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• OMELET •

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY

ON THE

GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW

OXFORD : HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY

ON THE

GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW

BY

ROBERT F. HORTON

LONDON
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCHES
THOMAS LAW, MEMORIAL HALL, E.C
1907

The Revised Version is printed by permission of the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge

INTRODUCTION
In TheOpen Secret I suggested the use of the Bible
in devotion, and gave some illustrative passages ;
the plain text with the references of the R.V. was
all that was required. But for the fuller and richer
use of Scripture in a devotional way, some notes
and comments are needed, especially for those
who are not acquainted with the language of the
original. The present commentary on the first of
the Four Gospels is an attempt to give just those
explanations, and references, which may be sup
posed to make the Gospel better available for the
practice of devotion, and the nourishment of the
Spiritual life.
There is no attempt to load the notes with
illustrative extracts ; all the space has been used
simply to arrive at the meaning of the text, and
to make the arrangement of the matter intelligible.
The Commentaries which have been principally
used are Dr. David Brown's, and Dr. A. B. Bruce's
in the Expositor's Greek Testament, and Well-
hausen's brief but invaluable translation and ex
position. I have seldom ventured to obtrude my
own interpretation, in a field which has been
covered for so many centuries by the expositors

vi INTRODUCTION
of the Christian Church. Where I have given
a view of my own, e. g. in the explanation of the
Parable of the Hired Labourers in the Vineyard,
it is only with the utmost diffidence, and the wish
to stand under correction.
While my book was in the Press, Mr. W. C.
Allen's St. Matthew in the International Critical
Commentary appeared. I have therefore only been
able to use it in a supplementary way. But his
object is so different from mine, that the two
commentaries stand wholly apart from one another.
His main interest, the thought that colours all the
notes, is to establish the position that our first
gospel is the work of an editor who pieced together
(i) Mark, (a) the Logia of Matthew, (3) a book of
Messianic forecasts from the O.T., and (4) certain
Palestinian traditions of the infancy of Jesus, un
known to Mark. As a piece of critical work on
the structure, the scope, and the historical value, of
St. Matthew, Mr. Allen's book is invaluable. But
for the reader of the Gospel whose one object is, to
learn how to know Jesus Christ, and to shape his
own life on the example and teaching of the Lord,
the critical work is only a preliminary one ; it must
be well over and settled before the practical reading
begins. For a devotional purpose critical discussions are
not brought forward, but are rather presupposed.
The searching and remorseless criticism to which

INTRODUCTION vii
the Gospel narrative is now being subjected, will
leave the Gospels as books exactly where they are.
It is a curious illusion that criticism can take away
our Bible. There it is, when criticism has done its
task, the same vital and life-giving literature as
before. Whatever controversies may rage over
the structure, composition, the authorship and the
date, the text and the reading, this Gospel of
Matthew is in our hands, a work of approved
spiritual significance. By reading it, by brooding
and praying over it, by permitting its influence to
enter the soul, the reader, apart from all discus
sions, is led into the footprints of Jesus, sits at
His feet and learns ; find his way to the Cross and
to the empty tomb.
It is peculiarly valuable just now to bring out
this practical value of the Gospel narrative, and to
test it by experience. Such a devotional use of
the book is not to be set as an argument against
criticism, but it induces a singular serenity as to
the results of criticism. When a man knows his
gospel in that way, he has a possession which
no one can take from him ; he knows the flavour,
the nutriment, the power, of the story and the
Person ; if criticism were to dispute or to discredit
this truth of experience, he would treat criticism
as he does the assaults which misguided men some
times make on Homer or Shakespeare, on human
responsibility or morality, on love and sacrifice

viii INTRODUCTION
and loyalty, and the other nobilities of human
life. No one, thus exercised in the Gospel, will
have reason to complain ' they have taken away
my Lord, and I know not where they have laid
Him'. For the Lord, the Christ of Matthew,
cannot be taken away by any one ; after all argu
ments, refutations, and assaults His voice rises
calmly in the stillness of the soul of the disciple,
' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the. end of
the world.'
Robert F. Horton.
Hampstead,
May 24, 1907.

THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
ST. MATTHEW
l 'The book of the feneration of Jesus Christ, ' Or, 7"/«
genealogy
the son of David, the son of Abraham. o/jesus
2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat =or,
Jacob ; and Jacob begat Judah and his breth- If'ti'. ii.
Ch. i. 1-17. The Book of the Generation of
Jesus Christ.
As Dr. Bruce says in the Expositor's Greek Testament, this
genealogical tree seems a dry beginning to the Gospel. And so it
would be, if we had not the Old Testament to interpret it.
Matthew clings at every point to the Old Testament. For
the heathen, Mark's or Luke's or even John's Gospel would be
more intelligible. But for us who know and love the Old Testa
ment, and are interested to see how the New grows out of the Old,
Matthew is the right Gospel to begin with; and this genealogy,
so far from being dry, is all-alive with interest, fills us with praise,
and brings us to our knees.
Verse 1. generation. The word here, and in ver. 18, translated
' birth ', is genesis. This at once suggests a comparison with the
opening book of the Old Testament, and especially Gen. ii. 4. The
Genesis of Heaven and Earth is, extrinsically, a greater thing, for
it embraces this whole globe, the solar system, the vast stellar
distances. But, intrinsically, the Genesis of Jesus Christ is, for us
men, more important than the genesis of the heavens and the earth.
The universe has no meaning except for consciousness, God's or
man's, and Jesus Christ is the key to our consciousness and the
connexion of ours with God's.
the son of David, the son of Abraham. The first object of the
Gospel narrative was to show that Jesus was a man. Docetism
was the earliest heresy ; the Resurrection made it plain that Jesus
was divine ; and men thought that so divine a Being could never
have been really flesh and blood. The humanity was phantasmal.
The Gospel narrative wishes to show that He came of a human
stock, was born as we are, and like us lived, suffered, was
tempted, and died. Luke iii. 23-36 carries the genealogical line
back to the first man ; Matthew is content to go back to
B

2 St. MATTHEW I. 3-8
ren; and Judah begat Perez and Zerah of 3
Tamar ; and Perez begat Hezron ; and Hezron
1 Gr begat 'Ram ; and 'Ram begat Amminadab; and 4
Aram. Amminadab begat Nahshon; and Nahshon
begat Salmon; and Salmon begat Boaz of 5
Rahab ; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth ; and
Obed begat Jesse ; and Jesse begat David the 6
king. And David begat Solomon of her that had
been the wife of Uriah ; and Solomon begat 7
Rehoboam ; and Rehoboam begat Abijah ; and
'1 pr- . Abijah begat s Asa ; and 2 Asa begat Jehosha- 8
phat ; and Jehoshaphat begat Joram ; and
Abraham; the predominant thought is — not only was He the
son of man, but He was Messias, the scion of David, the promised
seed of Abraham. This connexion with David was for all Jewish
Christians vital (2 Sam. vii. 12-16 ; Ps. cxxxii. 11 ; Isa. xi. 1 ;
Jer. xxiii. 5 ; Luke i. 32, 69 ; John vii. 42 ; Acts ii. 30, xiii. 23 ;
Rom. i. 3 ; 2 Tim. ii. 8 ; Rev. xxii. 16). The connexion with
Abraham followed (Gen. xxii. 18 ; Gal. iii. 16 ; Rom. ix. 5).
n. Abraham. The fourteen generations from Abraham to David
are glorious ; they belong to the Theocracy. They contain the
Patriarchs, and the noble figure of Judah, Towards the end
emerges Boaz with the idyl of Ruth. For the home-picture of
Jesse at Bethlehem see 1 Samuel xvi. 1, xvii. 12.
3. Tamar. Four women appear in the genealogy. Why?
Three — Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba— are stained with gross
immorality ! Two — Rahab and Ruth — are strangers, a Canaanite,
and a hated Moabite 1 Of this stock comes Jesus, who receives
sinners, and welcomes the heathen into His family.
6. David the king. Here the growth and glory of the family
culminate. Thenceforward is a more or less arrested Decline and
Fall. To spring of the loins of Abraham is beautiful — but through
Tamar and Bathsheba, that gives us pause.
6b-n. The fourteen generations from David to Jeremiah — a
rapid summary of the monarchy — are a pitiful story of degeneration.
The line which began with ' her that had been the wife of Uriah '
had the seed of corruption in it. Solomon was apostate ;
Rehoboam was infatuated; and though Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah,
Hezekiah, and Josiah had noble traits, relentings, and pieties,
the darker tendency appears in Abijah, Joram, Jotham, and Ahaz,
and came to a culmination of evil in Manasseh. Jechoniah, the

Amos*

St. MATTHEW I. 9-16
9 Joram begat Uzziah ; and Uzziah begat Jotham ;
and Jotham begat Ahaz ; and Ahaz begat Heze-
10 kiah ; and Hezekiah begat Manasseh ; and
Manasseh begat ' Anion ; and ' Amon begat ' Gr.
ii Josiah; and Josiah begat Jechoniah and his
brethren, at the time of the z carrying away to 2 Or, re-
t, r i moval to
Babylon. Babylon
12 And after the 2 carrying away to Babylon, Je
choniah begat s Shealtiel ; and s Shealtiel begat 'Gr.Sa-
13 Zerubbabel; and Zerubbabel begat Abiud ; and
Abiud begat Eliakim ; and Eliakim begat Azor ;
14 and Azor begat Sadoc ; and Sadoc begat Achim ;
15 and Achim begat Eliud; andEliud begat Elea-
zar ; and Eleazar begat Matthan ; and Matthan
16 begat Jacob ; and Jacob begat Joseph the hus
band of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is
called Christ.

grandson of Josiah (Jer. xxiv. i, xxvii. 20), was a child, eight
according to 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, eighteen according to 2 Kings
xxiv. 8, who only reigned three months and ten days, and then
was taken into the lifelong captivity of Babylon. What a falling-
off from David ! Compare the expression ' Judah and his brethren '
in ver. 2 with 'Jechoniah and his brethren' in ver. 11, and you
see the depth of the fall. The promise of the nation at its birth,
the glory of the kingship in David, had dwindled down to the
feebleness and ignominy of the Captivity. Through such a line of
sin and punishment, a decline ending in a fall, Christ came.
12-16. The fourteen generations, which span the 588 years from
Jechoniah to Christ, are an example of the indistinguishable
obscurity of human lives. Zerubbabel emerges into historical light
because he led back some of the exiles from Babylon, Ezra iii. 2.
Joseph is famous for ever as the putative father of Jesus (Luke
iii. 23, iv. 22 : also ii. 33, 41, 48) ; but for the rest, they lie in dateless
and unchronicled darkness. We know nothing of them but their
names. Through this fallen and indistinguishable posterity of a
great line, Christ came.
16. of whom was born, i.e. of Mary. Though Joseph is called
the father of Jesus — and it is only on the ground of his being His
father that his genealogical tree is given— there is a mystery in the
B 2

4 St. MATTHEW I. 17, 18
'Or, n- go all the generations from Abraham unto ij
Babylon. David are fourteen generations; and from
2 Or, gene- David unto the ' carrying away to Babylon four-
ration: as . ' . .
in ver. i. teen generations ; and from the l carrying away
Lctaft to Babylon unto the Christ fourteen generations.
thread Now the a birth • of Jesus Christ was on this 18

birth, which is unfolded in ver. 18-24. St. Luke, the other
evangelist who records the singular operations of the Holy Ghost
in the birth, speaks of Joseph and Mary as His parents, records
the astonished inquiry of the Nazarenes, 'Is not this Joseph's
son ? ' and even represents Mary as calling Joseph His father
(ii. 48). This is a mystery which we cannot hope to fathom. We
are very sure, with Matthew and Luke, that Jesus was born of the
Holy Ghost ; but we are, with them and with St. Paul, to regard
Him as the seed of David and Abraham, and Adam, through
Joseph. If we maintain that this connexion with humanity was
established only through Mary, we set aside the testimony of the
two evangelists who record the virgin-birth.
The mystery may be stated thus : Joseph was the father of
Jesus, but not in the ordinary way of human generation, his
parenthood was the work of the Holy Ghost. It is enough for us
that our Lord and Saviour was born of a human stock, and we may
humbly inscribe ourselves among His relations, on the terms
which He Himself has laid down in xii. 50.
Jesus, who is called Christ, i. e. Christ is the surname, xxvii. 22.
Cf. ' Simon who is called Peter '. It is as if the Evangelist wished
to say : This Jesus, the seed of Abraham, the descendant of
David, the expected Messias of Israel, was, by Jewish hands,
delivered to the Roman governor and, at the instance of Jewish
prayers, crucified by the Gentile.
17. The symmetry of the fourteen is achieved by leaving out
several generations ; e. g. Josiah was the grandfather of Jechoniah.
The comparison with the genealogy in Luke iii shows how
divergent these family trees might be. The value of the lists is not
in the exactness of the names, which might be a matter of doubt
even to the most careful investigator, but in the connexion that is
shown with David and with Abraham, ver. 1, and so with Adam,
Luke iii. 38.
i. 18— ii. The- Idyl of the Birth and Infancy.
This passage, like the corresponding one in Luke i, ii, is com
posed of exquisite episodes which are, strictly speaking, poems —
the first Christmas-carols, which have been sung ever since. They
are the outcome of the Church's surprise and joy in recognizing

St. MATTHEW I. 18 5
wise : When his mother Mary had been be- "Lthe. .
trothed to Joseph, before they came together 1 or, miy
she was found with child of the ' Holy Ghost. fjfd'7o:

that her Lord was divine. They are lyrics of rapture over the
truth that He had come into humanity, and was not merely the
outcome of humanity. In such compositions the substance is
more important than the form. The substance is contained in
that saying : ' I am from above, Iamnotofthis world' (John viii. 23).
The form varies ; in John it is the pre-existent Logos that becomes
flesh ; in Paul it is One in the form of God, who emptied Himself
to become man ; here and in Luke it is a Child, born by direct
operation of the Spirit of God, miraculously preserved from the
wrath of kings, visited by adoring strangers from the East,
heralded by angels, drawing simple shepherds to His infant
feet. - In such an Idyl as this, where the substance is everything,
and the form is secondary, we may miss the meaning by a dull
literalism, and by laying the stress on details which are mere
accidents, and not essentials. Poetry is as instructive as history,
but not in the same way. From the religious point of view we
learn as much from Milton's Paradise Lost as from the account
which Science gives of the origin of things ; and the opening
chapters of Genesis are always there to remind us that an epic
may be as valuable to men as history.
In the passage before us, therefore, the stress is to be laid on the
faith which possessed the earliest believers in Christ, that He was
God in the flesh ; the several incidents which are chosen to
illustrate this truth may have been derived from Mary or from
Joseph. No wise person will presume to say that they are
impossible or untrue ; but a man may be a Christian without
holding that they are facts of history. History, in the strict sense
of the word, begins where Mark and John and Paul begin.
The Idyl of the Infancy belongs to another kind of literature :
but the experience of many centuries shows that it is no whit
inferior in spiritual power and religious truth to the facts of
history. 18-25. This paragraph contains a mystery, a suggestion of the
way in which the Word became flesh. Joseph, in later years,
told to intimate friends the story of his marriage and of the birth
of his firstborn ; the reminiscence took shape and, as years went
on, was repeated among the first believers. Finally, this evangelist
placed it in the forefront of his history, just as, later on, Luke,
drawing upon reminiscences of Mary, inserted it in his.
18. Now. It should be 'But'. The first paragraph described
the genesis of Jesus Christ through the tree of Abraham and
David. ' But ' — the narrative proceeds, ' the genesis of Jesus

6 St. MATTHEW I. 19, 20
through- And Joseph her husband, being a righteous 19
out this . . . . , ,.
book. man, and not willing to make her a public ex
ample, was minded to put her away privily.
But when he thought on these things, behold, ao
an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a
dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear
Christ was on thiswise.' And then we are told something which
seems to imply that the genealogy was irrelevant j for of what
use was it to trace the descent of Jesus through Joseph, if Joseph
was not in the strict sense His father at all?
Does the Evangelist simply put down these two accounts
side by side, from his materials, with no thought of harmonizing
them ? Does he first give a prosaic genealogy, and then insert
a poem from the circle of early Christian faith ? Or does he see
a reconciliation, does he regard Par. 1 and Par. 2 as equally
matters of fact, which a wise reader will instinctively combine
into a consistent whole? To these questions we can give no
certain answer. But the exposition may bring the two facts into
a kind of connexion which, spiritually at least, is satisfying.
betrothed . . . came together. These are the two steps which
constituted marriage. When the suitor had paid the dowry to
the maiden's father, she was from that moment his wife (see
ver. 24). Months and even years might elapse before the day
when he would go to the parents' home, in the evening, or in
the dead of night (xxv. 6), and carry his wife to his own house
with music and feasting. Joseph and Mary were already man
and wife, but he had not yet brought her to his house ; probably
she was a girl, barely mature.
was found with child of the Holy Ghost. He found her with
child, but did not know that it was of the Holy Ghost. He feared
that some one had betrayed her, or that she had been false to him.
19. a righteous man : SUaws. See Matt. xx. 4, Mark vi. 20,
Luke xx. 20, Rom. v. 7. These passages show that we are to
understand by righteous, ' a good man,' not in the severe sense,
one who could not tolerate an erring wife, but in the broader
sense, one who, unable to retain an unfaithful wife, yet could not
bear to expose her to unnecessary obloquy. His righteousness,
that is, is shown not so much in putting her away, as in doing it
privately, and not with the formality of the law (Deut. xxiv. 1).
20. thought : the correlative word in ix. 4, the inward revolving
of the facts which none but God sees.
a dream. F. W. H. Myers, in his book on Human
Personality, traces the facts of the sleep-life, and shows how
much reality there is in it. Whether the dream-life or the waking-
life is the most real, is to him an open question. Sometimes in

St. MATTHEW I. 21 7 -
not to take unto thee Mary thy wife : for that
which is 'conceived in her is of the Holy '.Gr-
J begotten.
21 Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son ; and
thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for it is he that
dreams we come into contact with the spiritual powers which
encompass us, and can receive directions from them which are
not perceived in waking moments. Perhaps most persons, once
or twice in a lifetime, are directed by a dream just as Joseph is
here. How far the dream was the result of his own reflections,
the uprush of his subliminal consciousness, no one can determine ;
but the cases are quite common in which the dream authenticates
itself as a reality to which attention and obedience must be
given. Joseph believed that, though the angel was only in a
dream, God was instructing him in that way ; and he acted
accordingly (ver. 24).
thou Son of David. Here the episode is linked on to the
genealogy. As the son of David, he is to accept his wife and
adopt her offspring, evidently in order that the child when born
may be the son of David too (ver. 1). Thus the very vision which
states that the birth is ' of the Holy Ghost ' constitutes Joseph
the father. In the eyes of the world, in the judgement of the law,
Joseph was the parent of Jesus. Only in his own eyes he
occupied a unique position. He was the father of Jesus by the
operation of the Holy Ghost and not by the ordinary method of
human propagation.
fear not. Was it fear of scandal ? No, for by taking her at
once that could be and was averted. It must have been fear of
moral evil. If the maid had fallen and he took her, he would
condone ' folly in Israel '. ' That which should be born ' must be
either most unholy or most holy : the dream-voice told him that it
was most holy. He believed, and was justified by his faith, justified
in passing as the father of the child. That Jesus was born in this
way must rest on Joseph's testimony alone. It is obviously not a
fact which could be otherwise verified. Jesus never alluded to it
Himself, nor did Peter or John or Paul. It was not a fact on
which objective religious truth could be based. If the Divinity of
Jesus rested on it, we should indeed be in a perilous way.
Rather it rests on the Divinity of Jesus. It is a domestic secret,
a mystery such as fathers and mothers treasure in their hearts.
They who believe in Jesus may believe it, but it could not con
vince unbelievers; never in the New Testament is it used or cited
for such a purpose.
ai. Jesus is the Hebrew Joshua, meaning 'Jehovah shall save'.
The new meaning was this : He will save from sins. See Acts
iv. 12, v. 31, xiii. 23, 38. What a vision of the night was this!
He saw his son born, he saw his name, he saw the meaning of it.

8 St. MATTHEW I. 22-24
shall save his people from their sins. Now all 2 a
this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the Lord through the pro
phet, saying,
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and 23
shall bring forth a son,
1 Gr. Em- And they shall call his name '2 Immanuel ;
manuel. J
which is, being interpreted, God with us. And 24
Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the
Luke gives the lyric of angels singing to the shepherds ' Unto you
is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the
Lord ' ; but this single angel in the dreaming heart of Joseph is
more explicit, more comforting — 'He shall save His people from
their sins.'
22, 23. It is Matthew's speciality to connect the events of the
Gospel with prophetic oracles, a collection which he had by him,
and used as one of his sources; see W. C. Allen, Critical Com
mentary on Matthew, Introd. LXI, and XCVI. The connexion is
often, as here, mainly verbal. Certainly the episodes cannot be
invented as fulfilments of the prophecies ; the prophecies are too
precarious. This citation from Is. vii. 14 only seems to be a pro
phecy of the virgin-birth if it is taken from the Greek, the Alex
andrine version of the prophet. In the Hebrew np^srj does
not mean virgin at all. The Hebrew for virgin nVira is used
fifty times in the Old Testament. But the LXX have translated
the Hebrew, which simply means a young woman, by tJ wapSivos,
i. e. a virgin. In the original of Isaiah, all that is meant is, that
before a young woman could conceive and bear a son, deliverance
would have come to king Ahaz, and the new-born child could be
called ' God with us '.
If, therefore, the Evangelist cites the passage it is somewhat
inconclusive. If only it were included in Joseph's dream it would
bear another, and far more interesting, aspect. In dreams familiar
words are often charged with a new meaning, and we wake with
the words on our lips but with the new meaning in our minds.
Joseph knew the words of this old Isaianic oracle, but in the
dream they came to him from the angel's lips with a sudden
inspiration : his wife was the young woman, his child Jesus that
should be born was Immanuel. He rose from his sleep with the
word echoing in his ears — ' God with us '. Perplexity was
removed ; it was as if God had spoken.
24. And Joseph . . . did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
it is the characteristic of such experiences as this, that they carry

St. MATTHEW I. .25 9
angel of the Lord commanded him, and took
25 unto him his wife; and knew her not till she
had brought -forth a son: and he called his
name Jesus.
with them an inner certitude which is above argument. He knew
by the experience itself that the experience' was of God. Without
any hesitation, that same day he took his wife to his house, so
that the child who should be born would be acknowledged as his.
25. He knew, and Mary knew, the mystery of the birth. She was,
as the LXX rendered the Hebrew word, a virgin. She brought
forth a son and named him Jesus ; and they treasured the fact in
their hearts, that he was conceived of the Holy Ghost.
The secret is one which Jesus Himself would call ' a pearl
not to be cast before swine '. What the swine would do with it is
seen in the disgusting Jewish story which was invented to dis
honour Jesus, and in the fact that Haeckel quotes the story with
approbation in his Riddle of the Universe. It is hard to conceive
how any human mind could turn this exquisite idyl into ribaldry.
Like a morning washed in dew and sparkling with the purity of
the hoar-frost, it might, one would suppose, captivate all hearts.
But no truth of poetry is secure against coarse and common minds.
And our Lord, by His studied silence on the subject of His own
birth, and His beloved disciple John by his references to Joseph as
the father of Jesus (John i. 45, vi. 42) show us with what reticence
we are to treat the narrative. It is not the foundation, but the
coping-stone, of the edifice of faith ; and it is the substance and
not the form that is of value. The divinity of Jesus does not rest
on His physical origin, but on His moral and spiritual character.
His sinlessness is not the result of being free from the taint of
Adam ; it is the result of His own overcoming. If we believed in
Him, ' who was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without
sin,' on the ground that He was born in a different way from
ourselves, we should miss the saving element of His victory over
the world. And when we lay the stress on such a physical fact,
logic drives us along the course which the Roman Church has
taken : if He was to be sinless, then, not only must He be with
out a human father, but His human mother must be immaculately
conceived, and practically divine : and then Mary's mother Anna
must enjoy a similar immunity, and so back to Eve. The Roman
logic has the advantage of showing the intrinsic fallacy of the
whole argument. Jesus is divine because of His character and
His acts. With simple literal truth we may be sure that He was
born of the Holy Ghost. The part that His human father had
in His birth is a secret over which reverence and delicacy
would draw a veil. When unbelief assails the story we need not
defend it, we should withdraw it, and direct the unbeliever to
evidences which he is more capable of understanding.

io St. MATTHEW II. 1
Magi. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of a
S™ Jud^a in the days of Herod the king, behold,
i'i? i3Da"' * wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, say-
Ch. ii. The Idyl of the Magi.
The story contained in this chapter, which charmed our
wondering childhood, has a deeper meaning for our mature age ;
its purpose is to bring out two striking contrasts, first, that between
the homage brought to Jesus from afar, ver. 1-12, and the hostility
at home, ver. 13-23 ; second, that between King Herod, and the
rightful King of the World who came to bear witness of the truth.
This twofold contrast comes out clearly in the study of the details.
Observe, the story — the movement of the star, and the angelic
warnings— is frankly supernatural ; it is labour thrown away to
rationalize it. Our object is mainly to learn the spiritual truths
which it conveys in its rich colouring of narrative.
1. in Bethlehem. The author of this carol did not know that
the parents of Jesus came from the obscure town of Nazareth, but
thought that the Holy Family withdrew there, to escape the hand
of Archelaus, and to fulfil a prophecy, ver. 23.
Herod the king. This great, magnificent, but tyrannical
king, was an Idumean — thus Edom ruled over Israel ! — and he
maintained his rule by an understanding with Rome. He reigned
for thirty-seven years, and died of a loathsome disease at the
age of seventy in b.c. 4, so that if this narrative is historical the
beginning of our era must be dated at least four years earlier than
it is. He had murdered his sons and Mariamne his beautiful and
beloved Jewish wife ; he was so hated, in spite of his services in
rebuilding the Temple, that there was none to mourn him, and he
ordered his sister Salome, as he died, to shut up the chief of the
Jews in the Hippodrome and massacre them, in order that there
might be weeping on the occasion. The order was not carried out.
Thus Herod the King1 is the perfect type of egotistical,
tyrannical worldly governments. He symbolizes the harsh,
successful, fearful rule of Self in the Soul. When Christ is born
in the heart (Gal. iv. 19) it is under the reign of Herod the King,
and that usurping sovereign does all in his power to crush the
rightful Lord in His infancy.
1 ' He was in a word a perfectly beautiful animal, a lion, in which
you can only think of his broad chest and his thick mane, without
expecting any moral sense ' (Renan). ' His lance was unerring, and
his arrow seldom missed its mark' (Josephus, B.J. i. 21. 13). His
close alliance with the Caesars is another point in the symbolic
meaning of Herod. He was inaugurated king of the Jews in 37 B.C.
with sacrifices to Jupiter Capitolinus by Antony and Octavianus
(afterwards Augustus).

St. MATTHEW II. 2, 3 n
t ing, ' Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? ' Or,
° . . , Where is
for we saw his star in the east, and are come to the King
. of the lews
3 worship him. And when Herod the king heard that is
it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Bethlehem means the House of Bread. Christ born in the
heart, the Bethlehem of the heart, is the true Bread that cometh
down out of heaven. John vi. 48-51.
wise men from the east. The Greek is Magi (cf. Acts xiii .
6-8), astrologers, who studied the heavens to learn human desti
nies, the men of science of a prescientific age. Legend made
them kings, gave them names, and determined the number
three, perhaps because the gifts were threefold (ver. 11). But
it is the Wisdom, not the Royalty, of the world that comes to
the feet of Jesus. The students and seekers into curious lore
stand in contrast with the rulers of this world, typified by Herod
the King. his star in the east. Rather, ' his star in its rising ' — i. e. a
miraculous star which dawned on them in their distant home, and
reappeared guiding them to the spot where Jesus was (ver. 9).
The meaning of the star in the story is explained by Num. xxiv.
17, 18 — the Star out of Jacob was to vanquish Edom, and the
Idumean king — and by Rev. xxii. 16, ' I am the root and the
offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.'
to worship him. Better than the worship of the leper,
viii. 2 , for there is no interested motive. At last they
will come from all lands to worship Him, and to bring their
offerings, not for what they can get, but for what He is.
3. was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. We can
understand why Herod was troubled, because ' uneasy lies the
head that wears a crown '. He knew that there was an expec
tation of Messias, and people were excitable, and ready to hail
any extraordinary event as the herald of His appearance. Herod
slew the Sanhedrists, and did his best to crush the Messianic
hopes.1 But why was Jerusalem, which hated Herod and longed
for her Messiah, troubled with him ? Because nothing troubles
the soul more than Christ's coming. When He is born in the
heart, to dispute the sovereignty of Self, the agitation is distress
ing : ' Depart from me, for I am an unclean man — why art thou
come to trouble me ? ' is the cry of the man who yet desires Him.
1 The Herodians were prepared to accept Herod himself as
Messias. They quoted Hagg. ii. 3-9 to show that Herod fulfilled
the prophecy by his magnificent rebuilding of the Temple. Perhaps
also they pointed to the Book of Enoch (xci. 13, ed. Dillmann), which
spoke of a time when ' a house would be built to the praise of the
Great King for ever and ever '.

f2 St. MATTHEW II. 4-9
And gathering together all the chief priests and 4
scribes of the people, he inquired of them where
the Christ should be born. And they said 5
unto him, In Bethlehem, of Judsea : for thus
1 Or, it is written ' by the prophet,
And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, 6
Art in no wise least among the princes of
Judah :
For out of thee shall come forth a governor,
Which shall be shepherd of my people Israel.
2 Gr. Then Herod privily called the '2 wise men, and 7
Magi.
, . learned of them carefully s what time the star
time of appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, S
the star rv '
thatafi- and said, Go and search out carefully concern-
Peared. ing the young child ; and when ye have found
him, bring me word, that I also may come and
worship him. And they, having heard the 9
king, went their way; and lo, the star, which
they saw in the east, went before them, till it

4. where the Christ should be born. The quotation from Mic. v. 2
is neither from the Hebrew nor the LXX, and the last clause of
the quotation is from 2 Sam. v. 2. This shows that our author
here is quoting from memory, or from the collection of Messianic
prophecies, see i. 22. But the Targum put on the oracle in Micah
a Messianic interpretation, though the Talmudists taught that
Messias should come out of a strange unknown place. Both views
were justified in the event ; Christ was born in Bethlehem, but
He came out of the bosom of the Father, and His goings forth
had been from of old.
7, 8. Herod's subtilty ' typifies the shifts and pretences of Self
in its dealings with the inborn Christ. It always affects to
.worship Him, but wishes to destroy Him. It knows that with
His coming its day is over, and yet it pretends to yield Him
homage. As Monod shows, it is a gradual process from ' All of
Self and none of Thee' to 'None of Self and all of Thee.'
9-10. The star moving before them and stopping over the
1 Cultum praetendit, cultrum intendit, says Archb. Leighton.

St. MATTHEW II. 10-12 13
came and stood over where the young child
10 was. And when they saw the star, they re-
1 1 joiced with exceeding great joy. And they
came into the house and saw the young child
with Mary his mother; and they fell down and
worshipped him ; and opening their treasures
they offered unto him gifts, gold and frankin-
12 cense and myrrh. And being warned of God
in a dream that they should not return'to

house in Bethlehem is clearly a supernatural event, and it is
idle to seek a naturalistic explanation in Astronomical records of
peculiar brilliancy in this or that star at that time, or in some
unusual meteor — no meteor travels for months and stands over
a particular spot. The leading of a star was worthy of so great
an occasion as the birth into the world of the Son of God ; but
the story here told is not attested by any other source in the
New Testament, and, from the literary character of the passage,
is not to be offered as a proof of our Lord's divinity. The
more convincing view is that the knowledge of His divinity gave
birth to the story of the guiding star.
n. into the house. The birth in a manger belongs to another
cycle of the Idyls of the Infancy ; and the birth in a cave, which
fills so large a space in Sacred Art, belongs to the extra-
canonical legends. Our narrative here goes on the supposition
that Joseph and Mary were living in Bethlehem and had a house
of their own, and only moved to Nazareth later (ver. 23). It is
a wholesome reminder that the religious and spiritual value of
the Gospel does not depend in any degree on these details, about
which there might well be many diverse accounts when the Gospels
were written sixty or seventy years after the birth of our Lord.
gifts : as was common in visiting a ruler (1 Sam. ix. 7 ;
1 Kings a. 2). The gold and the frankincense were to be the
gifts brought by kings to Zion in the brightness of her rising
(Isa. Ix. 1-6). Myrrh was a large ingredient in the anointing oil
(Exod. xxx. 23) and was used in the embalming of Jesus (John xix.
39). Wealth, devotion, love, are the gifts men can bring to Christ,
not divided but in a perpetual combination ; the earthly goods
because devotion and love are there ; the incense of prayer and
praise ; the myrrh which proclaims Him King and Priest immortal,
because without these the gift of money would be worthless
to Him.
12. in a dream. This gospel gives a great place to dreams in
divine direction: see Matt. i. 20 ; ii. 12, 13, 19, 22 ; xxvii. 19.

14 St. MATTHEW II. 13-15
Herod, they departed into their own country
another way.
Now when they were departed, behold, an 13
angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a
dream, saying, Arise and take the young child
and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be
thou there until I tell thee : for Herod will seek
the young child to destroy him. And he arose 14
and took the young child and his mother by
night, and departed into Egypt; and was there 15
until the death of Herod : that it might be ful-
The Evangelist from his own experience or from careful inquiry
had found how frequent this method of spiritual guidance is. It is
one of the signs of the Spirit's presence that devout minds receive
the visitations of God in the subconscious self, during the rest and
impassiveness of sleep : see Joel ii. 28. If we lived nearer to
God in our waking hours perhaps we should have more of His
communications in sleep. We might sleep always at Bethel,
and walk everyday by heavenly direction.
13-23. The Magi with their devotion vanish to their own land ;
we now 'see the treatment which the native king gives to the
true King from Heaven. The symbols can be "easily read. Self
drives the new-born Christ into the land of exile and bondage ;
but God, as always before, calls His Son out of Egypt. Self rages
and storms, and even when subdued is succeeded by Archelaus,
though only for a season (he was driven from the throne of
his small tetrarchy in a. d. 6), and Christ finds His home
only in despised Nazareth, the heart of the Nazarite. It is
an allegory of the coming of Christ into the soul. The outward
events are secondary, pictorial ; the inward truth is primary and
real. 13. an angel of the Lord. So i. 20, ii. 19. In Joseph's dreams
it was always an angel speaking to him.
flee into Egypt. Onias, son of Onias III, took refuge in
Egypt, where Ptolemy Philometor allowed him to build the
temple at Leontopolis, fulfilling, as he thought, the prophecy of
Isa. xix. 18, 19. This temple of Jehovah lasted for 220 years, and
was destroyed by Vespasian, about the time of the destruction of
the Temple at Jerusalem, a. d. 70. The recent discovery of its
site and remains is amongst the marvels of Egyptology. Ever
since Joseph went down into Egypt, that land was the hiding-place
for God's servants : out of it He called His Son.
15. until the death of Herod. That was in the year 4 before the

St. MATTHEW II. 16, 17 15
filled which was spoken by the Lord through
the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt did I call
16 my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he
was mocked of the ' wise men, was exceeding * Gr.
wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the male
children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the
borders thereof, from two years old and under,
according to the time which he had carefully
17 learned of the 'wise men. Then was fulfilled
that which was spoken sby Jeremiah the pro- 20r,
... ' through
phet, saying,
birth of Christ according to our chronology. How long the holy
family was in Egypt we do not know — only long enough, perhaps,
to make this oracle of Hosea xi. i applicable. This and other
citations from the prophets in this Gospel are not to be understood
as meaning that the prophets consciously foretold Christ in using
the language : but they used words which found a striking fulfil
ment in the events of Christ's life and death. ' It is with the
prophetic references as with songs without words. The composer
has a certain scene or state of mind in his view, and writes under
its inspiration ; but you are not in his secret, and cannot tell,
when yon hear the music, what it means. But let the key be
given, and you find new meaning in the music. The prophecies
are the music, the key is the history. Given the prophecies alone,
you could with difficulty imagine the history ; given the history,
you can understand how religious fancy might discover correspond
ing prophecies. That the prophecies, once suggested, might react
on the facts and lead to legendary modifications is, of course, not to
be denied ' (Prof. A. B. Bruce in Expositor's Greek Testament, p. 78).
16. slew the male children. History does not know of this
massacre, but in 6 b. c. Herod executed his two sons Alexander
and Aristobulus, and in 4 b. c. his eldest son Antipater. Macrobius,
Saturn, ii. 4, confuses the execution of the sons with the massacre
at Bethlehem.1 He murdered his beloved wife Mariamne the
Asmonean. Her brother Aristobulus, the high-priest, he drowned
in the bath. ' And so through rivers of blood Herod waded to his
doom ' (Farrar). It is quite conceivable that in a fit of fear he
murdered all the male children of Bethlehem under two; in a
town so small the males born at the time with Jesus would be
very few. '
1 ' Inter pueros, quos in Syria Herodes Rex Iudseorum intra
bimatum iussit interfici.'

16 St. MATTHEW II. 18-21
A voice was heard in Ramah, 18
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she would not be comforted, because
they are not.
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of 19
the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in
Egypt, saying, Arise and take the young child 20
and his mother, and go into the land of Israel :
for they are dead that sought the young child's
life. And he arose and took the young child 21
and his mother, and came into the land of
Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was
18. The citation from Jer. xxxi. 15 is pathetic and] poetic.
We are not to think of Jeremiah foretelling this massacre ; but, as
we have seen, the description of a great sorrow in the prophet's
day suggests the sorrow of Bethlehem. The passage in Jeremiah
is rich in comfort : the land is mourning for her exiles, as Rachel
was mourned for in Bethlehem (Gen. xxxv. 19, 20, xlviii. 7).
Rachel's tomb was there, but Jeremiah was holding out golden
prospects of restoration. It was one of those dreams of Jeremiah
which on awaking he found to be sweet. We may read, there
fore, a joy into the mourning at Bethlehem, and may believe with
the Church tradition that the holy innocents who were massacred
for Jesus were in a true sense martyrs. This exquisite evangelic
thought is rendered by Holman Hunt in his ' Triumph of the
Innocents ', in which the infants wake from the brief sleep of
death, and, crowned with flowers, or pointing joyously to the
wounds by which they died, dance along the stream of the river
of life as the spiritual companions of the infant Jesus. This is the
testimony of Jesus and the patience of the saints. Christ's victory
is such that the apparent outrages of the foe are turned into joy :
cf. Acts v. 41.
19. when Herod was dead. The most splendid and successful
king in alliance with Rome died of a loathsome disease in his
seventieth year, after a reign of brilliant outward success. His
crimes were innumerable ; his virtues gained no recognition from
the Jews, who regarded him as an alien and a usurper.
20. they are dead. The evil power is vanquished, and Christ
may now reign. In the hope of such security, the holy family
comes back to its own land.
22. Archelaus was reigning. The power of evil is shattered but

St. MATTHEW II. 23 17
reigning over Judaea in the room of his father
Herod, he was afraid to go thither ; and being
warned of God in a dream, he withdrew into the
23 parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city
called Nazareth : that it might be fulfilled which
not slain. Herod's son Archelaus was but an ethnarch and divided
his father's dominion with others,1 but he was of the same temper
and disposition as his father, naturally hostile to the Holy Child.
The warning dream told Joseph that there was still need of care
and retirement. Galilee was remote and despised, and beyond
the jurisdiction of Archelaus. There the child might grow in
quiet, unobserved and undisturbed by the powers of this world.
23. Nazareth, an obscure village among the hills, between
Carmel and Tabor, about fifteen miles away from the busy shores
of the lake, on which Capernaum was situated. All the evan
gelists show how despised the little place was, and how incredible
it seemed that it should give birth to any one or anything remark
able. Matthew does not note that Joseph had lived there before.
Mark tells us that Jesus issued from the town to begin His
ministry (i. 9). Luke had learned that Joseph and Mary had both
lived in Nazareth at the time of the betrothal (i. 26) ; it was ' their
own city ' (ii. 39), as well as the place where ' Jesus was brought
up ' (iv. 16). John knew that Jesus was designated on account of
his home ' Jesus of Nazareth ' (i. 45), and that designation was
familiar in the Apostolic Age (Acts x. 38).
But our evangelist sees a mystical significance in the con
nexion of Jesus with this despised Nazareth. He had in view some
prophecy, which we are unable to identify, declaring that Messias
should be called a Nazarene. He supposes that the holy family
was led to settle in the Galilean village in order that this oracle of
the prophet might be fulfilled.
There are two suggestions for finding a connexion between the
name Nazareth and our Old Testament Scriptures ; but neither is
very satisfying. (1) We are referred to the law of the Nazarite,
and by a pun on the name Nazarite, which means ' separated '
(Num. vi. 13), a connexion with Nazareth is established. But
even so, we have no passage in Scripture which says that Messias,
like Samson (Judges xiii. 7), should be called a Nazarite.2 (2) In
1 The ethnarch had Judaea, Samaria, and Idumaea ; Antipas was
made tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip tetrarch of Gaulanitis. After
nine years of misrule, Archelaus was banished, with the consent of
Augustus : with him the kingdom of the Jews disappeared (a. d. 6),
and Judaea was administered by a Roman procurator.
2 And in the Hebrew, T13, a Nazarite, is spelt with 1, not with
X, as in Nazareth : the two letters are never confounded.
C

1 8 St. MATTHEW II. 23
i or, was spoken ' by the prophets, that he should
through be caUed a Nazarene#

Isa. xi. a there is a glorious description of Messias, as a shoot out
of the stock of Jesse, and a branch (a Nezer) out of his roots shall
bear fruit. But Isaiah does not say that he shall be called a.
Nazarene, only that he shall be called a Nezer (or Branch).
As, therefore, we do not know the prophecy which was ful
filled by this connexion with Nazareth, we can only trace the
divine providence which brought Jesus to Nazareth on more
general grounds.
He was born in Bethlehem, David's city ; but He was chased
out of Judaea by the despot who sat upon David's throne. He came
to His own, and His own received Him not. Finding no place in
His ancestral country, He was driven to an insignificant place in
' Galilee of the Gentiles ', that part of Palestine which was then
crowded with Hellenistic cities, and had become a highway of
traffic between the East and the West. He would issue forth for
His world-redeeming work, not from Jerusalem the capital, nor
from Bethlehem with its famous traditions, but from a village, of
which no one had ever heard ; He would be called not a Jeru-
salemite or a Bethlehemite, but a Nazarene.
On the other hand, this ejection from His own country and
banishment to a semi-Gentile district, identified Him from the first
with the whole world rather than with Judaism, and enabled Him
at the outset of His ministry to fulfil the prophecy of Isa. ix. i,
which foretold the emergence of Israel's light from that very
region (ch. iv. 15).
t- Such a separation from the things of desire, such a repudia
tion of the lordly Self, such a withdrawal into the humility and
obscurity which know nothing of the world's approbation, are
essential to the Christian life. He must be meek and lowly of
heart, He must be despised and rejected of men, because those
whom He would save can only by such a way of the Cross attain
to life which is life indeed. If we may not think of the Nazarite,
the ascetic separated from the world and consecrated to God, we
must at least think of Nazareth as the symbolic word for that
humility which shuns the eye of men and that obscurity which
excites their contempt. One of the main hindrances to faith in
Christ is the ambition, which seeks the honour from one another,
and not that which comes from God alone. ' He shall be called a
Nazarene ' has, therefore, a spiritual meaning for every believer in
Jesus. When St. Francis asked that he might not be honoured or
praised, he was a Nazarene. When Thomas a Kempis urges us
to avoid distinction and to choose rather the obscurity of the cell,
he is giving us a true lesson in the Imitation of Christ.

- St. MATTHEW III. 1, 2 i9
3 And in those days cometh John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying,
a Repent ye J for the kingdom of heaven is at
Ch. iii-iv. n. The Prelude to the Ministry of Jesus.
(i) The ministry of John the Baptist, iii. 1-12 ; (2) The Baptism
of Jesus, iii. 13-17 ; (3) The Temptation of Jesus, iv. 1-11.
iii. 1-12. The Ministry of John.
This section expands Mark i. 1-8. Luke also expands Mark in
another way, iii. 2-17.
1. in those days. The expression is suitable in Mark i. 9, which
Matthew is following, but not here ; the days of Archelaus, to which
ii. 23 refers, had long passed away. A new emperor, Tiberius,
was on the throne of the Caesars.
But for an evangelist there is but one time, the time when Jesus
came ; that is in his mind. He glides naturallyinto the narrative with
the conjunction ' and ', as if it had begun in Eternity. So it had.
cometh John. The Greek word mipayhc"" is used in ver. 13
again. ' Cometh ' is hardly the right rendering ; ' makes his
appearance ' would be better. It suggests the startling emergence
of a striking personality, as Josephus {Aniiq. xviii. 5. 2) shows,
a preacher of righteousness, who roused the jealous apprehensions
of- Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee. The Jewish historian
tells us of the marriage with Herodias, and of the incarceration and
execution of John in the Herodian castle of Machaerus. John is a
great figure in the history of the first century, which even the
ordinary historian was bound to notice. The emergence of Jesus
was too spiritual, too much without observation, to attract the
notice of historians. Though nineteen centuries have passed, we
do not yet see His infinite proportions.
preaching. An old word, signifying to act as a herald, here
receives a new meaning. No object of the announcement is
mentioned. Preaching henceforth becomes a function with the
implied object, Jesus. It is heralding Jesus.
the wilderness ofjudaa, the Arabah, the rocky and uncultivable
land between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea ; strictly speaking it
did not reach to the Jordan Valley, El Ghor ; but we are to
suppose that John moved with the multitude from the wilderness
to the river-bed when he wished to baptize.
2. Repent ye. The cry of the prophets from Hosea downward
(Hos. xiv. 1). John means, Confess and turn from your sins, or
vengeance will fall. When Jesus takes up the word (iv. 17)
He means this, but something deeper and gladder : Turn from
your sins, drawn by the good news of the Kingdom, Mark i. 15. •
For John the Kingdom of God means the punishment of rebels
C 2

20 St. MATTHEW III. 3-5
1 Or, hand. For this is he that was spoken of ' by 3
ttoug, ¦jrsajaj) tke prophet, saying,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make ye ready the way of the Lord,
Make his paths straight.
Now John himself had his raiment of camel's 4
hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins ; and
his food was locusts and wild honey. Then 5
against the King ; for Jesus it means the establishment of a
Father's rule in the heart of His child.
kingdom of heaven. A phrase in common use among the
Rabbis (see quotations from the Mishna in Dalman's The Words
of Jesus, p. 219). Heaven was the reverential synonym for God :
cf. Dan. iv. 23, a Chron. xxxii. 20. Dalman thinks that Jesus
used this synonym frequently. Wellhausen attributes the
phrase to the evangelist, writing for Jewish readers ; in Mark
and Luke it is ' the Kingdom of God '. The meaning of the
phrase, on the lips of Jesus, differs widely from the common
Jewish thought. He lays the stress on the kingly rule, or
sovereignty of God, in the heart, in order to emphasize the truth
that the King is also the Father. Thus He speaks of ' the king
dom of the Father ', Matt. xiii. 43, xxvi. 29. When John used
the phrase he had in view some such vision as Dan. ii. 44. The
prayer for the Kingdom of God was familiar to Judaism, but the
idea of Jesus was new (vi. 10). John knew that the Kingdom
was coming, but did not know what it would be.
3. The quotation is from Isa. xl. 3, but all three evangelists, in
place of ' a highway for our God ', simply speak of ' his paths ', in
order to refer the words to Jesus, the bringerof the Kingdom of God.
paths : the word suggests a way made by constant treading.
Such are the paths of Jesus, worn first by the Master's feet, then
by the myriads who follow His footprints.
4. John's dress identifies him with Elijah, who was to eome as
the forerunner of Messias (Mal. iv. 5). ' He was an hairy man
and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins' (2 Kings i. 8).
Unhappily the ascetic's dress, like the monk's cowl, was often a
hypocritical garment, to deceive (Zech. xiii. 4). John's sincerity
was above suspicion and was confirmed by his martyrdom.
locusts : (Lev. xi. 22), still used as a food by the poor in Syria,
roasted, boiled or baked in cakes.
wild honey. Probably the liquid exuding from palms and fig-
trees, the food of the very poor. Bee-honey and milk were
delicacies, suggestions of a fruitful land. John drew men by his
austerities. Only by prayer and fasting can the worst evils of
this world be cast out.

St. MATTHEW III. 6, 7 ?r
went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judaea,
6 and all the region round about Jordan ; and
they were baptized of him in the river Jordan,
7 confessing their sins. But when he saw many
of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his
baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of
vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath
5. Then. That is a characteristic conjunction of our evangelist's,
a mannerism, an unconscious watermark of his style. It is used
ninety times in this gospel, only six in Mark.
Jerusalem. Even the proud and self-satisfied capital was
touched ; the Pharisees and Sadducees joined in the religious
movement in order to control it, and were lashed by the prophet's
invective accordingly (ver. 7).
the region round about Jordan includes not only the Kikkar
of the Old Testament, viz. the plain of Jericho and the Dead Sea,
but the whole Arabah and the Jordan valley.
6. ivere baptized, ... confessing. Cf. Acts xix. 18. Such confession
was quite in accord with the Law, Num. v. 7. The Baptism, *
very natural symbol of a clean life ensuing on repentance, was
John's own idea, and gave him his name in history. The later
Jewish practice of subjecting proselytes to a complete submergence
beneath water may have been observed before John ; but direct
proof is wanting. Not only is John's Baptism very distinctive,
but it is the first Baptism which emerges into clear historic light.
7. The words which in Luke iii. 7-9 are directed to the people,
are here turned specially to the religious leaders, the Pharisees,
the party of piety, and the Sadducees, the party of a worldly wise
legalism. Their application for- Baptism was hypocritical, they
were inwardly rejoicing in the fact that they were Abraham's
seed, and thanking God that they were not as other men.
offspring of vipers. On a harvest-field when the stubble was
burned, the vipers might be seen wriggling away and trying to
escape. That is the immediate point of the comparison, here and
in the words of Jesus, ch. xxiii. 33. But Jesus also compared the
sneaking and venomous hypocrisy of His time to vipers, xii. 34.
who warned you. The Aramaic word which lies behind the
Greek, chavvi (cf. Esth. ii. 10, so ; Tobit iv. 2, 18), would mean
simply 'said that you were to '- John's question means : 'What,
you here ! I did not expect you to be moved. But if you do
come to be baptized, if your repentance is real and not assumed,
I must see some fruit, and not that idle reliance on your descent
from Abraham '. John was doubtless severe, after the manner of
the old order that was passing away ; but his severity to the
Pharisees and Sadducees far exceeded his severity to the common

22 St. MATTHEW III. 8-11
to come ? Bring forth therefore fruit "worthy of 8
1 0r> ' repentance : and think not to say within your- 9
your re- r
pentance selves, We have Abraham to our father : for
I say unto you, that God is able of these stones
to raise up children unto Abraham. And even 10
now is the axe laid unto the root of the trees :
every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good
fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
z Or, in I indeed baptize you 2 with water unto repent- 1 1
ance : but he that cometh after me is mightier
than I, whose shoes I am not 3 worthy to bear :
cunt he shall baptize you i with the Holy Ghost and
people, because he, like Jesus after him, did not believe in their
sincerity. 8. fruit. Not fruits, but orie harmonious whole, viz. a virtuous
character. Cf. Gal. v. 22. The only test of real repentance is
the result in life.
9. We have Abraham, &c. This denunciation against a false
trust in Jewish birth is quite in the spirit of the noblest Hebrew
prophecy. Cf. Amos iii. 2. Why should a favoured people trust
in their privileges when God is able out of mere stones to make
other such children of privilege ? What is man ? God made him.
How can we boast ? we are His workmanship, created out of
nothing, only by His grace one whit better than the lifeless stones
of the Judaean desert.
10. good fruit. In the Syriac ' good ' is omitted, and rightly ;
for the contrast is not between good and bad fruit, but between
fruit-bearing and fruitlessness. As he spoke to them he saw
them as trees, fruitless trees, and the axe laid to their root, fit
only for burning (cf. John xv. 2-6).
n. John's humility is beautiful. He knew that a baptism of
water unto repentance was but a small beginning compared with
the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of Fire which Christ would
administer. A servant carries his master's sandals, but John does
not feel worthy to do even this menial office for the Mighty One.
At the same time, he by no means understood the true greatness
of his successor. He thought that the Holy Spirit was a stormy
wind of judgement, like Isa. lxiv. 6, xii. 16, xl. 7, iv. 4. And the
firewas ' the spirit of burning' of the last cited passage, the fire
which burns up the chaff when the wheat is garnered. He was
not prepared to see the Holy Spirit as a dove ; that was Christ's
own vision, ver. 16. Nor did he dream that the fire would be the

St. MATTHEW III. 12-14 23
1 a with fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he will
throughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he
will gather his wheat into the garner, but the
chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.
13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan »
14 unto John, to be baptized of him. But John
love that burns in the sacrifice of the Cross, Acts ii. 3. One
should remember that Spirit in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, means
' wind '. The saying ' He shall baptize you with holy Wind and
Fire', has a mystic meaning. He shall apply to you all the
elements except earth, viz. water, air, and fire. In Mark i. 8, the
fire is omitted. The mingling of fire and water was a paradox
from which a reporter might shrink, but it is eminently like
Jesus, and absolutely true, in the Spirit.
12. John's notion of the fire echoes the old prophets, Mal. iii.
a seq. ; Amos vii. 4.
threshing-floor. Cf. 2 Esdras iv. 30 ; it means the piled-up
sheaves of the field. The cleansing consists in winnowing the
grain and getting rid of the chaff : see Ps. i. 4.
unquenchable fire. While the fire of Jesus is very different
from what John conceived, that sterner element in His baptism is
not to be forgotten : cf. Mark ix. 43, 48. ' Out of his mouth
proceeds a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance is as the
sun shineth in his strength ' (Rev. i. 16). The Jesus of the Trans
figuration is the real Jesus (Matt. xvii. 2). John was correct in
thinking that our Lord is a consuming fire, but he had not yet
apprehended the nature of that fire, the Love which burns with
a destructive power against all that is opposed to love. As the
object of the farmer is to get the pure wheat from chaff, so it is
Christ's object to get pure souls, aflame with love, free from the
dross and the impurities which depreciate them.
Such is the Fire, the Holy Spirit, which comes to us now from
Galilee. w. 13-17. The Baptism of Jesus.
13. Then cometh Jesus. He comes from Galilee, the despised
quarter of the land, and from that despised Nazareth ; not, like the
Pharisees and Sadducees, from the exalted capital. Nor does He,
like them, come merely ' to the baptism ', ver. 7, i. e. to observe, to
criticize, perhaps loftily to approve its application to the sinful crowd ;
but He comes to the Baptizer himself, and comes to be baptized.
Mark (i. 9) mentions Nazareth because he had not named it before.
Matthew and Luke, having named it before, omit it. Its insigni
ficance encourages such oversight. The Man of Nazareth means
man at his lowliest, man despised and rejected of men, John i. 46.
14. Jesus comes straight to John, in humility surpassing John

24 St. MATTHEW III. 15, 16
would have hindered him, saying, I have need
to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to
me? But Jesus answering said unto him, 15
1 Or, me Suffer ' it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil
• all righteousness. Then he suffereth him. And 16
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straight
way from the water : and lo, the heavens were
himself. There is a struggle between the humilities of the fore
runner and of the Christ ; and in this, as in all things, Jesus is
Conqueror. John alone had insight to see the amazing signifi
cance of this humiliation. He was baptizing ' for the remission
of sins ' Mark i. 4, he the sinner, who had not been himself
baptized. And behold his Lord comes to him, the Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world (John i. 29), himself sinless,
to be baptized of him ! Matthew omits from iii. 1 the statement
that the baptism was ' for the remission of sins ', as if to make
room for this baptism of the Sinless One. But Mark was right j
Jesus was baptized ' for the remission of sins ', but not for His
own ; it was for the sins of the whole world. The contrast with
John, and still more with the Pharisees, 'is startling. John is the
censor, baptizing, not baptized ; the Pharisees feel no need of baptism
for themselves. But the true sinlessness includes love, and love
takes the place of sinners, identifies itself with their distressing case.
He will be made like unto His brethren ; in being baptized for the
remission of sins, though He was free from sin, He was baptized for
the remission of the sins of those whose place He had taken.
15. all righteousness. The phrase is pregnant. Like the
opening heaven and the descending dove, it is a truth which no
one, not even John, could apprehend at the time. When the
Twentieth Century New Testament renders the words, ' since it is
fitting for us thus to satisfy every claim of religion,' it gives only
the most superficial meaning of the words. He would identify
Himself with the sinful people by sharing their baptism, but the
righteousness He had in view was something far more than the
due discharge of existing religious claims ; it was the righteousness
of which St. Paul afterwards spoke in Rom. x. 6, the righteous
ness which is of God by faith, the righteousness of the Just for the
unjust. The Baptism was the initial step, deliberately taken, in as
suming the sins of the world, that He might bear them away. Here
He began the work which He finished on the cross. John, by the
Spirit, recognized this in his exclamation, John i. 29, and every one
recognizesit in themoment when he casts his sins on Jesusas the Sin-
bearer, and finds the regeneration which accompanies forgiveness.
16. With Jesus also the baptism precedes the descent of the
Holy Spirit. It is with the act of obedience that the revelation

St. MATTHEW III. 17 25
opened ' unto him, and he saw the Spirit of 1 Some
God descending as a dove, and coming upon authori-
17 him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, say- unio™m.
comes. The temptation is, to wait for the revelation before
obeying. Many after adult baptism have experienced this open
ing of the heavens. Many more have experienced it after the
simple and emotionless fulfilment of some known demand of
God. The baptism in the chill wave has no apparent result ; but
going up straightway from the water, you see the heavens opened.
The vision of the Dove expresses the inward thought of Jesus.
Luke iii. aa, implying that the Dove was seen by others descend
ing ' as a bodily form ' on Him, is just that kind of change which
the record of an inward experience undergoes, as narrators are
further removed from the event. Matthew and Mark only say that
Jesus Himself saw the dove. ' The evangelist,' says Chrysostom,
'did not say "in the nature", but "in the form", of a dove.'
What does the form of a dove mean ? An old commentator,
Euthymius Zigabenus, says : ' The bird is a lover of men and bears
ills patiently ; for robbed of its young it endures and lets the robbers
approach it just the same : it is the purest of creatures and delights
in sweet odour.' The O. T. basis of the symbol is the dove which
appeared with the olive-branch after the flood, Gen. viii. 9, 10.
17. Strange to say, while Luke represents the dove as visible
to the people, he suggests that the voice came only to Jesus,
' Thou art my beloved son.' So also Mark. Matthew, on the
other hand, implies that it was just the reverse : the voice was
addressed to the crowd : ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased,' and so Matt. xvii. 5. But evidently both the Dove
and the authenticating voice ' are to be understood as the means
by which to the consciousness of Jesus His person is accepted
and His mission is authenticated. As time went on it became
incredible that Jesus ever stood in need of such inward assurance.
His divinity was understood to imply that from His cradle He was
conscious of being the Divine Word, the Son of God. As a babe
He pointed to His lips — so the old masters constantly represent
it — indicating that He was the revelation, the Word, of God. But
the plain and simple statement in St. Mark, i. 9-1 1, conveys the
impression to which more and more modern theology inclines,
that up to the time of the Baptism Jesus was developing in
a thoroughly human way, striving like any one of us to under
stand His vocation and to know what He was, and what was His
Father's business in which He must be occupied. The experiences
and expectations of His parents influenced Him no more than
1 The voice, in Hebrew the bath-kol, is a reverential phrase for the
divine revelation : cf. Dan. iv. 31. It is definitely used to show that
the confirmation of Jesus was supernatural.

26 St. MATTHEW III. 17
1 Or, This ing, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
%my ii i j
Son,- my well pleased.
those of our parents have influenced us. For the long years in
Nazareth, before His manifestation to Israel, He pondered and
prayed and studied the Scripture. That silent prelude has never
been written ; the struggles it implied are unrecorded ; no one,
not even the angels, can peer into the mystery of that Divine
Nature assimilating human form and passing through human
experience. Curiosity beats its wings against the secret growth
and inward realization in vain.
When Jesus emerges from His obscurity, the conflict is over
and the victory is won. Milton says of Cromwell, that he had
gained his conquests before he began his public career, by the
conquest over himself. In a far deeper and fuller sense Jesus
during those thirty silent years had won His way to a clear self-
consciousness, such as He expresses in Matt, xi. 25-7. But the
inward conviction must be ratified by some outward experience.
The opportunity for this was offered by the ministry of John.
Jesus recognized that this was ' the voice crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight'. He
went to that baptism to receive the witness whicli He required ;
not so much the witness of John, He needed not the witness of
man, but the witness of His Father. The vision of the Dove,
and the voice ' Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased ', were the sufficient confirmation. He went from that .
baptism with the calm and unfaltering assurance which is among
the most amazing of His characteristics. The authentication was
no surprise to Him ; but it was part of that orderly, inevitable
development, by which He grew in the stature of His Divine
humanity. Thus the Baptism of Jesus is no formal, or half-scenic,
manifestation, to make appeal to men ; it is a real point, an essential
factor in the Person and mission of Jesus.
It was Baldensperger who first brought out the full significance
of the Baptism as the dawn of the Messianic consciousness in our
blessed Lord. Dr. Mackintosh, in vol. xvi of the Expository Times,
has some interesting papers on the subject. He says that the
vision and the voice were addressed to Jesus Himself, though John
may have partially [shared the experience. ' That is plainly
affirmed in Mark ; not less plainly, if in different words, in the
First Gospel, nor is the language of the Third Gospel really
inconsistent with this. Even Luke merely uses the language of
antique realism, a terminology more or less shared by all our
records. Where a modern Christian might say, "He saw in
vision Heaven opened," and so forth, one Gospel says, "He saw
Heaven opened," another " Heaven opened to Him," and
another simply " Heaven opened " — probably according to their
own thinking, with no discrepancy in meaning.'
my beloved Son — a tacit reference to i. 20.

St. MATTHEW IV. 1, 2 27
4 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the «•« whom
3 wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And pZelt.
when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, xilfiV

Ch. iv. 1-11. The Temptation of Jesus.
1. led up : sc. from the deep Jordan valley, El Ghor, to the
rocky and lonely heights which rise from Jericho to Jerusalem.
of the Spirit. The tempter is not God (Jas. i. 13), but Satan,
Diabolus (1 Thess. iii. 5, 1 Cor. vii. 5). And yet, as in the pro
logue to Job, Satan is always under the control of God, and his
work serves the Divine ends. Thus in 2 Sam. xxiv. r we read
that the Lord moved David to number Israel, and the chronicler
(1 Chron. xxi. 1) corrects the statement : ' Satan stood up against
israel and moved David to number Israel.' The Tempter only
acts as the agent by whom the necessary tests and trials are
offered to the soul, and can tempt no man above that he is able to
bear. These temptations are necessary to the training of the soul.
The word translated ' tempt ' is in 2 Cor. xiii. 5 translated ' try ' ;
and there it appears how such a testing whether we be in the
faith, is really a condition of our being in the faith ; so that even
James, who will not admit that God tempts, yet says (ch. i. 2)
' Count it all joy when ye fall into manifold temptations '.
Thus it is the Holy Spirit that leads the soul. St. Mark uses
a much stronger term, exf}6.\\ci, ' casts the soul out ' — into the waste,
the haunts of wild beasts — and of angels — (Mark i. 13), 'to be
tempted of the devil.' Iron wire, turned out of the mill, must be
tested by a pressure equal to the utmost weight which it will have
to bear, before it leaves the shed. To such a proof every soul
must be subjected. We may face the trial in holy confidence
when we observe that even Christ was led up by the Spirit to be
tempted in all points like as we are.
2. Mark (i. 13) does not say that He fasted forty days and nights.
The reminiscence of Deut. ix. 9, 1 Kings xix. 8 is plain. Luke
alters the order of the temptations. But these things are not
important. The point of the narrative is that this is Christ's own
version of what befel Him; this is the imagery under which He
thought it best to describe to His disciples the temptations by
which He was assailed. To lay stress on the details is to forget
His figurative mode of speech. The real object is to dive below
the form, and to find where the trial of His soul really lay.
The spirit in the Baptism had just attested (1) His Sonship
to God ; (2) His Messianic mission. It is along the line of this
twofold revelation to Him that a twofold temptation presents
itself, viz : (1) To presume on His divine powers, overriding the
laws of nature, for His own comfort, or for the vindication of His
mission ; (a) To secure His rule over the world by the ordinary

28 St. MATTHEW IV. 3-6
he afterward hungered. And the tempter came 3
and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God,
1 Gr. command that these stones become ' bread.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man 4
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then 5
the devil taketh him into the holy city ; and he
wing. set him on the 2 pinnacle of the temple, and 6
worldly way of making Himself a great leader and potentate,
aspiring to an earthly throne.
3. The first temptation is this : I am hungry, I need food for the
body ; shall I bring the supernatural powers entrusted to me, to
make bread, and to satisfy my appetite ? Both this and the second
temptation spring out of His assured position as the Son of God.
Shall the Son of God be left hungry? Shall not the Son of God
be miraculously delivered from any danger to which He shall be
exposed ? To the first question He replies with Deut. viii. 3, and
gains the position once for all, that the food of His body shall
be no concern to Him, but He will live by every word of God.
Out of this victory springs the teaching of Matt. vi. 19-34.
5. The second temptation. Shall not the Son of God be miracu
lously delivered from every danger? Shall not angels bear
him up, according to Ps. xci. 11, ia ? The answer comes at once :
the purpose of the Son of God in the world is not to be delivered,
but to deliver. Trial, suffering, and death await Him ; arrested by
enemies, He will not summon legions of angels to help Him ;
nailed to a cross, He, the Son of God, will not come down
(Mark xv. 32 ; Luke xxiii. 35). Confident that the Father can and
will deliver Him, if He wills, He will not ' tempt ' Him, or make
such self-chosen experiments the test of His faith. The word of
Deut. vi. 16 comes to His mind and settles the question.
the holy city. That is frequently the scene of the sorest
temptation. We are to suppose that He was carried to the temple
in the same sense that Ezekiel was (Ezek. viii. 3).
the pinnacle of the temple. Lit. wing: see Dan. ix. 27. As a
bodily experience, there would be no great temptation to plunge
down from that dizzy height into the Kedron valley ; but it was a
vision, and the spiritual test clothed itself in this form. Was He
to live among men ' giving signs ', and overwhelming them with
proofs of the supernatural ? No, here the question was settled ;
' no sign should be given.' He would not attest His Sonship by
miracles. He would manifest it only by itself. Men should
believe Him for what He was, because He had the twofold wit
ness of Himself and of the Father, and not for the wonders He

St. MATTHEW IV. 7-11 29
saith unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast
thyself down : for it is written,
He shall give his angels charge concerning
thee:
And on their hands they shall bear thee up,
Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, Again it is written, Thou
8 shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the
devil taketh him unto an exceeding high moun
tain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the
9 world, and the glory of them ; and he said unto
him, All these things will I give thee, if thou
10 wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith
Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan : for it
is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
ir God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the
wrought. He would, as Son of God, live the ordinary human
life, exposed to all its accidents and sufferings. By this decision
Gethsemane and Calvary became possible.
8. The third temptation arises out of His Messiahship, and the
current expectation of a wordly sovereign who would raise up the
tabernacle of David, and establish a throne in Jerusalem. Again,
we must not seek the mountain in terrestrial geography ; nor must
we imagine that the devil asking Him to fall down and worship
Him would have presented any real seduction to the soul of Jesus.
The principle of Deut. vi. 13 was far too axiomatic with Him to
allow the possibility even for a moment of worshipping any being
but God. Only this is the way in which He describes a conflict
which He had to face. With His great powers He could rally
men around Him. He could gain to His cause, not only the
Herods and the Pilates, but Tiberius himself. He could establish
an Empire at Rome, as Hildebrand did, as Julius II attempted to
do. He could employ the earthly powers in His cause, as
Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits did. It is only when you see how
the Church and the Jesuits yielded to this most subtle of all tempta
tions, that you understand the greatness of Christ's victory in
absolutely and for ever declining these worldly ways of establish
ing the heavenly kingdom.
11. Then the devil leaveth him. The prince of this world had
come and had found nothing in Him. Wellhauscn, noting how the

30 St. MATTHEW IV. 12
devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came
and ministered unto him.
Now when he heard that John was delivered 12
temptation was renewed by Peter in Mark viii. 32, 33, and was
met by the same indignant cry, vmye 'Sarava, leaps to the con
clusion that Peter was the Satan of Matt. iv. 10. This is so far
true, as, that the Principate of Peter at Rome has been the
Church's greatest snare, and the successors of Peter have yielded
to the temptation which Christ resisted. Dr. Bruce {Expositor's
New Testament) thought that the devil left Him as a visionary who
was too simple to interfere much with his designs, and that Christ
gained the universal empire by spiritual methods which Satan
could not understand and therefore did not fear. But the reason
why the prince of this world left Him is given in John xiv. 30.
' Angels came and ministered unto Him,' as they did in Geth
semane (Luke xxii. 43), and would have done more visibly if He
had wished (Matt. xxvi. 53). Whenever we are come to Jesus we
are come also ' to innumerable hosts of angels ' (Heb. xii. 2a, 33).
Think not that a belief in angels is a disparagement of Jesus.
He spoke most of them because He knew most. He was accom
panied by them through His life — heralded by their song,
comforted by their sympathy. They gazed on His cross, trying to
gauge its mystery of redemption ; they watched His resurrection
and filled His tomb with light. One of the blessed results of His
coming was to open our eyes to the presence of this heavenly
company, and to assure us that they are sent forth to minister
unto them who are heirs of salvation. As He was ' seen of angels '
(1 Tim. iii. 16), so are we by faith to see them, not only the angels of
little children beholding the Father's face, or the angels who will
gather the wheat in the harvest of the world, but also the angels
who, present in the Church assembly, exact a decorum becoming
to a heavenly society (1 Cor. xi. 10).
Bengel thinks that the ' ministering ' here was to bring Him
food, and quotes 1 Kings xix. 5. That is part of the angelic
function. But chiefly they bring us angels' food to eat.
iv. ia-18. The Galilean Ministry, beginning here,
ends at xix. 1,
12. Did He go into Galilee because Herod, who imprisoned John,
might also arrest Him ? Or does it not rather mean that He went
into the land of danger? Galilee was the mixing of the nations ;
it lay on the trade route from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean.
Large cities of the Roman type, tinctured with Greek culture,
and using the Greek language, clustered round the Sea of Galilee,
cities with imperial names, like Caesarea which was built by
Philip the Tetrarch (b. c. 4 — a. d. 34) and Tiberias, named after
the Emperor.

through

St. MATTHEW IV. 13-17 31
13 up, he withdrew into Galilee ; and leaving Naza
reth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which
is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and
14 Naphtali : that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken ' by Isaiah the prophet, saying, \hJou
15 The land of Zebulun and the land of Naph
tali,
2 Toward the sea, beyond Jordan, ^I'ofi'L
Galilee of the s Gentiles, «"•s Gr.
16 The people which sat in darkness nations-.
Saw a great light, elsewhere.
And to them which sat in the region and
shadow of death,
To them did light spring up.
17 From that time began Jesus to preach, and
to say, Repent ye ; for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.
13. leaving Nazareth, the remote and tranquil hill town, He
came down to the busy town on the Lake. The site of Capernaum
is disputed. Exalted to heaven, it was thrust down to hell. At Tel
Hum, however, the recent excavations have revealed the ruins of
a fine building, which may have been the synagogue of Capernaum.
He came to be among men. He would be either in a solitude
with God, or in a crowd, ministering to the throng ; the first to
make the second possible.
14-16. The citation from Isa. ix. 1. 2 would spring natur
ally to the evangelist's mind, nor would he wait to ask if the
prophet had this event in view : enough that there was Jesus in
that region, the Light rising on those that sat in darkness and the
shadow of death. Always when men think of Him they are
reminded of light. Galilee of the Nations (Gentiles) was first
enlightened. Ultimately all the nations will see that great light :
the whole circle (that is the meaning of Galilee) of the nations
will rejoice in it.
17. The words echo what is said of John in iii. 1. The words
which Jesus used in this ' beginning ' of His preaching were the
identical words of John ; but at once the deeper meaning was in
them ; even the monkish commentator, Euthymius Zigabenus notes
that 'repent' on John's lips means amendment — turning from
what had been wrong in life ; but when Jesus uses it, He means

32 St. MATTHEW IV. 18-22
And walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw 18
two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea ;
for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, 19
Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers
of men. And they straightway left the nets, 20
and followed him. And going on from thence 21
',°r>. he saw other two brethren, l James the son of
Jacob : J
and so Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat
elsewhere. . ....
with Zebedee their father, mending their nets ;
and he called them. And they straightway left 22
the boat and their father, and followed him.
'turn from the old life to the new'. He has glad tidings of
pardon and restoration and service ; and thus repentance does not
linger in the past, but leaps at once into the possession of the
future, the Kingdom of Heaven, the inward sovereignty of God.
In every respect the ministry of Jesus, growing out of the ministry
of John, is a singular contrast to it.
18. The first recorded words of Jesus in His ministry, leaving
aside the echo from John the Baptist, are, ' Come ye after me and
I will make you fishers of men.' His first thought is to draw
disciples to His person, and to endow them with gifts to carry
on His work, the saving of men.
The tropical sea, 600 feet below the Mediterranean, abounds
with fish. These fishermen He requires for a nobler and richer
fishery. (See ch. xiii. 47.) The four simple men became illustrious
in His light ; fishing for men by Him, they have become famous
among men. Jesus demands all from men, but He gives incom
parably more than He takes. The swift obedience of these young
fishermen, leaving at once nets and boat for the implements of
their new calling, and their blood relatives for the new Master, is
a vivid proof of the personal magnetism with which Jesus drew
men to Himself.
19. Come ye after me. A Greek word is used which occurs
again in xxv. 34, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father.' At first
He would have us follow in the fishery, or in the sorrowful
way, but only that at last we may follow Him to His glory, to
His Father, to His throne. It would not do to show the issue at
the beginning. We must follow Him for His own sake, in His
humiliation and in His suffering, if we would reach the goal in His
footsteps ; follow Him in His work, and His saving of the world,
if we would see, with Him, of the travail of the soul, and be satisfied.

St. MATTHEW IV. 23, 24 33
33 And 'Jesus went 'about in all Galilee, teach- isome.
, . , . ancient
ing in their synagogues, and preaching the authori-
2 gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner he.
of disease and all manner of sickness among tSings'f
a4 the people. And the report of him went forth efcewhere.
into all Syria : and they brought unto him
23. their synagogues ; the models of the churches of Jesus. He
entered them, and by His gospel made them churches.
teaching, preaching, healing. This is the formula of the
Galilean ministry, repeated ix. 35. Matthew dwells much on the
teaching, Luke more on the preaching ; but the three synoptists
all emphasize the healing. The healing stands first. This it
was that most distinguished Him from John. By this He
showed His pity and love to suffering mankind, and marked the
transition from the prophet to the Saviour. Wonderful is the
teaching, eternal in its validity, a fuller ultimate proof of His
mission than the healing of the sick : but the compassion which
healed is the element in Jesus — in God — which draws us to Him,
to God in Him.
Unless the fishers of men heal and pity, as well as teach and
preach, they do not really ' come after Him \
The prominence given to healing in all the evangelists repre
sents our Lord's own view of it. John the Baptist came preaching
and teaching, but not healing. ,No prophet made it an integral
part of his ministry ; though there are lovely stories of Elijah and
Elisha and of Isaiah, which are the protevangel of healing. But
Jesus came healing. This is the true Christian Science : Jesus is
the Healer. disease, chronic, sickness, the weakness and ill-health which
may pass into disease. Jesus has an equal compassion for our
great troubles and little ailments, and is willing to heal both.
24. into all Syria. That sounds hyperbolical. Syria, from
Antioch on the Orontestothe border of Arabia, is a great country,
But Capernaum was a centre of traffic in all directions ; and the
statement at the most only anticipates a little. The fame of Him
has gone out, first into all the Roman Empire, reaching the northern
peoples, even Britain, the Ultima Thule; then it went out with
Columbus to America and with Xavier to India ; in the great
missionary century, the nineteenth, it went through Africa, and
captured Australia ; it penetrated Madagascar and the islands of
the sea ; it entered New Guinea ; it knocked at the doors of
ancient civilizations like China and Japan. •
Beginning from Galilee of the Gentiles, 'the mixing of the
nations,' by the way of the sea, it went, or it must go, to the
uttermost ends of the earth.

34 St. MATTHEW IV. 25
all that were sick, holden with divers diseases
i or, de- and torments, 1 possessed with devils, and epi-
moniacs \eptiC) aad paisied . an(j he healed them. And 25
there followed him great multitudes from Gali
lee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judsea
and from beyond Jordan.
torments. The Greek word P&oavos, used only here and in
Luke xvi. 23, of the torments of hell, in the New Testament,
means the touchstone by which gold was tried. This original
meaning of the word should be kept in view : cf. Pindar, ireipSivri
8£ xal 0 xPvaos *" Po.a6.voi Trpiira Kal v6os &p96s — or, as our old
song says, As gold is tried in the fire,
So the heart must be tried by pain.
The torments are the terrible diseases of the mind, (1) Possession.
The story of Pastor Hsi shows how real this is in China : the
experiences there narrated enable us to understand the pheno
mena recorded under this head in the Gospels. (2) Epilepsy, with
the sad mental derangement accompanying it. (3) Paralysis.
But these torments, like the milder diseases and sicknesses,
are all touchstones of character, the means of eliciting and making
the soul. Jesus does not come to announce that these sufferings
of humanity are to be abolished. They serve their purpose, as
the furnace serves the purpose of refining gold and silver. But
He does come to heal them ; in His healing of them, their
highest purpose is realized. For when He heals, He saves, and
the healed body becomes the temple of a redeemed soul.
This element of His ministry, the healing, must not be omitted
in our teaching, and in Christian work. The extraordinary re
crudescence of faith in the miraculous Virgin at Lourdes may be due
to the omission of this element from the faith and practice of the
Church : when Jesus the Healer is forgotten, apparitions of virgins
and saints will be invented to take His place and to do His work.
In Protestant countries also Christian Science is the reaction from
the omission of Christ's healing ministry. This wave of thought
and teaching, which has flowed over America, and entered
England, aims at showing that evil is non-existent, and thought
can think it away. Many remarkable cures are effected ; and, so
far as the mind can control the body and its functions, Christian
Science has done well in reviving a forgotten truth. But the
Gospel connects all healing with the person of Jesus. The good
news of the kingdom (ver. 23) is the announcement of God's
absolute sovereignty over nature, and the laws of nature ; and
where Jesus is, the power of God is present to heal.
25. The district from which the people gathered around Jesus

St. MATTHEW V. 1 3 5
5 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into
the mountain : and when he had sat down, his
is less than the whole of Syria, into which his frame penetrated
with the trade-caravans. Galilee represents the west and the
north, Decapolis is the district of the ten cities on the east of
the lake, Jerusalem and Judsea are the south, and 'beyond Jordan '
is Peraea, the south-east. The description therefore implies,
what history has confirmed, that to this unique ministry of
teaching, preaching, and healing gather men of all countries and
kindreds and tongues.
Far and wide, though all unknowing,
Pants for Him each human breast ; ,
Human tears for Him are flowing,
Human hearts in Him would rest.
Ch. v-vii. The Sermon on the Mount.
St. Luke vi. 20-49, gives an epitome of this discourse, after
the appointment of the Twelve. He stood on a level place, and
the multitude gathered about Him. St. Matthew implies rather
that He withdrew from the multitudes to the mountain, and
gathered only His disciples to Him. At that time, if Matthew is
giving a chronological narrative, only four disciples were called
— Matthew was only called later, in ix. 9, and the Twelve are not
named till x. a-4 — and the audience that listened to the Sermon
would be very restricted. But probably St. Luke preserves more
accurately the order of events and the circumstances of the dis
course, while St. Matthew in his Logia had a fuller record of the
Sermon itself.
It has been suggested that the evangelist sums up the teaching
of Jesus at the opening of His ministry, and puts it in this way at
the commencement of his narrative, not implying that all this was
said on the memorable occasion of the mountain-sermon, but
rather indicating, that the preaching which began on the mount
contained these topics, and followed this order. But, whatever
view may be taken of the circumstances, or of the composition, of
the Sermon, nothing must hinder us from studying these three
chapters on our knees, as containing the sum of all wisdom con
cerning life and redemption. The solemn close (vii. 22-27 : cf.
Luke vi. 46-49) reminds us that, when scholarship has done its
best to settle the details, the great passage, as it stands, challenges
our obedience ; we cannot shirk it by critical discussions ; it is too
plain and searching to admit of excuses. We can only say :
Saviour and Master, these sayings of Thine,
Help me to make them doings of mine.
Ch. v. 1-12. The Beatitudes. The ministry of Jesus begins
with the word, Blessed. Once, 1 Tim. i. 11. the word is applied
D 2

36 St. MATTHEW V. 2
disciples came unto him : and he opened his a
mouth, and taught them, saying,
to God. To be godlike is to be blessed ; and these eight details
show the way in which men may be godlike. They sound para
doxical ; for in each case it is the opposite of what men count
happiness which is selected for commendation. The carnal mind
is enmity against God ; the happiness, which consists in godlike-
ness, is a direct reversal of the tendencies which are held to be
natural. Thus the Beatitudes are a call to conversion ; we can
only be blessed like God by becoming the opposite of what we
naturally are. Man says : ' Happy are the rich, the glad, the
powerful, the satisfied, the great who trample on the small, those
who indulge the appetites, the warriors, those who can force others
to their way of thinking.' This ideal was common before Christ
came ; it is common even now. These are the things which men
naturally desire and admire. It is in direct antagonism to what
men think and feel that Jesus declares who are really happy,
giving the reasons ; in doing this He implies that men who are
born of the flesh must be born again, born of the Spirit, by faith in
Him. These Christian virtues form a complete chain, and follow
in a natural order, each growingout of the one preceding.
i. the mountain. We know not which, but tradition identifies
it with Khurun-Hattin, at the base of which Saladin defeated the
Crusaders. The definite article might mean only the hills as dis
tinct from the lake-level ; it might also mean the eminent and
dominating mountain of the neighbourhood, Mount Tabor. Jesus
had an affinity to the mountaiutops. He went there to pray, to
gather disciples, as here (see Mark iii. 13), and to teach (cf.
ch. xiv. 23, xv. 29), and to be transfigured. His sayings are of
the heights and of the open air. He has no esoteric teaching, like
Buddha. His truth is in the open, and all may receive it who can.
He has none but open secrets. He that hath ears may hear. But
the great thing is to have ears.
sat down. The teacher's attitude : cf. Mark iv. 1.
a. opened his mouth. A Hebraism : cf. Ps. Ixxviii. 2 ; quoted
in xiii. 35 as peculiarly appropriate to Jesus; He spoke in parables
and uttered the dark sayings of old ; and so He ' opened the
mouth' to teach. Though it may be , originally a naif and child
like description of the act of speaking, it suggests, to Greek and
to Western ears, that there is a great body of truth pressing for
utterance, as if it were necessary only to open the mouth, and
the truth will issue forth. It suits the idea of inspiration. The
phrase is also appropriate to those who spoke of Him, e.g.
Philip instructing the eunuch, Acts viii. 35 ; Peter addressing
Cornelius, Acts x. 34 ; Paul before Gallio, Acts xviii. 14. It
implies eager, heartfelt speech, 2 Cor. vi. n. It may, however,
refer, to language of passion in a bad sense, Rev. xiii. 6.

St. MATTHEW V. 3, 4 37
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is 'Some
the kingdom of heaven. audio"
4 ' Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall transpose
be comforted. Ind5.

3. poor in spirit. Probably St. Luke is accurate in his version
' blessed are ye poor ' ; but the addition ' in spirit ' is the interpre
tation which Jesus Himself gave of His saying. The kingdom He
preached is essentially a state of mind, and He attaches value only
to that which we choose and determine. It is not, therefore, so
much poverty which is blessed, but the mind which is indifferent
to all earthly possessions, desiring only the kingdom of heaven.
Thus the saying of Christ recorded by Clement interprets the
beatitude. ' When shall Thy kingdom come ? ' He was asked.
' When the two shall be one,' was the reply, ' and when that
which is without shall be as that which is within.' First comes
the inner spirit, which must be right with God, then outward
things must be harmonized with the inward spirit— and the
sovereignty of God will be complete. The poor are they who lay
not up for themselves treasure on earth, because their treasure is
in heaven, they who seek first the kingdom of God, leaving all else
to follow. The corresponding woe in St. Luke vi. 24 reminds us
that earthly possessions may harden and fill the heart and make
the poverty of which Jesus speaks, the right inward attitude
towards God and towards material things, very difficult, and in
some cases impossible. ' It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven.' One morning on the minister's desk was laid a folded paper
containing these words : ' The prayers of this congregation are
requested for a man who is growing rich.' That showed a right
understanding of the first beatitude. ' Theirs is the kingdom ' —
the theocracy is the true property : cf. xix. 14 (Mark x. 14 ;
Luke xviii. 16).
4. they that mourn. Sorrow often narrows us down to God.
And as there is a heart of blessing in all sorrow, the mourners
may be accounted blessed, though often by unbelief they mar the
effects which God intends. Jesus in accepting Isa. lxi. 1-3 as the
description of His own mission (Luke iv. 18) recognized His
own function of comforting. Take away the person and the work
of Jesus, and the beatitudes cease to be true. It is He who turns
sorrow into joy (John xvi. 20). For this see that epistle of trans
formed sorrow, 2 Cor. i. 7, vii. 10. It is in His heavenly kingdom
that tears are wiped away, Rev. xxi. 4. While mourning is thus
to be taken in a general sense, we cannot help thinking specially
of the mourning of repentance, Jas. iv. 9-10.

38 St. MATTHEW V. 5-7
Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit 5
the earth.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after 6
righteousness : for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain 7
mercy.

5. the meek. This beatitude is almost a quotation of Ps. xxxvii. 11,
' The meek shall inherit the land.' Dalman shows that even
in the Jewish writings possessing the earth has a spiritual
meaning, as having part in the future age {Words of Jesus, 126).
In the Buddhist Canon we read : ' He who, when assailed,
does not resist, but speaks mildly to his tormenter — him do I call
a Brahmana.' Buddha learned from that spiritual Christ, who
lighteth every man coming into the world. The originality of
Christ's teaching is not to be sought in individual precepts, but
in drawing out the precepts which are found scattered in the
dust-heaps of other systems, and piecing them together into a
new, simple, and perfect code.
Christ Himself is the example of meekness : cf. xi. 29, xxi. 5.
They who learn of Him become meek too. This spirit is ' in
the sight of God of great price ' (1 Pet. iii. 4).
they shall inherit the earth. Jean Paul Richter said that ' the
English inherit the sea, the French the land, the Germans the
air '. But what a precarious tenure ! No one by might or genius
inherits sea or land or air, except that slip of land or that shroud
of the ' vast and wandering deep ' in which he is buried. The
meek, because they are precious in God's sight, will inherit the
new heaven and earth.
6. hunger and thirst after righteousness. The noun is in the
accusative, which implies that the desire is to possess righteousness
as a whole, a complete sanctification. The longing for a little
righteousness, mixed with sin, is not gratified ; but the passion
for a perfect righteousness is (cf. Ps. xiii. 2 ; Isa. Iv. 1, 2 ;
John vii. 37). Others speak of ' following after ' righteousness
(2 Tim. ii. 22), but Christ prefers the'figure of hunger and thirst
(John vi. 33), for eating and drinking suggest a more intimate
assimilation. 7. the merciful. Christ is the merciful and faithful high-priest
(Heb. ii. 17). Mercy is God's property (Luke vi. 36 ; Rom. xi.
30, 31), and is conferred of His grace (1 Tim. i. 13, 16). ' It
droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven.' But Christ was
particular to show that the unmerciful servant shall not obtain
mercy ; and here the converse is declared : the merciful man
shall (2 Tim. i. 16, 18 ; Heb. vi. 10). God's mercy is not bought,

St. MATTHEW V. 8-11 39
8 Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall
see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall
be called sons of God.
io Blessed are they that have been persecuted
for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom
n of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall re
proach you, and persecute you, and say all
manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
but it is conditioned. ' Mercy is practised not by money alone,
but by words and tears ', says Euthymius Zigabenus.
8. the pure in heart : cf. Ps. xi. 7, xxiv. 4, Ixxiii. r. Purity
is the end of the commandment (1 Tim. i. 5 ; 2 Tim. ii. aa).
Out of purity comes love (i Pet. i. 22), and Love is God. The
pure see God (Heb. xii. 14). ' For as the mirror,' says Theophy-
lact, ' if it be pure, then receives reflections, so the pure soul
receives the vision of God.' Augustine explains purity as
simplicity, ' cor mundum est cor simplex ' ; the double-minded
man is blind. But the pure is in the widest sense the purged
(John xv. 2). We cannot think of a natural purity, but of the
cleansing (1 John i. 7). Who apart from Christ is pure ?
9. the peacemakers. See ver. 23, 24. Jesus, the Son of God, is
the great peacemaker (Eph. ii. 14). And as we share His work
of peacemaking, we share His title, and are called sons of God.
The peacemakers sow the seed which produces fruits of righteous
ness, Jas. iii. 18 : just as war-makers sow the Cadmus-teeth from
which all forms of evil spring. They who as peacemakers are
the sons of God are not loved, or even known, by the world
(1 John iii. 1) ; but they are led by the Spirit of God, and are
for that reason His sons (Rom. viii. 14). ' Pursue peace ' is a
counsel of blessedness (Heb. xii. 14). For the sonship regarded
as reward, see Luke xx. 36 ; Rev. xxi. 7.
10. they that have been persecuted, and carry the scars on them,
the marks of the Lord Jesus. The persecution while it lasts is
not joyful, but grievous ; only afterwards it yields priceless fruit.
The blessing of the persecuted is that of the poor (ver. 3).
11. for my sake (John xv. 21). So Henry Martyn in Persia
enters in his Journal, speaking of Christ's Divinity : ' It is this
doctrine that exposes me to the contempt of the learned
Mahometans, in whom it is difficult to say whether pride or
ignorance predominates. Their sneers are more difficult to bear
than the brickbats which the boys sometimes throw at me ; how
ever, both are an honour of which I am not worthy. How many
times in the day have I occasion to repeat the words ;

40 St. MATTHEW V. 12, 13
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great is 12
your reward in heaven : for so persecuted they
the prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt 13
have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but
to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.
If on my "face, for Thy dear name,
Shame and reproach should be,
All hail reproach, and welcome shame,
If Thou remember me.
The more they wish me to give up one point, the Divinity of
Christ, the more I seem to feel, the necessity of it and rejoice to
glory in it. Indeed, I trust I would sooner give up my life than
surrender it.'
12. Rejoice , and be exceeding glad. Read the letters of Ignatius,
as he was carried to Rome, to be thrown to the wild beasts in
the Amphitheatre for the name of Jesus. They are exultant :
' Now I am beginning to be a disciple . . . now am I made the
fine-flour, ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, to be the bread
of my God.' See the joy of the Apostles, Acts v. 41 ; Rom. v. 3 ;
2 Cor. xii. 10 ; Col. i. 11, 24 ; Heb. x. 34 ; Jas. i. 2 ; 1 Pet. iv.
13. None of the promises of Christ is more marvellously fulfilled
than that of joy in suffering for His sake. All suffering, patiently
accepted for His sake, turns into joy.
your reward is Jesus Himself: cf. Gen. xv. 1. In S. Maria
sopra Minerva is Filippino Lippi's fresco of Thomas Aquinas.
Christ says to him : ' Thou hast written good about me ; what
reward dost thou desire ? ' St. Thomas answers : ' None other
than Thyself, O Lord.'
in heaven, i. e. with God : cf. vi. 1.
v. 13-16. The salt of the earth and the light of the world.
'Nil sole et sale utilius' (Pliny, H. N. xxxi. 9). In ver. 12 the
eyes of the disciples are turned to heaven ; here they are brought
back to earth, where their conduct is to constitute the salt which
gives savour, and the far-gleaming city of God which gives light
to the world.
13. The salt (Mark ix. 50 ; Luke xiv. 34) may lose its savour.
The Greek word means ' become foolish ', which interprets the
allegorical meaning. Salt in the storehouse, it is said in Palestine,
undergoes a chemical change, losing the properties, while re
taining the appearance, of salt. ' If your character is infatuated
by love of praise, desire of money, eagerness for pleasures, the
lust of revenge, the fear of dishonour, losses, or death' says
Erasmus, ' the salt loses its savour.' Cf. Heb. vi. 6.

St. MATTHEW V. 14-18 41
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city set on
15 a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a
lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the
stand ; and it shineth unto all that are in the
16 house. Even so let your light shine before
men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father which is in heaven.
17 Think not that I came to destroy the law or
the prophets : I came not to destroy, but to
18 fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven
14. Famous Rabbis were called ' lamps of the world ' (Dalman,
p. 176). Cf. Wisd. xviii. 4, where the Law is called a ' light for
the age'. The resplendent image of the hill-perched city is
exquisitely combined with the lowly image of the one-roomed
cottage, where the lamp set on a projecting stone is hidden
by an earthenware shade when the family sleeps (Mark iv. 21 ;
Luke viii. 16, xi. 33).
16. The shining brings no honour to the lamp, but to the
objects illuminated. ' He does not bid us make a theatrical show
of our virtue,' says Euthymius Zigabenus. The object of the
shining is to glorify God in Christ (Cor. iv. 6), as the
woman's good work in anointing the feet of Jesus shines round
the world, ch. xxvi. 13. But incidentally the shining illuminates
the prison-house, and liberates the prisoner, Acts xii. 7.
your Father. How quietly the great phrase is introduced ;
to Jesus it was the most obvious of terms. He says ' your ', not
' our ' Father.
v. 17-20. Christ's teaching does not repeal the old law,
but brings it out into its full expression and intention.
On the one hand the Lord is supreme over Moses, and corrects, by
deepening, Mosaic regulations ; on the other hand He preserves the
continuity with Moses, justifies the divine character of the older
revelation, and places low in the Kingdom of God any Christian
teacher who discredits any commandment of the past. This is
Christ's authority for the careful study of the Old Testament, and
for seeking to evolve out of the old law the new Gospel.
17. the law or the prophets : these with the Psalms (Luke xxiv.
44) constitute the Old Testament. This saying is mentioned in
the Talmud as springing from the Gospel (Dobschiitz, Christian
Life in the Primitive Church, p. 155).
18. verily, i. e. Amen. Christ's peculiar word of emphasis.
He is Yea, Amen.

42 St. MATTHEW V. 19, 20
and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass away from the law, till all
things be accomplished. Whosoever therefore 19
shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so, shall be called least
in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall
do and teach them, he shall be called great in
the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that 20
except your righteousness shall exceed the right
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
jot or tittle (cf. Luke xvi. 17), i.e. the letter jod; or rather,
perhaps, it is the Greek iota, as in the Lord's time the Hebrew or
Aramaic jod was not written, as the smallest of the letters ; 6r the
part of a letter, e. g.the - in 2.
till all be fulfilled (Mark xiii. 30). The early fathers saw in
the jod the upright, and in the tittle the transverse beam, of the
Cross. Thus they read the New Testament into the Old.
19. The Christian teacher who gives due weight to the Old
Testament is great in the kingdom. He who neglects it is little
or even least. Joshua ben Levi said that men esteemed in this
age will be despised in the age to come. His son Joseph on his
deathbed had a vision of the world turned upside down, in which
the highest found themselves lowest and the lowest highest
(Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 113). Perhaps our Lord was
thinking of John the Baptist (' He that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he '), who neglected the temple and the
sacrifices. Our Lord's ideal was not the reformer or the icono
clast, but the saintly soul that draws the good out of things evil,
and educes the new order out of the old.
20. For. The meaning of the conjunction is not very obvious.
He is adjusting the grades in the kingdom ; highest, those who
understand the Old and the New ; lowest, those who impatiently
sweep away the Old in their zeal for the New. Such valuations,
He seems to say, I make among the children of the kingdom, but
the Pharisee is not in the kingdom at all. ' For I say unto you.
unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you shall
not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.'
righteouSness is the Pharisaic ideal, and in Matthew it is also
the Christian ideal. But there is a contrast between the two
ideals : cf. Rom. x. 1-10.
enter into the kingdom. The Aramaic would rather be ' attain
to ', like the Rabbinical ' attain to the age to come '.

St. MATTHEW V. 21-23 43
l Many
31 Ye have heard that it was said to them of ancient
old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever rities
shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement : without
22 but I say unto you, that every one who is angry 2 Anex-
with his brother' shall be in danger of the Contempt0
judgement; and whosoever shall say to his mreh,
brother, 2 Raca, shall be in danger of the coun- expr«-ew
cil ; and whosoever shall say, s Thou fool, shall c'^Idem.
23 be in danger "of the 5 hell of fire. If there- ?(£«„/,,
fore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and Fr??.'0'
there rememberest that thy brother hath aught gf^e""a
Ch. v. 21-48. Six instances of the law fulfilled : murder,
adultery, divorce, swearing, retaliation, and love of enemies.
' He claimed to be a new Lawgiver, and that in a manner which
Jewish feeling regarded as an invasion of the divine prerogative ;
for, unlike Moses, who spoke in the name of God, He announced
in His own name what should henceforth be regarded as law.'
Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 315.
v. 31-26. Murder. Here the law to them of old time stands
intact ; but its principle is carried further. Of old it restrained
the end, not the beginning, of the transgression (Euthym. Zigab.) ;
now the evil is recognized at its source. The angry feeling, the
contemptuous word, the implacable spirit, in Christ's law, receive
the penalties which human law allots to murder.
21. Thou shalt not kill (Exod. xx. 13 ; Deut. v. 17).
the judgement, i. e. the bench of seven established in different
localities to deal with criminal cases, Deut. xvi. 18 ; 2 Chron.
xix. 5. Josephus, Antiq. iv. 8, § 14, says : ' Let there be seven
men to judge in each city ... if these are unable to give a just
sentence ... let them send the cause undetermined to the holy
city, and there let the high-priest, the prophet, and the Sanhedrin
determine as it shall seem good to them.'
22. Anger even with cause deserves the judgement of the local
court ! The brother is our fellow man : cf. vii. 3. Raca, Theo-
phylact says, was only equivalent to the scornful ais in Greek : as
if one said to another ' You — 1 ' This contemptuous expression
should make one obnoxious to the high court of the Sanhedrin.
fool, or ' rebel ', as Moses said and was punished (Num. xx. 10).
That contumely deserves the punishment of the valley of Hinnom,
where criminals were burnt. Thus Christ strikes at the root of
¦ man's inhumanity to man '.
23. The gift > is the offering, xxiii. 18, 19. This refers to the

44 St. MATTHEW V. 24-29
against thee, leave there thy gift before the 24
altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy
brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou 25
art with him in the way ; lest haply the adver
sary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge
1 Some ' deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast
authorities into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt *6
deliver by no means come out thence, till thou have
paid the last farthing.
Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt 'a 1
not commit adultery : but I say unto you, that 28
every one that looketh on a woman to lust after
her hath committed adultery with her already
in his heart. And if thy right eye causeth thee 29
to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee :
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy mem
bers should perish, and not thy whole body be
temple at Jerusalem^ and would not be so vivid in Galilee.
Perhaps the original form is Mark xi. 25. Morality precedes
worship ; mercy comes before sacrifice.
25. The implacability which will not forgive incurs the severest
judgement : cf. xviii. 32-5. Agree with thine adversary ; Luke
xii. 58 gives the words in another connexion. God is alike
Prosecutor and Judge and executor of judgement (Allen).
27-30. Adultery (Ex. xx. 14 ; Deut. v. 18). The evil of
adultery is recognized in Job xxxi. 9-12.
28. a woman, sc. a wife.
looketh, i. e. keeps looking, cherishes the thought. The eye
and the heart are the two brokers of sin.
29. The strenuous measures to be taken to master sensual sin.
These verses occur again in xviii. 8, 9. The reference to the
right hand is not apposite here ; and ver. 30 is omitted in D and
Syra S ; hand and foot are not guilty, like the eye, of adultery.
¦ causeth thee to stumble. Scandalizes thee ; the scandalum is the
trap-stick with bait on. Origen as a boy made himself a eunuch to
escape the snares of passion ; he took the Lord's words literally.
But with what vigilance and vigour the soul must watch and wrestle
to check the first movements of illicit desire the strong figure shows.

St. MATTHEW V. 30-34 45
30 cast into ' hell. And if thy right hand causeth ^lmna
thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from
thee : for it is profitable for thee that one of
thy members should perish, and not thy whole
31 body go into 'hell. It was said also, Whoso
ever shall put away his wife, let him give her a
33 writing of divorcement : but I say unto you, that
every one that putteth away his wife, saving for
the cause of fornication, maketh her an adul
teress : and whosoever shall marry her when
she is put away committeth adultery.
33 Again, ye have heard that it was said to them
of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself,
but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths :
34 but I say unto you, Swear not at all ; neither by
31-2. Divorce. This is from Mark x. 1-12. The law of divorce
is in Deut. xxiv. 1. But the prophets moved in Christ's direction :
see Mal. ii. 15, 16.
32. saving for the cause of fornication, xix. 9". That is in effect a
putting away on the wife's part, for which the husband is not re
sponsible. But the saying as given by Mark does not admit even
this exception.
Here Christ not only deepens, but corrects the Mosaic law.
But He does not feel that His correction abolishes one tittle of the
law. See the connexion in Luke xvi. 17, 18. Moses for the
hardness of their hearts allowed his people a liberty which
became questionable when clearer light shone, and when a higher
stage of development was reached. While the moral sanction
and law are eternal, the contents of the law advance, the standard
rises with time.
33-7. Swearing. Here the principle of the law is again only
deepened. The swearing does not refer to an oath before a law-
court, which the Lord himself implicitly allowed (Matt. xxvi. 63),
but to the strong language used in ordinary conversation (cf.
Jas. v. 12). The Law only provided against false swearing
(Lev. xix. 12), and for the due performance of vows (Num. xxx. 2 ;
Deut. xxiii. 2r ; Eccles. v. 4 ; Ecclus. xviii. 22). The new Law says
that speech is to be simple, and the plain word is to suffice. Casuistry
allowed the breach of an oath if it was not ' by God ', but only
'by heaven' or 'by earth' or 'by Jerusalem', or 'by my head'.
Christ said everything is ' by God ', heaven is His throne, earth

St. MATTHEW V. 35-43
the heaven, for it is the throne of God ; nor by 35
the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet ; nor
1 by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great
King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, 36
for thou canst not make one hair white or
black. 2But let your speech be, Yea, yea;^
Nay, nay : and whatsoever is more than these
is of s the evil one.
Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for 38
an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : but I say unto 39'
you, Resist not i him that is evil : but whoso
ever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to
him the other also. And if any man would go 40
to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let
him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall 41
8 compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him 42
that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt 43
His footstool, Jerusalem His city, and your own body is entirely
under His control. Christ discountenances casuistry, and loves
simplicity. 38-42. Retaliation. The old Law allows it (Ex. xxi. 24 ; Lev.
xxiv. ao ; Deut. xix. 29), though Lev. xix. 18, cited in the next
paragraph, modifies the lex talionis. Chrfef says : Such must be
the principle of the Law-court, but do hot go to law. Bear
injury to the person, to property,: or to freedom, and give and
lend. 40. Luke vi. 29 puts the outer and under garments in the right
order. 41. compel thee. It is a military word for impressing, to carry
soldiers' baggage. Cf. xxvii. 32, the man impressed to bear
the cross. So Herve Riel was impressed into the French fleet,
but became its hero and deliverer !
4a. Giving to a beggar. This is one of the worries of life ; but,
He says, do not resist it. This wise yielding to the troubles and
injustices of the world is a mystery which is only illuminated by
the indwelling Spirit.
43-8. Love of Enemies. The Law commanded love to a neigh-

46

lOr,
toward

2 Some
ancientauthori ties read
Bat your
speechshall be.
3 Or, evil',
as in ver.
39 ! vi. 13.
* Or, evil

SGr. impress.

St. MATTHEW V. 44-48 47
44 love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy : but
I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray
45 for them that persecute you ; that ye may be
sons of your Father which is in heaven : for he
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and the un-
46 just. For if ye love them that love you, what
reward have ye ? do not even the ' publicans ' T,',at is'
* *¦ collectors
47 the same? And if ye salute your brethren or renters
' J of Roman
only, what do ye more than others ? do not even t*xes ¦.
J J and so
4S the Gentiles the same ? Ye therefore shall be elsewhere.
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
bour (Lev. xix. 18). It did not enjoin hate to an enemy ; far from
it (Ex. xxiii. 4) ; it only encouraged indifference to foreigners
generally (Deut. xxiii. 6). But the view of all men, before Christ
came, was that it is an equal duty to love one's friends and to
hate one's enemies.
44. Lu. xxiii. 34 shows how He did what He commanded.
45. sons of the Father. This means that all men are brothers,
and yet literally it is ' that ye may become sons of the Father '
(cf. Lu. vi. 35). We are our Father's children in the true sense
only when we are like Him.
he maketh his sun. Seneca's language in his De Beneficiis,
iv. 26, is strangely similar : ' If thou imitatest the gods, give
benefits even to the ungrateful, for even on the wicked the sun
rises, and to pirates the seas are open.'
46. How absolutely He speaks as a Jew in Matthew ; the
publican and the Gentile represent a lower standard (cf. vi. 7,
32) ; ver. 47, however, is missing in Luke and in Syra S.
48. ' Ye shall be in character like God. Love is the fulfilling
of the Law. When you love, and are merciful (Luke vi. 36), you
approach His perfection. The Law of Moses is the germ, but it
must blossom into the law of love if you are to be like God.'
Phil. iii. 12 shows how perfection in a creature is only the
attitude of aiming at and striving after the Divine character. ' Ye
shall be perfect ' is the formula ; but never on earth ' Ye are
perfect ', and still less ' I am perfect '.
Thus Christ's ' But I 'say unto you ' proves to be not the
destruction of the old Law, but always its evolution and fulfil
ment. No jot or tittle disappears; the deeper insight and the
higher interpretation only remove restrictions, and widen the
applications of the things which were said ' to them of old time '.

48 St. MATTHEW VI. 1, 2
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness 6
before men, to be seen of them : else ye have
no reward with your Father which is in heaven.
When therefore thou doest alms, sound not 2
Ch. vi. 1-18. After dealing with the Law, Jesus turns to the
' works of supererogation ' of Jewish piety. The chief work of
this kind was, almsgiving (Sir. vii. 10, xxix. 12 ; Tob. iv. 7 ; Acts
x. 2, xxiv. 17) ; indeed almsgiving and righteousness became
almost coextensive in their significance, so that the majority of
our MSS. have ' almsgiving ' in ver. 1, and only three preserve the
obviously correct reading 'righteousness'. In the works of
supererogation Jesus includes secret prayer, and fasting, which
were not regulations of the Law.
The silence of Jesus is often very significant :~ He does not
refer at all to the cultus or to circumcision, which did not belong
to the essentials of religion. It is His characteristic to touch
only the things which are of universal validity. His eye seems
always to be on Humanity as a whole. The contrast between Him
and the particularistic teachers of His day — the Scribes and
Pharisees — is blunted for us by familiarity. But even we are
constantly filled with new amazement to observe how applicable
all His words are to our own time. Prof. G. J. Romanes said :
' One of the strongest pieces of objective evidence in favour of
Christianity is not sufficiently enforced by apologists. Indeed I
am not aware that I have ever seen it mentioned. It is the
absence from the biography of Christ of any doctrines which the
subsequent growth of human knowledge — whether in natural
science, ethics, political economy, or elsewhere — has had to
discount ' {Thoughts on Religion, p. 157). Not only does he
confine Himself to universal and eternal truths, but He says on
each what seems to be final.
The principle, illustrated by the three examples of alms
giving, PRAYER, AND FASTING, IS THAT PlETY MUST EE A RELATION
BETWEEN THE SOUL AND THE HEAVENLY FATHER, IN WHICH THE
THOUGHT OF WHAT MEN THINK OR SAY DOES NOT EVEN OCCUR.
1. The righteousness of the Pharisees was ' to be seen of men '
(ch. xxiii. 5). The Greek word used is that from which ' theatre '
is derived ; their religion was theatrical. The word ' hypocrite v
in Greek means 'stage player'. Theatrical religion wins the
reward which good actors gain from men. With our Father in
Heaven if is worthless. We must be Jews inwardly if we are to
please Him, as Paul says (Rom. ii. 29). 'Though in some cases thou
must be seen to do, yet in no case do to be seen ' (Archb. Leighton).
your Father which is in heaven. Your, not our. The phrase
explains how heaven stands for God in this gospel.
a. Alms. The hypocrites (play actors) give their alms with a

St. MATTHEW VI. 3-5 49
a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in
the synagogues and in the streets, that they
may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you,
3 They have received their reward. But when
thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know
4 what thy right hand doeth : that thine alms
may be in secret : and thy Father which seeth
in secret shall recompense thee.
5 And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the
hypocrites : for they love to stand and pray in
the synagogues and in the corners of the streets,
flourish of trumpets. Consul Wetstein {Expositor's Greek Testa
ment, p. 117) gives this apt illustration: — 'When a man (in
Damascus) wants to do a good act which may bring a blessing by
way of divine recompense on his own family, e. g. healing to a
sick child, he goes to a water-carrier with a good voice, gives
him a piece of money, and says " Sebil '' — i. e. give the thirsty a
fresh drink of water. The water-carrier fills his skin, takes his
stand in the market, and sings in varied tones : " O thirsty, come
to the drink-offering ! " the giver standing by, to whom the carrier
says, as the thirsty drink, " God forgive thy sins, O giver of the
drink " '. Such is the kind of almsgiving, to be seen of men,
which our Lord forbids.
the streets. That is, the narrow streets in contrast with the
broad streets (ver. 5).
they have received. The Greek word chrcYovin (like the similar
word Luke xvi. 25) means that they have the reward in full. The
plaudits of men are the full recompense of that piety which is
done to be seen of men.
3. In the Arabic the relation between right and left hand is
symbolic of the closest and most intimate companionship. We
are to give without self-consciousness or self-complacency.
4. ' Openly ' of the A.V. is a gloss. The Father who sees in
secret may make the reward secret too. The secrecy with God
throughout is the condition of really shining for Him. The very
thought of a public reward would taint the act. As Bengel says,
' Pii lucent, et tamen iatent. ' 'The pious shine, and yet are hid. '
5, 6. Prayer. In synagogues and corners of the streets, i. e.
where crowds are. Methodizing in prayer, cf. Dan. vi. 10, 11. The
danger of it becomes manifest in Mohammedanism ; men pray in
the streets at the appointed times. But is it prayer ? The rule
in religious action and expression would seem to be — Show, when
tempted to hide ; hide, when tempted to show : see v. 16.
E

50 St. MATTHEW VI. 6-9
that they may be seen of men. Verily I say
unto you, They have received their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine 6
inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father
which seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the y
Gentiles do : for they think that they shall be
heard for their much speaking. Be not there- 8
ancient fore like unto them : for 'your Father knoweth
fi"s read what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Fafher!'' After this manner therefore pray ye : Our Father 9
thine inner chamber. It is the storehouse, mentioned in Sir.
xxix. 12, ' Shut up alms in thy store-chambers, and it shall
deliver thee out of all afflictions ' : cf. Luke xii. 24. The Father in
secret, first found there, then recognized everywhere. Social
prayer is only a reality among men accustomed tb private prayers.
7-15. Another subject. The heathen, not the Pharisees, are in
view. The slight to God of irreverent prayer. The Lord's Prayer
is a model.
7. vain repetitions. It is rather 'babble not' — empty words
said over and over again.
the Gentiles. So v. 47, vi. 7, 32. But the rabbis also attached
importance to the length of prayer : ' He who makes his prayer
long,' said R. Chanina, ' shall not go away empty.' The repeti
tions of Pater Nosters and Ave Marias in the Rosary would seem
to be the kind of abuse which Jesus has in view.
8. your Father knoweth. Why then pray ! Because He is
your Father. A Father and child desire mutual intercourse : the
one asks and the other gives in order to tie the bond closer. But
the idle babble of words, and the thought of being heard for much
speaking, is destructive of that sweet and trustful union between the
soul and God. In contact with Him the words may be few. When
Spirit with Spirit meets the intercourse may be silent. Verbiage
is an offence because it implies want of thought and feeling.
9. After this manner. The prayer is thoroughly Jewish. The
Kaddish begins with the request 'hallowed be thy Name',
though it adds ' in the future world ', and is indeed more eschato-
logical and Messianic, so that it could not contain such a request
as ' give us this day our bread '. But the Jews alone had the
secret of prayer ; the Gentiles had, and have, lost it.
Our Father. May the Father replace the Pantheon !

St. MATTHEW VI. 10-15 51
which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 1 Gr. our
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in %£%£.''
11 heaven, so on earth. Give us this day 'our '"of^a
12 daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we 3Many
13 also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us ties, some
not into temptation, but deliver us from 2the but with
14 evil one? For if ye forgive men their tres- tions"
passes, your heavenly Father will also forgive thine is
*5 you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, dom'and
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses, 'an/the"''
10. Thy kingdom come. That is also the second prayer in
the Kaddish, though in place of ' Thy will be done ' it has ' may
your prayer be granted '. But Jesus interprets the ' kingdom of
God ', which was to the Jews an earthly and political expectation,
as the sovereignty of God, an inward and spiritual fact.
When the first place has been given to the heavenly Father
and His sovereignty, then, and not till then, we may press our
personal wants. The order is essential.
n. our daily bread. This translation rests on two obscure
MSS. of 2 Mace. i. 8, which render the 'continual bread' of
Num. iv. 7, by the Greek word tmoiaior. Origen suggested
another interpretation, 'supersubstantial,' and used the phrase to
emphasize the teaching of the heavenly bread in John vi. 34.
Jerome says that the Gospel to the Hebrews read mahar, Aramaic
for ' to-morrow '. That would mean that each day we ask just
for to-morrow's bread.
12. forgive as we have forgiven. This may be said to be a pivot
of the teaching of Jesus : cf. xviii. 21-35.
13. into temptation. At first we dread it ; afterwards we rejoice
in it (Jas. i. 2).
the evil. It is neuter and not masculine. It is the constant
prayer to escape temptation, which makes us able to resist when
it comes ; and the prayer to be delivered from the evil renders
the evil inoperative. Prayer puts on the spiritual armour, and
guarantees victory (Eph. vi. 16).
The beautiful liturgical ending ' for thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory' is not in four of the best MSS., but it is
in our hearts.
14. The fifth petition leads the evangelist to insert the saying
from xviii. 35. As forgiveness of sins is the condition of all
prayer and all spiritual growth, the forgiveness of those who
have injured us is of transcendent importance, because that is the
condition of being forgiven. E 2

52 St. MATTHEW VI. 16-19
gJu°err.'far Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypo- 16
Amen. crites, of a sad countenance : for they disfigure
their faces, that they may be seen of men to
fast. Verily I say unto you, They have received
their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, 17
anoint thy head, and wash thy face ; that thou 18
be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father
which is in secret : and thy Father, which seeth
in secret, shall recompense thee.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the 19
16-18. Fasting. The Pharisees fasted twice a week, on Mondays
and Thursdays, the days of the ascent and descent of Moses on Sinai ;
just as Catholics fast on Wednesday and Friday. They ' disfigure '
their faces ; rather ' make their faces disappear', sc. by not washing
or anointing them, and by an artificial gloom, in order that they
may appear to men fasting. The reward they get is that reputation
for piety which attaches to an ascetic countenance.
But fasting to be valid as an act of piety must be in secret.
It is necessary entirely to disguise it from men, not to mention
the time, nor to betray the physical effects. Therefore, the washing
and anointing must be done as usual (cf. Ruth iii. 3 ; 2 Sam. xii. 20 ;
Dan. x. 3), and the whole transaction must be one with God
alone. This great idea of a life lived with God, without reference to
the thoughts or judgements of men, flows out of the nature of the
God whom Jesus reveals. Zeus, or Allah, can be served with
prescribed rites and outward acts. But the Father in Heaven
can only be served with the heart. The intimate, secret, real
communion is alone pleasing to Him. So far as public gifts, public
prayers, and public fasts are the natural and inevitable outcome
of the inward relation they may be acceptable to Him ; but as
a substitute for the spiritual realities, they are, as Isaiah (i. 10-17)
says, an abomination.
19-34. We cannot serve God and Mammon, nor can we serve
God and Care. First we are forbidden to lay up earthly treasures
for ourselves, because our heart follows our treasures ; and
a heart set on earthly treasures is like an eyeless body ; there is
only one Lord of the heart, that is God. He is the Master-light
of all our seeing. Then we are warned against the care about
our earthly life which is, like hoarding, inconsistent with the single
devotion to God. The birds and the flowers teach us that we
may remit to Him all anxiety for the future, and take each day as
it comes.

St. MATTHEW VI. 20-23 53
earth, where moth and rust doth consume, and 1 Gr. dig
20 where thieves ' break through and steal : but "irouel1-
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where
2 1 thieves do not ' break through nor steal : for
where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be
23 also. The lamp of the body is the eye : if
therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body
23 shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil,

19-21. There is a grim illustration of what laying up treasure for
oneself may mean in Rom. ii. 5 ; and there is a suggestion of
a legitimate laying up treasure for the service of God and man in
1 Cor. xvi. 2. It appears from the Parable of the Steward that
the expenditure of money for the good of others is one way of
laying up treasure in the heavens. And from 1 Tim. vi. 17-19
it appears that this right use of wealth may be the wisest expendi
ture for securing life that is life indeed. Our Lord's thought
therefore is, implicitly, twofold : First, earthly treasure is too
evanescent to be hoarded or to be the object of the heart's affec
tions ; Second, treasures in heaven are secured by a mastering
concentration on God, which leads a man to consecrate all
possessions to Him, and to use them for the good of others, for
His sake.
19. moth and rust — or corrosion. What I kept I lost, is the
constant experience of men : what I gave I have.
doth consume. It is the same word as in v. 16, which we
rendered ' cause to disappear :. Earthly treasures, even before
they are stolen or destroyed, become so mouldy, rusty, disfigured,
that they are repulsive rather than attractive to their owners.
See the remarkable passage in Hag. i. 6-9.
20. treasures in heaven. Luke xvi. 9 points to the nature of
these treasures. If money is spent for the good of others, e. g. in
sending the Gospel to the heathen, they who have benefited by it
form a company to welcome the giver into the eternal habitations.
21. where your treasure is. If the heart is set on hoarding
wealth it shows in the materialization and corruption of that
treasure. Mammon is metal in heart and brain, and so are his
worshippers. The heart's true object is God ; when the heart is
set on Him it cannot attach an undue value to money ; love con
trols the wealth and gives.
22-3. This little parable of the eye connects the truth of the
Heavenly Treasure with the need of serving only one Master,
thus : — If the heart is set on earthly wealth, even in conjunction

54 St. MATTHEW VI. 24, 25
thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If
therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is the darkness ! No man can serve 24
two masters : for either he will hate the one, and
love the other ; or else he will hold to one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Be not 25
anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what
ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye
shall put on. Is not the life more than the food,
with God, a double vision is produced ; the spiritual confusion is
just the same as the bodily confusion when'the sight is deranged —
when, for example, the eyes present two planes of vision. If the
eye, the organ of light, is darkness, the body is in darkness ; if
the spiritual vision is confused, warped, or darkened, the spiritual
life is similarly darkened. William Law's picture of Negotius in
the Serious Call admirably illustrates the darkening which results
from the preoccupation with earthly wealth.
24. The double service is impossible. Here Christ reveals
a truth, which we do not naturally recognize. We all think that
we can serve God and Mammon. We admit the general principle
that a servant cannot serve two masters, that he will love one
and hate the other (cf. Deut. xxi. 15 ; Gen. xxix. 31-3), or will
support (so the word is translated in I Thess. v. 14) the one and
scorn the other ; but we do not recognize that God and Mammon
are two masters. We have therefore to accept Christ's word for
it, that the two are irreconcilable, and that the choice has to be
made between them.
Mammon. Augustine says that it is the Punic word for wealth ;
he ought to know, as he was bishop of Hippo. Wellhausen says
the etymology is unknown.
25-33. The ' therefore ' is the same in Luke xii. 22, but there it
connects the prohibition of anxiety with the Parable of the Rich
Fool. Here it seems to be the inference from the impossibility of
seeking earthly wealth and God together to the further impossi
bility of seeking God and being occupied with earthly care. The
preoccupation of the rich man with his money-making is paralleled
with the absorbing anxiety of the poor man to get necessaries.
Both passions are forbidden ; he who is absorbed in the Kingdom
of Heaven and his righteousness escapes both.
25. the life more than the food. T«x4 's either ' life ' or 'soul '.
The point is that as we must seek God and not money, so the
personality, body and soul, is to be considered, rather than the

St. MATTHEW VI. 26-30 55
26 and the body than the raiment ? Behold the
birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of
2? much more value than they? And which of
you by being anxious can add one cubit unto
28 his ' stature ? And why are ye anxious concern- 1 Or, age
ing raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
29 spin : yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
3° But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field,
things it possesses. God will provide for these wants of our
dual nature, but to be anxious about them is to give up faith in
Him : For other things mild Heaven a time ordains,
And disapproves that care (though wise in show) <
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.
Care destroys both body and life. God gives life and body ; He
will give food and clothing.
26. The birds — in Luke xii. 24, the ravens — teach us the sim
plicity of trust. They ai e busy, it is true, all day in finding their
food, but they have no anxiety ; God puts in their way what they
need. The expression ' your Heavenly Father ' is a great argu
ment. If he looks after the little birds, will He not look after His
children ? 'JHe who takes such care of the little fishes will surely
care for the keeper of the fishes,' said Frank Buckland on his
deathbed. 27. one cubit. A short man was To'mr\xvh a 'a" man was tft-
pamixvs ; thus the difference of one cubit is the difference between
tallness and shortness. God makes a little man like Zaccheus, or
' rears the form to stately height '. God who makes the stature
will provide the nurture. He raised the span-long infant to the
six-foot man ! Can we not trust Him to supply all necessaries ?
28. the lilies : the Lilium Persicum and the red anemone, which
cover the fields of Palestine in spring, neither toil, like men, nor
spin, like women ; and yet no clothing is so beautiful as they.
They are the raiment of the common grasses which are plucked
and burnt in the earthern jar, to heat it for baking. The opulent
power of Him who gives such beauty to things so frail will surely
provide necessary clothing for His children !

56 St. MATTHEW VI. 31-33
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the
oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye
of little faith ? Be not therefore anxious, saying, 31
What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?
or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after 32
all these things do the Gentiles seek ; for your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, 33
and his righteousness ; and all these things shall
32. the Gentiles. Theseearthly goods limit the aspirations of
the heathen. Brefr-A; H. Bruce says-Jienever realized the truth
of-Gfertst's statement till he read the VedlcTliyirin, in which, with
the exception of a few prayers for pardon addressed to Varuna,
the things asked for are material goods — cows/ horses, green
pastures. Thus Indra is addressed :— j
To wifeless men thou givest wives/
And joyful mak'st their joyless lives ;
Thou givest sons, courageous, strong,
To guard their aged sires from wrong ;
Lands, jewels, horses, herds of kine,
All kinds of wealth are gifts of thine :
Thy friend is never slain ; his might
Is never worsted in the fight.
(D. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, vol. v, p. 137.)
33. seek first. Luke (xii. 31) omits 'first', and also 'righteous
ness '. The reading ' His kingdom and His righteousness ' is quite
justified. ' Your heavenly Father ' had just been mentioned. Let
the one thought be to have him reigning in your heart and in all
hearts — 'Thy kingdom come' — and to realize, not the Pharisaic
righteousness, but the righteousness of God, that which is revealed
in the Kingdom of God, and— so says our Lord— a wonderful thing
will happen ; all the forces of nature will contribute to your help
and your support. You will be in tune with the Infinite, and such
things will come to you as you require, such friends will be raised
up as will best help you : all things will work together for good.
Remember, we are not dealing here with a law deduced from the
observation of facts, but with a law revealed by Him who knows.
Only they who have faith to act upon the principle find the facts
in accord with it. The majority of men, even of Christians,
still live encircled with care and anxiety, laying up treasure for
the uncertain future or uneasy because they cannot lay it up.
Very few yet venture to seek the Kingdom with all their hearts,
secure about earthly things, in all the liberty and liberality of

St. MATTHEW VI. 34— VII. 1, 2 57
34 be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious
for the morrow : for the morrow will be anxious
for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof.
7 Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with

the divine sonship. But they who do possess the kingdom of
heaven also possess the earth ; all things, present and to come,
are theirs.
34. The concluding word speaks not about food or raiment or
money, but about the future, as such. Have no anxiety about the
future, says the great Teacher ; let the principle be that all anxiety
shall be in the future, not about it. The evil (i. e. the misery, or
suffering, or affliction, not the moral evil) which the day brings, is
all that has to be borne ; we need not add to it by the slightest
feather of to-morrow's. Perhaps to-morrow will dawn quite free
from care. Our deliverance may always be to-day.
Ch. vii. 1-12. The Royal Law. It is commonly supposed that
we have here a few disconnected precepts, and ver. 6 is especially
regarded as an isolated fragment embedded in the discourse.
But the passage is far more fruitful if it is treated as a connected
argument. And the ' therefore ' of ver. 12 can have no meaning
unless that verse is the conclusion of the argument. Keeping our
eye on that conclusion we can see the drift of the whole passage,
and though the movement is not very patent, it is, when once
pointed out, perfectly clear, while the appearance of discontinuity -
is explained by the aphoristic mode of speech. The evangelist
lays together the sayings of Jesus, but does not presume to weld
them into a single argument. A brief analysis will make the
matter plain : — The golden rule, derived from prophets and
lawgivers is, that you should do to men what you would have them
do to you. You should judge them as you would be judged, and
treat them as you would be treated ; for indeed you will ultimately
be judged and treated as you judge and treat. You should correct
yourself and not others, as you expect them to correct them
selves, and not you (ver. 1-5). But this does not mean that
you are not to form correct notions of men's characters ; on
the contrary, you must attempt to do that, or you will make the
mistake of exposing sacred things to contumely, and yourself to
merited punishment (ver. 6). But how can any one have the
wisdom, the insight, the self-restraint, to carry out this principle,
to see clearly, and yet refrain from judging, to recognize the beast
in man, and yet be wholly bent on subduing the beast in himself?
It can be done only by prayer. This precious bread from heaven,
the character expressed in the golden rule, is given by the Father ;
He will not mock the heart's desire for that food. This pearl ol

58 St. MATTHEW VII. 3-5
what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged :
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured unto you. And why beholdest thou 3
the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but con-
siderest not the beam that is in thine own eye ?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me 4
cast out the mote out of thine eye ; and lo, the
beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, 5
cast out first the beam out of thine own eye ;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the
mote out of thy brother's eye.

price is found by seeking. Into that house of rest one is admitted
by knocking (ver. 7-11). One need not, therefore, despair of
adopting and even of realizing the golden rule, fulfilling the law
and the prophets (ver. 12).
Now let us go back to the details.
1. Judge not. The limitation to the prohibition is obvious from
the context. Our Lord is not forbidding us to form clear-sighted
opinions about others, or even to censure the evil. It is enough to
read on to vii. 15 to see that that is not His thought. The epigram
matic style lays the brief precept open to this misinterpretation.
The meaning is, Judge always in view of the way you would be
judged ; because, as a fact — this is Christ's decision — you will be
judged exactly as you judge. In the long run you will be treated
exactly according to the measure which you use to others.
2. with what measure, &c. So the Rabbis, ' with the measure
wherewith one measures, therewith is it measured in return,'
(Sota. i. 7).
3. the mote, a minute particle of chaff or dust ; the beam is
the joist of the roof. It is a hyperbole, but not so extravagant as
it seems. An object which looks tiny in another's eye, in one's
own appears very big. And it is common sense that if a particle,
however small, is dimming the eye of the critic, it will be as bad
as a beam in preventing him from extracting a similar particle
from another's eye.
4. The only basis of effectively correcting another is first to
correct yourself.
5. Thou hypocrite. You are immediately involved in the
charge of hypocrisy if you reverse the order and attempt to
correct the other first.
then shalt thou see clearly. By being first severe on yourself
and getting rid of your own fault you will get insight and

St. MATTHEW VII. 6-9 59
6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest
haply they trample them under their feet, and
turn and rend you.
7 Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
8 you : for every one that asketh receiveth ; and he
that seeketh findeth ; and to hiirf that knocketh
9 it shall be opened. Or what man is there of
discrimination for helping others. So far is Christ from wishing
to forbid clear insight !
6. This discernment is needed, to do any good in the world.
Some men are like dogs (Phil. iii. 2 ; Rev. xxii. 15), the dirty,
prowling beasts of prey that haunt the alleys of an Eastern town.
To give these men the opportunity of desecrating the sanctities of
your being would be folly, and would bring the rending which
you deserve for your want of reticence and noble reserve. Other
men are like swine, who would only increase their own guilt by
trampling on the shy delicacies and refinements of an exquisite
nature. One must therefore gain the faculty of discerning spirits,
and knowing what kind of men we have to deal with.
Wellhausen treats the pearls as the Gospel, the dogs as the
heathen (cf. xv. 26), and quotes x. 5 to show that Christ forbids
the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles and the Samaritans.
How easy it is to pervert the words of heavenly wisdom !
7. So much was said on prayer in vi. 5-15 that it is hardly
possible to treat this new reference to it as an inconsequent return
to the subject. One is bound to connect the prayer here with the
precepts just given. In order to judge in the way that Christ
requires, without censoriousness, judging oneself first, and others
only with the clear insight gained from such self-discipline, it is
necessary to ask the Father in heaven for wisdom and power and
love. We ask for what we wish ; we seek for what we miss ; we
knock for that from which we feel ourselves shut out (David
Brown). We ask for wisdom, and God gives (Jas. i. 5). We
seek the gift of discernment from Him who knows what is in men.
We knock for admission into that Hall of Divine Judgement. In
a word, we crave for the Spirit (cf. Luke xi. 13).
8. The context fixes the limit to this great saying. It is every
one who seeks for this wisdom of the Golden Rule that is answered.
Only the most inattentive reader can imagine that Christ promises
an answer to every request of every one.
9. Bad as our fallen nature is, the Father in us is not extin-

6o St. MATTHEW VII. 10-12
you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will
give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, 10
will give him a serpent ? If ye then, being evil, u
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 ?
All things therefore whatsoever ye would that 12
men should do unto you, even so do ye also
unto them : for this is the law and the prophets.

guished, says David Brown. A father may refuse, but will not
mock, a child's request. The child wants bread ; he will not give
him a stone which looks like a. loaf. If he wants fish to eat, he
will not give him the sea-serpent, that scaleless fish found in the
Sea of Galilee, forbidden in the law (Lev. xi. 12). And if we
passionately desire right conduct, the power to act to men as we
should, our Father will not mock us by giving a mere sham
fulfilment of the golden rule.
11. know how to give. See 2 Pet. ii. 9 ; it means, know the
moral principle, and the way to fulfil it. The argument is over
whelming, though it is what logicians call an enthymema ; there is
a suppressed premiss, viz. God is the Father of men, wiser and
kinder and stronger than earthly fathers. Fathers do not mock
their children, but give them what is best for them : (God is your
Father) therefore God will give you in answer to prayer this rich
moral gift.
12. This is Christ's supreme law. Roscnmiiller says it is the
law of Nature ; and, so far as Christ lighteth every man coming
into the world, it ought to be. But it is a law much effaced. In
the innumerable parallels to it which Wetstein collected from
Greek, Roman, and Rabbinical sources, the rule is only stated in
a negative way ; e. g. in Tobit iv. 15 it runs : ' What thou thyself
hatest do to no man ' ; or Confucius : ' Do not to others what you
would not wish done to yourself (Legge, Chinese Classics, i. 191).
Christ puts the great law in the positive form : not only refrain
from doing to others what you would not have done to you ; go
farther than this, and do to them all that you would have them do
to you. The difference is great and vital.
But the distinction of Christ's precept is the connexion with
the great principle of judging, and the recognition that so lofty a
type of conduct is only rendered possible by a loving trust in a
Heavenly Father and by believing prayer for the grace to realize it.
The Sermon on the Mount is not, as we have seen, a reversal of
all the religious truth which preceded it ; on the contrary, it is the

St. MATTHEW VII. 13, 14 61
13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate : for wide ' is a^i™
the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to authors
° ' •" ties omit
destruction, and many be they that enter in "the
14 thereby. 2 For narrow is the gate, and straitened 2 Many
the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they Minorities
that find it. TH<m>
fulfilment of the law and the prophets. Christ does not show His
originality by propounding new laws of conduct— they have been
from the beginning, for they rest in the constitution of man as the
son of God — but by carrying these laws into deeper strata of
human life, and by showing the spiritual method of fulfilling
them. vii. 13-29. Conclusion of the Sermon : The two ways ; False
prophets ; False disciples ; the rock and the sand ; the effect
of the discourse.
13-14. The narrow and broad way. The idea is found in Deut.
xxx. 19 ; Jer. xxi. 8 ; and in Ps. i. 6. But the interpretation is
determined here by the context— an interpretation which probably
underlies Luke xiii. 24 as well. The narrow gate and the
straitened way is the character and conduct which have just been
epitomized in the Golden Rule (ver. 12). In Luke the emphasis
' strive, or agonize, to enter in ' is justified by what we saw of the
difficulty of judging others as we would be judged, and the striving
is described here in ver. 7. The Golden Rule leads to life, and its
opposite to spiritual ruin. But the Golden Rule is necessarily a
kind of Cross-taking, while the selfish reverse is quite easy — you
drift along it naturally. Hence, as the Lord says, while the broad
way of self-indulgence is thronged, there are only few who take
the way of the Cross. In 2 Esdras viii. 3 this language is used
concerning the ultimate salvation of men : ' There be many created,
but few shall be saved ' ; and Esdras is rebuked for thinking that
he can love God's creature more than He does (ver. 47). As
the question is raised in Luke xiii. 24 it seems to refer to the
final doom of souls ; but the language in the Sermon on the
Mount is more limited, more practical. As surely as the Way
which Christ describes is the Way of Life (cf. Acts ix. 2, xix. 9,
&c), so surely is it one which is trodden by comparatively few.
Whatever may be the explanation, the fact stares every inquirer
in the face : —
But two ways are offered to our will —
Toil, with rare triumph, Ease with safe disgrace ;
Nor deem that acts heroic wait on chance !
The man's whole life preludes the single deed
That shall decide if his inheritance
Be with the sifted few of matchless breed,
Or with the unnoticed herd that only sleep and feed. (Lowell.)

62 St. MATTHEW VII. 15-21
narrow Beware of false prophets, which come to you 15
gate'Uc. in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening
wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do 16
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good 17
fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil
fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, 18
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is 19
hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore 20
by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every 2 1
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
15-20. The false Prophet is a rotten Tree. The connexion
implies that the false prophet is one who would represent the way
of life as broad, and the way of death as narrow. He makes havoc
of Christ's flock, a wolf disguised in sheep-skin (Ezek. xxii. 27 ;
Acts xx. 29 ; and see Mic. iii. 5 ; John x. 12). A tree is degenerate
by age or bad soil ; and the false prophet appears, when with the
lapse of time the Church becomes corrupt. Such are Simon
Magus, Hymenseus and Alexander (1 Tim. i. 20) ; and in the
Teaching of the Twelve (ch. xii) already there were prophets who
travelling about, without means of living, were a burden on
the churches ; they are described as Xpioriniropot, ' making
merchandize of Christ.'
16. There are thorns with a grapelike fruit and thistles with
a figlike head (Bruce). But these appearances do not deceive ;
if we are trained to judge, as we are taught in ver. 1-12, we see
the fruits in character and life. The sheep is only in the skin ;
in the heart is the wolf. The fruits of character described in the
whole Sermon on the Mount, summed up in Gal. v. 22, are the real
test of every religious teacher and teaching.
21-3. False Disciples. From the warning against false teachers
who speak of Him as Lord but bring forth no corresponding fruits,
He passes to warn all disciples, whether teachers or not, that the
test in the day of judgement, which must come to all of us, will be
not What did he say ? but What did he do ? The lofty thought of
the Beatitudes may be admitted by all ; the inwardness of the
Law, the dependence on God and not upon stored wealth, may
be recognized as just, and even talked about ; the Golden Rule is
as a matter of fact accepted by the whole world as the true
principle of conduct. But the question will be, not Did you allow
the truth and justice of this teaching ? but Did you practise it ?

St. MATTHEW VII. 22, 23 63
into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth
22 the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name
cast out 1 devils, and by thy name do many ^pr'nj
23 'mighty works? And then will I profess unto 2Gr.
them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye
' There is a great temptation to substitute sentimental or sesthetic
admiration for heroic conduct ' (Bruce).
ai. my Father which is in heaven. This is the first time in our
Gospel that Christ uses this peculiarly personal phrase ; at xi. 27
it is explained. Freely as He treats the Fatherhood of God,
allowing that all men are His children, He instinctively guards
against the mistake which men so easily make, that His own
Sonship is of that general character. The sense in which He says
' My Father in heaven ' is one in which He alone can use the
phrase ; others by a relation to Him may use it with vivid con
sciousness and profound gratitude, but under no circumstances can
others claim the exclusiveness of it, as He did. And yet He
asserts His Sonship neither to boast, nor to overawe mankind,
but simply and inevitably because of His intrinsic truthfulness.
enter into the kingdom. Rather 'attain to' (Dalman, p. 116).
22. prophesy. That is the inspired preaching referred to in
1 Cor. xii. 28, and shown to be sometimes very valueless in
ch. xiii. 2. The casting out devils, too, was possible in the
charged atmosphere of Christ's manifestation (Mark ix. 38), and
yet it might not be connected with the person who used the words
at all.
mighty works. These are the miracles referred to in 1 Cor.
xii. 29. For it is plain in all the history of the Church that men
have and exercise spiritual gifts without that goodness of life
and character which constitutes real discipleship to Christ. It
is of supreme importance not to weaken by the intrusion of
dogmatic ideas this close connexion which it pleased our Lord to
establish between a certain type of character on earth and His
final recognition in the world to come.
23. will I profess. The Greek word always means ' acknow
ledge ' ; it is ' confess ' in John i. 20 ; Heb. xi. 13 ; Acts xxiv. 14.
And by keeping the correct meaning here we get a lovely revela
tion of the heart of Jesus. ' I shall confess,' He says, ' that I
never knew them,' as if implying that He would have liked to
know them, and in a sense He ought to know them ; but He is
bound to admit that He does not, because that moral and spiritual
tie is wanting.
depart from me, sounds menacing in the English, but it is

64 St. MATTHEW VII. 24
that work iniquity. Every one therefore which 24
heareth these words of mine, and doeth them,
shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his

not ; it is even doubtful whether it is imperative at all. The
word suggests a voluntary withdrawing (Luke ix. 39 ; Acts xiii.
13) ; and it should be read ' You withdraw from me, you who
work iniquity ' — not because they did it once, but because they
are still doing it. Christ can only know those who work in
harmony with His own character and requirements. Evidently
2 Tim. ii. 19 is an echo of this : ' Nevertheless the foundation of
God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that
are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart
from iniquity.'
The words, as one listens attentively to the Speaker, do not
sound as a menace or even as a verdict, but rather as the sad
statement of a law, as certain and immovable as the foundations
of the earth, the law which the conscience affirms both before
and after it is stated by Him : Moral values are essential and
permanent. There is a type of character which is heavenly, and
other types are earthly. The heavenly can and must enter
Heaven ; the earthly must not, because it cannot.
24-7. The Rock and the Sand.
24. these words. In Luke vi. 47-9 this simile follows on the
paragraph about the mote and the beam, though not referring
exclusively to that ; for the expression is general : ' Every one
that heareth my words.' Here the reference seems to be
specifically to all the contents of the Sermon on the Mount. The
Beatitudes, the Inner Law, the Secret Life, the Freedom from
Care, the Golden Rule, constitute a scheme or ideal of life ;
every one who hears and realizes this teaching is like a house
built on a rock, while he who only hears and does not realize it is
like a house built on the sand. But clearly our Lord used the
image with a wider reference than to the Sermon on the Mount
or any other part of His teaching. The mention of a rock reminds
us that a rock {irirpa) is needed, on which to rear the fabric of His
religion. And that rock (ch. xvi. 18) is found in the confession :
' Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.' Possibly, therefore,
the best commentary on the passage is that saying in St. John
(v. 24) : 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my
word and believeth Him that sent me hath eternal life and cometh
not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life.' And
there is the more reason for seeking this explanation of the
words, and for finding the security rather in Him, the sure
foundation (1 Pet. ii. 3-6), than in His teaching by itself, because,
if the test were to be an absolute hearing and doing of all the things
contained in this Sermon, there would indeed be few who attain

St. MATTHEW VII. 25-27 65
2 5 house upon the rock: and the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house; and it fell not : for it was
26 founded upon the rock. And every one that
heareth these words of mine, and doeth them
not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which
27 built his house upon the sand: and the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and smote upon that house ; and it fell :
and great was the fall thereof.
to life. Unless salvation is by faith, and not by works, who can be
saved ?
shall be likened. Not only ' compared with ', but ' assimilated
to'. a wise man, i. e. thoughtful, prudent.
built his house. The image of the wall with untempered
mortar in Ezek. xiii. 10-14, may be set side by side with this.
25. beat upon. In the Greek it is ' fell upon '. The rain and
the wind fell upon the house, but it fell not. We may wonder
whether any one can so fulfil the Law of the Mount that his life
and character would stand impregnable : if it was asked about the
Mosaic Law, ' Which of you keepeth the law ? ' and the rabbis
could say that if any Israelite should keep the whole Law even
for one day then Messias would come, is it not still more
impossible to keep this deeper and more inward law? In many
things we offend and come short. No, a Man must be as a
shelter in this storm of wind and rain ; as the flood comes in, the
Spirit of the Lord must lift up a standard against it. Only a
Gospel of Grace, a salvation by faith in Christ, can build the
house on the rock ; He must be the end of the Law to every one
that believeth, the end of His own Law, as well as of the Law
from Sinai. It is only against the building on this rock, that the
gates of Hell cannot prevail.
26. a foolish man. It is the very term which man is forbidden
to apply to his brother (v. 22) ; but God may and does apply it.
' Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee ' (Luke xii.
20). He built his house on some alluvial deposit, in a torrent
which, having carried it there, may carry it away. ' So is he

: stormy winds ' fulfilling
vigour the ill-founded structure. The sorry builder is he who,
having no vital faith in Christ, leaves his religion to his priest or
F

66 St. MATTHEW VII. 28— VIII. 2
And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these 28
words, the : multitudes were astonished at his
teaching : .for he taught them as one having 29
authority, and not as their scribes.
And when he was come down from the 8
mountain, great multitudes followed him. And 2
parson, as in Milton's scathing description : ' What should a
wealthy man do, addicted to his pleasure and his profits ? Fain
he would have the name to be religious ; what does he therefore
but resolve to give over toiling, and to findhimself out some divine
of note and estimation ? To him he adheres, resigns the whole
warehouse of his religion, with all the locks and keys, into his
custody ; and indeed makes the very person of that man his
religion. He entertains hiin, gives him gifts, feasts him, lodges
him ; his religion comes home at night, prays, is liberally supped
and sumptuously laid to sleep ; rises, is saluted, and better break
fasted than he whose morning appetite would have gladly fed on
green figs between Bethany and Jerusalem. His religion walks
abroad at eight, and leaves his kind entertainer in the shop,
trading all day without his religion' {Prose Works, vol. ii,
p. 97, &c).
28. The astonishment of the multitudes, who contrast Jesus
with the Scribes. The Scribes were not astonished, but only
angry with Him and the multitudes.
29. as having authority, i. e. in Himself. This personality of
Jesus is the seat of authority in Religion, which one in vain seeks
elsewhere. Ch. viii. r-17. When Matthew has given the sum of the Lord's
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, he proceeds to illustrate
His healings by a series of examples selected from the whole
course of the ministry. It will be observed at once (v. 17) that
the evangelist regards the cures as symbolical. Sin is the under
lying disease ; and the healing of diseases points to Christ's mode
of dealing with sin. Accordingly, all the details of the cures are
found to be symbolic of the soul's relation with the Saviour in
getting rid of its sins. On the one hand we must apprehend the
heart of love and pity, which made Jesus ' take our infirmities and
bear our sins ' ; but, on the other hand, we must see through the
parable to the deeper truth, present to the evangelist, that He
took our sins upon Himself, and bore them too.
The three illustrative cures, of the leper, the centurion's
servant, and Peter's wife's mother, are brought together, in order
to show the variety and range of His healing power. They must
be studied apart, and then put together, if we are to receive their
full effect.

St. MATTHEW VIII. 3 67
behold, there came to him a . leper and wor
shipped him, saying, Lord,: if thou wilt,: thou
3 canst make me clean. And he stretched forth
his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be
thou made clean. And straightway his leprosy

It may be observed that the connexion between the disease and
the sin in Isa. liii. 4 is brought out by the LXX ; for while the
Hebrew says : ' Surely He hath borne our sicknesses and carried
our sorrows,' the Greek translation says : ' He bears our sins
and suffers for us ' ; and accordingly, while Matthew quotes the
prophecy literally, we habitually quote it in the metaphorical
sense on the authority of 1 Pet. ii. 24, who interpreted Isa. liii for
us : ' Himself bore our sins . . . we were as sheep going astray,
but are returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop ofour souls.'
Observe that Christ's miracles are done, not by prayer, nor by
spells, but by commands ; He has divine authority, (ix. 6 ; Mark
vii. 34, &c).
1-4. The Leper. By examining Mark i. 40-5 and Luke v. 12-16,
it will be seen that no stress is to be laid on the date of this cure,
or on its connexion in time with those that follow. This is the
first case of leprosy healed recorded by the Synoptic evangelists ;
and Matthew places it first in his account of the cures, because the
disease, (1) loathsome, (2) contagious, and (3) incurable, was
always the type of Sin^ The ceremonial cleansing of leprosy, in
Lev. xiii. 14, was typical of a promised cure of sin and uncleanness,
as we see in Ps. li. 7 (cf. Naaman's cure, 2 Kings v. 1-14). .
Observe, the leper is an Israelite, and his cure follows strictly
the ordinance of the Mosaic Law (v. 4).
2. And behold. This lively" way of introducing a narrative is,.
says Weiss, the sign-mark of the apostolic document.
The leper came and worshipped him. Matthew alone uses this
word here. The word is sometimes used of the obeisance made
to a man in power ; nor does the appellation ' Lord ' necessarily
mean more than Sir ; at the same time the leper's sublime con-.
fidence in Christ's power proves that, even if he did not know.
Christ's divinity, he yet prayed to Him, as he might have done to
God. He makes no question of His power.
Accordingly, all the Gospel is in this brief dialogue : ' If thou
Wilt ' . . . ' I will..'
3. touched him. This brought ceremonial defilement (Lev. v. 3,
xiii. 46). But Christ incurs the defilement in bearing the sins ;
therein lies the atonement.
4. The reason why the cured man was not to tell any one is
shown by Mark (i. 45). The disobedience to the prohibition
brought about the Healer such a crowd and a furore, that He
F 2

68 St. MATTHEW VIII. 4-7
was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See 4
thou tell no man ; but go thy way, shew thyself
to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses com
manded, for a testimony unto them.
And when he was entered into Capernaum, 5
there came unto him a centurion, beseeching
1 Or, boy him, and saying, Lord, my 1 servant lieth in the 6
house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And he saith unto him, I will come and heal 7

could no longer go into a city. The confession of the cure to the
priest was prescribed by the Law (Lev. xiv. 10-21). The testi
mony to them, i. e. the public, means the certificate that the leper
was fit for human society again. But when we turn to Heb. iii. 5,
and see how M°ses was a testimony of Spiritual truth, we cannot
help reading the words ' for a testimony unto them ' in a wider
sense. The leper's cure symbolizes Christ's cure of sin.
5-13. The Centurion's Servant. Luke (vii. 1-10) narrates the
same cure, connected also with the return to Capernaum [after
preaching the Sermon on the Mount.
In the scale of Christ's redemptive work this marks another
step in two ways : (1) it is a Gentile who gains the boon by faith,
and (2) the healing is effected without contact, merely by a word
spoken at a distance.
5. The centurion, a Roman who was drawn to the religion of
the country in which he was serving, built the people a syna
gogue in token of his sympathy (Luke vii. 3), and now was better
able to recognize Christ than the Jews themselves. Though he
employed the elders of the Jews as his messengers (Matthew
thought that he came himself), it would seem from the Lord's.
words (v. 10) that they had not his faith.
Wellhausen mentions that the centurion is in the Syriac version
and some Latin versions a chiliarch, i. e. a court official (Mark vi.
21). But v. 8 shows that he was a soldier.
6. servant. The Greek word irats means a boy ; but in usage it
meant a servant, just as garcon does in French. The love for his
servant is a fine trait : ' He is not worthy to be well served,' says
Bishop Hall, ' who will not sometimes wait upon his followers.'
The servant was paralysed, and — an aggravation not often accom
panying paralysis — in great torment. It was a nerve disease, and
might have been healed by faith ; but the healing by the faith of
another puts it out of the category of natural cures, and into that
of Christ's divine authority and power.
7. / will come. Except in this case, and that of the Syrophce-

St. MATTHEW VIII. 8-11 69
8 him. And the centurion answered and said, 'Gr.
' sufficient.
Lord, I am not 'worthy that thou shouldest 'Gr. with
come under my roof : but only say 2 the word, > r>, boy
9 and my 3 servant shall be healed. For I also 'JJV££
am a man * under authority, having under my- jJJ^JIJ^^
self soldiers : and I say to this one, Go, and he as in Luke
' ' ' vii. 8.
goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; *Gr.fo»*
' ' servant.
and to my "servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 'Many
10 And when Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and author!.
said to them that followed, Verily I say unto With no
you, 6 1 have not found so great faith, no, not Israel
11 in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall found so
come from the east and the west, and shall 7 sit %m.
down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in recline.
nician woman's daughter, Christ always went to the sick, or they
were brought to Him. But the exceptional faith secured the
astonishing result of healing at a distance. How signal the faith
is, Christ shows in ver. 10.
8. I am not worthy that. The English is the same as iii. 11 :
but there we have only the infinitive, here we have iva ; ' I am
not sufficient, in order that thou mayest come.' This is a stage in
the process by which 'Iva. became in later Greek the constant sign
of the infinitive. But we may let the expression give its peculiar
emphasis to this exclamation of deep humility, an emphasis in
creased by the prominent position of the ' my '. ' There is nothing
in me which could bring thee under my poor roof; but only
speak a word ' — or according to another reading : ' speak with
a word.' The inference from his own position of authority as a
centurion, and of subordination to the tribune or the praetor
above him, is the noblest expression of faith in Christ. The
disease will own His power as readily as a soldier obeys his
officer. 10. This delighted Jesus, who, as Bengel says, wondered only
at two things, faith and unbelief (Mark vi. 6). That a. Gentile
should have such faith in Him immediately opens to Him the vista
of the future.
11, ia. sons of the kingdom. Only Matthew uses 'kingdom'
without further designation (cf. iv. 23, ix. 35, xiii. 19, 38,
xxiv. 14; Dalman, Words of Jesus, 115). Only Matthew connects
this grand vision with the healing of the centurion's servant.
Luke puts it after the exhortation to enter in at the strait gate

76 St. MATTHEW VIII. 12-14
the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the n
kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer dark
ness: there shall' be the weeping and gnashing
. of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, 13
Go thy way ; as thou hast believed, so be it done
i-Or, boy unto thee. And the 1 servant was healed in that
hour. And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, 14
he saw his wife's mother lying sick of a fever.

(xiii. 28-30). Mark never introduces these missionary forecasts ;
he represents that Petrine Gospel which thought only of the Jews.
Matthew, notwithstanding the prevailingly Jewish tinge of his
Gospel (the imagery here is intensely Jewish), always sees all
the nations, the whole world, brought under the sway of his
Lord. The Kingdom of God in the Jewish writers was figured as a feast,
at which the meat would be behemoth, and the fish leviathan
(Apoc of Baruch xxix. 4 ; Enoch lx. 7-9, 24 ; 2 Esdras vi. 49-52).
The mention of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shows that this was in
Christs mind. But He saw that faith, the great faculty, would
be rare in the favoured people, and that it would be men of faith
from every race and country who would be the true children of
faithful Abraham. The darkness, wailing, and gnashing'of teeth
are part of the familiar Jewish imagery of the future world of
punishment, which was typified by Gehenna.
13. The joy of finding such faith diverted His attention from
the sufferer, but He quickly remembered. In that hour the
paralytic was cured.
Weizsacker points out how beautifully these two cures follow
on the Sermon, the one illustrating His fidelity to the Law, the
other His concern for the Gentile World.
14,15. Peter's wife's mother. Evidently (v. 10) the preceding
cure occurred far on in the ministry, and not immediately after
His opening discourse ; Matthew's arrangement is topical, not
chronological. This third cure belonged apparently to the earliest
part of the ministry (Mark i. 32 ; Luke iv. 38). He began by
blessing the home of His disciple. To bring joy to the domestic
circle, and start His Gospel from that obscure centre, is typical of
the Son of Man.
14. sick of a fever. Luke (iv. 38), with a doctor's accuracy, says
it was 'a great fever', to distinguish it from the malarial feverish-
ness which is not very serious, and a!jo he observes how the
Healer ' stood over ' the sufferer. The woman was so completely

St. MATTHEW VIII. 15-19 7.1
15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left
her; and she arose, and ministered unto him.
16 And when even was come, they brought unto
him many * possessed with devils : and he cast xffyjj£s
out the spirits with a word, and healed all that
1 f were sick : that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken 2 by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself through
took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.
18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about
him, he gave commandment to depart unto the
J 9 other side. And there came s a scribe, and said "scribe0.""
recovered, that no weakness remained ; she was able at once to
serve at the table. When Christ subdues the fever of sin in the
soul, the soul is prepared at once for ministry.
16. The evening healing, quoted from Mark i. 32, though here
it is a little later. Up to the last Jesus heals, as the sun sets
(Mark), when the night has fallen (Matthew). In Mark, they
brought all, and some were cured : in Matthew, they bring many,
and all were cured. The crowd was due to the great cure of the
demoniac that day (Mark i. 21-8.)
17. Did He take our sins and bear them in the same way as He
took the infirmities and bore the diseases ?
viii. 18-34. The Son of Man homeless and rejected.
18-22. In St. Luke this episode, of the disciples deterred from
following, is placed, with three instances instead of two, in
connexion, not with the crossing to Gerasa (Luke viii. 22-39),
but with the start on the journey to Jerusalem (Luke ix. 57-62).
The occasion was when Jesus had left His home at Capernaum,
and in the prosecution of His missionary enterprise was home
less. Note that verses 19-22 are inserted ; the narrative goes
on from ver. 18 to ver. 23. But Matthew's arrangement, inserting
the offer of the scribe, and the call of the man who would bury
his father, just before the stilling of the storm on the lake, and
the rejection from Gerasa, brings out as the dominant idea of the
whole passage the Loneliness of Jesus. He is homeless and un-
companioned (ver. 18-22) ; the solitude is awful (ver. 23-7) and
mysterious (ver. 28-34). He is alone, and yet not alone, for His
Father is with Him.
18. The solitude of Jesus is of the kind which is emphasized by
the presence of a multitude. See John vi. 16-21 : evidently Jesus
took these quiet excursions on the lakes in order to escape the
pressure which His work occasioned on the shore.
19. a scribe. It is actually ' one scribe ', but in Hellenistic Greek

72 St. MATTHEW VIII. 20, 21
1Or, unto him, 'Master, I will follow thee whither
soever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, 20
The foxes have holes, and the birds of the
2 Gr. heaven have " nests ; but the Son of man hath
p/oas?' not where to lay his head. And another of the 21
disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to
¦ ~* — ~~
'one' was used for 'a' (Moulton's Grammar, p. 96). Though
one of the official and teaching class, he had so far recognized
Jesus as to address Him as ' Teacher ' (so rightly margin Of R. V.).
It is a great confession for the Scribe to give Him that appella
tion ; and the enthusiastic promise to follow Him anywhere might
have been very pleasing to Him. But He knew what was in the
man ; He repressed the fervent offer by the pathetic statement
that He had no lodging to offer him.
20. nests : roosts, the verb in xiii. 32.
the Son of man. Here occurs for the first time the designa
tion which Jesus chose for Himself (in Mark for the first time
ii. 10, in Luke v. 24). It has been maintained that it is (1) the
Aramaic phrase for ' man ' ; (2) a term indicating the frailty of
humanity ; cf. the application of it to Ezekiel ; (3) an implied claim
to Messiahship, referring to Dan. vii. 13, and the dse of the term
in certain Apocalyptic literature. It will be noted that in different
places Jesus uses the title with one or other of these implications,
as the occasion suits. Here He is thinking of the second
meaning ; the Son of Man is homeless ; His earthly state is
pitiable. The wild beasts and birds have their resting-places in
the earth, but He is a pilgrim and a stranger. It has been said
that ' philosophy is home-sickness ' ; the pathos of man's condition
is, that he thinks, and immediately he finds himself in a desert,
and far from home. In Mark and Luke, on the other hand, the
term is first used in declaring that the Son of Man has power on
earth to forgive sins.
Apparently the Scribe turned away from the homeless Teacher.
21. The Scribe was one of His disciples (save the mark 1).
Another wished to follow Him — in time ; but for the present he
proposed to wait until his father died, that he might perform the
last act of filial duty. How specious that seemed ! The Lord's
answer sounds stern, but while the shell is hard, the kernel is
soft and sweet. Using the word ' dead ' in a double sense, He
says -that those who are not spiritually awakened will tend the
old man in his closing days, but this disciple was spiritually
awakened and was capable of preaching the Gospel (see Luke
ix. 60). For him, therefore, a higher duty superseded the lower.
Thus Christ meets the excuses which have kept so many from
going out to the mission field : cf. Elisha in 1 Kings xix. 19.

St. MATTHEW VIII. 22-27 73
22 go and bury my father. But Jesus saith unto
him, Follow me; and leave the dead to bury
their own dead.
23 And when he was entered into a boat, his
24 disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the
boat was covered with the waves : but he was
25 asleep. And they came to him, and awoke him,
26 saying, Save, Lord ; we perish. And he saith
unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little
faith ? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds
2 7 and the sea ; and there was a great calm. And
the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man
23-7. The awful detachment from human companionship in
the storm.
23. his disciples followed him : in body but not in spirit.
24. and behold : see ver. 2.
a tempest. Lit. an earthquake, a very strong terra, not as in
Luke (viii. 23) a mere gust of wind such as often falls on a lake
shut in by mountains. This description of the ship's peril is strong
too ; the ship disappeared in the waves.
but he was asleep. In Mark the journey occurs after the
parables not recorded in Matthew till ch. 13. If Matthew's con
nexion is followed, it seems from the answers given in ver. 18-22,
that the Lord was under great tension. He was tired out, and
slept in the storm. It has been observed that a storm is a lullaby
to a great spirit ; and His was the courage of faith.
25. The disciples were different. They had little faith, and
were therefore cowards. Their waking Him showed that they
had little faith in Him, as His serene slumber showed that He
had perfect faith in God.
Lord : in Luke viii. 24, Master ; in Mark iv. 38, Teacher.
26. fearful. So John xiv. 27 ; 'cowardly ' is a closer translation.
Jesus always marvelled at their little faith (vi. 30). The rebuke,
as given in Mark iv. 39, is most majestic and striking — ' Silence, be
muzzled I ' The miracle is recorded in the most impressive
simplicity of statement, without explanation or apology. Bengel's
pregnant remark should be remembered : ' He calmed first His
disciples' minds, and then the sea.'
27. the men marvelled; in Mark 'disciples'. Does it mean
' men ' generally, wherever the story was told ? ' What manner
of being (not man) is this ? ' irorairos, cf. Ps. lxxxix. 9, xciii. 4.

74 St. MATTHEW VIII. 28
is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him? And when he was come to the other side into 28
the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two
1 Or, de- ' possessed with devils, coming forth out of the
moniacs tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could
28-34. The land which Aski:B^a8H&S£Lfi(|pAKT prom it.
The narrative is given with more luanessTi*. Mark, whose
twenty verses (v. 1-20) are here compressed intoVseven. The
details, as the variations show, are quite immaterial. Mark's
name for the place is Gerasa, not Gadara, which wa^ not near
the shore ; and we may identify the spot with Khersa, Vyhere the
cliff is steep. Matthew oddly says there were two \dsmoniacs,
evidently influenced by the plural voice of the sufferer, saying,
we are Legion. Demoniac possession is met wfcih in China ; in
the life of Pastor Hsi, for example, there arel episodes which
closely resemble this narrative. Insanity tan.es the form of
a double consciousness, and the sufferer belileves that he is
possessed by a demon. To help the sufferer tt is necessary to
humour the illusion, and to address the in'dweslling spirit that
obsesseSjjM^MF a'Tir6tso|p . . If our Lord had alJrwe^BWiMWwijffe'
S^nTCnTHodern medical scieiitfe TtfitesafcthesuMfec^ He might still,
for curative purposes, have used exac!ry*Wfc language which is
recorded here. The destruction of the swineJnas been ridiculed by
Huxley and his followers, and has b^en made hardly less
ridiculous by certain well-meaning" apologists ; Wetstein, e. g.,
perhaps sardonically, suggests that the drowned swine might
have been salted and sold to the Gentiles, and so the owners
would have been recouped ! Our eva^elist does not countenance
Mark's statement, ' He gave thejj^eave to enter into the swine,'
but reports the word oflgsu^as 'go', i.e. 'begone'. But the
consent of the evaflgffllts shows that the stampede of the herd of
swine was injhe popular judgement connected with the cure of
the demoniarc. His wild cries suggested that the swine should
plunge down the precipice, and may even have caused the panic
which produced the catastrophe. But these difficulties are put in
a false perspective. Read by an impartial mind in any of the
evangelists the narrative produces only one overwhelming effect —
a sense of the mercy, the majesty, the meekness, of Jesus ; who,
lonely and homeless Himself, after rejecting a learned scribe,
turned all his attention to a houseless and dangerous maniac,
healed him by the divine power that resided in His own
Personality, and then without resentment or censure withdrew
at the request of the misguided people.
28. no man could pass that way. Lit. had power to pass that

St. MATTHEW VIII. 29-31 75
29 pass by that way. And behold, they cried out,
saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son
of God? art thou come hither to torment us
30 before the time ? Now there was afar off from
31 them a herd of many swine feeding. And the

way. The maniac was strong enough to overpower any ordinary
man, and fell upon a passer-by with the fierceness of a wild beast.
29. thou Son of God. That the first confession of Christ's
divinity should come from a disordered mind (in which all the
Synoptists agree) is a stumbling-block. But the mystery of
insanity is that it is often accompanied by an abnormal insight.
Later on the disciples reached the same conclusion, and used the
same address (xiv. 33). It is true we must step cautiously in
estimating the testimony of the insane. No wise man would base
the truth of Christ's Divine Sonship on this admission. We hail
Him Son of God for reasons, ethical and religious, which are
perfectly independent of this passage. But it is possible that
we have a glimpse into that invisible spiritual world, of which
we know so little : there are principalities and powers, spiritual
personalities, Working for evil and against Christ. They know
Him, who He is, while it is their great concern to darken our
human minds, and prevent us from recognizing Him (Eph. vi. 12).
These evil spirits will be vanquished : their time is relatively short
(Rev. xii. 12).
30. The number of the swine in Mark is 2,000, and they are
not, as here, 'far off,' but on 'the mountain-side'. There is no
inconsistency, but there is a variation.
The destruction of property arouses the indignation, not only
of the owners, but of the whole people, as Luke puts it. The
desire for Jesus to depart was unanimous and decisive. He
yielded to the wish, because it is not His way to force Himself
on those who do not want Him. In a sense it is only too
easy to get rid of Him. He has no ambition, no personal end
to serve in saving men ; He wants their hearts, and to save
them without their choice would not be to save them in His
sense at all. This is the secret of His loneliness in the world,
that when men see Him, few desire Him ; of those who would
follow Him, many are discouraged by the least difficulty. Even
when He heals and saves, men are shy of Him, and if His
presence affects their property, they will bid Him depart.
Matthew does not tell us the comforting detail given elsewhere
(Mark v. 19), that the healed man was so grateful that he wished
to follow his Healer, but was commanded to remain as a witness
to Jesus among his friends ; and he became a missionary through
the whole region of the Ten Cities.

76 St. MATTHEW VIII. 32— IX. 2
^pr. 'devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us
out, send us away into the herd of swine. And 3a
he said unto them, Go. And they came out,
and went into the swine : and behold, the whole
herd rushed down the steep into the sea, and
perished in the waters. And they that fed them 33
fled, and went away into the city, and told every
thing, and what was befallen to them that were
2 Or, de- * possessed with devils. And behold, all the city 34
momacs came out t0 meet; jesus : and when they saw
him, they besought him that he would depart
from their borders.
And he entered into a boat, and crossed over, 9
and came into his own city. And behold, they »
Ch. ix. 1-17. The bridal joy of the healing ministry.
This paragraph (Mark ii. 3-12 ; Luke v. 18-26) is replete with joy.
It is leading up to the crown of His beneficent work. Jesus appears
as the Bridegroom, in whose presence the whole wedding party
must rejoice. Though a season of sadness is foreshadowed, and
the invidious vigilance of the Pharisees portends hostility and per
secution, for the moment the planet of love is on high ; the religion
of joy has come, and the exquisite light of Heaven breaks over the
earth : Light of the intellect replete with love,
Love of true good replete with perfect bliss,
Bliss that doth far above all sweetness prove.
This exquisite movement introduces the phases of the palsied
man forgiven, the call of Matthew the publican, the physician's
festal reception of the sinners, and the justification of the joy as
suitable to the changed conditions. It v/ill be obvious how the
healing is the outward symbol of a spiritual grace.
1-8. The palsied man. In Mark (ii. 1-12) this healing comes at
once after the healing of the leper ; Luke (v. 17-26) follows Mark.
Matthew, for reasons of his own (v. Allen, p. 86) places this cure
after the return from Gerasa ; but the effect of the arrangement is
to suggest that Christ can not only cure the leper, who was con
sidered incurable, and the demoniac who was the terror of the
country-side, but rouse into activity one who is actually paralysed,
even when, as seems to be implied, the paralysis has been
produced by sin ; He can forgive and heal.
1. his own city, sc. Capernaum (iv. 13). The other account in

ST. MATTHEW IX. 3-5 77
brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying
on a bed : and Jesus seeing their faith said unto
the sick of the palsy, * Son, be of good cheer ; l^d
3 thy sins are forgiven. And behold, certain of
the scribes said within themselves, This man
4 blasphemeth. And Jesus zknowing their thoughts * Many
said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? authorities
S For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins are for- seeing.
Mark and Luke places the cure just after returning to Capernaum
from an excursion.
2. And behold (viii. 2).
sick of the palsy, i. e. paralytic ; the creeping paralysis which is
often the dread result of sensual excesses.
seeing their faith. We understand better the faith of the
bearers by reading the more detailed account in Mark and Luke.
son. Rather ' child ', ¦ probably little more than a boy.
Jesus reads at once the profound depression, and hopelessness,
which comes with the disease ; and meets him with the word of
cheer (cf. ver. 22). Forgiveness is the Law of the Kingdom of
God. He proclaims it, not as the result of His own saving work, but
rather as the purpose of Divine grace, which devised and carried
out that saving work. The disease and the sin are focussed as
one ; perhaps in this instance they were related as effect and
cause ; but in every instance the disease is the outward and visible
sign of the inward and spiritual fault.
The amazing feature of the pronouncement is, that He declares
the man's sins to be forgiven on the ground of the faith of the
friends who brought him.
3. the scribes. See Luke v. 17 ; they had come to watch Him,
not perhaps very sympathetically. But they were genuinely
scandalized by this assumption of authority. It was a Divine
prerogative claimed by Jesus, Isa. xliii. 25 ; Mic. vii. 18 ;
Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. If Jesus was merely a man, they were right
in saying 'He blasphemes '.
4. He sees or reads their thoughts : because He is the Word
of God (Heb. iv. 12).
5. whether is easier ? It was easy enough to say ' Thy sins
are forgiven thee ', but to know that they were forgiven was
hard. On the other hand, to say ' Arise and walk ' was difficult,
for every one could at once see whether the result followed. If,
therefore, the hard fact of restoring the paralytic came from the
word ' Arise ', that would be some evidence that the invisible
result of pardon came from the apparently easy word of forgive
ness. ' He makes the visible power a testimony of the invisible ',

78 St. MATTHEW IX. 6-9
given ; or to say, Arise, and walk ? But that ye 6
\uttwrity may know that the Son of man hath 1 power on
earth to forgive sins (then saith he to the sick of
the palsy), Arise, and take up thy bed, and go
unto thy house. And he arose, and departed 7
to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, 8
they were afraid, and glorified God, which had
given such ' power unto men.
And as Jesus passed by from thence, he saw 9
a man, called Matthew, sitting at the place of
toll : and he saith unto him, Follow me. And
he arose, and followed him.

says Euthymius Zigabenus. Here the tallying of disease with sin
is expressly declared.
6. The bed was a reed-mattress. As Bengel puts it : ' The
bed bore the man, now the man the bed.' Might we not also say
the faith of the others had brought him to Jesus, now his own
faith enabled him to go home ?
8. were afraid (Luke vii. 16). A manifestation of Divine power,
even when it is beneficent, thrills our hearts with fear.
such power unto men. The multitude understood the title
' Son of Man ' as the admission of human infirmity ; they had
not yet learnt its meaning as a Messianic claim (ver. 26). Dalman,
Words of Jesus, 254.
9-13. The Physician seeks the sick : first Matthew and then
his fellow publicans.
9. Matthew, in Mark and Luke called Levi, the son of Alphaeus
(Mark ii. 14). He was a sinner, he was sick, and the Physician saw
him and said unto his dead soul ' Live' — as Jacob Behmen records
of his own similar experience. Matthew obeyed, unlike the
precipitate disciples in viii. 18-22. ,
The place of toll. It was on the shore, we are told else
where. Capernaum was a busy centre where the great trunk
roads running north and south and east and west crossed. But
the lake shore was also a frontier ; the other side, Decapolis,
did not belong to Herod Antipas. Duties were therefore collected
on everything that was brought to the quays. The collector of
taxes was called to be a fisher of men. And it is evident that
he was an example of the sinners whom Jesus came to save. A
Chinese convert employed as an evangelist was offered a place
in the customs at double the salary that he Was receiving. He

St. MATTHEW IX. 10-13 79
10 And it came to pass, as he 'sat at meat in ' Gr- ,
, reclined'.
the house, behold, many publicans and sinners and so
-. always.
came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.
11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto
his disciples, Why eateth your 2 Master with the 2 Or,
12 publicans and sinners? But when he heard it,,
he said, They that are 3 whole have no need of 3 Gr-
. . strong.
J3 a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye.
and learn what this meaneth, I desire mercy,
and not sacrifice : for I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners.
replied : ' Matthew left the receipt of customs to seek men ; shall
I leave the seeking of men to sit at the receipt of customs ? '
10. Through Matthew Jesus was introduced to the whole circle
of the publicans, and the people who were regarded as outcasts by
Jewish orthodoxy. It was a company of what in India would be
called Pariahs that gathered now in the house. Mark says it was
Matthew's house. Does Matthew withhold this fact out of
modesty ? We are to think perhaps of the courtyard of the house
filled with the unorthodox company ; and the scandal would be
patent. But they who are too anxious to conciliate the prejudices
of the present do nothing for the future, as Dr. Bruce says. And
Jesus was quite ready to justify His unconventional conduct.
11. Master. Teacher, in the Greek, your Rabbi, in Aramaic
(Dalman, p. 338).
12. Jesus expressly declares that He is the Physician and the
Saviour. The meaning of the healing becomes apparent. He
wishes to show that just as He could raise up the paralytic, so He
could forgive and cure the sinful. He taught by an acted parable.
He manifested God who 'healeth all our diseases and forgiveth
all our iniquities ' (Ps. ciii. 3).
13. The orthodoxy of the day had no conception of the Holy
love which seeks the sinful to make them good. It prided itself
on its own virtue, and used the wicked to exalt its own
righteousness. It did not know ' mercy ' in the prophet's deep
sense of the word, i. e. the pitying love which seeks to save.
Jesus quotes Hos. vi. 6, which was a favourite text of His (xii. 7 :
cf. xxiii. 23). Then comes the great utterance which is all His
own. In the Bible Society's report for 1904 (p. 208) is an account
of a convert in Mahoba (North India), who as a lad received a Gospel
of St. Matthew. For twelve years he read it day by day until its
message was borne in upon his soul, that Jesus is indeed the
Saviour of all men. When the missionary who. gave him the

80 St. MATTHEW IX. 14-16
Then come to him the disciples of John, 14
1 Some saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast ' oft,
aSthorkies Dut iaY disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto r5
omit oft. theirij Can the sons of the bride-chamber mourn,
as long as the bridegroom is with them ? but the
days will come, when the bridegroom shall be
taken away from them, and then will they fast.
And no man putteth a piece of undressed cloth 16

Gospel returned to the village he confessed that Jesus is the
World's Redeemer, and at once yielded himself to His claims. The
saying in this verse is enough to save the world.
but sinners. The words ' to repentance ' were inserted in
some MSS. from Luke, but the calling here is rather the beautiful
invitation to His board.
14-17. Fasting inappropriate in the bridechamber. In Mark
ii. 18 and Luke v. 33, the question seems put by the Pharisees. But in
respect of fasting the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees
occupied the same position. Fasting was a regular and necessary
part of the religious life : it was a token of penitence ; it was also
an instrument for subduing the evil tendencies of nature ; and in
either case it was a confession of a forlorn and dubious position,
J.he effort of the soul to win acceptance with God. Fasting is an
institution of the Law and not of the Gospel, of Righteousness
rather than of Grace.
15. Jesus abolishes Fasting because the Religion of Joy has
come. The Gospel is the good news of a free pardon and of a
preserving grace, of earth vanquished and of Heaven secured ;
even death is abolished, and the Kingdom of Heaven is open to all
believers. While Christ the Bridegroom is with us, fasting must
not stain the festal joy.
sons of the bridechamber. The wedding guests : cf. for the
Hebrew phrase Luke xvi. 8.
then shall they fast. When were the days of the absence of
the Bridegroom ? (Luke xvii. 22). Were they the days following
the Crucifixion ? Hardly, for that sorrow was immediately
turned into joy (John xvi. 20). He can only refer to the false
teaching of the Church, which has taken away the Bridegroom,
and restored the fasting and gloom of the older dispensation.
But He is with those who will have Him all the days (xxviii. 20),
and for them fasting is inappropriate.
16. Unfulled or undressed cloth shrinks when wetted, and tears
the old piece to which it is sewn. You cannot combine the
penitential religion of the Law with that of Jesus.

St. MATTHEW IX. 17-20 81
upon an old garment ; for that which should fill
it up taketh from the garment, and a worse rent
17 is made. Neither do men put new wine into
old 1 wine-skins: else the skins burst, and the a That is,
skins used
wine is spilled, and the skins perish : but they « totttes.
put new wine into fresh wine-skins, and both are
preserved.
18 While he spake these things unto them, be
hold, there came 2 a ruler, and worshipped him, 2 Gr. one
saying, My daughter is even now dead : but
come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall
10 live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and
20 so did his disciples. And behold, a woman, who
had an issue of blood twelve years, came behind
him, and touched the border of his garment :
17. The religion of the Divine Father, of Grace and Atoning
Love, of Forgiveness and the cleansed heart, of the filling with the
Holy Ghost, is like new wine, and at your peril do you confine
it in the antiquated bottles of the past. ' The mongrel mixture of
the ascetic ritualism of the old with the spiritual freedom of the
new economy' (David Brown) is condemned by anticipation.
ix. 18-37. Climax and Summary of the Ministry of Teach
ing and Healing.
18-26. The raising of Jairus's daughter is the climax of the
Lord's healing power, and the gospel of the Resurrection which
it symbolizes is the climax of His teaching. In Mark (v. 21-43)
and in Luke (viii. 40-66) it is recorded just after the return from
the eastern shore of the lake. Matthew places it in its moral,
rather than its historical, order. All the beneficent work of Jesus
leads up to the supreme miracle of raising the dead.
18. a ruler. ' One ruler ' (see on viii. 19). He was an excep
tion, as the question in John vii. 48 shows : ' Hath any of the
rulers believed on Him ? '
dead. In Mark and Luke ' dying '.
19. arose, sc. from the table (ver. 10). See how the chequered
scenes follow each other in the life of the Son of Man, as in all
human life : Feasting (ver. 10-13), Fasting (ver. 14-17), Dying
(ver. 18), Resurrection (ver. 25).
20. A woman with an issue of blood touched Him ; that touch,
according to the Law, was defilement.
the border of his garment. From Num. xv. 38 it will be seen
G

82 St. MATTHEW IX. 21-24
for she said within herself, If I do but touch his 21
1 Or, saved garment, I shall be amade whole. But Jesus 22
turning and seeing her said, Daughter, be of
*Or,saved good cheer ; thy faith hath smade thee whole.
And the woman was ' made whole from that
hour. And when Jesus came into the ruler's 23
house, and saw the flute-players, and the crowd
making a tumult, he said, Give place : for the 24
damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they
that the tassels, which were the reminders to every Israelite .of
the commandments of the Law, are meant. Though it was only
the outermost part of .His person she touched, yet it was a very
significant part. In Jesus at least the keeping of the divine
commandments was a tender spot.
21. This is evidently self-revelation ; thus she described the
experience afterwards.
22. Matthew condenses the story. But he does not omit the
exquisite word of encouragement, as in ver. a. To the timorous
woman, as to the helpless paralytic, His first word is ' Courage '.
To her also He can add what He could not to the paralytic : ' Thy
faith hath made thee whole ' (Luke viii. 48). It is a saying which
was always on His lips (cf. Luke vii. 50, xvii. 19, xviii. 42). Paul
learnt it from his Master (Acts xiv. 9). It became a cardinal
doctrine of Christianity (Heb. iv. 2).
made whole, or ' saved '. The. double meaning of the word
admirably covers the physical symbol and the spiritual reality.
The pitiable state of a sinner is hinted at in those twelve years of
searching for a physician ; for Old Testament descriptions of that
state cf. Ezek. xvi. 5, 6 ; Hos. v. 13.
23. The narrative now moves on to the house of Jairus. There
already a crowd of mourners has gathered. All was very con
ventional : professional mourners (Latin, praeficae) were hired, to
chant dirges (Jer. ix. 17). Two flutes and one mourning woman
were incumbent at the burial of a wife, even of the poorest man.
In Rome the number of flute-players at a funeral was by the
Twelve Tables limited to twelve, a check upon the luxury of woe.
Perhaps Christ's putting this motley crowd out is an indication
that He disapproves the trappings of grief, and would have us
bury our dead without affectation, in the simplicity of a quiet
faith and an assured hope.
24. but sleepeth. This exactly tallies with the fuller narrative
of the raising of Lazarus, What Jesus says is, not that the maiden
or Lazarus was not dead, but that death is only a sleep. From
the Master's lips the disciple learned to speak of the dead merely

St. MATTHEW IX. 25-28 83
25 laughed him to scorn. But when the crowd was
put forth, he entered in, and took her by the
26 hand ; and the damsel arose. And ' the fame > Gr. Ms
hereof went forth into all that land.
27 And as Jesus passed by from thence, two
blind men followed him, crying out, and saying,
28 Have mercy on us, thou son of David. 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
as sleeping, 1 Thess. v. 10, and to describe their resting-place as
a sleeping- room (i. e. a cemetery).
25. Matthew omits the words spoken to the dead girl. He
lays the whole stress on the wonderful hand-touch (cf. Mk.
ix. 27).
26. The fame of the miracle, against His wish, necessarily
spread (see ver. 30) ; the excitement caused by such a cure
hindered His spiritual work. We surmise that He would rather
have taught without working miracles ; but He did what seemed to
Him the lower work, partly because He was moved by a constant
compassion, and partly because He was giving the outward and
visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace.
27-34. Two other typical cures are added ; they are rather of
the nature of an anticlimax after the narrative just given ; but the
object seems to be to illustrate completely the whole range of
wonderful and merciful works referred to in xi. 5.
27-31. Two Blind Men healed. In blindness and in the open
ing of the eyes there is a deep spiritual meaning (see John ix. 5).
The glaring sun and the limestone dust in the air, not to mention
the ill-ventilated houses and unclean habits of the country, made
eye-troubles common, just as similar spiritual causes account for
the prevalent spiritual blindness.
27. thou son of David. Jesus ignored the address, and went
on, apparently unheeding, to the house, as in the narrative
which is an echo of this, xx. 30 (so xv. 22, xxi. 9-15). He did
not wish to be called by a name which was equivalent to Messias,
considering all the misleading Messianic associations and expecta
tions which were current at the time. Yet, that He was the son
of David, was well established (Matt. i. 1-17 ; Acts xiii. 23 ;
Rom. i. 3 ; 2 Tim. ii. 8 ; Apoc. v. 5, xxii. 16).
28. Believe ye ? Again the whole question is, Have you faith ?
All things are possible to him that believeth. That once assured,
the cure is immediate. Thus by His healing work He engrains
in man the truth of saving Faith. G 2

84 St. MATTHEW IX. 29-34
say unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he 29
their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it
done unto you. And their eyes were opened. 3°
\?erni And Jesus l sl"ctly charged them, saying, See
that no man know it. But they went forth, and 31
spread abroad his fame in all that land.
And. as they went forth, behold, there was 32
brought to. him a dumb man possessed with a
2 Gr. * devil. And when the 2 devil was cast out, the 33
dumb man spake: and the multitudes marvelled,
saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the 34
3 Or, in Pharisees said, s By the prince of the * devils
'demons, casteth he out * devils.

30. strictly charged. It is more ' sternly enjoined ' (cf. Mark i.
43). But the fulfilment of the glorious prophecy : ' When the
eyes of the blind shall be opened ' (Isa. xxxv. 5) was too wonder
ful and intoxicating an experience. They could not help telling
what the Lord had done for them, though He Himself forbade
them. 32-4. A Dumb Man healed. This healing of the dumb man
is echoed in xii. 22-4 ; Luke xi. 14. But in the ministry of
healing there were many repetitions. The duplicates are not so
much in the narratives as in the facts. The cure of this particular
dumb demoniac provoked the same blasphemous comment as the
other in xii. 22-4, but it also elicited the cry of the multitude, which
is a valuable evidence, to us, ' It was never so seen in Israel.'
32. as they went forth, sc. of the house. Jesus was at this time
like a consulting-physician, and patients poured in to Him. The
mystery of demon-possession need not hinder the spiritual value
of Christ's work ; granted that the possession was only a theory
to explain the disease, yet the dumbness was indisputable, and
the recovery of speech was as if the dumb devil had left him.
33. marvelled. Some think that this remark applies to the long
series of miracles. But Matthew's intention is clearly to state
that this particular cure excited the feeling of the unprecedented
power. 34. Here is a striking instance of the different impressions which
the same event will make on different minds ; to the people the
dumb man speaking is an evidence of divine grace mastering the
devil, to the Pharisees it is an evidence of the devil playing tricks
with his own emissaries. According to the eye is the vision.

St. MATTHEW IX. 35-37 85
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and the
villages, teaching in their synagogues; and preach
ing the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all
manner of disease and all manner of sickness.
36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved
with compassion for them, because they were
distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a
37 shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples,
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers
35-8. Summary. This is a careful resume of all that has been
recorded in these nine chapters of the Gospel. It is a picture of
the Galilean ministry during the period of the Lord's popularity
and manifest success. Tb the brief description is added a sug
gestion of the feelings with which He regarded the people. And
then a statement of the need for labourers leads up to the con
version of the Twelve.
35. This repeats the general statement with which the picture
of the teaching and the healing was opened (iv. 23, 24). It gives
the key to the arrangement of these chapters, and shows that the
evangelist's design is not so much to give a connected narrative
as to group together the discourses which express His teaching
and preaching, and the incidents which illustrate His healing!
This is that Jesus who ' went about doing good ' (Acts x. 38), and
was for the time being the object of general admiration. The
muttered criticisms of the Pharisees were hardly as yet heard, and
the opposition which was to gather so quickly to a head was at
present perceptible only to Him. This is the first act of the
drama, but it passes into the second act (x-xiv. 12), in which He
becomes the object of hostility.
36. This is an invaluable picture of humanity as seen with
Christ's eyes. First He describes them as neglected sheep, then
as an unreaped harvest. His feeling is not blame but pity. He
blamed the leaders and teachers of the people, as neglectful shep
herds (cf. Num. xxvii. 17; 1 Kings xxii. 17; Ezek. _ xxxiv. 5).
The neglect of the shepherds was proved out of their own lips,
when they asked the amazing question : ' Why eateth your
master with publicans and sinners ? ' (ver. 11). What need we
any further witness ? They condemn themselves. The sheep
are ' flayed and scattered ', and the shepherds make that a reason
for not gathering or tending them. ^
37. The ' plenteous harvest ' is the religious possibility of man
kind. What they might be if there were some labourers to
gather in the sheaves, fills Him with concern. The labourers are
few, as yet only One qualified expert. The way to increase the

86 St. MATTHEW IX. 38— X. 1
are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the 38
harvest, that he send forth labourers into his
harvest. And he called unto him his twelve io
disciples, and gave them authority over unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner
of disease and all manner of sickness.
labourers is to pray ; perhaps partly because those who pray
thereby become labourers. All this is echoed in the appointment
of the Seventy recorded by Luke (x. a).
the Lord of the harvest. Cf. John xv. i, ' My Father is the
husbandman.' Here lies the hope that the great Proprietor will
not suffer His sheep to remain scattered, and His harvest to be
unreaped. He is chiefly concerned to get the work of His estate
done. If the law of its being demands human agents to carry on
the work, He will send forth, nay even ' thrust ' forth such
labourers. Indeed, when men begin to pray in earnest, they are
already at the gate of the harvest-field themselves.
Ch. x. Marching Orders of Apostles. After the direction to
pray for more labourers, the Master proceeded to commission
Twelve ; St. Luke gives an account of Seventy more commissioned
in a similar way, later on (Luke x. 1-16). The Twelve, it has
been thought, represent Christ's mission to the Twelve Tribes of
Israel, the Seventy His mission to the whole world, which was
believed to contain seventy nations. The call of four disciples —
Peter and Andrew, James and John — is recorded in iv. 18-22,
and of a fifth, Mattliew, in ix. 9. The process of gathering
disciples is indicated in viii. 18-22. But here the Twelve
are mentioned as if they had been already selected. In Mark it
is the same. Luke, on the other hand, assumes that there was
already a larger body of disciples from which the Twelve were
selected (Luke vi. 13). By the time that the first Gospel narratives
were written down the Twelve had become an established and
recognized institution ; the number seemed necessary and pre
ordained ; the title ' The Twelve ' was equivalent to ' the
Apostles '- The five already mentioned are the prominent group
in the Twelve. Philip and Thomas emerge out of obscurity in
the Fourth Gospel ; and Bartholomew too, if he is to be
identified with Nathanael (John i. 46). Simon the Cananaean —
could that mean 'of Cana ', as Jerome says?— called by St. Luke
' Zelotes ' (Luke vi. 15 ; Acts i/13) remains only a name, and so do
the rest, with the exceptipn of Judas, who attained not fame but
infamy as the betrayer. The eminence of Peter and John is due
to the obscurity of the other ten.
It will be noted that the paragraphs ver. 16-39 break the con
tinuity of the charge, which goes on smoothly from ver. 15 to ver. 40,

St. MATTHEW X. 2-5 87
2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are
these : The first, Simon, who is called Peter,
and Andrew his brother; James the son of
3 Zebedee, and John his brother ; Philip, and
Bartholomew ; Thomas, and Matthew the publi- 1 0r
can ; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddseus ; ?eak1-. See Luke
4 Simon the 1 Canansean, and Judas Iscariot, who vi. 15;
Acts i. 13,
5 also 2 betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent 2 or, de- '
-forth, and charged them, saying, mm% ¦.
Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and a"ways.
' Whosoever shall not receive . . . ' to ' he that receiveth you '.
The interpolated paragraphs are introduced according to Matthew's
custom of grouping together the material under certain heads.
The chapter, therefore, represents all that our Lord gave as
direction, warning, or encouragement to the Twelve at various
times. We have to distinguish, as the Holy Spirit guides us, between
the temporary directions of the commission and the eternal
principles which underlie them.
1. The Work of apostles. The first work of the disciple, as of
the Master, was to be a divine healer, casting out evil spirits and
curing disease. From Mark vi. 12 it appears that he also preached
repentance, but here also the stress is laid on the anointing with
oil and healing the sick. Here the preaching is in the form,
' The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ' (ver. 7). It has been too
often assumed that the healing was temporary, but the preaching
was permanent. Perhaps the time is at hand when it will be seen
that the commission cannot be thus bisected.
2. The Men. Here alone in this gospel are the men called
apostles (cf. Mark vi. 30). But in the later Gospel of Luke it is
a frequent designation. At first it means simply messengers ; it
was the grandeur of the message which gave to the messenger
the style and title and repute which are implied in our word
Apostolic. The Twelve are grouped in pairs, in the case of the first two
pairs because the pairs were brothers, in the case of the others
for reasons we do not know.
4. Iscariot. This may mean ' the man of Kerioth ', a town of
Judah (Josh. xv. 25 ; Jer. xlviii. 41) ; if this be so, the traitor was
the only Judaean in the company ; the rest were provincials,
Galileans. 5-42. The Commission. This may be analysed thus : (1) The
scope of the present mission, ver. 5-15. (2) The reproach of

88 St. MATTHEW X. 6-11
enter not into any city of the Samaritans : but 6
go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of 7
heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the 8
1 Gr. dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out ' devils : freely
emons. ^e recejve(j) freely give. Get you no gold, nor 9
2 Gr. silver, nor brass in your ! purses ; no wallet for 10
gtr " your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor
staff: for the labourer is worthy of his food.
And into whatsoever city or village ye shall ir
Christ, ver. 16-23. (3) The security in the Master, ver. 24-33.
(4) The warfare and fidelity unto death, ver. 34-9. (5) The
blessing on those who receive an apostle, ver. 40-2.
5-15. The Scope of the present Mission. This is obviously a
temporary direction, applying only to the particular tour now en
joined. It was a mission to Israel, before any effort should be made
for the Gentiles. ' It was necessary that the gospel should be first
preached ' to the House of Israel, and only when the Jews
rejected it might the apostles turn to the Gentiles (Acts xiii. 46).
The Samaritans the Lord visited Himself, but apostles were not
sent to them until after Pentecost (Acts viii. 5). The restriction
was necessary, because the messengers themselves had to be
trained, and they were not fit for a mission to the Gentiles until
Jesus was glorified and the Holy Spirit was given. Perhaps the
permanent principle underlying the passage is, that we are bound
first of all to make Christ known to those of our own house, and
only when the home duty is performed are we fitted for efforts
farther afield.
6. Christ yearned over the lost sheep : cf. ix. 36.
8. raise the dead. We are not told of any instance of raising
the dead at this time. But Peter remembered his commission
when he stood by the bier of Dorcas.
12. The old commentator, Euthymius Zigabenus, rightly appre
hends the significance of this injunction, when he says that the
Lord enjoins on His disciples ' a simple life '. It need, there
fore, be no difficulty that in Mark vi. 8-10 the staff and sandals,
here forbidden, are commanded. The details are secondary ; the
main thought is, that the messengers are not to be impeded, not to
entangle themselves with possessions, not to get or carry money,
and so to become, as preachers in the days of the Didache became,
XpiorlnnopoL, Christ-merchants. They need not even carry food,
for their ministry would always entitle them to support from those
whom they taught and healed.

St. MATTHEW X. 12-17 89
enter, search out who in it is worthy ; and there
1 2 abide till ye go forth. And as ye enter into the
13 house, salute it. And if the house be worthy,
let your peace come upon it : but if it be not
1 4 worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoso
ever shall not receive you, nor hear your words,
as ye go forth out of that house or that city,
15 shake, off the dust of your feet.. Verily I say
unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land
of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judge
ment, than for that city.
16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the
midst of wolves : be ye therefore wise as serpents,
1 7 and a harmless as doves. But beware of men : simple
13. your peace. That was the salutation : cf. i Sam. xxv. 6 ;
i Chron. xii. 18. The returning of the ' peace ' means the with
drawal of the salutation, as the visitor finds that he is not welcome,
and therefore will not stay.
14. shake the dust. It was the custom in returning from a
Gentile land to the sacred soil of Israel, to shake off the alien dust.
They of the House of Israel who would not receive the messengers
of Christ, were treated as ' not of Israel ', they became a sort of
spiritual Gentile. The ' Israelite indeed ' was he who recognized
and welcomed the Messias who had come. The rejection of the
opportunity ranked the town or village with the ' cities of the
plain '.
16-39. By referring to Luke x. 3, where much of this commis
sion is given later to the Seventy, we. justify the. view,, that
this long paragraph is interpolated by Matthew between ver. 15
and 40, according to his manner of grouping together the sayings
which refer to a particular subject.
16-23. The Reproach of Christ.
16. in the midst of wolves. Not 'to the wolves', but always
surrounded by powers that would destroy them. Are the wolves
men, or the principalities and powers in spiritual places ? From
the contrast presented in the next verse, of ' men ', we suppose that
the wolves are the unhuman enemies. The serpent's wisdom is
seen in Gen.' iii. 1 and implied in Ps. lviii. 5. On the other hand,
the dove is silly (Hos. vii. 11), but harmless ; the same word as in
Rom. xvi. 19.
17. men. The same as the ' world ' in St. John. The scourging
is recorded in Acts xxii. 19 ; 2 Cor. xi. 24.

oo St. MATTHEW X. 18-23
for they will deliver you up to councils, and in
their synagogues they will scourge you ; yea and 1 8
before governors and kings shall ye be brought
for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the
Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, be not 19
anxious how or what ye shall speak : for it shall
be given you in that hour what ye shall speak.
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 20
Father that speaketh in you. And brother shall 2 1
deliver up brother to death, and the father his
child : and children shall rise up against parents,
1 Or, put and 'cause them to be put to death. And ye 22
them to r J
death shall be hated of all men for my name's sake :
but he that endureth to the end, the same shall
be saved. But when they persecute you in this 23
city, flee into the next : for verily I say unto you,
Ye shall not have gone through the cities of
Israel, till the Son of man be come.
18. for a testimony. It is the appearance of martyrs in their
sufferings which has again and again won converts to Christ.
St. Alban so behaved before the magistrate that the soldier who
was to behead him knelt beside him and was beheaded as a
Christian. So it has always been. The Greek word is
martyrium. 20. the Spirit of your Father. An echo of vi. 32. The Father
knows and cares.
22. the end might be the end of the persecution ; but more
probably ' the end of the age ' (xiii. 39).
23. The obscurity of the saying would be relieved if, with
Lutteroth, we might take the title ' Son of Man ' not as a mere
synonym for the personal pronoun, but as the significant name
of Christ, in opposition to the strictly Jewish title ' Son of
David '. Then the meaning of the verse would be : 'Do not
linger in the evangelistic mission to the cities of Israel (cf. ver. 6),
but pass rapidly through, because before you finish the homeland
I shall have taken on my more universal title of Son of Man, i. e.
the messenger of God to humanity at large.' Cf. xvi. 28, where
' the Son of Man comes' in the Transfiguration. This also shows
how temporary was the restriction of the message lo Israel.

St. MATTHEW X. 24-29

9i

24 A disciple is not above his l master, nor a ior,
25 2 servant above his lord. It is enough for the s^w.
disciple that he be as his 'master, and the <"rv<""-
2 servant as his lord. If they have called the
master of the house 'Beelzebub, how much 'Gr- .
Beelsebul:
more shall they call them of his household ! and so
elsewhere.
26 rear them not therefore: for there is nothing
covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid,
27 that shall not be known. What I tell you in
the darkness, speak ye in the light : and what
ye hear in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
28 And be not afraid of them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and
20 body in 4 hell. Are not two sparrows sold for * Gr.
.... , . , , „ . „ Gehenna.
a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on

The Gospel of the Son of Man can apply to nothing short of all
mankind. 24_33- The security of the Disciple in the Master. Let us
not expect a better reception than Christ met with here, if we wish
to share His reception hereafter. He was called Beelzebub
(ix. 3, xii. 24). Let us welcome reproach for His dear name, as
Henry Martyn did.
24. master, i. e. Rabbi.
26. Fear them not. Repeated, ver. 28 and ver. 31. The flowing
tide is with the Christian. The faith is at first a secret in a hole
or corner ; but it is to spread. The apostle is to utter the secret
boldly in the daylight of human intercourse, even from the house
top, the most public of all positions.
28. Fear not the persecutor; but the tempter. The former has no
power over the soul ; the latter aims only at the soul. See v. 29,
where the words of Jesus explain the phrase here. On the other
hand, Jas. iv. 12 would suggest that not the tempter, but God is
meant. So Luke. — Mr. Allen explains ' fear not physical death.
But fear the wrath of God against unfaithfulness to Him, for He
can destroy soul and body together in Gehenna.'
29. farthing. The Roman coin, the as, is of the value of Jrf.
The Father is by the sparrow's death-bed : He is not likely to
forget one who is witnessing for His Well-beloved Son. The
hairs are numbered : cf. 1 Sam. xiv. 45. The gentle humour ot

92 St. MATTHEW X. 30-34
the ground without your Father : .but the Very 30
hairs of your head are ajl numbered. Fear not 31
therefore; ye are of more value than many
sparrows. Every one therefore who shall confess 32
j Gr. in 1 me before men, * him will I also confess before
2*Gr in my ^i^LJyijipJl^Jjl hegven. But whosoever 33
him- shall deny me before men,"him*wTltI afllo deny
before my Father which is in heaven. '• ^
3 Gr. cast. Think not that I came to 3 send pea-fie on the 34
earth : I came not to 3 send peace^but a sword.
 :  . . 1- .-. 
the words, ' ye are of more value than many spaarows,' gives ari
unspeakably intimate assurance to the disciple in HiSiJiour of peril.
32. shall confess me. It is really ' shall confess in ^^^M^use,
as Chrysostom says, -we confess by the grace of Chrjst. WecSn^
fess by being in Him. On the other hand, \yg deny Him, of
ourselves, by being out of Him altogether, - But the wonder
comes in the parallel clause : ' I ahs&«J|Rconfess in Him.' This
doa-ii-oc ifiean '"""¦¦^¦"'jU^*^'"? tuX'n the faithful disciple
jefore the throne of the FttW, but thftt He ^ ^ sq .n P^
disciple that in that great day the respo, ^ of the djg before
God will be Christ speaking in him. 13 , -„ , . , abide
in me and I in you ' (John xv 4). ^0
33. On the other hand, the djj^of christ here puts a man Qut
of Christ, and nejcessanlyj^^, Christ wiU declare that the man
is out of Him. We^jjfeonly complete in Him : if any man be in
Christ he is ^.^^Qx^aXwre.. Christ must necessarily disown those
who are ll0f ;n Him.
_Z'.,C9. The Warfare and Fidelity. This is a hard saying, one
which we are tempted to reverse, but for that very reason our Lord
was explicit in forewarning us what was to be expected. Natu
rally, from His whole character of love and mercy, and from His
exquisite law of conduct, His disciples would anticipate the im
mediate dawn of peace and harmony. But that could not be. The
immediate effect of accepting Christ and His claim was that the
disciple had to choose between Christ and the relatives or house
mates who were set against Him. Nothing would excite more
bitter and envenomed hostility than the calm tenacity with which
the true believer would cling to his invisible Lord. Homes would
be divided ; parents would attempt to coerce their children, and
even to kill them if they were obdurate. It cannot be doubted
that the Lord foresaw what would happen, and in this way from
the very first prepared His followers for the result.
34. The sword is perhaps only symbolical of the conflict which

St. MATTHEW X. 35-37 93
35 For I came 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-
37 hold. He 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

would ensue when a man or woman had determined to follow
Christ. In the event the sword has often been literal enough.
The Crusaders fought the infidel under the banner of the Cross.
Catholics and Protestants waged the Thirty Years' war. Scotland
was desolated by the Episcopal attempt to destroy the Covenant.
But these wars of religion were not contemplated by our Lord,
still less approved. And the domestic scene of the strife
described in ver. 35-6 justifies us in taking the sword merely as
a symbol of discord.
The younger people are the converts to the new faith ; the
young naturally begin the revolution in thought. They are con
fronted by the opposition of parents and relatives, and they
have to make the momentous choice. Christ or filial obedience,
which ? In that arduous conflict a scene is produced which
appears to be like the scene described by Micah vii. 6. Indeed,
the Lord is actually quoting the description of the apostate and
rebellious land given by the prophet : ' For the son dishonoureth
the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law ; a man's enemies are
the men of his own house.' But the resemblance is only on the
surface. The strife described by Micah is the disintegration of
a corrupt and avaricious society, in which the contending parties
are equally guilty ; but the strife described by our Lord is the
struggle between truth and error, between light and darkness,
between God and man. The great new truth of the Gospel has
entered a family ; traditional prejudices and superstitions war
against it ; the conflict is severe ; but truth will gain the day, and
out of the strife will come a higher kind of peace. All this is
implied in the context ; it is not expressed in these verses, because
the object here is simply to nerve the disciples to make the
right choice, and to prepare them to set Christ even before the
dearest earthly ties. The great argument has been frequently
abused and turned to perilous accounts, but it is essential and
irrevocable. 37. What a claim it is ! No earthly ties are closer than those
between parents and children, and yet one who loves these more
than Christ is not worthy of Him. Who can that be who makes

94 St. MATTHEW X. 38-40
me. And he that doth not take his cross and 38
follow after me, is not worthy of me. He that 39
»0r, 'findeth his "life shall lose it; and he that
^"orfsoui 3loseth his 2life for my sake shall find it.
3 °r' losi He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he 4°
that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

such a claim— king, prophet, philosopher, priest ? None of these
could demand love greater than the instinct of parental or filial
affection. Only the Creator, or a Saviour, could demand it, a
Creato r-Saviour.
38. This saying about the Cross occurs again in xvi. 24-5. It
was a Roman form of punishment, made familiar to the Jew by
the Roman government of the country ; the criminal carried his
own cross to the place of execution. From this familiar fact grew
up many figurative allusions. The disciples listening to the saying
before events had unrolled their Master's crucifixion would take it to
mean that their fidelity must go the length of bearing the extremity
of shameful suffering incurred at the hands of governments (see
ver. 22). But when, in process of time, the disciples saw their own
" "aster carry His cross and die upon it, they gave to the saying
thetlfeeper meaning which now comes most readily to our mind.
39. T-J;e Greek word if/vx". means life and soul. Naturally it
meant the. former, but more and more in Christian usage it meant
the latter. It is the double meaning which explains the paradox.
Suppose we are speaking only of the vital principle which makes
the organism of the body ; a man finds it at birth, it comes to
him naturally ; but it disappears again at death ; he finds and
keeps it only to lose it. But suppose he freely surrenders it, and
is willing to die for Christ's sake, that vital principle is a deeper
and more lasting entity, a ' soul ', an immortal soul. Where
Christ comes in, the hope of glory, and the seed of eternal life, a
man lays down his ' life ', but finds his ' soul '.
40-2. The Blessing on those who receive an Apostle. This
obviously follows closely on ver. 15. The Lord had just said
what would happen to those who would not receive His mes
sengers : now He shows what will happen to those who will
receive them.
40. He takes the reception given to His representatives as given
to Himself ; He claims that a reception given to Him is given to
God (Luke x. 16 j John xiii. 20). So Paul : ' Ye received me as
a messenger of God, even as Christ Jesus ' (Gal. iv. 14) : cf,
ch. xviii. 5, xxv. 40. The Spirit of the Father would speak
through the disciple, and in that sense it would be God HimseK
who was received or rejected. In Mark ix. 37 every little child
is in this sense made an apostle (so Luke ix. 48). Christ's own

St. MATTHEW X. 41— XI. 1 95
41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a
prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and
he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of
a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's
42 reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto
one of these little ones a cup of cold water only,
in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you,
he shall in no wise lose his reward.
11 And it came to pass, when Jesus had made
relation with the Father is stated in John xii. 44-5. Thus the
Divinity of Jesus is primary, but there is a secondary divinity of
those who believe in Him and speak for Him.
41. prophet. Compare the old prophets, Elijah at Zarephath
(1 Kings xvii. 10-15) or those protected by Obadiah (1 Kings
xviii. 4) or Elisha received by the Shunammite (2 Kings iv. 8).
But the minister of Christ is still called 'prophet' and 'scribe'
xiii. 51, xxiii. 34. To receive a prophet is as good as to be a prophet.
But some prophets were not righteous ; Christ therefore adds :
' He that receiveth a righteous man.' The phrase might mean
only a fulfiller of the law, but it carries in its bosom also the
righteousness which is of God by faith. The righteous man in
that deep evangelic sense is equivalent to Christian, or apostle
of Christ. ' See how He cares for their morals,' exclaims
Chrysostom. He makes no claim for His messengers except so
far as they are good.
42. these little ones, viz. the Apostles 1 Even the greatest
disciples of Christ are little ones, mere children, in comparison
with Him. Cf. xxv. 40 : 'a cup of cold water ' is mentioned as
a very little gift ; but, as a modern traveller says : ' In this hot
and dry land, where one can wander for hours without coming
on a brook or an accessible cistern, you say "thank you" for
a drink of fresh water with very different feelings than we do at
home' (Furrer).
Thus the Lord has identified Himself with His representatives :
the world's treatment of them He accepts as meted out to Him
self. In all their afflictions He is afflicted : in their victories He
triumphs. Those who further and help them become His creditors,
whom He will assuredly repay.
We see, then, in full what we are to expect, good and ill, suffering
and joy, when we follow Him. There is no secret ; all is made plain.
Ch. xi. The opposition to Jesus begins.
Even John the Baptist questions (ver. 1-19) ; the busy commercial
centres refuse Him (ver. 20-4) ; the ' wise and understanding ' are

96 St. MATTHEW XI. 2-4
an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he
departed thence to teach and preach in their
cities. Now when John heard in the prison the works 2
of the Christ, he sent by his disciples, and said 3
unto him, Art thou he that cometh, or look we
for another ? And Jesus answered and said unto 4
them, Go your way and tell John the things
blind to Him (ver. 25). The pious in the nation, the Pharisees,
show a hostility which deepens and strengthens (ch. xii, &c).
1. In Luke the matter of this chapter comes before the dispatch
of the apostles in ch. x, but here it is implied that the Twelve
were away on their mission, and He withdrew, in order to leave
them for awhile cast on their own resources.
2-19. Even John the Baptist doubts.
2. the Christ, i. e. Messias. The Forerunner, who had
recognized and announced Jesus as Messias, was in prison
(iv. 12), in Herod's stronghold of Machaerus (Jos. Ant. xviii. 5. 2).
There he had lain for a year. He thought that Messias, whose
function it was to set at liberty them that are bound, would have
liberated him. The ' works of the Christ ' were not what he had
anticipated. He foretold that Christ would lay the axe to the
root of the tree, and would come with His fan in His hand,
winnowing. The baptism he expected was of fire, burning the
chaff. He belonged to the order of Old Testament prophets, and
had no idea that love was the chief Messianic charisma. His
disciples still clung to him in prison ; only a few of them had
gone over to his great Successor. And probably they deepened
the depression and gloom of the prison atmosphere by re
presenting Christ as indifferent to him, and him as an injured
and ill-rewarded prophet. The magnanimity, which saw at the first
that he must decrease while Christ increased, was not proof
against the prison atmosphere. He had said that Jesus was
' He that should come ' (iii. 11). Now he was in doubt himself.
4. The answer of Jesus to the question, whether He was
Messias, is very characteristic. He does not rebuke John for
his doubt, but only says : ' Blessed is he who is not offended in
me.' He does not lay loud claim to His lofty title, but only
directs attention to His works, and leaves John to judge from
them, who He is. In the later narrative (Luke vii. 21) Jesus
works miracles there and then, to convince the messengers ; here
He appeals to the constant incidents of His ministry, the events
which have happened and are now on everybody's tongue
(viii. 1-4, ix. 1-7, 18-33).

St. MATTHEW XI. 5-8 97
5 which ye do hear and see : the blind receive
their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are
raised up, and the poor have 'good tidings gospJi"
6 preached to them. And blessed is he, whoso
ever shall find none occasion of stumbling in
7 me. And as these went their way, Jesus began
to say unto the multitudes concerning John,
What went ye out into the wilderness to behold?
8 a reed shaken with the wind ? But what went ye

5. have good tidings preached to them. The Greek word in the
passive (so Heb. iv. 2) is simpler : ' The dead are raised, and the
poor are evangelized.' As the Gospel is the chief thing, we may
assume that the spiritual significance of the miracles is more
important than the miracles themselves. The blind, the lame,
the lepers, the deaf and the dead, are types of the sinful souls
who are saved by the Gospel. Thus the ' dead ' may mean those
who are spiritually dead, as in viii. 22, those who were lost to
heaven and home, like the son in the parable (Luke xv. 24-32).
But we must not, with Wellhausen, cast a doubt on the physical
miracles, because their importance lay in their spiritual meaning.
It was the actual healing of the blind and the deaf and the lame
which showed to John how exactly Jesus fulfilled the Messianic
prophecy (Isa. xxxv. 5, lxi. 1). And Christ's power to raise men
to spiritual life is the reflex of His power to raise them from the
dead. On this point the witness of the fourth Gospel is explicit
(v. 24-8). Yet Jesus knew how these miracles of power were
and would be a stumblingblock to many.
6. All His disciples found an occasion of stumbling in Him
(xxvi. 31). We cannot help hoping that the message to John in
prison produced the desired effect, that he was convinced, and
did not find an occasion of stumbling. But we are not told.
7-10. When the messengers had set off for Machaerus, Jesus
turned to the crowds and explained exactly who and what John
was. He induces them to reflect by asking them what it was
that they went out into the Arabah— that is the wilderness of
Jordan — to see. In the Arabah the reeds grow, an emblem of
instability (1 Kings xiv. 15). ' What a vast space of time,' says
Furrer, a modern traveller, 'lies between the days of the Baptist
and us ! Yet the stream flows in the old bed. Still gently blows
the wind among the sighing reeds.' But it was not the supple
unstable reeds they went out to see.
H

lesser.

98 St. MATTHEW XI. 9-12
out for to see ? a man clothed in soft raiment ?
Behold, they that wear soft raiment are in kings'
1 Many houses. ' But wherefore went ye out ? to see a 9
authorities prophet ? Yea, I say unto you, and much more
what went than a prophet, This is he, of whom it is written, 10
^f"i'° Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
prophet? -yyUjQ gjj^j prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are n
born of women there hath not arisen a greater
2 Gr than John the Baptist ; yet he that is 2 but little
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,
And from the days of John the Baptist until 12
now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,

8. Nor was it a courtier, or adviser of kings, that they went
out to see.
9. It was a prophet, the exact opposite of reed or courtier,
a great prophet, the last of the order, and greater than all,
because he lived to see the day which all had foretold.
Yea. The same meaning as the Amen, so often on His lips
(cf. 2 Cor. i. ao ; Rev. i. 7). Then in express words Jesus says
that John was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Mal. iii. 1.
11-15. These verses seem as if they were addressed rather to
the disciples than to the crowds, but see note on ver. 1. In
Luke (xvi. 16) ver. 12 is addressed to the Pharisees.
11. greater. This refers to John's intrinsic worth.
arisen, i. e. the Lord raised him up (cf. Judges ii. 18, iii. 9).
And yet the future belongs not to him, but to Another. The
least believer, admitted into the Kingdom of God by faith in
Christ, is greater even than this greatest representative of the
old order, greater not in intrinsic worth, but in the possession of
a richer inheritance. Erasmus and Luther oddly explain 'the
lesser in the Kingdom ' to mean Christ himself, but Christ in His
humility never represented Himself as little in the Kingdom of
God. And the antithesis is spoilt by this freak of interpretation.
12. Cf. Luke xvi. 16, ' from the days of John the Baptist until
now' — a short interval in time, but so eventful in the trans
formation of human hope that it seemed a great epoch. The
character of the epoch is now described in words which remain
ambiguous. The 'men of violence', thinks Wellhausen, are the
zealots who wished to make war with Rome on behalf of the
Kingdom ; fellow-soldiers with the Christians, though deluded,

St. MATTHEW XL 13-16

99

"3 and men of violence take it by force. For all
the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
»4 And if ye are willing to receive xit, this is Elijah, 1 Or, him
15 which is to come. He that hath ears sto hear, anS
16 let him hear. But whereunto shall I liken this ^%ities
generation ? It is like unto children sitting in *"""•
the marketplaces, which call unto their fellows,
and say, We piped unto you, and ye did not
nearer the Kingdom than John, though not yet knowing what
spirit they were of. Dalman {Words of Jesus, p. 14a), failing to
find an Aramaic original for the phrase, urges that we should not
give it a meaning contrary to the general tenor of the teaching of
Jesus : he inclines to refer the violence to rulers and other
authorities who persecute the Kingdom of God, and its subjects ;
' take it by force ' would then mean, ' seize or arrest the persons
of those who constitute the Kingdom of God.'
But Bruce expresses the commoner view : the violence is
approved ; it represents the eager rush for the Kingdom of God,
reflected in the Gospel narrative (ver. 25, ix. 9-12) which followed
on the moral reformation of John. This view harmonizes better
with ver. 11 and ver. 13. Until John the Old Testament regime,
the prophets, and the Law continued. With him the new
regime began, and though he did not himself belong to it, the
eager entrance into the kingdom, the production of others greater
than himself, was due to him.
14. If they would lay aside prejudice they would see that John
was the . Elijah expected on account of Malachi's prophecy
(Mal. iv. 5; in LXX, 'Elijah the Tishbite'). Jesus stated this
even more explicitly (Mark ix. 1*^13).
15. He that hath ears. The first use in the Gospel of this solemn
formulary. It is Christ's thought throughout that all defects lie in
the recipient, the perceiver. If we would see, hear, believe, all
truth, all power, is there.
16-19. The perversity of our human judgements in the estimate
of Divine revelation is illustrated by a homely reference to a
children's game. From Luke vii. 29-30 we may infer that by
' this generation ' He means the Pharisees and Scribes in contrast
with the people. The people as a whole listened to John, and to
Christ. But the Pharisees reject hoth (ix. 11) ; see xii. 38-45.
.17. When these words are put back into Aramaic they appear
as a song : We played and you would not dance,
We mourned and you would not weep.
The value of the illustration for us is not so much its aptness,
H 2

ioo St. MATTHEW XI. 18, 19
i Gr. beat dance ; we wailed, and ye did not ' mourn. For 18
' Gr.r'"J/ John came neither eating nor drinking, and they
demon. say jje nath a 2 devil. The Son of man came 19
' Or, was J '
'Many eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a
authorities gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of
Children ¦ publicans and sinners ! And wisdom 8 is justified
vii.i".,Luke by her4 works.

as the delightful suggestion it gives us of our Lord's observation
of children at their play.
18. The illustration shows the perversity and waywardness of
mind which, resolved to reject God and truth in every form, will
have an objection ready for the most opposite forms in which it
may come. 'John came neither eating nor drinking.' The
negative in the Greek expresses a subjective idea ; it is equivalent
to ' neither (so they said) eating nor drinking.' It was a charge,
not the fact. They took exception to his asceticism ; he was,
they declared, deranged.
19. The son of man. The title is used significantly, suggesting
that He was human, genial, fraternal. And they charged Him with
loose living. They affixed the title of reproach (cf. ix. 11) which
has been taken up as His greatest glory. They called Him a friend
of publicans and sinners. And so He is.
But as they objected to both modes, which was right ? Both
were right. The Prophet and the Saviour, the Old Testament
and the New Testament, the Forerunner and He who was to
come. They represent the two processes in the spiritual life,
' repenting and believing the Gospel '. To reject each separately
is indeed folly : for the two, like a binary star, shed their true light
in combination. This generation of Pharisees had shown their
folly by rejecting John ; and they were going to confirm it by
rejecting Jesus.
wisdom is justified by her works. The aorist tense is what is
called gnomic ; it is a proverbial saying. Wisdom shows that she
is wisdom by results. To fools she appears folly ; and even to
the would-be-wise her ways are not immediately clear. This
wisdom (Achamoth) is the wisdom of God : cf. Luke xi. 49. See
Rom. xi. 33 ; 1 Cor. i. 21-4, where Christ Himself is that Wisdom.
Also Eph. iii. 10 ; Rev. vii. 12. The alternative reading, ' children '
for ' works ', is from Luke vii. 35. Her children are certainly not
the Pharisees ; the sons of the Kingdom are cast out (viii. 12).
They are those enlightened souls to whom the Kingdom taken
from the wise is given (xi. 25). The paradox is that the wisdom
of men is often found to be elaborate folly, and only the wisdom
which is from above deserves the name. But the wise in this

powers.

St. MATTHEW XI. 20-22
20 Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein
most of his J mighty works were done, because ^Gr.
21 they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin!
woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the : mighty
works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which
were done in you, they would have repented
22 long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Howbeit I
world remain strangely ignorant of this ; the wise by whom
Wisdom is justified, are often the babes.
20-30. The contrast between those who reject and those
who receive Him.
20-4. those who reject.
20. Then, as Matthew arranges his material, this description of
the cities that would not repent follows on the general charge
against the ' generation * that would not receive either John or
John's Lord. ' The wise and understanding ' of ver. 27 are in
contrast with the ' wisdom ' and her works, or children, of
ver. 19.
the cities. These towns in the busy district of Galilee stand for
the commercial spirit, which is too absorbed in the pursuit of gain
to have ears to hear Christ. Though some few from these towns
gave ear to Him and repented, we gather that the community as
a whole remained unmoved.
si. Chorazin, not mentioned elsewhere, must have been on the
west of the lake, near Capernaum ; perhaps the road to Tyre ran
through it. It shows how few details we have of Christ's ministry,
that nothing is recorded of the mighty works that \\ ere done in this
town. Bethsaida, on the east shore, near the mouth of the Jordan ;
the name means ' fishing-house ', mentioned Mark vi. 45, in
connexion with the 'walking on the sea' ; Mark viii. 22, in con
nexion with the healing of the blind ; Luke ix. 10, in connexion
with the feeding of the multitude. Bethsaida therefore had
seen mighty works done. The town gave the Lord three of His
first disciples — Andrew, Simon and Philip. And yet it did not
repent. Tyre and Sidon, as great commercial cities, had been de
nounced by the prophets for their pride and luxury (Amos i. 9, 10 ;
Isa. xxiii ; Ezek. xxvi, xxviii). Yet their moral hardness was not
equal to that of Galilee.
in sackcloth and ashes, the signs of penitence (Job xiii. 6,
Jonah iii. 8). As cities the judgement has been passed with an
equal severity on all. For the wretched remains of Tyre and
Sidon are no more ' tolerable ' than the disappearance of Chorazin
and Bethsaida. But the day of judgement (Acts xvii. 31) points

102 St. MATTHEW XI. 23, 24
say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre
and Sidon in the day of judgement, than for
1 Many you. And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be ex- 23
authorities *lted unto heaven? thou shalt 'go down unto
IVfugAt Hades : for if the " mighty works had been done
down. m Sodom which were done in thee, it would have
powers, remained until this day. Howbeit I say unto 24
you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land
of Sodom in the day of judgement, than for thee.
to the doom of the individuals who inhabited the cities. And the
responsibility of having seen Christ and remained impenitent is
greater than -that of those who never saw His earthly day, and
Will confront Him first in His heavenly reign.
23. Capernaum. The question ' shalt thou be exalted to heaven ? '
implies that in the expectation of the inhabitants, it was or would
be. The words are an echo of what is said of Babylon and her
king in Isa. xiv. 13-14 ; cf. Lam. ii. 1. Grotius, followed by some
moderns, like De Wette, supposed that the exaltation was the
sense of abounding prosperity. Capernaum was the Babylon, or
the Tyre, of Galilee ; she considered her mercantile supremacy
secured. The thrusting down to Hades is thus the same fate that
was predicted for the other commercial queen, Tyre, in Ezek. xxvi.
20. At Tel Khum, which is the more probable site of Capernaum,
more probable than Khan Minyeh, a mile or two south, the
Franciscans, who now guard the spot, have unearthed the ruins of
a fine Graeco-Roman building, which one is tempted to identify
with the synagogue which the centurion built. The writer,
standing among those ruins in the blazing heat, sought protection
under a shrub, which, looking up, he found to be a mustard-plant,
and putting out his hand to pluck what appeared to be an ear of
barley, he discovered that it was a tare.
But if the old reading ' thou that wast exalted to heaven ' might
be kept, or if its meaning could be found in the question, we
might say that Capernaum was exalted to heaven because, as the
residence of Jesus, it was the most favoured spot on earth. There
He lived as a man among men, and the whole series of His
miracles was unfolded before those fortunate eyes. Even Sodom
would have repented at that display of grace. Dean Stanley's
suggestion that there are more ruins traceable of Sodom by the
Dead Sea than there are of Capernaum, would hardly cover the
idea of Sodom's superiority. But the unspeakable sins of Sodom
were not in Christ's eyes so incurable, or beyond repentance, as
the callous indifference of Capernaum.
24. the land of Sodom stands for the people. That population

St. MATTHEW XL 25-27 103
25 At that season Jesus answered and said, I
x thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and \%;-se
earth, that thou didst hide these things from the
wise and understanding, and didst reveal them
26 unto babes : yea, Father, 2 for so it was well- 2 °r> that
27 pleasing in thy sight. All things have been
in which there were not ten righteous will receive a doom bearable
in comparison with the ' depart from me ' pronounced on the
people of Capernaum. This is the most solemn verdict of Christ's
consciousness against those who are too immersed in business to
come to Him.
25-30. Those who come unto Him.
25. At that season. Cf. Luke x. 21, 22 ; we cannot take the term
as a specific note of time (xii. 1). At the most it means ' during
that Galilean ministry '.
answered. As it stands here, the 'answer' seems to be to the
general neglect and rejection of His ministry, which might have
produced annoyance or remonstrance. On the contrary He jdy-
fully (see Luke) accepts the law of His Father's will, and sees
the true success where nothing but failure appeared.
/ thank thee. It is the same word as in Ps. Ixxv. 1. It is more
than our common thanks. It is adoring acquiescence — the
unquestioning and absolute acceptance of the Father's 'good
pleasure' (ver. 26).
Father. Jesus never addresses the Father in the form He
appoints for us. ' Our Father which art in heaven ' ; but only as
Father, the Father (ver. 26), or my Father (xxvi. 39, 42).
Lord of heaven and earth. The veil lifts, and He is gazing
on the majesty of God ; as He gazes, our eyes follow His gaze,
and we, too, see the Supreme.
these things, i. e. the whole burden of His teaching and works,
a scandal to that generation and the subsequent generations.
the wise and understanding. The wise are the philosophers,
the understanding are the shrewd, practical men. The epithets
were designed by God for Israel (Deut. iv. 6) ; who were, pre
sumably, the ' children of Wisdom ' (Luke vii. 35). But their
wisdom had become blind ; their understanding was perverted ;
Wisdom was justified of her children, in disclaiming them.
babes. He thought literally of children, who have a heavenly
wisdom before they are darkened by the wisdom of this world.
But He also meant those who retain or recover their childlikeness.
There is a childishness which we must outgrow (1 Cor. xiii. 11,
xiv. 20 ; Heb. v. 13). But Jesus is thinking of the childlikeness
which witnesses to our origin (xviii. 3).
26. well-pleasing. For this good pleasure of the Father, see

104 St. MATTHEW XI. 28
delivered unto me of my Father : and no one
knoweth the Son, save the father ; neither doth
any know the Father, save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Mm. Come 28
Eph. i. 5-9; Phil. ii. 13. It is the acceptance of God's good
pleasure as decisive and sufficient that gives the zest to the joy of
Jesus : the same word, in its verbal form, in iii. 17.
27. Here the corporeal Gospel, as the Fathers call the Synoptics
in contrast with the Fourth Gospel, seems to speak the same
language as the spiritual gospel.
have been delivered. The word suggests the ' tradition ' of
which Jewish religion consisted ; but ' tradition ' undergoes a
change of meaning when it signifies that which is handed down
from God to His well-beloved Son. This is the only tradition in
which the soul can finally rest. The ' all things ' include not only
truths of doctrine, but power and authority (xxviii. 18 ; John iii. 25,
xvii. 2 ; Eph. i. 22). This absolute use of Son and Father occurs
also in Mark xiii. 32, but it is the normal language of the Fourth
Gospel. no one knoweth the Son save the Father. Wellhausen holds this
to be an interpolation, a kind of balance to the subsequent clause.
How true it is that these things are not revealed to the wise !
It was the sense that His Father alone knew Him which kept
Him so calm in the midst of universal misunderstanding, when He
was called a glutton, and supposed to be possessed by a devil ;
when John the Baptist doubted Him, and when His disciples for
sook Him, leaving Him alone, yet not alone, for the Father was
with Him. And this side of His great saying each one of us can
appropriate; though we cannot say, 'No one knoweth the Father,
but I,' we can say ' No one knoweth me but the Father'.
On the other hand, the Son's peculiar knowledge of the Father
is the truth which rings all through the Fourth Gospel (i. 18,
vi. 46, vii. 29, viii. 19, x. 15, xvii. 25). It is the intimate revelation
of Christianity (cf. Heb. i. 1). And the power He has to reveal
the Father to men, is the Gospel (John xvii. 26). The uniqueness
of Christ's nature is here unequivocally stated. We can become
sons of God mediately through Him. He is intrinsically the Son
of God. ' Nowhere do we find that Jesus called Himself the
Son of God in such a sense as to suggest a merely religious and
ethical relation to God — a relation which' others also actually
possessed, or which they were capable of attaining or destined
to acquire ' (Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 287).
7o whomsoever the Son willeth. That, if it stood alone, as it
does in Luke, might fill the soul with apprehension. For it
seems to imply that if we know not the Father, it is because the
Son has not wished to reveal Him to us. But here at least all

St. MATTHEW XI. 29 I05
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
29 and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly
doubt is removed ; for the statement of Christ's exclusive know
ledge is followed at once by His universal invitation.
a8. Pfleiderer dismisses the invitation as an invention concocted
out of certain Old Testament passages. But, as Dr. Bruce says,
this passage does not smell of the lamp. It is the most sponta
neous and inevitable exclamation of the heart of the Son, whose
function it is to show men the Father.
Its significance is only apprehended when the parallelism with
Ecclus. li. B3-7 is pointed out.1 There, Jesus ben Sirach, speaking
in the name of Wisdom, uses the words which form the ground-
plan of our passage : here Jesus, Son of God, takes the words, and
as the Heavenly Wisdom gives them a personal meaning which
none but He could claim ; and in using the words in that personal
way, He shows who He is.
The echo of such Old Testament passages as Isa. xiv. 3 ; xxviii.
12, lv. 1-3 ; Jer. vi. 16, xxxi. a, 25 (Ecclus. vi. 24, 25, 28, 29 ;
li. 23-7) brings out, by contrast, the wonder of Jesus bidding men
come to Him personally, implying that He is the Wisdom of God.
But no one could have compiled these few words and put them
into His mouth, unless it were one who had learnt from His own
lips who He is.
heavy laden, with the burdens of the Jewish law (xxiii. 4)
and its false traditions (Mark vii. 6-13), contrasted with the new
tradition of living Godship. Or the burdens may be more general
— it is sorrowful, overdone, humanity, that the Son comes to bring
into His rest.
29. my yoke ; the yoke which Christ lays on the soul. This is,
perhaps, His teaching, as in Ecclus. li. 26. But it may be His
authority, as Yokhanan ben Zakkai (a. d. 80) speaks of 'the
yoke of the heavenly sovereignty ', in contrast with ' the yoke of
flesh and blood ' (Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 92).
meek and lowly in heart, i. c. ready to accommodate Himself
to ' babes '. Martineau suspects the words, because they seem to
1 Draw near unto me, ye unlearned,
And lodge in the house of instruction.

Put your neck under the yoke,
And let your soul receive instruction.
Behold with your eyes,
How that I laboured but a little,
And found for myself much rest.

106 St. MATTHEW XI. 30— XII. 2
in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 30
At that season Jesus went on the sabbath day ia
through the cornfields; and his disciples were
an hungred, and began to pluck ears of corn,
and to eat. But the Pharisees, when they saw 2
it, said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that
which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath.
him incompatible with the humility £f Jesug^Bul He7 if no one
else, could reach the lowlinejg-orheaft "whichcfen describe itself
accurately. It would .he 'more reasonable to reject the words
because one who alone knew the Father and wp able to reveal
Him could hardly be ' lowly'. But that is thejmoral miracle of
Jesus, the Divine Greatness in the form of an absolute lowliness
(Phil. ii. 6-8). The yoke is not the attempt to imitate Jesus, nor
is the burden that which He bore. But comingjtjo Him and
learning of Him, we find the yoke of His obedieno*casy) and the
burden of allegiance to Him light. /
Ch. xii. The weary and heavy-laden cojkio Him, and are
WELCOMED AS HlS MOTHER AND BRETHREN^ /THE WISE AND UNDER
STANDING, the Pharisees, harden int^^n opposition which
BECOMES MURDEROUS. ^j
1-21. Jesus appears as Lord of tffleSabbath. His withdrawal
from the wrath of the Pharisees rrives the evangelist occasion to
sketch His portrait in the words >sf Isa. xiii. 1-3.
1-8. The Sabbath was the ide I of contemporary Pharisaism. It
had become, instead of an aid to, religion, a tyrannical burden to
-stratsT-The Son of Man was b<aiind to rescue the institution from
its degradation and to reassert its spiritual significance. The first
occasion of doing this necesssry work was a breach of Sabbath
rigorism which only a very watchful enmity would have observed.
It was the end of March^jtire time of the barley harvest, and of
Passover. Perhaps w«Tnay connect the season with John v. 1.
It was, says Luke yfc' 1, the first-second Sabbath, if that inexplic
able adjective Js^not, as Bruce thinks, a gloss. It was legal to
pluck ears in passing through a cornfield, though not to use a
sickle (Deut. xxiii. 25). But to do so on the Sabbath seemed to
Pharisaism outrageous, for it was a kind of reaping. So in Scot
land at one time the use of a razor on Sunday was forbidden as a
kind of reaping. To rub the ears in the hand (Luke) was a
kind of threshing.
1. They hungered, not He. He always had meat which they
knew not of.
2. that which it is not lawful to do. The Law was silent on

St. MATTHEW XII. 3-7 107
3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what
David did, when he was an hungred, and they
4 that were with him ; how he entered into the
house of God, and ] did eat the shewbread, ' So.me
' ancient
which it was not lawful for him to eat, neither authorities read they
for them that were with him, but only for the did eat.
5 priests ? Or have ye not read in the law, how
that on the sabbath day the priests in the temple
6 profane the sabbath , and are guiltless? But I
say unto you, that * one greater than the temple a Gr. a
1 is here. But if ye had known what this meaneth, gthl%g
I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not

the point. But Jesus prefers to cite positive and unexpected
examples rather than to use the silence, of Scripture.
3. Have ye not read? so xxi. 16. They had read the Scriptures
with blind eyes. 1 Sam. xxi. 6 tells how David went alone to
Abimelech — yet it was in the lifetime of David's friend Abiathar,
as Mark says (ii. 26 marg.) — but it is implied that ' they that
were with him ' ate too. The shewbread might only be eaten by
the priests (Ex. xxv. 30 ; Lev. xxiv. 5-9).
4. Entering into the house of God was a violation of the
regulations, still more so was the eating of the shewbread ;
perhaps also it was on the Sabbath day. The instance shows
how the strictest ordinances of the cultus might give way to a real
necessity, and God, who loves mercy more than sacrifice, will
approve. 5. This more general instance is not in Mark (ii. 23, 27), who,
on the other hand, gives us the saying which is not here, ' the
Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.' The
priests defile the Sabbath, if these necessary acts of utility are
profanation, by killing the Iamb for the morning and evening
sacrifice (Num. xxviii. 9, 10), by setting the shewbread on the
table (Lev. xxiv. 8 ; 1 Chron. ix. 32), and by circumcizing on that
day, if it was the eighth day after birth.
6. greater than the temple— or 'something greater'. If the
former, He Himself, cf. ver. 41, 42 ; and see in John ii. 21 how He
speaks of Himself as the Temple. But the something greater
may be the Law of Love referred to in ver. 7.
7. His favourite quotation from Hos. vi. 6 (see ix. 13), the echo
of Mic. vi. 6-8. It was shocking to Him that the so-called law of
God should forbid the hungry to eat.

108 St. MATTHEW XII. 8-12
have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of 8
man is lord of the sabbath.
And he departed thence, and went into their 9
synagogue : and behold, a man having a withered 10
hand. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful
to heal on the sabbath day? that they might
accuse him. And he said unto them, What man 1 1
shall there be of you, that shall have one sheep,
and if this fall into a pit on the sabbath day,
will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out ? How u
much then is a man of more value than a sheep !

8. This inexhaustible oracle deepens in meaning as we read
into ' the Son of Man ' all its possible references. As Christ, He
can claim the institution of the Sabbath ; it is His prerogative to
own it, to interpret it, to preside over it, to ennoble it, to enlarge
it into the Lord's day (Rev. i. 10). As the typical man, embodied
humanity, he insists on making the institution human. Chrysos
tom perceived this bearing of the words when he commented :
' He was speaking about Himself, but Mark says that He spoke
about our common nature', referring to Mark ii. 27.
9-14. On another Sabbath (Luke vi. 6) He healed a withered
hand. 10. The man, according to the Gospel of the Hebrews, and
Jerome, was a mason. As he could not work on the Sabbath,
the cure might have been postponed till next day. In Mark
(iii. 2) they watched malignantly, here they ask expressly if the
cure may be wrought on the Sabbath.
11. The illustration of the sheep is used again. by Jesus in
Luke xiv. 1-6. In the Talmud, perhaps in order to censure His
use of the illustration, it is written that if an animal falls into
the ditch on the Sabbath, provided it is in no danger, it shall be
left there. The question of Jesus lays a stress on the ' man ' as
if He meant ' Which of you with the feelings of a man will leave
an animal in a pit ? ' A righteous man regardeth the life of his
beast (Prov. xii. 10).
12. Mark iii. 5 tells us that the words were hot with indignation ;
but Matthew tends to tone down the human traits in Jesus. The
supreme value of humanity was with Jesus an axiom, to man him
self it is a hard discovery. He goes right to a spiritual instinct,
past all laws and institutions ; and it is the force of that appeal
which exasperates the objectors. God does good on the Sabbath
(John v. 16-17), therefore Christ must, therefore. man may.

St. MATTHEW XII. 13-18 roo
Wherefore it is lawful to do good on the sabbath
>3 day. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth
thy hand. And he stretched it forth ; and it was
14 restored whole, as the other. But the Pharisees
went out, and took counsel against him, how
15 they might destroy him. And Jesus perceiving
it withdrew from thence : and many followed
16 him ; and he healed them all, and charged them
17 that they should not make him known: that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken ' by Isaiah ' °r> .
the prophet, saying,
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 declare judgement to the Gen
tiles.

13. And yet He did not violate even the most rigid rules of
Pharisaism, for, after all, He healed the arm by a word. Thus
it was evident that the work, if work it was, was God's ; and
to bring accusation against Him was to bring it against His
heavenly Father. The life-giving word of Jesus is an actual force ;
it is creative (Heb. xi. 3) as well as restorative. No material
resistance can avail against it.
14. This evidence of His union with God, and of the Divine
love at work, was irresistible. But determined prejudice against
truth is only irritated by additional evidence. And this act of
mercy decided the Pharisees (and the Herodians, says Mark iii. 6)
to kill Him.
15-ai. As Jesus withdraws to escape the plots to kill Him
(to the sea, says Mark), the evangelist takes the opportunity to
draw His portrait, and to present all the activities which have
been described, in a loose quotation of Isa. xiii. 1-6, a quotation
not taken from the Hebrew nor from the Greek (LXX), but perhaps
from the Chaldee Targum (Lutteroth).
16. This is a condensation of Mark's far fuller epitome of His
work (iii. 7-12).
18-21. In contrast with the distorted image of Jesus in the
minds of the Pharisees, here is the real Jesus, foreseen in the
mind of an old prophet. The evangelist is surprised at the
closeness of the delineation. He understands the withdrawal,

no St. MATTHEW XII. 19-21
He shall not strive, nor cry aloud ; 19
Neither shall any one hear his voice in the
' streets.
A bruised reed shall he not break, ao
And smoking flax shall he not quench,
Till he send forth judgement unto victory.
And in his name shall the Gentiles hope. "
and the injunction not to make him known, as the fulfilment of
that clause in the prophecy which seemed at first most unsuitable
to describe one whose message and work must go to the ends
of the earth (ver. 19). He sees in the opposition of the Jewish
leaders the preparation for a world-wide evangel (ver. 18, 21).
He drops out the words of Isa. xiii. 4, ' He shall not fail nor be dis
couraged,' because his eyes are exclusively on Christ's gentle and
encouraging way with others (ver. ao).
This beautiful description follows the events which have been
up to this point described by the evangelist. The opening words
of ver. 18 point to the baptism (iii. 13-17) ; ver. 19 seems to
describe the gentleness of the Sermon on the Mount (v-vii) ;
ver. ao describes the healing ministry to discouraged and
broken people, with His favourite word ' be of good cheer ' ;
ver. aj points to the ingathering of Gentiles, e.g. the centurion
(viii. 5-13).
But the words cover far more than the incidents which have
been recorded. Their meaning is only apprehended when we
trace the actual work of Christ in the Spirit. Looking back on
what Christ has done in the world, and forward to what He
is yet to do, one cannot but marvel that the words of an ancient
prophet should so long beforehand anticipate the spiritual influence
of Christ, to the end of time.
The description of the nature of Christ as the chosen servant,
and the beloved of God, on whom the Spirit is put, is the most
satisfactory solution of the mysterious personality that we can
obtain. The assertion that He will be the hope of the Gentiles,
an4 will bring judgement to them, and never cease until His
judgement issues in victory (or truth, according to LXX), explains
the missionary element of Christianity which may slumber, but
never dies. The stillness and inwardness of His work, in
contrast with the noise, the self-advertisement, the contentiousness
of His followers, recall His followers to their original. And the
heart of mercy which uttered the great invitation of xi. a8, is
perfectly explained in the promise that He will not crush the
weak, the dispirited, the contrite ; nor will He quench even the
faintest hope of good in any human soul.
If the evangelist had drawn the portrait in his own words it

St. MATTHEW XII. 22-25 in
22 Then was brought unto him 'one possessed >or,a
with a devil, blind and dumb : and he healed d"noniac
him, insomuch that the dumb man spake and
23 saw. And all the multitudes were amazed, and
24 said, Is this the son of David ? But when the
Pharisees heard it, they said, This man doth not
cast out 2 devils, but 3by Beelzebub the prince *Gr-
25 of the 2 devils. And knowing their thoughts he * or, in
said unto them, Every kingdom divided against

would have been sufficiently impressive, but to find the exact
portrait drawn for him in the marvellous book of the exile written
five centuries before, brings home to us with a shock of revelation
who He is that is thus portrayed.
32-37. The contrast between the Jesus of prophecy and
fact (ver. 18-21), and the Jesus of the Pharisees' perverse
fancy. The Pharisees commit the unpardonable sin.
22. one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb. It may be
the same incident as ix. 32-4 : cf. Luke xi. 14, for differences of
detail ; here repeated to introduce the malicious charge of the
Pharisees and its refutation (see ix. 34). From the parallel in
Mark iii. 30, where the libel is rebutted without any specific
narrative of the cure, we gather that the expose oi the Pharisees
was made in the presence of a multitude, and at the time when
Jesus's own relatives had come to arrest Him, thinking He was
' beside himself (cf. 2 Cor. v. 13).
23. Is this? The form of the question in the Greek implies
a negative answer. They think He may be Messias, but are
afraid to offend the Pharisees by saying so : cf. the question of
the woman (John iv. 29) and that of the blind man (John ix. 27).
the son of David. Messias, ix. 27, xxi. 9, 15 (cf. Mark
xi. 10).
24. In Mark's account the Pharisees had come down from
Jerusalem to watch and to report, not to act ; for the jurisdiction
of the Sanhedrin did not extend to Galilee. It was agreed to
parry the effect of Jesus's cures by saying that they were wrought
by the personal prince of evil spirits, in whose existence and
activity the popular religion of the time implicitly believed.
25. So Luke xii. 17 : ' Knowing (not only their words, but
also) their thoughts,' viz. that they did not believe their own
theory, but invented it in order to discredit Him. The argument
He advances is, like all His teaching, an appeal to common sense

112 St. MATTHEW XII. 26-29
itself is brought to desolation ; and every city
or house divided against itself shall not stand :
and if Satan casteth out Satan, he is divided 26
against himself; how then shall his kingdom
1 or, in stand ? And if 1 1 by Beelzebub cast out 2 devils, 2 7
2 Gr. 1 by whom do your sons cast them out ? there-
demons. J J
fore shall they be your judges. But if I by the 28
Spirit of God cast out 2 devils, then is the king
dom of God come upon you. Or how can one 29
enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil
his goods, except he first bind the strong man ?
against prejudice. A divided kingdom, city, or house, is ruined.
If Satan casts out Satan, there is an end of the power of dark
ness. The theory is shown to be absurd.
27. But He pushes them farther.
your sons. According to a familiar Hebrew idiom, sons are
they who are of a cognate disposition, e. g. ' the sons of the king
dom ' and ' the sons of the evil one ', xiii. 38, so ' the sons of
those who slew the prophets ' (Matt, xxiii. 31). We may com
pare Acts xiii. 10, ' son of the devil,' and 2 Kings vi. 32. So the
Rabbis spoke of ' a son of the age to come ' or ' the sons of the
upper room (the heavenly world).' Their sons, then, people who
agreed with the Pharisees, were exorcists. By incantation and
formulae tbey attempted to heal the insane. Did they work by
Beelzebub ? That of course they would not say : their own ' sons '
would condemn them if they said so. But how could they suggest
that when Jesus was doing, more effectually, what they did, He
was an agent of Satan ? The prejudice of the theory was
exposed. 28. But if I by the Spirit, &c. That is the only alternative.
There are only two powers— God and Satan, Good and Evil. For
' Spirit of God ', the Aramaic original would be ' the Holy Spirit ',
cf. x. 20 ; Luke has ' finger of God ', referring to the Divine
Power, rather than the Divine indwelling. ' The Kingdom of
God ' is not only near (x. 7), but is come ! It has, in the person
of the Messias, alighted upon them ! The power of Jesus against
evil spirits makes the theocracy recognizable even to outward
vision ; and they deny it.
29. Strong is Satan, but the stronger is here, who binds the
owner of the world and spoils thoroughly his goods. The Son
of Man is manifested to destroy the works of the devil. The
parable suggests Isa. xlix. 24-5.

St. MATTHEW XII. 30-32 n3
30 and then he will spoil his house. He that is not
with me is against me; and he that gathereth
3i not with me scattereth. Therefore I say unto
you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 2 some
1 > , , r , ancient
unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Spirit authorities
3 2 shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall you men.
30. The sayings that follow are perhaps attached to the
preceding on Matthew's principle of grouping ; in Luke xi. 33-6
a different sequence is given. If this be so we need not torture
the words to find connexion between this verse and ver. 39.
He that is not with me describes a half-hearted follower,
rather than avowed opponents like the Pharisees. It is the note
of exclusiveness in the service of Christ which we heard in
x. 37. Because Christ is one with God, and God is one, whoever
»is not with Christ will scatter instead of gathering. The converse
side of the paradox (Mark ix. 40) states ' he that is not against us,
or you, is for us ' ; there the personal claim of Christ is in the
background. 31. Therefore. This connexion is not given in Mark iii. 28,
nor in Luke xii. 10, where the saying stands quite isolated.
Here the illative particle must refer to the whole paragraph, and
the assertion of the Pharisees that Jesus cast out devils by
Beelzebub. This is brought out in Mark iii. 30 by the words
' because they said, He hath an unclean spirit '.
Perhaps Wellhausen is right in saying that Mark's is the
original version of this hard saying ; if so, the eye should be
kept on Mark iii. 28-30, in expounding it. In Mark the phrase
' sons of men ' occurs, but not the specific Son of Man ; which
raises the question whether in the words of Jesus a contrast
between the Son of Man and the Spirit was made. It seems, as
Dalman says, impossible that Jesus should make a distinction
between two persons in the Godhead, and imply that it was
venial to blaspheme the second, but not the third. The distinction
must be between Jesus the man and the Divine Spirit working
through Him. Invective against the man Jesus may be forgiven ;
blasphemy against the divine power inherent in Him is un
pardonable, because it is blasphemy against God.
The stress is to be laid on the truth, the great truth of the
Gospel, that all sins can be forgiven (cf. Acts xiii. 38, 39 ; Rom.
iii. 32-4 > ! John i. 7, &c). But there is something which lies in
another category altogether ; as an act of spiritual suicide it is
irreparable, it cannot be forgiven here nor hereafter. Blasphemy
againstjesus(e.g. thatof Saul ofTarsus) is forgiven. The repudia
tion which tormented Bunyan's conscience, ' If Christ will go, let
him ! ' and seemed to him for so long the unpardonable sin, was
I

n4 St. MATTHEW XII. 33-36
speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be
forgiven him ; but whosoever shall speak against
the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him,
i Or, age neither in this * world, nor in that which is to
come. Either make the tree good, and its fruit 33
good ; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit
corrupt : for the tree is known by its fruit. Ye 34
offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak
good things? for out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out 35
of his good treasure bringeth forth good things :
and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth
forth evil things. And I say unto you, that sQ
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall
give account thereof in the day of judgement.
forgiven. But the act which, it seems, was perpetrated by the
Pharisees is different ; it involves the perpetrator in ' aeonian
sin ' (Mark iii. 29). Briefly this fateful act, which, the apostles
taught, is beyond pardon (Heb. x. 26-9; 1 John v. 16, 17) is to
see the working of the Holy Spirit, to recognize it, and to know.
it to. be God, as the Pharisees did (for so Jesus read their
thoughts), and then to say that this was the work of Satan.
With that fatal utterance the soul slays itself.
33. This recalls the saying in the Sermon on the Mount (vii.
16-20). It is thrown in here to suggest that the Pharisees
were acting according to their acquired nature, producing the
natural fruit of the wicked root.
34. offspring of vipers. So John called them (iii. 7). The
speech is only the overflow of the thought.
35. Luke gives this saying in his version of the Sermon on the
Mount (vi. 45). The ' treasure ' is the heart itself.
36. This solemn saying is not in the other sources ; in this
connexion it clinches the doom of the Pharisees, whose ' idle
word ' was the blasphemy against the Spirit. Though standing
alone in the Gospels its echoes are caught through the rest of
the New Testament (Eph. v. 4, 11 ; 2 Pet. ii. 18 ; Rom. xiv. 12 ;
1 Pet. iv. 5 ; Jas. iii. 2-12).
Words as actual deeds are causes. Oddly enough the ' idle '
means literally 'without deed', and perhaps we should press the
meaning : every word, though unaccompanied by deeds ; cf.
v. 21-37.

St. MATTHEW XII. 37-39 115
37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by
thy words thou shalt be condemned.
38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees
answered him, saying, 1 Master, we would see a '_Pr>.
39 sign from thee. But he answered and said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to
How solemn it is ! Not only a blasphemous and soul-killing
word, like that of the Pharisees, but every word we utter must
come up in the review of our lives and the verdict on them,
because the words are a great part of our activity ; they go out
from us accomplishing results as tangible as the work of our
hands or the books produced from the brain. We in our limited
way say ' litera scripta manet ', but Christ in His searching way
adds : ' the unwritten letter also remains.'
It is not to the point to wonder how the words can be recorded
"for the Supreme Court ; for there is an equal difficulty in conceiving
how our deeds, and how the countless lives of men, can be. held
in memory and come up for review. There is a phonograph
all-recording : words spoken in the air will be proclaimed from
the housetops of the universe ; and in daily living and use of the
tongue we must lay our account with this certainty.
38-50. The contrast between the evil, adulterous genera
tion, and the genuine, holy generation, the brothers, sisters,
and mother of Jesus.
38-42. we would see a sign. Luke xi. 16 shows that they were
another set of the Pharisaic opposition, and not the same who
charged Him with employing the power of Beelzebub. In xvi. 1
they ask for ' a sign from heaven '. The healing of the demoniacs
was, according to them, a sign from hell. In Mark viii. n, 12
the demand is briefly dismissed, but according to Luke xi. 29-32
the sign of Jonah was given, viz. his successful preaching to
Nineveh, and then the Queen of Sheba. But here the sign of
Jonah means in the first instance the illustration of Jesus's resur
rection from the sojourn of the prophet in the whale. And
strictly speaking it is only that which constitutes in any sense
a 'sign'. When he arose from the dead, that sign would be
intelligible (cf. John ii. 19).
38. Master, i. e. Teacher, in mock deference, but it is like that
in xxvii. 27-31. Men who could think that His cures were the
work of Satan, could not in good faith ask for a sign from heaven.
Therefore it would not be given.
39. Adulterous generation, i.e. a group of men who had
departed from God, as described by the prophet Jeremiah
(iii. 20). I 2

n6 St. MATTHEW XII. 40-43
it but the sign of Jonah the prophet : for as 40
Jonah was three days and three nights in the
1 Gr. sea- belly of the ' whale ; so shall the Son of man be
monster. , . , . , , r .1
three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up in 4*
the judgement with this generation, and shall
condemn it : for they repented at the preaching
2 Gr. of Jonah ; and behold, 2 a greater than Jonah is
'titan. here. The queen of the south shall rise up in 42
the judgement with this generation, and shall
condemn it : for she came from the ends of the
earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and be
hold, 2 a greater than Solomon is here. But the 43
5 Or, n unclean spirit, when 3 he is gone out of the man,
passeth through waterless places, seeking rest,.

40. It was no immediate sign, such as they demanded, but it
was a sign none the less. Jonah's ejection from the fish was
miraculous, but Christ's rising from the grave was the pledge of
a general resurrection, the assertion of a principle.
Three days and three nights (Jonah i. 17). The stress is not on
the exact time, but on the rising. Jesus was in the grave only
two nights. But the Jewish reckoning was always very vague
(1 Sam. xxx. 12-13; Estheriv. 16, v. 1). The expression is more
what we mean by ' two or three days '.
41. stand up in judgement. In the Aramaic the phrase means
' accuse '. They will measure themselves in the judgement with
this generation (Isa. liv. 17 ; Ps. xciv.. 16). The accusation would
be not in words but in the fact, that they repented, while this
generation did not.
Greater than Jonah, cf. v. 6. Christ's egotism is the humility of
truth. 42. queen of the south. Here for the first time SW. Arabia is
described by this term. The story of 1 Kings x. 1-9 shows
the eager recognition of even Solomon's wisdom ; but these
'children of wisdom' (xi., 19) could not detect the incarnate
Wisdom. 43-5. This passage follows more naturally on ver. 37 as in
Luke (xi. 24-6). It is most interesting as a picture and criticism
of Exorcism as. practised by the Pharisees. Jesus describes the
thing in their own language, in order to apply the illustration to

St. MATTHEW XII. 44-46 117
44 and findeth it not. Then 'he saith, I will return 1 o>, it
into my house whence I came out ; and when
1 he is come, ' he findeth it empty, swept, and
45 garnished. Then goeth x he, and taketh with
2 himself seven other spirits more evil than 2 him- 2 0r. itself
self, and they enter in and dwell there : and the
last state of that man becometh worse than the
first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil
generation.
46 While he was yet speaking to the multitudes,
behold, his mother and his brethren stood with-

their own case. According to current demonology the demon
had no body (Tcbit viii. 3 ; Baruch iv. 35), and must therefore
seek a house to dwell in. Expelled for a time from its abode in
the human body it wanders homeless. Then it comes back,
finding the poor victim healed, 'in his right mind,' like a room
swept and garnished. He says— here Jesus is speaking with
ironical acceptance of the current view — 'I will return to my
house1 — as if he had only gone out while it was cleaned. Then
a legion of demons settles in the house with the one. This was
what happened to the generation which had ' blasphemed the
Holy. Ghost', a grim picture of spiritual ruin.
These verses must be set side by side with verses .26, 27.
Unless Christ comes in, when the demon is expelled, the ex
pulsion is temporary, and the relapse is worse than the original
attack. In this way ver. 30 is justified in the passage. Whoever
is not with Christ is against Him, and scatters instead of gathering.
46-50. Here in Luke's account, xi. 26-28, comes the exclama
tion of the woman about the blessedness of the mother of Jesus,
to which. Jesus replied, as always, by refusing to His earthly
mother a special pre-eminence. The episode of the mother and
brethren coming to speak to him is given by Luke earlier (viii.
19-21). 46. He was speaking in the house now as Mar,k shows (iii. 19),
and as appears from the first verse of ch. xiii. His relatives
came to the door. Their object was, as Mark shows (iii. 2t), to
take Him home, because they thought He was 'beside himself.
His" brothers were, so far as we know, the sons of Mary (xiii. 55 ;
Mark vi. 3; John ii. 12, vii. 3, 5, 10; Acts i. 14 ; 1 Cor. ix. 5 ;
Gal. i. 19). When" the Church raised the Virgin mother to a
throne in heaven it was held necessary to deny that she had any
other children beside Jesus.

n8 St. MATTHEW XII. 47— XIII. 2
i Some out, seeking to speak to him. ' And one said 47
ancient ° *
authorities unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren
omit J \
ver. 47. stand without, seeking to speak to thee. But 48
he answered and said unto him that told him,
Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ?
And he stretched forth his hand towards his 41
disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my
brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of 50
my Father which is in heaven, he is my brother,
and sister, and mother.
On that day went Jesus out of the house, and 13
sat. by the sea side. And there were gathered 2
49. stretched forth his hand. This eloquent gesture emphasizes
the assertion. Here it is directed only to the disciples, but in
Mark iii. 32 to a ' multitude '.
The spiritual relations alone last ; they who do the will of His
heavenly Father are His relatives. He always taught that our
earthly ties, even marriage, do not hold in the spiritual world.
The will of God is the sole determinant. To accept that will and
do it constitutes the one family in heaven and in earth.
Ch. xiii. Matthew now proceeds to illustrate the Lord's
method of teaching by parables. The teaching from the
beginning teemed with this attractive and arresting element ; but
it is implied by the explanation (ver. 13) that Jesus adopted the
parabolic style more specifically when the Pharisees had developed
their malignant antagonism to Him.1
Seven parables are now collected, in the evangelist's usual style,
not of course that they were all spoken together (Mark iv. 1-32
gives four on this occasion, Luke viii. 1-18 only two), but they
are chosen with great care to make the perfect number, seven.
That of the Sower is introductory ; the other six go in pairs ; thus,
the Tares and the Drag-net go together, the Mustard-seed and the
Leaven, the Treasure and the Goodly Pearl. It will be observed
also from ver. 34 that four are addressed to the multitude, and three
(36-47) to the disciples. The numbers, 7, 4, 3, are symbolic ;
fancy sees in seven the perfect number, in four the sugges
tion of the cardinal points of the compass, and in three the
ideal group of disciples. But on this no stress is to be laid.
' To the parable of our Lord there is nothing in all language to
1 In the later Jewish Literature parables abound. The form usually
is : ' A parable. To what is the matter like ? To &c.'

St. MATTHEW XIII. 3-8 n9
unto him great multitudes, so that he entered
into a boat, and sat ; and all the multitude stood
3 on the beach. And he spake to them many
things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower
4 went forth to sow ; and as he sowed, some seeds
fell by the way side, and the birds came and
5 devoured them : and others fell upon the rocky
places, where they had not much earth : and
straightway they sprang up, because they had no
6 -deepness of earth : and when the sun was risen,
they were scorched ; and because they had no
7 root, they withered away. And others fell upon
the thorns ; and the thorns grew up, and choked
8 them: and others fell upon the good ground,
and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some
be compared for simplicity, grace, fullness, and variety of spiritual
teaching' (Bruce). There is this peculiarity in them, as ver. 9
indicates, that each person draws from them truth in proportion
to his own power of perception. Like sunshine they enter,
according to the capacity, and the largest or smallest mind is
equally filled. It is this quality which must guide our interpreta
tion of the difficult passages, verses 10-15.
1-9. the sower. The picture of ver. 1, 2 is very graphic ; the
boat, the sea, the shore, the preacher sitting, the hearers standing ;
the suggestion in ' behold ', that there was a sower actually at
work in sight, with the birds wheeling in the air and swooping on
the grain.
4. the way side. A trodden path running through the cornfield,
not the highway.
5. rocky places. Not merely stony soil, but places where only a
thin layer of soil covered the rock. The warmth of the rock
made the growth precocious. Strictly speaking, the blades had a
root, but, as the root could not strike down into the soil, it would
get no nourishment, and quickly wither in the heat of the noonday
sun. 7. fell on the thorns, i. e. where the soil was full of the thorn
seedlings. 8. a hundredfold. This was a rare and exceptional fertility, such
as Isaac found in the country of Abimelech, ' when the Lord
blessed him ' (Gen. xxvi. 12). But the lesser returns are still
good.

i2o St. MATTHEW XIII. 10-12
i Some sixty, some thirty. He that hath ears ', let him
ancient ,
authorities near.
tnd nT6' And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why i o
w4:3ks" speakest thou unto them in parables ? And he n
iv.^frk answered and said unto them, Unto you it is
vii! I given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it is not given. For who- 12
soever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall
have abundance : but whosoever hath not, from
him shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Clearly by far the greater part of the grain fell on the good
ground, for no sower would drop the seed on the unproductive t
places voluntarily. Our impression of Nature is 'that of fifty
seeds she only brings but one to bear '. But we judge superficially ;
probably Nature's economy surpasses our wisest thrift.
10. In Mark and Luke the disciples ask for the meaning of
the parable, and to their question the answer in ver. 18-23 is
fitly given. But the question here is different ; they ask why He
used the method of parables at all. The answer given to this more
general question is, in Matthew's account, quite intelligible and
unexceptionable. The difficulty in the parallels of Mark and Luke
arises from not observing how Christ altered Isaiah in quoting
him. In Isaiah it seems as if God hardened the hearts of the
people, to prevent them from being converted. This was a view
conceivable in the Old Testament theology; but Christ rejected it:
as He quotes the words of the prophet, from the Greek version,
He takes care to put ' because ' for ' in order that ', ver. 13, and
to show that the people make their own hearts gross, lest God
should heal them. We must, therefore, correct Mark iv. 12 and
Luke viii. 10 by this fuller version of our Lord's words.
11. the mysteries. The word is not to be taken in the heathen
sense, of some esoteric secrets, which only the initiated can know,
but in the special New Testament sense, of things which once
were obscure in the older dispensation, but now are clear in the
new. See St. Paul's use of the word 1 Cor. ii. 6-10 ; Eph. iii. 3-6,
8, 9 ; Col. i. 26. The sole reason why to know these revelations
was not given to the Pharisees was that they had hardened their
hearts in prejudice. For there is a law in nature.
12. Spiritual openness is rewarded with spiritual revelation.
When the heart is set against Divine truth, the little faculty of
reception, which was implied even in resisting, dies away. He who
was unwilling becomes incapable.
13. Therefore speak I .. . in parables. Why ? Because when He

St. MATTHEW XIII. 13-17 121
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables ; because
seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not,
14 neither do they understand. And unto them is
fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith,
By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise
understand ;
And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise
perceive :
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross,
And their ears are dull of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed ;
Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And should turn again,
And I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see ; and
1 7 your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto
spoke in plain language, as in the Sermon on the Mount, or by
the indisputable acts of healing and mercy, they closed their
eyes, their ears, and their understanding. The parabolic method
was adopted, not to hide the truth, but to present it to minds which
rejected it in its plainer garb. He spoke in parables because
they were in the case described by Isaiah, vi. 9-10 (quoted also
in John xii. 40; Acts xxviii. 26-7). He uses the language of the
LXX because that alone makes the quotation appropriate for His
purpose. Thus it was plain that the grossness of perception was
self-caused and not a penal infliction. They hardened their hearts
against God.
15. And I should heal them. This is not the reading of the LXX,
nor is it the reading of our great uncials. It is hard to see why
it should be adopted when the real sense is exactly what Jesus
would choose and mean, viz. ' And I will heal them ' — i. e. in spite
of their perversity the Lord has an unchanging purpose of
salvation towards them.
16. The sole reason why the disciples could see and receive,
could turn and be healed, was that they had not hardened their
hearts. They were open to truth.
17. This is the utterance of the Divine self-consciousness. The

122 St. MATTHEW XIII. 18-20
you, that many prophets and righteous men de
sired to see the things which ye see, and saw
them not ; and to hear the things which ye hear,
and heard them not. Hear then ye the parable 18
of the sower. When any one heareth the word 19
of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then
cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that
which hath been sown in his heart. This is he
that was sown by the way side. And he that 20

prophets and righteous men (kings, in Luke, like David) have
desired exactly the revelation of God which is given in Christ.
Far and wide, though all unknowing,
Pants for Him each human breast.
18. The interpretation of the introductory parable is given, not
because it is specially -difficult (on the contrary, see Mark iv. 13),
but that He may show them how to deal with all His parables.
19. The interpretation shows that the idea of the parable of
the sower is, The effect of the word is dependent on the state of the
heart. The seed is the word, and as here defined, 'the word of the
kingdom ' (cf. iv. 23, ix. 35), i. e. the gospel. The sower is Jesus
Himself, and any of His messengers who declare the same truth.
The field is the world (cf. ver. 38), and not, as some insist, the
Christian community or the Church. Each hearer is likened to
the blade of corn springing up as the result of the word spoken,
as if the germinal word made the souL The hearers are viewed
in four classes : —
(1) The trite hearts, hard and unbroken, into which the message
makes no entrance at all. The evil one, Satan, snatches it away,
as the bird {improbus anser of Virgil) picks up the grain on the
trodden path (ver. 19).
(2I Hearts superficially impressed, but not reached at the centre,
which are pleased with God's truth before they see what it
involves, but when they find that a persecution arises, because the
world is impatient of new truth, throw off the gospel as quickly as
they received it.
(3) Hearts which really receive the truth, but, preoccupied with
other seeds, such as absorbing earthly interests, wealth (or, as in
Mark and Luke, pleasures and desires of other things) bear no
fruit. The truth of God is choked in them by the more persistent
' truths of the world '.
(4) Honest and good hearts, as Luke calls them, which like a

St. MATTHEW XIII. 21-24 123
was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that
heareth the word, and straightway with joy re-
21 ceiveth it ; yet hath he not root in himself, but
endureth for a while; and when tribulation or
persecution ariseth because of the word, straight-
2a way he stumbleth. And he that was sown among
the thorns, this is he that heareth the word ; and
the care of the 1 world, and the deceitfulness of ' °r. "8*
riches, choke the word, and he becometh un-
33 fruitful. And he that was sown upon the good
ground, this is he that heareth the word, and
understandeth it ; who verily beareth fruit, and
bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty,
some thirty.
24 Another parable set he before them, saying,
soil soft, deep, and clean, receive the truth, and it grows to a per
fection proportionate to the endowment of the nature.
If we pressed the words of the parable, it would seem that only
the good can receive the gospel, or that some persons are pre
cluded by their nature or circumstances from making the Divine
seed fruitful. But ' he that hath ears to hear' (ver. 9) will under
stand that the parable has one specific object, and must not be
perverted by refinements or ingenuities. The object is to awake
the conscience in hearing. God's truth is always the same, and
calculated to produce the same results in all. But we must take
heed how we hear. The responsibility lies with us ; we are not
the victims of circumstances. We can give heed to the word of the
kingdom or we can refuse it. Every man can hear in one of four
ways, and he may repent of one and hear in another afterwards.
He can either give his attention, or withhold it. He can open his
nature, by meditation, to receive the truth to the centre, or keep
it on the surface. He can give the truth of God an opportunity
of working, or let it be overborne by the multiplicity of other
things. He can give his best powers to understanding, receiving,
and testing ('in an honest and good heart,' Luke viii. 15), not
that he is good, but exerting the will to be good. And this honest
and earnest hearing ensures the fruit.
22. The care of the world. It is a Hebrew phrase for the care
of that which is temporal (Dalman, Words of Jesus, 154).
.24-50. Six Parables of the Kingdom. Three are addressed

124 St. MATTHEW XIII. 25-29
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
that sowed good seed in his field : but while 2 5
' Or, men slept, his enemy came and sowed ' tares
darnel also among the wheat, and went away. But 26
when the blade sprang up, and brought forth
fruit, then appeared the tares also. And the 27
2 Gr.bond- 2 servants of the householder came and said unto
him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy
field? whence then hath it tares? And he said 28
= Gr. a unto them, 3 An enemy hath done this. And
™ann that the 2 servants say unto him, Wilt thou then that
enemy. we gQ an(j gather them up ? But he saith, Nay ; 29
lest haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root

to the multitude, and three to the disciples (ver. 36). The first
and the last form a pair, the Tares and the Drag-net, showing
that there is an end, and then only will the separation between
good and evil be made. The second and third form another pair ;
the Mustard-seed and the Leaven show how the Kingdom of God
grows and works silently but effectively. The third pair, the Hid
Treasure and the Priceless Pearl, illustrate the supreme value of
the Kingdom of God, as compared with all other possessions.
24. set he before them. As food is served at a banquet.
his field. The world is Christ's.
tares. The Greek word, fifai/iet, occurs only here. What
is meant is darnel, lolium temulentum, a weed which has much
the same appearance as stalks of barley.
25. while men slept, in the negligence and unconsciousness of
human affairs. The evil is produced by a sowing just as the
good is. The seed is not, as in the parable of the Sower, the
word, but a child of the kingdom (Jas. i. 18). Christ's enemy is
man's enemy (Gen. iii. 15 ; 1 John iii. 8). Evil is personified ; it
is impossible to conceive of moral evil, except in a person.
28. an enemy. Lit. ' a man that is an enemy,' but that is only
the Aramaic phrase for quidam inimicus. The proposal to weed
out the tares was quite reasonable. Thus a modern traveller in
the Holy Land, Furrer, says : ' Men, women, and children were
in many fields engaged in pulling up the weeds (tares).' It is
only a law of the spiritual kingdom that they should be left to
grow, and to that the horticultural fact is adapted. Explanation,
ver. 36-43.

St. MATTHEW XIII. 30-33 125
30 up the wheat with them. Let both grow together
until the harvest : and in the time of the harvest
I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them : but
gather the wheat into my barn.
31 Another parable set he before them, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of
mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in
32 his field : which indeed is less than all seeds ;
but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs,
, , , 1 The word
and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the in the
heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof, denotes
33 Another parable spake he unto them ; The Hebrew
kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which measure
a woman took, and hid in three 1 measures of Sngneariy
meal, till it was all leavened. anaifkand
31-3. The silent, but persistent, growth of the Kingdom is
shown, in its outward aspect, by a mustard-seed, in its inner
aspect by the working of leaven.
32. The language is general, and not precise. There are smaller
seeds than the mustard, e. g. lycopodium ; there are larger herbs.
But a mustard-seed grows into so large a herb that it is like a
little tree. The birds could hardly build in it, but they can rest
and shelter in the stalks ; and, so far, it represents the shelter and
repose, as the pungent and grateful taste represents the blessed
ness, of the Kingdom. The plant referred to is not the salvadora
persica, which is actually a tree, but the common mustard. Note
how the Lord loves to illustrate a great theme from a very little
and humble thing ; and so a modern poet will take the meanest
flower that grows, or one ' in a crannied wall ', and draw his
moral from it.
33. The illustration of the inward working of the Kingdom is
bolder still ; for leaven was always used by the rabbis as an
illustration of evil. Jesus characteristically turns it lo good.
three measures. Gen. xviii. 6 : too much for an ordinary
baking. all leavened, i Cor. v. 6 ; Gal. v. 9 ; the thoroughness of the
leaven's work is most consoling. The word of the Kingdom will
not fail till the whole world is leavened by it. There is a con
summation, a victory, when God shall be all in all.

126 St. MATTHEW XIII. 34-36
All these things spake Jesus in parables unto 34
the multitudes ; and without a parable spake he
nothing unto them : that it might be fulfilled 35
1 Or, which was spoken 1 by the prophet, saying,
through - ... , , .
I will open my mouth in parables ;
I will utter things hidden from the foundation
2 Many 2 of the world.
aSti'ioH- Then he left the multitudes, and went into 36
of*iAtmit the house : and his disciples came unto him,
world- saying, Explain unto us the parable of the tares
34. without a parable, i. e. at that time He confined Himself to
this method ; though perhaps one might say .that the parabolic
form of teaching, interesting, allowing, leading to inquiry, was
habitual to Him.
35. the prophet, i. e. author of Ps. Ixxviii. It will be noted that
the ' hidden things ' of the Psalm are only the stories of Israel.
Perhaps the evangelist means that the meaning which underlies
those histories is brought out by the parables of Christ. The
Book of Exodus in Christ's light becomes a parable ; Christ's
parables are a Genesis, an Exodus, a Kingdom of the Soul.
the foundation of the earth. Cf. 2 Esdras ii. 41, ' Thy people
which have been called from the beginning.' The New Testament
often refers to the origins, e. g. xxv. 34 ; Luke xi. 50 ; Heb. iv. 3 ;
John xvii. 24 ; Eph. i. 4 ; 1 Pet. i. 20. It is characteristic of
Scripture that here on the same page the eye sweeps from ' the •
foundation of the world ' to ' the end of the world ' (ver. 40).
36-43. Explain unto us the parable of the tares. The field is not
the Kingdom of God, but the world in which it develops. John
viii. 44 explains in what sense the good are called children of God,
and the bad children of the evil one. The purpose of the parable,
however, is not to explain the existence of evil, but only to show
that God allows the evil to remain among the good until the end.
Why ? We are not told. The sole object is to discourage a too
zealous purism. The Kingdom does not mean an inquisition, or an
attempt to weed out the evil. The inquisitorial passion is not of
the spirit of Christ (Luke ix. 54 ; Jas. i. 20). The spirit of judge
ment must be left to the Judge of all the earth. A wonder creeps
in whether even the discipline of 1 Cor. v was quite within the
terms of Christ's thought ; and St. John fleeing from the bath
because Cerinthus was under the roof (cf. 2 John 10, 11)
seems a lapse into an unregenerate condition. At any rate the
discipline of the Church can only be permitted when Christ is
present (1 Cor. v. 4).

St. MATTHEW XIII. 37-42 127
37 of the field. And he answered and said, He
that soweth the good seed is the Son of man ;
38 and the field is the world ; and the good seed,
these are the sons of the kingdom ; and the tares
39 are the sons of the evil one ; and the enemy that
sowed them is the devil : and the harvest is ' the ' Or, the
end of the world; and the reapers are angels, mation
40 As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned ° "¦**
with fire ; so shall it be in 1 the end of the world.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and
they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity,
42 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there
shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the

38. sons of the kingdom. In viii. 12 the Jews, but here, in con
trast with ' the son of the evil one ', they are the men of a cognate
character with the theocracy.
39. the end of the world, v. 49, xxiv. 3, xxviii. 20, but not in
Mark or Luke, a phrase of the evangelist's which he had in
common with the author of Heb. ix. 26. This implies that the
present condition of things, mixed good and evil, will continue
until that glad day of Christ's coming.
41. his angels, they are Christ's. The Son of Man is God.
The Kingdom also is His ; for He and the Father are one
(ver. 43). It is in this suggestive way that the deity of Jesus is
expressed (cf. xix. 28, xx. 21 ; 1 Pet. iii. 22).
things that cause stumbling. SKavSaKa, everything that brings
or can bring people to fall — but this includes persons who do
iniquity (cf. vii. 23). It is an echo of Ps. i. 5.
42. cf. iii. 12. When the wicked have gone away into punish
ment, then, and not till then, will the good shine forth unclouded
and untarnished. Jesus thinks of Dan. xii. 3, but for ' the under
standing' there He substitutes 'the righteous'.
We cannot say that Jesus here wishes to describe the punish
ment of the future world in any original way ; the whole point of
this parable, and of the repetition of the idea in the parable of the
Drag-net (ver. 47-50), is to forbid the attempt to separate good
from bad before the end.

128 St. MATTHEW XIII. 44-47
kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears,
let him hear.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure 44
hidden in the field; which a man found, and
i or, hid ; and ' in his joy he goeth and selleth all c ".
thereof that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a 45
man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls :
and having found one pearl of great price, he 46
went and sold all that he had, and bought" it.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a 47
drag-net. "net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered
44-6. treasure hidden ... goodly pearls. The two parables illus
trate the two cases, first, where the truth of God is found without
seeking (Isa. lxv. 1) as a glad surprise ; second, where it is the
result of a diligent search.
44. Cf. Prov. ii. 4. In days before banks, treasure was often
buried ; treasure-troves were not, therefore, uncommon (Jer. xii. 8 ;
Job iii. 21). The supreme value of the find ; cf. Mark x. 21, 28 ;
it is worth sacrificing everything to gain it, if only for this reason,
that it includes everything. Call the Kingdom of God the con
sciousness of absolute and unbroken union with Him who is Love,
Wisdom, Goodness, and Power, and it is plain that everything
may be freely sacrificed to gain it.
45. The merchant ransacking the stores for pearls finds one
that excels all in value. The fact is hardly likely as a commercial
bargain. To gain the Kob-i-noor a diamond-merchant would give
much, but scarcely all. But the Kingdom is a jewel of a price
transcending earthly illustration.
For the searching, see Jer. xxix. 13.
47-50. a drag-net. ^ayr/vt] ; in contrast with aiMpl0\i)ffTpov
and Siktvov, the commoner names for ' net ', a net carried out in
a boat and dropped into the sea, then drawn to the land. It
would bring in all sorts and conditions. In this illustration the
separation is more emphasized ; but still the object of the parable
is simply to show how the great net (the Church, or visible com
munity of souls) must be allowed to hold its mixed contents,
until on the quiet shore of eternity those fitted for the task
can make the just discrimination. The furnace of fire and the
weeping and gnashing of teeth are the accepted features of the
state of the bad ; but we should miss the point of the parable if
we supposed that this was the truth which Jesus was revealing.

St. MATTHEW XIII. 48-55 129
48 of every kind : which, when it was filled, they
drew up on the beach ; and they sat down, and
gathered the good into vessels, but the bad they
49 cast away. So shall it be in 1 the end of the 1 Or, the
world: the angels shall come forth, and sever «S»«y
50 the wicked from among the righteous, and shall """*'
cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall
be the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
5i Have ye understood all these things? They
5 a say unto him, Yea. And he said unto them,
Therefore every scribe who hath been made a
disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto
a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth
out of his treasure things new and old.
53 And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished
54 these parables, he departed thence. And coming
into his own country he taught them in their
synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished,
and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, ' 2 Gr
55 and these " mighty works ? Is not this the car- powers.
51-2. The disciples were satisfied that they understood these
pregnant stories. The Lord allowed their understanding, imper
fect as it probably was. And He appoints His disciples as
exponents of His word. The 'scribe made a disciple in the
Kingdom ' (cf. the active voice of the verb, xxviii. 19) is a beautiful
designation of the preacher of the Gospel. As a scribe he is still
a student of the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, but as
a disciple in the Kingdom, he finds new depths and meanings in
the old truth. Scripture becomes an allegory to him, and the
world a parable. His Father's house, over which He is set, is
stored with treasures obvious and recondite. Jesus designates His
ministers scribes, and prophets (xxiii. 34), but not priests.
53-8. Jesus returns to Nazareth, to experience the cold
reception op ' his own '.
54. his own country, John iv. 44. This is most likely the visit
to Nazareth which Luke was able to expand into the instructive
narrative of iv. 16-30.
mighty works. Rather ' powers '.
K

Powers,

130 St. MATTHEW XIII. 56— XIV. 1
penter's son? is not his mother called Mary?
and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon,
and Judas ? And his sisters, are they not all 5^
with us ? Whence then hath this man all these
iGr. things? And they were x offended in him. But 57
stumble. Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without
honour, save in his own country, and in his own
Gr. house. And he did not many 2 mighty works 58
there because of their unbelief.
At that season Herod the tetrarch heard the 14
55. Mark (vi. 3) implies that Jesus was not only the carpenter's
son, but himself the Carpenter. When Holman Hunt ventured
to represent Him in the shop, the piety of the time was outraged.
On the other hand the working men of the north crowded to see
' The Shadow of the Cross ', and saved their money to buy the
two-guinea plates. Religious people take offence at His humanity
and humility ; for that very reason the common people receive
Him gladly.
For His brothers, see xii. 46.
56. His sisters were married and settled in Nazareth ; they had
their babes, whom no doubt Jesus nursed and embraced. What
further proof was needed that he was but man !
57. they were offended. Note the irony of ver. 41. There all
the ' scandals ' or things which make men stumble are gathered
out. Here Jesus Himself is the cause of stumbling. The same
word is used in the verbal form. The good make the bad to
stumble, just as the bad make the good ; hence the need of the
separation described in ver. 41. Hence also the swift recognition
of the fact, and the speedy withdrawal on the part of Jegus. Where
He causes to stumble, He does not stay. The proverbial saying
which He quotes is common in all countries, from Pindar ^Olymp.
xiii. 3), ' Fame fades at the family hearth ', to ' No man is a hero to
his valet de chambre ', though Carlyle's comment may be remem
bered : ' Not because heis not a hero but because the valet is a valet.'
58. because of their unbelief, see xvii. 20. He does not punish
them for their unbelief by refusing to exhibit His powers ; but
they by their unbelief make His works impossible. His works
are all in the mind of man ; when the mind refuses Him, He can
only stand at the door and knock. Unbelief is spiritual suicide,
self-separation from the source of truth and life and love.
Ch. xiv. Jesus fleeing for life. This wonderful chapter has, it
has been well said, like the five loaves and two fishes (ver. vj),
fed great multitudes. Jesus withdraws from the dangerous atteption

St. MATTHEW XIV. 2-5 13 1
2 report concerning Jesus, and said unto his
servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen
from the dead; and therefore do these powers
3 work in him. For Herod had laid hold on John,
and bound him, and put him in prison for the
4 sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. For
John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to
5 have her. And when he would have put him
of an arbitrary king, and in his retirement heals the sick (v. 14,
35, 36), feeds the hungry, and manifests Himself to His troubled
disciples in the storm. He touches heart and imagination so
powerfully, that at this point, as St. John tells us, the people
wished to make Him king. The threatened and exiled prophet
reached the zenith of His acceptance and influence with the
people. Then with victorious serenity He faced death.
1-12. Herod wishes to see Jesus, Herod who had already
executed John the Baptist. The death of John is inserted in the
narrative because it was the warning and presage of the death
of Jesus : the forerunner went before Him in death.
1. Herod, surnamed Antipas, brother of Archelaus (ii. 22),
son of Herod the Great. He was tetrarch, only by courtesy
a king, of Galilee and Persea ; his wife was the daughter of
Aretas the Arabian king. Like his father, he was a builder, and
founded Tiberias in honour of the emperor. His brother Philip
must not be confused with Philip the governor of Gaulonitis, into
which territory Jesus withdrew (ver. 14) ; the husband of Herodias
was a weak man who remained in a private station all his life,
and the ambitious woman left him for a reigning tetrarch. The
daughter of Philip and Herodias, Salome, married Philip the
tetrarch of Gaulonitis, an able and honourable ruler, who rebuilt
Paneas, and called it Caesarea Philippi, the town whicli is identified
with the first open confession of our Lord (xvi. 13).
3. Herod Antipas was a man with a haunted conscience. The
murdered John was always present to his imagination. The
hope seized him that his victim was alive again, and these
powers were working in him, because he had returned from the
grave. Vain hope ! And doubtless when he found that Jesus
was not John, his disappointment would have expressed itself in
a new act of violence. ' That fox,' as Jesus called him, would
probably have imprisoned Jesus. That is why Jesus withdrew.
5. In Mark vi. 19, the blame of the murder lies at the door
of Herodias. Here Herod had always wished to murder him,
but had been restrained by the people. Tyrants live in terror of
the very multitude whom they terrify. K 2

i 3 2 St. MATTHEW XIV. 6- 1 3
to death, he feared the multitude, because they
counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's 6
birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced
in the midst, and pleased Herod. Whereupon 7
he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever
she should ask. And she, being put forward by 8
her mother, saith, Give me here in a charger the
head of John the Baptist. And the king was 9
grieved; but for the sake of his oaths, and of
tlmn;,'j'''rrh -wrl—d 'fflmtf-""^ him, he commanded
it to be given ; and he sent/and beheaded John io
in the prison. And his head was brought in »
a charger, and given to the damsel : and she
brought it to her mother. And his disciples i*
came, and took up the corpse, and buried him ;
and they went and told Jesus.
Now when Jesus heard it, he withdrew from 13
thence in a boat, to a desert place apart : and
when the multitudes heard thereof, they followed
6. The dance was of that immodest kind which delights a
corrupt court ; and the connexion between lasciviousness and
cruelty is illustrated in what follows. The feast evidently took
place at Machaerus, the castle-palace, which lay some miles east
of the Dead Sea. Josephus mentions the fortress ; this shows it
was also a palace.
8. being put forward. This phrase is better explained by the
fuller narrative in Mark. But the word perhaps means, ' brought
to such a point ' of cruelty and depravity, as to ask for the head
of the holy man as a dainty dish.
12. The disciples of John (see xi. 2) were implicitly disciples of
Jesus ; they brought Him the sad news of the execution apparently
to warn Him of His own danger.
13-21. Jesus, withdrawing from the territory of Herod
Antipas, the multitude follow Him, and He heals and feeds
them all. This section is one of the very few which appear in all
four of the Evangelists. We are at liberty therefore to illustrate
our rather bald narrative from the parallel passages Mark vi. 30-44 ;
Luke ix. 10-17 ; John vi. 1-14. From Mark it appears that the
disciples had just returned from their mission, and Jesus wished.

St. MATTHEW XIV. 14-19 133
14 him ' on foot from the cities. And he came 1 Or,
forth, and saw a great multitude, and he had
15 compassion on them, and healed their sick. And
when even was come, the disciples came to him,
saying, The place is desert, and the time is
already past ; send the multitudes away, that
they may go into the villages, and buy them-
16 selves food. But Jesus said unto them, They
have no need to go away ; give ye them to eat.
17 And they say unto him, We have here but five
18 loaves, and two fishes. And he said, Bring them
19 hither to me. And he commanded the multi-

them to come aside and rest awhile. From John it seems that it
was the time of Passover, and Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem ;
the multitude therefore which followed Him consisted largely of
those who were going up to the Feast. The motives for with
drawal were, Herod's wish to see Him, the disciples' need of
a rest, and the wish to avoid a journey to Jerusalem. For these
reasons He sought ' a desert place apart ' ; but He could not be
hid, He could not enjoy privacy. The people from Gennesaret,
the plain in which Capernaum stood, walked round the head of
the lake (' on foot ' ire'fj;, means only ' by land ' ; the sick may have
ridden or been carried), and when Jesus landed at Bethsaida
(Julias), the town on the left bank of the Jordan, where it enters
the lake, the multitude were there waiting for Him.
14. His compassion failed not ; so ix. 36. Whether their
ignorance or their sicknesses appealed most to Him we cannot
say. But the sight of their needs banished all thought of rest or
retirement. From John we learn that He was in danger not
only from Herod but from the Jews also.
15. when even was come. The same mark of time in ver. 23.
But in Jewish reckoning there were two evenings, the first when
the sun declined, from three to six, the second when the sun
set. The feeding of the multitude was therefore in the
afternoon. the time is already past, i.e. 'They have been with us long
enough, let us dismiss them.' But Jesus does not want to get rid
of them, He loves them.
17. There was a lad carrying five loaves and two fishes (says
John vi. 8), a rather scant supply for the disciples alone. This
was to feed a crowd of over five thousand.

134 ST. MATTHEW XIV. 20-22
r?ciine. tu(^es to lsit down on the grass; and he took
the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking
up to heaven, he blessed, and brake and gave
the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to
the multitudes. And they did all eat, and were 20
filled ; and they took up that which remained
over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
And they that did eat were about five thousand «
men, beside women and children.
And straightway he constrained the disciples "
to enter into the boat, and to go before him
unto the other side, till he should send the
19. There was much grass in the place, says John vi. 10.
Mark in his vivid way mentions that it was green.
he blessed. In John it is (v\apwTnaas, i. e. ' gave thanks '.
It was a Eucharist : ' 'Twas springtime when He blessed the
bread, And harvest when He brake.' It is vital to realize the
spiritual meaning.of the miracle. The compassion of Jesus feeds
His people with abundance.
20. The baskets here, unlike those in the Feeding of the Four
Thousand, are the Ko<pivoi, which formed the travelling trunks of
Jews, in which they carried food. So Juvenal speaks of Jews,
' quorum cophinus faenumque supellex.' Ordinarily, therefore,
the twelve cophini of the disciples would have had a fair supply,
but they chanced to be empty. Now they were filled with the
fragments !
21. The women and children would be few, as the men were
going to the Feast. The power of Jesus over matter, creating
as well as controlling, cannot be to us an evidence of His nature,
as it was to those who saw it ; rather His nature is to us
the evidence for that other power, the ground on which we
are able to accept the present incident, and the still more
wonderful one which now follows.
22-36. He stills the storm ; He confirms faith. He
returns charged with healing power. Retreat and retirement
are only further work, until His task is done.
22. constrained them. He was now bent on getting a little
solitude : When from our better selves we have too long
Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,
Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,
How gracious, how benign is solitude !

St. MATTHEW XIV. 23-28 135
23 multitudes away. And after he had sent the
multitudes away, he went up into the mountain
apart to pray : and when even was come, he
24 was there alone. But the boat : was now in the 'Some
ancient
midst of the sea, distressed by the waves ; for authori-
J ties read
25 the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch was many
/¦,.,, • furlongs
of the night he came unto them, walking upon distant
26 the sea. And when the disciples saw him walk- land.
ing on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is
2 7 an apparition ; and they cried out for fear. But
straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be
28 of good cheer ; it is I ; be not afraid. And
Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be
He was wearied too by the attempt to make Him a king, men
tioned by John, an elevation to a temporal Messiahship which
would have frustrated His life-work.
the other side. In Mark vi. 45, Bethsaida, viz. : Bethsaida of
Galilee (John xii. 21), a few miles south of Capernaum on the
western shore, not Bethsaida (Julias) at the north-east of the lake.
23. he was there alone. At last, the needed solitude and the
time for prayer !
24. The boat was distressed by the waves, lit. tormented. In
Mark vi. 48 the men were.
25. the fourth watch. That is the Roman reckoning ; between
three and six a.m. In eight hours they were only half across ;
i. e. had only made three and a half miles (John vi. 19).
26. From the mountain He saw them, and He came down and
walked the waves to be near them. They recognized His form,
but took it for a spectre, till He spoke.
27. They knew His familiar ' Be of good cheer ', His favourite
word to troubled spirits (ix. 4, 22). And then the great 'E7C1; dpi :
so John viii. 58 ; cf. Exod. vi. 2-9, where God reveals Himself to
Moses as 'Eyii dpi, i. c ' I am '. What a song in the night is
this, to hear across the welter of waters, the ' I am ' of Jesus :
Thou framer of the light and dark,
Steer through the tempest thine own ark.
Amid the howling wintry sea
We are in port if we have Thee 1
Accordingly John (vi. 21) says that they were immediately at the
land. 28-31. The story of Peter coming on the sea, to Jesus, and
sinking, the great example of the power of faith and the result of

136 St. MATTHEW XIV. 29-35
thou, bid me come unto thee Mpon the waters.
And he said, Come. And Peter went down from 29
1 Some the boat, and walked upon the waters, ' to come
aStiori. to Jesus. But when he saw the wind 2, he was 30
a'nYmme. afraid ; and beginning to sink, he cried out, say-
aiScfent m&> Lordj save me. And immediately Jesus 31
authori. stretched forth his hand, and took hold of him,
ties add '
strong. anfj saith unto him, O thou of little faith, where
fore didst thou doubt ? And when they were 32
gone up into the boat, the wind ceased. And 33
they that were in the boat worshipped him, say
ing, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.
And when they had crossed over, they came 34
to the land, unto Gennesaret. And when the 35
men of that place knew him, they sent into all
doubt, is told only by Matthew. No narrative is more charged
with spiritual meaning. The impulse of faith launches us towards
Jesus. We are afraid, when the obstacles appear. The cry of
distress elicits at once the rebuke and the saving power of Jesus.
His hand is stretched out : we are in safety with Him. It is
a passage to brood over, and to make our own, because the time
comes to every man when he sinks in the deep waters, and they
threaten to go over his head. Then to experience the helping
hand of Jesus is salvation : ' We are in port if we have Thee ! '
31. O thou of little faith. That is the constant designation of
His disciples (vi. 30). None yet has wholly believed, with a faith
unweakened by doubt (Jas. i. 6).
33. While Matthew records a glad confession, Mark (vi. 51, 52)
speaks only of unintelligent amazement and hardening (cf. the
contrast of Matt. xiii. 16, 17 with Mark iv. 13). Can it be that
in Mark we have Peter's own self-reproach, his wonder at the
dense stupidity which did not escape the charge 'O thou of
little faith ' ? But doubtless Matthew is right ; some at least in the
boat recognized who He was. On the former occasion (viii.
27) they said, ' What manner of man is this ? ' — now they answer
their inquiry : ' Thou art the Son of God.'
34. Gennesaret. Luke v. 1. The plain in which Capernaum and
Bethsaida stood, between the lake and the hills, gave the most
familiar name to the lake.
35. The rest snatched so hardly, the experience of the short
journey, had endued Him with new power. A swift recognition

St. MATTHEW XIV. 36— XV. 2 137
that region round about, and brought unto him
36 all that were sick ; and they besought him that
they might only touch the border of his garment :
and as many as touched were made whole.
15 Then there come to Jesus from Jerusalem
2 Pharisees and scribes, saying, Why do thy disci-
came to men's minds, and they saw that they had among them
the Healer, the Feeder, the Calmer of the storms of life. Now
the example of the woman who touched His garment (ix. 20)
was followed by many. They perceived that virtue went out of
Him that might heal them all.
It is a marvellous passage. Persecuted, driven out from His
land, Jesus is always the same, compassionate, beneficent, in
communion with God, ready to help His distressed followers.
We are not often in the storm, which requires His miraculous
approach across the waves ; but we are always in need of the
bread which He alone can give. ' They have no need to go
away ' is very reassuring. Out of the scantiest material His pre
sence and power will make a sufficing meal.
Here may we sit and dream
Over the heavenly theme,
Till to our soul the former days return ;
Till on the grassy bed,
Where thousands once He fed
The world's incarnate Maker we discern.
Ch. xv. Here the Lord brings out His great truth that it is the
inward and spiritual, which is important, and not the outward
and material, and yet — He feeds the hungry with bread ; He also
shows that His earthly ministry was to Israel, and yet — He could
not refuse the appeal of a heathen mother. His character is teres
atque rotundus.
He had reached the summit of His earthly popularity, and now
the opposition of His own nation steadily pursues Him, till it
brings Him to the Cross. Henceforth He is essentially a per
secuted fugitive in the service of heavenly truth.
1-20. Outward and inward religion. This is one of the
paragraphs in the Gospels which, standing even alone, would
constitute a spiritual revolution.
1. The Scribes and Pharisees were perhaps deputed by the
authorities at Jerusalem to come and watch Him because He had
not gone up to the Passover (John vii. 1). He was prominent
enough to make His absence noticeable, and His absence was
sufficiently a breach of the Law to make the legalists watchful.
2. The ground which the critics from Jerusalem take is not, to
our minds, a strong one. The washing before meat was a cleanly

138

St. MATTHEW XV. 3-6

pies transgress the tradition of the elders ? for
they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
And he answered and said unto them, Why do 3
ye also transgress the commandment of God be
cause of your tradition ? For God said, Honour 4
lurJiy die triv father and thy mother : and, He that speaketh
2 s°me evil of father or mother, let him 1 die the death.
¦ ancient '
. authori- jjut ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or 5
or his his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have
mother. , .
'Some been profited by me is given to God; he shall
authori- not honour his father2. And ye have made 6
£read void the 3 word of God because of your tradition.

custom, but it was not a requirement of the law ; it was, as they
said, a ' tradition of the elders ', a rabbinical regulation. But
where tradition is once admitted as an authority it rapidly takes
precedence. In the Church of Rome the ecclesiastical regula
tions, e. g. the Fasts and Feasts, or the celibacy of the clergy and
monastic vows, are enforced with a greater severity than the
original requirements of the Gospel. Fanaticism is easily
awakened in the defence of Tradition."
3. Our Lord does not answer the question, but retorts with
another. He brings out the weakness of all Tradition ; its
tyranny gradually but surely reverses the primal principles of the
religion which it endeavours to develop. Had His disciples
broken the tradition of the elders ? The Pharisaic tradition had
violated the commandment of God.
4. God said; in Mark vii. 10, 'Moses said.' Thus Jesus attri
butes the Law of Moses to God. This is the Fifth Commandment
(Exod. xx. 12) with the striking enforcement of Exod. xxi. 17.
Jesus evidently includes in ' honouring ', the duty of supporting,
parents. 5. The usage was, that if a man allocated his money to God,
and called it A Gift (Corban) he would be exempt from the
natural claim of his parents on his help. This apparent piety
Jesus calls ' making void the word of God '. He thus places filial
duty on the highest plane ; a religious service which violates it is
not acceptable to God. This incidental judgement of Christ on
the relative importance of duties must not be missed in the
broader question of the conflict between tradition and revela
tion.

St. MATTHEW XV. 7-12 139
J Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you,
saying,
8 This people honoureth me with their lips ;
But their heart js far from me.
9 But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of
men.
10 And he called to him the multitude, and said
1 1 unto them, Hear, and understand : Not that
which entereth into the mouth defileth the man ;
but that which proceeded out of the mouth, this
12 defileth the man. Then came the disciples, and
said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees

7. The quotation from Isa. xxix. 13 is remarkably apt. ' The
precepts of men ' are always creeping into religion and over
riding it ; cf. Col. ii. 22 ; Tit. i. 14. The Roman Church, accept
ing the principle of Tradition, has made the precepts of men into
doctrines, to such a degree that the New Testament is rightly
regarded as a danger to the laity. A passage like the one before
us is subversive of Roman teaching.
10. He turned to the multitude which, since His recent
miracles, was attentive to His word, ready even to crown Him,
and spoke the emancipating word which implicitly rescinds the
Levitical regulations. But it does more than that, it shifts the
whole of religion from the outward and material to the inward
and the moral. And though His appeal ' Hear and understand '
still falls on unhealing ears and ununderstanding hearts, the word
is spoken and can never be withdrawn; it wins its widening way
and regenerates wherever it is accepted.
11. defileth. The verb is identical with the adjective in Mark
vii. 5 applied to the hands. It means to make common, to re
move the barriers and restrictions of sanctity. The religion of
the Law sought to sanctify the people by prescribing clean food,
and by protecting the body from ceremonial defilement. It did not
overlook the moral and spiritual altogether. But if any religious
stress is laid on outward things — such is human nature— the
multitude will lay a disproportionate stress on them, to the neg
lect of the far more difficult things of the spirit. It is so easy to
wash the hands, or to use a certain kind of food ; it is so hard to
wash the heart, to make the personal influence exercised in the
world clean.

140 St. MATTHEW XV. 13-17
iGr. were x offended, when they heard this saying?
stumble1! But he answered and said, Every * plant which 13
panting. my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted
up. Let them alone : they c are blind guides. 14
And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall
into a pit. And Peter answered and said unto 15
him, Declare unto us the parable. And he said, 16
Are ye also even yet without understanding?
Perceive ye not, that whatsoever goeth into the 1 7
mouth passeth into the belly, and is cast out into
12. The Pharisees were offended, scandalized ; that was in
evitable, because with the emancipating word, the whole carefully
reared structure of Tradition toppled to the ground.
13. Jesus was not affected by their indignation. He fell back
on the great principle, that in the long run only what God pro
duces lasts. The word used for 'plant' distinctly means a culti
vated, as distinguished from a wild, plant. The Pharisee was
a product not of the Heavenly Father's planting, but of man's
perverted ingenuity. Bruce explains the plant as the teaching
or tradition of the Pharisees. But as ver. 18 goes on to speak
of the Pharisees themselves, it is more probable that they are
meant. The Scribes and Pharisees were not, as Paul would say,
' God's husbandry, God's building ' (1 Cor. iii. 9). How the
word searches us ! If we are not of His planting, however
holy and religious we seem, we shall be rooted up.
14. The Lord's serene indifference to blind guides, and His
certainty that they will fall into the ditch, should give us greater
composure in the face of errors, and calm the polemical spirit.
His example here is the more impressive because the Tradition
and the externalism against which He was contending last
almost unbroken still.
15. Peter is always ready to be spokesman. What he says
here is a little inept. The Lord had not uttered a parable, but a
clear moral principle. That it semed a parable, a dark saying,
an enigma, to Peter, shows what a depth of prejudice he had to
be raised from. The density surprised even Jesus — He thought
they had at least got so far as to recognize a clear direct truth like
this. 17. Perhaps the broad outspoken tone of the answer is itself
a reproach to this stupidity. He uses great plainness of speech,
to convince great crassness of spirit. Food goes through the
body, and never touches the soul. What we eat cannot make us
the better or the worse in a moral sense. This far-reaching

St. MATTHEW XV. 18-23 141
18 the draught ? But the things which proceed out
of the mouth come forth out of the heart ; and
10 they defile the man. For out of the heart come
forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornica-
20 tions, thefts, false witness, railings : these are the
things which defile the man : but to eat with un-
washen hands defileth not the man.
21 And Jesus went out thence, and withdrew into
22 the parts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a
Canaanitish woman came out from those borders,
and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou
son of David ; my daughter is grievously vexed
23 with a ' devil. But he answered her not a word, demon.
utterance might have saved the Church from all her superstitions
if she had had ears to hear.
18. What comes out of the heart — through the mouth or other
wise — defiles the man : evil thoughts, such casuistry of tradition
as was then under discussion. Examine the conclusions of
Probabilism in the Jesuit schools, and you see the real springs of
human corruption ; the intellect is employed to excuse and con
done all the sins which are here enumerated : murders, adul
teries and fornications, thefts, false witness, are the violations of
the sixth, seventh, eight, and ninth commandments, as the
casuistry of the Pharisees was of the fifth. The ' railings ' are
' blasphemies ' against God or man. In Mark vii. 22 the list is
enlarged. All evil within is included ; these are the things
which defile, just as all merely outward things are excluded, as
well as eating with unwashen hands. The principle is wide and
deep and universal.
21-8. Jesus heals the daughter of a Canaanitish woman.
21. He went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon to get quiet,
and to escape the angry Pharisees. As He sent His disciples
only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (x. 6) so, He con
ceives His own personal mission limited to His own people.
22. The woman is called a Syro-Phcenician by Mark. The
Phoenicians were descended from a colony of Canaanites (Gen.
x. 15). She was a heathen, but her respectful address shows
that she had incipient faith in Him. Her ascription to Him of
the Messianic title ' Son of David ' was perhaps to win the
favour and intercession of His disciples. She knew at any rate
that the title was applied to Him.
23. The silence of Jesus is explained by Bruce : ' There was

142 St. MATTHEW XV. 24-28
Andfiis disciples came and besought him, saying,
Send her away ; for she crieth after us. But he 24
answered and said, I was not sent but unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came 25
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
And he answered and said, It is not meet to 26
1 Or, loaf, take the children's l bread and cast it to the
dogs. But she said, Yea, Lord: for even the 27
dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their
masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said 28
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith : be it done

probably a mixture of feelings in Christ's mind at this time ; an
aversion to recommence just then a healing ministry at all, a
craving for rest and retirement ; a disinclination to be drawn into
a ministry among a heathen people, which would mar the unity
of His career as a prophet of God to Israel (the drama of His life
to serve its purpose must respect the limits of time and place),
a secret inclination to do this woman a kindness if it could in
any way be made exceptional ; and last but not least, a feeling
that her request was really not isolated but representative, the
Gentile world in her inviting Him, a fugitive from His own land,
to come over and help them, an omen of the transference of the
kingdom from Jewish to Pagan soil.'
23. The disciples wanted to be rid of her. Jesus felt other
wise. No one ever came to Him in vain. His silence and His
apparent refusal were only the barriers which would go down
before His pity.
24. He stated the limits of His personal mission in such a way
that the woman conceived hope from the refusal, and fell at His
feet in worship. Still He kept up the reluctance. But listen
closely and you perceive why she recognized His intention
behind the barrier. He was testing, and deepening, her faith.
He was eliciting, and forming, her character.
26. dogs. The Greek word, diminutive, a pet name, i. e. not
the outcast dogs of street or field, but the dogs at the hearth,
whose right to food was admitted. She catches at this implica
tion, with a wit, humility, and faith, which won Christ's admira
tion. 27. This woman asks for nothing better than to be a dog in the
household of Jesus, picking up the mere crumbs from His rich
table. The Syriac adds to the verse ' and live '.
28. The way in which the Master grants the request, whole-

St. MATTHEW XV. 29-32 143
unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter
was healed from that hour.
29 And Jesus departed thence, and came nigh
unto the sea of Galilee ; and he went up into
30 the mountain, and sat there. And there came
unto him great multitudes, having with them the
lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others,
and they cast them down at his feet; and he
31 healed them : insomuch that the multitude won
dered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the
maimed whole, and the lame walking, and the
blind seeing : and they glorified the God of
Israel.
32 And Jesus called unto him his disciples, and
said, I have compassion on the multitude, be-

heartedly, shows how willing He was to be entreated. Even
while His mission was to Israel, no human being, Phoenician,
Greek, or Roman, could appeal to Him in vain.
29-39. He retires to the neighbourhood of the Sea of
Galilee, healing and feeding the people. Matthew is not
interested in the geography or in the travelling. Mark is a little
more distinct. Jesus came to Decapolis, the group of Greek cities
which lay in the heart of the territory of Herod Philip. In the
place of the very general description of healing ministry here,
Mark gives the beautiful incident of the deaf and dumb man cured
by the word ' Ephphatha ' (vii. 31-7).
29. the mountain. How did the lame and the helpless climb the
hill ? The Aramaic tiira, which means hill also, is applied to a
desert (see ver. 33), because in Palestine the deserts are hilly,
very much as the . word ' forest ' came to mean a wood, because
'forests' were generally wooded. Perhaps, therefore, we may
think here only of the hilly desert which is so characteristic of
the country, not of a high mountain.
30. maimed. According to Euthymius Zigabenus, this meant
' handless '. Often the lepers are seen in this maimed state. It
is implied that Christ's healing power included the restoration of
lost limbs. The vital sap, induced by faith, re-creates.
32-9. The second miracle of feeding. It is quite clear that
the evangelist wishes to record two miraculous feedings of the
multitude ; the criticism which attempts to blend them into one

r44 St. MATTHEW XV. 33-36
cause they continue with me now three days and
have nothing to eat : and I would not send them
away fasting, lest haply they faint in the way.
And the disciples say unto him, Whence should 33
we have so many loaves in a desert place, as to
fill so great a multitude ? And Jesus saith unto 34
them, How many loaves have ye? And they
said, Seven, and a few small fishes. And he 35
commanded the multitude to sit down on the
ground ; and he took the seven loaves and the 36
fishes ; and he gave thanks arid brake, and gave
is broken on the specific differences — the number fed in the two
cases, 5,000 and 4,000 ; the supplies in ch. xiv five, and here
seven loaves ; the fragments, there filling twelve cophini and
here seven spurides. Besides, when Jesus refers to His miracles
He definitely mentions the two (xvi. 9-10). It is also plain that if
He did this act of supernatural grace once He could do it twice.
Westcott mooted an old theory, that the first miracle was wrought
for Israelites, and the second for strangers. If this be so, the
spiritual bearing of the work is plain, the flesh that He gives, His
body, is for the life, not of Israel only, but of the whole world.
32. / have compassion. This second narrative is justified, if only
by these lovely words on the lips of Jesus. We hear Him
speaking ; we feel the human heart, so far removed from the
callousness of the doctrinaire. He who is so emphatic in
declaring that what enters into a man is of secondary importance,
He who urges men to labour not for the meat which perishes, is
the first to feel the pathos of the hungry crowd, which for three
days has been hanging on His lips or seeking the touch of His
hand for their sick.
33. The disciples had not learnt to count on the Lord's power.
It is curious how quickly we forget His miraculous interferences
and deliverances. We try to explain them away, or to resolve
them into natural occurrences and coincidences. Consequently,
when another trouble comes, we are in the old state of unbelief
and dejection, instead of confident from past experience, that His
love and power will suffice.
36. gave thanks. This is the thxapiati\aos, which in the former
narrative was used by John ; cf. xxvi. 27 ; and Acts xxvii. 35. It
was not yet the Eucharist, but it typifies that miraculous meal by
which the body of Christ is fed. In the Old Testament the
miracle of Elisha foreshadows this miracle of our Lord (a Kings
iv. 42-4).

St. MATTHEW XV. 37— XVI. 1 145
to the disciples, and the disciples to the multi-
37 tudes. And they did all eat, and were filled :
and they took up that which remained over of
38 the broken pieces, seven baskets full. And they
that did eat were four thousand men, beside
39 women and children. And he sent away the
multitudes, and entered into the boat, and came
into the borders of Magadan.
ie And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and
tempting him asked him to shew them a sign
37. The basket here {o-irvpis) is much larger than the Ku<pa os of
ch. xiv. In one case, at any rate, a ampis was large enough to
hold a man, though perhaps only a little man (Acts ix. 25). Each
loaf, when the 4,000 are fed, is big enough to fill this large recep
tacle. It is a sign. Christ's grace is only indefinitely in
creased for each, when we have shared it with the multitude.
39. Magadan. Of this town there is no trace. Mark (viii. 10)
mentions Dalmanutha ; but that is equally unknown. From the
mention of ' the other side ' in xvi. 5 we should infer that it was
on the western shore of the Lake. On the other hand, some
think it is to be sought in Maked of 1 Mace. v. 26, 36. Cheyne
suggests Migdalnunia, a suburb of Tiberias. For us, at any rate,
we only can say that after His deed of mercy He withdrew again
into a place of obscurity, seeking it as a retreat from the now
avowed hostility of the religious leaders. When some MSS.
read Magdala, it is only to substitute a known for an un
known place. But the point for us is that it is unknown.
Ch. xvi. This great chapter forms a climax in the Gospel. It
opens with a fresh picture of the hostility gathering among the
Jewish parties ; it moves on to the critical point at which one
disciple confessed the Lord, and thereby the foundation of the
Church was laid ; and immediately the Cross was opened up, as
the means of the Church's victory. Bruce marks the significance
of the chapter by calling it the opening of the fifth act of the
drama. We may therefore divide it thus: — A sign demanded
(1-12) ; the confession made (13-20) ; the Cross in view (21-28).
1-12. Pharisees and Sadducees. The two hostile sects combine
against Jesus. In Mark the Herodians are referred to (viii. 15).
Probably the Sadducees, the intellectual and aristocratic party,
were to a large extent identical with the Herod-party. They
gathered round a great earthly potentate, and saw in the political
power of a native prince the security for their thoroughly material
and worldly religious state. L

14+5

St. MATTHEW XVI. 2-8

1 The fol
lowing
words, to
the end of
ver. 3, are
omitted by
some of
the most
ancient and other
important authori
ties.

¦Gr. loaves.

' Or, it is
because we
took no
bread.

from heaven. But he answered and said unto 2
them, ' When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair
weather : for the heaven is red. And in the 3
morning, // will be foul weather to-day : for the
heaven is red and lowring. Ye know how to
discern the face of the heaven ; but ye cannot
discern the signs of the times. An evil and 4
adulterous generation seeketh after a' sign; and
there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign
of Jonah. And he left them, and departed.
And the disciples came to the other side and 5
forgot to take ! bread. And Jesus said unto them, 6
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and Sadducees. And they reasoned 7
among themselves, saying, s We took no ! bread.
And Jesus perceiving it said, O ye of little faith, 8

1. This is a doublet of xii. 38. The two passages may refer to
the same occasion ; they are inserted to give the full answer of
Jesus to this natural demand for a ' sign '.
2. He sighed, says Mark, at the spiritual blindness of the rulers
of His people. A sign was before them clear as the familiar signs
of the weather in the sky. He himself was the sign, and they
could not read it.
3. The red in the sky they thought was the eve of a good time
coming ; it was the morning of the judgement day, red and lowering.
4. In brief and almost scornful directness He threw at them the
sign of Jonah ; Jonah's fruitless preaching to the men of
Nineveh — fruitless because Nineveh repented only to relapse — and
departed. 5. They crossed the Lake from the western shore (Magadan ?)
to the north-east, where they could start for the Lebanon. Mark
implies that the conversation took place on board, and that they
had one loaf with them. At any rate, the supply was insufficient,
and Jesus left to them the commissariat. Their thought was full
of the material j Jesus was absorbed in the late encounter with
Pharisees and Sadducees.
8. Jesus was grieved with them that they should think Him
concerned about so secondary a thing as the supply of bread j
grieved also, because they did not read the lesson of the two
miraculous multiplications of the loaves.

St. MATTHEW XVI.. 9-13 147
why reason ye among yourselves, because ye
9 have no l bread ? Do ye not yet perceive, neither 1 Gr.
remember the five loaves of the five thousand,
10 and how many 2 baskets ye took up? Neither * Basket
the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how and ,0 re-
1 presents
1 1 many * baskets ye took up ? How is it that ye different
do not perceive that I spake not to you concern- words.
ing 1 bread? But beware of the leaven of the
12 Pharisees and Sadducees. Then understood they
how that he bade them not beware of the leaven
of ] bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees
and Sadducees.
13 Now when Jesus came into the parts of
Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,
9. The careful mention of the two miracles, with the specific
baskets, cophini in one case and spurides in the other, is proof that
two miracles were performed, as far as literary or historic proof
can be offered of such events.
11. By the leaven He meant (Matthew thinks) the teaching of
the Pharisees and Sadducees (cf. v. 20). Mark, referring to the
' leaven of Herod ', does rot take the leaven to be teaching, for
Herod was no teacher. By the leaven He most probably meant
the whole influence of the Jewish leaders (cf. xxiii. 3), the spirit
they showed, the hardened inaccessibility to new truth. It was
not so much a doctrine as a Zeitgeist, which was in the mind of
Jesus. The doctrine might have been true and impeccable, but the
spirit which prevailed would have made it poison.
13-20. The Church is built on the confession of one be
liever in Christ. The scene of the great confession was beyond
the borders of Israel. The name of the place, Caesarea Philippi,
anciently Paneas, now Banias, is significant. Paneas was named
after Pan, the god of universal nature ; it was rebuilt and renamed
by Herod Philip, the only good son of Herod the Great ; he called it
Caesarea as a compliment to the Roman Emperor. It thus seemed
to embody the religious and the political ideals of the ancient world,
and especially of Israel. Situated at the foot of Lebanon, it is
' a place of exceedingly beautiful picturesque surroundings, with
which few spots in the Holy Land can be compared . What a rush
of many waters ! what a wealth and variety of vegetation ! '
exclaims Furrer. It was then a fit scene for the momentous con
fession, which founded the Church (ver. 13). The question put by
L 2

148 St. MATTHEW XVI. 14-17
i~Many who do men say l that the Son of man is ? And 14
ancientauthori- they said, Some say John the Baptist ; some,
ties read _,,... , , T . , ,,
that 1 the Elijah: and others, Jeremiah, or one of the
man am. prophets. He saith unto them, But who say ye '5
vm. 27; that I am? And Simon Peter answered and16
18. e'J said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, ' 1
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah : for flesh
Jesus gave the opportunity. He wished to see if in His immediate
circle the kind of faith was yet apparent which was manifestly
lacking outside. He led up to the personal question by asking
what men in general thought of Him. Opinions were divided
between the prophets, who, according to popular expectation,
were all to come back to life. The expectation about John is
expressed in the fear of Herod Antipas (xiv. 2). The expectation
about Elijah was derived from Mal. iv. 5. The expectation that
Jeremiah would return rested on the slender ground of 2 Mace. ii.
1-8. All that the most enthusiastic people discerned in Jesus
was ' one of the prophets '.
15. But what idea had the disciples formed of their Master after
these many months of intimate experience ? Their dullness of
perception had just been illustrated afresh (ver. 11). It is diffi
cult to imagine that any of them had come to a clear conclusion.
The answer which broke from the impetuous lips of Peter was,
therefore, flashed into his mind by God ; it was one of those
utterances to which the second epistle of Peter afterwards
referred: 'men spake from God, being moved by the Holy
Ghost ' (s Pet. i. 21). The confession of Jesus was from the first
recognized as a supernatural revelation (1 John iv. 2) ; it never
comes from ' flesh and blood ', i. e. the simply human part of us.
16. Strange to say, the form of confession varies in our three
sources. In Mark (viii. 29), which we suppose represents Peter's
version of the incident, the words are only : ' Thou art the Christ.'
In Luke ix. 20 it is: 'Thou art the Christ of God.' Matthew
combines and expands the two.
Son of the living God. For ' living ' D has ' saving ' (i. e.
aii&vros for (avros). Undoubtedly the main point of the confession
was that Peter recognized in Jesus the Messias (Christ) and
thereby became a Christian (cf. 1 Pet. iv. 16). The peculiar rela
tion of the Son to the Father on which Jesus had Himself
expatiated (Matt. xi. 25-30) was understood ; and, therefore,
Matthew does not hesitate to express it in the form of the
confession. 17-19. Peter and the Rock. These verses occur only in

St. MATTHEW XVI. 18 149
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
18 my Father which is in heaven. And I also say t
unto thee, that thou art 'Peter, and upon this f*tn*.
3 rock I will build my church ; and the gates of pttra.

Matthew. His very remarkable that the earliest source, Mark,
giving Peter's version, says nothing of the dignity conferred on
Peter, but only records the rebuke, 'Get thee behind me, Satan'
(Mark viii. 33). Luke omits all that was said to Peter personally.
His confession stands, but he is neither praised nor rebuked.
Wellhausen thinks that the words could not have been known to
Peter or written in his lifetime. Certainly there is no indication
in the Acts or the Epistles that Peter was aware of them. We
may surmise that the saying of ver. 18 is reported by one evan
gelist because it is important, but it is only reported by one, lest
its importance should be exaggerated. It must be evident to all,
that if the saying had meant what the Papal See says it did, it
would not only have been carefully recorded in each of the
Gospels, hut also referred to in all the New Testament literature.
If Christ conferred on the Popes a universal supremacy in the
Church, He conferred it on Peter ; for on these words to Peter
the claim rests. But if He conferred it on Peter, Peter was
ignorant of it (see r Peter v. 1-4), and certainly Paul did not
recognize it (Gal. ii. 11).
17. The blessing is given in set and stately phrase, and the full
name of Peter is uttered, 'Simon, son of Jonah,' just as under
strong feeling we still sometimes address a friend with his full tale
of names and titles. ' Flesh and blood,' according to Wellhausen,
includes Jesus Himself during the time of His incarnate life. The
truth had come from the Father, through the Spirit (see 1 Cor.
xii. 3).
18. Already, very early in their mutual relations, according to
John i. 42, Jesus had given to Simon the Aramaic name, Kepha,
meaning a stone. This, no doubt, is the Fourth Evangelist's way
of minimizing the personal element in these words of Matthew.
The name Kepha or Peter was given to Simon at once, without
any reference to the meaning of the word. There were two
Simons among the Twelve (x. 2, 4), and it was necessary to dis
tinguish them. When Kepha was the first to confess Him, Jesus
played upon his name: 'Thou art Kepha, on Kepha (sc. rock)
will I build.' Wellhausen thinks that the Church was built on the
Risen Lord, and Peter was the first to see Him. The commoner
view is that the Church is built on the confession of Christ, and
Peter was the first to make that confession.
my church. Only here and in xviii. 17, on the lips of Jesus.
He would use the Aramaic K'nischta, which meant a synagogue,

iSo St. MATTHEW XVI. 19-21
Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give 19
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven :
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then 20
charged he the disciples that they should tell no
man that he was the Christ.
> Some From that time began * Jesus to shew unto his 21
ancient ..... , ,
authori- disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem,
jesus and suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third
The Greek word ' ecclesia ' occurs in the LXX (Deut. xviii. 16,
xxiii. 2) for the ' assembly of the Lord '¦
the gates of Hades (Job xxxviii. 17 ; Isa. xxxviii. 10) is
equivalent to the grave, that is, the bourne of all things mortal ;
but Christ's Church, the assembly of souls founded on belief in
Him as Messias, is not mortal.
19. For Church is immediately substituted kingdom. The key
is a symbol of rule (Isa. xxii. 22) because it unlocks the gates.
Cf. Wisd. xvi. 13 : Wisdom leads down to the gates of Hades
and leads up again. In Rev. i. 18, iii. 7 Christ Himself retains
the key. But this first believer wields the authority of Christ ;
as fresh believers are added, they receive the same authority
(xviii. 18). This authority is wielded through teaching, for to
bind and loose is the Jewish phrase for pronouncing anything
forbidden or permissible. Thus the Church is extended and
governed by Truth, communicated to, and by, those who confess
Christ (cf. xiii. 52). It is by teaching, not by sacerdotal mysteries,
that Christ intends us to wield the powers of His kingdom.
His agents are not a special order in the Church, but the Church
itself composed of faithful men.
20. This follows at once on ver. 16, in Mark's version viii. 30.
Directly Peter confessed Christ, the disciples were forbidden to
make known who Jesus was, because the main anxiety of Jesus
was, that there should be no popular movement, involving
mistaken ideas and misleading hopes ; He wanted believers to be
gathered quietly and deliberately, and by silent processes of
conviction. 21-8. The Cross in view. Directly the faith of the disciples
had struck root, it had to bear the strain of this dread announce
ment. We do not know when Jesus reached the conviction that
the hostility of the authorities would end in His death ; but from
the time that He began to communicate it to His disciples, it

St. MATTHEW XVI. 22-24 151
22 day be raised up. And Peter took him, and
began to rebuke him, saying, * Be it far from ' Or, God
23 thee, Lord : this shall never be unto thee. But mercy on
. thee
he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind
me, Satan : thou art a stumblingblock unto me :
for thou mindest not the things of God, but the
24 things of men. Then said Jesus unto his dis
ciples, If any man would come after me, let him
filled His mind and coloured all His teaching. Henceforth we
see Him going consciously and deliberately forward to be
murdered ; but He is as sure of being raised on the third day as
He is of dying.
ai. The elders, chief priests, and scribes, are the three orders
that constituted the Sanhedrin ; His death was to be the work of
the highest authority in Israel.
22. Was Peter elated by the praise and promise which had
just been given to him ? Was his head turned by the personal
dignity which seemed to be implied ? His rebuke to his Master
is patronizing. Peter would have Him a conquering, not a suffer
ing Messiah. He had the notion that the kingdom could be
established by the sword (John xviii. 10).
Be it far from thee, Lord! literally, 'God be propitious to
thee,' which would be even more insolent to the Lord whom he
had just acknowledged as Son of God. But the Greek idiom only
means: 'God forbid' (cf. 1 Mace. ii. 21; 2 Sam. xxiii. 17).
If the Roman Church were right in basing the Papal authority
on the promise to Peter, it would be an ominous start for infallible
Popes that the founder of the order should begin his utterances
with this foolish and irreverent remark.
this shall never be unto thee t The very thing which was to
purchase the Church as the Lord's possession, and to cleanse the
hearts of all true believers. We wonder whether Peter's con
fession in ver. 16 was worth much, whether it was not after all
a movement of the Spirit in him with which his own intelligence
and conviction had little to do. But for our weak and unthinking
faith it is a consolation, that Christ sees a potency in a thing so
small. 23. Nothing, however, hinders the Master from frankly rebuking
the first believer. At once he is a Satan, a tempter, and
a stumblingblock (ir/nii'SaAoi') to his Lord. The Greek phrase
translated ' mindest not the things, &c. ' is equivalent to saying :
' you are not on God's side but on men's ' (Rom. viii. 5 ;
Phil. iii. 19 ; Col. iii. 2 ; on the other hand see Phil. ii. 5 for
having the mind of Christ).

152 St. MATTHEW XVI. 25-28
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
1 Or, soul me. For whosoever would save his 1 life shall 25
lose it : and whosoever shall lose his * life for
my sake shall find it. For what shall a man be 26
profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and
forfeit his ' life ? or what shall a man give in
exchange for his Jlife? For the Son of man 27
Shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels; and then shall he render unto every
' Gr. man according to his 2 deeds. Verily I say unto 28
you, There be some of them that stand here,
24. So far from evading the Cross Himself, Jesus now explains
that His true disciples must take it too. This is a doublet of
x- 3^1 39- As His own Cross comes nearer, He lays more stress
on the cross of His followers. At first He used the phrase
' taking up the Cross ' as a metaphorical expression for suffering
and ignominy. But now it becomes distinct as a literal
experience. 25. for my sake. In Mark is added ' and the gospel's ', to show
that the cross would be chiefly incurred in proclaiming His
gospel. The cross comes to us in many forms, but we cannot be
quite satisfied with ourselves, unless we find it coming in this
specific form, ' for the gospel's sake.'
26. As one word in Greek means ' life ' and ' soul ' it is almost
impossible to render accurately in English. But if one alternative
is to be taken, ' soul ' here comes nearer to the meaning than ' life '.
We can only get the real thought, however, by translating ^«x4
'life' in ver. 25, and 'soul' in ver. 26. This deep utterance
reveals the worth of the individual soul in Christ's eyes. Life in
the physical sense is not of transcendent importance ; and though
we will give much to keep it, no good man, no brave man, would
give all. Certainly Jesus did not wish to imply that life was to
be kept at all costs ; rather He was preparing men to lay it down
for His sake. But the soul, the immortal and heavenly principle
in us, is worth everything, and we may well sacrifice all to save
it ; for there is a future.
27. Respite finem : we are to keep our eyes on the final scene,
when the Son of Man will award finally on each man's deeds.
In that assize of Father, Son and angels, the laying down of life,
for Christ's sake and the gospel's, will appear to have been the
gaining of the soul.
28. It Is difficult to be sure of the reference in this saying.
The ' coming in the kingdom ' seems tq mean the apocalyptjc

St. MATTHEW XVII, 1 153
which shall in no wise taste of death, till they
see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
17 And after six days Jesus taketh with him

coming of Dan. vii. 13. But if that were the Lord's meaning, we
should have to admit that His words were not fulfilled. AU that
circle of hearers died, and generations have passed, and the king
dom is not yet come in that full and final sense. The phrase
'taste of death' limits the meaning to the span of earthly life :
He declared that some of His disciples would see the coming
before their term of years on earth was over. What did He
mean? However great may be the objections against the
received view, it is more plausible than any other, viz. we must
connect this promise with the event next recorded in the
synoptic narrative, the Transfiguration. And if John xii. 20-36
may be regarded as the Johannine equivalent of the Transfigura
tion, the voice from heaven (ver. 28) saying that the divine name
should be glorified, that confirms the interpretation. The Son of
Man came in His kingdom, not by the apocalyptic advent at the
end only, but by those manifestations of His glory and the
confirming voice from heaven which made the Transfiguration so
memorable (see especially 2 Pet. i. 17). Though this explanation
seems hardly to give full value to the solemn asseveration ' shall
not taste of death until', it enables us to grasp a great principle,
which we too easily let slip, viz. that Christ's coming began from
the first and is manifested gradually to the end. Possibly in
every assembly of His people He could repeat the promise of
this verse ; and we should pray that we may have eyes to see
His coming.
Ch. xvii. Transfiguration ; healing the demoniac ; renewed
FORESHOWING OF DEATH ; PAYING THE TRIBUTE-MONEY. ' From the
mount of transfiguration to money demands which one is too poor
to meet, what a descent ! ' exclaims Bruce : and the descent is
through a lamentable instance of His disciples' little faith (ver. 20),
and through a fresh realization of the approaching sacrifice.
Raphael's picture in the Vatican attempts to bring into one view the
glory on the mount, and the scene of distraction and healing at the
foot. Matthew presents an even greater contrast ; he shows at one
glance the wonderful Person of Jesus, and an effect of that unique
personality in its hour of unique dedication (A. B. Davidson), and
the poverty which has not a coin to give as tribute, the humi
liation of the Lord of all being taxed as a subject. Yet, rightly
understood, the glory of Jesus is as manifest in ' that take, and
give unto them for thee and me' as in 'his face did shine as the
sun, and his garments became white as the light '.
1-13. The Transfiguration. This is to be regarded as the formal
preparation for the death, as the baptism was the formal prepara-

154 St.. MATTHEW XVII. 2
Peter, and James, and John his brother, and
bringeth them up into a high mountain apart :
and he was transfigured before them : and his a
tion for the life. At the baptism the Spirit descended on Him ;
here the spiritual light streams from Him. As a manifestation to
the prepared inner circle of the disciples, the scene was designed
to irradiate the Redeemer's sufferings, to transfigure the Cross.
Before He was exposed to the humiliation and ignominy of that
bitter death, it was necessary to show who He was, the Lord
from Heaven, that was thus to die. The Transfiguration, there
fore, is an integral factor in the life of the Lord, and not a casual
episode. The Fourth Gospel omits it, but introduces an equivalent
in John xii. 20-36, which is also an interpretation. The Greeks
ask to see Him. He says that He must die as a corn of wheat
dies. The voice from heaven applauds (ver. 28, cf. Matt. xvii. 5).
He declares Himself the Light, and bids His disciples become
sons of light. John after his manner sees his Lord's transfigura
tion not in this night-scene on the mount, but in a certain mani
festation of His inner thought, the confident triumph of His
sacrifice drawing all men unto Himself. Peter, on the other hand,
never ceased to talk of the visible transfiguration (2 Pet. i. 16-18).
For James the vision remained as a power of ethical transforma
tion ; it became a diffused light of Christlike goodness. For
Paul, who was not present, and for all who share Paul's faith,
Christ remained transfigured, known no longer after the flesh,
the emblem of the eternal light, set over against the powers of
darkness (Col. i. 13). It was perhaps a childish wish of Peter's
to keep the heavenly visitants in tents, but he was right in
thought, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here.' Let the reader
remain long enough on the Transfiguration mount, to be trans
figured. 1. after six days, sc. since He began to speak to them of His
death. In those days of quiet or of travel (it depends on the
question of which mountain is meant, whether they rested at
Caesarea or travelled far) He explained to them the scriptures
which anticipated His death, showed them how the corn of wheat
must die to bear a harvest, and how He must die to draw all
men to Him.
Peter, and James, and John. The three witnesses of the
raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark v. 37) and of the agony in the
Garden (Mark xiv. 33). They saw the vision, not in order to tell
it (see ver. 9) — so far as we know John and James never mentioned
it even after the Son of Man was risen — but that they might
themselves be overwhelmingly convinced (e. g, John i. 14 ;
1 John i. 1, 2). They did not speak of the Transfiguration, but of
the Person who had been revealed to them in the occurrence.
a high mountain. Mount Tabor, according to tradition. Modern

St. MATTHEW XVII.. 3 155
face did shine as the sun, and his garments be-
3 came white as the light. And behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking

commentators incline to Hermon because it is ' exceeding high '.
More probably it was Jebel Jermuk (4,000 feet), the highest point
of Palestine proper ; it stands over against the Safed uplands,
separated from them by the deep gorge Wady Leimun {Expos.
Times, xviii. 333). But as Holtzmann wisely says : ' The mount
of Transfiguration does not concern geography.'
apart, i. e. privately.
^. The Transfiguration, according to Luke, took place while He
prayed. The companions of St. Francis and of other saints have
seen similar things ; the face has shone, and even the garments
have seemed luminous. Though commonly the body effectually
curtains and conceals the spirit, at times the spirit shines bril
liantly through. This effect is only rare, because the intense and
transfiguring spiritual experience which causes it is rare.
An experience of James Russell Lowell {Letters,' i. 75) may
serve as an illustration : ' I had a revelation last Friday evening.
I was at Mary's, and happening to say something of the presence
of spirits (of whom I said I was often dimly aware). Mr. Putnam
entered into an argument with me on spiritual matters. As
I was speaking, the whole system rose up before me like a vague
destiny looming from the Abyss. I never before so clearly felt
the Spirit of God in me and around me. The whole room seemed
to me full of God. The air seemed to waver to and fro with the
presence of Something I knew not what. I spoke with the
calmness and clearness of a prophet. I cannot tell you what this
revelation was. I. have not yet studied it enough. But I shall
perfect it one day, and then you shall hear it, and acknowledge
its grandeur.' his face did shine as the sun. This is the Lord of heaven
on earth (Rev. i. 16, x. 1). Peter's memory of it is vaguer, but
even more glorious (2 Pet. 1. 16-18).
3. The three sleepy and bewildered disciples could ill judge
who the heavenly visitants were. But they were sure of the
point. They even knew the subject of conversation, according to
Luke ; it was the ' exodus ' which Jesus was soon to accomplish
at Jerusalem. So rooted was this in Peter's mind, that to mention
his. own approaching ' exodus' (2 Pet. i. 15) was at once to recall
this conversation on the Mount between Moses, who was grandly.
rapt to God, Elijah, who was borne in a chariot to heaven, and
Jesus, who was to go by the awful way of the Cross.
Incidentally, the appearance of the two ancient prophets will.
teach believing hearts that the dead behind the veil live.

156 St. MATTHEW XVII. 4-9
with him. And Peter answered, and said unto 4
Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou
'Or, wilt, I will make here three 1 tabernacles ; one
for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
While he was yet speaking, behold, a bright S
cloud overshadowed them : and behold, a voice
out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him. And 6
when the disciples heard it, they fell on their
face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came 7
and touched them and said, Arise, and be not 8
afraid. And lifting up their eyes, they saw no
one, save Jesus only.
And as they were coming down from the 9
mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell
4. Granted, Peter's proposal was childish, an utterance of
dazed stupidity, such as comes to one impetuous to speak when
he has nothing to say ; yet, what verisimilitude is in the narrative !
When in the Church's history would a writer have invented so
silly a speech for the Primate of Apostles?
5. a bright cloud. That ' excellent glory ' which Peter remem
bered (a Pet. i. 17). The voice at the baptism spoke to Jesus
to assure Him (iii. 17). Now it speaks to the disciples, to
enforce their attention. Deeply as the voice impressed Peter,
and convinced him (2 Pet. i. 18), it is striking that he regarded
the scriptures as a clearer evidence of Christ than the voice from
heaven (verses 19-21), apparently because a voice may be only of
' private, interpretation ', while the scriptures are open to all, in
all ages.'
6. The fear of the supernatural is engrained in human nature.
But it is the gracious function of Jesus to remove the fear. He
touches us, we rise, and are not afraid.
8. Jesus only. Moses and Elijah have gone : the law and the
prophets are merged in Jesus. He is enough without them ;
and yet as His witnesses and forerunners they retain their place
in our gratitude and veneration. The Bible is not truly trans
figured for us, until we lift up our eyes and see in it Jesus only.
9. Jesus did not wish the vision to be used as evidence to
others, and for that reason John abstained from recording it. It
is only the moral and spiritual elements in our Lord, never the
miraculous signs, which carry lasting conviction all down the

St. MATTHEW XVII. 10-14 157
the vision to no man, until the Son of man be
10 risen from the dead. And his disciples asked
him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elijah
11 must first come? And he answered and said,
Elijah indeed cometh, and shall restore all things :
12 but I say unto you, that Elijah is come already,
and they knew him not, but did unto him what
soever they listed. Even so shall the Son of
13 man also suffer of them. Then understood the
disciples that he spake unto them of John the
Baptist.
14 And when they were come to the multitude,
there came to him a man, kneeling to him, and
ages. We dwell on the Vision now, not to prove Christ to
unbelievers, but to refresh and encourage our hearts, because we
believe. 10. Why then say the scribes ? The conjunction oZv, ' then ,' is
a little difficult to understand. Perhaps the thought is this :
' We have just seen Elijah, and yet thou forbiddest us to mention
it ; but the scribes regard Elijah as the forerunner of Christ on
the strength of Mal. iv. 6 ; if we said that we had seen him, that
might convince them who Thou art.' The force of the then is in
the undercurrents of thought. If Jesus does not wish to lay stress
on Elijah's appearing, why then do the scribes make so much
of it ?
n. The answer of Jesus is most perplexing to the disciples,
and Mark does not say that they understood it. We may question
whether ver. 13 does not refer to a discovery made long after. It
was a staggering suggestion that the Elijah foretold by the prophet
Malachi, who should ' restore all things ' (Mal. iv. 5, LXX) was
not that Elijah who went up to heaven in a chariot, but that
lonely prophet who was beheaded in the dungeon of Machaerus.
What a disenchantment ! not the glorified visitant of the night
vision, but the beheaded preacher of the wilderness.
12. they knew him not. The scribes taught that Elijah's func
tion was to lead Israel to the Great Repentance ; but they did not
detect him in John the Baptist, whose denunciations of themselves
laid the axe to the root of the tree.
Even so shall the Son of man. Jesus saw in the treatment of
John a forecast of the treatment which the same men would
accord to Him.
14-20. The Demoniac Boy. Mark's graphic pen gives life to

158 Sf. MATTHEW XVII. 15-20
saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is 15
epileptic, and suffereth grievously : for oft-times
he falleth into the fire, and oft-times into the
water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and 16
they could not cure him. And Jesus answered 17
and said, O faithless and perverse generation,
how long shall I be with you ? how long shall I
bear with you ? bring him hither to me. And 18
1 Gr. Jesus rebuked him ; and the 1 devil went out
from him: and the boy was cured from that
2 Many hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, '9
ties, some and said, Why could not we cast it out ? And ao
ancient, ,.,....
insert he saith unto them, Because of your little faith :
But t/ns for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a
notouT ' grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this
"prayer mountain, Remove hence to yonder place ; and
fasting it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible
tafrk unto you.*
this narrative. The face of Jesus evidently shone, as Moses' face
had done (Ex. xxxiv. 29, 30), and filled the people with wonder
(Mark ix. 15).
15. The boy was an epileptic, but the Greek word means ' he
is lunatic '. Epilepsy was supposed to be affected by lunar
changes. From Mark it appears that there was paralysis as well.
16. The three strongest disciples were absent. Look at the
undistinguished names of the other nine, and you cannot wonder
that they were unequal to the task. And yet Jesus knew that if
they had had faith they would have been able to heal the boy.
17. It is a bitter cry of that Lord, whose glory had just been
manifested in contact with dull and unresponsive hearts. Think
of faithless Thomas (John xx. S7). But these very men were
soon to stand out as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation. To-day failure, to-morrow transfiguration and
success (Phil. ii. 15).
18. the devil went out. No mention had been made of a devil.
This may indicate that all disease was spoken of in this way.
Every cure was an exorcism.
20. Utile faith. A word only, here, but the corresponding
adjective is in vi. 30, viii. 26, xiv. 31, xvi. 8. Does it stand as

St. MATTHEW XVII. 22-25 159
22 And while they x abode in Galilee, Jesus said ' Some
unto them, The Son of man shall be delivered authori-
33 up into the hands of men ; and they shall kill m™0
him, and the third day he shall be raised up. sttum""s
And they were exceeding sorry. Zgfther.
H And when they were come to Capernaum,
they that received the 2 half-shekel came to 'Gr.di-
Peter, and said, Doth not your 'master pay the .Qr, "*
2 5 "half-shekel? He saith, Yea. And when he "aci"r
a gentle expression for ' no faith ' ? For even a grain of faith can
work the greatest miracle. Observe the answer is a constant one on
the lips of Jesus (cf. xxi. 21). It was a Jewish expression to call
a good Rabbi ' an uprooter of mountains ' because he took diffi
culties out of the way. Faith can do more than all rabbinical
lore. A blind literalism would make the saying absurd. It is
a strong figure of speech. But it is well to realize how plastic
and mobile the material universe is to Jesus. ' Our globe seen by
God is a transparent law, not a mass of facts,' says Emerson.
Made by a creative word, it can develop, change, or disappear
by the same word that made it.
Verse 21 was inserted here from the parallel in Mark. In the
best uncials it is wanting. At the same time we know from Mark
that Jesus said this.
22-3. A Second Announcement of the approaching Death.
Mark makes the circumstances clear. But the three synoptists all
record the striking form of the saying : ' The Son of man shall
be delivered into the hands of men.' He is their own flesh and
blood ; they kill him ; his death saves them.
24-7. The Tribute Money. We owe a great debt to Matthew
for recording this incident. He alone remembered it, perhaps
because his trade had been to sit at the receipt of custom. But
it is of singular beauty and value. It shows the divine Lord of
the Transfiguration-mount, accepting His lowly place as a man,
wishing to conciliate the turbulent and insolent race among whom
He sojourned. What Wordsworth says of Milton applies more
exactly to Milton's Lord :
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way
In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
24. the half-shekel, in Greek money worth two drachmas, about
is. 3d., was the tax for sacred uses enjoined by Exod. xxx. 13,
xxxviii. 26, cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 6, 9, collected in the month Adar
(March). After the fall of the Temple the Romans claimed this

i6o St. MATTHEW XVII. 26, 27
came into the house, Jesus spake first to him,
saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? the kings
of the earth, from whom do they receive toll
or tribute ? from their sons, or from strangers ?
And when he said, From strangers, Jesus said >6
unto him, Therefore the sons are free. But, lest 27
we cause them to stumble, go thou to the sea,
and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first
cometh up; and when thou hast opened his
1 Gr. mouth, thou shalt find a x shekel : that take, and
give unto them for me and thee.

poll-tax, but that is, of course, not alluded to here, though the
reference to kings of the earth in ver. 25 sounds as if it were.
Doth not your master pay. The tax was of the nature of
a voluntary assessment, never apparently enforced by the arm of
the civil authority. The question therefore was almost equivalent
to this : Is He a good Jew, loyal to the institutions of Moses ?
25. As Wellhausen points out, the form of the answer seems
designed to meet a difficulty which occurred in the early days of
the Church in the Roman Empire. Were Christians to pay
imperial taxes ? The action of Jesus forestalled the question.
Ideally they were free, but their object is to be men among men,
and to avoid unnecessary offence. Therefore they should conform
to the requirements of the State to which they belong.
the kings of the earth. In Oriental monarchies a certain
paternal element is recognized, and the king taxes strangers in his
realm rather than his own subjects. But the thought of Jesus
seems to draw the distinction between the subjects and the
royal house (cf. xxi. 12 ff., xxiv. 30 f.). This gives point to the
question here. Jesus is conscious of being the King's Son : the
Temple, for which the didrachma was demanded, was His
Father's house. He seems to imply that Peter as the first
believer shared His privileges of sonship. The deduction
therefore was legitimate, that they were free.
toll or tribute, t&i;, customs, such as Matthew collected, and
Kijvaos, the poll-tax for the temple.
27. Incidentally this reveals the fact that Jesus had no money ;
'though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor'
(2 Cor. viii. 9). And yet in His Father's world, the silver and
the gold were His ; even in a fish's mouth.
the shekel, Gk. stater, was worth four drachmas, about ,2s. 6rf,^
and would serve for Jesus and Peter. It is a touching and

St. MATTHEW XVIII. 1, 2 161
18 In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus,
saying, Who then is ' greatest in the kingdom of *3£Ur_
« heaven ? And he called to him a little child,

beautiful prelude to the discourse in ch. xviii on humility. The
Lord of Heaven pays the tax on earth, lest he should cause men
to stumble. This accommodation to the present life is a great
principle from which all our rules of living, in town or state, may
be deduced.
The evangelist does not tell us whether Peter found the stater
in the fish, because the importance of the narrative lies not in
that extraordinary incident, but in the resolution of our penniless
Lord to pay the tribute. But coins are found in fish. In the
Academia at Venice great pictures show how the fisherman had
found in the fish a signet ring which had been dropped from the
Doge's galley. And the Lord's swift perception, that a fish with
the swallowed coin could be immediately caught, is not incredible.
It belongs to a class of phenomena becoming daily more familiar,
in which a clairvoyant mind sees what is just about to happen.
No wise person now will dispute the possibility of the stater being
obtained in this way ; but as Matthew did not lay stress on it, and
certainly did not use it as an evidence of our Lord's divine nature,
neither are we entitled to do so.
Ch. xviii. The Chapter of the Church. It admits us into
the secret of that holy institution to which Jesus referred in
xvi. 18. All that the apostles tell us on this subject springs out
of this. Childlikeness, brotherly love, and forgiveness are the
notes of the Church. When the reader has studied this chapter,
let him read Col. iii. 12-15, and he will get a unique impression
of the unity of God's revelation, and also of Love as the founda
tion and coping-stone of His house. There are three sections
in this charter of the Church: (i) Be childlike (ver. 1-14).
(2) Gain the brother in the Church fellowship (15-20).
(3) Forgive (ver. 21-35).
1-14. Be childlike. This occurred at Capernaum, Mark ix. 33.
Christ's mind was full of the sacrifice ; the apostles' minds were
full of pre-eminence. Here is the first sign of that hideous
growth, Ecclesiastical Ambition, and here Christ condemns it for
ever beforehand.
1. Who then is greater? greater among the disciples: cf.
Mark ix. 34 ; Luke ix. 46. We are justified in translating
' greatest ', for Hellenistic Greek had lost the superlative, as
Moulton shows in his Grammar of N. T. Greek, i. 78. The
illative conjunction connects the question with the preceding
incidents, with the prominence of Peter in xvi. 15, and in
the story of the Tribute-money, and perhaps with the eminence
of the three who witnessed the Transfiguration. They did not
M

162 St. MATTHEW XVIII. 3-6
and set him in the midst of them, and said,
Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and be- 3
come as little children, ye shall in no wise enter
into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever there- 4
fore shall humble himself as this little child, the
1 Gr- same is the x greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoso shall receive one such little child in 5
my name receiveth me : but whoso shall cause 6
recognize Peter's primacy. Nor did Jesus. If He had intended
to make Peter Pope, the answer to this question would have been
simple ; as it was, He answered the question by making a child
His text. He nipped Pharisaism in the bud. He taught Peter
a lesson, which that warmhearted disciple at least never forgot
(1 Pet. v. 1-3).
2. The child in the midst is presented more tenderly in
Markix. 36— Peter's gospel — for Jesus there takes the child in
His arms.
3. Except ye turn. This is better than a theological term ' be
converted '. It is a very practical requirement, to ' become as
little children ', depending on the will, and not on a supernatural
and uncertain operation of the Spirit. Every one can become
like a little child (Ps. cxxxi. 2). How the thought echoed in
Peter's mind, see 1 Pet. ii. 2, ' as new-born babes desire the
sincere milk of the word.' We can all receive the Kingdom of
God as a little child (x. 15). The Kingdom of Heaven is composed
of childlike people.
enter into. Rather ' attain to ' as in ver. 8 ; xxv. 21, 23.
4. Insensibly Jesus passes from the idea of children literally to
that of the childlike, whom He calls, 'these little ones who
believe in me.' The comparison turns on the virtue of humility.
Children are not always humble ; but the childlike are. When
a fullgrown person takes the lowly place as a child of God,
obedient and docile, that self-emptying constitutes the only
greatness which can be recognized in God's Kingdom. Who
exalts himself, and trusts himself, is a tiny egoism in the vast
order of the Spirit ; who loses himself, and lets God's life flow
through him, is an integral part of that harmonious order, acts
with the fullness of omnipotence, and shares the majesty of God.
The humility must be genuine, not like the hoods of children
adopted by Egyptian monks as a badge of humility.
5. The discourse turns from the childlike to those who are
brought into contact with them. Thus in these few verses the
whole subject of God and the Child is completely handled.
Christ is with the little one, as the angels are (ver. 10).

St. MATTHEW XVIII. 7-9 163
one of these little ones which believe on me to
stumble, it is profitable for him that 'a great >&.«
millstone should be hanged about his neck, and turned
that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. y ""
7 Woe unto the world because of occasions of
stumbling ! for it must needs be that the occa
sions come; but woe to that man through whom
8 the occasion cometh ! And if thy hand or thy
foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast
it from thee : it is good for thee to enter into
life maimed or halt, rather than having two hands
9 or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. And

6. these little ones which believe on me. The phrase is unique,
but what a description of the true Christian ! And what
a sentence passed on all those who put stumblingblocks in the
way of Christians ! It is better for such an opponent of the
Christian to be drowned in the Dead Sea, with a millstone tied
round his neck, to make him sink, not the ordinary handmill-
stone, but the ass-turned millstone — that is the meaning of 'great'
here. 7. This gives a glimpse into a great mystery. The world is
a scene of trial. There must be temptations, just as the
Canaanites were left in Canaan, to try the Israelites (Judges iii. 1).
But this by no means exonerates the persons who serve as tests to
the people of God. The sin is punished, though it is turned to
account in the training of the saints. Balaam only blessed Israel,
but his punishment is sure, because he had it in his heart to curse
him, and moved the Moabites to tempt him.
8. See v. 29, 30 ; Mark ix. 43-8. The hand and foot and eye
here are the instruments of offence to Christ's little ones. There
is no doubt concerning the fate of those who cause the stumbling,
it is aeonian fire, the Gehenna of fire, i. e. a punishment like the
burning of the bodies of criminals in the valley of Hinnom,
prolonged into that world beyond space and time, called seonian.
The hand may strike a ' little one of Christ ' ; the foot may lead
him astray ; the eye may flash contempt or ridicule upon him.
enter into life, prob. 'eternal life' : cf. xix. 17.
The notion that by these members may be meant bad people in
the Christian community, who must be excommunicated, leads up
well to the next section, ver. 15, &c, but could not be derived
from those verses alone. M 2

164 St. MATTHEW XVIII. 10-13
if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out,
and cast it from thee : it is good for thee to enter
into life with one eye, rather than having two
i Gr. eyes to be cast into the ' hell of fire. See that 10
of fi""" ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say
, unto you, that in heaven their angels do always
authori- behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.2
ties, some
ancient, How think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, 1 2
ver. 11 and one of them be gone astray, doth he not
For the ... , . , ,
Son of leave the ninety and nine, and go unto the
to save"" mountains, and seek that which goeth astray?
waslos" And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto 13
xix6 10. e you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the
10. The reason why the eye may not look with scorn on
a Christian is, that every one has his angel before God. In the
book of Daniel each nation has its angel : in the Gospel each
Christian has. The ancients believed that every man has an
attendant genius, or spirit. In Jewish angelology the genius
became an angel. Christ adopts the current idea to illustrate
the personal and observant care which God has of each of His
own. ' To see the face of the Father," means to have access to
the person of the Sovereign (2 Kings xxv. 19). The Christian is
in high grace, and has direct representatives at court. The
world is blind and foolish in treating him with such contempt.
To offend the invisible hierarchies and to provoke the guardian
spirits that are before the throne, is not the part of courage but of
temerity. Yet all who have persecuted and hindered Christ's
little ones have incurred this vague nemesis ; better indeed that
they had been drowned in the sea, that they had lost hand or foot
or eye.
Verse 11 disappears; it is imported from Luke xix. 10, but it
serves as a good introduction to ver. 12-14.
12. The image of the shepherd and the lost sheep is used in
Luke xv. 4-7 to show Christ's love for the lost. Here it illustrates
the Father's love for His little ones. No effort will be spared to
save them ; as no injury done to them will go unavenged.
We should like to read the passage as showing that Christ will
even seek and save those who have persecuted and offended His
little ones, but that would be going beyond the text. If hand and
foot and eye mean erring members of the Church, the thought of
ver. 15 would be that such shall be restored.

St. MATTHEW XVIII. 14-17 165
ninety and nine which have not gone astray.
14 Even so it is not 1 the will of 2 your Father which thing
willed be-
is in heaven, that one of these little ones should foreyour
. , Father.
perish. 2 Some
1 5 And if thy brother sin s against thee, go, shew aStnori-
him his fault between thee and him alone: if he ^.read
16 hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if 'Jj°?£t
he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, authori-
' ' ties omit
that at the mouth of two witnesses Or three every against
1 7 word may be established. And if he refuse to i or,
hear them, tell it unto the 4 church : and if he S^"'
14. the will of your Father. A Hebrew phrase (i Mace. iii. 60).
15-20. Gain thy brother in the Church fellowship. If the
Lord takes such pains to save His little ones, they too must take
pains to gain one another, by realizing His presence in prayer.
Another connexion with the preceding passage may be— not
only avoid giving offence, but try by all means to win the erring.
Or yet another connexion emerges if the hand, foot, and eye
are members of the Church that are cut off to avoid offence ; then,
this paragraph shows the steps which are to be taken to restore
such a one.
But the general connexion is perhaps sufficient : instead of
contending for pre-eminence in the Church, make it a society of
mutual love, forbearance, forgiveness, because / am in the midst.
Possibly Peter had been specially assailed by the jealousy of
the others, and the Lord is giving him directions for dealing with
the assailants ; if so, it is a very striking explanation of the inner
meaning of the Church to the Primate, the Rock on which the
Church is built. Not ecclesiastical authority and the terror of
the keys, but the loving fellowship oi brethren, constitutes the
power of the Church.
15. sin against thee. Or more likely ' sin ', as many MSS. omit
the other words. The passage has in view not personal affronts
but all irregularities and sins in the Christian community.
The personal faithful dealing would settle most quarrels, and
would lead to deliverance from most sins. Men are amenable to
truth and love combined.
16. The witnesses are borrowed from the old Law (Deut.
xix. 15). There is nothing official in this deputation. Two or
three combine (see ver. 19 and 20) to plead with the erring one,
to touch his conscience, and to bring him to repentance by
intercessory prayer.
17. If the few fail, the whole community must be brought to

166 St. MATTHEW XVIII. 18, 19
L°™ refuse to hear the * church also, let him be unto
congrega- '
tion. thee as (-he Gentile and the publican. Verily I 18
say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven : and what
things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that 19
if two of you shall agree on earth as touching
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for
them of my Father which is in heaven. For 20
bear. The Church is here the local fellowship of believing men.
In xvi. 18 it seemed to be the larger community. But, as
Wellhausen says, at the time the whole community of Christ's
Church was in one local group of people. The transition from
a local assembly to a world-wide society is not explicitly arranged
for by Christ. The local assembly always remains and is the
concrete, working, actuality of the Church (cf. Herrmann's
Communion with God, p. 190, ' a church which does not direct
all its efforts to developing a fellowship of moral intercourse is
lifeless and dead ').
Gentile and the publican, i.e. those who are outside the Christian
community (cf. v. 46, 47). The term only becomes opprobrious
when the incomparable glory and privilege of the Church fellow
ship are appreciated.
18. The task entrusted to Peter as the first believer in xvi. 19
is here extended to the community of believers. The 'binding
and loosing ' which in Judaism was the function of the Rabbis is
in Christianity the responsibility of the Church fellowship.
Nothing is said here about forgiveness of sins ; that power was
given to the Church community after the resurrection (John
xx. 22, 23). Not as apostles but as disciples, Christian believers
in community receive these powers. As the idea of the decisions
of the pious being ratified in heaven was taken from current
Rabbinical teaching (e. g. Targum, Cant. viii. 13, God says to the
community of Israel : ' Let me hear the Law, the sound of thy
words, when thou sittest to acquit and to condemn, and I will
consent to all that thou doest '), so the exaggeration of the principle
in the priesthood of the Roman Church was anticipated by the
Rabbis, e.g. 1 Taan. 67 a : ' the Blessed One, blessed be he, makes
his determination invalid, if it contradict the determination of a
pious person,' and 6 Mo. K., 16b : ' I, God, rule over men ; who
rules over me? The pious, for I enact and he annuls.' This is
precisely what St. Alfonso claims for the priest.
19. Two in agreement are the Church in germ ; their prayer is
heard.

St. MATTHEW XVIII. 20-25 167
where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them.
21 Then came Peter, and said to him, Lord,
how oft shall my brother sin against me, and
22 I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus saith
unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven
23 times ; but, Until * seventy times seven. There- swe'nty
fore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto slZe*"""1
a certain king, which would make a reckoning JJj^j,
24 with his 2 servants. And when he had begun servants.
to reckon, one was brought unto him, which talent was
25 owed him ten thousand s talents. But foras- wo°rthbly
much as he had not wherewith to pay, his ^n"!
20. Two or three, met in His name, have Christ among them.
This is the secret of their authority, whether in declaring truth,
loosing and binding, or in exercising discipline, forgiving or
retaining sins (see 1 Cor. v. 4, 5) ; cf. Aboth iii. 3, ' Two that sit
together and are occupied in the words of the Law have the
Shekinah among them.'
21-35. Forgiving. Peter, it seems, was the aggrieved one, and
wondered how often he ought to forgive. He had been able to for
give six or seven times, and thought he had nearly reached the limit ;
next time surely he would be able to gratify his indignation. The
answer of Jesus to his question struck at all his hopes of revenge.
21. The Rabbinical casuistry said three times. Peter, con
scious of Christ's spirit, stretches it to seven. The seventy times
seven took his breath away. This number in such a connexion is
practically infinity. Moulton's Grammar of New Testament
Greek, i, p. 98, decides that the translation should be 'seventy-
seven times ' (cf. Gen. iv. 24, LXX).
23. This gives occasion for drawing the picture which, if any,
should be hung in every church. For here is the principle of the
Church life as the organized attempt to realize the Kingdom of
God upon earth : being freely and fully forgiven by God's grace,
we must endlessly and freely forgive one another. The king and
his bond-servants represent the relation between God and men.
What have we which we have not received ? If He be strict to
mark iniquity who can stand ?
make a reckoning : cf. xxv. 19, a Greek phrase found in
the papyri of 1st and 2nd cent. a.d.
24. A debt of ^2,400,000 implies that the servant was a Pasha
of a province, and had appropriated and lost the public money.

i68 St. MATTHEW XVIII. 26-32
lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife,
and children, and all that he had, and pay-
i Gr. ment to be made. The J servant therefore fell 26
servant, down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have
patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And 21
the lord of that x servant, being moved with com-
2 Gr.kan. passion, released him, and forgave him the "debt.
But that * servant went out, and found one of 28
his fellow-servants, which owed him a hundred
inTtheW°rd 'pence: and he laid hold on him, and took him
denotes ^y the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest. So 29
a coin his fellow-servant fell down and besought him,
about saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay
pence thee. And he would not : but went and cast 30
halfpenny. him into prison, till he should pay that which
was due. So when his fellow-servants saw what 31
was done, they were exceeding sorry, and came
and told unto their lord all that was done. Then 3a
his lord called him unto him, and saith to him,
Thou wicked ' servant, I forgave thee all that

25. Pasha, wife, children, and goods would not realize the sum ;
when all was paid he would still be a hopeless debtor. For the
selling of a debtor in old Israelitic law, cf. 2 Kings iv. 1 ;
Neh. v. 8 ; Lev. xxv. 39.
26. The appeal for mercy comes from a resolution of honesty
to make amends, and pay all. The lord's reply illustrates the
grace of God, who on repentance not only revokes the sentence
of punishment, but actually forgives the debt, so that the pardoned
slave will not have to ' pay all '.
28. Here is the thoroughly bad man, see ver. 32, 'O wicked
slave ! ' The small debt of 100 denars, about £4, represents in
proportion to ^2,400,000, the greatest offence which a man can
commit against us, in comparison with our delinquencies to God.
29. The servant uses, to his fellow-servant, the very words
which that fellow-servant had used to their common lord. But
with what a different result ! That piteous appeal of ver. 26
proceeded from a heart hard as the nether millstone. He could
not hear the very plea he urged.

St. MATTHEW XVIII. 33— XIX. 1 169
33 debt, because thou besoughtest me : shouldes't
not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-
34 servant, even as I had mercy on thee ? And his
lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor-
35 mentors, till he should pay all that was due. So
shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if
ye forgive not every one his brother from your
hearts.
19 And it came to pass when Jesus had finished
these words, he departed from Galilee, and came
34. Was not the wrath justified? The conscience of mankind
goes with the sentence, though it does not appear how in the
tormentor's hands the culprit could ever pay his" ,£2,400,000, seeing
he had not wherewith to pay before.
Perhaps what the Lord wanted was not the money, but only
the softened, humbled, and forgiving heart ; and that might be
gained under the tormentor's hands.
all that was due is the heart of grace. God leaves no means
untried to produce that which is due to Him.
35. It is not, therefore, inappropriate to say, in place of that
outraged lord, 'my heavenly father.'
It is a significant picture of the forces which make the Church,
and of the God who presides over that spiritual assembly.
Egotism contending for supremacy ! Chrysostom thought that we
do not reach even the faults of the apostles. We ask who is greatest
in the kingdom of the worldl But is not Christ's thought rather
that this ambition in His Church is worse than ambition in the
world. 'The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship, but so it
shall not be among you.'
In the Church there can be no lordship but Christ's ; no rivalry
but love ; no hardness of heart. The Church is love, pure,
tender, forgiving, aiming always at goodness, achieving it only
in love's ways.
Ch. xix. The Disciples at school on the way. Teaching
ON WIVES, CHILDREN, AND PROPERTY.
1, 2. he departed from Galilee. This leaving of the dear native
region of His youth is passed over very quietly by Matthew and
Mark ; but in Luke it is announced with a certain impressive-
ness, and the journey towards Jerusalem is told in much detail
(Luke ix. 51— xviii. 15). St. John also gives a fuller significance
to the incidents connected with the change from Galilee to Judaea
(vii. 2 — xi. 54). We ought to read behind this briefer narrative
those more elaborate records. Apart altogether from the suffering

r7o St. MATTHEW XIX. 2-4
into the borders of Judsea beyond Jordan ; and 2
great multitudes followed him; and he healed
' Many. them there"
authori- And there came unto him l Pharisees, tempt- 3
ties, some L
*nc'rtth 'nS nun' an^ savmS> Is 'l lawfully a man to
2 Some put away his wife for every cause ? And he 4
author!- answered and said, Have ye not read, that he
eclated, which 2made them from the beginning made

and sacrifice which awaited Him at Jerusalem, Jesus must have
felt the sorrow of leaving scenes so beautiful and so sacred as
those in which His Galilean ministry had been exercised.
1. borders of Judaa, beyond Jordan. The language is a little
confusing, for it implies that the borders of Judaea were beyond
Jordan. That was not the case. What is meant is that He
made the journey to Judaea on the other side of the river, and
not through Samaria ; perhaps the reason was the unwillingness
of the Samaritans to receive Him (Luke ix. 53).
2. In Mark we are told that on this journey He taught as well
as healed ; and what follows in this and the next six chapters
(xix — xxv) may be taken to show the teaching which occupied
those days.
3-12. Wives. Considering that the Church has just been
formed we cannot help remembering how intimately the image
of marriage came to be identified with the relation of Christ to
the Church (Eph. v). Here Christ lays down what is a new
law on the subject of marriage ; and the ideal of a pure and
inviolable marriage is prepared as the symbol of the Church's
life. 3. The question was rather a dangerous one in the territory of
Herod Antipas, which, it may be remembered, embraced Persea
beyond Jordan. Herod's marriage with Herodias might provoke
the Pharisees to involve Jesus in a decision on the subject of
marriage. Perhaps they also wished to embroil Him in the
discussion which raged between the two schools of Shammai
and Hillel. Shammai interpreted Deut. xxiv. 1 strictly, Hillel
more loosely. If Jesus were committed to either opinion, He
would incur the hostility of the other side.
4. The reply of Jesus is divine. He keeps within the law,
and yet He gives to marriage a new and deep meaning which
none of the Rabbinical schools had dreamed of. Notwithstanding
the familiar passages of scripture which Jesus referred to, women
were regarded by the Rabbis as inferior to men, belonging even
to a lower order of being. A Rabbi would not be seen speaking

St. MATTHEW XIX. 5-8 171
5 them male and female, and said, For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall
6 become one flesh ? So that they are no more
twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath
7 joined together, let not man put asunder. They
say unto him, Why then did Moses command to
give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away ?
8 He saith unto them, Moses for your hardness of
heart suffered you to put away your wives : but
to a woman ; the woman was an object of contempt. And yet
there in the very story of man's creation was the divine charter
of woman's equality. God made male and female as one. In
marriage the twain become one. In the Syriac version a slightly
different reading brings out the meaning better still, implying
that the same who made the man made the woman. Now the
Legislator adds a precept of his own : ' What God has joined
together let not man put asunder.' The originality of this
prohibition of divorce was recognized by the Church from the
first. ' Not I, but the Lord ' says Paul, ' gives charge that the
wife depart not from her husband ' (1 Cor. vii. 10).
In Palestine and the East generally a man can divorce his wife
for every cause. Throughout the Turkish dominions the wife
can be dismissed by a word in the presence of witnesses, simply
because the man no longer wants her. This helpless inferiority
of woman is fatal to all progress. Perhaps no single precept of
Christ has done more to establish or to make possible a higher
civilization than this which settles the sanctity of the marriage tie
on the original divine intention of man's creation.
7. Here was a case in which to recognize ' Moses ' as final
was to put a bar across the development of humanity. Deut.
xxiv. 1-4, which in its time was a restraint on the unchartered
freedom of the husband, became a fatal limitation to the emanci
pation of woman.
8. This instance of treating the Mosaic Law as provisional,
a concession to the spiritual hardness of Israel, leads to a general
principle by which Christ's higher law supersedes the old. It
gives us the key to the whole treatment of the earlier religion.
There is a ' hardness of heart ' (Deut. x. 16 ; cf. Sir. xvi. 10)
which has always to be allowed for in primitive institutions. The
race has to be fed with milk before it can stand strong meat.
Nor must we assume that this 'hardness of heart' is altogether
removed now, or that the Lord has not more light and truth to

172 St. MATTHEW XIX. 9-12
ancient ^rom tne beginning it hath not been so. And I 9
tiesread say un'° y°u' Whosoever shall" put away his wife,
Sfcr?£ 1 excePl f°r fornication, and shall marry another,
cause of committeth adultery : 2 and he that marrieth her
fornica- J
'ioni h wnen S^e 's Put awav committeth adultery. The 10
her an disciples say unto him, If the case of the man is
adulter- c J
ess-, as in so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.
2 The But he said unto them, All men cannot receive n
word™! this saying, but they to whom it is given. For 12

break forth from His word. In a sense, the principle of develop
ment is secured in the word of God itself, as this passage well
shows. Whatever moral or spiritual limitation there may be in
our principles of conduct or religion, ' from the beginning it was
not so.' In God's high ideal, however dimly it may be revealed,
or however weak our faculties may be to perceive it, the ultimate
perfection is already expressed. And this lofty teaching of our
Lord, bringing out an unsuspected meaning from the familiar
words of Genesis (i. 27, ii. 24), is typical of the transforming
revelation which runs through all that He did and said.
9. The single exception to the prohibition of divorce is repeated
from v. 3a. The counterpart on the wife's side is given in
Mark x. 12.
10-12. A chance remark of the disciples gives occasion for
a mysterious injunction, which seems rather to detract from the
high honour just placed upon marriage. But a quiet and im
partial meditation on the words makes all clear. The disciples
think it is better not to marry at all, if a man cannot get rid of
his wife without sin. Jesus gives no opinion on this, but He
takes up the remark ' not expedient to marry ', and explains that
there are some people who do better not to marry, people ' to
whom it is given '. He does not suggest that the unmarried are
ever better than the married ; that would indeed be to contradict
ver. 4. But for some, marriage is not appointed, because they
are incapable of it from birth ; others are prevented by the action
of men ; and there are others who deny themselves the comfort
and the joy of marriage in order to serve God. This was what
He did Himself. Paul also was a eunuch in that sense (1 Cor.
vii. 7). With such examples, supported by Paul's argument in
1 Cor. vii, and by the statement in Rev. xiv. 4, it is not surprising
that some have exalted the state of virginity above that of the
married relation. But whenever we are tempted to do this on the
authority of Christ or of Paul, we should reread these verses 4-9,
and Paul's commentary on them (Eph. v 24-33). It will be seen

St. MATTHEW XIX. 13-15 173
there are eunuchs, which were so born from their the end
of the
mother's womb : and there are eunuchs, which ver?e, are
omitted
were made eunuchs by men : and there are by some
ancient
eunuchs, which made themselves eunuchs for authori-ties.
the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able
to receive it, let him receive it.
13 Then were there brought unto him little
children, that he should lay his hands on them,
14 and pray : and the disciples rebuked them. But
Jesus said, Suffer the little children, and forbid
them not, to come unto me : for of such is the
'5 kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on
them, and departed thence.
that the idea of discrediting marriage in the name of Christianity
is the suggestion of seducing spirits, the doctrine of devils (1 Tim.
iv- 3)-
13-15. The Children. Remembering the relation of this chapter
to the idea of tlie Church, we cannot hesitate to see that the
Church is a Christian nursery, in which the tendency of the
disciples to despise the little ones is corrected by Christ's own
loving interest and welcome of them.
13. As the parents are not mentioned here (see Mark x. 13-16 ;
Luke xviii. 15-17), but a passive verb is used, the impression is
left, that the disciples rebuked the children themselves, rather
than those who brought them (Mark x. 48). And this is borne
out by the next verse, where Jesus says ' forbid them not '. We
infer, therefore, that the children, with the trustful love which is
natural to them, pressed towards Him and sought His touch.
Mark x. 15 had been introduced at Matt, xviii. 3.
14. Keble saw the beauty of the children's trust in One so
intrinsically great and perfect :
Then as each fond unconscious child
On the everlasting Parent sweetly smiled,
Like infants sporting on the shore,
That tremble not at ocean's boundless roar.
of such is the kingdom of heaven. Here we pass again from
the child to the childlike, the transition which we observed in
xviii. 1-6. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the reign of God over
men, everything is a Fatherhood eliciting the lowly, dutiful, and
adoring devotion of children.
15. We miss the greater tenderness of Mark's description

r74 St. MATTHEW XIX. 16-18
i or, And behold, one came to him and said, 16
fsZ^T 12 Master, what good thing shall I do, that I
authori- may ^ave eternal l'fe? And he said unto him, 17
ties read s ^yjjy agkest thou me concerning that which is
s"^T\ S00^? One there is who is good: but if thou
x-Vi wouldest enter into life, keep the command-
xviii. 18. ments. He saith unto him, Which? And Jesus 18
ancient said, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit
(x. 16). On the other hand, Matthew explains the blessing and
laying on of the hands, by suggesting that He prayed for them
(ver. 13). John xvii has taught us what His prayers for His little
flock are like.
16-30. Property. Next to the question of wife and children,
the most important practical regulation in the Church is that on
property. The Lord's teaching on this subject, given in vi. 19-34,
is further enforced by a characteristic incident. The point of the
incident is this : worldly possessions may obtain such a hold over
even a well-intentioned mind, that wealth will be a real hindrance
to living the life of filial obedience to God. In the case of this rich
young ruler (Luke xviii. 18) the whole danger is laid bare. His great
possessions were an idol (Covetousness, which is idolatry, Col.
iii. 5). The suggestion of surrendering this idol showed him his
own heart ; notwithstanding all his other good purposes he was
the servant of Mammon.
The duty of surrendering and following Jesus at all costs is fully
brought out, on the one hand, by the young ruler's failure to fulfil
the test (ver. 22), and on the other hand, by the surrender which
the Twelve had made (ver. 29).
16. The rendering of the R. V. here relieves us from the discus
sion of the question which arises if Jesus said, ' Why callest thou
me Good ? ' As the conversation stands, the question of the ruler,
' What good thing should I do ? ' is met by the question of Jesus,
' Why askest thou me concerning that which is good ? ' The brief
assertion that God is good implies that ' no good in creatures can
be found '. Earthly possessions are not really ' goods '. Even a
correct morality does not yet deserve the epithet. One is the
good, even God.
17. Putting aside, then, the discussion of the Good, Jesus says
that to enter into life you must keep the commandments.
18. Which ? Rather ' which kind of commandments ' ? There
were so many and of such various kinds in the Law ; some esti
mated them at 419. No one, it was thought, had ever kept them
all. Indeed, it was said that if any Jew even for one day com
pletely kept the whole Law, Messias would come. When,

St. MATTHEW XIX. 19-22 175
adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not authori-
19 bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy why
mother : and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thou me
20 thyself. The young man saith unto him, All SNo\e is
these things have I observed : what lack I yet ? £»«fev&?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wouldest be perfect, Mafic I"
go, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and ivnih"^
thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come,
22 follow me. But when the young man heard the
saying, he went away sorrowful : for he was one
that had great possessions.

however, the ruler found that Jesus was referring to the second
table of the Decalogue, and the duty to one's neighbour (Lev. xix,
18) he felt that he was on firm ground. These commandments at
least he had kept. If the young man was a malcontent with
Rabbinical teaching, we may suppose him to have been greatly
relieved to find a Teacher who laid the whole stress on the moral
law. 21. Matthew does not tell us how Christ's love was kindled to
this irreproachable young man (see Mark x. 21). If Jesus loved
him, He showed His love by a stern severity. He showed it
indeed by offering him a counsel of perfection : ' If thou wouldest
be perfect.' The tone is like ver. 12, as if there were an excel
lence not of obligation but of choice. Out of this has grown the
Church doctrine of voluntary Poverty. St. Francis married this
austere wife in obedience to the word of Jesus. And who can
doubt the virtue of his obedience? The corrupted monastic
Orders, with their vast accumulations of wealth, must not blind
our eyes to the sincerity and virtue of the early founders. Jesus
certainly implies that some men, of aspiring soul, are called to a
complete surrender of property, and to » vocation of personal
service to Himself.
22. If the narrative ended here we should conclude that the
young ruler had refused the highest, and yet by his obedience to
the lower laws of morality, had entered into life. But the dis
course of Jesus which follows shows us the inwardness of the
situation. That sorrowful refusal was indeed the surrender of
every high ideal ; it was the refusal to follow Christ ; it marked
the man's failure to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For him at any
rate the rejection of the best proved to be the loss of the good.
When we are confronted with the highest, and decline it, we sink
swiftly and surely.

176 St. MATTHEW XIX. 23-26
And Jesus said unto his disciples, Verily I 23
say unto you, It is hard for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say 24
unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through
a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom of God. And when the disciples 25
heard it, they were astonished exceedingly, say-
, ing, Who then can be saved ? And Jesus looking 26
upon them said to them, With men this is im
possible; but with God all things are possible.
23. The ' verily I say unto you ' (and so ver. 28) marks a
special emphasis in the speech of Jesus. The emphasis is increased
by the repetition of ver. 24. It is not only hard, it is impossible ;
for the strong image of the camel and the needle's eye must be
accepted as it stands. There is no authority for thinking of a
postern-gate in the wall of Jerusalem called ' The needle's eye '.
Of course, ver. 26 modifies the impossibility. But Jesus states in
the broadest, strongest way the antagonism between money, and
the love of it, Mammon, to use His own word, and God. We
should let His clear and searching thought have its full effect on
us. The degradation and misery caused, especially in England
and in America, by the wild pursuit of wealth, more than justifies
Christ's strongest language. The possession of property, when
men are dying of poverty, is an obvious breach of the law of Love,
which no casuistry can excuse. As Emerson says in his serene
way : ' Of course, while another man has no land, my title to mine,
your title to yours, is at once vitiated ' {Man the Reformer). Let
us not endeavour to gloze the teaching of our Lord. It is a fact
that there are myriads to-day who are excluded from Heaven, and
the Heavenly kingdom, simply by having great possessions ; and
their one hope would lie in selling all that they have, in giving to
the poor, and in coming to follow Jesus.
26. looking upon them. The word implies a searching, pitying
gaze. The disciples were amazed and bewildered. The habit of
property is ingrained. And as riches is only a question of degree,
they had the readiness to observe that a fortune of £20 may be as
dangerous as a fortune of £20,000. It cannot be the amount of
the riches that constitutes the danger ; the danger must lie in the
fact and sense of possession itself.
Christ here states the only remedy for possessions, the only
way by which riches, great or small, can cease to bar the entrance
to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is to let God in, and to let Him
work. If God has complete control, and if He is recognized as

St MATTHEW XIX. 27-29 177
27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Lo, we
have left all, and followed thee ; what then shall
28 we have? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I
say unto you, that ye which have followed me,
in the regeneration when the Son of man shall
sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit ancient
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes ties add
29 of Israel. And every one that hath left houses, as JnVuke
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,1 or ^s'ome9'
children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall aUSt
receive 2 a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal „*,*(#,&.
the only Good, goods are no longer dangerous. As His stewards
we can use what He entrusts to us. But when we mistake
stewardship for ownership, and with the conviction ' What 's
mine 's mine ', lose all conscience in the possession of property, as
this young man had, it proves to be our spiritual ruin. Well may
we seek to use this Mammon of unrighteousness to make to our
selves friends, that when we fail they may receive us into eternal
habitations. 27. The Twelve had left their poor bits of things, which to
them were riches.
28. Their reward is great. Jesus is the King : they shall be as
Princes (see Luke xxii. 30). This is an echo of words used in
the Rabbinical schools ; cf. Midr. Tanchuma ed. Buber. Vay xxxvi.
6 : ' What mean the thrones (Dan. vii. 9) ? One day God will be
seated, and the angels will give thrones to the great ones of Israel
that they too may sit, while God sits among them as president of
the court of justice, and thus they judge the peoples of the
world.' Christ's disciples take the place of ' the great ones of
Israel '.
The Regeneration is used here in a new and special sense.
Josephus {Antiq. xi. 66) uses the word of the restoration after the
Exile ; Philo uses it of the recovery of the earth after the Flood
{Vita Mos. ii. 12), and of restoration after fire (de Mundo 15).
But here it evidently means the Messianic days, when Christ's
reign shall be established.
We may conjecture that the fulfilment of the promise is found in
the part which the Apostles had in the foundation of the Church.
But there may be a function of the Twelve in relation to Israel yet
to be revealed (cf. Jas. 1. i).
29. This rich promise is repeatedly proved true in experience.
The fellowship and mutual helpfulness of Christians make up for
all the sacrifices incurred in accepting and confessing Christ.
N

178 St. MATTHEW XIX. 30— XX. 1
life. But many shall be last that are first ; and 30
first that are last. For the kingdom of heaven 20
is like unto a man that is a householder, which
went out early in the morning to hire labourers
30. This reversal of present conditions in the future is illustrated
by the parable which follows (xx. 16). It is one of the most
searching sayings of Jesus. The Dives of earth will be the Lazarus
of heaven. The persecuted followers of Jesus will shine as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father. It is His way to divert our
attention from present and material conditions, to the future, and
to things of the Spirit. But for the moment the rebuke is to
His disciples.
Chap. xx. The Training of the Twelve continues. Their
Lord is walking consciously to death (ver. 17-19, 28) ; they are
thinking which shall be greatest, set on their own aggrandisement,
and quarreling about the faults in others which are manifest in them
selves. He trains them by a parable : by His example in giving
His own life ; by His compassionate care for the blind men.
1-16. The Parable of the Hours. This is only given by
Matthew. It follows immediately on the claim of the disciples to
special privilege because of their special devotion. The key to the
meaning is in xix. 27: 'We have left all and followed thee; what,
then, shall we have ? ' They shall have, as He said, full recogni
tion ; at the same time they must not expect exclusive pre-eminence,
for in the Kingdom of God's grace the last may be made equal
to them. The saying, xix. 30, repeated at xx. 16, in a slightly
different form, gives as clearly as possible the meaning of the
parable. The disciples could not have misunderstood it ; they
were the labourers hired in the early morning, and the stipulated
reward would be theirs ; but they must be prepared for others,
hired later, to be made equal with them by the grace of the Lord,
and they must take care that their eye should not be evil, because
His was good. What need there was of this blunt teaching, is
shown by the selfish ambition of James and John exhibited
soon after. The Lord could not cure them by teaching, but only
by suffering and dying for them. It was much easier to open the
eyes of the two blind beggars at Jericho than to open the spiritual
eyes of the two sons of Zebedee.
As the meaning of the parable is clear, the difficulties of the
story, taken merely as a story, melt away. If it were an apologue to
show how we are to act in hiring and' paying labourers, it would
be unjust. Ruskin's use of the phrase, ' Unto this last,' to expound
his new political economy, is only legitimate if we remember that
the parable has no such intentional teaching. It does not even
intend to show Christ's sympathy with the unemployed, and His
wish to give them work. The first principle of interpreting

St. MATTHEW XX. 2-4 179
2 into his vineyard. And when he had agreed
with the labourers for a 1 penny a day, he sent ' See
1 • 1*1, marginal
3 them into his vineyard. And he went out about note on
the third hour, and saw others standing in the 28.
4 marketplace idle ; and to them he said, Go ye
also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I
parables is to seize the central truth which is to be illustrated, and
to avoid pressing the incidents, which are merely the colouring of
draping of the tale. Possibly no employer ever behaved like this
1 householder', it is not right that any one should. God, the
great Householder, acts in a way which results from His being
God and not man. His way of grace is to give His gifts to men
on a large principle of His own, which will humble the pride of
those who think they are specially deserving, and surprise with
unexpected favour those who think they deserve little. His plan
greatly reverses human judgements, putting many who seemed iirst
last, and vice versa. To bring home this fact our Lord constructs
a story, not such as happened, but such as may suggest the singular
attitude of God to us all, an attitude which is necessarily different
from ours to one another. As we read the parable we may try to
interpret it in the light of the general drift which the context
makes plain.
1. To conceive of the Kingdom of God as a vineyard would
seem natural to men who knew the Old Testament, e. g. Isa. v ;
Jer. ii. 21 ; Ps. Ixxx. 8-16. Christ is the Householder, and the
vineyard which He cultivates is the world ; the labourers are His
disciples whom He hires for the vintage.
a man that is a householder. This idiom is both Hebrew and
Greek ; cf. xviii. 23, xxii. 2 ; Luke xxiv. 19 ; Lev. xxi. 9 (a man a
priest) ; Judges vi. 8 (marg.).
At the time of vintage labourers are all too few for the work ;
the master therefore goes out early to get the men He wants.
The Twelve were this first draft of labourers.
2. a penny a day. If we said a franc it would give us a better
notion of what is meant, for the drachma (or Latin denarius) was
about the value of a franc. But to understand fully we should
translate the word by the average labourer's wage at any given
time. The drachma of that time (see Tobit v. 14) would be the
equivalent of 5s. to-day. What is the interpretation of the
drachma ? It is the Lord's ' Well done, good and faithful servant,
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord '-
3. This was at six o'clock ; at nine, at twelve, at three o'clock,
he hired more. It is a long day ; the vintage is great, and the
labourers are few. He summons them age after age to the great

i8o

St. MATTHEW XX. 5-13

'See
marginal
note on
ch xviii.
28.

2 Or,
hot wind

will give you. And they went their way. Again 5
he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour,
and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour 6
he went out, and found others standing ; and he
saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day
idle ? They say unto him, Because no man hath 7
hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into
the vineyard. And when even was come, the 8
lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call
the labourers, and pay them their hire, beginning
from the last unto the first. And when they came 9
that were hired about the eleventh hour, they
received every man a 1 penny. And when the 10
first came, they supposed that they would receive
more ; and they likewise received every man a
'penny. And when they received it, they mur- n
mured against the householder, saying, These 12
last have spent but one hour, and thou hast made
them equal unto us, which have borne the burden
of the day and the 2 scorching heat. But he 13
answered and said to one of them, Friend, I do
thee no wrong : didst not thou agree with me

6. At length the day declines, and the end is near. It is
five o'clock, and the work will stop at six. Christ in that last
hour is still employing His servants, and promising them the
great reward.
8. The evening comes, and the labourers are paid. By an
accident the last hired are paid first. Now here comes the
application of the story : will the Twelve, the first disciples,
come, and expect something more, because they were the first
called. Shall they point to the later generations of Christ's
servants and say : ' These have made but one hour ; wilt thou
make them equal with us who toiled from the beginning? '
No, let them be warned. Christ has quite other thoughts.
Let them not desire great things for themselves, and grudge
against their later brethren. The Lord's rich payment, being the
gift of grace, is the same for all.

St. MATTHEW XX. 14-21 181
• 4 for a ' penny ? Take up that which is thine, and ' See. ,
1 J r marginal
go thy way ; it is my will to give unto this last, note on
15 even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do 28.
what I will with mine own ? or is thine eye evil,
16 because I am good? So the last shall be first,
and the first last.
«7 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he
took the twelve disciples apart, and in the way he
18 said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ;
and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the
chief priests and scribes; and they shall condemn
19 him to death, and shall deliver him unto the
Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify :
and the third day he shall be raised up.
20 Then came to him the mother of the sons of
Zebedee with her sons, worshipping him, and
2 1 asking a certain thing of him. And he said unto
her, What wouldest thou ? She saith unto him,
15. good, i. e. generous. More than just (Rom. v. 7). The
Twelve, as we see in ver. 20-8, did not understand at the time,
but perhaps afterwards they did ; for no one ever claimed less
than these apostles. They said nothing about their pre-eminence.
The doctrine1 of apostolic succession never came from them ; they
never sought to be princes, or to lord it over the flock of God.
The subsequent modesty and insignificance of the Twelve in the
Testament are the best commentary on this parable.
17-19. The disciples thought of thrones (xix. 28), their Lord of
the Cross. This is the third -formal announcement of His death
(see xvi. 21, xvii. 22). It is more explicit than the other two.
The Gentiles are now to have a part in the murder ; the mocking,
scourging and crucifying are foreseen. But there is the reitera
tion of the rising on the third day. Mark is here more vivid
(x. 32).
20-8. The way to eminence in Christ's kingdom is the way He
took Himself, viz. the Cross, and giving His life a ransom for
many. 20. The mother of the sons of Zebedee was Salome (Mark
xvi. 1). She was evidently travelling up with the disciples to
Jerusalem (xxvii. 56).

1 82 St. MATTHEW XX. 22-25
Command that these my two sons may sit, one
on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand, in
thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye 22
know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the
cup that I am about to drink ? They say unto
him, We are able. He saith unto them, My cup 23
indeed ye shall drink : but to sit on my right
hand, and on my left b;and, is not mine to give,
but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared
of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they 24
were moved with indignation concerning the two
brethren. But Jesus called them unto him, and 25
21. thy kingdom : she realized then that He was King : cf.
xvi. 28, with Mark ix. 1 ; Luke ix. 27. In Mark x. 35 the
ambitious request is preferred by James and John themselves.
The demand of a mother is pardonable. But the presumption of
the men themselves was not. The two important places in the
coming reign of Christ were demanded, as Eastern courtiers are
always intriguing for themselves. The deluded men imagine
that Christ's kingdom is like that of a Caesar, or a Pharaoh or
a Sultan. But how gentle is Christ's answer !
22., The principle of ennoblement in His kingdom is sacrifice.
Can they drink the cup ? It is an expression to describe some
times blessing (Ps. xvi. 5, xxiii. 5, cxvi. 13 ; Jer. xvi. 7), some
times ill (Ps. Ixxv. 8; John xviii. 11; Rev. xiv. 10). Christ is
thinking of His own bitter cup of suffering (John xviii. 1 1).
Did the two think He was referring to His cup of joy ? (Ps. xvi. 5).
The aplomb of their answer is incredible, if they knew what it
meant. 23. They drank His cup, James by martyrdom (Acts xii. 1, 2),
and John, if tradition is to be trusted, by banishment and torture,
and the long weary waiting for the end. But the place of honour
at His right hand is determined only by the Father. Thrones
are for the fit. For the idea of the preparation of the theocracy
cf. xxii. 4, 8, xxv. 34. They are won by waiting and toil and
devotion. We may fancy that the Father had prepared it for one
of those presumptuous men — the disciple whom Jesus loved ;
after long years of discipline perhaps the author of the Fourth
Gospel might share with Paul the thrones of honour in Christ's
kingdom. But if so Christ would not anticipate, or pledge Him
self. For the present the wholesome word was, 'the last shall
be first and the first last.'

St. MATTHEW XX. 26-30 183
said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them, and their great ones exercise
26 authority over them. Not so shall it be among
you : but whosoever would become great among
27 you shall be your l minister; and whosoever 'Or,
would be first among you shall be your 2 servant : j Gr. bond-
28 even as the Son of man came not to be minis- servani-
tered unto, but to minister, and to give his life
a ransom for many.
29 And as they went out from Jericho, a great
30 multitude followed him. And behold, two blind

25. lord it. For the expression see Gen. i. 28 ; Ps. lxxii. 8 ;
and especially 1 Pet. v. 3. In Christ's kingdom there is no lording
except His ; no authority of one man over another, but only Christ's
authority over all. That is rather startling in view of the history
of the Church, and the prelacy and papacy which some think
inseparable from it. But this verse, with the serene majesty of
eternal birth, stands as the touchstone of Church history. The
Lord knows them that are His ; by the aid of this verse we may
partly know also.
26. The servant, or minister, is the only officer allowed in the
Church. 28. The model is Christ Himself, 'in the form of a servant,'
giving His life a ransom for many (Phil. ii. 8).
To understand the ' ransom ' is to dive into the depths of the
atonement. Go back to xvii. 27. The half-shekel was a ransom,
paid, as Jesus says ' in place of thee and me ' (see Exod. xxx. 12).
So in the spiritual, and infinite sense, Christ's life was given ' in
place of many'. The illustration is inadequate ; every illustration
is inadequate. Nothing in the world or in human life interprets
this unique fact, which yet these disciples recorded, and used as
the means of saving the world, that Christ gave his life, a ransom
for men. In vain we try to press the metaphor and determine
to whom the ransom was paid, or what precisely it was. He
died, He gave Himself, absolutely and fully; and in that self-
giving was the potency of saving all men ; this is the fact to which
He refers as the example to be followed by the disciples. He
asked of the world a cross to die on. His true followers will
prefer a similar request. Not to be exalted, but to minister, to
suffer, and to save, is their object.
29-34. Have the eyes of James and John been opened ? As
symbol of the fact that they will be, the two blind beggars

1 84 St. MATTHEW XX. 31— XXI. 1
men sitting by the way side, when they heard
that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying,
Lord, have mercy on us, thou son of David.
And the multitude, rebuked them, that they 31
should hold their peace : but they cried out the
more, saying, Lord, have mercy on us, thou son
of David. And Jesus stood still, and called 32
them, and said, What will ye that I should do
unto you ? They say unto him, Lord, that our 33
eyes may be opened. And Jesus, being moved 34
with compassion, touched their eyes: and straight
way they received their sight, and followed him.
And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, 21
and came unto Bethphage, unto the mount of
of Jericho are healed. In ix. 27 already two blind men have
been cured. Mark and Luke mention only one here. Well
hausen thinks that Matthew has put together one healed at
Bethsaida and one healed at Jericho. But the duplication is not
so artful. Thinking of the two blind brothers James and John,
the evangelist has unconsciously represented the blind BartimBeus
of Mark as two.
30. thou son of David, that is, Messias (ix. 27, xii. 23, xv. 22,
xxi. 9, 15). There were evidently many who began to think of
Him as Messias.
was passing by. There is a favourable moment when He
comes within reach of the needy soul. Seize that moment. Cry
out to Him again and again. Let not the officious crowd silence
you. He has compassion.
34. The moving of Christ's compassionate heart (ix. 36, xiv. 14,
xv. 32) is the great hope of men. If Christ has for us the value
of God, and God pities in the same way, there is hope for all.
Even the blind may receive their sight and follow Him.
Ch. xxi. The Rebel City. The King approaches His city — or
His vineyard — to be rejected and slain by His own. This theme
is worked out in ; (1) The entrance on the ass's foal, in accordance
with prophecy (1-11). (2) The symbolical cleansing of the
Temple, with the indignant protests of the chief priests and
elders (12-32) ; in the middle of this episode is inserted the
withering of the fig-tree, which is a sign (18-22). (3) The
parable .which shows how the rebel husbandmen receive their
Lord (33-46). Almost every verse of the chapter deepens the

St. MATTHEW XXI. 2-5 185
Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying unto
2 them, Go into the village that is over against
you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied,
and a colt with her : loose them, and bring them
3 unto me. And if any one say aught unto you,
ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them ; and
4 straightway he will send them. Now this is come
to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken * by the prophet, saying, ' °r.
5 Tell ye the daughter of Zion,
Behold, thy King cometh unto. thee,
impression of the tragedy, that He should come unto His own.
and His own should receive Him not.
1-11. The Entrance into the City. It was the first day of
the week, the tenth of Nisan, the day on which the lamb was set
apart for the sacrifice on the fourteenth. But the thought of
Jesus was not on the sacrificial side so much as on the prophetic
coming of the King to claim His own. It was Zech. ix. 9 that
was in His mind as the keynote of His entry into Jerusalem;
and Malachi iii with its cleansing of Temple and Levite, rather
than the regulations of Leviticus and the slaying of the lamb.
This latter thought is hinted at in ver. 38, 39, but it only acquires
predominance later in the week. For the moment Jerusalem is
to be told : ' Behold thy King cometh unto thee.'
1. Bethphage. The house of Figs, as Bethany (ver. 17) is the
house of Dates. The latter still is, the former is not, discoverable,
but it must have been on the east of the Mount of Olives, about
where the Inn of the Twelve Apostles stands to-day.
2. In this unknown village stood the ass with the colt, that
should serve to fulfil the prophecy of Zech. ix. The other
evangelists only mention the foal ; Matthew's eyes, as usual, were
more upon the prophet's words than on the details of fact.
3. The Lord's exact knowledge of what would happen is to be
noted as an illustration of the clairvoyant condition of His mind
at this momentous crisis of approaching fate.
The Lord. This^itle then was accepted in the apostolic circle ;
cf. xxiv. 42. In xxvi. 18 it is Teacher.
4. The prophecy was very wonderful. Israel's king was to
come not on a war-horse, as a conqueror, but in the simple guise
of a rustic. In the days of the Judges asses were ridden by kings'
sons ; but in the later growth of luxury the great rode only on
horses.

r86 St. MATTHEW XXI. 6-9
Meek, and riding upon an ass,
And upon a colt the foal of an ass.
And the disciples went, and did even as Jesus 6
appointed them, and brought the ass, and the 7
colt, and put on them their garments; and he
sat thereon. And the most part of the multitude 8
spread their garments in the way; and others
cut branches from the trees, and spread them in
the way. And the multitudes that went before 9
him, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna
to the son of David : Blessed is he that cometh

5. meek. It was easy to get the ass to ride on, but the harder
part of the prophecy was to get a ruler who was meek. This
Jesus was (xi. 29).
7. There was no saddle ; the garments of the disciples served
instead. thereon. In the Greek it looks as if He rode both ass and
foal ; but perhaps the plural (happily evaded by the English
' thereon ') refers to the garments. Matthew does not mention the
point which to Mark and Luke is. significant, that the ass was one
on which no one had ever ridden before.
8. The multitude, most of whom spread their garments before
the humble beast (the homage paid to a king, 2 Kings ix. 13, in
the crowning of Jehu), others of whom cut the tree branches for
a like demonstration, was evidently the pilgrim company from
Galilee, and not the people of Jerusalem. For the credit of our
common humanity, we trust it was not the same crowd that on
the 10th cried ' Hosanna ', and on the 14th ' Crucify Him '.
9. Hosanna. In Hebrew ' Save now ' (see Ps. cxviii. 25, 26).
They are singing part of the great Hallel, the Passover-song ; but
they give to Jesus the Messianic title, ' Son of David,' or perhaps
it would be safer to say, in view of Mark xi. 9 and Luke xix. 37,
that the clause ' to the Son of David ' is Matthew's own comment,
telling us that the Psalm originally addressed to the Lord, was
now directed to His Messias. The evangelist cites the cry
Hosanna, without thinking of its meaning in Hebrew, as a mere
cry of greeting, ' Hail,' and follows it with the dative. So it is in
The Teaching of the Twelve, x. 6, 'hosannah to the God of David.'
From this Dalman concludes precariously that the author of the
Gospel was not a Hebraist, and, therefore, not the apostle ( Words
of Jesus, p. 221). But even English and German writers often
use words in forgetfulness of their original meaning.

St. MATTHEW XXI. 10-12 187
in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the high-
10 est. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all
11 the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And
the multitudes said, This is the prophet, Jesus,
from Nazareth of Galilee.
12 And Jesus entered into the temple *of God, 'Many
and cast out all them that sold and bought in authorities
the temple, and overthrew the tables of the 0God°
money-changers, and the seats of them that sold

Hosanna in the highest. So Mark also, but in Luke, ' in
heaven peace and glory in the highest.' The highest means
heaven. As Bengel quaintly says, the angels at His birth sang
' peace on earth ', the people at His death sing ' peace in heaven '.
But we must not press too closely these shouts of the multitude.
Entering, it is thought, by that gate in the Eastern wall, which
is now shut, and only to be reopened when Jerusalem's final con
queror comes,. Jesus stirs the whole city. The people rush out to
see, and to ask who is coming; and the Pilgrims answer, It is
Jesus the prophet.
the city was stirred. The verb is the one used of the move
ment of an earthquake. It marks the shock of doom in His
coming. For this impression, cf. the strong words in John
xii. 6-19.
12-32. He cleanses the Temple. In the Fourth Gospel this
cleansing is put at the beginning of the ministry before Jesus went
to Galilee (ii. 13-17). The Synoptics place it at the first coming to
Jerusalem which they record. The exact time is of less import
ance than the spiritual significance. It is the fulfilment of the
prophetic announcement of Mal. iii. The mind of Jesus was
seething with the words of the prophets, as ver. 13 shows. The
entry shows His conscious mastery of Temple and cultus.
12. There was a constant market in or near the Temple, in rows
of Tabernae (shops), where the animals for the sacrifices were
sold, and change was given for the requisite Temple tribute
(Exod. xxx. 13 ; Lev. i. 14, v. 7, xii. 8 ; Deut. xiv. 24-6). The
zeal of Jesus was kindled by the intrusion of this traffic into the
sacred precincts of the Temple itself. It was a symbol to Him of
the ambition and greed of the chief priests and elders, who under
the plea of Divine service, were seeking their own aggrandize
ment. And this in spite of the professed reverence for the Temple.
' What is the reverence due to the Temple ? ' asked the rabbis.
And the answer was, ' That none go through the court of it with
his staff and shoes and purse, and dust upon his feet, and that

188 St. MATTHEW XXI. 13-18
the doves ; and he saith unto them, It is written, 13
My house shall be called a house of prayer : but
ye make it a den of robbers. And the blind 14
and the lame came to him in the temple : and
he healed them. But when the chief priests and 15
the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did,
and the children that were crying in the temple
and saying, Hosanna to the son of David ; they
were moved with indignation, and said unto him, 16
Hearest thou what these are saying ? And Jesus
saith unto them, Yea : did ye never read, Out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast per
fected praise ? And he left them, and went forth 17
out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.
Now in the morning as he returned to the 18

none make it a common thoroughfare, or let any of his spittle fall
upon it.'
13. The prophetic words are from Isa. lvi. 7 (LXX) and Jerem.
vii. n. It is noteworthy that the Pharisees did not dispute the
cleansing, however indignant it made them ; but took exception to
the healing and to the cry of the children ! From Mark xi. 17
it seems that the multitude were deeply impressed by the lofty
doctrine which cleansed the Temple.
14. This healing is mentioned only by Matthew. Cf. xiv. 14, xix. 2.
15. the children. In Luke xix. 39 the children are the disciples.
Jesus certainly called His disciples ' children ', and it is more
natural to suppose that this praise came from disciples than from
children ; but the exquisite answer of Jesus from Ps. viii. 2 allows
us to believe that the very children recognized their King.
From the lips of the children, then, Jesus accepts the title of
Messias. They at least will not misunderstand and read into it a
worldly meaning.
16. perfected praise. This is the Greek of the LXX. Ps. viii. 3,
In the Hebrew it is ' established strength '. This indiscriminate
use in the New Testament of the Hebrew or the different Greek
version, as may be most suitable, is a warning against the crude
theory of verbal inspiration.
17. lodged there, i.e. bivouacked in the open. The same word
in Luke xxi. 37. Hence the hunger in the morning, which would
have been avoided in tlie house.

St. MATTHEW XXL 19-23 189
19 city, he hungered. And seeing ] a fig tree by ' Or,
., . a single
the way side, he came to it, and found nothing
thereon, but leaves only ; and he saith unto it,
Let there be no fruit from thee henceforward for
ever. And immediately the fig tree withered
20 away. And when the disciples saw it, they mar
velled, saying, How did the fig tree immediately
21 wither away? And Jesus answered and said
unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have
faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do what is
done to the fig tree, but even if ye shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the
22 sea, it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever
ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
23 And when he was come into the temple, the
18. The Barren Fig-tree is a symbol of Jerusalem. He
came expecting fruit and found none. The doom of Jerusalem,
therefore, was, to be fruitless for ever. Some think that this parable
has been inadvertently transformed into an actual occurrence.
But it is more likely that the Lord pointed the moral of a striking
event which actually occurred. Matthew represents the tree as
withering immediately. But in Mark (xi. 21) we see that the
withering took place gradually during the day and night. He did
not 'curse it', as Peter says. He said, 'Let there be no fruit
from thee for ever,' and there was none. He made a tree fruit
less, to bring home to His disciples the doom of Jerusalem.
In the fruitful vale of Capernaum the figs bore fruit ten months
out of the twelve. The leaves of the fig come out after the fruit.
The expectation of fruit, therefore, was natural, though, as the
reviser of Mark says, ' the time of figs was not yet ' (xi. 13).
Nature is all a parable, and Jesus was always conscious of this
co-operation of the natural world with His spiritual purpose.
20. The striking event gives occasion for a reiteration of the
vast power of faith and prayer (see xvii. 21). No Eastern hearer
would make the mistake of supposing the words about the moun
tain to be literal. It is a hyperbolic expression to describe ' a
mountain of difficulty', an apparent impossibility. The warning
is needed for the literal and unimaginative Western mind.
22. The different form of this saying in Mark (xi. 24) brings out
more fully the part of believing in the answer to prayer (John
xvi. 23).

iqo St. MATTHEW XXI. 24-28
chief priests and the elders of the people came
unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what
authority doest thou these things ? and who gave
thee this authority? And Jesus answered and 24
l^d said unto them, I also will ask you one ' question,
which if ye tell me, I likewise will tell you. by
what authority I do these things. The baptism 25
of John, whence was it ? from heaven or from
men ? And they reasoned with themselves, say
ing, If we shall say, From heaven ; he will say
unto us, Why then did ye not believe him ? But 26
if we shall say, From men ; we fear the multi
tude ; for all hold John as a prophet. And they 27
answered Jesus, and said, We know not. He
also said unto them, Neither tell I you by what
authority I do these things. But what think ye ? 28
A man had two sons ; and he came to the first,
23. these things. Hardly the withering of the fig-tree, but
the teaching and healing in the Temple (Mark i. 22-27). There is
no explicit reference to the cleansing of the Temple, though that
was the chief irritant.
When He asked them about the baptism of John, He hoped
that they would acknowledge that prophet, and then He would
show how His own authority was connected with John. But
when He saw the dishonesty and cowardice which made them
silent about John, He declined to defend His claim to minds so
feeble and vicious. And this shows the connexion with the suc
ceeding parable. The two sons are the "chief priests and the
elders on the one hand, and the common people on the other. He
shows by the effect of John's preaching on the two classes, how
the publicans and harlots did the will of the Father better than
the religious leaders ; He even (as it seems) compels their assent
to this judgement.
25. from heaven (i. e. God) or from men. Cf. John iii. 7, 27, 31,
xix. 11, and Jas. i. 17, iii. 15.
28-32. The Parable of the Two Sons. Only in Matthew.
Usually in Matthew God is Master and the men are servants.
Here the Master is Father, as in Luke's parables.
This is the first of three parables showing the doom which
impends over the Jewish nation (xxi. 28-xxii. 14).

St. MATTHEW XXI. 29-33 191
and said, * Son, go work to-day in the vineyard. ' Gr.
29 And he answered and said, I will not : but after-
30 ward he repented himself, and went. And he
came to the second, and said likewise. And
he answered and said, I go, sir : and went not.
31 Whether of the twain did the will of his father?
They say, The first. Jesus saith unto them,
Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and
the harlots go into the kingdom of God before
32 you. For John came unto you in the way of
righteousness, and ye believed him not : but the
publicans and the harlots believed him : and ye,
when ye saw it, did not even repent yourselves
afterward, that ye might believe him.
33 Hear another parable : There was a man that
was a householder, which planted a vineyard,
and set a hedge about it, and digged a winepress
31. Strangely enough some MSS. make the answer ' the last ',
and imply that the chief priests and elders, perceiving that the
parable was spoken against thein, ironically declared that the
son who said he would go and did not was the better ! But it
is more probable that a slight confusion has occurred in the
order ; and the admission was made (for was it not » truism ?)
that the son who refused in word, and yet did the command
ment, did the will of his father.
The publicans (or Roman tax-collectors like Zacchaeus)
and the harlots (like the woman who was a sinner in Luke vii.
37-50) represented to the Jew of the time the worst and most
abandoned of the population. Yet, while these repented at the
preaching of John, the chief priests and elders were so little
impressed, that to the question as to the source of John's baptism;
they could only answer, 'we know not.'
33-46. Then comes the great parable which lays bare the
whole age-long iniquity of rebellious israel, asserts un
EQUIVOCALLY the Divinity of Jesus, and declares the doom of
THE NATION WHICH REJECTS ITS KlNG AND MESSIAS.
33. The vineyard is Israel, as in Isa. v. 1-7, where these details
of the vine-culture are given. Six years was the time for a
newly-planted vineyard to rest before the grapes were allowed to
ripen.

i92 St. MATTHEW XXI. 34-41
in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husband
men, and went into another country. And when 34
' Gr. bond- the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his
S'ora"the 'servants to the husbandmen, to receive 2his
fr/i's fruits. And the husbandmen took his 1 servants, 35
of it and beat one, and killed another, and stoned
another. Again, he sent other l servants more 36
than the first : and they did unto them in like
manner. But afterward he sent unto them his 3?
son, saying, They will reverence my son. But 38
the husbandmen, when they saw the son, said
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let
us kill him, and take his inheritance. And they 39
took him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard,
and killed him. When therefore the lord of the 40
vineyard shall come, what will he do unto those
husbandmen? They say unto him, He will 4 '
miserably destroy those miserable men, and will
let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen,

35. The servants are the prophets. Luke does not refer to the
killing of the prophets. But 2 Chron. xxiv. 21 mentions the
stoning of one, Zechariah.
37. his son. Jesus could not by any image make it plainer that
the difference between Himself and even the greatest of the
prophets is expressed by the difference between a son and a
servant. It is a singular blindness which refuses to recognize in
this Christ's claim to divinity. In Mark (xii. 6), probably the
original of the saying, the claim is still more explicit, and
corresponds with John iii. 16.
39. out of the vineyard. Golgotha, just outside the city walls.
and killed him. They wished instead of servants to be
lords : the root of all sin is rebellion ; the ego usurps the place of
God. 41. In Matthew this judgement is extracted from the lips of
the guilty parties. But in Mark (xii. 9) and Luke (xx. 16), Jesus
gives the verdict Himself. The saying Kajcobs naKais &iro\iati is
quite in the spirit of the classic drama. It is well rendered
in R.V.

St. MATTHEW XXI. 42— XXII. 2 193
which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the
scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected,
The same was made the head of the corner :
This was from the Lord,
And it is marvellous in our eyes ?
43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God
shall be taken away from you, and shall be given
to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44 'And he that falleth on this stone shall be broken 'J^.
to pieces : but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will ^^j;,.
45 scatter him as dust. And when the chief priests ver- 44-
and the Pharisees heard his parables, they per-
46 ceived that he spake of them. And when they
sought to lay hold on him, they feared the multi
tudes, because they took him for a prophet.
22 And Jesus answered and spake again in
2 parables unto them, saying, The kingdom of
42. The quotation from Ps. cxviii. 22-3 solemnly connects the
rejection of Himself with a prophetic voice out of the Scriptures,
and brings home to the chief priests their guilt from the
authority which they most respected. This use of Scripture is
overwhelming. 43. The threat is only in Matthew. The rejection of Israel is
recorded by the most Hebraic of the four evangelists.
44. The stumbling on the stone (Isa. viii. 15). But the stone crush
ing those on whom it falls is from Dan. ii. 34-5 (cf. Zech. xii. 3). •
45. The chapter is finely summed up. He has spoken His word
against the chief priests and elders ; they have not been able to
evade it ; but the common people still receive Him gladly, and the
plot against Him must be carried out by subtlety, lest the people
should be provoked. The guilty son, who said ' I go ', and went
not, becomes the rebel, the assassin of his rightful lord. That is
the course of human depravity. ,.»*»>
Ch. xxii. Jesus is in the city to be offered, but He makes
it clear that He is there to judge it too. The doom is after
all not' His, but the city's. This chapter and the next contain
O

194 St. MATTHEW XXII. 3
heaven is likened unto a certain king, which
made a marriage feast for his son, and sent a
1 Gr. forth his J servants to call them that were bidden
servants, to the marriage feast : and they would not come.

His judgement on the Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrists, Scribes
and Pharisees, Chief Priests and Sadducees, Herodians, elders,
the whole body of interested men, who were blind to His claims,
the opponents of His truth. In chap, xxiv the doom of the city
itself is pronounced.
The present chapter might be entitled, not the Rejection ol
Jesus, though that is the apparent theme, but the Rejection of the
Pharisees and Sadducees.
From this point of view, the meaning of the Parable of the
King's Supper is made clear, and the closing comment of ver. 14
is found to be a key to the whole, ' many ' — viz. all Israel — ' are
called, but few ' — viz. simple people who recognized and received
Jesus — 'are chosen' (cf. John i. 11-13).
1-14. The Parable of the King's Supper. The similar parable
in Luke xiv. 15-21 must be allowed to stand by itself. The points
of difference are too great to permit the two to interpret each
other. Here the whole point is that a King makes the Feast, so
that they who refused to come are not only rude, but rebels (ver. 7).
It is a Marriage-feast, which probably means that the heir-apparent~"
is by it recognized as the King's colleague. Thus Jesus is making
an implicit claim for Himself; He is the King's son, and they who
reject Him reject God. Thus the significant episode of the guest
without the wedding-garment, which does not seem to bear
directly on the main purpose of the parable (and is wanting in
Luke), is all-important as a sign of the nature of the Kingdom
which Jesus would establish on the ruins of Judaism. This
parable is a fellow to that of the labourers in the vineyard
(xxi. 33). There God demands, here He only gives. There the
punishment falls on evildoers, here it also falls on those who
decline the good (ver. 5 and 12). There the governing classes of
Jerusalem alone were in view ; here all mankind.
2. a marriage feast. The word is plural, like ' nuptials ', for the
feast, according to Eastern custom, lasted seven days.
3. them that were bidden by a previous notice. They are now
royally summoned, and perhaps escorted to the banquet (see
Esther vi. 14). 1 Thess. ii. 12 uses this language of God inviting
us to His kingdom. The Rabbis pictured the 'age to come' as a
banquet, to which the righteous are invited. These bidden guests
are Israel, that chosen people whose whole history had tended to
this point, who existed in the world to be the nucleus of the
Kingdom of God.

St. MATTHEW XXII. 4-8 195
4 Again he sent forth other * servants, saying, Tell ¦ Gr.
them that are bidden, Behold, I have made Servants.
ready my dinner : my oxen and my fatlings are
killed, and all things are ready : come to the
5 marriage feast. But they made light of it, and
went their ways, one to his own farm, another
6 to his merchandise : and the rest laid hold on
his ' servants, and entreated them shamefully,
7 and killed them. But the king was wroth ; and
he sent his armies, and destroyed those mur-
8 derers, and burned their city. Then saith he to
his ' servants, The wedding is ready, but they
and they would not come. This was the meaning of the
hostility which confronted Jesus in Jerusalem.
4. other servants. These stand for the apostolic messengers
after Christ's ascension. They are able to issue the invitation
with fuller details — ' all things are ready ', (cf. xx. 23) — and with
more pressing eagerness, 'come to the marriage-feast.'
The bulls and the stall-beasts prepared show the greatness of
the feast. It is indeed the whole of humanity which is invited to
the table of God. This is Christ's conception of His gospel ; it is
an invitation, to the Jew first, and afterwards to the Gentile, ' to
sit at endless feast, enjoying each the other's good.'
This ' divine philosophy is not harsh or crabbed as dull fools
suppose,' it is a call to the highest good, which all men in
a purblind way are seeking, to that good cheer which men love,
but find so disappointing when it ministers only to the bodily
appetites. 5. This is Christ's view of the Jewish world in which He was
working. They were all too busy with their lands and their
business to attend to God or their own souls.
6. The indifference, manifest in most, kindles in some to a
bitter hostility ; they hate the messengers of love, the servants
of the King who call them to the feast.
They who would save men take their lives in their hands.
7. The language is coloured by the fate which overtook
Jerusalem in a. d. 70.
his armies. The armies of Titus were God's armies, just as
the Assyrian of old was called 'the rod of his anger' (Isa. x. 5).
But the doom which fell on Jerusalem in a. d. 70 awaits all man
kind who reject the invitation of God.
8. Because the Jews were not worthy, the invitation goes out
O 2

196 St. MATTHEW XXII. 9-12
that were bidden were not worthy. Go ye there- 9
fore unto the partings of the highways, and as
many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast.
1 Gr. And those 1 servants went out into the highways, 10
servants, and gathered together all as many as they found,
both bad and good : and the wedding was filled
with guests. But when the king came in to be- 11
hold the guests, he saw there a man which had
not on a wedding-garment; and he saith unto
him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not 12
having a wedding-garment ? And he was speech-

to the whole world ; ' the highways ' of the world, with the
mingled good and bad upon them, mean all and sundry, every
human soul.
9. partings of the highways. If this were the meaning of
Sii[oSos, it would be appropriate to quote Ezek. xxi. 21, where
a different Greek phrase occurs in the LXX. But the word is
more likely intended to describe the ' through roads which enter
a city and go out on the other side '. All the indiscriminate
multitude of a capital town is invited. Quickly are the King's
tables filled in this way.
to. guests, lit. of those reclining at the table as in viii. 11.
11. But now Jesus shows that the universal invitation does not
mean that men can come to the feast of God without a genuine
fitness. The imagery is taken from Zeph. i. 7, 8 : ' Hold thy
peace at the presence of the Lord God : for the day of the Lord is
at hand : for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath sanctified
his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's
sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's sons, and
all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.'
An Eastern magnate gives garments to his guests (Gen.
xiv. 22 : cf. 2 Kings v. 22 ; Isa. lxi. 10).
12. This guest thought his own work-a-day clothes good
enough, and declined the festal robe. When his unsuitable attire
was observed by the royal host, he was dumbfounded. He was
ejected into the dark street.
What is the interpretation of the wedding garment ? It is
spiritual fitness for heaven. But it is clear that the apostles
understood it to be the righteousness of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. And Paul speaks of 'putting on the Lord Jesus' as
a garment. Though all men are invited to the Feast of God, only
they who can stand His inspection will remain at the banquet ;

St. MATTHEW XXII. 13-16 197
13 less. Then the king said to the 1 servants, Bind ]°fc(t/tn
him hand and foot, and cast him out into the
outer darkness ; there shall be the weeping and
14 gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few
chosen.
15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel
16 how they might ensnare him in his talk. And they
send to him their disciples, with the Herodians,
and only they who are regenerated by faith in Jesus can stand His
inspection. All this New Testament truth grows naturally out
of our Lord's own parable.
13. the weeping and gnashing of teeth. See viii. 12, xiii. 42, 50,
xxiv. 51, xxv. 30 ; Luke xiii. 25. A modern traveller in Pales
tine, Furrer, narrates an experience of hearing ' the howling and
teeth-grinding of hungry wolves', which, he thinks, explains the
image. But the weeping and despair are the remorse of those
who have rejected the invitation of God, or in their pride and
self-confidence have elected to appear in their own righteousness
instead of in His.
14. The many called (i. e. invited, ver. 3, 8 ; 1 Thess. ii. 12)
and few chosen, which has crept into some MSS. at xx. 16
quite inappropriately, is suitable enough here. All are invited
to the Feast of God, first the Jews and then the Gentiles ; but
many refuse point-blank, and others presume to come on the
strength of their own merit ; and thus those who finally sit down
at His board are few. What sadness in His tone !
15-22. The dialectical victory over the Pharisees and
Herodians. These attempts of the authorities to entangle Jesus in talk,
insignificant in themselves, are priceless to us, because they
elicited two of His greatest utterances, and led Him to propound
a question to them, which is of far-reaching value. The question
of the nationalists educed the principle that the kingdom of God
completely overrides all political conditions. Whatever may be
the national state in which men are called to live, they may be
God's subjects and render to Him His due. This great thought,
struck out by the subtle question of adversaries, remains a charter
of Christian liberty.
16. Herodians. The men who saw in the kingship of the house
of Herod a certain degree of home-rule and independence for the
Jews. They resented the Roman suzerainty. The conviction
held in common with the Pharisees united the two groups in this
question. The insincerity of their words to Jesus is obvious ;
this from the men who represented Him as actuated by Satan !

198

St. MATTHEW XXII. 1 7-23

"Or,
Teacher

'Seemarginalnote on
ch. xviii.
28.

»Gr.saying.

saying, l Master, we know that thou art true, and
teachest the way of God in truth, and carest not
for any one : for thou regardest not the person
of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou ? 17
Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not ?
But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, 18
Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the 19
tribute money. And they brought unto him a
2 penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this 20
image and superscription ? They say unto him, 2 1
Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render
therefore unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's ;
and unto God the things that are God's. And 22
when they heard it, they marvelled, and left him,
and went their way.
On that day there came to him Sadducees, 23
3 which say that there is no resurrection : and

Master : rather Teacher (so ver. 24V
17. The trap was skilfully laid. Should He say, ' It is lawful,'
He is denounced as unpatriotic. Should He say, ' It is not lawful,'
He is denounced to Rome as a rebel.
18. They were amazed at the ease with which a lofty nature,
that takes refuge in eternal things, evades the false issues of time.
19. The denarius bore the stamp of the emperor. Clearly it
belonged to him, and must be paid to him. The reply was
irresistible. But the added principle, ' unto God the things that
are God's,' suddenly lifts the soul out of the realm of politics
into that of religion.
Deut. xvii. 15 certainly forbade the payment of tribute to
a foreign king. But that same Deuteronomy foretold the punish
ment which had now actually fallen on guilty Israel. Caesar's
yoke was the predicted penalty, and now Jews must pay tribute
as a point of political justice. But the true Kingdom of God in
terpenetrates and overrides all lordships of men. Give God His
due, and all will be right, whether you live in a constitutional
country like England, or in an irresponsible despotism like Turkey.
It is not the rule of foreigners over the nation, but the rule of all
ungodly powers in the inner life of man, that the sovereignty ol
God aims at removing.
23-33. The dialectical victory over the Sadducees.

ST. MATTHEW XXII. 24-30 199
24 they asked him, saying, 1 Master, Moses said, If teacher
a man die, having no children, his brother 2 shall 2 Gr. shall
marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother, tile duly
25 Now there were with us seven brethren : and the band"3'
first married and deceased, and having no seed to%is'r
26 left his wife unto his brother ; in like manner compare
the second also, and the third, unto the s seventh. °evutj.
27 And after them all the woman died. In the 8Gr-
seven.
28 resurrection therefore whose wife shall she be
29 of the seven ? for they all had her. But Jesus
answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not
knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. « Many
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor tStnorL
are given in marriage, but are as angels4 in ^fSoa^
The Sadducees denied not only the resurrection but the
existence of spirits (see Acts xxiii. 7).
24. Like all unspiritual men these questioners are grotesque
nnd silly, when they attempt to deal with eternal things. The
puzzle they propound was answered even by the Talmudists, who
said that in the resurrection the wife would belong to the first
husband. The law of levirite marriage is in Deut. xxv. 5 ; the word
' raise up seed unto his brother ' is used in Gen. xxxviii. 8. The
regulation for preserving a family in the event of a man's early
death prevailed among many Semitic tribes.
28. What a crude, materialistic mind it is which would see in
this circumstantial difficulty a disproof of resurrection I The
Power that can raise the dead, can surely settle incidental
difficulties. 29. We cannot cite any passage of Scripture, to ignorance
of which Jesus here refers. But the scriptural argument employed
in ver. 3r shows them how little they, who deny the survival of
the soul after death, can really believe even the Pentateuch. The
ignorance of the power of God is still more disastrous. Can men
be said to believe in God at all, who do not believe that He is the
God of the living, and able to raise the dead ?
30. This statement is common sense. Birth, death, marriage,
are incidents of the present life. Beings that are immortal are no
longer subject to these incidents. In heaven are spirits who
were not born and will not die. They who attain to the heavenly
state, ' sons of the resurrection ' (Luke xx. 36), will be laayychoi,

200 St. MATTHEW XXII. 31^37
heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the 31
dead, have ye not read that which was spoken
unto you by God, saying, I am the God of 32
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob ? God is not the God of the dead, but
of the living. And when the multitudes heard 33
it, they were astonished at his teaching.
But the Pharisees, when they heard that he 34
had put the Sadducees to silence, gathered them
selves together. And one of them, a lawyer, 35
1 or, asked him a question, tempting him, l Master, 36
which is the great commandment ' in the law?
And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord 3}
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
equal to the angels. The spiritual mind can easily see this. But
the Sadducees were not spiritual ; for them an argument must be
brought from the Pentateuch.
31. They are referred to Exod. iii. 6. When God describes
Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, does He mean
merely that He was their God while they lived — the God who let
them live and let them die and pass out of being ? That would
make Him, not God, but the master of a puppet-show, who
plays with His human puppets and then destroys them. Is that
the God in whom the Sadducees believe ?
By this startling and convincing argument Jesus shows that men
who deny the resurrection deny God ; for the God that remains to
thought, if His creatures perish, is a mere arbitrary creator, and not
a Being who enters into moral and spiritual relations with men.
33. No wonder the multitude were astonished. The argument
was not only crushing to the questioners ; it is convincing for all
time. 34-40. The dialectical victory over a lawyer.
35. a lawyer, i. e. a scribe learned in the Jewish law. In
Mark xii. 28-34 'ne questioner does not ' tempt ' Him, but comes
as an honest inquirer, who approves the Lord's answer and is
pronounced to be not far from the Kingdom of Heaven. But with
whatever motive the question was put, the answer is invaluable.
37. This passage from Deut. vi. 5 was, and still is, uttered by
every pious Jew twice every day. The second commandment is
from Lev. xix. 18. Keeping within the limits of Judaism Jesus
shows that the sum of religion is there. The innumerable com-

St. MATTHEW XXII. 38-43 201
38 and with all thy mind. This is the great and
39 first commandment. 1 And a second like unto it ' Or, And
is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, is uke
40 On these two commandments hangeth the whole Thou '
, , ,, , , shall love
law, and the prophets. $c.
4* Now while the Pharisees were gathered to
gether, Jesus asked them a question, saying,
42 What think ye of the Christ? whose son is he?
43 They say unto him, The son of David. He saith
unto them, How then doth David in the Spirit
call him Lord, saying,

mandments must be unified, reduced to a common principle. For
while a law consists of countless details it is a letter which kills.
A spirit which gives life to it must be found. This spirit the
Rabbis never could find. Jesus found it in the Law which was
before their eyes.
40. Religion is not to be found in deeds, which are far too varied
and manifold to be estimated, but in a certain affection of the
soul. That affection is Love ; love to God, love to men. The
love of God must proceed from all that is within (Ps. ciii. 1),
affections, will, and mind ; and it must be first, because only as
a man is right with God can he be right with men ; nor can a man
give to any creature what he ought to give to God
This simplification of the Law, that to love one's neighbour is to
keep the whole law, plays a great part in St. Paul's exposition
of the fulfilment of the Law in Christ (Gal. v. 14).
41-6. Christ's own unanswerable question.
Jesus has now allowed Himself to be called Messias (xx. 30,
xxi. 15). But He cannot claim the title till men understand it.
And how little the Scribes and Pharisees understood it, is shown
by this passage. They were all agreed that Messias (Christ)
would be the Son of David. They were also as exegetes ac
customed to say that Ps. ex referred to Him. But they had not
followed out the implication of their own teaching. David calls
Messias, according to their teaching, 'my Lord.' This involved
the idea that the Messias would be superior to David ; not in
worldly state — that was scarcely possible— but in intrinsic nature.
The paradox of Messianic expectation was resolved by the coming
of Jesus ; a descendant of David, according to the flesh, is yet the
Lord from heaven. No, this reading of their own Messianic lore,
was beyond them. They were henceforth silenced.
43. in the Spirit, i. e. the Holy Spirit (Mark xii. 36).

202 St. MATTHEW XXII. 44— XXIII. 3
The Lord said unto my Lord, 44
Sit thou on my right hand,
Till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet ?
If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his 45
son ? And no one was able to answer him a 46
word, neither durst any man from that day forth
ask him any more questions.
Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to his 23
disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees 2
> sit on Moses' seat : all things therefore whatso- 3
Critics maintain now that Ps. ex was written long after David's
time, perhaps in 143 b. c, to celebrate Simon the Maccabee. But
this has no bearing on the passage before us. Jesus uses the
psalm as the Pharisees understood it. He argues from their
interpretation of it. Even if the psalm was not written by
David, and if neither the Jews nor Jesus knew what the critics
affirm, the argument would lose nothing of its weight. Jesus
does not base His claim on the psalm ; He only shows these men
that their own Messianic doctrine implicitly supported His claim.
Ch. xxiii. The denunciations of Jesus.
First Jesus passes judgement on the religious leaders of Jeru
salem j then He turns to them and delivers the sentence. The
judgement on them gives occasion to describe afresh what He
wishes His disciples to be (ver. 1-12). The sentence to them is
contained in Seven Woes, and ends with a tender lament over
Jerusalem, which was led astray by their hypocrisies (ver. 13-39).
This great and fiery discourse is represented in Mark and Luke
by two verses only (Mark xii. 38-40 ; Luke xx. 45-7), from
which a sentence was foisted into the text of Matthew (ver. 14),
omitted by the R. V. (see margin). But Luke gives much of the
same material at the table of the Pharisee (xi. 37-52). Matthew
alone records the commendation of the authority of the Scribes
with which the passage opens (ver. 1-3 a).
1-12. The character and temper of the Scribes (and Pharisees,
in Matthew only) are contrasted with what Jesus demands in His
own disciples. Thus the passage becomes a test for Christian
ministers in all time. We must be careful not to limit the rebuke
to the Scribes and Pharisees of that day ; rather we must consider
whether it applies to ourselves. He is no respecter of persons.
jt. the multitudes and to his disciples. An inner ring of disciples,
an outer ring of the people, and beyond, the Scribes and Pharisees
fuming with indignation at the preacher.
2. We do not know in what sense the Pharisees sat in Moses'

St. MATTHEW XXIII. 4-7 203
ever they bid you, these do and observe : but do
not ye after their works ; for they say, and do
4 not. Yea, they bind heavy burdens ' and grievous • Many
to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders ; aSthorf-
but they themselves will not move them with a„jomt
5 their finger. But all their works they do for to %%? °"s
be seen of men : for they make broad their borne-
phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their
6 garments, and love the chief place at feasts, and
•j the chief seats in the synagogues, and the salu
tations in the marketplaces, and to be called of

seat. But the scribes, as the official guardians and interpreters
of the Mosaic Law, deserve respect just as the clergy do to-day.
It was customary to stand to read the Law and to sit to expound
it (Luke iv. 16, 20).
sit. It is rather 'sate ', as if their authority were of the past.
Grammarians, however, tell us that it is the gnomic aorist, and
means ' are wont to sit '.
3. Christ seems here to admit the idea of teachers, or clergy,
who have authority as interpreters of truth, and yet not character
to illustrate the truth. But the term of the sentence at ver. 8
implies that, while that anomaly was tolerable under the old law,
it could not be tolerated in His economy.
4. They bind together as sheaves heavy back-loads of rules,
like men who lay burdens on asses, but will not carry them with
their fingers.
5. While they do none of the real works of the Law, they lay
immense stress on the external acts which may give a repute
for piety. phylacteries, lit. ' keepers,' boxes in which were kept parch
ment strips inscribed with texts, such as Exod. xiii. i-io, 11-16;
Deut. vi. 4-10, xi. 13-22. The boxes were bound on the forehead
or on the left arm near the heart. The bigger the box the more
striking the piety. This shows the danger of distinctive dress for
ministers and religious persons; so easily it acquires the motive
' to be seen of men '.
enlarge the borders of their garments. Num. xv. 37-40 : the
fringes were originally intended to remind the wearer of the com
mandments. Now they are used to remind the beholder of the
wearer's religion.
6. They covet honour, popularity, and recognition of their
authority.

204

St. MATTHEW XXIII. 8-13

' Gr. the
heavenly.JGr.
greater. •Or, minister'Gr.before.' Some
authorities insert
here, or
afterver. 13,
ver. 14
Woe unto
you, scribes andPharisees,hypo
crites/
for ye
devour widows'

men, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi : for 8
one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren.
And call no man your father on the earth : for 9
one is your Father, ' which is in heaven. Neither 10
be ye called masters : for one is your master,
even the Christ. But he that is 'greatest among u
you shall be your 'servant. And whosoever 12
shall exalt himself shall be humbled ; and who
soever shall humble himself shall be exalted.
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 13
hypocrites ! because ye shut the kingdom of
heaven * against men : for ye enter not in your
selves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in
to enter.6

Rabbi, ' my master,' almost exactly the equivalent of Mon-
signore. It was a title for the scribe, which had but lately come
into vogue; but see Dalman, Words of Jesus, 332.
8. Jesus forbids His disciples to be called Monsignore or the
like. There is but one Teacher in Christendom, Himself. All
disciples are brethren, and none may lord it over the rest.
9. Jesus forbids His disciples to be called Father, Padre, or
Pope. There is but one Father. Abba, i. e. Father, applied as a
name to certain Jews, e. g. Abba Chikiya, c. 50 a. d. But the
Targum corrects ' My Father ' in 2 Kings ii. 12, v. 13, vi. 21, &c.
10. Jesus forbids them to be called master, or guide ; because
He is the ever-present and all-sufficient Leader. Rabbi, pater,
ductor (Bengel) is an ascending order. It is strange that the
Church allows the titles which her Lord forbade.
11. Jesus bids His disciples to be called ministers (i. e. ser
vants \ and makes humility the sole clerical attire.
God many a spiritual house has reared, but never one
Where lowliness was not placed first, the corner-stone. (Trench.)
13-33. Th£ Seven Woes against unfaithful Ministers.
13. First Woe. They shut the kingdom of heaven in the face of
men, by taking their place at the gate and demanding attention to
themselves. ' They take away the key of knowledge ' (Luke xi.
52), forbidding the laity to think or to inquire. And they never
enter in themselves, for their dogma is as dead to them as to the
people.

St. MATTHEW XXIII. 15-20 205
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- »<>""*>
crites ! for ye compass sea and land to make while for
r a pretence
one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye ye make
make him twofold more a son of shell than prayers: therefore
yourselves. ye shall
117 , ,. . . . receive
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, greater
Whosoever shall swear by the 2 temple, it is nation'
nothing ; but whosoever shall swear by the gold J140T
17 of the 2 temple, he is aa debtor. Ye fools and 47u e
blind : for whether is greater, the gold, or the '^l'e„„a_
s temple that hath sanctified the gold? And, 2Or, sane-
18 Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing ; as in '
but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is Tq^5'
19 upon it, he is s a debtor. Ye blind : for whether ^"^y
is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth
20 the gift ? He therefore that sweareth by the
altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
15. The Second Woe (no parallel in Luke). Utterly incom
petent for spiritual functions, they are yet eager to exercise them.
Their anxiety to proselytize is wonderful ; for their proselytes
become more the sons of Gehenna than themselves ; we expect
' than before ', but the expression 'than yourselves' is as striking
as it is startling.
16-22. The Third Woe (this is only in Matthew). They make
a Jesuitical casuistry, which allows one sin by damning another.
The principle they invented was that the special form of the com
mandment is more bindingthan the general, the gold of the temple
is more sacred than the temple, the gift than the altar ; thus an
oath by the temple, or by the altar or by heaven was not binding,
while an oath by the gold, or the gift or the God, was. Some
think the gold meant the Corban set apart for sacred use (xv. 5).
This casuistry is hateful to simple minds, and Christ condemns it.
Temple and altar and heaven are the same as gold and gift and
God. There is but One. All swearing is forbidden.1 Simple
truth is the sole law in God's world.
1 Cf. Martial, xi. 94. 7 :
Ecce, negas iurasque mihi per templa Tonantis
Non credo ; iura, verpe, per Anchialum.

206 St. MATTHEW XXIII. 21-25
1 Or, sane- And he that sweareth by the * temple, sweareth 21
ash?11 by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And 22
ver' 3S" he that sweareth by the heaven, sweareth by the
throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 23
so<". crites ! for ye tithe mint and 2 anise and cummin,
dill J
and have left undone the weightier matters of
the law, judgement, and mercy, and faith': but
these ye ought to have done, and not to have
left the other undone. Ye blind guides, which 24
strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 25
crites ! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and
of the platter, but within they are full from ex-

23. The Fourth Woe. They lay stress on ceremonial trifles, but
the all-important truths of religion they neglect. The mint, anise
(or dill), and cummin are small herbs used for food or medicine.
it was a Rabbinical refinement to tithe these at all. Jesus, how
ever, allows the tithing, but denounces the blindness which attends
to the trifle and neglects the essent-al. See Lev. xxvii. 30.
judgement, mercy, and faith. In Luke xi. 42, 'judgement and
the love of God.' Possibly mercy and love are to be traced to the
same Aramaic word. Jesus has in mind the great saying ot
Mic. vi. 6-8. Faith is here the equivalent of ' walking humbly
with God ', or it may be of ' the love of God ', in Luke xi. 42 ; it
stands for inward and spiritual religion as contrasted with for
malism. 24. They strained out the gnat lest they should swallow in their
wine an unclean creature, forbidden in Lev. xi. 10, 23, 41, 42.
The camel was also unclean (Lev. xi. 4). The monstrous iniquity
of injustice, hardness, and equivocation they greedily gulp down.
25. Fifth Woe. They clean the outside and neglect the inside.
The form of expression is determined by the idea of a full cup or
a full dish being treated as the whole, the symbol of a man. The
outside is the cup or the platter ; the inside is the drink or the
meat. Ceremonial religion lays the stress on correctness of form,
ritual, sacrament, church building. Christ lays all the stress on
the heart, the intent, the character. In Luke xi. 41 the cleansing
is characteristically identified with gifts of mercy.

St. MATTHEW XXIII. 26-32 207
26 tortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that
the outside thereof may become clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo
crites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly
are full of dead men's bones, and of all unclean-
2S ness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous
unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy
and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo
crites ! for ye build the sepulchres of the pro
phets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous,
30 and say, If we had been in the days of our
fathers, we should not have been partakers with
31 them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore
ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them
32 that slew the prophets. Fill ye up then the

26. In Luke xi. 41 ' give alms ' instead of ' cleanse '. In Hebrew
•Ol might mean either. This, therefore, is a striking indication of
the Aramaic in which Jesus probably spoke. (Dalman, Words of
Jesus, p. 63.)
27. Sixth Woe. They are like whited sepulchres, fair without,
foul within. Jesus had in view Ps. v. 9, ' their throat is an open
sepulchre ' (cf. Rom. iii. 13). The tombs were whitewashed every
Passover, that men might not contract ceremonial defilement by
unwittingly touching them. The men who so scrupulously avoided
the contact with tombs are themselves tombs ! In Luke xi. 44
they are described as hidden sepulchres (unwhited) on which men
walk unconsciously and are defiled.
29-33. The Seventh Woe. They show reverence for dead
prophets, but always hate and crucify the living prophet ; in the
valley of Jehoshaphat are the tombs of the prophets, kept with the
utmost reverence. The language which they use shows their
lineage ; they are the descendants of the prophet-slayers ; the
obeisance to the tombs implies no change of disposition. They
must do after their nature and proceed to kill and crucify the
Prophet speaking to them.

Gehenna.

208 St. MATTHEW XXIII. 33-36
measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye oft- 33 ,.
spring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judge-
1 Gr. ment of 1 hell ? Therefore, behold, I send unto 34
you prophets, and wise men, and scribes : some
of them shall ye kill and crucify ; and some of
them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute from city to city : that upon you may 35
come all the righteous blood shed on the earth,
from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the
blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye
slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily 36

34. behold, I send unto you. Jesus turns from the past to the
future, and the denunciation becomes a prophecy. In Luke xi. 49
the words are referred to ' the Wisdom of God ', and seem
intended to be a quotation from an unknown Scripture. But
Jesus thinks of Himself as the Wisdom of God, under the image
of Prov. viii. He is the Wisdom that is justified of her children
(1 Cor. i. 29). Perhaps He conceives Himself speaking before the
beginning of history ; or perhaps He is only looking forward from
the historical point at which He stood ; in which means by ' pro
phets, wise men, and scribes' His own apostles and evange
lists (see Luke xi. 49, prophets and apostles). See on xiii. 52.
35. There is an accumulation of guilt, and a generation which
expiates the sins of centuries. So it was in the French Revolu
tion, so it is in the Russian Revolution. The generation which
rejected Jesus incurred the piled-up vengeance of a thousand
rebellious years.
Abel to Zechariah, covers the history of the Old Testament,
which began with Genesis and ended with Chronicles. The
difficulty is that Zechariah in 2 Chron. xxiv. 20-1 is not the son of
Barachiah. On the other hand, the prophet Zechariah in the
Canon is so designated (Zech. i. 1). It is not necessary to com
plicate the interpretation by bringing in Zechariah son of
Bariscseus, who was killed by the Romans in A. d. 67, a genera
tion later (Josephus, Bell. hid. iv. 335) ; nor does it help, to refer
to the tomb of Zechariah with its Ionic pillars in the valley of
Jehoshaphat. The evangelist, in writing Zechariah, inadvertently
slipped in ' son ot Barachiah ', or perhaps a later hand slipped it in,
for it is wanting in the important uncial N, and the Gospel of the
Hebrews reads ' son of Jehoiada '-

St. MATTHEW XXIII. 37-39 209
I say unto you, All these things shall come upon
this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the
prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto
her ! how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not !
38 Behold, your house is left unto you i desolate. ¦ Some
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me hence- authoii-
forth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh desolate.
in the name of the Lord.

36. Jesus foresaw very clearly the tragedy of the fall of
Jerusalem in a. d. 70.
37-9. The last words of Jesus in the Temple. The name
Jerusalem is here in the Hebrew form, as in Luke, but not
elsewhere in Matthew. The tenderness of the address is only
equalled by the certainty of the doom. This holy city, like the
Babylon of Revelation, is chiefly distinguished in God's eyes by
the blood of prophets and saints that she had shed.
The homely figure of the hen gathering her chickens under her
wing is prepared in the constant usage of the Old Testament. But
in Deut. xxxii. ii the Lord is compared to an eagle. See Ruth
ii. 12, ' the Lord, under whose wings thou art come to take
refuge ' ; so Ps. xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7, lxi. 4, lxiii. 7, xci. 4. Compare
how the swallow shelters in God (Ps. Ixxxiv. 4). See the
beautiful image in Isa. xxxi. 5, and finally the noble image of
Mal. iv. 2. In Jesus the grandeur of the simile melts into home
liness, as becomes ' the Son of Man '-
38. This desolation of indefinite prolongation shows that Jesus
did not think of His second coming as following soon on His
departure. your house, i. c. the city itself. It is still ' desolate *, in spite
of the 60,000 obscure Jews who inhabit it. They gather at the
wall of wailing and lament its desolation continually. They have
not yet learnt to say ' Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord '. Will they ever say it, or do the words of ver. 39 mean
that they will not see Him henceforth, because they will never be
prepared with the words of welcome ? Paul believed that the Jews
would be ingathered ; but the language of Jesus over the city
which knew not the day of her visitation is more unrelieved. We
know not what the future has in store, but hitherto the denuncia
tion of Jesus seems to hold ; and Paul's optimism seems to be the
P

210 St. MATTHEW XXIV. 1
And Jesus went out from the temple, and 24
was going on his way; and his disciples came
to him to shew him the buildings of the temple.
colouring of his own passionate patriotism and love of his kinsmen
according to the flesh.
Ch. xxiv. The Apocalyptic Discourse.
The suggestion (of Weizsacker and others) that a Jewish
apocalypse is here introduced and modified in a Christian sense, is
incapable of proof ; and as it yields no fruit of the Spirit, it may
be disregarded. The undoubted difficulty of the passage, however,
must be met, or the mental confusion may destroy the religious
teaching. The difficulty is this : the Second Coming is announced
as within that generation (ver. 34) ; for the expedient of making
yevta mean, not a generation, but the Jewish people, or the human
race, is so forced and improbable, and we may add insipid, that it
rather suggests doubt than strengthens faith. There are two
alternatives for dealing with the difficulty ; either Jesus was mis
taken in forecasting His advent as near instead of distant, or the
evangelist is mistaken in the arrangement of the \6yta of the Lord.
The former alternative has been eagerly seized to illustrate what
is called the Kevoiais of the Son of God in entering the world, and
to show that during His life Jesus was ignorant of much which
concerned Himself. And certainly ver. 36 supports this view.
We certainly know that the speedy return of the Lord was
expected in the Apostolic age (Acts i. 1 1, and the earliest epistles
pf Paul, viz. 1 and 2 Thess.). But the delay in His coming was
foreshadowed even by Jesus Himself (ver. 48). And it presents
a very grave objection to the foreknowledge of the seer if the
' these things ' of ver. 34 includes the parousia of ver. 30. The
second alternative, therefore, should be tried, and relied on, by
preference. It is more probable that the evangelist made a wrong
arrangement of his material than that Jesus declared that He would
come again within that generation. We have seen all through
the Gospel that Matthew worked on the principle of putting
together all the material of one kind. And it is very likely, there
fore, that he would put together in these two chapters (xxiv and
xxv) all the sayings of our Lord which forecast the future. The
comparison with Luke indeed shows that he has done this ; for
what is here given as a single discourse is found in fragments
distributed over at least three different occasions in Luke xii, xvii,
and xxi. Luke distinguishes between the prophecy of the
destruction of Jerusalem and the prophecy of the end of the
world. But in Matthew the two are inextricably intertwined.
Luke's distinctness of language in ch. xxi has led to the con
clusion that when he wrote the destruction of Jerusalem (a.d. 70)
was a fact of history, while Matthew was writing before the event.
The clue, then, for interpretation, is this : Matthew has grouped

St. MATTHEW XXIV. 2, 3 211
a But he answered and said unto them, See ye not
all these things? verily I say unto you, There
shall not be left here one stone upon another,
that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat on the mount of Olives, the 1 Qr.
disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell presence.
us, when shall these things be ? and what shall 'Jns'Jm-
be the sign of thy 'coming, and of 2 the end of Te'ag""1
together all the references of Jesus to the future, which he found
in his collection of sayings, with the result that the events of that
generation, culminating in the fall of Jerusalem, are mixed up
with the things which were to come after, the return of Jesus and
the end of the world. This conflation makes a grand and impres
sive passage for our instruction and our warning ; but it demands
a little patience to disentangle the two strands, of which it is
composed, and the frank recognition that the evangelist when he
wrote fully believed that the Second Coming and the end of all
things would take place within that generation.
With this proviso we may study the discourse as it stands.
1, 2. Jesus went out from the temple. He never entered it again. As
He left it, God departed from it, and left it to its appointed doom.
The disciples might well call attention to its magnificence. The
stones were in many instances forty cubits long and the pillars
monoliths twenty-five cubits high, says Josephus {Bell. Iud. v. 5. 6).
It appeared, as one approached from a distance, like a snow moun
tain topped with golden pinnacles. Complete as the ruin was, the
great substructures of the Temple still stand, like a gigantic crypt,
light and airy, solid as the rock. But, of course, the building
itself disappeared as Jesus foretold.
3. The little party crossed the valley of Jehoshaphat and sat on
the Mount of Olives looking back over the city — one of the finest
sights in the world even now.
privately. This is a common phrase in Matt. xiv. 13, 23, xvii. i,
19, xx. 17. The form of the question shows that the disciples, and
therefore Matthew, supposed that the destruction of the Temple,
the Lord's coming, and the end of the world, were all closely
connected in time. The answering discourse reflects the mistake
of the question.
what shall be the sign ? answered ver. 30.
coming. That is, parousia (in Luke xxiii. 42 epxtatat,'1 coming) ,
1 A recognized Messianic phrase derived from Mal. iii. i, Zech.
xiv. 5, Dan. vii. 13 (LXX), cf.6 ipxoptvos, Matt. xi. 3. For Jesus it
is reditus rather than adventus. P 2

212 St. MATTHEW XXIV. 4-9
the world ? And Jesus answered and said unto 4
them, Take heed that no man lead you astray.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am 5
the Christ ; and shall lead many astray. And 6
ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars : see
that ye be not troubled: for these things must
needs come to pass ; but the end is not yet. For 7
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom : and there shall be famines
and earthquakes in divers places. But all these 8
things are the beginning of travail. Then shall 9
they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall
kill you : and ye shall be hated of all the nations
a word used four times in this chapter (ver. 27, 37, 39), but not
elsewhere in the Gospels. Paul uses it often (1 Thess. ii. 19, &c.) ;
so do James, Peter, and John. It means ' presence ' rather than
coming. the end of the world, the phrase which Jesus Himself
employed (xiii. 39, 49), the conclusion of the current world epoch
(differently expressed in Mark xiii. 4 ; Luke xxi. 7).
4. The danger of delusion on the subject of prophecy and its
interpretation occupies the Lord's attention first (so Mark xiii. 5 ;
Luke xxi. 8). The warning against credulity precedes the call to
watchfulness. 5-14. ver. 5-8 almost identical in Mark xiii. 6-9 and Luke xxi.
8-11. The forecast of the false Christs (ver. 24), like Simon the
son of Gioras, and John of Giscala, who appeared at the time of the
fall of Jerusalem and after, the announcement of wars at hand and
at a distance, and all the incidents of earthly calamity, the warning
of persecution, already given in the charge to the Twelve (x.
17-22) ; the assurance that the end is not yet (ver. 6), but shall
come when the Gospel has been preached to the whole world,
form a clear and connected passage, distinctly tracing the course
of future events to a distant end, far beyond the present genera
tion. 5. The expectation of a Messias coming was the first incentive
to war with Rome, as Josephus shows {Bell. lud. vi. 54).
9. deliver . . . up. The word is suitable in Mark xiii. 9, where
only Sanhedrims and Synagogues are in question, but when the
more general ' tribulation ' is used, and the hatred of all nations
succeeds to the Jewish persecution, the word must be widened and
deepened in meaning.

St. MATTHEW XXIV. 10-17 213
10 for my name's sake. And then shall many
stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and
1 1 shall hate one another. And many false prophets
12 shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And
because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of
13 the many shall wax cold. But he that endureth
14 to the end, the same shall be saved. And * this ' Or, these
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the tidings
whole 2 world for a testimony unto all the nations ; 2 Gr. in-
and then shall the end come. earth.
15 When therefore ye see the abomination of
desolation, which was spoken of 3by Daniel the spr,
r ' through
prophet, standing in 4fhe holy place (let him <Or, a
l(> that readeth understand), then let them that are °y'"":'
l1 in Judsea flee unto the mountains : let him that

10. stumble, as foretold in the parable (xiii. 21).
12. This chill of love owing to the wide iniquity will continue
to the end (cf. Luke xviii. 8). Luke xxi. 18 adds the irrelevant
but exquisitely suggestive promise, ' not a hair from your head
shall perish.'
iniquity, lit. lawlessness. Not antinomanism, but that general
moral decline, in which even the good lose their fervour.
the love. This great Christian word ayairt] occurs only here
in the Synoptics (where it ' waxes cold ').
14. in the whole world. Explained by ' into all the nations '
(Mark xiii. 10).
15-28. The specific forecast of the siege and fall of Jeru
salem under Titus in a. d. 70. The accounts in Mark xiii. 14,
23 ; Luke xxi. 20-4 must be compared.
15. the abomination. Dan. ix. 27, xi. 31, xii. 11 : the profanation
cf the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. This coming profanation
was the similar presence of the Roman standards in the holy
land. let him that readeth understand. A parenthetic note made by
the evangelist, lo call attention to this new application of the
words of Daniel.
16. This warning enabled the Christians to escape at the
beginning of the siege ; they took refuge in Pella, at the north
extremity of Perea (Eusebius, H. E. iii. 5. 3).

214 St. MATTHEW XXIV. 18-23
is on the housetop not go down to take out the
things that are in his house : and let him that is 18
in the field not return back to take his cloke.
But woe unto them that are with child and to 19
them that give suck in those days ! And pray 20
ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither
on a sabbath : for then shall be great tribulation, 2 1
such as hath not been from the beginning of the
world until now, no, nor ever shall be. And 22
except those days had been shortened, no flesh
would have been saved : but for the elect's sake
those days shall be shortened. Then if any man 23
shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or,
17. The haste is such that the people must come down by the
outside staircase, and flee ; and the peasants in the field, who to
this day leave their outer garments in the house, and work in
their tunics, must escape without returning to the house.
19. The compassion of Jesus for the women who cannot leave
their burdens in the house, but must carry them in their bosoms
and flee.
20. on a sabbath. Jesus assumes that His followers will
have the old reverence for the day. Weizsacker argues from this
that the prophecy is Jewish in origin ; he does not allow for a
moment that Christ would sanction the day, as He does here.
21. The horrible account given by Josephus of the siege of
Jerusalem fully justifies this strong language of forecast.
22. The language seems to look beyond the siege of Jerusalem.
It points to the general principle that a term is set to the
calamities of men, on account of the elect, i. e. not so much in
answer to their prayers, but because the purpose of history is to
produce the chosen souls, and the calamities that befall mankind
must always come short of complete destruction.
shortened : sc. by God (Mark xiii. 20).
the elect. Cf. xxii. 14 ; a word used much in the Book of
Enoch. 23. The pretensions of Simon son of Gioras, and John of
Giscala, show how necessary it was to forewarn the disciples
against imposters. The parousia of Jesus was not to be the
coming of a human person again. He will not be in a particular
place, whether wilderness or secret chamber. And indeed He
will not come at the time of the fall of Jerusalem at all. This
seems to be the gist of the warning.

St. MATTHEW XXIV. 24-29 215
24 Here; believe 1it not. For there shall arise 1 or, him
false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew
great signs and wonders ; so as to lead astray, if
25 possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told
26 you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto
you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not
forth : Behold, he is in the inner chambers ;
27 believe *it not. For as the lightning cometh 2Or,them
forth from the east, and is seen even unto the
west; so shall be the s coming of the Son of man. ' Gr-
° presence.
28 Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the 4 eagles « or,
be gathered together.
29 But immediately, after the tribulation of those
days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon
27. The coming will be like the great phenomena of nature,
e. g. lightning, apocalyptic indeed. The meaning of the following
verse is obscure.
28. In Luke xvii. 37 the cryptic saying is attached to what is
here placed at ver. 41. The reference therefore does not seem to
be to the Roman eagles ; it is rather a proverbial saying (cf.
Job xxxix. 30), a brief and pregnant description of the ruin
of Jerusalem : and must be connected, not with ver. 27, but with
the whole passage ver. 15-27. It is a familiar sight in the East,
the dead horse or camel by the track, and the wheeling vultures
pouncing on the prey : so will be Jerusalem, dead, devoured by
the eagles.
29-31. Regarding ver. 15-28 as a paragraph complete in itself,
we may look on this paragraph as also complete in itself, but in
correctly attached to ver. 15-28. It might follow 1-14. 'The tribula
tion of those days ' is not the siege of Jerusalem (though Matthew
may have taken it in that sense), but the iniquity and the waning
love which precede the end of the world.
29. immediately. This can only stand if we do not connect it
with verses 15-28. In Luke xxi. 24 the difficulty does not occur,
because the ' treading down of Jerusalem until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled ' intervenes between the fall of the city and
the coming of the Son of Man (ver. 27).
The signs in heaven are those familiar in apocalyptic prophecy
(Isa. xiii. 9, xxxiv. 4 ; Joel iii. 15). They are probably to be
interpreted symbolically. As we know, the stars cannot literally
fall from heaven (Rev. vi. 13; Isa. xiv. 12). It is a figure of

2l6

St. MATTHEW XXIV. 30-33

* Many
ancientauthorities read
with a
great trumpet, and they
shall
gather ^c
2 Or, a
trumpetof great
sound ' Or, it

shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall
from heaven, and the powers of the heavens
shall be shaken : and then shall appear the sign 30
of the Son of man in heaven : and then shall all
the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see
the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. And he shall send 31
forth his angels Jwith 2a great sound of a
trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other.
Now from the fig tree learn her parable : when 32
her branch is now become tender, and putteth
forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh ;
even so ye also, when ye see all these things, 33
know ye that 3he is nigh, even at the doors.

speech for a revolutionary change, and the breaking up of the
most firmly established order.
30. the sign of the Son of man, i. e. the sign consisting in the
Son of Man appearing in heaven. Here is the answer to ver. 3.
on the clouds. Dan. vii. 13 (LXX) indicating divine majesty.
The mourning is explained in Rev. i. 7.
31. The magnificent triumph of Jesus, and the gathering of His
elect, put it beyond question that He is the Divine Being. For
the trumpet see 1 Cor. xv. 52 ; 1 Thess. iv. 16. The apostles
accepted the image as literal. We cannot interpret it, until the
event declares it. But, whatever may be the interpretation in
detail, we may cherish in our hearts this great assurance, that,
when the Gospel has been preached in the whole world, for
a testimony unto the nations, the end will come, and Christ will
appear to gather together His own.
32-4. These three verses are connected with verses 15-28, and
refer to the fall of Jerusalem, which looms in the near future.
As the season of summer shows itself in the burgeoning of the
fig-tree, so the apocalyptic event, viz. the destruction of ,the old
Judaism, to make way for Christianity, will be the sure promise
of the summer season, the reign of Christ in the affairs of men.
33. these things refer to the events of a- d. 70, the war with
Rome, the siege and fall of Jerusalem, the burning of the Temple.
he is nigh. This certainly means the Son of Man, but equally

St. MATTHEW XXIV. 34-37 217
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not
pass away, till all these things be accomplished.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words ' M»nv
3<> shall not pass away. But of that day and hour ties, some
11 , ¦ ,- , ancient,
knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, omit
37 * neither the Son, but the Father only. And as the Son.
certainly it does not mean His coming as described in ver. 30, the
final advent which was deliberately disconnected from the fall of
Jerusalem in ver. 27. The final advent was not to be in a. d. 70,
and yet in a sense Christ drew near, came to the doors of the
house of human life, in that year. The Temple, God's house,
disappeared ; the spiritual Temple which superseded it sprang
from the ground.
34. In view of this, Jesus could say that the generation then
living would not pass away until the great reign of Christ should
begin ; within thirty-five years, Judaism passed away, and
Christianity began its vigorous life. ' The Lord is at hand ' from
that time forth.
35-51. Here we pass again to the final advent, which has already
been referred to in verses 12-14 and 29-31. The real teaching
ofour Lord becomes plain if ver. 35 follows ver. 31.
The assertion of His infallible word is most unfortunately
placed between the statement that all would happen in that
generation, and the statement that Jesus did not know the time.
But the fault is that of the evangelists (Mark also xiii. 30-2;.
We cannot doubt that when Jesus was speaking of the fall of
Jerusalem He spoke in the language of ver. 34. But when He
spoke of the far-off, divine event (of ver. 14), He used the
language of ver. 36. He knew it would be, but not when.
36. of that day and hour knoweth no one. Zech. xiv. 7 and
Psalms of Solomon xvii. 23 say that only God knows the time of
the Redemption. The Targum on Eccl. vii. 24 affirms that the
mystery of the day when the Anointed King comes is kept secret
from men.
For the relation of Father and Son see xi. 27.
It would be a mistake to think that this avowed ignorance
of the time of His advent implies any limitation of Christ's divine
nature. It only indicates the complete submission of the Son to
the Father in the bosom of Godhead. What the Father wished
to reveal to Him the Son received, and He knew that He would
reveal all things to Him. But when the will of the Father held back
any knowledge from Him, He showed His submission, and His
filial union with the Father by a cheerful and humble submission.
It is the most perfect illustration we possess of conformity to
the will of God. Christ had no will but the Father's ; when the

218 St. MATTHEW XXIV. 38-43
1 Gr. were the days of Noah, so shall be the l coming
of the Son of man. For as in those days which 38
were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until
the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they 39
knew not until the flood came, and took them
all away ; so shall be the ' coming of the Son of
man. Then shall two men be in the field ; one 4°
is taken, and one is left : two women shall be 41
grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is
left. Watch therefore : for ye know not on what 42
2 Or, But day your Lord cometh. 2 But know this, that if 43
'know the master of the house had known in what watch
Father willed to withhold from Him any of His designs, His will
was to be ignorant.
37-41 appears in Luke xvii. 26, 27, 30, 34, 35, in connexion
with the forecast of the coming of the Kingdom of God. He is
evidently not speaking of the siege of Jerusalem here, an event
which did not come suddenly and unannounced, but of the coming
which would be as the lightning (ver. 27).
37. The illustration of Noah shows that the ignorance is wilful
carelessness. They might have known. But they went on as
usual, though Noah was building the ark in their midst, until
the flood broke. The day of the Lord will not come unawares
to the faithful few who watch and wait for it, but to the indifferent
world it will.
40. These are proverbial sayings (Schott), to describe the
sudden dooms of human events. The handmill of the East is
generally worked by two women who sit with it between them ;
a close intimacy of life and work ; but the swift day of the Lord
will divide between man and man, between woman and
woman. 42. Watch. This word like a solemn bell tolls through all Christ's
language about the future (Mark xiii. 33 ; Luke xxi. 36). We are not
told to inquire or forecast, to conjecture or construct. But we are
to be on the watch. Luke inserts a still more elaborate caution.
Note the designation which Jesus gives Himself : Your Lord.
43-51. This is the same discourse that Luke gives in the charge
to the Twelve (xii. 39-46), which may indicate how Matthew
conflated sayings which bear on the future from different times of
the Lord's ministry.
43. the master of the house, not necessarily a large owner.

St. MATTHEW XXIV. 44-51 219
the thief was coming, he would have watched,
and would not have suffered his house to be
44 l broken through. Therefore be ye also ready : ' Gr.
for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man t'lffJugh.
45 cometh. Who then is the faithful and wise
* servant, whom his lord hath set over his house- * Gr- **»*
1 ij ¦ • servant.
hold, to give them their food in due season^?
46 Blessed is that 2 servant, whom his lord when he
47 cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto
you, that he will set him over all that he hath.
48 But if that evil * servant shall say in his heart,
49 My lord tarrieth ; and shall begin to beat his
fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the
50 drunken ; the lord of that z servant shall come
in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour
51 when he knoweth not, and shall 3cut him \?ve'reiy
asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypo- mZT**

Indeed it is only a poor mud house that can be dug through by
a thief. We are to think, therefore, not of great prelates and
saints, but of ordinary Christians. Every Christian is so to live
and work, that if Christ came to-day, there would be no surprise,
but only the joyful greeting. We should expect nothing so much
any day as we expect Christ's coming every day. That is the
secret of a true Christian life.
45. From Luke xii. 41 it is clear that these words apply
specially to those who are entrusted with the preaching of the
Gospel and the rule of the Church.
47. Each faithful servant can be set over all that God has in the
Spiritual Kingdom : for it is not authority exercised, but inner
fitness, that constitutes the order of eternity.
48. Here the judgement on the unfaithful minister assumes that
there may be a delay in the coming of the Lord. It is obvious how
much more suitable the language is to the ordaining of the Twelve
than to the apocalypse of Matthew.
51. shall cut him asunder. A strong word, in Luke xii. 46, as
well as here. There is no reason for toning it down as in the
margin of R. V.
his portion, Rev. xx. 6.

220 St. MATTHEW XXV. 1
crites : there shall be the weeping and gnashing
of teeth.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened 25
torches unto ten virgins, which took their * lamps, and
hypocrites. In Luke ' the unfaithful ' or ' unbelieving '. The
closing words recall viii. 12 in the Sermon on the Mount.
Ch. xxv. The Coming of the Son of Man;
This wonderful group of parables, or pictures — the Ten
Virgins, the Talents, the Sheep and the Goats— will account
for the prominent place which the Second Advent occupied in
the Early Church. These words, which demand Vigilance,
Fidelity, and practical Service, enforced by the thought of the
returning Lord, not only reverberate through the New Testament,
but determined the character of Christianity. Christians are men
who ' serve a living and true God, and wait for His Son from
heaven ' (1 Thess. i. 9, 10). They may be defined as 'they that
have loved His appearing ' (2 Tim. iv. 8). They are always
' waiting for Him ' (Heb. ix. 28). ' Till I come ' was impressed on
every believer (Luke xix. 13 : cf. 1 Cor. xi. 26). And through this
discourse and the echoes of it in the New Testament the attitude
has been preserved to this day. Whatever may be our conceptions
of His coming, we who believe in Him are like unto them who
wait for their Lord. We may speculate what will be the manner
of the appearing, whether we shall be of the number who survive
when He comes, or shall be overtaken by death, the common
Parousia, but we are kept in the attitude of expectation. In some
way or other He will come. We therefore must have our lamps
ready, with oil for the supply ; we must be employing our talents
that we may hear His ' Well done ' ; we must minister to the
hungry, the naked, the stranger, the prisoner, because, in doing it
to them, we do it to Him.
It should be noted how the three pictures confirm our interpre
tation of ch. xxiv, and show that our Lord did not lead us to expect
an immediate return (xxiv. 13, 14, 48, are echoed in xxv. 5, 15).
And if the expectation of a speedy return was awakened in the
early Church, the apostles had the light of the spirit to correct it.
(Acts iii. 21 and 2 Thess. ii. 2). We may surmise that the
erroneous expectation arose entirely from confusing the Parousia
of the fall of Jerusalem with the final Parousia ; and when the
former happened and passed, and the Parousia had not been
realized, the Church gradually settled down to the long and
patient waiting in which she is still engaged.
It is yet the night, but the Bridegroom will come. The Lord
is yet in another country, but He will return. The throne of His
glory is not yet set, but He will sit on it, and all nations shall be
gathered before Him.

St. MATTHEW XXV. 2-6 221
2 went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of
3 them were foolish, and five were wise. For the
foolish, when they took their 1 lamps, took no 1 or
4 oil with them : but the wise took oil in their "
5 vessels with their 1 lamps. Now while the bride-
6 groom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. But

1-12. The Ten Virgins. The custom which forms the mise-en-
sccnc of the parable is given in Judges xiv. 10, where Samson goes
down to claim his bride. The virgins are the bridal train who
watch for the bridegroom's arrival on his return to his house with
the bride. He would naturally come in the early evening ; but
He is detained till midnight, and the lamps therefore burn low
and need replenishing. The Bridal Feast is illustrated by the
story of Samson, except that there only the companions of the
bridegroom are mentioned. Here the companions of the bride
are brought into prominence. For the purpose of the illustra
tion it is not necessary to mention the bride. The beautiful.
story is only found in Mark (xiii. 35), and Luke (xii. 35 ; xiii. 25)
germinally. We must be thankful for those Logia which Matthew
alone has preserved for us. And this chapter, next to the Sermon
on the Mount, is the most precious of the Logia.
1. to meet the bridegroom, 'and the bride,' adds D, and some
cursives. But of course the addition is mala-propos. The bride
is in the house, the maidens issue forth on the road to meet and
accompany the bridegroom in. The lamp is rather a torch ;
probably a dish of oil with a wick in it carried on the top of a
staff. 2. Wise and foolish, not good and bad, exactly as in the
builders (vii. 25-27). They are all Christians, but some are true
Christians and others are not. All have lamps, i. e. make the
Christian profession, and apparently welcome Christ. All would
be ready, if there were no delay. The tarrying tests them.
4. The meaning of the oil is manifest from the frequent occur
rence of the image in Scripture. It represents the reality of a
living religion produced by the Holy Spirit. This is plain in the
symbol of Ex. xxx. 23-25, 30, and Ps. xiv. 7. The interpretation
is given in Zech. iv. It symbolizes the Spirit not given by measure
(John iii. 34), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. viii. 9), the holy unction
(1 John ii. 27).
We must avoid fanciful allegorizing like Chrysostom's, who
thought that the lamps signified virginity, but the oil the pity, so
often wanting in religious devotees who adopt the celibate
life. 5, slumbered (i. e. nodded) and slept> as was natural, and even

222 St. MATTHEW XXV. 7-12
at midnight there is a cry, Behold,, the bride
groom ! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all 7
1 Or, those virgins arose, and trimmed their * lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of 8
your oil ; for our ' lamps are going out. But the 9
wise answered, saying, Peradventure there will
not be enough for us and you : go ye rather to
them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And 10
while they went away to buy, the bridegroom
came; and they that were ready went in with
him to the marriage feast : and the door was
shut. Afterward come "also the other virgins, u
saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered u

proper, always provided that their lamps w re ready when the
cry should come. The detail is not, therefore, meant to show that
at His coming He will find all His Church asleep (like the question
in Luke xviii. 8), but only that among the members of His Church,
who seem alike, a startling cleavage will be revealed.
6. At midnight, six hours later than He was expected ! Thus
Christ intimated that His Parousia would surprise the world when
from the long delay men had almost concluded that it would not
be at all. St. Paul remembered this when he said that the Lord
would come as a thief in the night (1 Thess. v. 2) ; it is strange
he did not say, ' as a bridegroom.'
8. It is the sorrowful truth that in the grace of inward
preparedness each must stand alone ; the goodness of another
does not avail ; ' let each man prove his own work, and then
shall he have his glorying in respect of himself alone, and not of
his neighbour. For each man shall bear his own burden ' (Gal. vi.
4, 5)-
9. buy for yourselves. The image is from Prov. xxiii. 23.
There was no question about the ability to buy ; for the oil is
without money and without price (Is. Iv. 1 ; Rev. iii. 18). The
only drawback was the want of time. It was too late.
10. There is a clang of doom in ' the door was shut '- Christ
never shrinks from stating this inevitable fact. If we do not
preach it, let us learn it.
11. Lord, Lord. The interpretation looks through the veil of
the parable. It is no common bridegroom, but the Lord from
heaven, who says to them ' I know you not ', In Rev. xix. 8, our
eyes are turned to the bride, in ' fine linen, bright and pure '.

St. MATTHEW XXV. 13-18 223
and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor
the hour.
14 For it is as when a man, going into another
country, called his own 1 servants, and delivered ' Gl\
' bond-
15 unto them his goods. And unto one he gave servants.
five talents, to another two, to another one ; to
each according to his several ability ; and he went
16 on his journey. Straightway he that received the
five talents went and traded with them, and made
1 7 other five talents. In like manner he also that
18 received the two gained other two. But he that
received the one went away and digged in the

But the truth is the same, ' for the fine linen is the righteous acts
of the saints.'
13. Again clangs the great warning bell, as in xxiv. 42.
14-30. The Talents. An oriental potentate puts into authority,
not relatives or friends, which would be dangerous, but his slaves.
The similar parable of the Pounds in Luke xix. 1 1 occurs in another
connexion ; but in each case the men entrusted with the money
are 'slaves'. Again the delay of the Parousia is emphasized
(ver. 19). Weiss and Wendt think that the parable does not
properly belong to the Parousia group. But it is a necessary
supplement to the Virgins ; there the idea was only that of wait
ing, here it is that of working ; there attention was directed to the
inward spiritual life, here to external activity. Expectant of our
Lord, we are not to be slumbering and sleeping, but employing the
talents which He has given us to use.
14. slaves. Paul delights to adopt the designation (Rom. i. 1 ;
1 Cor. vii. 22 ; 2 Cor. x. 7 ; Gal. i. 10 ; Eph. vi. 6 ; Phil. i. 1 ;
Col. iv. 12 ; Tit. i. 1) ; so does James (Jas. i. 1), so does Peter
(1 Pet. ii. 16 ; 2 Pet. i. 1), so does Jude (i. 1), so does John
(Rev. i. 1, xix. 5, xxii. 3, &c). It is as honourable to be the
slaves of Christ as it is degrading to be the slaves of men, or of our
lower selves.
15. The slaves are greatly trusted. The lowest receives £240.
As each received according to his ability, he was required only
to be faithful. The reward would be a responsibility doubled.
18. The slave with one talent was not dishonest ; he is not
charged with indolence ; he is disaffected. He misjudges the
Lord. He is the churl, unworthy of enfranchisement.

224

St. MATTHEW XXV. 19-24

'Gr. bond
servants.

1 Gr.
bondservant.

earth, and hid his lord's money. Now after a 19
long time the lord of those J servants cometh,
and maketh a reckoning with them. And he 20
that received the five talents came and brought
other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst
unto me five talents: lo, I have gained other
five talents. His lord said unto him, Well done, 21
good and faithful 2 servant : thou hast been faith
ful over a few things, I "will set thee over many
things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And 22
he also that received the two talents came and
said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents :
lo, I have gained other two talents. His lord 23
said unto him, Well done, good and faithful
2 servant; thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will set thee over many things : enter
thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that 24
had received the one talent came and said, Lord,
I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping
where thou didst not sow, and gathering where

19. after a long time. In Luke, he had ' received a kingdom ',
and the reward is cities to govern, not merely things to manage
(xix. 15).
20. The two first slaves have boldness in the day of judgement
(1 John iv. 17, ii. 28). It is the holy unction which gives this
boldness before Him at His coming (1 John ii. 22). It is not the
merit of the works, but the Tightness of the heart with God.
After all it is only putting out the money to the bankers (v. 27)
that is required, the humble readiness to be used, and to let God
work in us to will and to do.
21. the joy of thy lord, is perhaps the Feast of Gladness :
a feast is called a joy in Hebrew (cf. Esther ix. 17; 2 Chron.
xxx. 23 ; Neh. xii. 27 ; Luke xii. 19). But the joy meant is
Christ's, that which He has, and gives (John xv. 11 ; Heb.
xii. 2).
24. This hard thought concerning the Lord is very common.
But the action which results from the thought is illogical (v. 27).

St. MATTHEW XXV. 25-31 225
2 5 thou didst not scatter: and I was afraid, and
went away and hid thy talent in the earth : lo,
26 thou hast thine own. But his lord answered
and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful
1 servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed ' Gr. bond-
t servant.
2 7 not, and gather where I did not scatter ; thou
oughtest therefore to have put my money to
the bankers, and at my coming I should have
28 received back mine own with interest. Take ye
away therefore the talent from him, and give it
29 unto him that hath the ten talents. For unto
every one that hath shall be given, and he shall
have abundance : but from him that hath not,
even that which he hath shall be taken away.
30 And cast ye out the unprofitable ! servant into
the outer darkness : there shall be the weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
31 But when the Son of man shall come in his
glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he

28. Here is a law illustrated everywhere in experience. The
capable and the trustworthy receive what the churlish, sluggish,
and incapable misuse. That the law holds in the world beyond,
is certainly implied, though it may only be part of the dressing of
the parable (Mark iv. 25 ; Luke xix. 25).
30. This verse seems an echo of xiii. 42, xxii. 13. It favours
the idea that ' the joy of the Lord' (ver. 21) is conceived as the
banquet-hall. 31-46. The Sheep and the Goats. This passage is not a
parable, but a definite and clear forecast of the judgement. The
separation of the sheep and the goats is only an illustration which
appears in ver. 32, 33 and disappears after. In Luke xiii. 25-8
there is a faint suggestion of this part of the chapter, as of the
earlier part ; but the whole is distinctively Matthew's. But for
the first evangelist we should have had little idea of the final
judgement. Most of the references in the New Testament to this
great event are evidently based upon this Logion of the Lord.
See especially Rom. ii. 16 ; Jas. ii. 13 ; * Thess. i. 7, ii. 1 ;
1 Cor. i. 8 ; 2 Cor. v. 10 ; Rev. xx. 12. It is peculiarly important,
Q

22:6 ST. MATTHEW XXV. 32-34
sit on the throne of his glory : and before him 3'
shall be gathered all the nations : and he shall
separate them one from another, as the shepherd
¦Gr. kids, separateth the sheep from the 1 goats: and he 33
shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the
1 goats on the left. Then shall the King say 34
unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed
therefore, to study closely this important prophecy. When
Jesus describes Himself as the Judge of the whole world, whose
word decides salvation or perdition (see John xi. 1-5 ; 2 Thess.
ii. 8), He leaves no doubt in our minds as to His claim to Divinity.
The judge of all the earth must be God.
31. This coming of the Son of Man has been already foretold
in xvi. 27, 28. The accompanying angels remind us of Zech.
xiv. 5 «aj ti£h Kipios i @e6s nov, Kai travTts oi ayioi ner airov
(LXX). See also Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; Dan. vii. 9, 10. It is pointed
out by Dr. Wright {Synopsis of the Gospels in Greek, p. 239) that
the sentences are arranged in the form of Hebrew poetry. He,
however, inclines to the view that the poetical form is due, not to
our Lord, but to the early Church, which speaking in psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs, versified the Lord's teaching about
the judgement, and the verse form was inserted in the Gospel
narrative. If this be so, we have here a more primitive Dies Irae,
as it was sung in the first age of Christianity.
32. all the nations. Commentators discuss whether the scene
describes the judgement of all mankind, or only that of the
disciples of Jesus. Wellhausen thinks that it is only the judgement
of disciples; the orthodox interpreters (and so Wendt) rather
incline to make it the judgement of all except the disciples I But
perhaps the solution of the difficulty is to be found in xxiv. 14 ;
the standpoint of this prophecy is, that the Gospel has now been
preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations,
and now all the nations are gathered for judgement.
33. Tristram and Fiirrer both remark that, while sheep and
goats often browse together, at the time of folding they separate
into two flocks of their own accord. The segregation of the last
judgement, on the principle of like to like, will perhaps be
automatic. 34. Jesus calls Himself King; and this is the more striking
when He is under the shadow of His approaching humiliation and
death. inherit. This is very beautiful. They who have a right
thereto acquire the theocracy as a possession (cf. 1 Cor. vi. 9,
xv. 50 ; Gal. v. 21), just as David received as a possession the
throne of an eternal sovereignty (1 Mace. ii. 57).

St. MATTHEW XXV. 35-42' 227
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
35 you from the foundation of the world : for I was
an hungred, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty,
and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye
36 took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me : I was
sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye
37 came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred,
and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink?
38 And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee
39 in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? And when
saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto
40 thee ? And the King shall answer and say unto
them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did
it unto one of these my brethren, even these
41 least, ye did it unto me. Then shall he say also
unto them on the left hand, 1 Depart from me, ye ' °£
cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for from me
r r under a
42 the devil and his angels : for I was an hungred, curse

from the foundation of the world : xiii. 35. This is what is
meant by the predestination to life ; they are notj individually
chosen to life, but the thought of God from the beginning looked
towards those who by such conduct would inherit such a reward.
35. For 'taking in' cf. Judges xix. 18.
36. The ministry is not always to release ; it is sometimes
only to sympathize. For Scriptural illustrations of the conduct
which is commended, see Exod. ii. n ; 1 Kings xvii. 10-15 ;
Jer. xxx. 7-13 ; Acts xvi. 15 ; 2 Tim. i. 16.
visited me. It is the verb which in the nominal form is
'bishop '. Is this the episcopal function in the thought of Jesus —
to visit the sick ?
39. We can only suppose that Christ regards all men as
brethren, and therefore all human service as done to Him. It is
thus quite intelligible that these philanthropists did not under
stand how they were serving Christ.
41. The people who have neglected their fellows are equally
amazed to find that they have neglected the King. As the good
served others without thought of Christ, these others would, as
Q 2

2 2& St. MATTHEW XXV. 43-46
and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye
gave me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took 43
me not in ; naked, and ye clothed me not ; sick,
and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then 44
shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw
we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister
unto thee ? Then shall he answer them, saying, 45
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not
unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me.
And these shall go away into eternal punishment : 46
but the righteous into eternal life.

sycophants, have done the like, if they had known that so power
ful a King was being served. This veiling of the ultimate
significance of actions is necessary, that their quality may be
revealed. 46. The form of judgement echoes Dan. xii. 2 (LXX). We
have seen how Jesus uses the language of punishment familiar to
His contemporaries (xiii. 42), and thus the old phraseology passed
into Christian teaching (2 Thess. i. 9).
But this is not an original element in the teaching of Christ,
and it is a mistake to lay stress on it as if it were. The meaning
of punishment is illustrated by the use of the same word x6\aais
in 1 John iv. 18. The word ' eternal ' does not fix the duration
of either the punishment or the life. It only means that both
punishment and life go on beyond this aeon ('world' as it is
usually translated), into the aeons (worlds) unknown.
The life eternal is a status to which men attain. In xviii. 18, it
means participation in the theocracy; the eternal punishment con
sists in missing the theocracy. The elements of originality and
revelation, therefore, in this prophecy, are not the judgement,
nor the separation of the good from the bad, nor the seonian
punishment and life ; all these occur in the Old Testament, and
are part of the familiar religious apparatus of the time, which
Jesus used, as always, in order to be intelligible to the men whom
He addressed ; but the elements of originality, the truth which
Jesus reveals to His disciples in the last days of His life, under
the shadow of the cross, lies in the conceptions of the theocracy,
the reign and righteousness of God, viz. : (1) that all actions of
men to men will be interpreted as actions done to Jesus, and
(2) that the judgement will turn upon the goodness or the neglect

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 1-5 229
26 And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished
2 all these words, he said unto his disciples, Ye
know that after two days the passover cometh,
and the Son of man is delivered up to be cruci-
3 fied. Then were gathered together the chief
priests, and the elders of the people, unto the
court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas ;
4 and they took counsel together that they might
5 take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. But they
said, Not during the feast, lest a tumult arise
among the people.

with which we treat our fellows. It is a pity that this all-important
teaching should be obscured by profitless discussions about the
eternity of future punishment.
Ch. xxvi. 1-56. Deserted.
This section presents us with the sorrowful speclacle of our
Lord, not only persecuted by the religious leaders of His people,
but betrayed by one, and deserted by all, of His own chosen
disciples. 1-16. In this dark night of betrayal and forsaking there is
a solitary ray of light ; it is the loyalty and love of a woman,
who stands in extraordinary contrast with the men whom Jesus
had loved and taught and trained. Her sweet tribute is grudged
by them. But the deed of love holds the future, and becomes
eternal as the Gospel itself.
1. these words, sc. the parabolic discourse concerning the end
of the world.
2. Here Matthew is much more full than the corresponding
passage in Mark (xiv. 1) and Luke (Luke xxii. 1, 2). He
introduces this final announcement of the approaching death.
Jesus Himself, as it were, announces that He is passing from the
Prophetical to the Priestly office. And the singular fact is
brought out that His voluntary sacrificial offering is accomplished
by the unconscious hands of the High Priest and his associates.
3. Caiaphas was, we learn from Josephus {Antiq. xviii. n. 2,
4- 3)) n,Sn priest for seventeen years.
5. We learn from Josephus also that there would be as many
as 2,700,000 people in Jerusalem at the time of Passover. As
many of these had heard, and been healed by, Jesus in Galilee,
there was great danger that an attack on Him might occasion
a serious e'meufe. Since the authorities themselves were under
the authority of the Romans, they sought their end by guile.

230 St. MATTHEW XXVI. 6-11
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house 6
of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman 7
' Or, having 1 an alabaster cruse of exceeding precious
a-flas ointment, and she poured it upon his head, as
he sat at meat. But when the disciples saw it, 8
they had indignation, saying, To what purpose
is this waste ? For this ointment might have been 9
sold for much, and given to the poor. But Jesus 10
perceiving it said unto them, Why trouble ye the
woman ? for she hath wrought a good work upon
me. For ye have the poor always with you ; but n

6-13. This paragraph carries us back four days, if the Fourth
Gospel may be taken to supplement and correct the Synoptics.
It was, according to John, six days before the Passover (xii. i) ;
but the previous discourse was two days before the Passover
(ver. 2). It is hardly necessary to think of two suppers and
two anointings, to evade the discrepancy : but the similar narra
tive in Luke vii. 36-40 must refer to another occasion.
Was Simon the man who was healed in Matt. viii. 1-4 ? And
did he in his gratitude wish to be known in the circle of disciples
as 'the Leper'? Lazarus who had been raised from the dead
was also a guest (John xii. 2).
7. The woman was Mary of Bethany, says John (xii. 3). The
' alabaster cruse of ointment ' was one of the five precious gifts
sent to the Ethiopian king by Cambyses (Herod, iii. 20). The
value is roughly estimated by the disciples at nine or ten pounds.
According to Mark, she broke the alabaster. In John she pours
it only on His feet.
8. John saves the reputation of the Twelve by saying that it
was only Judas Iscariot who grudged the gift (xii. 4), and Mark
avoids the charge by saying only ' certain persons '. But according
to Matthew the whole company of the Twelve was so prosaic,
so matter of fact, that they thought it mere sentimentality to waste
the ointment on the Lord's body, and felt virtuous in their anxiety
for the poor.
it. Jesus judges otherwise. He counts love to Him of more
value even than almsgiving. The poor would never cease out of
the land (Deut. xv. 11). His followers would have age-long
opportunity of ministering to them. But Mary interpreted the
best heart of the Church, and relieved the yearning of long
centuries by showing Him this costly honour ; though it was but
an unconscious preparation for burial.

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 12-17 231
" me ye have not always. For in that she * poured ' Gr- «*"•
this ointment upon my body, she did it to pre-
13 pare me for burial. Verily I say unto you, Where
soever "this gospel shall be preached in the sOr,M«<
whole world, [that also which this woman hath tidings
done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
r4 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas
Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said,
r5 What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver
him unto you? And they weighed unto him
16 thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he
sought opportunity to deliver him unto them.
*7 Now on the first day of unleavened bread the
disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where wilt thou
13. This prophecy is fulfilled. Chrysostom in his day pointed
it out by saying that even the people living in the distant British
Isles had heard of it. We now in this ultima Thule may say that
the people in the uttermost parts of the earth are hearing of the
deed of love.
14-16. Here the four evangelists are on common ground.
Matthew, however, brings out the fact that the traitor is influenced
by the love of money. That is the root of all kinds of evil, even
of the betrayal of Jesus.
15. Matthew alone specifies the thirty pieces of silver. And
as he uses the very unusual verb in the LXX, of Zech. xi. 12 —
a word which does not mean ' weighed ', but only ' placed ',
and that might mean 'promised'; probably the clause 'they
weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver ' is a quotation from the
prophet rather than a statement of fact. Thirty pieces of silver
(about £\ 10s.) is the price of a slave in the Law (Ex. xxi. 32) ;
but hardly enough to buy the potter's field. Judas, therefore, may
have received more than this paltry sum for his treachery.
17-19. The Betrayal and the Supper. The fact that the four
evangelists are on common ground in this passage makes
St. John's omission of the institution of the Eucharist most
impressive. In the choice of the room for the feast, Matthew is much briefer
than the others. The Synoptists all take the feast to be the
Paschal feast, eaten at sundown on what we should call Nisan, 14th ;
but as the Jewish day begins at sundown, it would be in Jewish
terminology the 15th. St. John deliberately corrects this view

232

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 18-24

'Or, Teacher

2 Many
authori
ties, some
ancient,omitdisciples.

that we make ready for thee to eat the passover ?
And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and 18
say unto him, The * Master saith, My time is at
hand ; I keep the passover at thy house with
my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus r9
appointed them ; and they made ready the pass-
over. Now when even was come, he was sitting 20
at meat with the twelve 2 disciples; and as they 21
were eating, he said, Verily I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me. And they were 22
exceeding sorrowful, and began to say unto him
every one, Is it I, Lord ? And he answered and 23
said, He that dipped his hand with me in the
dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man 24
goeth, even as it is written of him : but woe unto
that man through whom the Son of man is be-

and says that the Supper was on the preceding day, the Prepara
tion (John xix. 14). The sorrowful division of Christendom over
the question of the time of keeping Easter arises out of this
discrepancy. But the wise will pass it by. For the Passover see
Exod. xii. 15-17. The ancient Feast of Judaism, which com
memorated the escape from Egyptian bondage, is transformed into
the Feast of Christendom, which commemorates the death of
Christ as the ransom from sin.
21. In one breath the traitor is denounced, and the beautiful
rite which is the pledge of saving grace is instituted.
23. He that dipped. The dish is perhaps the vinegar vessel
in which the bitter herbs were soaked. Furrer's description of a
meal in the East illustrates the point : ' Before us stood two
plates, one with strongly-spiced maccaroni, the other with a dish
of fine-cut leeks and onions. Spoons there were none. There
were four of us who dipped into the same dish.' ' He that dipped '
would not, therefore, specify Judas, but would only show that it
was one of the three who sat nearest to Him. Hence Judas puts
the question with the rest, and receives the direct answer,
ver. 25.
24. The woe pronounced on the traitor is not favourable to the
view that all will finally be saved. If a man is saved at the long
last, whatever he has passed through, it is good for him that he
was born.

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 25-28 ?33
trayed ! good were it * for that man if he had not > Gr. for
25 been born. And Judas, which betrayed him, JUS man.
answered and said, Is it I, Rabbi? He saith z?r.^
' a loaf
26 unto him, Thou hast said. And as they were 3 some
eating, Jesus took 2 bread, and blessed, and brake amhori-
it ; and he gave to the disciples, and said, Take, Jj^J^f
27 eat ; this is my body. And he took * a cup, and ' °r. the
, , r testament
gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye » Many
28 all of it ; for this is my blood of 4 the 5 covenant, aSth"'
which is shed for many unto remission of sins.

on-
ties insert
new.

' 26. All through His time with the disciples He had taken the
bread, and blessed and broken (Luke xxiv. 30-5), sometimes
feeding vast multitudes. Now He does it for the last time, and
gives to it a permanent significance by making the bread the
symbol of His body which was to be broken, and the wine of His
blood which was to be shed.
Happy is he who can slip past all the controversies and the
perversions and the superstitions, and sit down at the Table again
with the Lord, doing it in remembrance of Him.
this is my body. The copula is that of symbolical significance,
as when Jesus says ' I am the vine ', or ' I am the door '. When
we come to the words afresh, reading the narrative with our own
eyes, we cannot make any mistake about the meaning. The dull
and painful literalism out of which the error has grown belongs to
the past. To avoid it, and to save us from it, St. John entirely
omitted the words which led to the misunderstanding, and taught
the truth in another way, by recording the early discourse on the
Bread of Life (vi. 48-58).
27. gave thanks, i. e. eucharistesas, from which the Eucharist is
derived. 28. the covenant. The word is from Exod. xxiv. 8. It is the
covenant of pardon between sinful men and a pardoning God.
The Latin translation of the Hebrew or Greek word was testa-
mentum, which also means a will. As dying men make wills, the
covenant of Jesus on the eve of His death was naturally regarded
as a last will or testament. But the covenant idea is the central
and most important one.
for . . . remission of sins. Neither in Mark nor Luke nor Paul
(i Cor. xi. 23-5). It interprets the blood-shedding of Jesus for us
(Mark i. 4 ; Luke i. 77). From the first, believers recognized that
the death on the cross was the ground of the pardon of sin to all
who believe,

234 St. MATTHEW XXVI. 29-35
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth 29
of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I
drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.
And when they had sung a hymn, they went 30
out unto the mount of Olives. *
Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be 31
1 Gr. J offended in me this night : for it is written, I
caused to .
stumble, will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the
flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am 3 a
raised up, I will go before you into Galilee. But 33
Peter answered and said unto him, If all shall
be ' offended in thee, I will never be 1 offended.
Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that 34
this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny
me thrice. Peter saith unto him, Even if I must 35
die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise
also said all the disciples.
29. In this announcement, slightly varied in Luke xxii. 18, the
stress is not on the drinking in the Kingdom of God, a point
omitted by Luke, but only on the fact that He will not drink with
them again here.
30. a hymn. At the Paschal feast the great Hallel is sung
(Ps. cxv-cxviii). In Luke and John we gather that the prophecy
of Peter's denial came before leaving the room.
31-5. All will desert Him ; and all do (ver. 56). Peter is
CONFIDENT THAT HE WILL NOT ; BUT HE DOES (ver. 75).
The prophecy is in Zech. xiii. 7 (LXX). The Lord has in mind
the succeeding clause: ' I will turn my hand upon the little ones,'
and applies it in the promise : ' I will go before you,' the Shep
herd still leading his sheep after He has been smitten (Grotius).
It is the promise of the initial organization of the Church ; the
scattered sheep will be gathered again, and though they were
offended in Him, that stone of stumbling and rock of offence will
become to them the rock of refuge and the sure foundation.
34. In all four evangelists the striking saying is recorded. This
reference to the cock crowing is characteristic of the manner of
Jesus. He says things in a way that no one can forget.
35. Likewise. All did not say exactly the same. It was Peter's
characteristic to be emphatic and individual.

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 36-42 235
36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto ' a place > Gr. an
called Gethsemane, and saith unto his disciples, f&Jof
37 Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray. And eround-
he took with him Peter and the two sons of
Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and sore
38 troubled. Then saith he unto them, My soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death : abide ye
39 here, and watch with me. And he went forward
a little, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying,
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
away from me : nevertheless, not as I will, but
40 as thou wilt. And he cometh untcnthe disciples,
and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter,
What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 2Qr
41 * Watch and pray, that ye enter not into tempta- w'^
tion : the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is pray that
1 . ° ye enter
42 weak. Again a second time he went away, and not
36-46. The Agony in the Garden. The word agony, in
Greek, which has been selected to describe this passage of the
Lord's work, is only found once in the New Testament, viz. in
some MSS. of Luke xxii. 44. The scene is omitted by John ; and
yet the idea is suggested in two passages (xii. 27 ft". and xviii. n).
36. Gethsemane, 'oil-garden,' was an olive-grove with an oil-
mill, where quiet could be obtained, in the valley or on the hill-
si"de between Jerusalem and Bethany.
37. sorrowful and sore troubled. The second word is of uncertain
meaning. It is used in Phil. ii. 26. Mark has it, and in place of
' sorrowful ', a word descriptive of intense amazement or even
terror. 38. He seeks the sympathy of his own (John xii. 27), but they
cannot understand. This horror of great darkness is inexplicable
to any but Himself. It is the Sinless one, made sin for us, and
bearing the sin of the world.
40. His disciples could not watch with Him. They heard the
bitter cry and reported it, but at the time they did not understand.
42. a second time. If only Luke xxii. 44 were supported by all
our MSS. we should know that the prayer increased in intensity,
and the drops of blood fell from His brow. But from our text we
know that He recognized the impossibility of the cup passing. It
should be ' since this cannot pass '.

236 St. MATTHEW XXVI. 43-50
prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cannot pass
away, except I drink it, thy will be done. And 43
he came again and found them sleeping, for their
eyes were heavy. And he left them again, and 44
went away, and prayed a third time, saying again
the same words. Then cometh he to the disciples, 45
and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take
your rest : behold, the hour is at hand, and the
Son of man is betrayed unto the hands of sinners.
Arise, let us be going : behold, he is at hand 46
that betrayeth me.
And while, he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the 47
twelve, came, and with him a great multitude
with swords and staves, from the chief priests
and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed 48
him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I
shall kiss, that is he : take him. And straight- 49
kissed way he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Rabbi;
muck. and 1 kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, 50
45. As they could not keep awake and help Him at the critical
moment, the opportunity had gone by for ever. He had trodden
the wine-press alone, and He came out victorious, unaided. The
traitor supervenes on the dull and lethargic friends who were
faithful. The Lord is thrown from the hands of apathy and incom
prehension to those of positive malignity and treachery.
47-56. The" Traitor and the Fugitives.
47. one of the twelve. The designation introduced here echoes
the undying amazement and sorrow of the Church, that one of
His own should have betrayed Him. It is inserted in all the
Synoptists. The ' multitude ' is more specifically described by John (xviii. 3)
as a band of Roman soldiers, and the temple guards or police
sent by the priests. Though it was full moon they brought lan
terns. Though Jesus was unarmed they brought arms.
48. Judas had determined to indicate his Master by a kiss,
which has become proverbial for heartless hypocrisy.
49. he . . . kissed him. A strengthened form of the simple word
is used ; 'he kissed Him, as it were, effusively.'

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 51-56 237
Friend, do that for which thou art come. Then
they came and laid hands on Jesus, and took
51 him. And behold, one of them that were with
Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword,
and smote the Servant of the high priest, and ' Gr. bond-
52 struck off his ear. Then saith Jesus unto him,
Put up again thy sword into its place : for all
they that take the sword shall perish with the
53 sword. Or thinkest thou that I cannot beseech
my Father, and he shall even now send me more
54 than twelve legions of angels ? How then should
the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be ?
55 In that hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are
ye come out as against a robber with swords and
staves to seize me? I sat daily in the temple
56 teaching, and ye took me not. But all this is
come to pass, that the scriptures of the prophets

50. In Luke it is ' betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss ? '
but this is far more dignified and wonderful : ' comrade, that for
which you have come ' — and He breaks off. The R.V. supplies
' do '. It might be ' this, then, is what you have come for ' — to give
a hypocritical kiss.
51. All four mention the episode of the ear. Luke also says
that He healed the wounded man, who, according to John, was
Malchus. 52-4. Peculiar to Matthew. We would not willingly lose these
words of the Lord in the hour of His sacrifice. He forbids the use
of the sword, showing that Luke xxii. 13 ff. was spoken ironically
or metaphorically. He does not sanction the violence of war, even
in His own defence. If He was mastered by this troop of soldiers
and police it was because He followed His Father's will. He could
at a word summon twelve panoplied legions of the heavenly
hosts to his rescue. But He was here to suffer as the Scriptures
said, to be led as a dumb sheep to the slaughter (Isa. liii.).
55. He was indignant that they came to Him with force, and
that they imagined He was hiding from them. He had been in
their midst, and at any time they could have arrested Him.
56. The scripture in his mind was still Zech. xiii. 7. He was
the shepherd whom the Lord would smite, and the sheep would

238 St: MATTHEW XXVI. 57
might he fulfilled. Then all the disciples left
him, and fled.
And they that had taken Jesus led him away 57
be scattered, though He would turn His hand to the little ones.
This was the hour of the enemy and the power of darkness
(Luke xxii. 53).
Then all the disciples left Him and fled. Cowards ? Yes, and
ill-taught disciples at the best. And to think that these men, only
one degree better than the traitor, were presently to be the
evangelists of the world's new hope, and the witnesses of their
Lord, faithful unto death ; this more than anything else reveals
the nature of that suffering to which now He went.
Ch. xxvi. 57 — xxvii. 26. The Trial and Condemnation
of the Lord.
The trial : in it there were five processes, as recorded by the
four evangelists, viz. (1) An informal inquiry before the ex-high
priest Annas (Hanan), recorded in John, because John was
present ; (2) the preliminary inquiry (AvaKpiois) before Caiaphas ;
(3) the formal proceedings before the Sanhedrim, when day had
dawned ; (4) the reference to Pilate, to pass the sentence of
death, which the Jews under the Roman government had no
independent authority to execute ; (5) a reference to Herod by the
wish of Pilate, mentioned only by Luke.
Matthew only gives us the preliminary inquiry before the dawn,
and the scene before Pilate. The narrative presents three signi
ficant episodes : (1) Peter's denial ; (2) the end of Judas ; (3)
Barabbas preferred to Jesus. We are more concerned to read the
lesson of Matthew than to get a harmonistic account of the trial.
We see, then, how our Lord is first condemned by the High Priest
for blasphemy, while His chief disciple denied that He knew Him ;
then His innocence produces the remorse of Judas the traitor;
then Pilate, representing the Roman power, is drawn into the
condemnation of the Lord, and Jew and Gentile agree to value a
robber and a murderer before Him. The trial, in a word, is the
plain statement of the Divine origin and mission of Jesus, and of
the all but universal repudiation and rejection with which His own
received Him. There is no apparent art in the narrative, but
every detail seems to bring out the venomous and malignant sin of
the world which slew the incarnate Son.
57-75. Caiaphas and Peter.
The high priest's house was probably the ' Booths of Hanan ',
which had been built by Annas on the Mount of Olives : and most
likely Caiaphas, the son-in-law of Annas, lived with Annas there,
so that- the examination before Annas, and the more formal
preliminary inquiry were under the same roof.

sane-

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 5J-63 239
to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where
the scribes and the elders were gathered together,
58 But Peter followed him afar off, unto the court
of the high priest, and entered in, and sat with
J9 the officers, to see the end. Now the chief priests
and the whole council sought false witness against
60 Jesus, that they might put him to death ; and
they found it not, though many false witnesses
61 came. But afterward came two, and said, This
man said, I am able to destroy the 1 temple of ' °£ «
62 God, and to build it in three days. And the a?in ...
. , . ch. xxiii.
high priest stood up, and said unto him, Answer- 35;..
est thou nothing ? what is it which these witness
63 against thee ? But Jesus held his peace. And

57. the scribes and the elders. Twenty-three formed a quorum
for the.Sanhedrim ; but for the previous inquiry and formulation of
the case a smaller committee would suffice.
58. Peter was just hero enough to run into temptation, but was
not yet converted and strengthened enough to resist it.
to see the end. In Mark and John it is said he was ' warming
himself. Matthew omits this, says Wellhausen, as too human.
But the real reason why Peter ventured into the dangerous place
was that he loved his Lord ; he must see the end.
59. sought false witness. Mark only says they sought witness,
and the witnesses were false. In any case, it was a foregone
conclusion, and the judges were the prosecutors. There was no
attempt at justice, still less at impartiality.
61. The two witnesses had got hold of something which He
had actually said ; but how inexactly they had got it is shown
by this, that the words in Mark (xiv. 58) differ from the words
here (see also xxvii. 40 ; Mark xv. 29 ; and John ii. 19). It was
a remark which He had made in the earliest days of His ministry.
They had nothing later to bring against Him. It is clear also that
the authorities well understood the saying as a forecast of His own
resurrection, and not as a threat against the Temple ; for it was
on this saying alone that they relied in demanding a watch for the
tomb, ver. 64.
62. But this loose charge could not prove guilt. Jesus, who
had spoken freely before Annas (as John shows, xviii. 12-24), was
silent before the legal tribunal.

240 St. MATTHEW XXVI. 64-66
the high priest said unto him, I adjure thee by
the living God, that thou tell us whether thou
be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto 64
him, Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto
you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man
sitting at the right hand of power, and coming
on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest 65
rent his garments, saying, He hath spoken blas
phemy : what further need have we of witnesses ?
behold, now ye have heard the blasphemy : what
think ye? They answered and said, He is 66

63. The silence forced the High Priest to the unusual course of
adjuring the prisoner. From Lev. v. 1 it seems that the adjuration
required an answer. Besides, the time had come for Jesus to
say simply, once for all, who He was. Is He Messias, is He Son
of God ? In John xix. 7, the charge of blasphemy is based on this.
64. Thou hast said is equivalent to the ' I am ' of Mark xiv.
61. nevertheless — the Greek conjunction it\t)v ; the adversative seems
to be- justified by the phrase ' thou hast said ' ; Caiaphas has used
the words ' thou art Christ, the Son of God ', though only in
interrogation ; ' I say unto you ' something even more : ' never
theless' is too strong; better 'thou hast said, only I say, &c.'
The same conjunction in Matt. xi. 22, 24. He emphasizes his
first statement with a second of deeper significance (Dalman).
Henceforth. In Luke 'from now' (xxii. 69) ; so Matt, xxiii.
39, xxvi. 29. Mark omits. The manifestation of His power
begins from the Cross. The two phrases describing His glory
are from Ps. ex. 1 and Dan. vii. 13 (LXX).
65. Jesus had just given the High Priest the ground of accusa
tion which he wanted. The trial would have broken down
altogether, had not Jesus played into the hands of the enemy.
But He was bound to do this. He had come to bear witness of
the truth, and now He must avow the Divine origin which was to
be the stumblingblock to the Jew.
The rending of the garments expresses indignation ; according
to Rabbinical directions all the garments were to be rent, though
there were ten. Lev. xxiv. 16 pronounces death on a blasphemer.
The anomaly is that the nation which expected Messias should
treat the Messias as blasphemous for announcing His mission.
This was prejudice. The national expectation had gone so far
astray that it could not hail any but a pseudo-messias.

rods

St. MATTHEW XXVI. 67-74 241
67 > worthy of death. Then did they spit in his ' ?[;
, ,, ' r liable to.
tace and buflet him : and some smote him a with ' Or, with
68 the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy
unto us, thou Christ: who is he that struck
thee?
69 Now Peter was sitting without in the court :
and a maid came unto him, saying, Thou also
70 wast with Jesus the Galilaean. But he denied
before them all, saying, I know not what thou
71 sayest. And when he was gone out into the
porch, another maid saw him, and saith unto
them that were there, This man also was with
72 Jesus the Nazarene. And again he denied with
73 an oath, I know not the man. And after a little
while they that stood by came and said to Peter,
Of a truth thou also art one of them ; for thy
74 speech bewrayeth thee. Then began he to curse

67. Luke says that the attendants indulged in these outrages ;
Mark divides them between the attendants and the Sanhedrists ;
Matthew implies that all were the act of the Sanhedrists them
selves. Here were a dozen or so of the grave elders, priests, and
doctors of the Law, spitting at Jesus and slapping Him, in an
outbreak of devilish passion. And the cry ' prophesy unto us '
has an awful irony in it, when the fact is grasped that they were
speaking to the eternal Son, and the Judge of all the world, ' Who
is it that struck Thee ? ' He will know ; it is all recorded and
remembered. 68. thou Christ. Ironical.
69. Jesus the Galilaan. Here, but in ver. 71 the Nazarene. It
is possible that Nazarene was equivalent to Galilaean. The whole
region may have been 'the land of Nesar', cf. Gen-nesar-eth.
Jesus the Nazarene is a title which was early adopted (xxi. 11,
Acts x. 38). Cf. Julian : ' Nazarene, thou hast conquered.'
73. The speech of Galilee was more guttural, and substituted
I for s. Jesus Himself would speak the Galilaean dialect (Dalman,
Words of Jesus, p. 81).
74. In Mark xiv. 72, the cock crows twice.
R

242 St. MATTHEW XXVI. 75— XXVII. 4
and to swear, I know not the man. And straight
way the cock crew. And Peter remembered the 75
word which Jesus had said, Before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out,
and wept bitterly.
Now when' morning was come, all the chief 27
priests and the elders of the people took counsel
against Jesus to put him to death : and they 2
bound him, and led him away, and delivered
him up to Pilate the governor.
Then Judas, which betrayed him, when he 3
saw that he was condemned, repented himself,
1 Many and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to
authori- the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned 4
r%hle%us. in that I betrayed 1 innocent blood. But they

75. Only Luke gives the exquisite touch, that Jesus smote the
conscience of Peter by looking at him (xxii. 61).
the word which Jesus had said (ver. 34).
wept bitterly. Dr. Wright thinks that the ' bitterly ' is only the
translation of Mark's imf}ah4iv, the meaning of which is uncertain :
translated by the revisers ' when he thought thereon ' ; it might
mean ' fell to weeping '.
Ch. xxvii. 1-10. The Remorse of Judas.
1. morning. The Law required that a death sentence should
only be passed by day, and after a second meeting of the
Sanhedrim. The Roman government forbade all death sentences
without the consent of the Procurator.
2. governor. The general word -hyepiiv is used here and
in Acts for a Roman procurator or proconsul. The procurator
lived at Caesarea, but came to Jerusalem with his troops for the
Passover. Pilate is a weak and unprincipled representative of the
Roman authority, a typical ' unjust judge'.
3. Only Matthew tells the remorse of Judas, though Luke
mentions his suicide in Acts i. 18.
repented. Did he think that Jesus would miraculously escape ?.
Was his intention to furnish the Lord with an opportunity of
manifesting His power? The self-deceit of the human heart
is limitless.
4. His confession that Jesus was innocent is most valuable.
The horror at finding the chief priests and elders callous and

St. MATTHEW XXVII. 5-10 243
5 said, What is that to us ? see thou to it. And he
cast down the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, ¦ Gr.
and departed ; and he went away and hanged SalT"'
6 himself. And the chief priests took the pieces sJZ'urV.
of silver, and said, It is not lawful to put them u£$V£
into the * treasury, since it is the price of blood. j1,
7 And they took counsel, and bought with them through
8 the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Where- /?«£*
fore that field was called, The field of blood, ">•
7 whom
9 unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which they
¦¦ priced
was spoken 2by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, on the
And 3they took the thirty pieces of silver, the the sons
.. . , _ . of Israel
price of him that was priced, * whom certain of the > Some
10 children of Israel did price ; and 6 they gave them authori
for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. 1%^

unprincipled murderers would exasperate his remorse. 'What,
have I betrayed my guiltless Lordj for these 1 '
5. the sanctuary. The Holy Place itself. He had got rid of
the cursed money. It stung and burnt him. He hanged himself ;
Luke's description is more detailed in Acts i. 18, and not easy to
harmonize with our account here.
6. Thescruplesofthesemurderouspriestsarefine. Thetreasury,
called here Corban (see Mark vii, n and Josephus, B. I. ii. 9. 4).
8. The field of blood, because it was bought with the price of
blood, or because Judas died there ?
9. Matthew in his manner connects the event with a prophetic
passage in Zech. xi. 13, which in the LXX reads, 'And I took the
thirty pieces of silver and cast them into the house of the Lord,
intothesmeltingfurnace.' In the Hebrew, ' And the Lord said unto
me, Cast it unto the potter (or Syriac 'into the treasury'), the
goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty
pieces of silver and cast them unto the potter, in the house of the
Lord.' The low value of the Lord's messenger is the point of
similarity between the experience of the ancient prophet and
Judas's betrayal of Jesus. We cannot, however, build up an
argument on the fulfilment of this ancient prophecy, because we
do not know how far the evangelist, on whose sole testimony the
passage before us rests, was influenced by the prophetic word in
his record of the event. The ascription of the prophecy to
Jeremiah is a slip, unless the latter part of the Book of Zechariah
R 2

244 St. MATTHEW XXVII. 11-18
Now Jesus stood before the governor; and u
the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the
King of the Jews ? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou sayest. And when he was accused by the 12
chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Then saith Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not 13
how many things they witness against thee?
And he gave him no answer, not even to one 14
word : insomuch that the governor marvelled
'°.r> greatly. Now at xthe feast the governor was 15
wont to release unto the multitude one prisoner,
whom they would. And they had then a notable 16
prisoner, called Barabbas. When therefore they 17
were gathered together, Pilate said unto them,
Whom will ye that I release unto you ? Barab
bas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he 18
knew that for envy they had delivered him up.
is actually Jeremiah's. It is to be noted, Matthew makes ' I took '
into ' they took ' ; in the Greek, (Ka/Sov might be either. And he
introduces 'the children of Israel', which is not in Zechariah,
to fix the guilt of Christ's death on the whole nation.
11-26. Barabbas preferred to Christ. In Josephus {Antiq.
xx. 9. 1) the high priest was considered to have acted illegally
in assembling the Sanhedrim to condemn ' James the Just '
without the consent of the Roman authorities. Here the high
priests are most anxious to keep within the law, both of the
Jews and of the Romans.
12. The silence of Jesus fixed Pilate's attention on the Silent
One. He saw that this was no dangerous political leader ;
though the accusers had changed the ' Christ ' (xxvi. 63) into
' King of the Jews ' to rouse the alarm of the governor.
15. The custom of releasing a prisoner at the feast is not else
where known. But Pilate fatuously thought that this custom
afforded him a good opportunity of releasing a prisoner, who was
evidently the victim of envy, innocent of any breach of the law.
16. Barabbas in Syra S. is called Jesus Barabbas. The
authority is doubtful, but the same name brings home the choice ;
Jesus Barabbas or Jesus Christ ?
18, which is called Christ, i. e. surnamed (cf. i. 16, iv. 18, x, 2),

St. MATTHEW XXVII. 19-26 245
19 And while he was sitting on the judgement-seat,
his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing
to do with that righteous man : for I have suffered
many things this day in a dream because of him.
20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded
the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas,
21 and destroy Jesus. But the governor answered
and said unto them, Whether of the twain will
ye that I release unto you? And they said,
22 Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What then
shall I do unto Jesus which is called Christ?
23 They all say, Let him be crucified. And he
said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they
cried out exceedingly, saying, Let him be cruci-
24 fied. So when Pilate saw that he prevailed
nothing, but rather that a tumult was arising,
he took water, and washed his hands before the
multitude, saying, I am innocent 'of the blood 'Some
' J ° ancient
25 of this righteous man : see ye to it. And all the authori-
0 ... ties read
people answered and said, His blood be on us, of this
blood: see
26 and on our children. 1 hen released he unto ye $c.

19. Only Matthew tells the dream of Pilate's wife. We know
that Governors took their wives into the provinces since the time
of Augustus, because Tacitus records a protest against the practice
(Tac, Ann. iii. 3, 4). It was an early morning dream ; and it
affected the superstitious Roman ; he makes several feeble efforts
to allay the enmity against Jesus. And when in his weak
ness he yields, he washes his hands in public to disclaim respon
sibility. 24. This also is only told by Matthew. The handwashing is
illustrated by Deut. xxi. 6, 7 and Ps. xxvi. 6. Every one saw his
intention. And the multitude, led by their priests, gladly accepted
the responsibility. After all, the guilt of Pilate was secondary, as
Jesus shows (John xix. 11). The guilt was on the Jews.
25. His blood seems to be on the head of them and of their
children to this day.

S46 St. MATTHEW XXVII. 27-29
them Barabbas: but Jesus he scourged and
delivered to be crucified.
ionium."' Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus a 7
see Mark int0 ^ 1 paiacej an(j gathered unto him the
'cohort whole ! band. And they ' stripped him, and put 28
s Some on him a scarlet robe. And they plaited a crown
aSthori- of thorns and put it upon his head, and a reed 29
'/sSd in his right hand ; and they kneeled down before
26. scourged. It was the barbarous custom of the Romans to
scourge before crucifying (Josephus, B. I. v. 11. 1).
Ch. xxvii. 27-56. The Sacrifice.
The mysterious self-offering of Jesus is presented by Matthew
in four scenes. In the Praetorium, the crown of thorns (ver. 27-31) ;
Golgotha (ver. 32-7) ; the railing of passers-by, priests, and
thieves (ver. 38-44) ; the voice from the Cross : the Son of God
(ver. 45-54). And then we are told how women were the
spectators of the scene (ver. 55-6).
It may be impossible to isolate this narrative from those of the
other three evangelists. The seven words from the cross (here
we have only one), the repentance of the one malefactor, and
many other details, form integral parts of the great transaction.
But it is well to see it all with Matthew's eyes, and with his only
for a while. From the derision of the soldiers to the sympathetic
watching of the women, it forms a noble and complete passage.
27-31. The Praetorium and the Crown of Thorns. Matthew
omits the description of the scourging, that appalling brutality of
Roman criminal procedure, under which the sufferer often fainted
and sometimes died. He alone mentions the reed in the Lord's
hand as a mock sceptre.
27. The Praetorium, which meant originally the general's tent
in the camp, was the official residence of the procurator in
Jerusalem. The ' band ' would hardly be the cohort, but the
maniple, consisting of 200 men.
28. The cloak would be a soldier's sagum ; but, as the purple
colour is emphasized both here (Mark xv. 17) and in John (xix. 2),
it may have been a cast-off general's cloak. They saluted Him as
their imperator !
29. The thorns were not meant to wound the head ; but the
common brier of the roadside chanced to be thorny. It is the
imagination of later art which makes the thorns tear His brow and
pour down drops of blood. The soldiers intended mockery, not
torture. Philo mentions how the youth of Alexandria hailed
the half-witted Karabas as King of the Jews, intending an insult
to Herod Agrippa.

St. MATTHEW XXVII. 30-34 247
him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the
30 Jews ! And they spat upon him, and took the
31 reed and smote him on the head. And when
they had mocked him, they took off from him
the robe, and put on him his garments, and led
him away to crucify him.
32 And as they came out, they found a man of
Cyrene, Simon by name: him they J compelled ",Gr-''^"
to go with them, that he might bear his cross.
33 And when they were come unto a place called
Golgotha, that is to say, The place of a skull,
34 they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall :
and when he had tasted it, he would not drink.
30. In the Gospel of St. Peter, they spit into His eyes, and
slap His cheeks.
31. Is it implied thatthescornful crown wasleftonthesacredhead?
32-7. Golgotha. The Aramaic MnWa , translated into Latin
calvarium. The spot took the name perhaps from the bare
rounded appearance of the rock ; and this led General Gordon to
seek the site in the hill with scarped face, and two caves like
eye-sockets, outside the Damascus Gate. As the caves, however,
are more recent, and the resemblance to a skull is somewhat
fanciful, there is no reason to discredit the traditional site of
Calvary and the tomb, which, though within the walls of the
modern city, was outside the walls in the days of Jesus.
It was but a short distance, along what is now called the
Via Dolorosa, from the Praetorium (the remains of the pave
ment are now laid bare) to the place of execution ; but the
soldiers would not touch the cross, and requisitioned a passer-by,
an African Jew ; his sons were apparently converted lo Christ
(Mark xv. 21 ; Rom. xvi. 13). John, however, makes a point of
the fact that Jesus carried the cross Himself outside the city
gate (xix. 17). Matthew does not emphasize the fact that the
crucifixion was without the walls, which is singular, considering
the Old Testament analogies (Num. xv. 35 ; 1 Kings xxi. 23)
and the New Testament symbolism (Heb. xiii. 11).
34. It is also surprising that Matthew fails to point out how the
wine and gall fulfilled Ps. lxix. 21, and the parting of the garments
(Ps. xxii. 18).
The wine mingled with gall (taken from LXX, Ps. lxix. 21,
though Nestle suggests a confusion between mo ' gall ' and mi»

248 St. MATTHEW XXVII. 35-40
And when they had crucified him, they parted 35
his garments among them, casting lots : and they 36
sat and watched him there. And they set up 37
over his head his accusation written, this is
jesus the king of the jews. Then are there 38
crucified with him two robbers, one on the right
hand, and one on the left. And they that passed 39
by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying,
1 Or, sane- Thou that destroyest the 1 temple, and buildest 40
it in three days, save thyself : if thou art the Son
' myrrh ') or with myrrh (Mark xv. 23) was offered as a narcotic.
It would be very nasty to drink. He refused it.
35. Matthew hurries over the terrible fact of the crucifying in
a participle. But this fact fills and makes the Gospel. It is,. well to
trace the death of Jesus through the New Testament : 1 Thess. ii. 15,
iv. 14 ; 1 Cor. viii. 11 ; Rom. viii. 34, xiv. 9 ; Rev. i. 18, ii. 8 ; 1 Pet.
iv. 1 ; Acts i. 3, iii. 15, xvii. 3. The cross is mentioned 1 Cor. i. 17,
23; ii. 2, 8 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 4 ; Gal. ii. 20; iii. 1, 13; v. 11, vi. 12;
Phil. ii. 8 ; iii. 18 ; Col. i. 20, ii. 14 ; Eph. ii. 16 ; Heb. xii. a ;
1 Pet. ii. 24 ; Acts ii. 36, iv. 10, v. 30, x. 39, xiii. 29, Rev. xi. 8.
The virtue of our Lord's death runs all through the New Testa
ment : 1 Thess. v. 10 ; 1 Cor. i. 30, xv. 3 ; 2 Cor. v. 14, 18 ;
Gal. i. 4, ii. 20, iii. 13 ; Rom. iii. 24, iv. 25, v. 10, 19 ; viii. 32,
xiv. 15 ; Col. i. 14, ii. 20 ; Eph. i. 7 ; ii. 16, v. 2, 25 ; 1 Tim. i. 15 ;
Tit. ii. 14 ; Heb. i. 3, ii. 9, 14 ; ix. 26, x. 12 ; Rev. i. 5 ; v. 9, 12 ;
xiii. 8 ; 1 Pet. i. 2, 18 ; ii. 21, iii. 18 ; Acts viii. 32, xx. 28.
37. The accusation was simply 'The King of the Jews'
(Mark xv. 26) ; the slight additions in the other three gospels
serve to remind us how unimportant a verbal exactitude is. It
was the only accusation that could be brought against Him, but
even this was unfounded. As He explained to Pilate, He only
claimed to be king in a spiritual sense, as a witness of truth. His
kingship did not interfere with the Roman Government. It is
true that He never was king of the Jews. They would not have
Him to reign over them ; they will not yet. But in the sense
in which He understood kingship, He was and is increasingly
King of men.
38-44. The Railing. This comes from the passers-by, who
represented the world at large ; the Priests, who represent
Judaism ; (the soldiers, mentioned by Luke xxiii. 36, who repre
sent Rome) ; and the thieves, who represent fallen humanity.
Happily we know from St. Luke that of this last element half turn
to Him and believe.

St. MATTHEW XXVII. 41-45 249
41 of Gqd, come down from the cross. In like
manner also the chief priests mocking him, with
42 the scribes and elders, said, He saved others ;
1 himself he cannot save. He is the Kins of ' °r, can
tiii. 1 r , ° henol
Israel ; let him now come down from the cross, save Aim-
43 and we will believe on him. He trusteth on God ; "'''
let him deliver him now, if he desireth him : for
44 he said, I am the Son of God. And the robbers
also that were crucified with him cast upon him
the same reproach.
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness i Or
over all the "land until the ninth hour. And earth

40. This heartless raillery against a fellow creature dying in
anguish is almost incredible to the modern world. We do not
detect in ourselves even a tendency to cruelty of this savage
kind. Why ? His cross has changed us. The saying for which
He was condemned (xxvi. 61) is in every one's mouth. It was
distorted and misrepresented. But the charge, that He made
Himself the Son of God, was true enough. How conclusive their
argument was to themselves 1 A Son of God would save Him
self! The world was to learn from this very scene that a Son
of God seeks to save others ; and so far the charge of the
chief priests, scribes, and elders is justified. He could not save
Himself, consistently with saving the world.
41. The words of these rabbis exactly fulfil Ps. xx. 8, and so
witness that Jesus is the suffering Messias.
42. Would they have believed if He had come down from the
Cross? Yes, but what would they have believed? Not the
Saviour, for He would have declined His task. They would
only believe a Saviour, on condition that He ceased to save !
43. The quotation from Ps. xxii. 8 is only given by Matthew,
who was struck by the remarkable fulfilment of the Psalm in the
action of the priests. Did evangelist or priests remember Wisdom
ii. 16, where the wicked deride the righteous man thus : ' He
vaunteth that God is his father. Let us see if his words be true,
and let us try what shall befall in the ending of his life. For if the
righteous man is God's son, He will uphold him, and He will
deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries.'
Matthew alone recalls the scene in the trial (xxvi. 63, 64) in
which Jesus said that He was the Son of God.
45-54- The Voice from the Cross : the Son of God dies.
45. The three Synoptics all state that at noon darkness came

2 So St. MATTHEW XXVII. 47-49
about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud
voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabaehthani? that
is, My God, my God, 1 why hast thou forsaken
diJstaiu me ? And some of them that stood there, when 47
meT ' they heard it, said, This man calleth Elijah.
And straightway one of them ran, and took a 48
sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on
a reed, and gave him to drink. And the rest 49

on. The Gospel of St. Peter adds the quaint remark, that the
Jews feared the sun had set, and the Law forbad the sun to set
on a slain criminal. So habitual is the triviality of the human
mind, regarding punctilios of human law, when Heaven is pro
testing against the worst of sins.
The same fragment of St. Peter's Gospel rightly interprets 'all
the land' as Judaea. It was a local darkness, not caused by
eclipse, but by the death of God's only begotten Son. The dark
ness lasted from noon till the time of the offering of the evening
sacrifice. 46. This is the only one of the seven sayings from the cross
recorded by Matthew. Jesus uttered Ps. xxii. 1 : He had
meditated on the whole psalm as foreshadowing His experience. If
on the cross He was consciously quoting the psalm of the suffering
Messias, and the first verse was overheard, we are relieved of
the difficulty which some have found in the thought that even for
a moment Jesus felt forsaken by God. But on the other hand,
this difficulty often disappears, and becomes the deepest well of
comfort, in the dark hours of the Christian's experience. To
know that He, our Lord and Saviour, in the fulfilment of His
sacrifice for sin, felt deserted by God, brings hope and comfort to
the trembling human soul that is tempted to utter the same cry.
Apparently he spoke in Aramaic. The Gospel of St. Peter
translates it : ' My strength, my strength, thou leavest me.' The
bystanders were ignorant of Aramaic, and perhaps of Hebrew :
they mistook Eloi {my God), for the name of Elijah.
48. The drink is a fulfilment of Ps. lxix. 22, 'They gave me
gall to eat and gave me vinegar to drink' (LXX). In Luke
xxiii. 36, the sour wine is offered to Him in mockery ; it was the
posca, the Roman soldiers' ordinary drink. In John xix. 28, it
was offered in response to a cry from the sufferer, ' I thirst.' In
such a scene of anguish and excitement details of this kind
inevitably become confused.
49. the rest said. In Mark xv. 36 this is said by the soldier who
proffered the sponge of wine.

St. MATTHEW XXVII. 50-54 251
said, Let be ; let us see whether Elijah cometh
50 to save him.1 And Jesus cried again with a loud ' Many
Ancient
51 voice, and yielded up his spirit. And behold, authori-
1 M r 1 o , • ,- ties add
the veil of the a temple was rent in twain from And
the top to the bottom ; and the earth did quake ; took a
5' and the rocks were rent ; and the tombs were and
opened ; and many bodies of the saints that had his'she,
53 fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out mmeout
of the tombs after his resurrection they entered a^uttiood.
54 into the holy city and appeared unto many. Now ," ^!in
the centurion, and they that were with him 2f>r,sanc-
' J tuary
watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake,
and the things that were done, feared exceed
ingly, saying, Truly this was sthe Son of God. afSodS'm

50. The end in this narrative comes very quickly. The loud
voice is such as is not uncommon in the case of a ruptured heart.
In John (xix. 30) the cry was articulate : .' It is finished.'
51. The rending of the veil is mentioned by the three
Synoptists. Its significance is seen by the writer of Hebrews
ix. 8, x. 19. The veil between the main temple and the Holy of
Holies was very costly, it reached from the roof to the ground,
and was emblazoned with colours which represented earth and
air and fire and sea ; the height was 55 cubits, i. e. 80 feet, and
the width 16 cubits, i. e. 24 feet. — Josephus, Bell. lud. v. 5. 4.
What follows— 'the earth did quake', &c, to the end of
ver. 53— is peculiar to Matthew. The earthquake, however, is
mentioned in our fragment of St. Peter's Gospel. The rent rocks
are shown in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But whether
we are to think of a physical fact or only of a spiritual truth,
conveyed in the scriptural way under a physical image, is not
certain, nor is it of great moment.
53. The clause ' after his resurrection ' confuses the statement.
Apparently we are hearing what happened when the veil was
rent ; but by this note of time we see it refers to events some
days after. We may surmise that in the perturbation of those
days there were many of those apparitions of the departed which
are a recognized psychical experience to-day. And the record of
these vague experiences remains in this verse.
54. In Mark and Luke the saying is that of the centurion
alone. In Luke he only says, ' Really this man was just, i. c.

252 St. MATTHEW XXVII. 55-57
And many women were there beholding from 55
afar, which had followed Jesus from Galilee,
ministering unto him : among whom was Mary 56
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and
Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
And when even was come, there came a rich 57
man from Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also

innocent.' In any case the testimony of the centurion to His
divine sonship would not be of any value; to a pagan of the
Graeco-Roman world ' Son of God ' had but a low connotation.
55-6. The women beholding. It is not fair to men to say
that the women were bolder, and remained when the disciples
had fled, for in Luke (xxiii. 49) all the disciples and acquaintance
are included in the watching group.
The Galilaean women are mentioned in Luke viii. 1-3. The
wife of Zebedee was Salome (xx. 20 ; Mark xv. 40). These
Galilaean friends are distinct from the women of Jerusalem who
in feminine sympathy followed Him to Golgotha and were
addressed by Him (Luke xxiii. 27-32).
Nothing can exceed the unconscious art of this scene. The
great tragedy is transacted. But just as Euripides relieves the
strain of a terrible situation by a sweet choric song, so the Gospel
narrative rests the heart and brain by ending the crucifixion with
the spectacle of loving and grateful women, who reflect the death
of their Lord in the depths of tearful eyes and of loyal hearts,
beholding from afar. And by this calm ending of the passage,
which began with the outrages of the judgement hall, the vision
is left on the mind, of all humanity, to the latest time, standing
and beholding the cross and the Sufferer. Until the world ends,
men and women, redeemed and thrilled with gratitude and joy,
will stand beholding.
Ch. xxvii. 57— xxviii. The Burial and Resurrection.
57-61. The Burial.
57. when even was come. It was Friday, ' the preparation,' as
Mark (xv. 42) and Luke (xxiii. 64) state, and as Matthew also
knows, ver. 62.
a rich man. This designation is put first, in place of Mark's
'councillor of honourable estate', as a translation of that term.
But perhaps Matthew was influenced by the prophecy that Christ
should be with ' the rich ' in His burial (Isa. liii. 9). Luke dwells
on Joseph's moral character only, and tell us that as a Sanhedrist
he had not agreed with the action of the Sanhedrim.
Arimalhaa. Ramathaim Zophim, the birthplace of Samuel
(1 Sam. i. 1).

St. MATTHEW XXVII. 58-63 253
58 himself was Jesus' disciple : this man went to
Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then
59 Pilate commanded it to be given up. And Joseph
took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen
60 cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he
had hewn out in the rock : and he rolled a great
stone to the door of the tomb, and departed.
61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other
Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
62 Now on the morrow, which is the day after the
Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees
63 were gathered together unto Pilate, saying, Sir,

58. went to Pilate. Mark (xv. 43, 45) brings out the fact that it
required courage to make the request. It was an avowal of deep
sympathy with the dead Christ. According to Roman Law the
criminal was left exposed until the body decomposed, unless
some one requested permission to bury him. It is remarkable
that here from the very first the truth appears, that Christ dead
evokes a passion of loyalty and love which was not possible
while He lived among us. It was expedient for Him to go away,
in order to bring out the devotion of men like Joseph and
Nicodemus (John xix. 39).
60. his own new tomb, sc. the one in which he meant to be
laid himself. On the site of what is called Gordon's Golgotha,
there is a tomb which enables one to realize the situation ; it is
a double chamber scooped out of the face of the rock ; in the
inner recess is a rock-bed for the body to lie on ; the mouth of
the cave is closed by a heavy slab of stone which can only be
moved because it slides back in a groove cut for the purpose.
61. The two Maries of ver. 56. Only Matthew says that they
sat there. They stood gazing at the cross, but they sat down at
the tomb, as if not intending to leave their lifeless Master.
62-6. The guarding of the tomb is peculiar to Matthew. But
it is mentioned in the Gospel of St. Peter ; Petronius is given as
the name of the centurion ; the soldiers put seven seals on the
tomb, and reared a booth to keep the watch. Matthew introduces
it because he wishes to record the result in xxviii. 4, 11-15.
62. the day after the Preparation. It is singular to describe the
more important day, the Sabbath, as the day after the preparation
for it. Perhaps the odd phrasing shows that the writer had his
eye on Mark xv. 42,

254 St. MATTHEW XXVII. 64— XXVIII. 2
we remember that that deceiver said, while he
was yet alive, After three days I rise again.
Command therefore that the sepulchre be made 64
sure until the third day, lest haply his disciples
come and steal him away, and say unto the
people, He is risen from the dead : and the last
error will be worse than the first. Pilate said 65
¦ Or, Take unto them, ' Ye have a guard : go your way,
"Gr'make * ma^e & as sure as ve can- So they went, and 66
*« Abot»"* made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the
guard being with them.
Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to 28
dawn toward the first day of the week, came
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the
sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earth- 2
quake ; for an angel of the Lord descended from
heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and

65. Ye have a guard, or rather 'have a guard' imperative.
Guard is the Latin custadia, very natural on the lips of Pilate.
But Latinisms abounded all through the Roman empire ; cf.
legiones, ch. xxvi. 53.
xxviii. 1-10. The Resurrection. The harmony of the four
narratives is a study which would lead us far afield. Without
forgetting the details in the other three, let us receive the distinct
impression of the one before us.
1. late on the sabbath day, Sec. It should be observed that the
Greek oatMSarav is here translated 'sabbath' and 'week' in the
same breath. This is hardly possible. We must keep the single
rendering 'week'. It should be : ' Late in the week, as it began
to dawn on the first day of another week '. Luke's ' very early '
and John's 'while it was yet dark' suggest to Dr. Wright that
a ' not ' has dropped out from Mark xvi. 2 : ' when the sun was not
yet risen.' It would be four o'clock on that first Easter morning.
The loving hearts had lost no time. The other evangelists say
that they had come to anoint or embalm the body. In Matthew
they have come only to see the tomb.
2. The description of the Resurrection in the Gospel of
St. Peter is very grandiose. A crowd comes from Jerusalem and
asks the soldiers what they had seen. They had seen two men

St. MATTHEW XXVIII. 3-10 255
3 sat upon it. His appearance was as lightning,
4 and his raiment white as snow : and for fear of
him the watchers did quake, and became as dead
5 men. And the angel answered and said unto
the women, Fear not ye : for I know that ye
6 seek Jesus, which hath been crucified. He is
not here ; for he is risen, even as he said. Come,
1 see the place ' where the Lord lay. And go > Many
quickly, and tell his disciples, He is risen from authori-
the dead; and lo, he goeth before you into when he
Galilee ; there shall ye see him : lo, I have told lay'
8 you. And they departed quickly from the tomb
with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his
9 disciples word. And behold, Jesus met them,
saying, AH hail. And they came and took hold
10 of his feet, and worshipped him. Then saith
out of heaven enter the tomb with great shouting. As they told
their story, the multitude saw three emerge from the tomb ; the
heads of the two reached to heaven, but the head of Him whom
they led reached above the heaven. This apocryphal embellish
ment serves to bring out the extraordinary sobriety and simplicity
of our evangelic narrative. None of the four evangelists attempts
to describe the resurrection itself. Even the descent of the angel
and the rolling away of the stone is by the rest described as
already past. Matthew describes it as happening.
4. In Mark the women are frightened at the sight of the angel
(xvi. 5) ; here the guards are afraid.
7. The command to meet Him in Galilee is given by Mark as
well. Luke (xxiv. 24) alters this into ' how He said to you while
He was yet in Galilee'. Matthew's change of 'as He said to
you ' into ' lo, I have said to you ' is not an improvement.
8. with fear. At that point Mark's narrative ends abruptly
xvi. 8 (for the concluding passage of the Second Gospel is from
another hand). The fear is of the kind which is consistent with
great joy.
9-10. This appearance, and ' All hail 1 ', of Jesus, are only in
Matthew. John's account, however, in xx. 14-15 seems to cover
the same fact. The order to the disciples to go into Galilee,
where they shall see Him, is only recorded here.
, 11-15. This report of the guards and the attempt to silence

256 St. MATTHEW XXVIII. 11-16
Jesus unto them, Fear not : go tell my brethren
that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they
see me.
Now while they were going, behold, some of n
the guard came into the city, and told unto the
chief priests all the things that were come to
pass. And when they were assembled with the "
elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large
money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His 13
disciples came by night, and stole him away while
¦ Or, come we slept. And if this ' come to the governor's 14
ing bea-r' ears, we will persuade him, and rid you of care,
governor So they took the money, and did as they were 15
taught: and this saying was spread abroad among
the Jews, and continueth until this day.
But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, 16

them is given in the Gospel of St. Peter, with the confession of
the soldiers that 'this was the Son of God', and Pilate's de
claration of his own innocence of His blood.
12. large money. A great bribe would be necessary,' for the
soldiers were to confess a fault, falling asleep at their post, which
incurred a death penalty.
13. The story was a lame one, hardly capable of standing
a judicial inquiry. If they slept, how did they know what
happened ? If the disciples did it, how did they roll the stone
back and carry out the body without disturbing the slumber of
the sentries ?
Every argument which attempted to condemn or discredit
Christ and His work was from the first involved in self-con
tradiction. 15. In Justin Martyr's time (a. d. 170) the story was elaborated.
The chief priests dispersed the false intelligence through the
world by means of special messengers : a gospel of the non-
resurrection ; but the Gospel of the Resurrection triumphed.
16. into Galilee. Luke does not know of this appearance in
Galilee. Perhaps Paul refers to it in the appearing to 500,
1 Cor. xv. 6, but he does not mention the locality of that event.
The scattered notices of the resurrection appearances are hard,
perhaps impossible, to fit into 3 single harmonious narrative.

St. MATTHEW XXVIII. 17-20 257
unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed
l7 them. And when they saw him, they worshipped
18 him : but some doubted. And Jesus came to
them and spake unto them, saying, All authority
hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
'9 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them into the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : , Gr all
20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I the da-ys-
commanded you : and lo, I am with you ] alway, cons'um-
even unto 2 the end of the world. cftiTage

But the student of history will not discredit an event, especially
an event of an unusual kind, because the accounts of it are
different and divergent. What is raised beyond all doubt is, that
the disciples had visions of Jesus after His death, which convinced
them that He was risen from the dead.
the mountain. One would fain believe that it was the
Mount near the Sea of Galilee where the Sermon was preached —
Kurun Hattin, according to tradition.
17. The candid statement, that they doubted, should reassure us.
They were not credulous or even disposed to believe. Their
Lord had warned them against being deceived, and they were
cautious. If they became firmly convinced of the fact, it was
after doubt and inquiry. The conviction was valid.
18. He speaks as already in Heaven.
19. Eusebius, writing before the Nicene Council, quotes this
commission, without any mention of the baptism or of the Trinity.
The Missionary commandment, however, is beyond all question.
This is the proper and inevitable conclusion of the Gospel, that
all who know it should make it known to those who do not.
The missionary duty is surer even than the obligation of baptism
in the name of the Trinity.
make disciples. More than merely ' teach ' (Acts xiv. 21).
the name of the Father, Sec. This baptismal formula is not
given in Mark xvi. 16 ; nor do the notices of baptism in the
New Testament sustain the view that the formula comes from
the lips of Jesus : e. g. in Acts ii. 38, viii. 16, x. 48, xix. 5, the
baptism is in the single name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so Rom. vi. 3 ; Gal. iii. 27 ; Col. ii. 12.
20. The substance of the teaching is not what He was, nor
what He did, but His commandments. Possibly if the Church
S

258 St. MATTHEW XXVIII. 20
had made her message the Teaching of Jesus, and left disciples to
infer who He was that taught, the world would have been more
ready to receive the Gospel.
But notwithstanding all the errors of the message and the
messengers, and the long delay in fulfilling the commission, He
has been with His own until now, and will be to the end. The
thought of the Parousia recedes in the closing sentence of the
Gospel ; our thoughts are to rest not so much in the expectation
of His return, as in the fact that
He is here 1

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