Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 4 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 46 s And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

a

8

[blocks in formation]

XXIII. 1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 2 saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in a Mal. ii. 7. Moses' seat: 3 all therefore whatsoever they bid you [t observe], that observe and do; but do not ye after their

rrender, the Christ?

read, put thine enemies beneath thy feet?

41-46.] THE PHARISEES BAFFLED BY A QUESTION RESPECTING CHRIST AND DAVID. Mark xii. 35-37. Luke xx. 4144. [See also Acts ii. 34.] Our Lord now questions his adversaries (according to Matt. :-in Mark and Luke He asks the question not to, but concerning the Scribes or interpreters of the law), and again convicts them of ignorance of the Scriptures. From the universally recognized title of the Messiah as the Son of David, which by His question He elicits from them, He takes occasion to shew them, who understood this title in a mere worldly political sense, the difficulty arising from David's own reverence for this his Son the solution lying in the incarnate Godhead of the Christ, of which they were ignorant.

43. in spirit] i. e. by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "by (in) the Holy Ghost," Mark. This is a weighty declaration by our Lord of the inspiration of the prophetic Scriptures. St. Mark (ver. 37) adds to this "the common people heard him gladly." Here then end the endeavours of His adversaries to entrap Him by questions: they now betake themselves to other means. "A new scene, as it were, henceforth opens." Bengel.

CHAP. XXIII. 1-39.] DENUNCIATION OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. Peculiar to Matthew. 1.] Much of the matter of this discourse is to be found in Luke xi. and xiii. On its appearance there, see the notes on those passages. There can, I think, be no doubt that it was delivered, as our Evangelist here relates it, all at one time, and in these the last days of our Lord's ministry. On the notion entertained by some recent critics, of St.

t omit.

Matthew having arranged the scattered sayings of the Lord into longer discourses, see Introduction to Matthew. A trace of this discourse is found in Mark xii. 3840: Luke xx. 45-47. In the latter place it is spoken to the disciples, in hearing of the crowd: which (see ver. 8 ff.) is the exact account of the matter. It bears many resemblances to the Sermon on the Mount, and may be regarded as the solemn close, as that was the opening, of the Lord's public teaching. It divides itself naturally into three parts: (1) introductory description of the Scribes and Pharisees, and contrast to Christ's disciples (vv. 1-12): (2)- solemn denunciations of their hypocrisy (vv. 14-33): (3) conclusion, and mournful farewell to the temple and Jerusalem. 2.] Moses' seat is the office of judge and lawgiver of the people: see Exod. ii. 13-25: Deut. xvii. 9-13. Our Lord says, 'In so far as the Pharisees and Scribes enforce the law and precepts of Moses, obey them: but imitate not their conduct.' The verb rendered sit must not be pressed too strongly, as conveying blame,-have seated themselves;'-it is merely stated here as a matter of fact. Vv. 8, 10 however apply to their leadership as well as their faults; and declare that among Christians there are to be none sitting on the seat of Christ.

3. all therefore] The therefore here is very significant :-because they sit on Moses' seat: and this clears the meaning, and shews it to be, all things which they, as successors of Moses, out of his law, command you, do;' there being a distinction between their lawful teaching as expounders of the law, and their frivo

&c.

e Acts xv. 10. Gal. vi. 13.

16.

e NUM. XV. 38. DEUT. vi. 8: xxii. 12.

с

b Rom. ii. 17, works: for they say, and do not. 4 c For they bind heavy burdens [" and grievous to be borne], and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move d ch. vi. 1, 2, 5, them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their Prov. ii. 3. phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, 6 and love the uppermost 7 rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 and greetings in the markets, f James iii. 1. and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 8 But be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master [even Christ]; and all ye are brethren. 9 And call no man your father upon the earth for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

see 2 Cor. i.

24. 1 Pet. v.

3.

omitted in some ancient authorities.

I literally, their hems.

lous traditions superadded thereto, and blamed below. 4.] The warning was, imitate them not-for they do not themselves what they enjoin on others. And this verse must be strictly connected with ver. 3. The burdens then are not, as so often misinterpreted, human traditions and observances;-but the severity of the law, which they enforce on others, but do not observe (see Rom. ii. 21-23) answering to the weightier matters of the law of ver. 23. irksomeness and unbearableness of these rites did not belong to the Law in itself, as rightly explained, but were created by the rigour and ritualism of these men, who followed the letter and lost the spirit: who spent all their labour in enforcing and amplifying ceremonies. 5-7.] But whatever they do perform, has but one motive.

The

phylacteries, in the Hebrew, Tephillin, were strips of parchment with certain passages of Scripture, viz. Exod. xiii. 11— 16 and 1-10: Deut. xi. 13-21; vi. 4-9, written on them, and worn on the forehead between the eyes, on the left side next the heart, and on the left arm. The name in the text was given because they were considered as charms. They appear not to have been worn till after the captivity; and are still in use among the rabbinical Jews. Their use appears to have arisen from a superstitious interpretation of Exod. xiii. 9; Deut. vi. 8, 9. See Joseph. Antt. iv. 8. 13. The hems, or fringes, were commanded to be worn for a memorial, Num. xv. 38. See note on ch. ix. 20. 6, 7.] See Mark xvi. 38, 39: Luke xx. 46, 47. On the uppermost place at feasts, see Luke xiv. 7. 8-10.] The prohibition is against loving, and in any

y render, place.

Z omit.

religious matter, using, such titles, signifying dominion over the faith of others. It must be understood in the spirit and not in the letter. Paul calls Timotheus his son' in the faith, 1 Tim. i. 2, and exhorts the Corinthians (1 Cor. xi. 1) to be followers of him as he of Christ. To understand and follow such commands in the slavery of the letter, is to fall into the very Pharisaism against which our Lord is uttering the caution. See (e. g.) Barnes's note here. Rabbi: i. e. "my master:" an expression used, and reduplicated as here, by scholars to their masters, who were never called by their own name by their scholars. So the Lord says, John xiii. 13, “ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am." The Teacher is probably not Christ, as supplied here in the received text, but the Holy Spirit (see John xiv. 26: Jer. xxxi. 33, 34: Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27), only not here named, because this promise was only given in private to the disciples. If this be so, we have God, in His Triunity, here declared to us as the only Father, Master, and Teacher of Christians; the only One, in all these relations, on whom they can rest or depend. They are all brethren: all substantially equalnone by office or precedence nearer to God than another; none standing between his brother and God. And the duty of all Christian teachers is to bring their hearers to the confession of the Samaritans in John iv. 42: "Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is the Saviour of the world." 9.] Literally, name not any Father of you on earth: no 'Abba' or 'Papa' (see the account of the funeral of John Wesley, Coke and More's

10 Neither be ye called a masters: for one is your b Master, even Christ. 11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 h And whosoever shall exalt himself h shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

е

ch. xx. 20, 27. Job xxii. 29. Luke xiv. 11:

Prov. xv. 33:

xviii. 14. James iv. 6. 1 Pet. v. 5.

Tit. i. 11.

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. [14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 'for ye devour widows' houses, and for a 12 Tim. iii. 6. pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.] 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 16 Woe unto you, *ye blind guides, which say, 1 Whosoever shall swear by k ch. xv. 14. the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by 1ch. v. 33, 34.

[blocks in formation]

Life, p. 441, and the opening of the Au-
thor's dedication of the book). 11.]
It may serve to shew us how little the
letter of a precept has to do with its true
observance, if we reflect that he who of all
the Heads of sects has most notably vio-
lated this whole command, and caused
others to do so, calls himself 'servus ser-
vorum Dei' ("servant of the servants of
God").-It must be noted (see margin) that
the word here rendered "servant" in the
A. V., is not that usually so translated
(doulos), which properly means slave or
bondsman: but diaconus, which is in the
same version rendered minister in chap. xx.
26.
12.] This often-repeated saying
points here not only to the universal cha-
racter of God's dealings, but to the speedy
humiliation of the lofty Pharisees; and as
such finds a most striking parallel in Ezek.
xxi. 26, 27. 13.] In Luke xi. 52 it is
added " ye have taken away the key of
knowledge”—the Key being, not the Key
of, i. e. admitting to, Knowledge, but the
Key which is the Knowledge itself, the true
simple interpretation of Scripture, which
would have admitted them, and caused
them to admit others, into the Kingdom of
Heaven, by the recognition of Him of whom
the Scriptures testify; whereas now by
their perverse interpretations they had shut

e omit.

ver. 24.

out both themselves and others from it. See a notable instance of this latter in John ix. 24. They shut the door as it were in men's faces who were entering. [On the interpolated ver. 14, see notes on Mark (xii. 40). It is wanting in almost all the oldest authorities. It appears to have been inserted here by the copyists from Mark, as above, or from Luke xx. 47.]

15.] And with all this betrayal of your trust as the teachers of Israel (John iii. 10 literally), as if all your work at home were done. This was their work of supererogation- not commanded them, nor in the spirit of their law. The Lord speaks not here of those pious Godfearing men, who were found dwelling among the Jews, favouring and often attending their worship-but of the proselytes of righteousness, so called, who by persuasion of the Pharisees, took on them the whole Jewish law and its observances. These were rare

and it was to the credit of our nature that they were. For what could such a proselyte, made by such teachers, become? A disciple of hypocrisy merely-neither a sincere heathen nor a sincere Jew-doubly the child of hell: condemned by the religion which he had left-condemned again by that which he had taken. 16-22.] The Lord forbade all swearing to His own

29.

the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. 17 Ye fools, and

h

m Exod. xxx. blind for 8 whether is greater, the gold, mor the temple that 1 sanctifieth the gold? 18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever i sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19 Ye [ fools and] n Exod. xxix. blind for whether is greater, the gift, or the "altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20 Whoso therefore m shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21 And whoso m shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by 22 And he that shall swear

37.

01 Kings viii. him that no dwelleth therein.

13. 2 Chron.

vi. 2. Ps.
xxvi. 8:

cxxxii. 14. p Ps. xi. 4. ch. v. 34.

Acts vii. 49.

Hos. vi.

by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and 41 Sam. xv. 22. cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the 8 law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and a swallow a camel. r Mark vil. 4. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for

ch. ix. 13:

xii. 7.

gi. e. which of the two.

i

render, shall swear.

m render, hath sworn.

• render, tithe (the verb).

¶ render, swallowing the. disciples, ch. v. 34; and by the very same reasoning because every oath is really and eventually an oath by God-shews these Pharisees the validity and solemnity of every oath. This subterfuge became notorious at Rome. See citation in my Gr. Test.

The reading dwelt in ver. 21 is remarkable; God did not then dwell in the Temple, nor had He done so since the Captivity. 23, 24.] It was doubtful, whether Levit. xxvii. 30 applied to every smallest garden herb: but the Pharisees, in their over-rigidity in externals, stretched it to this, letting go the heavier, more difficult, and more important (see ver. 4) matters of the Law. In the threefold enumeration, our Lord refers to Micah vi. 8 (see also Hosea xii. 6)-where to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, are described as being better than all offerings. these-these last, are the great points on which your exertions should have been spent-and then, if for the sake of these they be observed, the others should not be neglected. The gold here is probably not the ornamental gold, but the Corban-the sacred treasure. They were fools and blind, not to know and see, that no inanimate thing can witness an

h

read, hath sanctified.
komitted in many ancient authorities.

n

[ocr errors]

many ancient authorities read, dwelt. P render, straining out the.

oath, but that all these things are called in to do so because of sanctity belonging to them, of which God is the primary source: -the order likewise of the things hallowed, being, in their foolish estimate of them, reversed: for the gold must be less than the temple which hallows it, and the gift than the altar-not as if this were of any real consequence, except to shew their folly-for vv. 20-22, every oath is really an oath by God. But these men were servants only of the temple ("your house," ver. 38) and the altar, and had forgotten God. The straining the gnat, is not a mere proverbial saying. The Jews (as do now the Buddists in Ceylon and Hindostan) strained their wine, &c., carefully that they might not violate Levit. xi. 20, 23, 41, 42 (and, it might be added, Levit. xvii. 10-14). The "strain at a gnat" in our present auth. vers. for "strain out a gnat of the earlier English vss., seems not to have been a mistake, as sometimes supposed, but a deliberate alteration, meaning, "strain [out the wine] at [the occurrence of] a gnat." The camel is not only opposed, as of immense size, but is also joined with the other as being equally unclean.

[ocr errors]

25-28.] This woe is founded

S

8

ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first r that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for s Acts xxiii. 3. ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that 'ye are the children of them which the prophets. 32 u "Fill tt then the measure of ye up fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye av generation of vipers, how can

ye escape the damnation of hell?

killed t
your u

Acts vil. 51,

52. 1 Thess. ii. 15.

Gen. xv. 16.

1 Thess. ii. 16.

v ch. iii. 7: xii. 84.

34 w Wherefore behold I send unto you prophets, and wise wch. xxi. 34,

rrender, the inside of. tt render, also.

8

render, sons. u render, offspring.

not on a literally, but a typically denoted practice of the Pharisees. Our Lord, in the ever-deepening denunciation of His discourse, has now arrived at the delineation of their whole character and practices by a parabolic similitude. are full of] The straining out of the gnat is a cleansing pertaining to the outside, as compared with the inner composition of the wine itself, of which the cup is full: see Rev. xviii. 3. The exterior is not in reality pure when the interior is foul: it is not 'a clean cup,' unless both exterior and interior be clean. Observe, the emphasis is on be: "that its exterior also may not appear to be, but really become, pure." 27.] The Jews used once a year (on the fifteenth of the month Adar) to whitewash the spots where graves were, that persons might not be liable to uncleanness by passing over them (see Num. xix. 16). This goes to the root of the mischief at once: "your heart is not a temple of the living God, but a grave of pestilent corruption: not a heaven, but a hell. And your religion is but the whitewash-hardly skin-deep."

29-33.]

The guilt resting on these present Pharisees, from being the last in a progressive series of generations of such hypocrites and per

35.

trender, murdered.
I render, judgment.

[ocr errors]

secutors, forms the matter of the last Woe.
The burden of this hypocrisy is, that they,
being one with their fathers, treading in
their steps, but vainly disavowing their
deeds, were, by the very act of building
the sepulchres of the prophets, joined with
their prophet-persecuting acts, convicting
themselves of continuity with their fathers'
wickedness. See, as clearly setting forth
this view, Luke xi. Instead of the peni-
tent confession, "We have sinned, we and
our fathers," this last and worst generation
in vain protests against their participation
in their fathers' guilt, which they are mean-
while developing to the utmost, and filling
up its measure (Acts vii. 52).' Stier. Again
notice the emphasis, which is now markedly
on sons; thus bringing out that relation in
all its fulness and consequences.
Fill ye up also (as well as they) the measure
(of iniquity) of your fathers. Ver. 33
repeats almost verbatim the first denuncia-
tion of the Baptist-in this, the last dis-
course of the Lord: thus denoting the un-
changed state of these men, on whom the
whole preaching of repentance had now been
expended. One weighty difference however
there is then it was, "who hath warned
you to flee?" the wonder was, how they be-

32.]

« ElőzőTovább »