Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
and therefore, along with their corrupted doctrine, I willingly include their hypocritical parade of false righteousness. The principal charge brought by Christ against their doctrine may be easily learned from what follows in the discourse, where he removes from the law their false and wicked interpretations, and restores it to its purity. In short, the objection which, as we have already said, was unjustly brought against him by the Scribes, is powerfully thrown back on themselves.
We must bear in mind, what we have mentioned elsewhere, that the Pharisees are added to the Scribes by way of enlarging on what he had said: for that sect had, above all others, obtained a reputation for sanctity. It is a mistake, however, to suppose, that they were called Pharisees on account of division,394 because they separated themselves from the ordinary class, and claimed a rank peculiar to themselves. They were called {,}פרושיםthat is, Expounders,395 because they were not satisfied with the bare letter, but boasted of being in possession of a key to open up hidden meanings. Hence arose an immense mass of errors, when they assumed magisterial authority, and ventured, according to their wicked fancy and their equally wicked pride, to thrust forward their own inventions in place of Scripture.
21. You have heard that it was said. This sentence, and those which immediately follow, are connected with what we have just considered: for our Lord explains more fully, by minute instances, by what tortuous methods396 the Pharisees debase the law, so that their righteousness is mere filth. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that this is an {ἐπανόρθωσις}, or correction 397 of the Law, and that Christ raises his disciples to a higher degree of perfection, than Christ could raise a gross and carnal nation, which was scarcely able to learn first principles. It has been a prevailing opinion, that the beginning of righteousness was laid down in the ancient law, but that the perfection of it is pointed out in the Gospel. But nothing was farther from the design of Christ, than to alter or innovate any thing in the commandments of the law. There God has once fixed the rule of life which he will never retract. But as the law had been corrupted by false expositions, and turned to a profane meaning, Christ vindicates it against such corruptions, and points out its true meaning, from accustomed their disciples to a hypocrisy, and made apes of them."
394"De division, ou separation;" — "of division, or separation." 395Among a host of opinions as to the origin of the name Pharisees, there is room to doubt if Calvin has hit upon the true etymology. There are two roots: {{( פׂרשparas,) to spread out, with Sin for the final letter, — and {( }פׁרשparash,). to explain, to separate, with Schin. Both have been pressed into the service. The former is chiefly quoted in support of an allusion to our Lord's description of them, that they make broad their phylacteries, (Matthew
23:5.) But the latter root has been more fertile in suggestions. John Alberti, no mean authority, in his Glossarium Grcecurn, (under Luke 11:38,) defines {Φαρισαῖος}, to be {διακεχωρισμένος}, separated, and quotes the Septuagint as employing that participle (Ezekiel 34:12) for, {}נפׁרשותthe principhal participle of ,{( }פׁרשparash.) From Hesychius he gives synonyms of like import, — {Φαρισαῖος}, {ἀφωρισμένος}, {μεμερισμένος}, {καθαρός} As to the last of those terms, {καθαρός}, the learned Vitringa, to whom Alberti also refers, has copiously illustrated its meaning in a passage, which has been often quoted as embodying the proud challenge of the Pharisee, Stand by: for I am holier than thou, (Isaiah 65:5 ) — Suidas unhesitatingly defends the same idea of separation. His definition is as follows: {Φαρισαῖοι} {οἱ} {ἑρμηνευόμενοι} {ἀφωρισμένοι}, {παρὰ} {τὸ} {μερίζειν} {καὶ}
{ἀφορίζειν} {ἑαυτοὺς} {τῶν} {ἄλλων} {ἁπάντων}, {εἴς} {τε} {τὸ} {καθαρώτατον} {τοῦ} {βίου}, {καὶ} {ἀκριβέστατον}, {καὶ} {εἰς} {τὰ} {τοῦ} {νόμου} {ἐντάλματα}. "Pharisees, — which means separated, on account of their dividing and separating themselves from all others, to the greatest purity and strictness of life, and to the prescriptions of the law." — Calvin's derivation is from the same root, and is certainly ingenious. That sect, we know, boasted of a rigid adherence to the law, though it may be questioned whether profound skill in exposition was claimed by all its members. Many of them might think that this belonged to the Scribes as a professional matter. — Ed.
396"Comment les Phariseens avoyent deprave la Loy par leurs expositions tortues;" — "how the Pharisees had debased the law by their crooked expositions."
397"Une correction ou amplification de la Loy;" — "a correction or enlargement of the Law."
HARMONY OF THE EVANGELISTS
which the Jews had departed.
That the doctrine of the law not only commences, but brings to perfection, a holy life, may be inferred from a single fact, that it requires a perfect love of God and of our neighbor, (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18.) He who possesses such a love wants nothing of the highest perfection. So far as respects the rules of a holy life, the law conducts men to the goal, or farthest point, of righteousness. Accordingly, Paul declares the law to be weak, not in itself, but in our flesh, (Romans 8:3.) But if Moses had given nothing more than the first lessons of true righteousness, how ridiculous would have been that appeal!
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that ye may live," (Deuteronomy 30:19.)
Again,
"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul?" (Deuteronomy 10:12.)
Vain and deceitful, also, would have been that promise, "The man that doeth them shall live in them," (Leviticus 18:5; Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12.)
That Christ, on the other hand, intended to make no correction in the precepts of the law, is very clear from other passages: for to those who desire to enter into life by their good works, he gives no other injunction, than to, keep the commandments of the law, (Matthew 19:17.) From no other source do the Apostles, as well as Christ himself, draw the rules for a devout and holy life. It is doing a grievous injury to God, the author of the Law, to imagine that the eyes, and hands, and feet alone, are trained by it to a hypocritical appearance of good works, and that it is only in the Gospel that we are taught to love God with the heart. Away, then, with that error, "The deficiencies of the law are here supplied by Christ." We must not imagine Christ to be a new legislator, who adds any thing to the eternal righteousness of his Father.
We must listen to him as a faithful expounder, that we may know what is the nature of the law, what is its object, and what is its extent.
It now remains for us to see, what Christ condemns in the Pharisees, and in what respect his interpretation of it differs from their glosses. The amount of it is, that they had changed the doctrine of the law into a political order, and had made obedience to it to consist entirely in the performance of outward duties. Hence it came, that he who had not slain a man with his hand was pronounced to be free from the guilt of murder, and he who had not polluted his body by adultery was supposed to be pure and chaste before God. This was an intolerable profanation of the law: for it is certain, that Moses everywhere demands the spiritual worship of God. From the very nature of the law we must conclude, that God, who gave it by the hand of Moses, spoke to the hearts, as well as to the hands and to the eyes. True, our Lord quotes the very words of the law; but he does so in accommodation to the view which was generally taken of them by the people. "Till now, the scribes have given you a literal interpretation of the law, that it is enough, if a man keep his hands from murder and from acts of violence. But I warn you, that you must ascend much higher. Love is