not his former life, but adds even his name, when the others had concealed him under another appellation." Observe that in ch. 10 : 3 Matthew calls himself "Matthew the publican," while neither Mark nor Luke so characterize him in the lists of the apostles. There can be no doubt that the call of Matthew preceded the Sermon on the Mount, which was an ordination sermon following the solemn consecration of the twelve to their apostolic office (Luke g : 13-20) ; nor that it immediately succeeded the cure of the paralytic, with which Matthew directly connects it by his phrase "as Jesus passed forth from thence." At what time the feast was given by Matthew to Christ is not so certain. All the Evangelists connect it with the call of Matthew ; it is a ra- tional supposition that Matthew gave it at this time ; in that case he would naturally invite his old associates to the feast ; whereas, after enter- ing on his apostolate, and breaking off his old 126 MATTHEW. [Cn. IX. man. named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom : ami he saith unto him, Follow inc. And lie arose, and followed him. 10 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. life with them, he would be less likely to invite them ; and it seems almost certain that this feast preceded the charges brought against Jesus, and recorded in Matthew 11 : 19. On the other hand, Matthew connects this feast directly with the healing of Jairus' daughter (see vene is, below), which Mark and Luke place immediately after the cure of the Gadareue demoniac, but without any defi- nite note of time. The better opinion is that the feast was given at the time of Matthew's call, though this is by no means certain. Accepting this opinion, and combining the ac- counts of the three Evangelists, the fact and its significance may be concisely stated thus : Christ calls a tax-gatherer to leave his office and join the band of itinerant disciples ; the call is ac- cepted with alacrity ; and as a means of knowing his new master, and at the same time bringing him to a knowledge of his old associates, Levi gives a feast to which both Christ and his disci- ples, and his own former companions, are invited. At the same time he takes on the new name of Matthew, which he henceforth bears. By ac- cepting the invitation Christ enters into familiar intercourse with a class of men whose moral character was bad, whose reputation was worse, and whose iniquitous avocation was justly odious to all men. The Pharisees ask the disciples, tauntingly, for an explanation, and Christ replies by declaring his object to be the elevation and redemption of sinners, and by referring them to the Scriptures which they pretended to teach, but whose spirit they totally misapprehended (s Cor. 3 : is, ig), as the authority for his course. 9. As Jesus passed forth from thence. This indisputably connects the call of Matthew with the preceding miracle, and places both in the period of Christ's earlier ministry in Galilee, where it is placed by Mark. Chrysostom ob- serves that Christ calls Matthew immediately after having asserted and demonstrated in the preceding miracle his power to forgive sins. Matthew. Luke says that he was the son of AlphffiUB. This was a not uncommon name among the Jews. It is not probable it was the same Alphams who is described In Matthew 10 : '■'> (wo note there) as the father of James. This is the first mention of Matthew in the Gospels. On his life and character, see note at end at chapter 10. Sitting at the receipt of custom. The taxes levied by the Roman government on the inhabitants of Palestine maybe roughly divided into two classes— internal taxes and tolls. The former included all taxes levied OS persons and property directly; the latter, all cus- toms levied on goods in transit ; and answered to our modern custom dues. They are distin- guished in Rom. 13 : 7 as tribute and custom. The customs were levied on all goods imported for trade, though not, ordinarily, on such as were imported for the purchaser's personal use ; they were levied at harbors, piers, and gates of cities ; they amounted to a sum varying at differ- ent times from one-eighth to one-fortieth of the value of the goods ; any attempt at concealment was punished by the confiscation of the articles. Matthew probably sat in the custom-house of Capernaum to gather some rate or toll of those that crossed the sea. Luke adds that he was a publican (see also Matt. io : 3) ; and some knowledge of the character of the publicans is necessary to understand the significance of his call and the attending circumstances, as well as to ex- plain the frequent references to them in the N. T. Of the publicans. These were inferior offi- cers employed as collectors of the Roman taxes, which were of a character to make any collector sufficiently odious. Every article exported or imported paid a customs-tax ; every article sold paid a tax on each sale ; every house, every door, every column, had its special tax ; all property, real and personal, was taxed ; and the citizens of subordinate provinces, including therefore the Jews, paid in addition a poll-tax. The method of collecting these taxes made them the more burdensome, and those employed in their collec- tion more odious. The provinces were farmed out by the Roman government to wealthy indi- viduals, or joint-stock companies, who paid large sums for the privilege of collecting the taxes. They in turn let these provinces in smaller dis- tricts to 6ub-contractors, who employed in the collection of the taxes the lowest and worst class of the native population, since no others would assume a task so hateful. They were re- quired to pay over to their superiors the exorbi- tant sum fixed by the law, and depended for their profit on what they could make by fraud and extortion. They overcharged, brought false charges of smuggling to extort hush-money, seized upon property in case of dispute and held it until their levy was paid, forbade the farmer to reap his standing crops until they had wrung from him all that his penury could produce. They were universally feared, hated, and de- spised throughout the empire ; but nowhere more than in Palestine. The Jews not only ae counted all payment Of tribute to a foreign and heathen government as a national degradation, but also the servitude which compelled such payment as a condition dishonoring to God ; Oh. IX.] MATTHEW. 127 ii And when the Pharisees saw ?V, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners ? w 12 But when Jesus heard tkat, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I* will have mercy, and not sacrifice : for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.^ 14 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not ? w ch. 11 : 19 ; Luke 15 ; 2 ; Heb. 5 : 2. . . .x cb.. 12 : 7 ; Prov. 21 : 3 ; Holea 6:6; Micah 6 : 8. . . .y Luke 24 : 47 ; Acts 5 : 31 ; 2 Pet. 3 : 9. hence the publicans were in their eyes not only odious as tax-collectors, but yet more hateful as traitors to their nation and apostates from their religious faith. The Talmud classes them with thieves and assassins, and regards their repent- ance as impossible. No money known to have come from them was received for religious uses. They were classed with sinners, with harlots, With heathen in public estimation, and probably in their actual and customary companionships (Matt. 9:11; 11 : 19 ; 18 : 17 ; 21 : 31, 32). Nor Was their ill-repute confined to the Holy Land. Cicero de- clares theirs to be the basest of all livelihoods. It was a current Latin proverb throughout the empire, "All the publicans are altogether rob- bers." Even Nero made an attempt to abolish both the nefarious system and the order of pub- licans which sprang from it, but their moneyed influence was too great, and he abandoned the endeavor. It was out of the lower class of these publicans that Matthew was called ; and from them and their natural associates the guests were composed who attended the feast which Matthew gave. 10. In the house, i. e., in Matthew's house. He gave the feast (Luke 5 : 29), using it, as a fisher of men, to catch his old associates. Reclined with him. The posture at meal was that of reclining, as indicated in the cut. Thus, to recline at table ivith publicans and sinners was to come into the most intimate social relations with them. That culture which is so refined that it cannot bear con- tact with the sinful is not Christian culture. 11. Unto his disciples. Not to Christ, of whom they habitually stood in awe (compare Matt. 22 : 46). Perhaps there was in this question an en- deavor to estrange the disciples from their Lord. Luke says they murmured, i. e., talked over in a low voice privately, not intending that Jesus should hear. Their complaint was probably made subsequent to the feast ; for the Pharisees could not have been present at it without stulti- fying themselves. Why eateth. Observe the tenor of the complaint ; it is not that he taught sinners, but that he associated with them. The same complaint would be made now against any clergyman who should associate with the same outlawed class in the community. It is not always true that the man is known by the company he keeps ; nor always true that we are to avoid bad company. There is no instance in the Gospels in which Christ refused an invitation to a social gathering ; and none in which he refused to asso- ciate with any on account of their social or moral character, though both he and Paul recognize the necessity of casting some out from all fel- lowship With US (Matt. 18 : 17 ; 1 Cor. 5 : 9). But the significance of Christ's social life is interpreted by the two verses which follow, and by his uniform practice of availing himself of these social op- portunities to teach some truth to or to inspire a higher life in the guests of the occasion (Luke n ■■ 38, etc. ; 14 : 1, etc. ; 19 : S-lo). 12, 13. Jesus * * * said unto them. The disciples made no answer. It is possible that they were as much perplexed as the Pharisees (see Acts 10 : 14, is). It is not improbable that they were overawed by the assumed religious superiority and purity of the religious teachers of Judaism. They that be whole ; rather, strong. Sin is a disease needing cure ; it is a moral weakness ; the victim needs moral strength rather than in- struction ; and it is through social fellowship that the way is opened to impart the needed strength to the moral nature and enable it to conquer its temptations. 13, Go ye and learn. This is said to have been a common form of speech among the Jewish rabbis when they referred their hearers to the Scriptures ; Jesus thus treats the religious teach- ers as themselves pupils, and sends them to their own sacred writings to study their meaning. "He signifies that not he 'was transgressing the law, but they ; as if he had said, Whereof accuse me ? Because I bring sinners to amendment ? Why then ye must accuse the Father also for this."— (Chrysostom.) I will have mercy and not sacrifice. The quotation appears to be from Hosea (5 : (>, bu t its spirit is embodied in many passages in the O. T. (1 Sam. is : 22; Ps. so : 8-15) ; es- pecially in the prophets (isaiah 1 : 11-17 ; Amos 5 : 21-24 ; Mic 6-. 7,s). It would appear utterly incomprehen- sible that the Bible students of the first century could have failed to apprehend the meaning of 128 MATTHEW. [Ch. IX. 15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom 2 is with them ? but the days will come, when the bride- groom shall be taken from them, and then shall" they fast. 16 No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old z ch. 25 : 1, 10 ; John 3 : 29 ; Rev. 21 : 2. . . .a Isa. 22 : 12. these passages, and have discovered only a re- ligion of fruitless formalism in the O. T., were there not so many similar misinterpreters at the present day. Sacrifice was the chief part of the ceremonial law, and represents here the religion of formal obedience to ceremonial rules ; mercy expresses that spirit of love to the fallen which seeks their restoration. The very essence of the Jewish sacrificial system was that it expressed the infinite mercy of God, in providing a way of pardon for sin. To be without the spirit of mercy was really to lose the meaning and heart of the sacrifices ; as now, to hold to the doctrine of Christ's atoning sacrifice, but to be without the spirit which leads to personal self-sacrifice for the salvation of others, is to be without the spirit Of Christ (PhU 2 : 5, etc. ; 1 John 3 : 16). Not * * * the righteous but sinners. This is not exactly equivalent to "those who think themselves righteous" and "those who confess themselves sinners," as Wordsworth ex- plains it. Christ takes the Pharisees at their own estimation of themselves, and the publicans at the Pharisees' estimation of them, and says : "I have come to preach the doctrine of repentance as the condition of entering the kingdom of heaven (Mutt. 4: 17). Evidently the doctrine of repentance is for sinners such as these publicans are, not for the righteous such as you are !" It is in so far a keen irony of their self-righteous- ness. Chrysostom refers to Gen. 3 : 22 and Psalm 50 : 12, as similarly ironical. Compare for significance of the entire passage John 9 : 30-41 ; ITim. 1:15; Rev. 3:17. To repentance. These words are not found here or in Mark in the best manuscripts ; but there is no doubt of their authenticity in Luke, and therefore no doubt that they are a part of Christ's response, and qualify and interpret his declaration. He comes to sinners that he may bring sinners to himself ; he does not conform to them, but conforms them to him by the renewing of their minds. His ex- ample is authority for social mingling with sin- ners, but not for acquiescing in or giving even tacit sanction to their sinful practices. These words, "to repentance," are the answer to the charge of Celsus (second century). "Jesus Christ came Into the world to make the most terrible and dreadful society, for he calls sinners and not the righteous ; so that the body he came to assemble is a body of profligates, separate from good people, among whom they were be- f ore mixed, lie has rejected all the good and collected all the bad." Ch. 9 : 14-17. OF FASTING.— Tub cause op Chris- tian JOT IS THE PRESENCE OF ClIRIST ; TUE CAUSE OP Christian mourning is his withdrawal — The jot- ousness of the religion op jesus ; it is a wedding feast.— True and false fasting.— The law op Christian reformation: entire, internal.— The new life cannot be patched upon the old; the new spirit cannot be contained in old forms. — the fermenting power of the gospel. This incident is recorded also in Mark 2 : 18-22 and Luke 5 : 33-38, and in the same connection. No doubt it occurred on the occasion of Mat- thew's feast. 14. The disciples of John, i. c, the Bap- tist. Luke adds "and the Pharisees." John the Baptist was in prison ; he was himself per- plexed by the course of Christ's mission (Matt. 11 : 2,3); it is not strange that his disciples felt ag- grieved that Jesus, instead of sorrowing and fasting over the national degeneracy that suf- fered the imprisonment of their master, should be feasting with publicans and sinners. Observe how, customarily, Christ left his sometimes enig- matical example to work out its own effect with- out explaining it, unless called on for an expla- nation. We and the Pharisees fast oft. Mark says they "used to fast ;" literally, " fasting " which may mean that at this time they were observing a fast, with which the joyousness of Matthew's feast seemed incongruous. In addition to the fast of the Day of Atonement, prescribed by Moses (Lev. 23 : se-as), the Jews had instituted several national fasts, chiefly to com- memorate respectively the several captures of Jerusalem by alien armies; special fasts were also Common (Esther 4 : 15-17 j Jer. 36 : 9 ; Joel 1 : 14) ; and the stricter of the Pharisees observed the fifth and the second day of every week (Luke is : 12) as a fast day, because on the fifth Moses was be- lieved to have gone up into Sinai, and on the sec- ond to have comedown. Fast- were connected with their superstitions as well as with their religion ; they fasted to obtain auspicious dreams, or to secure the fulfillment of a dream, or to escape the fulfillment of an inauspicious dream, or to secure any desired object, or avert any threatened ill. This fasting was sometimes an absolute deprivation of all food, sometimes only an exclusion of all viands but those of the simplest and plainest description (Do. 10 : 2, 3). 15. Children of the bridechamber. The companions of the bridegroom, answering to our modern groomsmen. The wedding ceremonies of the Jews lasted often for days; the bride- Ch. IX.] MATTHEW. 129 garment ; for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. 17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else b the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. groom, with the children of the bridechamber, went to the house of the bride, and brought her to the bridegroom's house, where a great feast was given ; the nuptials were always celebrated with great festivities and mirth ; and the Tal- mud, which forbade to eat, to drink or to wash the face on the Day of Atonement, made an ex- ception in favor of the bride. The simile used by Christ could not fail to recall to the disciples of John their master's use of the same simile (John 3 : 29), whom Christ thus cites, though indi- rectly, in answer to their question. The signifi- cance of the metaphor is unmistakable. Christ is tfie bridegroom ; the church is the bride ; the or- dained teachers in the church are the children of the bridechamber, who are instrumental in bringing to- gether bride and groom; the whole period of time intermediate Christ's first public ministry and his second coming is the wedding-feast, during which the children of the bridechamber are bringing their Lord to the bride ; the marriage-supper of the Lamb in the heavenly kingdom is the final consummation of the wedding ceremony. There is significance in the fact that this metaphor employed in the 0. T. to designate the relation between God and his chosen people is used in the N. T. to symbolize the relation between Christ and his Church (isa. 54 : 5 : Jer. 3 : 14 ; Hosea 2 : 19, 20 ; Matt. 22 : 1-14 ; 25 : 1-13 ; Eph. 5 : 30-32; Rev. 19 : 7). Mourn. Observe that, while John's disciples ask why Christ's disciples do not fast, he replies that they cannot mourn. Fasting is only the external symbol of mourning, or its natural expression and effect ; where there is no mourning, there is no virtue in fasting. Luke's report is : " Can ye make the child of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?" i. e., Can you by laws and regula- tions make them while in the period of their joy, fast in truth? Shall be taken from them. The first distinct intimation afforded by Christ of his own crucifixion. Its meaning can have been but imperfectly understood by either the disciples of John or by his own disciples ; but its pathos could not but have been felt. Shall they fast. Rather, will they fast ; it is not im- perative, but simply prophetic ; it indicates a fact, it does not embody a command. In fact, the disciples suffered no persecution while Christ lived, and neither knew any especial experience of mourning, prior to his passion, nor observed any seasons of fasting. Luther remarks on the two kinds of self-denial and suffering, the one which we inflict on ourselves (1 Kings is ■. 2s), the other that which God lays upon us, and to which we cheerfully submit (John is : 11). There is no virtue in the first ; there is benefit in the second. What does Christ here teach respecting the obliga- tion of fasting ? The laws of Moses prescribed many feast days and but one fast day. Christ himself prescribed no set fasts, and none were observed by the apostolic church. But occa- sional fasts were observed throughout the O. T. history by the JeWS (l Sam. 7:6; Neh. 1 : 4 ; Joel 2 : 12. Compare isaiah 58 : 3-6), and in the N. T. history both by Christ and his apostles (Matt. 4:2; Acts 13 = 2,3; 14:23). Reading Christ's declaration in the light of this history, the plain inference from it ap- pears to be this : Fasting is the expression of mourning ; while Christ was with his disciples in the body, there was no occasion for mourning or fasting; so when the soul is conscious of his spiritual presence, when the bridegroom is with, the children of the bridechamber, they cannot be made to fast in reality and truth ; but whenever Christ has withdrawn from the soul, whenever times of darkness hide, or experiences of sin banish him from the soul, or the strong need of a clearer sense of his presence overcomes the de- sire for food, or a failure in his work indicates a lack of his presence and power (Matt, n : 21), then there will be fasting. In other words, fasting is Christian only when it is the natural expression of a Christian experience. "Fasting should be the genuine offspring of inward and spiritual sor- row, of the sense of the absence of the Bride- groom in the soul — not the forced and stated fasts of the old covenant, now passed away. It is an instructive circumstance, that in the Re- formed Churches, while those stated fasts which were retained at their first emergence from popery are universally disregarded even by their best and holiest sons, nothing can be more affect- ing and genuine than the universal and solemn observance of any real occasion of fasting placed before them by God's providence." — (Afford.) 16. No man puts a patch of unfinished (unf idled) material upon an old garment ; for the patch tears away from the gaT= ment and a worse rent takes place. The student will get the significance of the original in several particulars which may escape him otherwise, if he will compare this transaction* with that of our English version. Garments ra- the East were made sometimes of leather, some- times of cloth. The leather which had not been dressed, and the cloth which had not been fulled, i. e., soaked and cleansed with water, 130 MATTHEW. [Ch. IX. 18 While c he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead : but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. d 19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 20 And, e behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment ; 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment/ I shall be whole. 22 But Jesus turned him about ; and when he saw e Mark 5: 22; Luke 8 : 41, etc.... d John 11 : 25. ...e Mark 5 : 25; Luke 8 : 43. . ..f Acts 19 : 12. was sure to shrink, and if such undressed or un- fulled (not merely new) material was used in re- pairing a garment it would soon tear out the old cloth ; the consequence would be, not that the old rent would be made worse, but that a new and worse rent would be produced. Luke (ch. 5 : 36) puts it a little differently, see note there ; and he gives the reason of the new rent, "the piece that was taken out of the new, agreeth not with the old." The disciples of John the Baptist looked not for a new religion, but for a re-formation, a patching up of the old Jewish religion. To them Christ responds that he has come to give the world new garments, not to patch the old ones ; any at- tempt to attach his religion of the spirit of love to the old religion of forms would be sure to make a worse state of things than that which he attempted to cure ; both because the old is old, worn out, and can bear no strain, and because the new is new, and has as yet, as it exists in the minds of the disciples, none of that flexibility which would enable it to adapt itself to the pre- judices and prepossessions of others. The spirit in the apostolic church which was offended and stumbled at eating meat offered to idols, repre- sents the old garment ; the spirit which could not yield, and for the sake of others abstain, represents the unfulled piece Of Cloth (Romans 14 : 14, 15). It is true that the apostle sought to fuse these two factions, but by instructions which destroyed the factions and drove out the spirit of intolerance from the one, and of headiness or impatience from the other. In every religious refor- mation some have at- tempted to put on new patches on old garments ; e. a., John the Baptist, Erasmus, the Old Catholics of to-day. Let us beware lest, In our own souls, we attempt patch- work reformation. 17. New wine into old bottles. The bot- tles of the East were and still are made of the skins < >f animals, the entrails being taken out, Hie form of the animal preserved, and the hair lefl on the Outside. Heine the reference to wine bottles of the Gibeouites u old and rent and bound up" ANCIENT BOTTLE. (From a painting at Pompeii.) (Joshua 9 : 4). "New wine " is wine not yet fully fermented. In its fermenting it expands and would thus burst the bottle. Establishing new truths in tlie hearts of men is always by a jirocess of fermentation ; of excitement and agitation. To confine new truths in old forms only results in shat- tering the old. Note as examples the effect of Old Catholicism in Germany, and the ecclesiastical reformation of Henry VIII in England. "The new wine is something too living and 6trong for so weak a moral frame ; it shatters the fair outside of ceremonial seeming ; and the wine runneth out, the spirit is lost, the man is neither a blameless Jew nor a faithful Christian •, both are spoiled. " — (Alford. ) The connection of these two verses with the preceding question about fasting is unmistak- able. Fasting was prescribed by the old dispen- sation and still more by the Pharisees as a law, as it still is by the Roman Catholics. Christ's sys- tem recognizes no other law than that of love ; and it cannot be patched on to one which makes a virtue of a fast. But here, as often, Christ takes occasion of a question which relates only to an external service to enunciate a principle of much broader application. In so far as the soul receives the spirit of Christ as a new inspiration, it will ivork out for itself a new expression ; it may use but it cannot be confined within old forms, whether of devotional expression or of doctrinal statement. 18-26. Raising of Jaihus' daughter. Heal- ing OF WOMAN WITH. ISSUE OF BLOOD. It is clear from the account here that these two mira- cles were wrought immediately after Matthew's feast. They are recorded in Mark 5 : 22-43 and Luke 8 : 41-56 as immediately succeeding Christ's return from the land of the Gergesenes, and his easting out of the devil there. It appears from their accounts that -J aims was a ruler of the syna- goguc, probably at Capernaum, that his daughter was twelve years old, that the first message to Jesus was that she was dying, and that after- wards a second message was sent him, while he was on his way to the ruler's house, to the effect that she was already dead ; the two being embod- ied in one message In Matthew's account, and that the father and mother of the girl, with Peter, James and John, went with him into the room, and were witnesses of her resurrection from the dead. The accounts in Mark and Luke also give details respecting the healing of the woman with Ch. IX.] MATTHEW. 131 her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort ; thye faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. h 23 And' when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw theJ minstrels and the people making a noise, 24 He said unto them, Give place ; for the maid is not dead,* but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 25 But when the people were put forth, 1 he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. 26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. 27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David,™ have mercy on us. 28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him : and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this ? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. 29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. 30 And their eyes were opened : and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know" it. g Luke 7 : BO ; IT : 19 ; 18 : 42 ; Acts 14 : 9. . . .h John 4 : 53 i Mark 5 : 38 4: 33, etc.... inch. 15: 22; 20: 30,31. :51....j! !: 16; Isi . 35: 25.... k Acta 20 : 10.... 1 2 Kings an issue of blood, omitted by Matthew. See for notes on the two miracles, Mark 5 : 23-43. Ch. 9 : 27-34. HEALING OF THE BLIND AND THE DUMB. — Christ the Light of the world (John 8 : 12). He makes the blind to see (John 9 : 39).— Per- sistent faith follows Christ despite his seeming refusal to hear (Matthew 15 : 21-28).— The gift of God is to us according to our faith (Hebrews 11 : 6).— True faith illustrated ; personal trust in a personal Saviour. — Silence for Christ is some- times AS SACRED A DUTY AS SPEECH. — He MAKETH THE dumb to speak (Psalm 51 : 15). These incidents are peculiar to Matthew. Other cases of healing of the blind are recorded in Matt. 12 : 22 ; 20 : 29-34 ; 21 : 1-t ; Mark 8 : 22- 26 ; Luke 7 : 21 ; and John, ch. 9. Blindness is very common in the East ; the dust, the hot sun, the sleeping in the open air, are among the causes said to produce it. Trench quotes a " modern traveler " as reporting that there are four thousand blind in Cairo alone ; Volney says that out of one hundred persons he met in that city twenty were quite blind, ten wanted each one eye, and twenty others suffered from ophthal- mia. Blindness is not as common in Syria as in Egypt, but the references in the Scripture indi- cate that it was not infrequent (Lev. 19 : 14 ; Dent. 27 : is). This is also indicated by the fact that it was prophesied respecting the Messiah as one of the signs of his character and mission that he should open the eyes of the blind (isaiah 29 : 18 ; 35 : 5 ; 42 : 7). There is nothing in the original to indi- cate the nature or cause of the blindness in this case. It is worthy of note that the cure was instantaneous and complete, so that the blind men apparently straightway went out from his presence to proclaim their cure ; whereas in all cases of natural cure the eyes must go through a long process of protection from extreme light which in their weakened state they cannot bear. 27 % And when Jesus departed thence. Possibly from the house, perhaps from Caper- naum, perhaps from that general region of coun- try ; the phrase is very vague and does not iden- tify the time or place of the cure. Crying : Rather, calling aloud, as Bartimeus did (Mark 10: 46,47). Son of David. A common appellation among the Jews for the Messiah (Matt. 21 : 9 ; 22 : -i? ; Ezek. 34 : 23, 24). Thus their appeal was a confession of their faith not only in his power to heal as a physician, or a prophet, but a distinct recogni- tion of his Messianic character. Have mercy on us. Physiological ailments were accounted among the Jews as an indication of and a punishment for special sin (John 9 : 2). The spir- itual significance of this cry is not to be pressed here ; nothing more is necessarily signified by the original than Have pity on us. Yet as disease is a fruit and a type of sin, so healing is a fruit and a type of divine mercy in the strictest sense of that term. The cry of suffering to God is always a cry for mercy as well as for pity. 28. And when he was come into the house. Possibly, as Dr. Adam Clark, " the house of Peter at Capernaum where he ordi- narily lodged." But the phrase does not neces- sarily indicate any particular house ; "merely as we sometimes use the phrase ' the house ' as op- posed to ' the open air. ' ' ' — (Alford. ) Why should our Lord wait until he comes into the house be- fore he answers their prayer ? Chrysostom re- plies : " To repel the glory that cometh from the multitude. Because the house was near he leads them thither to heal them in private. And this is evident from the fact that he charged them to tell no man." Calvin, and so most of the com- mentators, that he may try the pertinacity of their faith, not only by his subsequent inquiiy, but also by his seeming to withdraw from them without heeding their request. He thus also illustrates the virtue of that importunity of prayer which he subsequently enforces by his direct teaching (Luke 11 : 5-8; 18:1-9). He further sounds the depths of their faith by a question : Believe ye that I am able to do this ? In the light of the prophecies above referred to (note on ver. 26) this was again a question as to their faith in him, not as a mere prophet, but as the Messiah. " He did not say, Believe ye that I am able to entreat my Father, that I am able to pray, but that I am able to do this?" — (Chry- sostom. ) 29. He touched their eyes. He is never 132 MATTHEW. [Ch. IX. 31 But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. 32 As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man" possessed with a devil. 33 And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake : p and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. 34 But the Pharisees said, Hei casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. 35 And r Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep' having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest' truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few ; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth" labourers into his harvest. >ch. 12: 22; Luke 11 : 14. .plsa. 35 : 6....qch. 12 : 24; Mark 3 : 22 ; Luke 11 : 15. . . .r ch. 4 : 23. . . .s Numb. 27 : 17 ; 1 Kings 22 : 17 ; Exsk. o4 : 5; Zech. 10 : 2 t Luke 10 : 2 ; John 4 : 35 u !■». 63 : 11. said to have healed the hlind by a mere word, but always, where any details are given, used 60me instrumentality (Matt. 20 ; 34 ; Mark 8 : 23 ; John 9 : 6,7). According to your faith be it unto you. The universal answer of God to all our prayers for spiritual blessings. He is ready to grant more than we can ask or even think ; but we can receive only in proportion as our faith is prepared to receive. " Faith which in itself is nothing is yet the organ for receiving every- thing. ' ' — ( Trench . ) 30-31. Straitly charged. The original word occurs in Mark 11 : 5, where it is rendered murmured, and in John 11 : 33, 38, where it is ren- dered groan. He so charged them as to imply indignation if they disobeyed. Why should he have given this caution which was often repeated (Mats. 8:4; 12 : 16 ; Mark 1 : 31,43, 44 ; 3 : 12; 5 : 43 ; Luke 4 : 41 ; 8 : Be) ? Was it because he himself in the spirit of his own precepts shrank from having his bene- factions blazoned abroad (Matt. 6 : 3, 4 ; Isaiah 43 : 2) ? or was it that the faith of the people might not rest upon his miracles but upon the truth itself (Matt. ; John 14 : 11) ? since the faith that rested on the miracles wholly misapprehended his mission (join 1 1 2; »: w, is). Sec note on ch. 8:4. If this last be the true explanation, is it not a mistake for us to rest the evidence of Christianity so largely on miracles of which Christ made so little, instead of resting it on the truth itself, of which Christ made so much? As to the course of the blind men in spreading abroad their cure, one may ad- , as the Roman Catholic writers do, their .1 of gratitude, without justifying their dis- obedience of Christ's command. The effect of this and other similar acts of others was to bring to liim a crowd, not of appreciative hearers, anxious to hear the truth, but of mere wonder- gazers, curious to witness his miracles. Such popularity only impeded his work (Mark 3; 20 ; c:3i : Luke 12: l.ctc.). 32-31. An instance of a miraculous cure, very similar, is recorded in Matthew 12 : 22-24 ; Luke 11 : 11, 15, etc. The report of the accusation of the Pharisees, and of Christ's reply, is fuller there than here. Whether the incident is really the same or not is uncertain; most harniouir-t.- regard it as different. For notes on the Phari- saic accusation, see on Matt. 1:3 : 22, etc. Ch. 9 : 35-38. PREPARATION FOR THE COMMISSION OF THE APOSTLES. — Christ's training or his disci- ples IS THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ; FIRST THE SER- MON on the Mount, then a missionary circuit. He exemplifies the work of tue ministry before he commissions the apostles to it. — in the first mis- sionary work healing of the body and of the soul g jes together.— the condition of success em Christian work: "moved with compassion." — There were many rabbis, but no shepherds; there may be many religious teachers, but no true pastors.— Work for all in Christ's vine- yard ; no one can say, " No man hath hired us." — tue real impediment to tue spread of the gospel : lack of Christian laborers. 35. Cities and villages. A distinction sim- ilar to that which prevails in modern times be- tween incorporated and unincorporated towns existed in the time of Christ. The city proper was environed by walls ; a council of elders, and a government answering to the modern common council and mayor, administered the govern- ment ; there were night-watchmen ; lights were unknown, except torches carried in the hand ; there was usually no sewerage ; the houses were crowded close together ; the streets were narrow and unpaved. The villages were unwalled col- lections of huts of stone or mud. Nearly the entire population of Palestine was gathered in cities and villages as a protection against robbers, etc. After commissioning his disciples Jesus continued his ministry among the citix ( Matt. 11 : 1), while his apostles preached the gospels in the unwalled towns or villages (Lalu9:(), where the word "town" (ftotfuij) is the same here translated "village." Healing every sickness, (voaos), positive ailment ; and every disease (uala*la\ weakness, want of health and vigor. Christ not only takes away our disease, he gives OS health and strength. In the moral life weakness is sometimes the worst form of disease. Among the people. This Is an addition not found in the best manuscripts. The language descriptive of this tour is almost identical with thai em- ployed in Matt. 1 : 28. See note there for de- seiiptiun of the synagogue, and for references indicating the genera] character of Christ's preaching and miracles of healing, observe that the conrtnission of the twelve is preceded by a tour in which Christ exemplifies to the commis- Ck. X.] MATTHEW. 133 sioned apostles the nature of the work they are to do. This particular journey is generally char- acterized by the harmonists as Christ's third missionary circuit ; but there is no evidence that his ministry was divided in fact, or in the thought of the sacred writers, into any such definite cir- cuits. 36. He was moved with compassion. This fact concerning our Lord is repeatedly stat- ed by the Evangelists (ch. u-.u; Mark 1 : 41 ; 6 : 34) ; and it affords, humanly speaking, the secret of his power. We get influence over the debased and ignorant only as they awaken a feeling of true compassion and yearning, rather than of resentment, distaste, and aversion. Observe, that his compassion was for publicans and sin- ners. " Christ pities those most that pity them- selves least : so should we." — {Matthew Henry.) Fainted. This is the correct translation of the received text (exlelvfievoC), but the best authori- ties give another word (saxvXfisvot), the proper translation of which is harassed. What moved his compassion was not their physical weariness, but their harassment and perplexity under the burdensome ritualism imposed on them by the Pharisees (Matt. 23 : 4-13, etc). Scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. There were many scribes and doctors of the law, but no 6hepherd, no one who watched over and tended and cared for their spiritual welfare (1 Kings 22 : n ; Ezek. 34 : 1-6). 37. The harvest truly is plenteous. " Mark how he points out the facility and neces- sity of the thing. For what saith he ? The har- vest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. That, is : Not to the sowing, saith he, but to the reaping do I send you (John 4 : 38). And these things he said, at once repressing their pride aud preparing them to be of good courage, and sig- nifying that the greater part of the labor had al- ready come." — (CArysostom.) Observe, too, here, and yet more in John 4 : 85, the plain intimation that the impediment to the spread of the gospel is not the hardness of heart and unpreparedness of the world for it, but the lack of activity in the church. The harvest of souls is ready ; but there are either no laborers, or they lack the true spirit of Christ — are rabbis, not shepherds. The harvest is a frequent symbol in the Bible of Christian work. God is the husbandman (John is : i) ; the world is the field (Matt. 13 : 38) ; Chris- tians are workmen whom the Lord employs (Matt. so : l) ; souls are God's husbandry (i C6r. 3:9, and note) ; the true children of God are separated from sinners by a process of threshing and win- nowing (isaiah 21 : 10 ; Matt. 3 : 12) J the end of the world witnesses the gathering of the grain into barns, and the destruction of the tares (Matt. 13 : 30). Compare Psalm 120 : 5 ; Isaiah 9:3; 1 Cor. 3:6; and especially Matt. 13 : 24-30, 34-73. 38. Pray ye therefore, etc. "Though they were but twelve he made them many from that time forward, not by adding to their num- ber, but by giving them power.' 1 '' — {Chrysostom.) Observe that he who bids to pray sends forth the laborers, teaching us that we are to help to the answer of our own prayers. Observe, too, that he bids those that were to go forth pray for laborers ; pray, that is, that God would send them forth. Those only can labor successfully for God whom God sends forth. Compare for such a prayer Isaiah 6 : 8. Send forth. The original word (t/fjiu/Uw) certainly generally carries with it the idea of force. It is rendered drive in Mark 1 : 12 ; John 2 : 15 ; thrust, in Luke 4 : 29 ; put forth, in John 10 : 4; expel, in Acts 13 : 50. As the Holy Spirit uses a certain compulsion to bring sinners to Christ (Luke u -. 23), so he impels Christian workers, against their first inclinations, into Christian work. So God impelled Moses (Exod. 4 : 1, 10-n) ; so by a goading of the conscience and a divine vision he impelled Saul ; so by early persecutions he sent the early Christians out of Jerusalem, and scattered them everywhere, preaching the Gospel (Acts 8 ■. 4). Compare chap. 10 : 23, and note. So in a sense we may say that no one is competent to preach, either publicly or privately, the gospel to others, who is not im- pelled thereto by the strong power of the Holy Spirit. Compare Ezek. 3 : 14 ; Acts 9 : 26 ; 1 Cor. 9 : 16. Ch. 10 : 1-4:2. THE MISSION OF THE TWELVE. Ch. 10 : 1-15. THEIR COMMISSION.— The weakness AND THE POWER OP THE APOSTLES (2 Cor. 4 : 7). — Christian work, like charity, begins at home (vs. 5, 6).— The foundation op the Gospel : the king- dom of heaven is at hand (v. 7).— The work of the Gospel: healing, cleansing, life-giving, devll- conquerlng (v. 8).— the trust of the gospel minis- TRY : God and the people. Their support : the voluntary contributions op their hearers (vs. 9-13).— The sin of rejecting the Gospel is the most heinous of all sins (vs. 14, 15). The conflict between Christ and the Pharisees had already commenced. They had attacked him for breaking the Sabbath (Matt. 12 : 2, 10, 14 ; John 5 : 16), and for associating with publicans and sinners (Matt. 9 : 11), and accused him of casting out devils by the Prince of devils (Matt. 12 : 24). He had made several missionary tours through Galilee, preaching the Gospel and healing the sick. Prior to this commission are undoubtedly to be placed, not only the miracles previously recorded by Matthew, but also those of the raising of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7 : 11-17), and the heal- ing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5). He had also been mobbed at Nazareth (Luke 4 : 29, 3o), and had already not only vigor- ously exposed the errors of the Pharisees in the 134 MATTHEW. [Ch. X. A CHAPTER X. ND when he had called unto him his twelve dis- ciples, he' gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sick- ness and all manner of disease. 2 Now the names" of the twelve apostles are these : The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his v Mark 3 : 13, 14 ; 6 : 7, etc. ; Luke 9 : 1, etc w Luke 6 : 13. Germon on the Mount, but had denounced them and their hypocrisy before all the people (Matt. 12 : 33-39 ; Luke ii : 37-64), and had preached the parables concerning the Kingdom of God recorded in Matt. XIII. Meanwhile his popularity among the people had only been increased by the oppo- sition of the Pharisees. Wherever he went crowds gathered about him thronging the streets through Which he passed (Mark 2 : 15 ; 5 : 24: Luke 7:11; 8 : 45), crowding the houses he entered (Mark 2 : 2), treading each other under foot in their eager- ness (Luke 12 : l), breaking in on his sleep and meals (Mark 3 : 20), and following him on foot when he en- deavored to escape them by boat (Matt, u : 13). Without entering here into the reasons for placing this commission at a later date than appears to be assigned to it by Matthew, it may suffice to say that it appears clear from Mark G : 7-14 that the commission was given, if not after the death of John the Baptist, certainly about the same time. Two reasons appear to have led to this commis- sioning of the twelve : first, the growing eagerness of the people to hear the news of the kingdom could not be satisfied by one preacher ; second, the growing opposition of the Pharisees made ap- parent the necessity of not only appointing but training men to preach Christ's Gospel when he should be slain. This commission was, however, for a purely temporary service, and the instruc- tions which accompanied it apply directly only to this single preparatory mission (see notes below). There is nothing in this chapter to indicate that the twelve understood that they were appointed to any permanent office in the church, or that there was any permanent apostolic office created, or even that they comprehended that a church of Christ would be organized to promote the kingdom of heaven after Jesus' death, much less that a succession was established for all future time. Other passages of Scripture (e.g. Matt. 28: id, 20 j Act« 1 : 13-26), taken in conjunction with the previous calling and present appointment of the twelve, seem to indicate that our Lord intended to confer upon them a quasi leadership in the in- fant church. Yet there arc other indications that this leadership was not authoritative, such as the position of James, the Lord's brother (AcU 15 : 13 ; 21 : 18; Oal. 2 : 12 ; comp. Gal. 1 : It), and that of Paul, both of whom are called apostles in the N. T. (i Cor. 15:9; 2 Cor. ii : s). The significance of these passages will be considered in due course ; it must suffice now to say that this chapter throws little or no light on the nature of the office and functions of the twelve in the church, as is evident from the fact that almost the same powers were conferred and almost the same directions given to the seventy (Luke 10 : i-ie). 1. When he had called unto him his twelve disciples. The call and ordination of the twelve to be apostles had taken place some time previously ; in connection with it the Sermon on the Mount was delivered (Luke 6 : 13). The lan- guage here "his twelve disciples " indicates very clearly that they had already been chosen and set apart to the ministry. He gave them power. See on verse 8. 2. The names of the twelve apostles are these. Of the twelve apostles there are four lists, the other three being found in Mark 3 : 16 ; Luke 6 : 14 ; and Acts 1 : 13. They differ in the following particulars. Luke in the book of Acts does not insert the name of Judas Iscariot, who was then dead ; both in his Gospel and in Acts he entitles the Simon who is here and in Mark called the Canaanite, Simon Zclotes ; Matthew gives as the tenth disciple Lebbeus ; Mark calls him Thaddeus ; Luke and Acts Judas of James ; i. e. either son or brother of James ; and Mark says that James and John were surnamed by Christ Boanerges, i. e., The sons of thunder. In other respects the four lists are identical, except that the names are given in a slightly different order by the different writers. They all agree, however, in putting Simon Peter first and Judas Iscariot last, and all agree in arranging them in groups of four, Simon Peter being first of the first group, Philip of the second, James the son of Alphseus of the third. There are three pairs of brothers among them, Andrew and Peter, James and John, James the less, and Judas or Thaddeus. James and John I believe to have been own cousins of our Lord. See note below. With the exception of Judas Iscariot all were Galileans ; several of them were by trade fisher- men, a laborious and profitable calling; they were all laymen, that is, there was neither priest nor scribe among them. They have generally been regarded as illiterate men (Act. 4 : is) ; but by this must be understood, not that they were specially ignorant, but that they were not versed in the rabbinical literature, the scholastic theol- ogy of their age. Philip and Peter both appear to have been acquainted with the Greek. This is indicated by the application of the (i reeks to Philip (John 12 : 20,21) and by the fact that the epis- tles of Peter were written in Greek. Matthew Oh. X.] MATTHEW. 135 brother ; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother ; 3 Philip, and Bartholomew ; Thomas, and Matthew the publican ; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus ; 4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans 1 enter ye not ; x 2 Kings 17 : 24 ; John 4 : 5, 9, 20. was a ready and methodical writer ; John evident- ly was a man of culture, as his writings show, and his social position was such as gave him ready access to the high priest's palace during the trial of Jesus (John is : 16) ; and there are unmistakable indications that several of the twelve possessed wealth or wealthy connections, for the father of James and John had hired servants, Peter appar- ently lived in his own house, aud Matthew (Sen. ) had the means to give a large party to many friends (Mark 1 : 20 ; Luke 4 : 38 ; 5 : 29). Several of them, Andrew, John, Philip, probably Peter and perhaps Nathanael or Bartholomew, were dis- ciples of John the Baptist, and in attendance on his ministry first became acquainted with our Lord (John i : 36 ; 37, 42, 44, 45, 49). I have grouped together, in a note at the end of this chapter, a brief ac- count of the information which the Scripture affords us of their individual lives. The first, Simon who is called Peter. In the lists of the apostles Peter is always named first in order ; yet it is certain that he was not the first to come to Christ, for Andrew his brother brought Peter to him (John 1 : 40, 41), nor is there any other indication that he was the oldest than such as may be thought to be afforded by the fact that he was married (Mark 1 •. so), and that he was generally foremost as spokesman of the twelve. (See below.) The precedence given to him, not only in the lists of the apostles but in the mention of him elsewhere in the Gospels, (Matt 17:1; Mark 5 : 37 ; 9:2; 14 : 33 ; 1G : 7 ; Luke 8 : 51 ; 9 : 28, and see references below), is One of the grounds On which the Roman Catholic church bases its belief that Christ made him and his successors the visi- ble head of the church. Here and elsewhere the Scripture indicates that he possessed a certain pre-eminence among the twelve, but it affords no hint of an ecclesiastical or official supremacy. On the contrary, though foremost in the early history of the church as a preacher of great power (Acts 2-. H, 4i), he was less an ecclesiastical leader than James the Lord's brother (Acts 12 : n ; 15:13; 21 : is j Gal. i : 19), who is not to be conf ounded with either of the twelve of that name (see note below), and less a founder and builder of the church than Paul, (see note on Matt. 16 : 13-jo.) On the place which the N. T. assigns to Peter, Alford's note is so admirable that I quote it entire. "We find Simon Peter, not only in the lists of the apostles, but also in their history, prominent on various occasions before the rest. Some- times he speaks in their name (Matt. 19 : 27 ; Luke 12:41)5 7 sometimes answers when all are addressed (Matt. 16 : 16) ; sometimes our Lord addresses him as principal even among the three favored ones (Matt. 26 : 40 ; Luke 22 : 3) ; sometimes he is addressed by others as representing the whole (Matt. 17 : 24 ; Acts 2 ; 37). He appears as the organ of the apos- tles after our Lord's ascension (Actsl : 15 ; 2: 14:4:8; 5 : 29) ; the first speech, and apparently that which decided the Council, is spoken by him (Acts 15 : 1). All this accords well with the bold and energetic character of Peter, and originated in the unerr- ing discernment and appointment of our Lord himself, who saw in him a person adapted to take precedence of the rest in the founding of his Church (Acts 5 : 3, o) and shutting (Acts 5 : 3, 9) and opening (Acts 2 : 14, 41 ; io : 5, 46 ) the doors of the kingdom of heaven. That, however, no such idea was current among the apostles as that he was destined to be the primate of the future Church is as clear as the facts above mentioned. For (1) no trace of such a pre-eminence is found in all the Epistles of the other apostles ; but when he is mentioned it is either, as in 1 Cor. 9 : 5, as one of the apostles, one example among many, but in no wise the chief ; or, as in Gal. 2 : 7, 8, with a distinct account of a peculiar province of duty and preaching being allotted to him, viz. the apostle ship of the circumcision (see Pet. i : i), as distinguished from Paul, to whom was given the apostleship of the uncircumcision ; or, as in Gal. 2 : 9, as one of the principal pillars, together with James and John ; or, as in Gal. 2 : 11, as subject to rebuke from Paul as from an equal. And (2) wherever by our Lord himself the future constitution of his Church is alluded to, or by the apostles its actual constitution, no hint of any such primacy is given, but the whole college of apostles are spoken of as absolutely equal. Matt. 19 : 27, 28 ; 20 : 26, 28 ; Eph. 2 : 20. Again (3) in the two Epistles which we have from his own hand, there is nothing for, but everything against, such a supposition. He exhorts the presbyters as being their co-presbyter (i Pet. 5 : i) ; describes himself as a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed ; addresses his second Epistle to them that have obtained the like precious faith with ourselves (2 Pet. 1 : 1), and makes not the slightest allusion to any pre-eminence over the other apostles." 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth. On the names, character and lives of the twelve, see note at the end of this chapter. And com- manded them saying. John gives no ac- 136 MATTHEW. [Ch. X. 6 But go? rather to the lost sheep 1 of the house of Israel. 7 And, as ye go. heaven is at hand. preach, saying,' The kingdom of y Acts 13: 46 z Pa. 119 : 176; Isa. 53: 6; Jer. 50: 6, 17; Eze. 34:5,6,8; 1 Pet. 2: 25. ch. 3 : 2 ; 4 : 17 ; Luke 9:2; 10 : 9. count of this discourse ; Mark (e : 7-13) and Luke (9 : 1-6) present fragmentary reports of it. They were not apostles and were not present ; Mat- thew was, and his report is much the fullest. It is clear, both from the structure of the discourse and from Matthew 11 : 1, that it is no collection of our Lord's sayings uttered at different times, but a report of a single discourse delivered at one time and for a specific purpose. But similar precepts were given by Christ at the ordination of the seventy (Lake 10 , 1-6) which should be com- pared carefully with this discourse, and some of the aphorisms found here and there are found elsewhere in the Gospels. Apparently Christ fre- quently repeated certain proverbial expressions in his itinerant preaching. Compare with verse 14, Luke 10 : 11 ; verse 17, Mark 13 : 9 ; verse 24, Luke 6 : 40, John 13 : 10 ; 15 : 20 ; verses 29-31, Luke 12 : 6, 7, etc. Much of Luke 12 : 1-11 ap- pears to duplicate portions of this address. Com- paring the reports of the three Evangelists, the following features are found characteristic of the mission of the twelve. The apostles were to go in pairs (Mark 6 : 7), " for they were to be ac- customed to work in brotherly fellowship, and when difficulties arose one was to have the coun- sel and aid of the other" (SchenckeVs Character of Jesus) ; they were to minister to both body and soul (verses 7 and is) ; were to preach in the towns and villages while Christ continued his ministry in the cities (compare Luke 9 : 6 with Matt. 11 ; i) ; were to preach only to the Jews (verses 6, 6) ; and in their ministry were to follow the example and adopt the habits of the ancient prophets (See note below). The discourses to them may be divided into three parts : first, their commission proper (verses 5-15) ; second, warnings of obstacles and persecution (verses 16-23) ; third, promises and encouragements (verses 21-12). The first comprises specific directions directly applicable only to this temporary mission, and part of them were sub- sequently declared by Christ inoperative in their later and wider ministry (see notes below) ; the second is more general, and applies to the Christian min- istry in all times of religious persecution ; the third appears to be universally applicable to all followers of Christ, whether engaged directly in the work of preaching the Gospel or not. The first part contains (a) the limitation of the apos- tles' missionary commission (ton 5-4) ; (6) their commission itself (vera* 7, a) ; (c) their provision (verses 9, 10) ; (eZ) directions as to their methods (nna ll-is). (io not into the way of the Gentiles*, 1. e., into the Gentile territory. And iulo a city of the Samaritans enter ye not. The Samaritans were a mongrel race produced by an intermixture of Jews and heathen. Their relig- ion was a composition of the worship of the true God and of idolatry (2 Kings 17 : 24-11). The enmity of the Jews against them was intense (John 4 : 9), and their character and conduct were charac- teristic of an apostate race. (See note on parable of Good Samaritan, Luke 10 : 25-37, and on John 4:9.) G. But go rather. The very form of this prohibition affords an intimation that it was not intended to be permanent. To the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Not to any particu- lar class of Israelites, but to the Jews, who were as Sheep Without a Shepherd (chapter 9 : 36 ; 15 : 24 ; John 10 : 16). What was the cause and wliat is the significance of this prohibition ? It certainly was not because Christ shared the prejudices of the age which caused the Jewish rabbis to forbid teaching the law to a Gentile (see to the contrary, Matt. 8:10-12; 28:19; Acts i:8); nor because any inherent necessity re- quired that the Gospel should be preached ex- clusively to God's chosen people before it was offered to the Gentiles, for Jesus had already preached it to the Samaritans (John 4 : 40) ; nor because he must by his death break down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gen- tile before they could be made inheritors of the promise (Ephes. 2 : 14), for Christ before his death declared them to be sharers in the New Covenant (Luke 4: 24-27). Two reasons are apparent, though none are declared by Christ himself ; first, because if the twelve had begun by preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles they would have intensified the Jewish prejudices against it, and so closed the door to Jewish hearts ; second, because they did not themselves understand the universality of the Gospel until long after, and if they had at- tempted to preach it to the Gentiles they would have inevitably became preachers of the Jewish law'and made at best only converts to a reformed Judaism. The practical significance of the com- mand is that our work for Christ should begin with those nearest to us ; that we are to preach the Gospel to our neighbors and friends, and so test our capacity before reaching out with relig- ions ambition for a larger field of personal work among the heathen at home or abroad. But it affords no justification tor refusing aid to those Who have proved their capacity and have entered On the larger work. 7. And as ye go. The ministry was to be an itinerant one. Preach, saying the King- Ch. X.] MATTHEW. 137 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils : freely b ye have received, freely give. 9 Provide c neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses ; io Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves; for d the workman is worthy of his meat. ii And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, b Acts 8 : 18, 20 c Luke 22 : 35 ; 1 Cor. 9 : 7, etc d Luke 10 : 7, etc. dom of Heaven is at hand, i. e., draws nigh. Compare the following passages, where the Greek word (lyy/joo), here translated at hand, is rendered draw nigh or come nigh (Mat*, si :i, 34; Mark ii : i ; Luke 15 : 25 ). The phrase Kingdom of Heaven first appears in the N. T., hut this meta- phor is employed in the prophecies of Daniel (Dan. 4 : 3, 34 ; 7 : 13, 14), whence it passed into the rabbini- cal books, where it is used sometimes in a general and almost a scriptural sense to signify a state of complete and perfect submission to the divine will, sometimes in a more restricted sense to sig- nify that political reformation and national ex- altation which the Jews expected would follow the coming of the Messiah (see Luke 17 : 20 ; 19 : 11). The disciples were not directed to explain in what the Kingdom of Heaven consisted ; they were simply to proclaim that it was'near. In this re- spect their preaching was to be patterned after that of John the Baptist (Matt. 3 : 2). It was their office in this mission not to instruct the na- tion, but simply to raise an expectancy, and so prepare the way for instruction which Christ af- terward afforded in his sermon at Capernaum (John 6), and which the apostles themselves were afterward directed to give to the Gentiles (Matt. S8 : 19 ; compare 1 Cor. 2:2; Col. 1 : 26-28). It is not a law nor even a precedent for us ; but is it not always the first work of the preacher, whether lay or clerical, to awaken a spiritual appetite, even if it be not very intelligent at the beginning ? And is it not always to be done by proclaiming the kingdom of God as at hand, by making vivid the presence and power of God in nature aud life, or awakening an expectation of his early coming in death and the judgment, or otherwise producing a sense of personal responsibility to God ? The immediate effect of this mission was to extend the fame of Jesus (Matt. 14 : 1 ; Mark 6: 31). 8. Heal the sick, etc. This command was accompanied with the conferring of power (verse 1), the first bestowal of miraculous power on the disciples. In the call of the Seventy it led to a mistaken exultation which Christ corrected (Luke 10 : n-20). To those who see in the external acts of Christ's ministry a parable of his spiritual work, and especially in his ministry to the body a type of his ministry to the soul, it will not seem fanciful to trace that parallel here. The wise apostle of Christ will sometimes treat sin as a sickness to be cured (compare Gai. 6 : 1, 2), some- times as a leprous pollution to be cleansed away (Acts 8 : 22, 23), sometimes as a spiritual death, the remedy for which is a spiritual resurrection (Eph. 2 : 4, 5), sometimes as a possession of the soul by an evil spirit that must be cast out (Acts 13 : 10-12; 19 : 18, 19). He needs to exercise sometimes gentle- ness and long-suffering, sometimes the purifying power of loving-kindness, sometimes spiritual vehemence, sometime courage in combat with op- posing evil. Christ healed his disciples of unworthy ambition (Mark 9 : 34-37), cleansed the woman that was a sinner (Luke 7 : 47, 48), raised Matthew from the dead (Matt. 9 : 9), and cast the devil out of Peter (Matt. 16 : 23). It should be added that the phrase "raise the dead" is omitted from some MSS., and placed in others before " cleanse the lepers." Freely ye have received, freely give. This clause properly belongs with the two verses following, and enunciates the general principle which they illustrate. Freely is here equivalent to gratuitously (see Isaiah 51:1; Acts 8 : 18-23). It is Only as the minister, lay or clerical, receives from the Lord that he can impart in his name. As to the bearing of this verse on the question of free churches, see below. 9. Provide neither gold. The articles referred to in this and the succeeding verses were the ordinary provision of travelers. They are of three kinds, money, food and clothing. Gold, silver, brass ; rather copper. Mark and Luke have in our translation the general term money; but in the Greek, Mark has brass or copper, and Luke silver. All money in the East, in the time of Christ, was coined, and these three words embrace all coins ; the apostles were not to pro- vide themselves with money. Purses ; lite- rally belt or girdle. One end of the girdle was folded back so as to form a pocket : and it was used to carry money or an inkstand (Ezek. 9 : 2), a use to which it is still put in the East. 10. Nor scrip. " A bag used for carrying food or other necessaries ; it was generally made of leather, and slung over the shoulder (1 Sam. 17 : 40) ; a similar article is still used by Syrian shepherds." — (Eitto.) Mark and Luke interpret this direction by their phraseology, "no scrip, no bread.'" The apostles were to carry no food, and not even the traveler's bag or wallet in which to put such as might be provided for them. Nei- ther two coats, literally tunics. The tunic (Greek ztroiv) was the inner garment, worn next the skin, usually with sleeves and reaching to the knees. It answered rather to our shirt than to our coat. Apparently two tunics were some- times worn, probably of different stuffs, by per- 138 MATTHEW. [Ch. X. inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till ye go thence. 12 And when ye come into an house, salute it. 13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come sons of rank, wealth, or official station. To this fact John the Baptist refers probably in Luke 3 : 11. In Mark 14 : 03, the high priest is said to have "rent his clothes," literally, "his tunics," indicating that he had on more than one ; and Mark, in his account of this commission, says, ti and not put on two coats" or tunics. Neither shoes. Mark (ch. 6 : 9) gives the converse direction "be shod with sandals." "Shoes were of more delicate use ; sandals were more ordinary and more for service. A shoe wfcs of softer leather ; a sandal of harder." — (Lightfoot.) The whole prohibition is aimed at luxury and delicacy of at- tire. Nor yet staves. The proper reading is neither a staff. According to Mark (ch. 6 : s) the apostles were allowed each to take a staff ; prob- ably the reading here has been changed to har- monize the two accounts. But no traveler would think of taking an extra 6taff. According to Mark they are per- mitted to take a staff, i. e., the one which they already possessed ; ac- cording to Matthew they were not to provide staves for this jour- ney ; they were to go as they were, without any additional pro- vision. For the workman is worthy of his meat. This as- signs the reason for the prohibi- tion of special provision ; they are to be supported by those whom they Berve. In the accompanying cut, from an Italian marble, a Roman peasant is shown, with his *<",//', and with his scrip or wallet slung over his shoulder. From these provisions in verses 9 and 10 re- garding the support of the twelve in this their first missionary tour, too much has sometimes been deduced respecting the support of the Christian ministry and their true method of operation. The commission was for a temporary service ; the requirements were adapted to the customs of society ; the apostles were easl upon the hospitality of the people partly to try their own faith, partly to try that of the people, and measure their readiness to receive the Gospel, partly because they thus conformed to the habits df the ancient prophets (1 Kings m»i 9King*4i8), and so assumed an office and position with winch the people were measurably familiar. It is no more just to assume that the ministry must always he itinerant, and without a settled support, than to ((include that they mu-t not preach to the Qentiles, and must confine their preaching to a mere heralding of the coming of the Kingdom of heaven (rmM), In subsequenl directions for their later ministry, Christ gave the apostles com- mands directly opposite to certain precepts lure (compare verse 6 with AcU 1 : 8), and his Own practice did not ordinarily conform to the precepts here given, forbidding provision. The band had a treasurer, and usually carried both money (John 12:6; 13:29) and provisions (Matt. 14: 17; 15 : 34 ; 16 : 6, 7) ; and Christ himself expressly declared later that these directions were not applicable in their sub- sequent ministry (Luke 22 : 35, 36) ; observe that the disciples were abundantly provided for by the hospitality of the people (Luke 22 : 35). But while wc shall miss the meaning of these precepts if we regard them as rules for the permanent govern- ment of the church, we shall also miss their meaning if we do not gather from them for our guidance the spirit ami principles which underlie them. They certainly involve this much, viz., that («), the ministry are to seek, as well as to save the lost, and therefore arc to go after them ; (b), they are to give freely, and not make a mer- chandise of the Gospel ; (e), they are to avoid all ostentation in attire and luxury in food ; (d), they are to depend on the voluntary contribu- tions of the people for their sustenance, as did the (). T. priesthood to a large extent, and the O. T. prophets altogether (Numb. 18 : so, 81 j Deut. 10:8,9; 18:1,2); and not on the acquisition of property by the church so as to render its min- istry independent of the people, as the Roman Catholic hierarchy do, nor on the support of the state, as do the ministry of all established churches ; (e), their dependence is that of a laborer who earns his bread, not that of a beg- gar who receives it as a gratuity. But whether the wages are paid in chance and occasional con- tributions, Orin a permanent and regular .stipend is a matter not determined here, nor, so far as I can now see, anywhere in the Script lire. 11-15. These verses give further directions as to the method in which the apostli B are to prosecute their mission now given to them. With these directions compare those given to the seventy reported in Luke 10 : 5-13. 11. Who in it is worthy. For an interpre- tation of the kind of worth signified, see Acts 18 : l»'>, 48 ; IT : 11. It is not moral excellence, but a readiness to receive the Gospel message. In this sense Zaccheus, though a publican, was worthy to be B host of Christ ( ink. 19 i •.. (). Chry- sostom notes thai Christ requires his apostles to exercise circumspection. They arc not to trust to the hospitality of cverj one. but to enquire where they will be likely to find a welcome. There abide. They are not to go from house to bOUSe ( pan Lok« 10 1 1), lest the time that should lie devoted to the preaching of the Gos- pel be frittered away in receiving hospitality and entertainment. A comparison of thi- direction Ch. X.] MATTHEW. 139 upon it : but if it be not worthy, let your peace return e to you. 14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake' off the dust of your feet. 15 Verily I say unto you, Its shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. 16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves : be ye therefore wise h as serpents, and harm- less' as doves. 17 But beware> of men : for they k will deliver you Ps. 35 : 13. . . .f Neh. 5:13; Acts 13 : 51 ; 18:6.. .g ch. 11 : 22, 24. ...h Rom. 16 : 19 ; Eph. 5 : 15.... i Phil. 2 : k ch. 24 : 9 ; Mark 13 : 9. .j Phil. 3:2... with the apostolic practice subsequent to Christ's resurrection (Acts 2 : 46, but see note there), affords a hint of the right and the wrong kind of pastoral vis- iting ; the right kind goes for the preaching of the Gospel, the wrong kind for mere social entertainment. 12. And when ye come into the house salute it. Not the house that is worthy, but any house which they enter. They are not to stand on ceremony and the dignity of their office and await a welcome ; they are at once to offer the customary salutation. The ancient Jews, like the modern Mohammedans, did not salute one of a different religious faith ; but the apostles were not to wait until they had ascertained how they would be received before proffering their bless- ing. For form of salutation see Luke 10 : 5 ; and compare Numb. 6 : 23-26. 13. Let your peace return to you. The prayer for blessing will receive no answer if the heart refuses to receive the blessing. Nor are the apostles to be disturbed in mind because of such refusal, still less to follow their rejected benediction with an anathema. Their peace is to return to them. "If your peace finds a shut in- stead of an open door in any household, take it back to yourselves who know how to value it, and it will taste the sweeter to you for having been offered, even though rejected." — (Br. Brown.) There is no peace like that which comes from bearing insult and wrong with sweetness and serenity. 14. And Avhososver shall not receive you * * * shake off the dust of your feet. Mark and Luke add by way of explanation "/or a testimony against them." Compare Luke 10 : 11. The Scribes taught that the dust of heathen lands defiled those who came in contact with it ; accordingly it was a custom of the Pharisees, when they entered Judea from a heathen country, to shake off the dust of the land as a testimony that they had no part or lot with heathenism. The apostles, if rejected, were to turn from the city or house that rejected them and hold no fur- ther intercourse with it. It was to be to them as a Gentile city to a Jew. Compare Matt. 18 : 17 ; and see for illustration of this precept Acts 13 : 51 ; 18 : 6. Is the Christian minister, then, to re- fuse all intercourse with and all second attempts to win those who reject Christ in the first presen- tation * No ! because these are not rules for the permanent ministry, but for a specific and neces- sarily rapid mission, whose object was not so much to win souls as to awaken attention and prepare for a future ministry. On this point Chrysostom's homily is admirable ; I quote a single paragraph : "For I indeed oftentimes pronounce peace to you, and will not cease from continually speak- ing it ; and if, besides your insults, you receive me not, even then I shake not off the dust ; not that I am disobedient to our Lord, but that I vehemently burn for you. And besides I have suf- fered nothing at all for you ; I have neither come a long journey, nor with that garb and that vol- untary poverty am I come, nor without shoes and a second coat ; and perhaps this is why ye also fail of your part." 15. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that city. Compare chap. 11 : 21-23, and Luke 10 : 13-15. Observe, first, that as there are degrees of guilt, so there will be degrees of punishment in the future world (Luke 12 : 47, 48) ; and second, that the guilt of reject- ing the Gospel is marked by Christ as greater than that of moral impurity of life. Neither secular nor sacred history contains a record of immorality and vice more loathsome and flagrant than that of the cities of the plain (Gen. is : 20 ; 19 : 4-1.3) ; but Christ pronounces a heavier woe against those that refuse the proffer of the Gos- pel, because the refusal to accept help out of sin is more fatal than any form of immorality, however grievous. Ch. 10 : 16-23. WORDS OF WARNING. The Chris- tian, like Christ, is a sheep among wolves (Isaiah 53 : 7).— The Christian is in an enemy's country (vs. 17, 18). The danger in the first century WA3 from open attack, in the nineteenth it is from treacherous ambuscade.— the christian's best preparation for threatened difficulty and dan- ger : the baptism of the holy spirit (vs. .19, 20). — a true inspiration is the perpetual heritage of God's people. — Tribulation in the world; glory beyond the world (vs. 21, 22; John 10: 33). — Persecution is a wind that carries the seeds of truth on its wings (v. 23). 16-23. In these verses Christ passes from the immediate and temporary mission to the future work of the apostles, and warns them of the dan- ger which their consecration to his service will involve. It is certain that these warnings are not exclusively, and it is doubtful whether they are even primarily, applicable to the immediate and 140 MATTHEW. [Ch. X. up to the councils, and they will scourge 1 you in their synagogues ; 18 And ye m shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19 But" when they deliver you up, take no thought 1 Acts 5 : 40 ; 2 Cor. 11 : 24 m Acts, cha. 24 and 25 n Mark 13 : 11 ; Luke 12 : 11 ; 21 : 14, 15. temporary mission laid upon them in this dis- course. It is observable that these warnings and the subsequent encouragements are not found in the discourse to the seventy (Luke 10 : i-k). Ob- serve that Christ always 6ets before the disciples the hazards and dangers of discipleship, and bids them count the cost before entering on their work. Compare Luke 14 : ~5-o6. 16. Behold I send you forth. I, who give all power, both send and direct in what spirit and by what methods you are to execute your mis- sion. "In saying 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep,' he intimates this, 'Do not therefore de- spond, for I know certainly that in this way more than any other, ye will be invincible to all." — (Chrysostom.) Observe Christ's tacit claim of power in this declaration, which is quite incom- patible with the humility which would belong to Jesus if he were mere man. Compare Isaiah 6 : 8. As sheep in the midst of wolves. " Not to the wolves, but in Vie midst of wolves, in order to seek out those who would receive the king- dom." — (Lange.) Yet the symbol is intended to teach, not merely their apparent helplessness, but their real power, "the unresistable might of weakness." "For thus shall I best 6how forth my might when sheep do get the better of wolves, and receiving a thousand bites, so far from being consumed, do even work a change on them ; a thing far greater and more marvellous than kill- ing them, to alter their spirit and to reform their mind ; and this being only twelve, while the whole world is filled with wolves." — (Chrysos- torn.) Christ himself was as a sheep among wolves. See Isaiah 513 : 7 ; and compare Psalm 44 : 23 ; Rom. 8 : 36. There is possibly here a reference to tho passage in Psalms. Has the church always been a sheep among wolves ? Was not the inquisition rather a wolf among sheep ? Be ye therefore shrewd as serpents and simple us doves. The Greek word (dxiQCtioc) translated harmless, occurs also in Romans K'> : 19 and Phil. 2 : 15, and probably signifies unmixed, simple, i. e. the opposite Of a character in which many motivca mingle and every act is complex, and the alms covered up and concealed. There is in this aphorism of Christ's a contrast in terms which the translators have endeavored to soften, and which the above translation but, Imperfectly renders. The serpent was among the Jews a common symbol of diabolical craft, while the dove was proverbial for Its stupidity; it was an Arab proverb, There is nothing more simple than the dove ; both conceptions are embodied in the O. T. Scripture (c.en. 3 : 1 ; Hosea 7 : n) ; and a proverb very analogous in words, but very different in application to that of our Lord's, is found in the rabbinical books: "Ye shall be toward me as upright as the doves, but toward the Israelites as cunning as serpents." The Christian worker is to combine these two contradictory qualities in his conduct toward all men. He is to be guile- ful like the serpent (2 cor. 2 : is) and guileless like the dove (1 Pet. 2 : 1, 21, 22). Of the wisdom of the serpent, Christ's replies to the Pharisees in the last days of lus mission afford an example 1 Matt. 22 : 15-46) ; the simplicity of the dove he exempli- fied during his trial (Matt. 26 : 63, C4). "These qual- ities are opposed to each other ; they never occur combined in nature, or in the natural disposition of man. But the spirit of Christ combines in higher unity these natural antagonisms. The serpent slips innumerable times from the hand of the pursuer [and catches its prey by guile, see reference above] ; the dove does not settle in any unclean place, it approaches him who is gentle, and will never do harm to the persecutor ; its safety lies in flying upward." It may be added that Christian virtue often consists in holding in even balance opposing qualities, either of which alone or in excess becomes a vice. 17. But beware of men, i. e., of all men (vfrse 22), not merely of particular persecutors, but of the enmity of mankind. See below. Coun- cils. The local tribunals established in every town. Their origin is indicated in Deut. 10 : 1^. They consisted, according to Josephus, of 6even judges ; according to the rabbinical books, of twenty-three. See on chap. 5:21. Scourge you in their synagogues. In every syna- gogue there was a bench of three magistrate^ who had authority to inflict certain punishments, of which scourging was one. "The number of stripes could not exceed forty (Deut. 25 : 3) ; whence the Jews took care not to exceed thirty-nine (2 Cor. 11:24). The convict was stripped to the waisl and tied in a bent position to a low pillar, and the stripes, with a whip of three thongs, were inflicted on the hack between the shoulders." — (Smil/i's Bib. I>iit.. Am. EH., .1/7. I'ti/iisfiHUlifs.) This punishment Is not to be confounded with the Roman scourging to which our Lord was subjected under Pilate (Mm. jt 1 m), which was a still more dreadful intlietioil. For general AC count of synagogues, sic note on Matt. 1:28; for evidence of direct fulfillment of this pro- phecy, see Acts 5 : 40 ; 28 : 19 ; 26 : 11. 18. And ye shall be brought before gov- Ch. X.] MATTHEW. 141 how or what ve shall speak ; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. 21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child : and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake ; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. o Dan. 12 : 12, 13; Rev. 2 : 11. ernors, i.e., Roman officials, e.g., Felix (Acts, ch. 24), Festus (Acts, ch. 25), Gallio (Acts is : 12), Paulus (Acts i3: 7). And kings, e.g., Herod Agrippa (Acts, ch. se), and Caesar, i. e., Nero (Acts 25 : 12), For my sake. Compare Matt. 5 : 11, 12, and Acts 5 : 41. For a testimony against them. Neither against them, as in our version, nor to them, as in some commentaries, but both against and to them (2 Cor. 2 : 15, 16). "It was a tes- timony in the best sense to Sergius Paulus (Acts 13 : 7), but against Felix (Acts 25 : 25) ; and this dou- ble power ever belongs to the word of God as preached — it is a two-edged sword" (Rev. i:i6; 2 : 12). — {Alford.) And the Gentiles, rather the nations. Compare Matt. 24 : 14, and for an illus- tration of the effect of the bringing of an apostle before the kings, see Phil. 1 : 12-18. 19. Take no thought. Literally, be not di- vided in mind, i. c, between desire to be faithful to the truth and a desire to act prudently and to escape threatened evil. The Greek word here (ucQiuvouj) is ttie same as that used in Matt. G : 25 ; see note there. Alford renders it, Take no anx- ious thought. Be not distracted, still more closely reflects the meaning of the original. Observe the qualification, " When they deliver you up," and the contrary direction, contrary in words though not in spirit, given to those disciples, the grounds of whose faith were inquired into, "Be always ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, in meekness and fear " (1 Pet. 3 : 15). "As long as the contest is among friends, he commends us to take thought ; but when there is a terrible tribunal, and frantic assemblies, and terrors on all sides, he bestows the influence from himself, that they may take courage and speak out, and not be discouraged nor betray the righteous cause." — (Uhrysostom.) This verse is best inter- preted by such practical illustrations as are af- forded by Acts 4 : 19, 20 ; 5 : 20-32 ; and see espe- cially Dan. 3 : 16-18. How or what ye shall speak, i. e., they are neither to be anxious con- cerning the matter nor the manner of their reply. Compare Romans 8 : 20 ; "for we know not what we should pray for as we ought." For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. Even irrespective of the more distinct promise of the succeeding verse, it is generally safer in time of threatened danger to trust to the intuition of the hour and speak boldly and simply the truth than to study an answer which by much thinking is apt to become an evasion. Mental distraction never inspires moral courage. That this verse should ever have been quoted as an authority for giving instruction in the principles of the Gospel without previous study and thought affords one of the most amaz- ing examples of the capacity of the mind to mis- interpret and misapply the truth. 20. For it is not you that speak, etc. Compare Exod. 4 : 12 ; Jer. 1:7; Acts 4 : 8. And observe in the latter case how obedience to Christ's precept rendered the reply of the apos- tles a witness for Jesus to the Sanhedrim, (see verse 13.) The Spirit of your Father. The Holy Spirit, more explicitly promised in John 15 : 20, 27. This promise here given does not imply the inspiration of the Scriptures, but it does necessarily involve the strongest possible assurance of a divine inspiration, i. c., of a divine influence acting upon and giving peculiar power to the heart and mind of the disciple. The care- ful student should combine here the note of Alford and that of Chrysostom. The first ob- serves that "in the great work of God in the world, human individuality sinks down and van- ishes, and God alone, his Christ, his Spirit is the great worker;" the latter notes that "from first to last part is God's work, part his disciples'. Thus, to do miracles is his, but to provide nothing is theirs. Again, to open all men's houses, was of the grace from above ; but to require no more than was needful, was of their own self-denial. Their bestowing peace was of the gift of God ; their inquiring for the worthy and not entering in without distinction unto all, was of their own self-command. Again, to pun- ish such as received them not, was his ; but re- tiring with gentleness from them without reviling or insulting them, was of the apostles' meekness. To give the Spirit and cause them not to take thought, was of him that sent them ; but to be- come like sheep and doves, and to bear all things nobly [and to abstain from distracting thoughts], was of their own calmness and prudence. To be hated and not to despond, and to endure, was their own ; to save them that endured, was of him who sent them." Observe, too, how the promised inspiration is characterized by the very form of the promise, "speaketh in you." It is not a divine dictation of words to the speaker, but a divine inspiring of his own natural faculties, so that the Spirit speaks not to the disciple, nor through the disciple, but in the disciple. Com- pare 1 Pet. 1 : 21. 142 MATTHEW. [Ch. X. 23 But when they persecute you in this city, fleeP ye | have pone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not become. p Act« 8 : 1. 21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother, etc. Natural affection is not adequate to counteract the power of religious bigotry. No power for evil is greater than that of a corrupted and misdirected religious zeal ; none is more unscrupulous and cruel. 22. Hated of all. For the reason why, see John 15 : 18, 19. For the Christian's answer to the world's hate, see Matt. 5 : 44. This verse, compared with such injunctions as Matt. 5 : 16, affords a striking illustration of the seeming contradictions of which the Bible is full ; but not fuller than life itself. Christian character com- mends itself to the consciences of men, but is hated because it crosses their self-interest, and rebukes, by its very purity, their sin. See for illustrations of good works that led men both to glorify God and to hate his disciples Acts 4 : 13, 18 ; 5 : 28, 40. Chrysostom remarks on the com- bination of dangers of wbich Christ warned his disciples ; the courts of justice, kings, governors, synagogues of Jews, nations of Gentiles, rulers, ruled, tbeir own kinsfolk, and finally the whole combined enmity of mankind. The spiritual power of Christ is exemplified in the fact that he could describe such dangers, and yet inspire the twelve with courage to go forth undaunted to meet them. Chrysostom's practical application to our own times is also worth quoting and worth pondering, " What then must we deserve, having such high patterns, and in peace giving way to effeminacy and remissness ? With none to make war we are slain ; we faint when no man pursues ; in peace we are required to be saved, and even for this we are not sufficient." But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Some of the commentators, among others Alford, Schaff and Owen, see in this promise a primary reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, the end being, in their view, the over- throw of the holy city, and the being saved the de- liverance referred to in Matt. 34 : 15-18. There appears to me to be nothing either in the context or in the parallel passages where this aphorism occurs, to warrant this view. The promise is simply the general one ; he who endures perse- cut iuu until its completion, and so by implication until it has completed in the soul its work Of purification (Rom. 6:3-5 ; Jimti I : i, l), 6hall be saved, i. c. ransomed and presented perfect be- fore the throne of grace. So Dr. Alexander in- terprets it. See for parallels Matt. -I : L8; 18 : 21 ; Ephea 6 : LS ; Hebrews 3:6; 10 : 23, 38, 39 ; Rev. 2 : 10, 17, 26. 23. But when they persecute you iu this city, flee you into another. It has been no- ticed that this implies a promise that they 6hould find another provided, that they should not be without a refuge. In seeming contrast to this direction is John 10 : 11, 13 ; " the hireling fleeth because he is an hireling and careth not for the sheep." Wordsworth suggests the true recon- ciliation : " If a person has a flock committed to his care which will be scattered or torn by wolves if he flies, then he must not fly." Christ himself exemplified on more than one occasion the mean- ing of the direction flee (Luke 4 : 28-30 J John 8 : 59 ; 10 : 39). Through obedience to it persecution became in the apostolic era an instrument for the spread of the Gospel (Acts 8 : 1 ; 11 : 19). The same princi- ple in the later history of the church has wrought in the same way ; e. g., the flight of the Puri- tans from the persecutions of the Stuarts, and of the Huguenots from persecutions in France, led to the religious foundation which was imparted to the American colonies. Directly contrary to the spirit of this precept was the spirit of Chris- tians in the early church. The passion for mar- tyrdom became so great that men accused them- selves to receive the martyr's crown, or openly disturbed heathen worship for the same purpose ; and this singular fanaticism had finally to be re- pressed by the admonitions of the clergy, and even by a canon which refused the title of mar- tyrdom to those who sought it by publicly de- stroying idols. True Christian principle is quite compatible with true Christian prudence. For verily I say unto you. A common introduction to a peculiarly solemn affirmation. See note on Matt. 5 : 15. Ye shall not have gone over. Literally, Ye shall not complete. But it is hardly possible to give to this the sense which Alford gives : ye shall not have preached the Gospel effectually. The meaniug afforded by our English version is much the more natural. Dr. Owen paraphrases it, Shall not have finished passing through the cities to preach the Gospel. Till the Son of man be conic. The phrase, Son <>/' man, is used in the O. T. some- times to designate the descendants of Adam (Job 25 : 6 ; Psnlm 144 : 3 ; 146 : 3 ; Isaiah M .1 lid ill Eze- kiri that prophet Is addressed by this appellation about eighty times. In Daniel (7 lis) it Is applied prophetically to the Messiah, and iu this sense alone is it used in the N. T. In the Evangelists the writers themselves never use it of Christ, but he uses it in describing himself, especially when speaking <'f himself ;is die Messiah (Malt, »:6j 11: It; 12:8; 13:41; 17:9,'.".'; 24 : 27-30, etc.). It is also used elsewhere by third persons, but always Ch. X.] MATTHEW. 143 24 The disciplei is not above his master, nor the ser- vant above his lord. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his mas- ter, and the servant as his lord. If they r have called q Luke 6 : 40 ; John 13 : 16 ; 15 : 20. . . .r John 8 : 48. in speaking of him in his exaltation and manifest- ed glory (Acts 7 : 56 ; Rev. 1:13; 14 : u). And the com- ing of the Son of man, wherever used in the N. T., prophetically signifies the disclosure of Jesus as the Messiah (Matt. 24 : 27, 37, 39 ; 25 : 31 ; Mark 8 : 38 ; Luke 17 : 24), but not always his final coming to judge the world (Matt. 16 : 28). It is evident that in this promise Christ cannot refer directly to his final coming in judgment, because he did not know when that event would take place (Mark 13:32). This much is clear ; but in the light of these facts the interpretation of this prophecy, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come, must be confessed to be difficult. The principal explanations are the following : 1. Before they had fufilled their task Christ himself, following them, would overtake them and be ready to give them future directions. So Chry- sostom, Lange, and apparently Alexander. But this does not agree with the universal usage by Matthew of the phrase "coming of the Son of man," nor with the facts in the case, for Christ did not overtake the apostles, but they returned to him (Mark 6 : 30 ; Luke 9 : io). 2. Before the work of effectually preaching the Gospel to the Jews, i. e. before the Jews were all converted, Christ would come in power and glory to judge the world. But he does not say before all missionary work is done, but before their work is clone. The plain meaning of the promise is that it is to be fulfilled during their life-time. 3. Before their mission was ended the destruction of Jerusalem should take place, i. e. Christ should in his power by his providence come to judge the Jewish nation. This is the common view of most commentators, e. g. Alford, Brown, Bloomfield, Barnes, Owen, &e. It appears to me to be untenable. In no proper sense did the Son of man come in the de- struction of Jerusalem. It may be conceded that this national judgment was itself a pro- phetic symbol of the final judgment when the Son of man shall come in power and glory ; but the promise here made to the apostles of his personal coming to aid them in their mission, is not fulfilled by an event which is not the coming of the Son of man at all, but only a prophecy and symbol of that coming. 4. Before their preaching to the Jewish nation should be completed, Jesus 6hould be revealed as the Son of man, i. e. as the Messiah, a promise which was fulfilled by his crucifixion, resurrection, and second spiritual coming to dwell in the hearts of his disciples. This is apparently the view of Lightfoot and Calvin. It appears to me to be the true one for the following reasons : (a) The Son of man did not fully come until his crucifixion and his resur- rection, which not only disclosed his Messianic character (Matt. 27 : 54 ; Rom. 1 : 4), but also completed his MeSSianiC mission (Luke 24 : 26 ; John 12 : 31, 34 ; Acts 17 : 3). (6) Not until then did or could he fulfill the promise of his second and spiritual coming to abide in the hearts of his disciples (John u : is, 19, 21-23). That promise was fulfilled at the day of Pentecost by the descent of the Holy Spirit ; for the clearly marked distinction between the three persons of the Godhead belongs to a later epoch in theology, and Christ himself speaks of the coming of the Spirit and his own coming as all One (compare John 14 : 16, 17 with verses 18-23), and the apostles speak of the indwelling of the Spirit and Of Christ as One (compare Acts 4 : 8 with veree 13, and Gal. 5 : 6, 24 with verses 16 and 25, and see Rom. 8 : l). (c) It is after the disclosure of Christ as the Messiah by his resurrection and his second and spiritual coming, that the apostles begin to preach that Jesus is the Christ, that is, to declare that the Son of man, a Messiah, has come ; this forms the burden of their first preaching subsequent to the ascension (Acts 2 ; 36 ; 3:18; 4 : 10-12 ; 8:5, and note 9 : 22 ; 10:42), and the revelation made to them by the Holy Spirit of Jesus as the Messiah is recognized by them as a fulfillment of the prophecies of the O. T., respecting the Messiah's coming (Acts 2: 16-21 ; 3 : 19). (d) Finally it was not until after this spiritual coming of Christ, subsequent to his re- surrection and ascension, that the disciples made an end of preaching the Gospel to the cities of Judea and began to preach to the Gentiles. This promise, then, may be paraphrased thus : Go on ; fear not ; before your mission to the Jews (verse 5) is completed, the Messiah will be revealed and the Messiah's kingdom established : and this promise was fulfilled by Christ's passion, resur- rection, ascension and subsequent spiritual com- ing on the day of Pentecost, though in a manner very different from that which the disciples had anticipated. Ch. 10 : 24-42. CHRISTIAN ENCOURAGEMENTS. Christ's example the Christian's inspiration in suffering as in action (vs. 24, 25).— injustice suf- FERED here will be set right bt God's justice hereafter (v. 26).— Fear of God casts out fear of man (v. 28).— God cares for his least disciples. God's greatness in little things (vs. 29-31). Earthly disrepute the road to heavenly honor (vs. 32, 33).— Forewarned is forearmed (vs. 34, 35). — Love easily carries all crosses (vs. 37, 38).— Self- sacrifice is the highest self-service (v. 39) — The Christian's mission is Christ's mission (John 17 : 18), and the Christian stands in Christ's stead (v. 40). 144 MATTHEW. [Ch. X. the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall tkey call them of his household ? 26 Fear them not therefore : for 8 there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed ; and hid, that shall not be known. 27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light : and what ye hear in the car, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28 And fear 1 not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather tear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold lor a farthing? and Mark 4 : 22 ; Luke 12 : 2, 3 ; 1 Cor. 4:5 t Isa. 8 : 12, 13 ; 51 : 7, 12 ; 1 Pet. 3 : 14. The All-seeino sees, and the All-loving rewards tue least service (vs. 41, 82). Verses 24-42 consist of aphorisms whose gen- eral purpose appears to be to encourage the dis- ciples in view of the warnings already given. They are more general than those warnings, and are applicable to all Christians and in all ages of the world. Several of them are repeated else- where ; and there is a close parallelism between this portion of the discourse and one reported in Luke 12 : 1-12. It is possible that Matthew may have collected here utterances really delivered at other times in Christ's ministry ; it is more probable that Christ repeated the same proverbs on different occasions. The connection in this part of the discourse is not so marked as in the preceding portions. It is indicated in the notes below. 21, 25. The scholar is not above his teacher, nor the slave above his lord. * If the head of the house they have called lieelzebul, how much more the members of his household. The three relations in which Christ stands to his people here mentioned, are elsewhere brought out in Script- ure, lie is teacher, and they learners (Matt. 5: i ; 28: 7, 8 j Luke 6 : 20) ; he is lord or owner, they serv- ants (Luke 12 : 35-18; John 13 : 13; Horn. 1 : 1 ; 2 Pet, 1:1; juf Beelzebtd, t. <., of Satan (Matt. 9:34; : ■ : .1 ; Tana Bi 18). See notes on Mall. 12 : 2 1. 20. Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered— with slander, that shall not be uncovered— at the judgment day i i. ii), and hid, of the true glory of Christian truth and Christian character (col u i| i .1 • ■ thut shall not be known. 'When Christ shall be manifested who is our life, then shall we also with him be manifested in glory" (col. 3:4; Bee note there). For the effect which this truth should have on those suffering from slander, see 1 Pet. 2:23; 4:19. The connection with the preceding verse Chrysostom thus gives: "For why do ye grieve at their calling you sorcerers and deceivers ? But wait a little, and all men will address you as saviours and benefactors of the world — yea, for time [still more the disclo- sures of the last judgment] discovers all things that are concealed ; it will both refute their false accusations and make manifest your virtue." 27. What ye hear in the ear. According to Lightfoot, the Jewish rabbis who explained the law in the schools in Hebrew, whispered their explanations to the ear of the interpreters, who then repeated them aloud to the scholars. There is, perhaps, a reference to this custom here. Preach ye upon the housetops. The Jew- ish housetop was flat. The ministers of the ancient synagogue on Sabbath eve sounded six times a trumpet to announce the coming in of the Sabbath. The Turkish crier calls to prayers from the housetop. Local governors in country districts cause their proclamations to be an- nounced in the same way, generally in the even- ing on the return of the people front their labors. The metaphor here is borrowed from, and illus- trated by, these uses of the housetop. Of Christ's whispering in the car, see illustrations in Matt. 13 : 11, 18, 3G ; 10 : 20 ; of the disciples preaching on the housetop, see illustrations in Acts 2 : 0-11, etc. Christ speaks in darkness parables which the people do not understand, but which are subsequently Interpreted to his disciples and thus to all mankind 1 Matt is: 11,1c Ee spoke In the ear, chapters 14, 15, L6 and 17 of John, which the evangelist has repeated by his Gospel in the light. Ee still, by the Inspiration Of his Spirit, speaks iii the car experience which his followers arc to Interpret publicly by life and words (1 Cor. 9 1 28. And fear not them which kill the body * • * Tallin Ic.ir him who is able to destroy both soul and hotly. Ob the double contrast, (1) between men whose power extends only to the body, and God, whose power endangers both Bouiand body; (2) between man, who can only kiR the body, beyond which comes the resurrection and the new life, and God, who can utterly destroy {Qt. unoilvfii) both Ch. X.] MATTHEW. 145 one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But" the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear ye not therefore ; ye are of more value than many sparrows. 32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him' will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever" shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 34 Think not that 1 am come to send peace on earth : I* came not to send peace, but a sword. n Acts 27 : 34. . 2 Tim. 2 : 12 x Luke 12 : 49, S3. soul and body. As in several other passages of Scripture, there is an implication here that the punishment of the wicked is a true destruction, not a living in suffering. But it is only an impli- cation, and there are other passages which cer- tainly appear to teach otherwise. For a con- sideration of the whole question, see note on Matt. 13 : 50. I assume that Him whom we are to fear is God, as do most commentators, not Satan, as do Stier and some others ; for (a) It is not true that Satan can destroy either body or soul ; he has no power except such as God per- mits him to exercise (Job 1 : 12; compare James 4: 12); he is himself shut up in hell (Matt. 25 : 41 ; Rev. 20 : 10), "does not destroy soul and body in hell, but before that time, and for the purpose of having them consigned to hell." — (Lange.) (6) The fear of Satan is but a sorry protection against the fear of man, but " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (prov. 9 : 10). (a) The context of the discourse calls for this interpretation. We are both to fear and to trust the All-powerful. See next verses. In hell. Gehenna. See note on Matt. 5 : 22. Dr. Owen concludes that Christ does not here 6peak of annihilation, " for the destruction spo- ken of takes place in Gehenna." But since the fires of Gehenna did in fact utterly consume the corpses of the criminals cast upon them, his de- duction is hardly warranted. On the other hand, the metaphor does not necessarily imply anni- hilation. That question of the true punishment of the lost must be determined by the teachings of other passages, or at least by a comparison of this with other passages. 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? The farthing (Gr. uaaantor) is a Roman coin which was equal to about a cent and a half in value. The word occurs in the N. T. only here and in the analogous passage in Luke 12 : 6. The sparrow is a general term for a large variety of birds, of which there are known to be above one hundred different species. The cor- responding Hebrew term is generally rendered bird or fowl. It is in the 0. T. a symbol of weakness (p«aim 11 : 1). The various species of 6parrow are very numerous in Palestine. They are snared in great numbers and sold for food. The markets of Jerusalem and Joppa are said to be attended at the present day by many fowlers who offer for sale long strings of little birds of various species, chiefly sparrows, wag-tails and larks. It is to this snaring and sale of the spar- row our Lord alludes here. Without your Father. Observe he does not say their Father nor our Father, but your Father, i. e., without his knowledge and his permission (Luke 12 : g). This verse certainly forbids the construction put by Stier upon the preceding one, that it is the devil who can destroy both soul and body. Not even the sparrow can fall to the ground by the power of the devil without permission of God. Observe that nature as strikingly illustrates God's greatness in little as in great things, a truth of which the microscope affords abundant illustration. 30. But the very hairs of your head. A metaphorical expression to signify the minute- ness of God's care. Compare 1 Sam. 14 : 45 ; Luke 21 : 13 ; Acts 27 : 34. The lesson incul- cated is not only that God cares for us despite our insignificance, but also that he cares for us in respects that seem the most insignificant. 31. Of more value. Compare Matt. 6 : 26, and note. This is God's answer to David's ques- tion : "What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him ?" (Psaim 8 : 4.) Observe, that nature inspires both question and answer : the stars the question, the birds the answer. 32. 33. Every one therefore who shall confess in me. Observe the phraseology of the original of which the above is a literal translation. The promise is to every one (nag) who confessed in Christ (iv euot). It is not a mere public profes- sion before the church which is meant, for it must be "before men," i.e., as interpreted by verses 17 and 18, councils, synagogues, govern- ors, kings, in time of peril, when confession costs something ; nor is it even every public profession before men which is meant, but a confession in Christ, i. e. , such a confession as has its root hi Christ, and shows a living union with him. Such a confession in Christ the apostles witnessed be- fore the Sanhedrim (Acts 4: 13), and such Christ himself witnessed in God before Pontius Pilate (l Tim. 6:13; compare John 18 : 3T J 19 : 8, 11, 12). Christ alSO confesses in us ; that is, not only acknowledges us his disciples, but shows himself in us and us to be in him (John it : 21, 24). " The context shows plainly that it is a practical, consistent confession which is meant, and also a practical and enduring denial." The Lord will not confess the confessing Judas, nor deny the denying Peter."— (Alford.) 146 MATTHEW. [Cn. X. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance? against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And* a man's foes shall be they of his own house- hold. 37 He a that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me : and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth afte^me, is not worthy cf me. 39 He b that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. 40 He c that receivetli you, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. 41 He d that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward ; and he that y Micah7:5, 6....Z Ps. 41 .9. Luke 14 : 26. . . .b ch. 1G : 25. . . .c ch. 18 : 5 ; 25 : 40, 45 ; John 12 : 44. . . .d 1 Kings 17:10; Heb. 6 : 10. Observe how Christ here ranks himself with God in judging not with man in being the object of judgment. 34. Think not I am come to sow peace on the earth. The metaphor is that of a hus- bandman sowing seed ; Christ's seed is a sword. Yet in the O. T. Christ is called a prince of peace (i«aiah 9 : 6) ; b is birth is announced by the angels as a precursor of peace (Luke 2 : 14; compare 1 : 19) ; he bestows peace upon his disciples in his parting benediction (John 14 : 21) ; he declares that the peace-makers shall bear his own title and be called the 60ns of God (Matt. 5:9); and the peace of God is declared by the apostle to be among the fruits of the spirit (Gai. 5 : 22). We are not to reconcile these passages by saying, with De Wette, that divisions were not the purpose, but only the inevitable result of Christ's coming, for "with God results are all purposes." — (Alford.) Christ comes to declare war against the devil and all his works (Ephes. 6 : 11, 12; 1 Tim. 6 : 12), and to bring peace only with victory. The first coming of Christ always brings war, whether to the indi- vidual soul or to the community. War is the stalk, peace the ripened grain. Romans 7 : 23 depicts the sword, 7 : 25 and ch. 8, the peace. Compare Matt. 18 : 33, and note. 35. For I am come, etc. This verse is substantially quoted from Micah 7:0; it is illus- trated by John 7 : 1-5. 3G. A man's foes shall be they of his own household. This declaration finds abun- dant illustration in the history of religious perse- cutions ; not less in daily life. Husbands, wives, parents, children are helps, but also often hin- drances ; the same one is sometimes a spiritual friend, sometimes a spiritual foe. Christ found foes in his warmest friends, Matt, 16 : 22, 23. 37. He that loveth father, etc. * * * more than me. Compare with this the paral- lel passage, Luke 14 : 2(5. Observe that the test of lore according to Christ is not emotional ex- perience, but obedience (John 14 : si) 5 hence this declaration is substantially embodied in Matt. 5 : 24. No man can serve two masters. For illus- tration of loving Christ more than father or mother, see Matt. 4:21, :.".'. For parallel and illustrative teachings, John 21 : 15 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 14, 15 ; Phil. 3 : 7-9. Is not worthy of me, i. e. to be called my disciples. Compare Ephes. 4:1; Col. 1 : 10 ; 1 Thee. 2 : 12. For he only is Christ's disciple who learns like Christ to sacrifice all for God. " Stier well remarks, that under the words 'worthy of me,' there lies an exceeding great reward which counterbalances all the seeming asperity of this saying." — (Alford.) 38. He that taketh not his cross. The Roman custom obliged the crucified to carry their own cross to the place of punishment. To this custom reference is here made. The mean- ing of the symbol is, whoever is not willing freely to deny himself, even unto death, and that the most painful and shameful, is not worthy of me. It is, of course, a prophetic reference to Christ's own death, a prophecy which, at the time, the disciples could have only imperfectly understood (John 12 : 16). Observe that it is not only cross-bear- ing but cross-taking that is recmired of the disci- ple ; not merely submission to burdens which God's providence lays upon them, but a volun- tary assuming of burdens, even the burden of death, for the sake of Christ and humanity. In slightly different forms this aphorism repeatedly appears in Christ's teaching (Matt. 16 • 24 ; Mark 10 : 21 ; Luke 9 : 23). Paul, by his use of the metaphor in Galatians (2:20; 5:24; 6: 14), gives a partial inter- pretation to it. We take up our cross when we mortify the deeds of the flesh for the sake of the Spirit (col. 3 : 5), or when we gladly suffer the loss of all things that we may be found in Christ (phu. 3 : 8-10), or share his sufferings and self-sacrifices that we may minister to his suffering ones (Matt 25 : 35, 36). 39. He that flndeth his life shall lose it. Repeated in Matt. 16 : 25 ; Luke 17 : 33 ; John 12 : 25. Not merely, he that finds the life of this world shall lose eternal life in the world to come, though this is implied in John, nor he that finds the lower earthly life shall lose the higher and spiritual life. The significance of the 6aying does not depend upon any such play on the word life. The aphorism goes deeper. All self - seeking (s se\f-losing. Even in spiritual things, he who is perpetually studying how to secure joy and peace JbrhimsHf loses it. A certain measure of self-forgetfulness i- the condition of the high- est success even In Christian grace. Observe tha&findtng implies seeking ; so that this proverb Is nnt, at all, Me thai gains this life loses the next, but, lie that makes his own life the chief object of his endeavor and seems to succeed, really fails. 40. He that receiveth you receiveth me. Ch. X.] MATTHEW. 147 receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And whosoever snail give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily 1 say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. CHAPTER XI. AND it came to pass, when J esus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence, to teach and to preach in their cities. The primary reference is to the twelve apostles in their commission ; the receiving is that referred to in verses 13, 14, receiving to the house with hospitality (compare Hebrews 13 : 2). Underneath this is a deeper meaning of wider application. He who receives the servant of Christ and his mes- sage in his heart, receives Christ ; he who opens his heart to Christlike influence from men, opens it, even though unconsciously, to Christ. Com- pare 2 Cor. 5 : 30. 41. In the name of a prophet, i. e., as a prophet, because he is a prophet. The word prophet in N. T. usage signifies not necessarily a foreteller of events, but an inspired teacher of God. See illustrations of this truth in 2 Kings, ch. 4. The joys of Christ's kingdom are awarded according to the spiritual aspirations, not ac- cording to the intellectual abilities and actual achievements in work. If one, however humble his station, shows himself in his spiritual sympa- thy one with the prophets, he shall receive the prophet's place ; if, however imperfect his char- acter, he approves himself the friend of right- eousness, he shall receive the reward of right- eousness. Observe that that reward is a perfect character (Col. 1 : 22) ; so that the promise is in- volved in Matt. 5 : 6. 42. Whosoever shall give * * * a cup of cold water. "This he saith lest any one should allege poverty." — (Chrysostom.) It is never, even in our intercourse with each other, the largeness of the gift, but always the spirit which inspires the giver, which determines its value. It is not the service we render to Christ's cause or church, but the will to render it which Christ looks at. Compare Luke 21 : 1-4. In the name of a disciple, i.e., "because ye belong to Christ" (Mark 9: 41). To one of these little ones ; not, as De Wette, to the despised and meanly esteemed for Christ's sake ; nor neces- sarily, as Alford, to children that may have been present ; but to one insignificant and unknown in Christ's kingdom in contrast with the inspired teacher and the well-known righteous man. It is explained by Matt. 25 : 40. Dr. Brown notices here "a descending climax — 'the prophet,' 'a righteous man,' 'a little one,' signifying that however low we come down in our service to those that are Christ's, all that is done for his sake, and that bears the stamp of love to his blessed name, shall be divinely appreciated and owned and rewarded." Chrysostom, on the other hand, notices the climax in the entire pas- sage, the connection of which he thus indicates : "Seest thou what mighty persuasions he used, and how he opened to them the houses of the whole world ? Tea, he signified that men are their debtors, first by saying, The workman is worthy of his hire ; secondly, by sending them forth bearing nothing ; thirdly, by giving them up to wars and fightings in behalf of them that receive them ; fourthly, by committing to them miracles also ; fifthly, in that he did by their lips introduce peace, the cause of all blessings, into the houses of such as receive them ; sixthly, by threatening things more grievous than Sodom to such as receive them not ; seventhly, by signify- ing that as many as welcome them are receiving both himself and the Father ; eighthly, by prom- ising both a prophet's and a righteous man's reward ; ninthly, by undertaking that the recom- pense shall be great even for a cup of cold water." Ch. 11:1. When Jesus had made an end, i. e., for the time, had finished this special discourse. He departed thence. The local- ity is not fixed. The address was delivered during a journey in Galilee (Matt. 9 : 35). To preach in their cities. They preached in the towns or villages (Luke 9 : 6), that men should repent (Mark 6 : 12), basing their preaching on the announcement that the kingdom of Heaven was at hand (Matt. 10 : 7). Their preaching thus cor- responded to that of John the Baptist and the earlier ministry of Jesus (Matt. 3 : 2 ; 4 : n). THE TWELVE APOSTLES: THEIR LIVES AND CHARACTERS. For the convenience of the student, I embody here very brief references to the Scriptural in- formation concerning the twelve apostles, and shall refer to this note in other parts of the com- mentary when their names occur. Simon Peter (rock). His original name was Simon or Simeon (Acts 15 : 14) ; he was born at Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee (John 1 : 44) ; with his father Jonas and his brother Andrew carried on the trade of a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee (Luke 5 : 3 j John 21 : 3) ; was married, and his mother- in-law lived with him (Mark 1 : 29, so) ; was origi- nally, with his brother Andrew, a disciple of John the Baptist ; joined Jesus temporarily at the ford of Bethabara (John 1 -. 40, 41), where he re- ceived his new name of Peter (verse 42) ; he re- 148 sumed his fishing, and was a second time called to follow Christ, which he did, with Andrew his brother, and with James and John (Luke5:8-n). The healing of his mother-in-law followed almost immediately (Mark 1 : 29-31 ; Luke 4: 38, 39). The sub- sequent incidents in his life indicate a warm, affectionate, impulsive but unstable character. He starts to walk to Jesus on the wave, but loses courage almost as soon as his feet touch the water (Matt. 14 : 28-30) ; impetuously refuses to let Christ wash his feet, and as impetuously offers his head and his hands (John 13 : 6, 8, 9) ; draws his sword to fight single-handed the Roman soldiers, yet turns and flees with the others when Christ surrenders to the band (John is : 10 ; Matt. 26 : 56) ; fol- lows Christ into the palace, but there denies with vehemence and oaths that he is a disciple (Matt. 28 : 69-75 ; John 18 : 15, 17, 25-27) ; is One of the first to baptize the Gentiles, then refuses to fraternize with them from fear of opposition in the church (Acts 10 : 47, 48 ; Gal. 2 : 11-13 ; but compare Acts 15 : 7, etc.) Af- ter the resurrection and ascension of our Lord, Peter appears to have taken a leading position in the church, but as an orator rather than as an organizer or ecclesiastical leader (Acts 1 -. is ; 2 : 14-41 ; 4:8). He traveled about in missionary work, taking his wife with him (1 Cor. 9 : 5), ministering to the Gentiles, and probably traveling as far east as Babylon (1 Pet. 5 1 13). If he ever visited Rome, which is uncertain, it was not until the later years of his life, and after the founding of the Christian church. According to tradition, he was crucified under Nero, with his head down- ward, and to this event our Lord is thought to MATTHEW. [Ch. X. refer in John 21 : 18. The personal friendship between himself and John, illustrated by many incidents (Luke 5 : 1-11 ; John 13 : 23, 24: 18 : 15, 10; 21 : 7 ; Act«3:ij 4: 13), is one of the most touching and tender of the minor episodes in Gospel history, all the more so from the incidental indication of the contrasts in their characters (John 20 : 3-9 ; 21 : 7). Andkew (manly). A son of Jonas and brother of Peter. He brought the latter to Christ (John 1 : 40-42), and with him was subsequently called by Christ to become a disciple, and later an apostle (Matt. 4 : 21 j Luke 6 : u). The only other incidents respecting him recorded in the Gospels are those narrated in Mark 13 : 3, John : 8, and 12 : 22, and these give little or no information respecting his character. After the resurrection of our Lord, he appears only in the list of apostles in Acts 1 : 13. Tradition reports him to have preached the Gospel in Scythia, Greece, and Asia Minor, and to have been crucified upon a cross in the form of a X, which is called, accordingly, St. Andrew's cross. James (same as Jacob, i. e., Supplant er). He was a son of Zebedee ; his mother's name was Salome (compare Matt. 27 : 56 with Mark 16 : 40). He proba- bly resided at Bethsaida ; joined Jesus with his brother John at the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 4 : 21) ; is never mentioned in the Gospels except in con- nection with his brother John ; was martyred under Herod Agrippa, A. D. +4 (Acts 12 : 2). There is reason to believe that he and his brother John were own cousins of our Lord. This opinion rests on the account given by Matthew, Mark, and John, of the women at the crucifixion. They describe these women as follows : Matt. 27 : 66. Mark 15 : 40. John 19 : 25. Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary Magdalene. Mary, mother of James and Joses. Mary, mother of James the less. Mary, wife of Cleophas. Mother of Zebe- dee's children. Salome. Sister of Jesus' mother. It is evident, from a comparison of these ac- counts, that Salome and the mother of Zcbedee's Children are the same; that is, that Salome was the mother of James and John. It is a question whether the sister of Jesus' mother mentioned by John is to be identified with Salome or with Mary, wife of Cleophas; whether, thai is, John mentions two or three persons in addition to Mary, the mother of Jesus. If Mary, wife of Cleophas, were the sister of Jesus' mother, there would have been two sisters of the same name, Mary, which is not impossible, as Jewish records show, but is improbable. On the whole, I think the better opinion to be that which identifies the sister of Jesus' mother with Salome, the mother of Zcbedee's children, in which ease Jesus was own cousin to James and John. See note on Matthew 13 : •">•">. John {jgraet qf Oks Lord), lie was a brother of James, and of course is not to be confounded with John the Baptist. Several references in the N. T. indicate that his family was one of some wealth and social position ( \i.irk r*. 20jLuka8:S| DOmp, -villi Mark 16: 1: J..l.n II ! «). He MppCIirS to liaYC accompanied our Lord in his first ministry in .hi dea, and he is the only one of the l'.\ angelists who gives any aCCOTinl of that ministry. lie is men Honed frequently in connection with Peter and James as especially intimate with .Icsu> ' K»tfc II • ' . Mark 5 : n i J»i>n l.i : a I j and of those three, he appears to have been the one most beloved of our Lord (John 13 : 93 ; 19 : 26 j 90 : 9 ; 91 : 7, 90, 94). Of his personal Oh. X.] MATTHEW. 149 history subsequent to the crucifixion little is known. He went into Asia, exercised a pastoral supervision over the Asiatic churches, was ban- ished to Patmos, and probably died iu extreme old age a natural death. Of his personal character much has been written, yet it is certain he has been greatly misunderstood. He was naturally im- petuous and ambitiOUS (Matt. 20 : 20, 21 ; Mark 3 : 17 ; 10 : 35-37; Luke 9 : 64), and of all the apostles, he appears to have been the most courageous ; he alone of the Evangelists, apparently, accompanied Jesus in his earlier Judean ministry, since he is the only one who gives any account of it ; and he alone clung to him and followed him during the trial in the court of Caiaphas and before Pilate's judgment-seat ; this is evidenced by his narrative, which is unmistakably that of an eye-witness. His gentleness, patience, love, and spiritual ap- prehension of Christ's interior teaching, seem to have been the effect of Christ's personal influ- ence upon him. He was the beloved disciple, because of all the disciples he was the most docile and most ready to yield to and receive Christ's teaching and influence. See further on his character, Introduction to Gospel of John. We have, in the N. T., four books from his pen : one Gospel and three Epistles. Philip (warlike). He was a native of Beth- saida ; brought Nathanael, who was probably the 6ame as Bartholomew, to Jesus ; and is generally mentioned in connection with Bartholomew. The only direct reference to him in the Gospels, except the mere mention of his name here and in other lists of the twelve, are in John 1 : 43-45 ; 12 : 21, 22 ; 14 : 8, 9. Of his life and labors nothing else is known ; and the traditions re- specting him are conflicting. He is not to be confounded with Philip, the deacon, mentioned in Acts 6 : 5 ; 8 : 5-12, 26-40 ; 21 : 8, 9. Bartholomew (son of Tlwlmai). It is gene- rally thought by Biblical scholars that this apos- tle is identical with Nathanael. John alone men- tions Nathanael (John i : 45-49 ; 21 : 2), whom Philip brought to Jesus ; Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not mention him, but give the name of Bartholo- mew in connection with Philip. This fact, coupled with their otherwise singular omission of the name of Nathanael, and with the fact that Bartholomew is not properly a name at all, but a descriptive title, meaning son of Tholmai, have led to the hypothesis which identifies the two. It is, however, but an hypothesis, though cer- tainly a reasonable one. Nothing is known of his life or character, except what may be gath- ered from the above reference. Thomas (twin). This word is of Hebrew ori- gin ; its Greek equivalent is Didymus, and his name occurs in this form (John 11 : 16; 20 : 24; 21 : 2). He was doubtless a Galdean, but neither his parentage, birth-place, nor call are mentioned. There are but four incidents in his life recorded in the N. T. (John ll : 16 ; 14 : 5 ; 20 : 24-29 ; 21 : 2). These indicate that he possessed an affectionate spirit but a skeptical mind. The earnestness and fidel- ity of his love was unaccompanied by a faith and hope at all comparable to it (John n : 16) ; he could not understand the "mansions" which Christ, after his death, would prepare for his followers (John 14: 5); he refused to believe in his Lord's resurrection without tangible evidence (John 20 : 24-29). Of his history subsequent to the ascension of Christ, nothing is known with any certainty ; the Syrian Christians, however, claim him as the founder of their church. Matthew (probably, gift). He is also called Levi (Luke 6 : 27-29 ; and see note on Matt. 9 : 9). He Was a publican, i. e. tax-gatherer and the son of Alphae- us (Mark 2 : u) ; but whether of the same Alphseus mentioned in this history as the father of James the less is uncertain ; most scholars think not. The name Alphaeus is a common one in Jewish records, and if Matthew were a brother of James, the two would probably have been mentioned to- gether, as are Simon Peter and his brother An- drew and James and his brother John. Of his life, subsequent to his call, the N. T. gives no information, except that his Gospel indicates that he accompanied Christ to the last. No re- liance can be placed on the traditions respecting his later history. James, the son op Alph^us. His father'b name is given by John as Cleophas or Cleopas, a dif- ferent form of the same word ; his mother's name was Mary (Mark 15 : 40), assuming, as I do from rea- sons Which Will appear elsewhere (see note on Brethren of our Lord on Matt. 13 : 55), that there are three persons of the name of James mentioned in the N. T., James the brother of John, James the son of Alphaeus, and James the Lord's brother, and that the latter was the author of the Epistle Gen- eral of James, nothing more is known concerning this James, who is generally in Biblical literature distinguished from James the brother of John by being entitled James the less. Lebb^eus (the meaning is uncertain). In Mark 3 : 18 he is called Thaddaeus, and it is prob- able that the addition hereof the words, "whose surname was Thaddaeus," has been added by some copyist to harmonize the two accounts. In the lists given in Luke 6 : 14, etc., and Acts 1 : 13, neither Lebbaeus nor Thaddaeus appears, but in their place the name of Judas of James, which our translators interpret Judas the brother of James. This is, however, merely their interpre- tation, the word brother being added by them ; the better opinion appears to be that the proper in- terpretation would be son of James. This Jude or Judas, also called Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus, is by many critics regarded as identical with the Judas mentioned in Matthew 13 : 55, and as the 150 MATTHEW. [Ch. XL 2 Now e when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, 3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another ? c Luke 7 ; 18, etc. writer of the epistle of Jude. While the ques- tion, like that of the possible identity of James the less with James the Lord's brother is beset with difficulties, I think the better opinion is that which considers that there were two persons of the name of Jude or Judas, one the apostle who is mentioned only in the lists of the twelve and is identical with Lebbaeus or Thaddaeus, the other Jude the brother of James the Lord's brother, and so the brother of our Lord (Matt. 13:55; Jude, verse l), and the author of the Epistle which bears his name. See Introduction and notes to that epistle. Simon {that obeys) tiie Canaanite. In Luke and Acts he is called Simon Zelotes, i. e. Simon the Zealot. He is not to be confounded with Simeon the brother of Jesus (Matt. 13 : 55, and note there). The Zealots were a faction of the Jews who were conspicuous for their fierce advocacy of the Mo- saic ritual ; their fanatical violence was one of the principal causes which led to the destruction of Jerusalem. Nothing is known of his life and character. JUDAS Iscariot. The derivation of this name is uncertain ; it is probably Of Kerioth, a town of Judea (josh, is : '.'.".)■ In that case Judas Iscariot was the only Judean among the twelve, and this fact would afford a key to his enigmatical char- acter and career. His father's name was Simon (john6:7i). He followed Christ with the other disciples, received from him a commission to preach the Gospel, and apparently preached it endowed with the same power to "heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease," was en- trusted with the funds of the little band, and ad- hered to Christ and his cause until the unmis- takable declaration of Jesus respecting his death, when he deserted and betrayed him. For a con- sideration of his enigmatical character and career see Abbott's Jesus of Nazareth, chap. 39, and notes hereafter, especially on chap. 27 : 3-10. rii. 11 : 2-10. Johns EHBAS81 AKD JE8U8' his. C01 I'SI. OS JOHH. Quiet brings temptation td us- OJIKT SOULS.— TnE PERPLEXITY OF THE 1>IS< III.E TO VIIOM (Illtl-T IS NOT CLEARLY REVEALED: " DO WE LOOK loll ANOTHER ? " — TlIE EVIDK.V V. OF ( 'lIRI-TIA N- ITY, BOTH IN TIIE BOTJL AND IN TOE WOBLD : A WORK OF DlVTNE POWER, OF DlVINE HEALING, OT DlVINE I.OVK. —The best evidence is a Eimn evidence ; what WE DO NOW HEAIl AND SEE.— < 'llRlST IS BOTH A STUM- BLING-STONE AND THE STONE OP Till: CORNER (VCrSe 6; Matt. 21 : 42, 44). — .John the BAPTIST a true Treach- er; NEITHER SHAKEN UV A I1V KRSIT V, NOR S EDUCED BY prosperity.— The glory 0* .John tiii: BAPTIST, the GLORY OF TUE TRUE PREACHER: A UERALD OF TUE Lord.— The greatest in the O. T. dispensation is less privileged than the least in the new.— the Kingdom of Heaven is worthy of our enthusiasm. — the fulfillment of prophecy is in unexpected ways ; the Jews looked for Elijah and behold John the Baptist. — The unwilling can always find an excuse for rejecting both the warnings and the invitations of the gospel. — there are many messengers, yet but one message ; many invitations, yet but one dlvine lord. Of this embassy of John the Baptist to Jesus (vs. 2-0), and the subsequent discourse concerning him (vs. 7-19), there is also an account in Luke (7 : 18-35). It occurred apparently immediately after the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7 : 11-17) ; and probably prior to the com- mission of the twelve ; for Herod beheaded John while the disciples of Christ were absent on their mission (Mark 6 : 30 ; Matt. 14 : 13). 2. When John (Baptist) had heard in the prison. For an account of his imprison- ment, see Mark G : 17-20. For brief history of his life, see notes on Matt. 14 : 1-12. The prison was the castle of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea. Next to Jerusalem it was the strongest for- tress of the Jews. "It is, as it were, ditched about with such valleys on all sides, and to such a depth that the eye cannot reach their bottoms." — (Josephm* Wars of Jews, 7, §§ 1,2.) Its ruins still exist. The citadel, an isolated and almost im- pregnable work, small, circular, and exactly one hundred yards in diameter, was placed on a sum- mit overlooking the city. The wall can be clear- ly traced. There are also remains of two dun- geons ; the holes where staples of wood and iron had once been fixed arc clearly visible. See de- scription of the ruins in Tristram's Land of Moab. John, in this prison, heard of the works of Jesus through his own disciples (Luke 7 : is). Tristram supposes that John was confined in one of the above dungeons. But it is not probable that at this time his imprisonment was very close, for his disciples had access to him ; and Herod, who was educated In the Jewish religion, stood in awe of John as a prophet whom the people revered (Matt. 14 : 6). The works of Christ. Primarily of course, and chiefly, the miracles which Christ had wrought ; hut the phrase may also here include those features in Christ's ministry which per- plexed the disciples of John the Baptist, such as Christ's not keeping any fasts (MukSils). It is observable that it is said John had heard of the works of Christ, i. t, the Messiah, not the works of Jews, It is the only place in Matthew where Ch. XL] MATTHEW. 151 4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see : 5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended 11 in me. d Isa. 8 : 14, 15 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 22, 23; 1 Pet. 2 : 8. the name Christ stands by itself in lieu of Jesus or Jesus Christ, and it indicates that John recog- nized in those works an evidence of the Messiah- ship of our Lord, even though he shared with the disciples their perplexity at Christ's course. See note below. Two of his disciples. Some manuscripts have here by his disciples. The dif- ference is important only in its bearing on the question whether John sent to satisfy his own doubts or theirs. Luke says that he sent two, so that there is no question as to the fact. 3. And said unto him. Observe that both here and in Luke (7 : 20), the message is represented as that of John the Baptist, not as that of his disciples. Art thou he that should come ? Literally, The coming one (Greek o io/o,«£voc). The phrase is an unmistak- able reference to the Messiah, as to the one whom the propbets had foretold, and for whom the Jews looked. The same Greek word is used in the Septuagint in Psalm 118 : 26, and a different form of the same verb in Zech. 9 : 9. Compare Matt. 10 : 23 and note. The question then is this : Art thou the Messiah long prophesied, for whom we have looked, or are we still to look for the ful- filling of those prophecies in the coming of an- other ? This is the common question of all dis- pirited and discouraged Christians. Has the Lord Jesus really come to me, or am I to look for some other experience of his coming ? And the answer is always that which the Lord makes here (verse 4). If your eyes see the truth more clearly, your limbs are stronger to run the Christian race, your disease of sin is even partly purged away, and you have begun to walk in newness of life, do not be disheartened because the kingdom of God comes without observation, nor look for another and more marvelous coming. In the soul, as in the world, God's work of love is best demonstrated by the fruits of love. 4. Jesus answered and said. Luke says (7 : 21), "In the same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits ; and unto many that were blind he gave sight." Go and shew John again. The word again is not in the original. It is one of the illustra- tions of the need of anew translation of the Bible that the Greek here and in Luke is precisely the same (jtoQBv&hrteg unayytUXun), but the English is quite different. In Luke the rendering is " Go your way and tell." Observe, they were to shew John, an indication that the doubt, which led to the question, was truly his. " Those things which ye do hear and see." Ob- serve that the truths heard, as well as the mira- cles seen, are included among the evidences of Christ's divine character and mission. For by this phrase what ye do hear, we are not to under- stand that they were to report rumors of mira- cles heard of by them ; such rumors John had already heard. They were to carry the testi- mony of their own observation. 5. The blind receive their sight. "As the article is wanting in each of these clauses, the sense would be better perceived by the Eng- lish reader thus, though scarcely tuneful enough : ' Blind persons are seeing, lame people are walk- ing, leprous persons are getting cleansed, deaf people are hearing, dead persons are being raised." — (Dr. Brown.) The reference to the O. T. prophecies respecting the Messiah is un- mistakable ; see in particular Isaiah 35 : 5 ; 61 : 1-3, and the application of the latter passage by Christ to himself in Luke 4 : 16-21. This is the principal, if not the only place in the N. T., in which Jesus Christ employs the argument from miracles directly in support of his mission ; and it is to be noticed that he refers to them, not to convince an opponent, but to strengthen the fal tering faitb of a friend. In John 5 : 36 and 10 : 38 the appeal is not merely to his miracles (atjutiov) but to works (toy or), which includes much more. The argument is as potent now as it was in the time of Christ ; viz., the healing and evangel- izing power of the Gospel of Christ, not as it is reported to us from the past, but as we do hear and see its beneficent effects now. The poor receive good news. (Greek ivayyskiiofiai). Our English version gives the true sense, but not as John would have appre- hended it ; for the Gospel, in the modern sense, dates from the death of Christ. Observe that it is characteristic of every revival of the Chris- tian religion that it proclaims the Gospel without money and without price, and therefore makes the poor full participants in its privileges. But the language here also embraces the poor in heart-life, all who suffer heart-hunger, the meek, the broken-hearted, the captives, the bound of Isaiah 61 : 1. 6. Shall not be offended in me. Shall not be caused to stumble in me. Compare Mark 14 : 27. See note on Matt. 5 : 29. Christ is a stumbling-stone, a rock of offence, to many, as he was to John the Baptist (Rom. 9 : 33 ; i Cor. l : 23), because his character and mission are lowly, and because he does not immediately accomplish the redemption of the world, or of the individual 152 bouI. That he should be such a stumbling-block was prophesied by Jeremiah (e ; 21). John («ee note uiow) shared the general expectation of an im- mediate and temporal reformation to be wrought by the Messiah. Christ's reply is well para- phrased by Andrews : " Blessed is he who shall understand the work I now do, and not stumble at it." John's embassy to Jesus. This embassy has given rise to some perplexity, and there are two principal interpretations of it. One supposes that John himself was in no doubt respecting Christ's Messianic character, but that his disci- ples were, and that he sent them to Jesus for the purpose of solving their doubts, selecting for that purpose two whose testimony would be conclusive to the others. In support of this opinion, it is argued that John the Baptist had repeatedly borne testimony to Christ's character as the divine Son and Lamb of God (Matt. 3 : 11, 14 ; John 1 ; 27, 29, 33, 34; 3 : 30) ; that Christ, in his subse- quent discourse, expressly repudiated the idea that John was one easily shaken by stress of trial (verse 7) ; that he utters no word of rebuke, but much strong commendation ; and that while there are no other indications of a faltering faith in John, there are many that the disciples of John were skeptical respecting Jesus, and jeal- ous of his growing fame and influence (.Matt. 9:14; John 3 : 2:., u). This view was generally entertained by the early fathers, who seem to have adopted it to exculpate the Baptist. Wordsworth, who reflects their opinions throughout his commen- tary, even declares of this embassy that "it was the crowning act of St. John's ministry." "He thus guarded against a schism between his own disciples and those of Jesus ; he bequeath* id bis disciples to Christ ; he had prepared the way for Christ in the desert, he now prepared it in the prison." But this opinion rests wholly upon con- jecture. The other opinion is that John was himself in perplexity, and sent his disciples to solve both his own and their doubts. This opin- ion accords best with the natural meaning of the narrative. The message came from John ; the answer is sent, to him, not to them, "Go and shew John ; " the message closes with a benedic- tion, which indicates that John was in danger of Stumbling at the course of Jesus; and the dis- course, which follows is on the character of John, and gives no indication that the question was not truly Ids own. This view is entertained by nearly all modern commentators, and requires no con- jectural addition to the narrative to support it. Various attempts have been tuadc t • > explain the cause and nature of John's doubts ; e.g., DeWctte, Lange, and Dr. ScbaiT think the doubt was not respecting our Lord's mission, but bis ua\ of manifesting it: Olsbausen attributes it to the discouraging effects produced by Imprisonment MATTHEW. [Cir. XI. on John's mind ; Lightfoot, and, apparently, Dr. Brown, to his dissatisfaction at not being liber- ated from prison ; Matthew Henry, to the neg- lect of Jesus to visit him there ; Alford, and sim- ilarly Neander, to impatience at the slow and un- ostentatious course of our Lord's self-manifesta- tion, and a desire to impel Jesus to a public ac- knowledgment of his own character and mis- sion ; still others, referred to by Alford, to a doubt whether the one of whose miracles rumors reached him in prison was really the Jesus whom he baptized, and to whom he testified. All this is but matter of conjecture ; the sacred narrative is silent as to the Baptist's motives, and leaves us only in possession of the fact. Observe, how- ever, that his doubt is not distrust, for he sends to Jesus for its solution ; that Jesus carefully guards the people against the supposition that the temporary doubt really shakes his religious faith and character (vera 7); that similar experi- ences of perplexity at the course of God's provi- dential dealings are recorded of Moses (Eiod. 17 : 4), Elijah (1 Kings is : 10), David (p». 10 : 1), Jeremiah (jer. 12: 1, 2; Lam., ch. 3), and the unknown author of Psalm 77, written during the Babylonian captivity ; that it is not unnatural to suppose that John the Baptist shared the universal ex- pectation among the Jews and Christ's own dis- ciples of the temporal reign of the Messiah, and may, therefore, have been perplexed by the fact that there was no sign of the establishment of the kingdom of God in the nation ; that experi- ence of doubts are a peculiar temptation of ac- tive natures in times of enforced inactivity ; and finally that the result of this embassy was prob- ably to solve his doubt s, certainly to put an end to the doubts and jealousies of his disciples. " The happy result of this mission is intimated in those touching words, ' His disciples took up the body of John and buried it, and came and told Jesus,' Matt. 14:13."— (Wordsworth.) Ob- serve, too, that Christ makes no direct answer, affords to John the Baptist no peculiar assurance or evidence, but leaves bis faith to rest on the common evidence on which the faith of all the disciples is built. The moral of the incident thus interpreted is plain, viz. : that the strongest disciple Is liable to incursions of unbelief; that the true solver of doubts, in such times, is Jesus himself; that he solves them by point imr us to those evidences of Christianity which are open to all- the beneficent works of this Gospel; and that the argument from miracles is valid rather to sustain the [altering faith (if the disciple than to compel the reluctant assent of a willing skep- tic. Compare effect of miracles on l'harisccs, Matt. 13: 14, 34 7-19. DlBCOUBBl OB .Town Tin: Battist. This discourse evidently followed directly the departure of the disciples of John. Whether Oh. XL] MATTHEW. 153 7 And, as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went e ye out into the wilderness to see ? A reed shaken with the wind ? f 8 But what went ye out for to see ? A man clothed in soft raiment ? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. 9 But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. io For this is he of whom it is? written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall pre- pare thy way betore thee. ii Verily I say unto you, Among h them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than e Luke 7 : 24, SO. . . .f Eph. 4 : 14 ; James 1 : 6. . . .g Isa. 40 : 3 ; Mai. 3:1; Lake 1 : 76. . . .h John 5 : 35. the subsequent portion of this chapter is a part of the same discourse is uncertain. See prelimi- nary note verses 20-24, below. Luke (7 : 29, so) adds an account of the effect this discourse produced. 7. As they departed. Christ utters no word of commendation of John while the disci- ples are present. "He would not flatter John, nor have his praises reported to him. * * * Pride is a corrupt humor, which we must not feed either in others or in ourselves." — {Matthew Henry.) What he has before said is in reply to the question of John, and is addressed to John's disciples ; what he now says is in reply to the thoughts of the people, lest they shall misinter- pret and misjudge the Baptist. But, as often in his sayings, the occasion becomes a text for spir- itual instruction respecting his kingdom. He begins with John the Baptist ; he ends with the privileges of the least in the kingdom of heaven. What went ye out into the wilderness to see ? The reference is to the earlier ministry of John the Baptist, when it is said of him that Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, went out to him (Matt. 3 : 5). To see. Rather, to gaze upon. The original verb here is not the same as in the succeeding verse. A reed shaken with the wind ? The word reed is a general one, standing, as with us, for a variety of plants of a similar character. The Jordan abounded with these reed-like plants. In Scripture, the reed is an emblem of weakness (2 Kings is : 21 ; isaiah 42 : 3). The contrast surely is not, as Alford interprets it, between a reed, or the banks of the Jordan with its reeds, and a man ; the former is employed as a symbol of a weak and wavering character, easily bending be- fore the storm of adversity. Because John has sent this message, the people are not to imagine that he is yielding to fear and persecution. John is "not a reed planted in the morass of a weak and watery faith, and quivering in the wind of doubt. Not a reed — but a rock." — {Wordsworth.) The question requires no answer ; Christ gives it none. 8. A man clothed in soft raiment ? Con- trast his real raiment (Matt. 3 : 4). Chrysostom gives the connection: "He was not himself a waverer. * * * Much less can any one say this, that he was indeed firm, but having made himself a slave to luxury, he afterwards became languid." Behold they that wear soft clothing. Luke interprets and at the same time adds to this declaration : "Behold they which are gorgeously apparalled and live delicately." "Had he been minded to wear soft raiment he would not have lived in the wilderness, nor in prison, but in the king's courts ; it being in his power, merely by keeping silence, to have enjoyed honor without limit. ' ' — ( Chrysostom. ) 9. A prophet? All the people regarded John as a prophet (Matt. 21 : 26). Jesus thus ap- pealed to their public recognition of his charac- ter. Observe how our Lord begins by strength- ening and clarifying their appreciation of John as a prophet, and so establishing sympathy be- tween himself and them, as a preliminary to lead- ing them on to higher matters. The underlying thought is this : Te were attracted, not by an ardent, impulsive orator, easily swayed from his purpose by adversity, nor by any glitter of ex- ternal show, but by the moral qualities of a reli- gious and inspired teacher. More than a prophet. More — because himself the object of prophecy ; because the last in the succession of the prophets and the clearest in his prophecies of the coming King ; because he pointed out the Messiah whom others only foretold, and saw Him whom kings and prophets desired to see, but died without the sight (Matt. 13 : 17) ; and chiefest of all because he was a forerunner as well as a prophet, and, as a herald, went before the Lord, preparing his way. For it was characteristically his office, not merely to foretell the coming of the Lord, but to bring about among the people a state of heart and mind which should make them ready to receive the Lord (Luke s : 4 ; t ■. 29). See next verse, which gives the reason for the declaration in this. 10. For. Equivalent here to because, and introduces the ground of the preceding assertion. This is he of whom it is written. The reference is to Malachi 3 : 1. Alford notes the change from the first to the second person ; in Malachi it is "the way before wie;" here "thy way before thee;" and this change is preserved by all the Evangelists in their citations (Mark 1 : 2 ; Luke 7 : 27). That Christ thus changes the lan- guage, "making that which is said by Jehovah of himself to be addressed to the Messiah, is, if SUCh Were needed (compare also Luke 1 : 16, 17, and 76), no mean indication of his own eternal and coequal Godhead." Alford's deduction is also note- 154 MATTHEW. [Ch. XL John the Baptist : notwithstanding, he 1 that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 And from the days ofjohn the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take' it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which* was for to come. 15 He 1 that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 1 John 1 : 15, 27 ; 3 : 30. . . .j Luke 16:16; Eph. 6:11-13 k ch. 17 : 12 ; Mai. 4:5 1 Rev. 2 : 7, etc. worthy : " If John was thus great above all others, because he was the forerunner of Christ, how above all prophets and holy men of old must Christ himself be." Behold I send my mes- senger. Observe that John attributes to him- self the humbler prophecy which designates him as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness " (John i:2s), while Christ designates him as "my messenger." The contrast illustrates Luke 14 : 11. Prepare thy way before thee. See note on Matt. 3 : 3. 11. There hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist ; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. This is the climax in the ascending scale, for which the preceding verses have been a preparation. John the Baptist is more than a mere impetuous orator, fickle- minded and easily swayed by storm, more than a king gorgeously appareled, more than a prophet, yea, greatest of men, yet the least in my kingdom is greater than he. The object of the whole dis- course is to lead up the mind to an appreciation of the greatness of this kingdom and those who are in it. On the meaning of the phrase king- dom of heaven, sec Matt. 3:2. Observe, that there John is represented as preaching, not in the kingdom, but as a herald who precedes it. Here, as there, the phrase points to the advent of the Messiah as King and Lord, and the inaugu- ration of Christ's kingdom by his crucifixion. What is meant by "least in the kingdom of heaven ?" Chrysostom and many of the fathers understand Christ himself. "Less in age and according to the opinion of the multitude," says Chrysostom, referring to verse 19, and to chap- ter 13 : 55. Wordsworth revives this opinion, which is now generally abandoned, which cer- tainly the plain reader would never attach to the words, and which is Indefensible, because, <•!, i Christ is never spoken of In the X. T. as in the kingdom of heaven, but rather as its Lord and King; (6,) the words "little" and "least" Mir. iitxqdf, uixooTtQof) applied to the kingdom of heaven have a well-defined meaning in X. T. osage=to humble in position, authority and in- fluence (Matt. 10:42; 18:6,10,14; Mark9:42; Luke 9 : 48 ; II : '.' ; ptn Mitt. U : 81, and AcU 8 : 10) ; it is OIll V ill Mark 15 : 40, "James the Less," that the word bears the meaning of younger. The key to the Interpretation is given by Bfaldonatus, quoted by Wordsworth and Alfonl : "The least of the greatest is greater than the greatest of the least." It is here not greater in personal character, nor in eternal condition, but in present privilege, pre- rogative, station, as the least child is greater than the highest servant. John was a servant, We are SOnS Of God (Gal. 4:7; compare John 15 : 15). There is a significance, too, in the language used here, "born of women.'''' Whoever enters the kingdom of heaven is born of the Holy Ghost (John 3 : a). Alford embodies the contrast well. "John not inferior to any that are born of women ; but these, even the least of them, are born of another birth. John, the nearest to the King and kingdom, but never having himself entered ; these in the kingdom, subjects and citizens and indwellers of the realm ; He the friend of the Bridegroom ; they, however weak and unworthy, his Body and his Spouse." Ob- serve, that Paul calls himself "least of the apos- tles" (l Cor. 15:9). 12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven sunereth violence, etc. The metaphor is that of a city to which long siege lias been laid, and into which at last the victorious troops pour joyfully, seizing on it as their prey. The preach- ing of John the Baptist inaugurated the new dis- pensation, in which the poor had the Gospel preached unto them. Crowds thronged to hear him, as now they were thronging to hear Christ, eager to seize hold of the kingdom which both John and Jesus declared to be at hand. There was no such eagerness to lay hold on the preach- ing of the Scribes ; this very contrast was an evi- dence that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and it dated from the advent of John, who was thus pointed out as the messenger 6ent before the Lord i rone lb), the Elias that was for to come (vemeii). Other interpretations have been pro- posed, as, (a, ) that the kingdom of heaven forces itself on others, breaks in upon them with vio- lence, an interpretation explained by Joel 2 : 28-33, and Ads 2 : 16-31 ; (6,) it is forcibly re- sisted, and thus suffers violence; c. us, who saves from pin (matt. 1:21); for what invited? for rest in trouble here, from trouble hereafter —Christ's yoke, self-denial for the sake of others; light, be- CAUSE borne fof Christ and borne with Christ. Christ's toke, becai -1: hkne by him for us, bt cs por him, and by it we are yoked to christ. — The trie Christian teacher must be meek and lowly in heart.— Christ's gift, a toke, tet per- fect REST ; A SERVICE WHICH 18 JOT AND PEACE. Oh. XL] MATTHEW. 159 25. At that time. Not necessarily in the same discourse. It may mean at this period in his ministry, though the discourse from verse 7 may be all one. Compare for signification of phrase, Matt. 12 : 1 ; 11 : 1 ; Mark 10 : 30, etc. This much is certain ; at the same period in which Jesus began to pronounce woes against the cities of Galilee, he commenced to give to his ministry a tenderer aspect toward the weary and heavy- laden. Luke records the same acknowledgment of God's mystery of grace with a more definite note of time, "in that hour " (Luke 10 : 21), i. e., in the same hour with the return of the Seventy. Robinson supposes it to have been twice uttered, and this is quite possible. See above, note on 20-24. I thank thee. The Greek verb (llouoloyiw) so rendered here is nowhere else in the N. T. so translated, except in the parallel passage in Luke. The general idea is "confess," but with the idea of publicity. It is here "I publicly acknowledge to thee * * * that thou hast hid," etc. Father, Lord of heaven and earth. It is to be observed that he does not address the Father as his Lord, but as Lord of heaven and earth. But see John 20 : 17, where he says "My Father and your Father, and my God and your God. These things. That is, the mysterious operation of that divine power which destroys the cities of Galilee and raises up other nations to become light-bearers, as set forth in Matt. 21 : 43. Compare Rom. 11 : 33, and ob- serve that Paul's expression there is in view of the casting out of Israel and the admission of the Gentiles. Both the warnings (Luke 19 : 42) and the invitations (2 Cor. 4:3) of the Gospel are hid from the eyes of such as are wise in their own conceit. Compare 1 Cor. 2 : OS. From the wise and prudent. The wise in philosophy, the prudent in worldly affairs (Acta 13 : 7). Observe, that the contrast is not with the unwise and imprudent, but with babes. The words {aocpog and avvetog), here rendered "wise and prudent," are never used alone in the N. T. in a bad sense, unless 1 Cor. 3 : 19 be an exception. The word wise (Gr. ao(pog) is employed to designate an attribute both of God and good men (1 cor. 3 : 10 ; Rom. ig : 27), and the negative foolish (Gr. Hooyoc, Ephes. 5 : 15 only) and without understanding (dovvetoc, Matt. I5:i6; Rom. 1 : 31, etc.), are used only in a bad sense. The doctrine conveyed, then, is that religious truth is not acquired by any mere intellectual process, however good in itself; it is revealed not to philo- sophical wisdom, or intellectual culture, or prac- tical sagacity in affairs, but to childlike humility and docility. Compare Job 11 : 7 ; Luke 18 : 17 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 12-21. The babes here are the disci- ples, contrasted with the wise and prudent (1 Cor. 1 : 26), unfamiliar with the wisdom of the Scribes (acu 4 : 13), and disregarding worldly prudence in leaving all to follow Christ. The language here indicates that Luke has given this part of the discourse in the right connection, viz., im- mediately after the return of the Seventy from their mission. "When the Seventy came telling him about the devils, then he rejoiced and spake these things ; which, besides increasing their diligence, would also dispose them to be mod- est." — ( Chrysostom.) 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father. Not revealed to me, but deliv- ered to me ; i. e., the whole administration of human life is handed over to me. Compare Col. 1 : 16-19, and Hebrews 1 : 8. But observe that the power of Christ is represented as derived from the Father (delivered unto me by my Father), and that all will at the last be delivered to the Father again (1 cor. 15 : 28). Compare, as to both truths, Matt. 28 : 18 ; John 5 : 26, 36 ; 14 : 10. No man knoweth the Son. The designation of Jesus as "the Son" occurs frequently in the Gospel of John, but only here, in Luke 10 : 22, and in Mark 13 : 32, in the synoptic Gospels. This verse finds, both in the spirit and the truth enunciated, a parallel in many passages in John ; e. g., John 1 : 18 ; 6 : 46 ; 14 : 6, 9, 10. The com- mentators note in it "a connecting link between the synoptists and John, and an incidental testimony by Matthew to the originality and credibility of the weighty discourse of Christ concerning his relation to the Father, which are only recorded in the fourth Gospel." — (Setoff.) No one knoweth the Son but the Fa- ther. Knows perfectly, fully (Gr. Imyu ojoxui). Compare Matt. 7 : 20, and note. Observe that it is not, as in our version, no man knoweth, but no one knoweth — man, angel, archangel. That is, Christ claims a character which only the Infinite can fathom, because only the Infinite can fully understand the Infinite. Compare 1 Cor. 2 : 11. Observe, too, how the declaration of this mys- tep T of Christ's nature is coupled with the dec- laration that the mysteries of the King and the kingdom are revealed to the childlike and hid from the wise and prudent ; and that any system of theology is unscriptural which undertakes fully to interpret the nature of either the Father or the Son. Neittter knoweth any one the Father but the Son, and he to Avhom the Son wills to reveal him. No man knows the Father except he add to the knowledge gained from other sources — history, science, nature, and his own thoughts — that special knowledge of God's grace and love which the Son affords ; nor unless his study of nature, etc., is under the di- rection of and in submission to the Son. Philos- ophy is in so far right that to the Christless God is the Unknowable. Compare, for the way in which the Son reveals the Father, and to whom he will reveal him, John 14 : 15-24. 160 MATTHEW. [Ch. XL and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth* any man the Father, save the Son, and ke to whomsoever" the Son will reveal him. 28 Come unto me, &\\ ye that labour" and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn* of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye d shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, e and my burden is light. z John 1 ; 18 ; 1 John 5 : 20. . . .a Isa. 55 : 1-4. . . .b Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Pet. 2 : 21. . . .c Zech. 9 : 9. . . .d Jer. 6 : 16. . . .e 1 John 5 : 3. 28. Come unto me. Observe the utter in- congruity of such an invitation as that here given, and its accompanying promise, in the mouth of a merely inspired prophet, or even an angel or archangel. Compare with it John 1 : 29, and Isaiah 53 : 4 ; and observe that Christ car- ries not only our sins, but also our griefs and our sorrows. All that labor and arc heavy laden. This is not to be limited or qualified, as an invi- tation to the Jews, " who groaned under the weight of their ceremonial laws and the tradition of their elders " (Barnes), or to " those, and those only, that are sensible of sin as a burden, and groan under it, that are not only convinced of the evil of sin, of their own sin, but are contrite in soul for it." — (Matthew Henry.) Of course, the invitation includes those burdened by a con- sciousness of sin, and the laborer serving under the law, as the greater includes the less. Ob- serve, too, that the burden and weariness of labor .is a fruit of sin (Gen. 3 : 17-19), and is thus a symbol of the bitterer spiritual labor and weari- ness of the soul under a sense of sin. But this invitation is not merely to the penitent and the remorseful, but to all who, for any reason what- ever, feel the want of a rest which the world cannot give (compare P». 46 : 1 and Heb. 4 : 16). Thus, the travail of life echoes Christ's invitation to spiritual rent (Rom. 8 : 22, 23). The burden and labor of the leper was his leprosy ; of the centurion, was his sick child ; of the palsied, was his palsy ; of the wo- man that was a sinner, was her sin and shame ; of the prodigal, was at first only his hunger and his degradation (Matt, 8:2-4, 6, 6; 9:2; Luke 7:38; ts : 16, it). The coming to Christ is interpreted ly his name, Jesus, Saviour from sin (Matt. 1 : 21), and by the coming of the apostles (e.g., Luko 5 : 11), of Paul (Acti : 5, c), and of the rich young man who did not truly and finally come (Matt. 19 : 16-22) ; not less so by the coming of the many burdened by disease who came to him for cure. Whoever comes must take up his cross and follow Jesus (Lnke 14 : 88-36). Chrysostom's interpretation is as broad as the original invitation itself. " Not this or that person, but all that are in anxiety, in sor- rows, in sins, come— not that I may call you to account, but that I may do away your sins; come — not that I want your honor, but that I want your salvation." I will tjivo you rest. Not necessarily yhm your burden ; if not, that then rest in your bur- den. The rest is described in the next verse, "rest unto your souls." Compare John 14: 27; 16 : 33 ; and observe that Christ's promise of peace there recorded was followed immediately after by external experiences of dire tribulation both to him and to his disciples. Compare, for fulfillment of this promise, 2 Cor. 12 : It, 10 ; and for parallel to it, Heb. 12 : 11-13. 29. Take my yoke upon you. The yoke is used symbolically in the Bible to denote a con- dition Of Servitude (Lev. 26 : 13 ; 1 Kingt 12 : 4, 9-11 ; Isaiah 9:4, etc); and hence, in the N. T., of bondage under the law as opposed to the freedom of the Gospel (AcU15:10; Gal. 5 : 1 ; 1 Tim. 6 : l). Only here is it used in the N. T. of allegiance to Christ. The metaphor was well understood in his time. To express the subjugation of the conquered na- tions, the Romans were accustomed to make their captives pass under a yoke, made by placing two spears upright a short distance apart, and a third across the top. To pass under it, they were compelled to stoop. To take Christ's yoke, then, is to become captive to him in love. But the yoke is never borne by one alone. And Christ also became subject to a yoke for love's sake (see Phil. 2 : 7, 8), and sends us into the world as he was 6ent into the world (John n : is). Hence, to take Christ's yoke is not only to yield ourselves servants to him in righteousness ; it is also to be yoked to Christ, i. c, become yoke-fellow and co- laborer with him (see 1 Cor. s : 7). All burdens be- come easy when we are yoked with Christ, and he bears them with us. And learn of me. By my teaching, my ex- ample, my indwelling. For I am meek. See note on Matt. 5:5. And lowly in heart; (, c, of a heart to condescend to men of low es- tate. It is explained by Rom. 12 : 16, and Phil. 2 : 5-8, etc. The qualification, even of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be our divine teacher is not so much his infinite wisdom as his infinite meekness and condescension. And we attain his peace by becoming like him in character. Ye shall find rest unto your souls. Compare Jeremiah 6 : 16. Observe that there the condition of the promise is, "Ask for the old paths." Christ himself fulfilled the law and the prophets, so that they who came to him for rest came unto old paths, those through which the patriarchs and prophets entered into their rest. 30. For my yoke is easy. Rather, kindly serviceable. This is the proper meaning of the original (/o>;or<»,.). That a yoke is easy is not an argument for it, for none at all is still easier. Ch. XII.] MATTHEW. 1G1 CHAPTER XII. AT that time f Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn ; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to plucks the ears ot corn, and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw ft, they said unto him. Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do* upon the sabbath day. 3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did' when he was an hungred, and they that were with him ; f Mark 2 : 23, etc. ; Luke 6 : 1, etc. . . .g Deut. 23 : 25 h Exod. 31 : 15. . . .i 1 Sam. 21 : I But Christ's yoke is useful ; it is by his yoke that we ourselves are brought into the image of God ; by sharing his death we are made participants in his life here (2 Cor. 4 : 10) and hereafter (2 Tim. 2:11), and are also enabled to do service to him as repre- sented in our fellow-men. "The yoke of Christ is like the plumage of a bird, which adds to its weight, but enables it to soar to the sky." — ( Wordsworth, quoting from the Fathers.) My burden is light. Compare Matt. 23 : 4. For a contrast between the yoke which Christ breaks and the rest he gives, see Romans chaps. 7 and 8 ; 7 : 21-24 interprets the burden; 8 : 1, 38, 39 indicates the rest. If, as is thought by many of the harmonists, the incident of the woman who was a sinner, recorded in Luke 7 : 36-50, occurred immediately after this discourse, her acceptance of the invitation here offered affords the best possible interpretation of its true spiritual sig- nificance. Compare with Christ's invitation and his absolute promise of rest to all who come to him, the dying discourse of Socrates: "Cebes answered with a smile, ' Then, Socrates, you must argue us out of our fears ; and yet, strictly speaking, they are not our fears ; but there is a child within us to whom death is a sort of hob- goblin ; him, too, we must persuade not to be afraid when he is alone with him in the dark.' Socrates said, ' Let the voice of the charmer be applied daily until you have charmed him away.' 'And where shall we find a good charmer of our fears, Socrates, when you are gone ? ' ' Greece,' he replied, 'is a large place, Cebes, and has many good men, and there are barbarous races Dot a few ; seek for him among them all far and wide, sparing neither pains nor money ; for there is no better way of using your money. And you must not forget to seek for him among your- selves too ; for he is nowhere more likely to be found.'" — (Phcedo, Jowett's translation.) Ch. 12 ; 1-14 THE LAW OF THE CHRISTIAN SAB- BATH ILLUSTRATED. It is always east to criticise Christians.— The service of Christ is more than the service of the temple. — the liberty of the o. t. illustrated bt david, bt the temple ser- vice ; how much greater the liberty of the n. t. —The service of mercy, more than the service of sacrifice ; the service of christ, more than that of the temple.— the sabbath permanent : christ is its Lord ; universal : made for man.— Two fun- damental principles of Sabbath observance: it is made for man's use, so its best use is always its right use ; it is lawful to do good on the sabbath day. — The Sabbath of earth like the Sabbath of heaven, a rest from the harassment of evil, but not from works of love. — wlth every command of Christ comes power from Christ. — The effect of miracles on uncandld minds is only to anger, not to convince. The incidents here recorded are found also in Mark 2 : 23-28 ; 3 : 1-6, and Luke 6 : 1-11. The time is uncertain. The most definite indications are the references in Luke 6 : 1, to "the second Sabbath after the first" (see note there), and the fact that the grain was ripe for plucking. The bar- ley harvest was in April, the wheat harvest was in May, sometimes as late as June. Most har- monists place both incidents immediately suc- ceeding that recorded in John, ch. 5. They pro- bably occurred prior to the Sermon on the Mount, certainly prior to the commission of the twelve. The place is also uncertain. The con- nection in all three of the Evangelists, neither of whom gives an account of Christ's early Judean ministry in detail, indicates Galilee. But see- note below, on verse 9. 1. At that time. See note on chap. 11 : 25.. On the Sabbath day. The Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, answering to our Saturday. There was no observance of the first day of the week till after the resurrection of Christ. Corn. Rather grain, probably barley or wheat. The principal grains known to the Hebrews were wheat, barley, millet and spelt,. the latter rendered sometimes rye (Eiod. 9 : 32;. isaiah 28 : 25), and sometimes fitches (Ezek. 4 : 9). Re- cent discoveries indicate that maize or Indian' corn was known to the Egyptians, but whether it was cultivated by the Hebrews or not is mat- ter only of conjecture. Were an hungered.. The rabbinical law allowed no eating on the Sab- bath, except in case of sickness, prior to the morning prayers of the synagogue. A similar canon in the ritualistic churches of to-day forbids breaking the fast before partaking of the com- munion. Began to pluck the ears of corn. Luke adds, "rubbing them in their hands," in order to separate the kernel from the chaff. 2. That which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. The Jewish law expressly permitted plucking the standing grain with the hand in passing through a field (Deut. 23 : 25) ; so that the objection was not that there was any dis- honesty or theft ; and the spirit of the law allowed 162 MATTHEW. [Ch. XII. 4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the showbread, ' which was not lawful for him to cat, neither for them which were with him, but only 6 lor the priests ? 5 Or nave ye not read in the law, 1 how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple" 1 profane the sabbath, and are blameless ? 6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater" than the temple. 7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, 1° will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have con- demned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. j Ex. 25 : 30 k Ex. 29 : 32, 33 1 Num. 28 : 9 m John 7 : 22, 23 n ch. 23 : 17-21 ; 2 Chron. 6:18; Mai. 3:1 o Ho». 6 : $. doing on holy days what was necessary to supply needful food (Exod. 12 : 16). But the rabbinical rules forbade any approximation to labor on the Sab- bath. "One might not walk upon the grass be- cause it would be bruised, which would be a kind of threshing ; nor catch a flea, which would be a kind of hunting ; nor wear nailed shoes, which would be a sort of burden ; nor, if he fed his chickens, suffer any corn to lie upon the ground, lest a kernel should germinate, which would be a kind of sowing." — {AbboWs Jesus of Nazareth.) And a special rule forbade to pluck the ears of corn, because that would be a kind of reaping. The punishment awarded by the rabbis for a presumptuous violation of this law was stoning. (See Licjhtfoot.) 3. Have ye not read ? Compare chapter : 13, and note there. Observe the delicate irony of the question. What David did. The account is in 1 Sam. 21 : 1-9. They that were with him. In Samuel, Ahimelech is repre- sented as asking, " Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?" but verse 4 of 1 Sam. ch. 21, shows clearly that he was not absolutely alone, only, for a king's son, comparatively unattended. 4. And did eat the showbread. This con- sisted of twelve loaves placed fresh every Sab- bath day on the table in the sanctuary (Exod. 25 : 28-80 ; .a : sc). It could be eaten only in the sanc- tuary and by the priests (Lev. 24 : 5-9). To get this bread, David told a lie ; and the consequence was disastrous in the extreme (see 1 Sam. ch. 22 : 17-19). Christ does not commend his course in this respect ; the only question before him relates to Sabbath observance, and the right of man to modify or set aside a ceremonial regulation in case of necessity. Observe, that fresh bread had just been put upon the table when David arrived 1 - un. 21 : e), he taking that which was carried away ; the day, therefore, was the Sabbath (Lev. 24:8). 5. The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath. By kindling (ires for the burnt offerings and bearing the sacrifices and utensils through the temple. The Sabbath was the priests' busiest day of labor. Work was required of the priests (Numb. 28 : 9, 10) ; though in general forbidden (bed. 20 I 10; Neh. 13 : 19 ; Jer. 17 : 21, 22, 27) Illnmeless. Because the greater duty of tem- ple service set aside the law of Sabbath rest. Compare John 7 : 22, 28. G. A greater than the temple is here. Not merely mercy is greater than the temple, but, as Dean Alford interprets it, "If the priest in the temple, and for the temple's 6ake, profane the Sabbath, as ye account profanation, and are blameless, how much more these disciples who have gone hungry in their appointed following of Him who is greater than the temple, the true Temple of God on earth, the Son of man." 7. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Quoted from Hosea 6 : 6. See note on Matt. 9 : IS. If, in the service of sacrifice, the Sabbath law may be seemingly set aside, how much more in my service, which is the service of mercy. 8. For the Son of man. Mark inserts here before this verse the important addition, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sab- bath. Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. The Son of man is never, in N. T. usage, equivalent to man, but always signifies the Mes- siah. Christ's declaration is not, as Grotius, Be- cause the Sabbath was made for man, man is Lord of the Sabbath, which would be a singular non sequitur; but, Because the Sabbath is made for humanity, the Lord of humanity is Lord of the Sabbath. Observe, is Lord of the Sabbath. He does not, then, abolish it, but retains and rules over it. While the direct bearing of this in- cident and teaching respects the Sabbath observ- ance, it goes deeper. It strikes at the root of all ceremonialism. The Christian must be willing to die for a principle (Luke 14 : 26) ; he is not re- quired even to suffer a pang of hunger merely to preserve intact a ceremonial. If the Sabbath, the oldest and the most sacred of all religious observances, was made for man, much more all lesser observances. 9-13. Healing of tite man with the with- ered hand. Mark '■! : 1-6, and Luke G : 6-11, add some features not given here. Combining these accounts, it appears that Christ entered the synagogue on the Sabbath to teach (Luke) ; that the Scribes and Pharisees, observing the man with the withered hand, watched to see Whether Christ would heal, that they might find aground of accusation against him (Lab) ; that they tirst put the question to him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? (Matt.) that he, knowing their purpose, replied with a question which dis- closed their hypocrisy. Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? to which they COOld make no reply (Mark, Luk») ; that he looked about upon them with Ch. XII.] MATTHEW. 163 9 AndP when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue : 10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is'' it lawful to heal on the sabbath days ? that they might accuse him. ii And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and r if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and litt it out ? 12 How much then is a man better than a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. 13 Then saithhe to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth ; and it was restored whole, like as the other. 14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. 15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence : and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all ; p Mark 3 : 1, etc. ; Luke 6 : 6, etc q Luke 14 : 3. . . .r Deut. 22 : 4. anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts, then answered their question and his own by the illustration of the sheep (Matt.), which he seems to have subsequently repeated in a slightly different form on another occasion (Luke 14 : 5) ; he then performed the cure, but with a word, doing nothing, and so giving no ground on which they could base an accusation. 9. Departed thence. Nothing more is ne- cessarily indicated by this than that the two in- cidents did not occur in the same place. Luke says the healing was wrought "on another Sab- bath." Their synagogue. That is, a syna- gogue of the Pharisees, one in which their influ- ence predominated. 10. Had his hand withered; i. e., dried up from a deficient absorption of the nutriment. Luke says his "right hand." The disease here indicated results in a loss both in size and in power of the arm ; for it there is no remedy known to man. They asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day ? Their object was to provoke him to some act on which they could base an accusation of Sabbath- breaking, the punishment for which was death. The Mosaic law did not forbid works of healing ; but the rabbinical tradition and interpretations did. "Let not those that are in health use physic on the Sabbath day." "He that hath the toothache, let him not swallow vinegar to spit it out again ; but he may swallow it, so he swallow it down." Lightfoot gives a number of these minute and absurd Sabbath regulations. See Luke 13 : 14. 11. And he said unto them. He first asked them a question which they could not an- swer : "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days ? to Save life Or to kill ? " (Mark 3 : 4, and note) ; i. e.. to save life, as I am seeking to do, or to kill, as you are seeking to do, in endeavoring to find a ground of accusation against me. What man shall there be among you, etc. Later rabbinical law forbade the owner of a beast that fell into a pit to lift it out ; he might, however, bring food, or even lay planks for the beast to come out on. That this regula- tion was of a later date is evident from Christ's language here, which indicates that the saving of the beast in such case was a thing allowed (compare Luke 14 : 15). It is not improbable that the subse- quent regulation was added by some of the rabbis to meet the very point of Christ's argu- ment in this case. 12. How much better then is a man than a sheep. Compare Matt. 6 : 26, and note there. It is lawfu! to do well on the Sab- bath days, i. e., to do good to others. The language (y.uka>$ noteiv) is the same as that em- ployed in Matt. 5 : 44, "Do good to them that hate you." Work, the sole object of which is true benefit to others, is legitimate Sabbath labor. 13. Then saith he to the man. As the cure is wrought only by a word, the Pharisees have no ground of accusation ; there has been no infraction of the letter of even their own regulations. Observe that with the word of command here, as in others of Christ's miracles (Matt. 9:6; John 5 : 8, etc.), COmeS pOWer to Obey it. So he requires what are impossibilities of with- ered souls, but with the command imparts power tO fulfill (John 1 : 12). 14. Took counsel. Not the gathering of an official body, but an informal consultation is indi- cated. The Herodians joined in these delibera- tions (Mark 3 : 6). This is the first mention of any deliberate plan formed to put our Lord to death. The attempt at his destruction in Nazareth (Luke 4 : 29) was the sudden impulse of a mob. Observe, in the effect of this miracle, how utterly ineffi- cacious are miracles to persuade uncandid souls. See an illustration of the same principle in Luke 16 : 31. Modern miracles would not convince modern skepticism. The lesson of these incidents. In con- sidering the general significance of Christ's ex- ample and words in these two incidents, it is to be observed, 1st. That Christ chose the Sabbath as an occasion for many cures. Seven such are recorded in the Gospels (Mark 1 : 21, 29; Luke 13 : 14 ; i4:i; John 5 : o ; 9 : u). 2d. That in these incidents there is nothing to indicate that the Lord in- tended to do away with the Sabbath day. 3d. That, on the contrary, his assertions, The Sab- bath was made for man, and, The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day, indicate its perpetuity as a Christian institution. 4th. That he does vigorously sweep away the traditions and inter- pretations of the rabbis, who had converted this 164 MATTHEW. [Ch. XII. 16 And charged them that they should not make him known : 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet," saying. day of rest into a day of irksome bondage. 5th. That by implication he repudiates all inilexi- ble rules which trammel the Sabbath day, and set- tles it on a new basis of principle, enunciated in the two declarations, The Sabbath was made for man, and he is, therefore, to use it in the way best calculated for his highest good, and It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, i. e., work, the sole object of which is the true welfare of others, is not prohibited by the requirements of a true Sabbatical rest. i'h. U : 15-21. THE GENTLENESS OF JESUS. Jesus ILLUSTRATES HIS OWN TEACHINGS : DOES NO RIGHT- EOUSNESS to be seen op men (Matt. 6 : 1).— His honor: the beloved op God ; his power: the spir- it op God; his office: the Divine Revealer to ill nations ; his methods : quiet, gentle ; his ten- mniNBSs: he despises not the poor and feeble; ris slobs': the Saviour of all nations. Parallel with verses 1"> and 1G is Mark 3 : 7-12, which is fuller, lie departed to the sea, and procured a small boat to escape from the multi- tude. The rest of this passage (verses n-21) is pecu- liar to Matthew. 15. But Jesus knowing this. The impli- cation of the original, unlike that of our transla- tion, is that he knew it at once. Compare Matt. 9:4. Withdrew himself. By his example he enforces hie directions to his disciples (Matt. 10 : 53). (ireat multitudes followed him. His enemies were the ecclesiastical leaders; he was still popular with the common people. Healed them all, i. e., all that were in need of healing. Compare chap. 8 : 16, and note there. 10. And charged them, etc. See note on Matt. K : 1. 17. That it might be fulfilled. The origi- nal is oearly equivalent to so was fulfilled (Gr. tva .-T/.>,nr, :>,]). It, however, embodies the idea thai both the prophecy and the fulfillment were in accordance with God's purpose. For it is true that it was the purpose of Christ In life, char- acter, and death, to fulfil God's will concerning him. I may take this occasion to say to the Greek student, that I dissent from Alford's conclusion that "it Is Impossible to translate iva (Aina)ln any other sense than ' in order that.' " Sophocles 1 Greek T^ex., art. ha) has given a number ol illus- trations, some from the Septuagint, showing that it iB used In the later Greek otherwise than in a telic sense ; and there are passages in the N. T. where it cannot be rendered "In order that," without forcing an unnatural meaning upon the sacred text. John 13 : 34 affords a striking illustration : " A new commandment I give unto you, That (Xva) ye love one another; as I have loved you, that(/>«) ye also love one another." It is certainly unnatural though not impossible to render the first Ira (hina) "in order that," i. c. to suppose Christ's declaration to be, I have given you a uew commandment in ordt r that ye love one another; but it neither accords with common sense nor with other teachings of Scripture to give that meaning to the second 7. But it is Inconceivable thai John Bhould not sometimes have wished to express the notion of mere conse- quence without intention. Such passages as John 1 : 34 ; 9 : 2 ; 15 : 18; L6 : 7 ; I J : 8, show that he employed lira for this purpose.' 1 17. Which was spoken by Esaias, 1. A Isaiah. The quotation is from I-aiah 48:1-4. It is apparently a quotation from memory, for it follows neither the original Hebrew nor the Greek version (the Beptuagint) With verbal accuracy. The N. T. quotations from the O. T. afford a strikine; illustration of the biblical disregard of the letter, and a conclusive argument against the doctrine of verbal inspiration, i. e. the doctrine that the Holy Spirit dictated the words, and that the writers were mere amanuenses. That the English Ch. XIL] MATTHEW. 165 18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen ; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased : I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 19 He shall not strive, nor cry ; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. 22 Then' was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb : and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake ana saw. t Mark 3 : 11 ; Lake 11 : 14. reader may note the contrast in phraseology, I transfer Henderson's translation of the original passage : "Behold my servant whom I uphold ; Mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth ; I have put my spirit upon him ; He shall cause judgment to go forth to the nations ; He shall not cry nor raise his voice, Nor cause it to be heard in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not crush ; And a glimmering wick shall he not quench ; For permanence he shall cause judgment to go forth. He shall not glimmer [be dim], neither shall he be bruised, Till he have established judgment on the earth, And the maritime lands have waited for his law." 18. My servant. The same word (icti?) is translated child in Acts 4 : 27. It is the one em- ployed in Matt. 8:6; see note there. The phrase is used by Isaiah in various senses. It is applied to himself (isaiah 20 : 3), to Eliakim (22 : 20), to the Jewish people (41 : 8, 9 ; 44 : 1, 2, 21 ; 45 : 4), and to the Messiah (42 : 1 ; 50 : 5-10 ; 52 : 13). Its application to the Messiah, in the passage from which this quo- tation is made, is recognized by most Jewish rabbis, and in the Chaldee paraphrase the inter- pretation is incorporated in the text, which reads, Behold my servant, the Messiah. Whom I have chosen. The Greek word (mioetCcu) here rendered chosen occurs no where else in the N. T. It is a different word from that employed in such passages as John 15 : 16, and does not involve the idea of selection from many, but of preferment and love. In whom my soul is well pleased. Compare Matt. 3 : 17 ; 17 : 5. And for the reason why God the Father is well pleased with the Son, see Phil. 2:9; Hebrews 1:9. I will put my Spirit upon him. Compare Matt. 3 : 16, 17 ; John 1 : 32-34 ; 3 : 34 ; 10 : 38 ; 14 : 10. Observe that in some passages the Spirit of God is represented as taking on human nature (phii. 2 : 6, 7 ; Hebrews 2 : 16) ; and elsewhere, as here, the man Christ Jesus is represented as clothed with and inspired by the indwelling Spirit of God. Thus the Bible uses both forms of ex- pressing the incomprehensible character of Jesus Christ (see ver. 27) which in the church have been employed separately by antagonistic schools of theology. To the devout Arian Jesus Christ is a man in whom the Spirit of God peculiarly dwells ; to the devout Athanasian, he is the Spirit of God dwelling in and with a perfect man. And he shall announce judgment to the Gentiles ; rather to the nations, L e. to all nations, including the Jews, but also including pagans. Compare Matt. 3 : 12, and note ; 25 : 31, 32 ; John 5 : 22, 27. 19. He shall not strive. Compare 2 Tim. 2 : 24. Observe that though error was common in Christ's day, as in ours, he rarely if ever en- tered into a theological discussion. His preach- ing was not controversial, though sometimes doctrinal. He denounced sin (Matt. ch. 23), cor- rected error by instructing in the truth (chaps. 5 and 6), but avoided debate (ch. 21 : 23-27). Nor vo- ciferate. Christ's preaching was not vocifer- ous ; his power was gentle. Compare Psalm 18 : 35. Neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. Of course to be under- stood as an elaboration of the preceding clause. Christ was characteristically a street and field preacher. 20. A bruised reed. The reed was itself an emblem of weakness (see note on ch. 11 : s). A bruised reed is one broken, but not entirely in two. The flax floating in oil was a common form of lamp ; the smoking flax is one almost extin- guished. The half-formed purpose he will not discourage ; the disheartened aspiration he will not extinguish ; the least glimmer of faith and love he will accept as a beginning ; he will not, by coldness or rebuke, destroy. Read this meta- phor in the light of chap. 11 : 28. "He who holds not a hand to the sinner, nor carries the burden for his brother, breaks the bruised reed ; he who despises the spark of faith in a little one extinguishes the smoking flax." — (Jerome.) Si- mon would have broken the bruised reed in the woman that was a sinner ; Christ forbade and strengthened the faltering purpose (Luke 7 : 37-43). The Pharisees would have extinguished the smoking flax in Zaccheus ; Christ fanned it into a flame of true penitence (Luke 19 : 1-10). Peter was a bruised reed whom Christ broke not (Luke 22: 55-62). Till he send forth judgment unto victory, i. e., until he brings long conflict with evil to an end by taking the judgment-seat and becoming conqueror as judge over all (1 Cor. 15 : 25; Rev., ch. 20). The implication is, that the work of redemption will cease with the final judgment. 21. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. For parallel declarations of the univer- 1GC MATTHEW. [Ch. XIL 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David ? 24 Hut when the Pharisees heard it, they said, Tins felloiv doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. 25 And Jesus knew their thoughts," and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation ; and every city or house divided against it- self shall not stand : 26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand ? 27 And if I by Beelzebub" cast out devils, by whom u P». 139 : 2 ; John 2 : 24, 25. . . .v verse 24. sality of Christ's kingdom of grace, see Isaiah 49 : G, 12 ; 51 : 4, 5 ; Matt. 28 : 19 ; Mark 10 : 15. 12 : 22-42. HEAL1HG OF DUMB AND BLIND, AND DISCOURSE THEEEON. No evidence can convince a DETERMINED SKEPTIC. — THE ARGUMENT PROM MIRA- CLES, OP HEALING IN THE PAST, OP GRACE IN THE PRES- ENT : none but God is stronger than Satan.— In the conflict between good and evil there can be no neutrality. evert man is a subject of god or of Satan.— With Christ is alwats for Christ ; to be separate from christ is alwats to be against him.— all work that is not with christ, wastes.— There are bounds to God's pardoning grace.— The unpardonable 8in : treason against the holy Ghost.— The tree is more than its fruit ; the character than conduct. — words are the incar- nation op thoughts, the interpreters of the soul. — Our words are written in the record op our life.— The resurrection op Christ the evi- dence op Christianity. The time when this miracle was wrought, and the accompanying charges of the Pharisees and Christ's reply were uttered, is uncertain. There is no reasonable doubt that the three accounts * given by Matthew here, by Mark (ch. 3 : 19-30), and by Luke (ch. 9 : 14-20), are all of the same incident and discourse, though some scholars have sup- posed its occurrence twice. Robinson places it almost immediately after the Sermon on the Mount. Townsend does the same. The internal evidence — the facts that so serious a charge was definitely brought against Jesus as that of co- operation with Beelzebul, and that the people designated him the Son of David, i. c, the Mes- siah, the first time this designation was given to him by the multitude — appears to me to point to a later period. It was probably subsequent to the charges made of eating with publicans ami sinners (ch. 9 : 11) of blasphemy (oh. 9 : s), and of Sabbath breaking (ch. 12:2, 10, etc.). The place ap pears from Mark 3 : 22 to have been Galilee, and from same chapter, verses 20, 21, to have been in a house. 22. One possessed wilh a devil, or demon. See note on Demoniacal Possession, ch. H, p. 85. 'Z'.i. Son of David. A common Jewish ap- pellation of the Messiah. See references in note 00 ei,. B:87. 21. lint when the Phnrisees heard it. That is, when they heard what the people said. That they were present [a Indicated by Luke's phraseology "Some of them said." Mark gives a more definite description of these critics ; they were " scribes who came down from Jerusalem." There is nothing inconsistent in these different descriptions. They were, in office scribes, in sentiment Pharisees, at the time present with and part of the multitude. They said. Not openly, but to one another. This is evident from the language of the next verse. But by Beel- zebul the prince of devils. All the authori- ties agree that the reading here should be Beel- zebul. Beelzebub, or Baal-zebub (lord of flesh), was a god of the Ekronites (9 Kings 1 : 2). By the change of a single letter the Jews converted it into Baal or Beelzebul (lord of filth), and applied it to the prince of devils. In their demonology, the demons were divided into ranks or classes, Satan, or Beelzebul, or the devil, being the prince or chief of all. See on his character note on ch. 4:1. Observe that during Christ's life it was never denied by his bitterest foes that he wrought miracles. Compare John 11: •47. Even the Pharisees were compelled to admit the minu lis which they attributed either, as here, to demo- niacal agency, or, as in their later books, to magical powers. A blasphemous Life of Jesus, compiled from the rabbinical authorities, asserts that he wrought them by possessing himself secretly of the incommunicable name of God kept in the Holy of Holies, and carefully guarded there; and that the cause of his death was his deprivation, through the treachery of Judas, of the manuscript on which he had written this name and other mysteries there acquired. The first open denial of the reality of the miracles ap- pears as late as the second century in the works of Celsus. 25. And Jesus knew their thoughts. Compare eh. 9:4; Beb. 4:13. Every king- dom divided against itself. The German version expresses the idea happily : Every king- dom not at one with itself (unctuS). History affords abundant illustration of this principle in human affairs. The principle Itself constitutes an incidental but strong argument against sec- tarianism. Bee 1 Cor. 1 i 18. Observe that Christ recognised and set the seal of his approval on the Jewish conception of two kingdoms, of good and evil, with their angels and archangels. The kingdom of Satan is as definitely recognized by Jesus as the kingdom of God. And every * * house (olxla), here equivalent to household. 2G. If Satan cast out Satan. Satan is Ch. XII.] MATTHEW. ig; do your children cast them out ? therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom™ of God is come unto you. 29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil 1 his goods, except he first bind the strong man ? and then he will spoil his house. 30 He that is not with me, is against me -J and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad. 31 Wherefore I say unto you, All 2 manner of sin and ch. 6 :33; Dan. 2 : 44 ; Luke 11 : 20 ; 17 : 21 ; Rom. 14: 17.... x Isa. 49 : 24 ; 53 : 12; Rev. 12 : 7-10; 20 : 2, 3....y 1 John 2 : 19 z Mark 3 : 28; Luke 12 : 10. here evidently synonymous on the one hand with Beelzebul, on the other with the demon which Christ has cast out, who is treated as one of Satan's emissaries. The passage shows conclu- sively that in New Testament usage demon is nearly equivalent to devil with us, not merely to spirit, as in classical usage. He is divided against himself: how shall then his king- dom stand ? It is true that the kingdom of Satan is in perpetual discord and anarchy, for to this the spirit of selfishness inevitably leads ; but in relation to the kingdom of heaven, it is at one. "Just as a nation or kingdom may em- brace within itself infinite parties, divisions, dis- cords, jealousies, and heart-burnings ; yet if it is to subsist as a nation at all, it must not, as re- gards other nations, have lost its sense of unity ; when it does so, of necessity it falls to pieces and perishes." — (Trench.) There is, however, a real as well as seeming unity in the kingdom of evil ; every evil influence co-operates with others, and tends to render the soul more subject to sin and Satan ; and in all conflicts the hosts of evil natur- ally and instinctively ally themselves together; while the truth tends to the development of the individual conscience and to liberty of judgment and action in the individual, and so leads at first to divisions which only time and a riper develop- ment can cure. Contrast, for example, the unity of the Papal Church with the divisions among Protestants. 28. By whom do your children cast them out ? There are two interpretations of this verse. Chrysostom and the fathers gene- rally understand by "your children" the apos- tles. "He saith not 'my disciples,' nor 'the apostles,' but 'your sons,' to the end that if, in- deed, they were minded to return to the same nobleness with them, they might derive hence a powerful spring that way." — (Chrysostom.) And he interprets the argument thus : " If I so cast them out, much more those who have received their authority from me. Nevertheless, no such thing have ye said to them. * * * Therefore, also he added, 'they shall be your judges.' For when persons from among you, and having been practised in those things, both believe me and obey, it is most clear that they will also condemn those who are against me both in deed and word." But this interpretation is unnatural, and has probably been invented to avoid the difficulty felt in supposing that Christ imputes miraculous powers to the followers of the Phar- isees. The later and better interpretation un- derstands by "your children," the disciples of the Pharisees (see 2 Kings 2 : 3), and the argument to be, Tour own disciples assume to cast out devils ; how do they accomplish it? If in them it is an evidence of divine authority, what is it in me? They, therefore, shall judge. Did, then, the discijjles of the Pharisees cast out devils ? That they pretended to do so is certain. There is no other evidence in Scripture of such a practice than that contained here ; for the persons men- tioned in Luke 9 : 49, and in Acts 19 : 13, 14, as- sumed to cast out devils only in Christ's name ; the latter incident, however, implies a not un- common practice of exorcism. But there is abundant evidence of this practice in the rab- binical books. Josephus refers to it: "He (i. e. Solomon) left behind him the manner of using exorcism, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return, and this manner of cure is of great force unto this day " (Antiq. viii., ch. 2, § 5). And he proceeds to give an account of the method pursued — a species of incantation In one passage (Wars of Jews, viii., ch. 6, §2) he gives an account of a root called barras, which can only be plucked in a particular manner, but which " quickly drives away those called demons, which are no other than the spirits of the wicked, that enter into men that are alive, and kill them, unless they can obtain some help against them." That the Pharisees claimed power to cast out devils is then clear ; but, notwithstanding Alford's argument, there appears to me to be nothing in the words of Jesus here to warrant the belief that they really possessed any such power. The argument is simply one ad hominem, and it is equally strong whether the exorcism of evil spirits was real or pretended. 28. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God. Literally in the Spirit of God, i. e. in the power of his Spirit; Luke says "with the finger of God." Then the kingdom of God is come unto you ; rather, as rendered in Luke, upon you. It comes upon the Pharisees and the devils, unto the disciples and the victims pos- sessed of dsvils. 29. Or else, i. e., if the kingdom of God has not come, if one stronger than Satan is not here. How can one. Luke says "a stronger than he," i. e., than Satan. The same Greek word (loXVQotsQos), here translated "stronger," is used by John the Baptist to designate Jesus (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3 : 16, there translated " mightier "). Enter 108 MATTHEW. [Cn. XII. blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men : but the blas- phemy agaiusl the Holy Ghost* shall not be forgiven unto men. 32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, b it shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be for- given him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. a Hcb. 10 : 29 ; 1 John 5:10 b Luke 7 : 34 ; John 7 : 12 ; 1 Tim. 1 : 13. into a strongman's house, except, etc. The strong man is Satan, his house is the whole do- main of evil. It is only by binding Satan that his power over the souls of men can be broken. Compare for interpretation of metaphor Isaiah 40 : 10 ; 49 : 24, 25 ; 53 : 12 ; Col. 2 : 15, and note on Luke 11 : 21, 22, where the metaphor is given more fully than here. 30. He that is not with rae is against ine, etc. The converse of the proposition is also true, He that is not against us is on our part (Mark 9 : 4o ; Luke 9 : so). This is the consummation of the first part of the discourse, and leads to the second part. See on next verse. It 6ets forth the division of all moral beings into two king- doms of good and evil, God and Satan, in one or other of which every person is of necessity ; for there is no third kingdom. He that is not gathering with me, — for the final harvest, — is scattering abroad, does not gather for any harvest, but scatters, wastes. This is not a mere repetition of the first clause of the verse. The first asserts that he who is not Christ's fol- lower is his foe, and it classes the multitude, who were listening but not obeying, with the Phari- sees, and both with Satan and the devils ; the second asserts that every act and influence in life, of the disciple as well as of him wlio is not, if it gather nothing for Christ and with him, scatters and wastes that which has been or is being gathered. Every act as well as every individual is with and for Christ or against him. For meaning of the word "gathering" see Matthew 3 :12 ; 13 : 30 ; of the word " scattering " see John 10 : 12. Observe that throughout this verse the con- trast is not between him who is for Christ or who gathers for Christ and him who is against Christ <>r scattereth, but between him who is with Christ (Gr. fittu) or gathereth ivith Christ I-" viiyu) and him who is against Christ or scat- tereth. One can be for Christ only as he is with Christ. We are against him when we are not with him, i. ci). The speaking not only in- dicates the state of the heart, but indicates much more than appears in the words. And observe the Implication, that the words arc evil because they are indicators of the evil state within. 35. The good man out of the good trea- sure, (.s.,out of the eharaeter, which Is a treasure or accumulation of all previous education, train- ing, and habits. The words "qftheJuort" are not in the best manuscript ; the] were probably in- serted there from the preceding verse. Luke (e: 45) gives almost the same aphorism in his re- port of the Sermon on the Mount. 36. Every idle word. This is not merely equivalent to evil word, though it includes such. The original {doy6g) is used in the N. T. to desig- nate unemployed persons (Matt. 20 : 3, 6, etc. ; 1 Tim. 6 : 13, etc.), and in the classics, money lying without interest, and land untilled, and a fallacious argu- ment, i. e., one that comes to no true result. Here the meaning is every non-productive word ; every word that adds nothing, either to the pre- sent happiness or the permanent usefulness of others, all talking for the mere sake of talking, and of course all words of falsehood, malice, and injury. "That is idle which is not according to the fact, which hath in it unjust accusation ; and some say that which is vain also, for instance, provoking inordinate laughter, or what is filthy, and immodest, and coarse." — (Chrysostom.) Com- pare Ephes. 4: 29; 5: 8, 4. 37. For by thy words, etc. Literally out of thy words. Compare Rev. ~0 : 12, where the same Greek preposition (ix) is rendered out of. The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books. Here the declaration is that words form a basis for the. last judgment. But the reason must not be forgotten ; because the words are indicators of the heart which is to be judged. By our words we are writing the history of our lives and preparing the record for the Judgment day. Compare with this portion of Christ's discourse, James, ch. :!. 3M. Then certain • * * answered, saying, Muster. Observe the language Of respect. A portion had tried Open reproach; others tried flattery. Compare Mat:. 22: 16-01; Luke 20: 21-28; and observe how Christ receives the hypo- critical advances of pretended respect. We would see a siu'ii from thee. The same Greek Word I'm'i.m.m is often rendered miracle. A miracle bad just been w rouirht in the casting out of the evil spirit. Luke explains the demand more definitely : "A sign from heaven" (mapm Uttt.lt: n, i. '., a sign in which the interference from above should be more evident and palpable, a miracle not wrought by him but from above. The same demand is made by modern siepiieism. which calls for a repetition now of the N. T. miracles. See. for example, Kenan's I.iji 0/ JUttf, p. 1 1, in! in. Am Ed. 39. An evil and adulterous generation. ii was bteraih an adulterous ge n e r ati o n. Matt. 19 : 8-8, and notes. But the O. T. symbol- Ch. XII.] MATTHEW. 171 the whale's belly ; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn* it ; because they repented at 1 the preaching of Jonas ; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. 42 The m queen of the south shall rise up in the judg- ment with this generation, and shall condemn it : for she" came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, hei> k Rom. 2 : 27. . . .1 Jonas 3:5 m Luke 11 : 31, etc n 2 Chron. 9:1 o Luke 11 : 24 p Job 1 ; 7 ; 1 Pet. 5 : 8. ism gives to the phrase here a spiritual signifi- cance. Israel was married to God (isaiah 54 : 5 ; Jer. 8 : 14), and because faithless to him was compared tO an adulteress (jer. 3 : 8-13 ; Ezek. 16 : 33 ; ch. 23, etc.). It is the godless that demand a sensuous manifesta- tion of the Deity ; the true children of God know him by his spiritual presence (John w : 17. Compare 1 Cor. 1 : 22, 23). But the sign of the prophet Jonas, i. e., of Jonah. This declaration is in- terpreted by the following verse. 40. For as Jonah * * * was in the belly of the great fish. The account is given in Jonah, chaps. 1 and 2. The word whale is a mis- translation. There is nothing in the original Greek here to indicate the species of fish, and nothing in the 0. T. account. Observe that Christ gives his personal sanction to the account of this miracle, which, more than any other in the T., has been subjected to criticism and even ridicule. We must either accept the O. T. history of this miracle or believe that Jesus Avas a deceiver or was himself deceived. So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He, in fact, died Friday afternoon at three o'clock, and rose again on Sabbath morning, so that he was in the heart of the earth only two nights and one day and a part of two others. But Jewish reckoning accounted part of a year as a whole one in estimating royal reigns, and a part of a day as a whole one in statements of time ; so that Christ's statement accords exactly wdth the facts as the Jews would have stated them. See for illustration Gen. 40 : 13, 20 ; 1 Sam. 30 ; 12, 13 ; 2 Chron. 10 : 5, 12. The birth of Christ is typified by the birth of Isaac and Mahershalalhashbaz, his death by that of Abel and the substitute for Isaac and the ap- pointed sacrifices in the Temple, his resurrec- tion by the deliverance of Isaac from death, Daniel's deliverance, and most of all by Jonah's. Observe that Jonah (2: 2) speaks of his prayer as being heard " out of the belly of hell, " i. e. , Hades (see note on Matt. 5 : 22). Christ unmistakably recog- nizes in the miraculous deliverance of Jonah a parable of his own resurrection. Luke gives it, if possible, even more clearly (chap. 11 : 30) : As Jonah, not his preaching, but Jonah himself by his delive ranee, was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be, by his resurrection from the dead, to this generation. Observe that the first preaching of the apostles, on and after Pentecost, consisted largely of a personal testi- mony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 2 : 24-36 ; 3 : 15 ; 5 : 31 ; 7 : 52, 56 ; 10 : 39, 40 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 3-8, etc.). 41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment. Observe the incidental confirma- tion of the doctrine of a general resurrection of both good and evil, and of a general judgment. A greater than Jonah is here, i. e., there is more in the presence and power of Christ and his word to produce repentance than in the preaching of Jonah. The practical application is that at the present day the argument for the truth of Christianity is stronger, and the influ- ence to produce repentance for sin and faith in a Saviour are greater, than they ever were be- fore ; wherefore, the condemnation of those that resist is heavier. Compare with this and the succeeding verse, Matt. 10 : 15, and note. 42. The queen of the south. The inci- dent referred to is related in 1 Kings 10 : 1-13, where she is called the Queen of Sheba, i. e., probably the Sabeans, descendants of Seba. There were two, a son of Cush, whose descend- ants settled in Ethiopia, and a son of Joktan, whose descendants settled in Arabia. Both these countries have traditions respecting the visit of a queen to Solomon. Josephus and the rabbinical writers place the kingdom of Sheba in Ethiopia ; but it appears to be the better opinion that the queen referred to came from Arabia. This accords best with her gifts (i Kings 10 : 2), and is maintained by Alford, Rawlinson, Poole, and others. From the uttermost parts of the earth. It is estimated that she must have taken a journey of no little hazard, and of over 1,000 miles. To the ancient Jews her kingdom was on the extreme borders of the known world. To hear the wisdom of Solomon. Observe, not attracted by the fame of his external grandeur, but by that of his wisdom. Compare 1 Kings 10 : 1 : " she came to prove him with hard ques- tions." A greater than Solomon is here. Not merely because moral greatness is greater than temporal, but because spiritual wisdom is greater than political. Observe, too, that Jesus assumes pre-eminence above Jonah the prophet, Solomon the king, and Abraham the patriarch (comp. John 8 : 58). Ch. 12 : 43-45. PARABLE OF THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT. True and false reformation. The true : God casts the evil spirit out ; the false : the evil spirit goes out ; the true : god occupies the soul ; 172 MATTHEW. [Ch. XII. walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out ; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there : and the last state of that man is worse than the-first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. 46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his' mother and his brethren' stood without, desiring to speak to him. 47 Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. 48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ? 40 And ne stretched forth his hand toward his dis- ciples, and said. Behold my mother, and my brethren ! so h or whosoever shall do the will 1 of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. q Heb. 6 : 4 ; 10 : 86 ; 2 Pet. 2 : 20, 22 rk3 :31,p|c. ; Luke 8 : 19, etc....s ch. 13: 55.... t ch. 7 : 20; John 15 : 14 ; Gal. 5:6; Htb. 2: 11; 1 J^hu 2 : 17. the false: it remains emptt.— Merely negative reformation is never permanent. 43-45. This is a parable ; nothing, therefore, is to be deduced from it concerning demoniacal possessions, except perhaps the reality of such possessions. Unclean spirit. See note on Demoniacal Possession at close of chapter 8, p. 85. Dry places. Rather desert places, which the Jews believed to be the abode of evil spirits. See Isaiah 13: 21, and 34 : 14, where satyr prob- ably represents an imaginary demon, half man half goat. My house. Still his, for he has gone, not been cast out by divine power. Empty. Literally at leisure, Idle, and so vacant. The same Greek word (n/olu^wy) appears in the Sep- tuagint in Exod. 5 : 8, 17. Idleness is always a preparation for the devil. Generation. (Gr. yeveu.) This word here, as often in the N. T., Mould be better rendered nation. The lesson of this parable is twofold. Every reformation is transient unless : (a) The evil is east out by the power of God (compare John 3 : r . ) ; (b) is supplanted by the indwelling of God (compare Joha 15:4). The direct application is to the Jewish nation. The evil spirit of idolatry had gone out, but no spirit of true allegiance to God had taken its place; and the nation, with- out any true religious life, was prepared for the worse spirit which showed itself in the rejection of our Lord, the fearful excesses which accom- panied the death of Jesus, and their subsequent history. The indirect application is to all re- formation, which is permanent only when we overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21), in church, state, or individuals. It is illustrated histori- cally by France, out of which went the spirit of Jesuitism, only to make room for that oi athe- ism and socialism, and individually by thousands who east out an evil habit, but receive not the Spirit of God. Compare Heb. 6 : Ml ; 9 Pet. 2 : 30-32. Ch. 12)46-60. Alii MIT r,v CHHI8T*8 H0THEB TO INTERRUPT HIS I'KKACIIINi;. Christ obeys his law; rOBSAKBB MOTIIKR AND RHETHRKN TO 1 m:\eii TIIK GOSFKL -TlIK TRIE mscll'I.KS Of (IIIIIST ARE THE m LHMT to 11 1 m in 1.11VK- Christ's i.ovk rOB BXI ni- I DUN is personal, the love of a brother.— The CONDITION OF NEARNESS TO CllRIST : of nis Father. DOING THE WILL This incident is recorded also in Mark 3 : 31- 35, and Luke 8 : 19-21. Luke places it after the parable of the sower ; Mark agrees in order with Matthew. The circumstances — the crowd, the discourse delivered in the house, the enmity of the Pharisees, confirm Matthew's chronology. 4G. His brethren. Presumptively his real brethren as his real mother. See note on chap- ter 13 : 55. Stood without, (. c, without the house in which he was teaching (Mark 3 : 19, 20). Desiring to speak with him. Mark explains why : "They went out to lay hold on him ; for they said, He is beside himself " (Mark 3 : 21). Their endeavor was to interrupt his preaching, and so to rescue him from the danger of a conflict with the Pharisees, which he was provoking. To the worldly-wise, spiritual enthusiasm always seems craziness. Compare Acts 20 : 24 ; 2 Cor. •"> : 13. 47. And one said to him, Behold, etc. Mark says that his mother and brethren 6eut unto him. 18. Toward his disciples, L e., toward the twelve. 43. Tor whosoever shall do the will of my Father. Compare Matt. 7 : 21 and note, and John 14: 23. The same is my brother, and sister, and mother. The personality of our relationship to Christ is elsewhere illustrated (John 10 : 3, 14 ; 15 : 15 ; Eplne. 5 : 25, ,",S \ hilt nowhere more clearly. "To be the brother of Christ and the Son of God — have we ever measured the full meaning of those words?" Observe that Christ places every true disciple on an equality with his mother. For the bearing of this passage on Mariolatry, see Chrvsostom, whose comments show what the early fathers would have thought of that practice and the doctrines with which it is connected. "That which she wanted to do was of superfluous vanity ; in that she wanted to show the people that she hath power and authority over her son." "How many women have prayed thai they might become such mo- thers! What, then, is thereto hinder? It is granted DOt to women only, but to men also, to be of this rank, or rather of one yet far higher." Ch. XIII.] MATTHEW. 173 His practical deduction is also worth noting : "There is only one nobleness, to do the will of God. This kind of noble birth is better than the other, and more real." Compare with Christ's example here his teaching to his disciples in such passages as Matt. 10 : 35-37 ; Luke 9 : 59-62 ; and 14 : 26. Ch. 13 : 1-53. PARABLES BY THE SEA-SHORE. Chbist a popdxab preacher. — His authority sanc- tions FIELD PREACHING (v. 2). — His USE OF ILLUSTRA- TIONS : NOT TO ENTERTAIN, NOT MERELY TO INSTRUCT, BUT TO GIVE TRUTH ENTRANCE TO RELUCTANT UEART3 (v. 13).— His magazine of illustrations : nature and COMMON LIFE. — THE SEVEN SYMBOLS OF THE KINGDOM of God.— -It grows gradually (Mark 4 : 26-29).— Its obstacles in the human heart: indifference, irresolution, worldliness (vs. 18-23). — Their se- cret cause: evil seed sown by Satan (vs. 37-43).— Its progress : from the least seed to the largest herb (vs. 31,32). — The method of its growth: by permeation, by agitation, secretly, silently, sure- ly (v. 33). — Its value and its cost : all that a man hath (vs. 44-46). — Its final perfection: complete purification, after death, in the day of judgment (vs. 47-50). -See, further, thoughts on each parable. Preliminary Note. — Of these parables we have three reports. See Mark 4 : 1-34 and Luke 8 : 4-15. Matthew's report is the fullest ; seve- ral of the parables are given only by him, but Mark gives one omitted by the others (Mark 4 : 26-29). Luke gives only the parable of the Sower. 1. Were these seven parables uttered at one time ? It is tolerably evident that they did not consti- tute one discourse, for it is incredible that Christ should have interrupted such a discourse to in- terpret the parables to the twelve, and then re- sumed it again (ver. 10, 36). It is clear that they were delivered at one period in his ministry, prob- ably on the same day (ver. 53). They are all upon the same theme — the kingdom ofGod ; they are therefore to be studied together, however they may have been uttered. 2. What is a parable? The original Greek word {naoaSoh'i) signifies, literally, placing side by side — hence a comparison. The parable always teaches by comparing a spiritual truth with some type or symbol, in nature or human experience. It dif- fers from a fable, which teaches only maxims of a prudential morality, and which, in its teaching, violates the truth of nature — representing the brute and inanimate world as reasoning, reflect- ing, speaking. This the parable never does, for it always compares truth with truth or with re- alistic fiction — never with an impossible and un- natural narrative. Judges 9 : 7-16 is, I believe, the only instance of a fable in the Scriptures. It differs from a myth, which represents fiction as fact, and in such guise that it is assumed to be a fact by the auditor, who often sees no moral meaning underneath it. Thus the myth of Wil- liam Tell shooting the apple from his son's head was long received as history, and its original sig- nification is now entirely lost. This can never be true of a parable. It differs from an allegory, which upon its face declares itself to be a symbol of spiritual truth, and conveys the truth in tbe story, not by an application or interpretation of it ; whereas the office of a parable is to veil the truth until it has been admitted into the mind reluctant to receive it. John 15 : 1-8, "I am the Vine," is an allegory ; Luke 13:6-9, "A certain man had a fig-tree," is a parable. It differs from a proverb in that it elaborates dramatically what proverbs, or rather certain kinds of proverbs, state concisely. Thus, " If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch," could be readily converted into a proverb. So, again, Psalm 103: 13, " Like as a father pitieth his chil- dren, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him," is a proverbial utterance which the Parable of the Prodigal Son embodies in a dramatic form. A parable, then, is a fictitious narrative, true to na- ture, yet undeceptive, veiling a spiritual truth, un- der a symbol, for the purpose of conveying it to minds relueiant or indifferent. It differs from the proverb in being a narrative, from the fable in being true to nature, from the myth in being un- deceptive, from the allegory in that it veils the spirit- ual truth. 3. Why did Christ speak in parables? He an- swers the question in this chapter (ver. 11-15) ; and his language in Mark is still more definite : " That (Greek tva) seeing they may see and not perceive ; and hearing they may hear and not understand" (Mark 4:is). This answer is interpreted by the nature of the parable and its general object, viz., to veil the truth for the purpose of inculcating it. Christ did not use the parable because (a) he would have hazarded his life if he had openly taught the truth (Barnes) ; for when did he re- fuse to hazard his life for the sake of teaching the truth ? and was it not the plainness of his final teaching which led to his crucifixion ? Nor (b) to compel his auditors to give closer attention if they would get the benefit of his teaching (Kuinoel, Bloomfield, Andrews) ; for God's avowed and unmistakable design is to afford in Christ a revelation of truth for the plain and the Simple (isa. 35:8; compare Psalm 19:7; 119 : ISO). Nor (c) did he veil the truth as a punishment for the sins of the people in rejecting him {Scott, Dodd- ridge) ; for as yet they had not rejected him, but had received him with enthusiasm, even now crowded him into a boat for his pulpit, later sought by force to make him king (John 6 : 15). Nor is it rational to suppose that he would teach the truth blindly as a punishment for their re- jection of him ; rather he would cease to teach ; and after their rejection of him at Capernaum this Was in fact his COUrse (compare John 6 : 66 with Matt. 15; 21). Nor (d) to make his meaning clear to 174 MATTHEW. [Ch. XIII. CHAPTER XIII. THE same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea-side. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship," and sat ; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold/ a sower went forth to sow : 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way- side, and the fowls came and devoured them up : 5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth ; and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth : u Luke 5 : 3. . . .v Mark 4:2; Luke 8 : 5, etc. common understandings, as an orator commonly uses tropes and figures, for this is directly incon- sistent with Christ's own declaration, "That see- ing they may see and not perceive," and equally so with the fact that even his own disciples had to come to him for an interpretation of his par- ables (ver. to, 36). His object was so to veil the truth that it might be received by those who, if they saw, would not perceive, and, if they heard, would not understand, lest they should be converted ; i. e., who were determined not to receive the truth, since its acceptance would have required repen- tance and a change of life. His object is illus- trated strikingly in other passages where by veil- ing he compelled the Pharisees to condemn them- selves. See Matt. 21 : 28-45 ; Luke 10 : 29-37. It is further illustrated by a consideration of — 4. The object of the parables in this chapter. Up to this time Christ's preaching had been chiefly confined to a simple proclamation, The kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 4 : n ; io: 7). The Ser- mon on the Mount afforded some interpretation of the principles of that kingdom, but primarily to his own disciples, and chiefly in contrast with the Mosaic law and the Pharisaic system. See Preliminary Note and Analysis there, pp. 45, 46. In these parables Christ discloses those features respecting his kingdom which were surest to encounter prejudice and opposition ; its growth depends on its acceptance by its subjects (verses 19-23) ; it grows up with the kingdom of evil, not separated from it by natural or geographical boundaries (verses 37-43) ; it is a gradual growth, docs not immediately appear (Mark 4: 26-29); it is obtained only through a process of conflict (verse 33), and by self-sacrifice (ver. .14—10). These truths were in this exposition received without opposi- tion because but half understood ; later, when distinctly declared, they were vehemently re- jected. Compare for illustration the declaration here (renew), "The field is the world" (Gr. u xoofios) witli the reception of the same truth when more plainly declared by Christ (Matt. 21 : 43-16), and by Paul (Acu 22 : 21, 22). 5. Time, place, and circumstance! of the utter- ance of these parables. The time is uncertain. It was toward the latter part of Christ's Galilean ministry. This is evident from the order of the three evangelists, and from the facts that the throng had now so increased that Christ sought refuge from It in a boat, and that now first he began to interpret the nature of his kingdom, and to do so in parables. It was certainly sub- sequent to the developed hostility of the Phar- isees (chap. 12), and prior to the feeding of the 5,000 (chap. 14), which was followed by the sermon in the synagogue at Capernaum (John, ch. c), and Christ's withdrawal from Galilee (Matt. 15 : 21), and the close of his ministry there. The place is also uncertain. It was by the sea (ver. 1), i. e., of Galilee, on the western shore (see Mark 4 : 35, and note). The common life of the place affords the imagery of these parables. The fertile plain of Gennesaret (see note on Matt. 14: 34), with its thorn bushes and its under- lying and occasionally out-cropping basaltic rocks in the midst of the fields of grain, suggests the stories of the Sower and the Tares. The com- merce from the East to the Mediterranean, the remains of which in an occasional caravan are still seen in the vicinity of the lake, the parable of the Merchantman ; the fishermen at work along the sea-shore, as on the day when Christ called four of his disciples here (Lukes: 1-11), the parable of the Drag net. It is worthy of note that the location of many of Christ's parables can be measurably determined by their adapta- tion to special localities or local customs. Thus the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10 : 29-37) ; of the Vineyard (Luke 13 : 7-9), of the Good Shep- herd (John io:i-is), and probably of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke is : 9-14), all belong to Judea, as that of the Sheep lost in the Wilderness (Luko 15:4-7) to Perea, that of the Ten pounds (Luke 19 : 12) to Jericho, where Archclaus, whose history suggested it, had a palace, and those here given to the region about the Sea of Galilee. See notes on above parables, and on John 7 : 37 and S : 12. 1. The same day. The Greek word (>)uiQa\ here translated day t is sometimes used loosely as equal to time or nearly so, and is so translated in Acts 8 : 1 (compare John 8 : S6 ; Acts I : »). Here it may indicate nothing more than, At this period in Christ's ministry. Nearly all the chrono- logical notes in the Evangelists are indefinite. The house, apparently where the previous dis- course had been delivered (ch. 12 : 46, and note). The house could no longer hold Ins audience. Sea- side. The Sea of Galilee. See notes on Matt. 1 : L& 2. Ship, i.e., fisherman's boat; perhaps his own. See Mark 8 : 9. Sat. The usual attitude of the Jewish doctors in teaching. Compare Matt. Oh. XIIL] MATTHEW. 175 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched ; and because they had no root, they withered away: 7 And some fell among thorns ; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them : "8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirty- fold. 9 Who w hath ears to hear, let him hear. io And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables ? ii He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to 1 know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12 For? whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance ; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. w ch. 11 : 15 x ch. 11 : 25 ; Mark 4 : 11 ; 1 Cor. 2 : 10, 14 ; Eph. 1 : 9, 18 ; 3:9; Col. 1 : 26, 27 ; 1 John 2 : 27 y ch. 25 : 29 ; Luke 19 : 26. 5 : 1, and Luke 4 : 20. Observe that we have the highest authority for street and field preaching. Observe, too, how utterly incongruous such an informal service with the idea that any kind of ritualism is an essential accompaniment of reli- gious instruction. 3. Many things. At least one parable not recorded by Matthew. See Mark 4 : 26-29. In parables. See above, Preliminary Note, § 2. 3-9. Parable of the Sower. See interpre- tation below. (Mark 4:2-9; Luke 8 : 4-8.) The seed-time in Palestine is from 1st October to 1st November. But Thomson's Land and Book, i., 115, implies that sowing is done in spring. It is always done by hand ; the ground is first scratched with a plough, which runs about four inches deep ; the seed is sometimes covered with a harrow, sometimes trodden in by the feet of animals ; the fields are not fenced or hedged ; the pathways run directly through them ; clumps of thorns are interspersed with the grain ; the farmers, who live in villages to guard against robbers, go forth to do their sowing. Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, ch. xiii., p. 418) gives a graphic description of Gennesaret as he saw it, the probable scene of this parable. "There was the undulating corn- field descending to the water's edge. There was the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it, or upon it ; itself hard with constant tramp of horse, mule, and human feet. There was the ' good ' rich soil, which distinguishes the whole of that plain and its neighborhood from the bare hills, elsewhere descending into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. There was the rocky ground of the hillside protruding here and there through the corn-fields, as elsewhere through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn — the 'Nabk,' that kind of which tradition says that the Crown of Thorns was woven — springing up, like the fruit-trees of the more in- land parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat." Way-side. Road or pathway. Stony places (Gr. nitotx)dt\s). Rather, rock-like, i. e. places where the underlying rock came close to the surface, having only a thin covering of soil. Thorns. There are a variety of thorny weeds common to Palestine. Smith's Biblical Dictionary describes five varieties. There is nothing in the original word here (uxav&a) to determine whether any particular species was intended. A hundred- fold * * * thirtyfold. Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, i., 117) says that thirty-three per cent, is now regarded a good crop ; but both land and laborers have deteriorated. 10-17. Christ's Reason for -Teaching in Parables. For general interpretation of this and the par- allel passage in Mark 4 : 10-12 and Luke 8 : 9, 10, see Preliminary Note above, § 3. 10. And the disciples. Not merely the twelve, but others with them (Mark 4 : io). Came unto hi in. " When he was alone" (Mark), and therefore not, as Alford, during a pause in the dis- course, but subsequent to it. Perhaps Matthew has interpolated the account of the interview here in order to combine the interpretation with the parable. Unto them. " To them that are without " (Mark), i. e., to the multitude. In par- ables. Parables were a common method of in- struction in vogue among the scribes. The rab- binical books abound with them. There is no sufficient reason for supposing that the rabbis borrowed this method from Christ ; it is more probable that he adopted the popular mode of his day, but gave new character to it. Trench on tfw Parables (Introd., § 4) gives some illustration of these Jewish parables. What surprised the disciples was not parabolic teaching, but its adop- tion, now for the first time, by our Lord. 11. Because it is given. Observe that the language here and in the following verse is of grace as a gift. Compare Rom. 6 : 23 ; Ephes. 2 : 8. Unto you. To whom ? To those that were "about him with the twelve," who came to him "and asked him of the parable" (Mark 4: io), i. e., to those who sought to know the truth. There is no selection by Christ of a few for spe- cial instruction. He gives it to all those that seek it. Compare Isa. 55 : 1 ; Rev. 22 : 17. To know the mysteries. Scripture truth is always a mystery to the unspiritual (l Cor. 2 : 7-14). It can only be hinted at by parallels drawn from nature or common experience, e. g., the Saviour's care by the Shepherd's care, God's love by the love of an earthly father. 12. For whosoever hath, etc. See same aphorism with a different application in ch. 25 :29. Here it is : If one possess some spiritual knowl- 176 MATTHEW. [Ch. XIII. 13 Therefore speak I to them in parables : because they seeing, see not ; and hearing, they hear not, nei- ther do they understand. 14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias.' which saith, By a hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not per- ceive : 15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull 1 ' of hearing, and their eyes they have closed ; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 16 But c blessed are your eyes, for they see : and your ears, for they hear. 17 For verily I say unto you, That" 1 many prophets and righteous ?nen have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. 18 Hear e ye therefore the parable of the sower. 10 When anyone heareth the word' of the kingdom, ancl understandeth it not, thencometh the wicked* one. [»a. 6 : 9....ftExe. 12 John 20 : 29 ; 2 Cor. g 1 John ! : 13, 1-1 ; I John 12 : -10 ; Acts 28 : 26, 27 ; Rod 0....J Ej.b. 3:5, 6; Heb. 11 : 13; 2 Cor. 3: 14, 15....bHeb. 5: : 10, 11.... e Murk 4: 14, etc. l....cch. 16 : 17; Luke 10: 23,24; Luke 8: 11, clc....f ch. 4 : 23.... edge and desire, these lead to more ; if he has no appreciation of such spiritual truths as he can discern, he will lose even that power of spiritual discernment. The first part of this declaration is illustrated by Prov. i : 18 ; the second part by Rom. 1 : 28. 13. Therefore speak I unto them in par- ables. See above Preliminary Note, § 3. 11. Esaias. Isaiah : 9, 10. Compare Isa. 44 : 18. Observe that in the former passage the command is, Make the heart of this people fat, etc. ; here they are represented as making them- selves stupid. When God leaves man to himself he makes himself gross, dull, spiritually dead. Hearing * * * shall not understand, i. c, with the heart (ver. 15). Seeing * * * shall not perceive, i. e., though they see the truth intel- lectually they shall not appreciate it spiritually ; they see it as the horse sees the same prospect with his rider, without appreciation. 15. Waxed gross; literally, fat. The growth of a fatty tissue about the heart is a common re- sult of self-indulgence and luxurious living, and dulls and deadens the whole system. Ilere the physical disease is a type of the spiritual. Their ears are dull of hearing. Literally, with their ears they hear heavily, I. c, they are not sensitive to the truth. Their eyes they have closed. The spiritual ignorance and obtuseness which Christ condemns is willful, deliberate, resolute. Compare Rom. 1 : 33-33, and the account in Matt. 13 : 24 of the Pharisees, who, seeing the miracle, would not perceive in Christ the power of God. Compare Matt. 11 : 10-19. This is made yet clearer by the clause which follows : Lest at any time they should perceive — not we; the Greek word here is (<5p