38 It is introduced by μή .

38 It is introduced by μή .

⁹ ‍BDF‍ sees the use of the passive as an attempt “to avoid the divine name” (130[1]). This may indeed be the reason, but a better reason seems to be that it is a double application of the words: people who rush into judging others find that they are the objects of other people’s judgments now, though the emphasis is surely on that of God at the last day.

¹⁰ μέτρον means an instrument for measuring, of whatever kind. Thus it is used of capacity (Luke 6:38) or length (Rev. 21:15). It can also denote a quantity, the result of measuring.

¹¹ χάρφος can denote a little piece of anything, especially of sticks or straw; it points to what is quite insignificant.

¹² χατανοέω, here only in Matthew, means “notice, observe carefully” (‍BAGD‍).

¹³ δοχός is not frequent in the New Testament (3 times each in Matthew and Luke). ‍LSJ‍ gives its meaning as “bearing-beam, main beam, esp. in the roof or floor of a house”; it means no small piece of timber.

¹⁴ Matthew might have used σοῦ or σεαυτοῦ, but σός points up the contrast.

¹⁵ Jewish teachers could make much the same points. Thus R. Tarfon said: “if one says to him: Remove the mote from between your eyes, he would answer: Remove the beam from between your eyes!” (‍‘Arak.‍ 16b). This may, of course, be a rabbinic misuse of what Jesus said: when someone was told to deal with a mote he tended to retort with a reference to his critic’s “beam.”

¹⁶ πῶς is used “in questions denoting disapproval or rejection” to give meanings like “With what right?” “How dare you?” (‍BAGD‍, 1.c).

¹⁷ ‍BDF‍ notes the use of the subjunctive with ἄφες so that “an invitation is extended to another to permit the speaker to do something” (‍BDF‍ 364[1]).

AB The Anchor Bible: W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew (New York, 1971)

¹⁸ “He is a hypocrite because his unkind criticism takes the outward form of a kindly act” (‍McNeile‍).

¹⁹ J. D. M. Derrett sees Jesus as meaning “that a brother should rebuke a brother. Only he should remember before whom he himself stands” (‍NTS‍, 34 [1988], p. 276).

²⁰ There is a change from βλέπω (v. 3) to διαβλέπω here.

²¹ “On no account give …” (Turner, ‍Grammatical Insights‍, p. 32).

²² Some scholars point out that “holy things” make an imperfect parallel to “pearls” and hold that we have here a mistranslation of an Aramaic word meaning “ring”; a gold ring would effectively stand over against “pearls.” Black discusses the suggestion and points out that an attractive saying might be reconstructed: “Give not a (precious) ring to dogs, and cast not your pearls before swine.” But he thinks that that may be an interpretation rather than a mistranslation (‍Black‍, pp. 146–48). There seems to be no real reason for amending the text.

²³ Cf. ‍Hendriksen‍, “Staying on and on in the company of those who ridicule the Christian religion is not fair to other fields that are waiting to be served, especially in view of the fact that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”

Davies and  W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, vol. I (Edinburgh, 1988)

²⁴ ‍Calvin‍, “Here He means by dogs and swine, those so infected with an impious scorn for God that they admit of no healing” (p. 228).

²⁵ Cf. ‍Bruner‍, “insensitive evangelism often proves harmful not only to the obdurate whose heart is hardened by the undifferentiating evangelist, but harmful also to the gospel that is force-fed” (p. 275).

²⁶ Quite early the church interpreted the saying in connection with its own liturgical observances: “Let none eat or drink of your Eucharist except those who have been baptised in the Lord’s Name. For concerning this also did the Lord say, ‘Give not that which is holy to the dogs’ ” (Did. 9:5).

²⁷ μαργαρίτης (3 times in Matthew; 5 times in Revelation; once in 1 Timothy) means the precious stone we call a pearl. The word was used sometimes to denote anything of great worth. An interesting use is for the utterances of a great person: “The mouth that uttered pearls …” (‍Qidd.‍ 39b).

²⁸ χοῖρος occurs 4 times each in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and nowhere else in the New Testament. It means a young pig and then is used of pigs generally. These animals were, of course, unclean for the Jews, though here the emphasis is not on that, but on their inability to appreciate the value of pearls.

²⁹ μήποτε is used to indicate purpose. It generally takes the aorist subjunctive, but sometimes the future indicative, as here. Matthew has it 8 times and Luke 7 out of its 25 New Testament occurrences.

³⁰ ἐν is used here of “means or instrument”; we say “trample with the feet.”

³¹ The Lukan parallel is in Luke 11:9–13. Apart from Luke’s “and I say to you,” verses 7–8 are identical and there is a close resemblance to verse 11, but there are differences in verses 9–10 where, in place of the son asking for bread, then fish, in Luke he asks for fish, then an egg.

³² Hendriksen holds that seeking means “asking plus acting”; the praying person “must be active in endeavouring to obtain the fulfilment of his needs.”

³³ Zahn sees the knocking as seeking entrance into the kingdom, and Patte has a somewhat similar idea: “the good things which will be given by God in answer to prayers are themselves certainly related to entrance into the kingdom.” But Jesus’ saying is more general than that; he is talking about prayer in general. Another way of looking at knocking is found in the Talmud, where we read that Mordecai “knocked at the gates of mercy and they were opened to him” (‍Meg.‍ 12b).

³⁴ ‍Calvin‍ comments, “There is nothing that we do not allow ourselves to ask from God, and if He does not fulfil our stupid ideas, we grumble at Him. So Christ subjects our prayers to the will of God” (p. 231).

³⁵ On γάρ ‍BAGD‍ remarks, “the general is confirmed by the specific” and here “the specific by the general” (1.d). It is not easy to see verse 7 as more specific than verse 8, but there is certainly the note of confirmation.

³⁶ ἤ may be “used w. an interrog. word, mostly after another interrog. sentence” (‍BAGD‍, 1.d.δ). The preceding expression is, of course, a statement, not a question, but there is no difficulty in seeing ἤ as helping on an interrogation.

³⁷ Man is not necessary for the sense; “who among you” would have been quite sufficient. But this word puts some emphasis on humanity: if even a member of this human race will act kindly, then —.

³⁸ It is introduced by μή.

³⁹ Turner points out that the anacolouthon here is Semitic (‍M, III‍, p. 325).

⁴⁰ The participle is used with an adjective or a noun sometimes in the sense of an “if” clause, sometimes as “although”; here, of course, it is the latter.

⁴¹ Cf. G. Harder, “In contrast to God, who alone is good (Mk. 10:18), men generally are called πονηροί (Mt. 7:11; Lk. 11:13)” (‍TDNT‍, VI, p. 554). Schweizer finds this “extremely sobering in the face of the widespread romantic belief that man is innately good.” Bonnard notes and rejects C. H. Dodd’s view that Jesus is talking about something in the heart of people that naturally responds to Christ’s teaching.

⁴² For example, “What you hate, do not do to any one” (Tob. 4:15). The great Hillel, when invited to teach a certain heathen the whole Torah while he stood on one leg, replied: “What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof” (‍Shab.‍ 31a). Many examples may be cited from Judaism, and indeed some are to be found in most religions.

⁴³ Davies and Allison think that “There is much room for doubt about this.” But although they cite the rule in many forms, from a variety of sources, they do not cite any example of the positive form prior to Jesus.

⁴⁴ It is often urged that it matters little whether the golden rule be cited in its positive or negative forms, but this is not so. If we did nothing at all, we would satisfy the negative form! In the great judgment scene in chapter 25 those who are condemned might well claim that they had fulfilled the golden rule in its negative form. Their condemnation lay in the fact that they had failed to do good, not in any evil action that they had carried through. Cf. ‍Bruce‍: “The negative confines us to the region of justice; the positive takes us into the region of generosity or grace, and so embraces both law and prophets.”

⁴⁵ Davies and Allison remark that verse 12 brings “to a climax the entire central core of the sermon on the mount, 5.17–7.11.”

⁴⁶ θέλω. The ἵνα that follows is not telic, but introduces the content of the wish.

BDF F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament, trans. and rev. by R. W. Funk (Chicago, 1961)

⁴⁷ Ryle speaks of the value of this rule as a daily guide: “It settles a hundred difficult points, which in a world like this are continually arising between man and man; it prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for our conduct in specific cases, it sweeps the whole debateable ground with one mighty principle.” So also ‍Barclay‍, “It will be a principle which will dominate his life at home, in the factory, in the bus, in the office, in the street, in the train, at his games, everywhere” (p. 277).

⁴⁸ “Jesus began his sermon with unqualified tenderness, embracing in the Blessings those who felt least embraceable. He concludes with unqualified toughness, warning us that his sermon is not an intellectual option, a set of suggestions we may take or leave, one philosophy among several others, but that it is the exclusive way to life” (‍Bruner‍, p. 282).

⁴⁹ Luke has parallels to much of this section, but they are spread out and vary in closeness of resemblance; see Luke 6:43–46, 47–49; 13:23–24, 25–27; 4:32.

⁵⁰ Davies and Allison cite many passages from Judaism and a number from Christian writings. They show that the idea is also found in writings outside Judaism and Christianity, but that the imagery of the gate is much less common.

⁵¹ πύλη may be used of a gate or door of many kinds. Thus it is the gate of the temple (Acts 3:10), of a city (Luke 7:12), or of a prison (Acts 12:10). It is also used of the gates of Hades (16:18). It seems to be used of a significant entrance, which may be why it is used here of the entrance into life.

⁵² στενός is found in this passage and in Luke 13:24 only in the New Testament; there, too, it refers to a narrow entrance into life.

⁵³ πλατύς occurs in this passage only in the New Testament. Some MSS omit gate here (notably א^* 1646, some OL, and a number of the Fathers) and in the following verse; if they are followed, the word is used of the road (“broad and spacious is the road …”). But we should probably read gate in both places. Cf. ‍Metzger‍: “On the whole it seemed best to follow the reading of the overwhelming weight of the external evidence, and to account for the absence of the word in one or both verses as a deliberate excision made by copyists who failed to understand that the picture is that of a roadway leading to a gate.” εὐρύχωρος, “spacious,” is found here only in the New Testament. “Go in” (enter) is more applicable to a gate than a road, but the meaning is plain enough.

NRSV The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, 1990)

⁵⁴ ἀπώλεια occurs 18 times in the New Testament, but apart from 5 occurrences in 2 Peter, there are no more than 2 in any one writing (Matthew, Philippians, and Revelation). It may denote the destruction that one brings about (26:8), or the destruction that one experiences, “ruin”; in this sense the New Testament writers mostly use it of eternal loss, as here.

⁵⁵ Some MSS read “For,” but it seems that How is the right reading (see the note in ‍Metzger‍).

⁵⁶ τεθλιμμένη. The verb occurs only here in Matthew (10 times in the New Testament). It conveys the basic idea of pressing (which can lead to the thought of affliction); here it is that of compression and thus narrowness. The perfect points to a continuing state. It is not the obvious opposite to “broad,” and perhaps we should detect an allusion to the persecutions that are part and parcel of the Christian life. The cognate noun is used in conjunction with references to persecution in 13:21 (cf. also 24:9, 21, 29), and it occurs in Acts 14:22, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

⁵⁷ J. Jeremias says, “the image of the gates has an eschatological character. The narrow and broad gates are the gates to eternal life and eternal perdition, and the sequence πύλη–ὁδός is to be regarded as a popular hysteron-proteron” (‍TDNT‍, VI, p. 923).

⁵⁸ Michaelis detects “synonymous metaphors which are not to be interrelated but which stand side by side, supplementing and strengthening one another … way and gate are interchangeable in the saying” (‍TDNT‍, V, p. 71). ‍Lenski‍ understands the gate as “an entrance portal” and the way as “the passageway to which it admits. Both belong to a building and lead to the court from which the rooms are reached.”

Bruner F. D. Bruner, The Christbook, Matthew 1–12 (Waco, 1987)

⁵⁹ προσέχω has the idea of “turn (one’s mind) to,” and thus “give heed to.” Used with ἀπό, it conveys the notion “be on one’s guard against.”

⁶⁰ Matthew knows of Christian prophets (10:41; 23:34), and Jesus himself could be called a prophet (21:11). There are, of course, many references in the Pauline writings to Christian prophets. There was thus the continuing possibility that prophets might appear and the corresponding possibility that people might falsely claim that they had the prophetic gift. Matthew comes back to false prophets again in 24:11, 24 and in other New Testament writings. The test of whether a prophet is true or false is the way he lives (v. 16).

⁶¹ ὅστις (see on 2:6) may differ little from ὅς, but here it “is correctly used in connection with a substantive of indefinite reference” (‍BDF‍ 293[2]). It may well have the meaning “who are of such a quality as”; Jesus is drawing attention to the kind of people the false prophets are.

⁶² Hamann finds as sheep’s clothing such things as “great success in gaining a following; a pleasant personality; sincerity; unselfishness, and generally a virtuous life.”

⁶³ ἀπό conveys here “the notion of source” (‍Robertson‍, p. 576).

⁶⁴ Cf. ‍Calvin‍, “I believe it is wrong when people confine this to our way of life. Often, some of the worst imposters put on a fake holiness. … all teaching is to be examined by the Word of God, and so in judging false prophets, the analogy of faith is to be dominant” (p. 238). So also ‍Stott‍, “In examining a teacher’s credentials, then, we have to examine both his character and his message” (p. 202).

⁶⁵ For ἀγαθός see on 5:45. It means “good” in any one of a variety of ways, physical or moral. Here it denotes the tree that is as it should be, a “healthy” (‍GNB‍) tree. When the tree is sound, the fruit is good.

⁶⁶ σαπρός is used of what is decayed and thus rotten, though we cannot think that the tree in question is actually decaying; if so, it would not bear fruit at all. O. Bauernfeind says that the word “contains a critical and adverse but not very precise judgment with a sinister overtone: ‘unserviceable,’ ‘of little worth’ ” (‍TDNT‍, VII, p. 96). But it is in a far from healthy condition (diseased? Bauernfeind notes a use for disease in the human body), and this shows up in its inability to bear good fruit.

⁶⁷ χαλός (see on 3:10) is close in meaning to ἀγαθός, but perhaps conveys something of the notion of goodliness of appearance. We can speak of “beautiful fruit,” and that is what the term denotes.

⁶⁸ πονηρός is a general term for “evil” (see on 6:23); as applied to fruit it signifies “bad, worthless.”

⁶⁹ μὴ ποιοῦν χτλ conveys a causal idea: “because it does not bear good fruit.”

⁷⁰ ἄρα, “inferential (illative) particle; in class. usage never at the beginning of its clause.” When it occurs at the beginning of a sentence it means “so, as a result, consequently” (‍BAGD‍, 4). γέ simply strengthens the word to which it is attached. Moule says that its “exact force is difficult to define. Generally it appears to call attention and lend emphasis to the word or phrase to which it adheres” (‍IBNTG‍, p. 164).

⁷¹ οὐ is here used to negate the single expression that follows. It makes it clear that speaking is not enough.

⁷² Κύριος is used in Matthew 80 times. It occurs often in the New Testament (718 times), being noticeably frequent in Luke (103 times), Acts (107 times), and the Pauline writings (275 times).

⁷³ There is a rabbinic saying, “Do his will as if it was thy will,” but it is given a different thrust when it continues, “that he may do thy will as if it was his will” (‍’Abot‍ 2:4). Less self-seeking are the words of R. Judah b. Tema, “Be strong as the leopard and swift as the eagle, fleet as the gazelle and brave as the lion to do the will of thy father which is in heaven” (‍’Abot‍ 5:20).

⁷⁴ ἐχεῖνος is used of Judgment Day a number of times (cf. Luke 6:23; 10:12; 2 Thess. 1:10; 2 Tim. 1:12, 18). The rabbis tended to use the expression of the messianic period or of the world to come (‍SBk‍, I, p. 468).

⁷⁵ σῷ puts some emphasis on your: “It has more weight than the gen. σοῦ or σεαυτοῦ; it serves to emphasize or to contrast” (‍BAGD‍). The triple repetition puts strong emphasis on the way they had appealed to the name of Jesus.

⁷⁶ δαιμόνιον is a term especially prominent in the Synoptic Gospels (11 times in Matthew, 13 in Mark, 23 in Luke; 63 times in the New Testament).

⁷⁷ δύναμις, which conveys the idea of power, is the usual word for a miracle in the Synoptic Gospels (John prefers to speak of “works” or “signs”). Matthew has the term 12 times.

⁷⁸ Cf. ‍Gutzwiller‍, “God who is holy can do holy things with instruments which are not. The ability to drive out demons says nothing about the inner holiness of the broom which God may make use of. Obedience is more important than miracles.”

BAGD Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, rev. and aug. by William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Frederick W. Danker from the 5th edn. (Chicago, 1979)

⁷⁹ It is not easy to find an exact equivalent for ὁμολογέω (a word Matthew has 4 times). It has meanings like “confess” or “declare”; in this context it will be something like the latter; ‍REB‍ has “I will tell them to their face.” The word is used of the judgment in 10:32; Revelation 3:5.

Knox R. Knox, The Holy Bible: A Translation from the Latin Vulgate (London, 1955)

JB The Jerusalem Bible (London, 1966)

REB The Revised English Bible (Oxford and Cambridge, 1989)

⁸⁰ Of the use of this term in 23:28 Davies remarks, “ἀνομία refers not to any outward conduct but to an inner state, a condition of the will” (‍SM‍, p. 205). That will be so here also. Matthew has the noun 4 times and is the only one of the Evangelists to use it.

⁸¹ The passage is similar to Luke 6:47–49, but the similarity is more in the thought than the language. For example, Matthew has 22 words in verse 24 and Luke has 33 in the corresponding section. But only 8 are common.

⁸² Davies sees “mine” as emphatic: “Everyone then who hears me, in respect to these sayings” and explains: “In this sense, the ethical teaching is not detached from the life of him who uttered it, and with whom it is congruous. It is personalized in him” (‍SM‍, p. 94).

⁸³ Some MSS have the active ὁμοιώσω αὐτόν. But the attestation of ὁμοιωθήσεται is superior, and the active may have arisen through scribes conforming this passage to that in Luke 6:47.

⁸⁴ φρόνιμος (7 times in Matthew, out of 14 times in the New Testament) indicates the man characterized by φρήν, the midriff, which was understood as the center of thought. He is thus the thoughtful, intelligent person. It is wise not only to hear Jesus’ teaching but to put it into practice.

⁸⁵ ὅστις here is qualitative, “who is of such a character as to.”

⁸⁶ βροχή is “a late and rare word” (‍Allen‍); it is found twice only in ‍LXX‍, while it occurs again in the New Testament only in verse 27. It is used of moistening of various kinds. ‍LSJ‍ notes its use for the inundation of the Nile and for irrigation as well as for rain (see also ‍LAE‍, pp. 81–82).

⁸⁷ There is a play on words with προσέπεσαν... οὐχ ἔπεσεν; it is something like “the winds fell against the house, and it fell not.”

⁸⁸ “In the natural sphere no man in his senses commits such a mistake. But utterly improbable cases have to be supposed in parables to illustrate human folly in religion” (‍Bruce‍).

⁸⁹ προσχόπτω is an unusual word for the action of the wind. In Matthew’s only other use of the verb it refers to striking the foot against a stone (4:6). ‍LSJ‍ gives the meaning as “strike one thing against another”; clearly it refers to vigorous action.

⁹⁰ He finds it less vigorous than προσπίπτω in verse 25 and says: “the house on the rock withstood all the pounding of the winds and the waters while the house on the sand gave way as soon as the tempest stumbled against its foundation.”

⁹¹ There are parallels in Mark 1:22; Luke 4:32. We should also notice John 7:46. Although there are no verbal coincidences there is the thought of the incomparableness of Jesus’ teaching.

KJV The King James Version

⁹² χαὶ ἐγένετο. This is the Septuagint’s rendering of a common Hebrew construction; it is especially frequent in Luke. Matthew has it in 8:26; 9:10; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1. He usually follows it with the aorist indicative. The construction is discussed in ‍Robertson‍, pp. 1042–43; Moulton doubts whether it is rightly regarded as a Semitism (‍M, I‍, pp. 16–17).

⁹³ The plural of λόγος is used of a discourse or a conversation.

⁹⁴ ἐχπλήσσω means “strike out of one’s senses”; it points to a great deal more than mild surprise. It may refer to astonishment (13:54) or shock (19:25). Perhaps there is something of both here, astonishment at the depth of the sermon and shock at what the judgment implies for the hearers. The imperfect points to continuous action: “they were more and more amazed, their astonishment went on and on” (‍Plummer‍, p. 120, n.).

⁹⁵ γάρ introduces the reason for the foregoing.

⁹⁶ The periphrastic ἧν διδάσχων puts some emphasis on the continuing nature of the activity.

⁹⁷ There is an impressive chain of teaching in ‍’Abot‍ 1:1–12 in which we read that each successive rabbi “received the Law” from the preceding one. There was no novelty; the succession guaranteed that the teaching went back to Moses. Daube argues that new teaching might be given by an ordained rabbi, and that the novelty in Jesus’ case was that he was not ordained (‍Daube‍, pp. 205–16). There may be something in this, but it does not dispose of the difference between the tone of Jesus’ teaching and that of any Jewish authority known to us, scribal or rabbinic (compare the difference in tone between, say, the Sermon on the Mount and ‍’Abot‍ 1:1–12). Davies and Allison quote a rabbinic saying: Hillel “discoursed of the matter all the day, but they did not receive his teaching until he said, Thus I heard from Shemaiah and Abtalion.” That is the authentic rabbinic note. But it is not the way Jesus taught.

¹ Davies remarks that this section (8:1–9:34) “expresses the infinite succour available in Christ in his deeds, just as v.1–vii.28 expresses his infinite demand” (‍SM‍, p. 90).

² CBQ, 40 (1978), pp. 559–73.

³ Ibid., pp. 572–73.

Schweizer E. Schweizer, The Good News according to Matthew (London, 1976)

⁴ See the article on leprosy by R. K. Harrison in ‍NIDNTT‍, II, pp. 463–66. Leprosy was so important that the Mishnah devotes a whole tractate to it (Nega'im, “Leprosy Signs”). See also the Excursus in ‍SBk‍, IV.2, pp. 745–63.

GNB Good News Bible (London and New York, 1976)

⁵ For the verb προσχυνέω see on 2:2 and 4:9.

⁶ Cf. ‍BDF‍, “If you wish (but in modesty I leave that open) …” (372[1]a).

⁷ χαθαρίζω (7 times each in Matthew and Luke) may be used of physical uncleanness (23:25–26), but also “of the healing of diseases which make a person ceremonially unclean, esp. leprosy” (‍BAGD‍, 1.b).

⁸ ‍Chrysostom‍ asks why Jesus touched the man and answers, “that He might signify by this also, that He is not subject to the law, but is set over it; and that to the clean, henceforth, nothing is unclean” (p. 173).

⁹ ὁράω (13 times in Matthew); it is used of physical sight (28:10) and of spiritual perception (5:8), as well as in the sense of taking care to do something.

¹⁰ ‍Tasker‍ cites Sanday’s verdict that this view is “wrongheaded” and considers it regrettable that some recent scholars have gone along with it.

¹¹ ἀλλά.

LB The Living Bible

AB The Anchor Bible: W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew (New York, 1971)

¹² In my commentary on John I have pointed out that there are several significant differences between the Johannine and the Synoptic stories and that they should be regarded as distinct (The Gospel according to John [Grand Rapids, 1971], p. 288).

¹³ Luke² (Leicester and Grand Rapids, 1988), p. 151.

¹⁴ War 5.503. ‍Barclay‍ cites Polybius for the qualities sought in centurions: “They must not be so much venturesome seekers after danger, as men who can command, steady in action, and reliable; they ought not to be over-anxious to rush into the fight, but when hard pressed, they must be ready to hold their ground, and die at their posts.” He adds, “The centurions were the finest men in the Roman army” (p. 301).

IDB The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols. (Nashville, 1962; supplementary volume, 1976)

Calvin J. Calvin, A Harmony of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids, 1980 rpt.)

¹⁵ βέβληται; notice the absolute use—it is not necessary to refer to the bed.

¹⁶ παραλυτιχός, a word used 5 times each in Matthew and Mark and not elsewhere in the New Testament. The word basically signifies “suffering from the relaxing of the nerves of one side” and thus “disabled, weak of limb” (‍GT‍). It was used widely of crippling diseases. Luke does not specify the nature of the illness, but he says the slave was near death.

¹⁷ δεινῶς (elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luke 11:53) means “terribly,” “fearfully,” while βασανίζω is used of torture, torment, and the like.

Ohol. Oholot

¹⁸ Turner understands the words as a question. They are an act of courtesy, taken so that Jesus would not place the officer in the awkward position of either causing him, a Jew, “to offend against the precepts of his own religion” or refusing to open his home to him (‍Grammatical Insights‍, p. 51). Allen, Carson, and Zahn also detect a question here; that it is a statement is the view of Bonnard, Ridderbos, and others.

¹⁹ If δέ were read (with א^* B 33 etc.), there would be something of a contrast: far from wanting Jesus to come, he wants something very different. But most MSS have χαί.

²⁰ Roof is στέγη, “a poetical subst. which has passed into general use in the Κοινή” (‍MM‍). ‍BDF‍ considers μου here an example of placing unemphatic words as close to the beginning of the sentence as possible (473[1]).

²¹ ἀλλά.

²² Jesus used the word θεραπεύω, and the centurion ἰάομαι. The former word carries the idea of service, whereas the latter denotes healing only. But in this context there is not much difference between them.

²³ “He recognized in Jesus an authentic authority which came to him from the highest source—from God himself” (‍Diétrich‍). ἐξουσία is an expressive term; it can signify “the power exercised by rulers or others in high position by virtue of their office” (‍BAGD‍, 4).

²⁴ It is not clear why the first and third imperatives are aorist while between them stands a present (all the more so since the present imperative of ἔρχομαι is not common in the Synoptic Gospels). Moule says that “the tense appears to be determined more by the meaning of the verb or by some obscure habit than by the ‘rules’ of Aktionsart” (‍IBNTG‍, p. 135). Turner sees πορεύθητι as used correctly, “be off!” (‍M, III‍, p. 75).

²⁵ ‍Calvin‍ remarks, “Though amazement is not appropriate for God, seeing it must arise from new and unexpected happenings, yet it could occur in Christ, inasmuch as He had taken on our human emotions, along with our flesh” (pp. 249–50). Jesus is twice recorded as being amazed, here at the faith of a Gentile and in Mark 6:6 at the unbelief of some Jews.

²⁶ τοσοῦτος.

RSV The Revised Standard Version

²⁷ Another Gentile, the Canaanite woman, is recorded as having faith that availed for another and as accepting that Jesus healed at a distance (15:28).

²⁸ δέ has adversative force. Luke has parallels to this part of the story in quite another section of his Gospel, 13:28–29, though the word order is different, as is some of the wording. Apparently Jesus used the idea on more than one occasion.

²⁹ ἥχω means “have come” and thus “be present.”

³⁰ ἀναχλίνω in the active has the meaning “make to lie upon” (Luke 2:7) and in the passive “recline.” In most of its 6 New Testament occurrences it refers to reclining at table, and this is surely its meaning here. ‍REB‍ brings this out with “sit with Abraham … at the banquet,” and ‍JB‍ with “take their places with Abraham … at the feast. …”

³¹ Turner doubts “whether Jesus distinguished betweeen an inner and an outer darkness. More likely he envisaged an ever-increasing intensity of it as the sinner moves further from God’s presence”; he goes on to refer to “the outermost darkness of all, the nemesis of blind refusal to believe” (‍Grammatical Insights‍, p. 59).

³² G. Barth refers to “the problem of Israel rejecting its Messiah and thereby its salvation, so deeply felt and seen by Matthew alone alongside Paul” (‍TIM‍, p. 112).

³³ Jesus had used θεραπεύω for healing in verse 7, the centurion had employed ἰάομαι in verse 8, and now Matthew uses the centurion’s word for the consummation.

³⁴ Matthew has the name Peter 23 times, whereas Mark has it 19 times and Luke 18. John uses it 34 times; clearly he was very interested in Peter. But the name Simon is found in this Gospel only 9 times, whereas it occurs in Mark 11 times, in Luke 17 times, and in John 25 times.

³⁵ In Jewish teaching a man should not make contact with a woman’s hand, not even to count money from his hand to hers (‍Ber.‍ 61a).

³⁶ διαχονέω is a general word for service and is used for a variety of services people may perform for one another. Its original use was for waiting at table, and that is a not unlikely meaning here. The imperfect tense may point to a continuing activity, or more probably it is conative, “she began to wait on him.”

³⁷ Matthew tells the story in 36 words, whereas Mark has 46 and Luke 52; but Matthew has only 6 words in common with Mark and 1 with Luke. The resemblance is in content, not language. Attention is often drawn to the opening, where Mark has “Now when evening came and the sun was set.” It is suggested that Matthew and Luke had Mark before them and that Matthew took the first expression and Luke the second. Alternatively it is sometimes thought possible that Mark has collated the other two (or the sources on which they relied). But in view of the many verbal differences either hypothesis is hazardous.

³⁸ ὅπως, found again in connection with fulfilment of prophecy in 2:23; 13:35. ἵνα is more usual.

LXX The Septuagint

³⁹ The only words that are identical are τάς, ἡμῶν, and χαί.

⁴⁰ The Hebrew in this passage, חֳלִי, means “sickness” (Brown, Driver, and Briggs), though it is often translated as “grief” (‍RSV‍) or “suffering” (‍REB‍).

M,  J. H. Moulton, III, Syntax, by Nigel Turner (Edinburgh, 1963)

⁴¹ He also says, “The prophet has in mind the Servant’s taking the diseases of others upon himself through his suffering and death for their sin, the root cause of sickness and disease” (‍Use of the OT‍, p. 230).

⁴² “Man came from God’s creative hand, healthy in soul and body” (‍Gutzwiller‍).

⁴³ “The violation of the laws of health will inevitably result in physical trouble of some sort, so that we may perhaps discern a certain kinship between sickness and sin. At any rate complete healing, making a person ‘every whit whole’, involves dealing with both moral and physical disorder. Looked at in this way it is not at all surprising that Christ’s atoning work should have as one of its effects a dealing with sickness, even if we do not see the full effects of that here and now” (Leon Morris, The Cross of Jesus [Grand Rapids, 1988], p. 93; in this book I have discussed this text, pp. 89–93).

⁴⁴ λαμβάνω is used in a wide variety of ways, for example, of taking coins from the temple (27:6) and peace from the world (Rev. 6:4). It can mean “take away completely,” and this is its meaning here. βαστάζω refers to carrying in a variety of senses; here it denotes carrying disease off so that we see it no more (‍BAGD‍, 3.a cites Galen for the use of the verb in this medical sense). Both verbs can have a meaning like “bear the burden of,” but “remove” is more likely.

⁴⁵ ‍Morgan‍ says that, while most people think that neither of these men went on to follow Christ, “We are not told the sequel, and we have as much right to think that they ultimately followed Him, as that they did not” (pp. 86–87).

⁴⁶ εἷς is used here in the sense of τις, an infrequent construction in Matthew.

⁴⁷ Unless we understand the Greek to mean, “whithersoever Thou art [at this moment] departing” (McNeile; so also France). Jesus’ reply would then mean that he was not on his way home.

⁴⁸ χατασχήνωσις has to do with a place to stay (σχηνή = “tent”); it means “encamping, taking up one’s quarters” (‍LSJ‍). With birds it seems to mean a place to roost (a nest is a place for breeding). The corresponding verb is used of birds in 13:32.

⁴⁹ We have already noticed that Matthew’s arrangement here is topical, not chronological, and it may well be that this incident comes from a much later time in Jesus’ ministry, especially if 9:10 is rightly understood to refer to Jesus’ home.

⁵⁰ χλίνω.

⁵¹ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

⁵² The Lord from Heaven² (London and Downers Grove, 1974), p. 28. I have discussed the term with references to the literature in pp. 25–28 of that book. See also my New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, 1986), pp. 101–3, 124–25, 159–60, 234–35. The literature on the subject is enormous, but there is a useful summary in ‍Carson‍, pp. 209–13. Kingsbury sees a minimal significance in the term and finds “this man” to be “its translational equivalent” (‍Matthew‍, p. 63; see also ‍Structure‍, pp. 113–22). But he does not consider the way the expression is used outside Matthew, nor the fact that in all four Gospels this is Jesus’ favorite way of referring to himself. It is not to be understood in isolation as though it were a Matthean construction, Matthew’s own way of referring to Jesus. Nor does Kingsbury do justice to what Matthew says, for he argues that in this Gospel “The most striking feature about Matthew’s use of Son of Man is that it assumes a totally ‘public,’ as opposed to ‘confessional,’ character”; “our conclusion is that ‘Son of man’ in the first Gospel is the term with which Jesus encounters the world, first Israel and then the Gentiles, and particularly his opponents and unbelievers” (‍Structure‍, pp. 114, 117). But Matthew gives examples of the use of the term among the disciples, as in 10:23; 13:37 (to name no others). In this Gospel the expression is not “totally ‘public.’ ”

⁵³ ἕτερος can mean another of a different kind (Bruce sees this meaning here, as does Buttrick). But in the New Testament it is often used in much the same sense as ἄλλος, and this is the way it should be taken here.

⁵⁴ It may be that we should read “one of his disciples” (with C L W Θ etc.; αὐτοῦ is not found in א B 33 etc.). In the days of Jesus his followers would have been designated as his by the insertion of “his” or the equivalent. In later times among the Christians no more was needed than “the” disciples. Matthew often has the earlier use. ‍AB‍ emends the text to read “not one,” but the reasons are inadequate.

⁵⁵ Turner considers χαί here as final (‍M, III‍, p. 334).

Ber. Berakot

Meg. Megilla

⁵⁶ ‍Chrysostom‍ says, “After the burial he must of necessity proceed to inquire about the will, then about the distribution of the inheritance, and all the other things that follow thereupon; and thus waves after waves coming in succession upon him, would bear him away very far from the harbor of truth” (p. 187).

⁵⁷ K. E. Bailey can say, “The phrase ‘to bury one’s father’ is a traditional idiom that refers specifically to the duty of the son to remain at home and care for his parents until they are laid to rest respectfully” (Through Peasant Eyes [Grand Rapids, 1983], p. 26).

Nixon R. E. Nixon, Matthew, in D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, A. M. Stibbs, and D. J. Wiseman, eds., The New Bible Commentary Revised (London, 1970)

⁵⁸ Ryle comments that nothing “has done more harm to Christianity than the practice of filling the ranks of Christ’s army with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, and to talk fluently of his ‘experience.’ ” He goes on to point out that “numbers alone do not make strength,” and advises, “Let us tell them plainly that there is a crown of glory at the end; but let us tell them no less plainly, that there is a daily cross in the way.”

⁵⁹ ‍Barclay‍ holds that Matthew has used the story to bring out an important spiritual truth: the meaning of the story is “that wherever Jesus is the storms of life become a calm. It means that in the presence of Jesus the most terrible of tempests turns to peace” (p. 318).

⁶⁰ ‍TIM‍, pp. 57.

⁶¹ ‍TIM‍, pp. 55–56.

⁶² πλοῖον is noted by ‍BAGD‍ as especially frequent in later times when ναῦς became rare. It may be used of a large seagoing ship (Acts 20:13), but on the Lake of Galilee it would have been a much smaller boat. Matthew generally speaks of the boat (8 times, plus 2 v.l.); he has the anarthrous form 3 times. In Buried History (the journal of the Australian Institute of Archaeology), vol. 25 (1989), pp. 46–54 there is a report on the discovery in February 1986 of a boat that had been buried in the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. It appears to be from the New Testament period. It measures 26.5 ft. (8.2 m.) in length, 7.5 ft. (2.3 m.) in breadth, and 4.5 ft. (1.4 m.) in height. The stern platform covers a ballast bag of 110–120 lbs. (50–59 kg.), used to adjust the trim of the boat; this was the “pillow” on which Jesus slept (Mark 4:38). With places for two oars a side (there was also a place for a mast) and a steering oar, it had a crew of five; it could carry up to ten passengers. A mosaic in a house in Migdal depicts such a boat.

⁶³ σεισμός, “shaking, shock” (‍LSJ‍, which notes its use for earthquakes, but, apart from this passage, not for storms). Matthew has it 4 times and Revelation 7 times, but no other New Testament book has it more than once. In all its other New Testament occurrences it refers to earthquakes. Neither Mark nor Luke uses it of this storm.

⁶⁴ δέ.

⁶⁵ Cf. Moulton, “we recognise in the perfective verb the sense of an inevitable doom, under the visible conditions, even though the subsequent story tells us it was averted” (‍M, I‍, p. 114).

⁶⁶ δειλός, again in the New Testament only in Mark 4:40; Rev. 21:8.

⁶⁷ The combination of cowardice and unbelief is a serious one. Carr points out that these two qualities head a list of those destined for the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8).

⁶⁸ “Faith chases out fear, or fear chases out faith” (‍Carson‍).

⁶⁹ ‍AS‍ differentiates the verb ἐπιτιμάω from ἐλέγχω (which also means “rebuke”) in that it expresses “simply rebuke, which may be undeserved (Mt 16:22) or ineffectual (Lk 23:40), while ἐλ. implies rebuke which brings conviction.” On rebuked McNeile comments, “This is important. The incident is related, not primarily for the sake of recording a miracle, but as an instance of the subduing of the powers of evil, which was one of the signs of the nearness of the Kingdom.”

NASB New American Standard Bible (La Habra, 1972)

Gundry R. H. Gundry, Matthew (Grand Rapids, 1982)

⁷⁰ ‍BAGD‍ comments on ὅτι: “ὅτι alone is used for εἰς ἐχεῖνο ὅτι with regard to the fact that”; here it means “what sort of man is this (in consideration of the fact) that?” (‍BAGD‍, 1.c). But it also notes the possibility that we have here the causal conjunction “because, since,” and this seems preferable. ‍Chamberlain‍ says that ὅτι here “seems to introduce a result clause” (p. 192).

⁷¹ It would be possible to take the two χαί’s to mean “both … and,” but it seems better to take the first in the sense “even” and the second as linking the winds and the sea as the elements that made up the storm.

⁷² G. Bornkamm has an interesting examination of this incident. He can say: “Matthew is not only a hander-on of the narrative, but also its oldest exegete, and in fact the first to interpret the journey of the disciples with Jesus in the storm and the stilling of the storm with reference to discipleship, and that means with reference to the little ship of the Church.” He goes on to speak of “the need of the disciples on the sea” as “a symbol of the distresses involved in discipleship of Jesus as a whole” and to view the peace Jesus brought as evoking the peace we read of in John 16:33 (‍TIM‍, pp. 55, 56). Early Christians interpreted the story in somewhat this way. For example, Tertullian wrote: “that little ship did present a figure of the Church, in that she is disquieted ‘in the sea,’ that is, in the world, ‘by the waves,’ that is, by persecutions and temptations; the Lord, through patience, sleeping as it were, until, roused in their last extremities by the prayers of the saints, He checks the world, and restores tranquillity to His own” (On Baptism, XII).

⁷³ Matthew has 135 words, Mark 324, and Luke 293. Matthew has about 50 words in common with Mark and about 40 in common with Luke, so his account is reasonably independent.

⁷⁴ In all three Gospels there is a textual problem. The name Gadara has the best attestation in Matthew (Metzger cites (א^*) B C^txt (Δ) Θ syr^s.p.h; Gerasa is read by it vg cop^sa syr^hmg2, and Gergesa by א^c C^mg K L W f1 f12 cop^bo). We should read Gadara in Matthew, though Gerasa seems to be the text in Mark and Luke.

⁷⁵ Josephus says that it lay “on the frontiers of Tiberias” (Life 42), which means the sea of Galilee. D. G. Pellett says, “coins indicate its shipping interests, so that the ‘country of the Gadarenes’ may well have extended to the shore of the lake” (‍IDB‍, II, p. 335).

Hill D. Hill, The Gospel of Matthew (London, 1972)

⁷⁶ χαλεπός basically means “hard”; ‍AS‍ notes its use for “hard to do or deal with, difficult,” “hard to bear,” and of persons, “hard to deal with, harsh, fierce, savage.” It is the last usage that we have here. It is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in 2 Timothy  3:1.

⁷⁷ ὥστε is used in its normal construction with the infinitive to introduce result.

⁷⁸ ‍REB‍ and ‍GNB‍ have “dared” (which may well express a truth, though it is not what Matthew is saying); ἰσχύω means “to have power, to be able.”

⁷⁹ ἐχεῖνος signifies “where the demoniacs dwelt; the road itself had not yet been mentioned” (‍BDF‍ 291[3]).

⁸⁰ τί ἡμῖν χαὶ σοί. It occurs twice in Mark and once in Luke and John (and in several places in ‍LXX‍). ‍BAGD‍ regards it as a Hebraism that made its way into colloquial Greek with meanings like “what have I to do w. you? what have we in common? leave me alone! never mind!” They say, “It serves to refuse a request or invitation” (sub ἐγώ). Turner has an extensive examination of the expression (‍Grammatical Insights‍, pp. 43–47). He thinks that the context here “demands a meaning like ‘Why are you troubling us?’ ” (p. 43).

⁸¹ βασανίζω is connected with βάσανος, “a touchstone,” a stone used in testing metals. It comes to mean “examine by torture” and thus, as here, simply “torture,” “torment.”

⁸² χαιρός has sometimes been sharply differentiated from χρόνος, and in reaction to this too much has been made of their similarity; see the note in my The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, 1988), p. 470, n. 64. Here it means “the suitable time,” “the right time.”

NIV The Holy Bible, New International Version (Grand Rapids, 1978)

⁸³ δέ here is purely transitional; it has no adversative force.

⁸⁴ μαχράν is the accusative of the feminine of the adjective μαχρός; with ὁδόν understood it means “a long way,” “far.”

⁸⁵ ἀγέλη is found in the New Testament only in this story (and in the parallels). χοῖρος meant originally a young pig, but it came to be used of pigs generally.

⁸⁶ This is the only place in the New Testament where the word δαίμων occurs (there are a few examples in late MSS). It does not seem to differ from δαιμόνιον.

⁸⁷ The construction is εἰ with the indicative. ἐχβάλλω is often used for “throwing” demons out of people.

⁸⁸ χρημνός is variously understood. ‍GNB‍ and ‍JB‍ have “cliff,” but the pigs would have gone over a cliff, not rushed down it (but perhaps χατά has a meaning like “over and down”). So with ‍REB‍’s “the edge.” It seems that Matthew is writing about a steep slope, but not a precipice.

⁸⁹ ‍Plummer‍ points out that the demons “cannot have intended or expected the destruction of the swine” (p. 133); that would mean the immediate loss of their new home. We have already seen that Jesus could be surprised (vv. 10, 26), and Plummer considers it possible that he had not foreseen the destruction of the pigs. But this does not seem to be what Matthew is saying. Ridderbos thinks that the demons did not take Jesus by surprise; he holds that they hoped to “turn the Gadarenes against Jesus,” a hope that was realized. But Matthew is scarcely telling us of a victory of the demons.

⁹⁰ ὅπως is here moving into the territory of the infinitive. But there may be some lingering sense of purpose; they made their request in order that they might get him out of the district.

⁹¹ Mounce points to modern reinterpretations of the story and comments, “Rather than arguing whether demon possession was a primitive explanation of eccentric behavior or whether it was morally right for Jesus to destroy a large herd of pigs, it is better to hear the story as it was told and come to grips with what it intends to tell us about the authority of Jesus over all the powers of the supernatural realm.”

¹ H. J. Held cites E. Lohmeyer, who notes that the story is “written around a clear and dominating centre-piece, the saying about the sin-forgiving power of the Son of Man.” He adds his own view, “this is what Matthew is concerned about” (‍TIM‍, p. 176).

² For πλοῖον see on 8:23. This one of Matthew’s three uses of the term without the article, though here we might have expected it: it was “the” boat in which they had gone across the lake and in which they were now returning.

³ Matthew has πόλις 26 times and Luke 39 (with another 42 in Acts), but Mark and John have it only 8 times each. Matthew and Luke are much more interested in cities. H. Strathmann points out that in ‍LXX‍ and the New Testament πόλις lacks the political significance it had for the Greeks; he gives its meaning as “an ‘enclosed place of human habitation’ as distinct from uninhabited areas, pastures, villages and single houses.” He finds “no sharp distinction between πόλις and χώμη” (‍TDNT‍, VI, p. 530). Moulton considers this one of the places where the emphasis of ἴδιος “is undeniable” (‍M, I‍, p. 90).

⁴ The force of the imperfect is “they were bringing”; Matthew depicts the action as in progress.

⁵ For παραλυτιχός see on 8:6. R. K. Harrison thinks that Luke’s description of this man as παραλελυμένος is “the more technical word,” and he holds that the sufferer “was evidently paraplegic.” He conjectures that this was caused “by an accident earlier in life or by a bony lesion” and adds, “In any event, organic changes would have taken place in the spinal cord, and it is improbable that they would have been initiated by factors of a psychic nature such as conversion hysteria, which would transmute an emotional state of guilt or conflict into physical symptoms of paralysis or blindness” (‍IDB‍, I, p. 851).

⁶ βεβλημένον; for this verb of lying on a sickbed cf. 8:6, 14.

⁷ εἶδον is used of ordinary visual perception and of sense perception of any kind. But this seems to be the only place in the New Testament where it refers to perceiving faith (though cf. Acts 14:9; it is used of seeing God’s kindness, Rom. 11:22).

⁸ θαρσέω, 3 times in Matthew, twice in Mark, and once each in John and Acts only in the New Testament, means “be cheerful” or “be courageous,” either of which is appropriate here.

⁹ τέχνον occurs 14 times in Matthew and Luke, the highest in any one book. It is used of a child in relation to its parents, but also as a form of familiar address to others than children. A number of translations have “my son” here.

¹⁰ Some MSS (such as C L W Θ) have the perfect ἀφέωνται, but it appears that ἀφίενται should be read (with א B lat etc.). Turner takes this as a punctiliar present, “sins receive forgiveness herewith” (‍M, III‍, p. 64). ‍Lenski‍ holds that both forms imply that the sins were dismissed the moment Jesus spoke. He also holds that we should not assume that the man’s paralysis was the result of his sin: “The Christian rule of charity holds good also in the case of exegesis, namely, that we should not make any man worse than he may be.” He thinks that it is sufficient to hold that the paralysis brought the man’s sinfulness to mind. Jesus never says that a specific illness is due to sin (cf. John 9:2–3).

¹¹ βλασφημέω occurs 3 times in Matthew; 4 times is the most it is found in any one book, but the word occurs in 14 books, so the idea is fairly widespread. The corresponding noun βλασφημία is found 4 times in Matthew. The original idea concerned the use of words, insulting words as opposed to εὐφημία, the use of words of good omen. Its meaning was extended to include all words and actions that were to the detriment of deity.

Sanh. Sanhedrin

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans. G. W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids, 1964-76)

¹² There is a textual problem, with ἰδών read by א C D K etc., and εἰδώς by B f1 565 700 etc. We should probably give the preference to the former as the more difficult reading; it is easier to “know” thoughts than to “see” them. But in practice there is not much difference in meaning.

¹³ ἱνατί (often written as ἵνα τί) means “in order that what might happen?” and thus “Why?” is meant in the sense of purpose. Matthew has it again in 27:46.

¹⁴ Curiously Bruce says, “It is implied that it is easier to forgive than to make a palsied man strong … the one is within the power of any man, the other belongs only to the exceptional man.” But there is no warrant, scriptural or other, for saying that to forgive sins “is within the power of any man.” Any person can, of course, forgive offenses against himself, and he should do so (6:14–15). But he cannot forgive sins against God, and that is what is in mind here. “What was in dispute was not the obligation of men to forgive each other for wrongs done to each other—every devout Jew was aware of that obligation. What was in question was the authority Jesus claimed from heaven to remit the sins of men” (‍AB‍).

¹⁵ ἵνα normally introduces a clause of purpose, here the purpose of the action Jesus is about to perform.

¹⁶ The aorist tense is used for the single act of taking up the bed (ἀρόν) and the present for the continuous walking home (ὕπαγε).

¹⁷ The verb φοβέω can mean “to be afraid, fear.” It is possible that the people were scared at what they saw. But their praise of God makes awe much more likely to be their emotion than fear. Carson, however, argues for the meaning “fear”; he says that people “should fear whenever they are confronted by an open manifestation of God. … Such fear breeds praise.”

¹⁸ Cf. ‍Filson‍, men here “cannot mean that all men have this authority. The authority was given to the man Jesus to exercise on behalf of mankind.” Some exegetes hold that Matthew teaches that the church has the power to forgive sins and that this passage points to this power of absolution (cf. also 16:19; 18:18; to which we might add John 20:23). ‍Bruner‍ accepts this view and cites F. W. Beare, “the plural ‘men’ … does not indicate at all that Matthew thinks of this as a general authority which God has granted to all men. The thought is that the authority of Jesus to pronounce the forgiveness of sins is now exercised by the ministers of his church” (p. 333). But despite the confident assertions of such scholars we must face the fact that in the New Testament there is not one example of any church or any Christian forgiving the sins of anyone; if this is what Jesus meant, surely someone would have done it. And Calvin long ago pointed to an important distinction: “This power is quite different from that which was entrusted to the Apostles, and which today the pastors of the Church exercise, for they do not so much remit, as testify that they are remitted, in declaring the mission they are enjoined to fulfil” (p. 260).

¹⁹ ἐχεῖθεν occurs 12 times in Matthew, but no more than 5 times elsewhere (Mark). It signifies “from there.”

²⁰ W. L. Lane draws attention to inscriptions showing that a number of people had two Semitic names (The Gospel according to Mark [Grand Rapids, 1974], pp. 100–101, n. 29). R. T. France takes Levi and Matthew as alternative names of the same man: “Since no Levi occurs in the texts of Mark and Luke, and since the stories told of the calls of Levi and of Matthew are clearly the same, this seems the most economical explanation” (Matthew: Evangelist and Teacher [Exeter, 1989], p. 69). Beare argues that the man’s name was Levi and that the author of this Gospel substituted Matthew, an obscure member of the Twelve. But France has the better position.

²¹ A. Edersheim has a useful summary of taxation practices as they concern Matthew (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, I [London, 1890], pp. 514–17).

²² ‍Barclay‍ points out that Matthew “lost a comfortable job, but he found a destiny. He lost a good income, but he found honour. He lost a comfortable security, but he found an adventure the like of which he had never dreamed” (p. 331).

²³ For χαὶ ἐγένετο see on 7:28. It makes a somewhat loose connection with what precedes. Here, as not uncommonly, it is followed by a genitive absolute plus χαί with a finite verb.

²⁴ Some interpreters suggest that it was Jesus’ own house and that it was he who gave the banquet, inviting many sinners. This cannot be dismissed as impossible, but nothing in any of the Gospels leads us to think that Jesus was wealthy enough to put on a large banquet such as this one clearly was (there were many there). A tax collector would have been rich, and we should accept the natural meaning of “the house” and Luke’s express statement that it was Matthew who gave the feast. Hill points out that the expression I have translated reclined with Jesus “could be understood simply as ‘had their meal along with Jesus’ ”; it seems to mean no more. Bonnard says that the context makes clear that it was Matthew’s house and not that of Jesus or Peter.

²⁵ K. H. Rengstorf says that ἁμαρτωλός means “the ‘sinner’ as a man who forfeits a correct relationship to God by his culpable attitude to the Jewish Law.” Here in conjunction with tax collectors it “partly means those who live a flagrantly immoral life (murderers, robbers, deceivers etc.), and partly those who follow a dishonourable vocation or one which inclines them strongly to dishonesty.” But for the Pharisees, a person “is not a sinner because he violates the Law, but because he does not endorse the Pharisaic interpretation” (‍TDNT‍, I, pp. 327, 328).

²⁶ The rabbinic regulation says, “If tax gatherers entered a house (all that is within it) becomes unclean”; people “may not be believed if they say ‘We entered but we touched nought’ ” (‍Ṭohar.‍ 7:6). Simply to enter the house thus made a person ceremonially unclean. The Pharisees would not do it.

²⁷ “Keep thee far from an evil neighbour and consort not with the wicked” (‍’Abot‍ 1:7) was the rabbinic dictum. The Pharisees would have received repentant sinners, but they would not seek them out. Jesus did. He actively sought sinners to bring them to repentance. This was a new thing in Judaism.

²⁸ δέ is adversative.

²⁹ For χαχῶς ἔχω see on 4:24; it is a general term for illness.

³⁰ ἰσχύω signifies “to be in possession of one’s powers” and thus “be well.”

³¹ “Jesus speaks as the One who, divinely sent, leads from ruin to salvation by restoring the fellowship with God which was disrupted by sin and penally abrogated” (A. Oepke, ‍TDNT‍, IV, p. 1095).

³² This corresponds to a formula used by the rabbis when they wanted someone to look more closely at the text to get its meaning (‍SBk‍, I, p. 499).

³³ τί ἐστιν is to be understood in the sense “what this means”; the verb “to be” can be used to signify “mean,” especially in the expression τοῦτʼ ἔστιν. “this means.”

³⁴ I have examined Hosea’s word (חֶסֶד) in Testaments of Love (Grand Rapids, 1981) and point out that it “suggests loyalty and constancy as well as indicating love” (p. 71). It is the attitude proper to partners in a covenant and thus should be manifested by the people who have made a covenant with God. This means those in the new covenant as well as the old. In ‍LXX‍ the word is translated by ἔλεος, a word that generally translated is “mercy” but that seems to have a wider meaning here.

³⁵ Matthew uses ἁμαρτωλός 5 times, 3 in verses 10–13. The Pharisees could signify by the term those who did not observe their regulations, but Jesus means people who really offended God. Such people, however, could be induced to repent and turn from their evil ways. His mission was to bring salvation to such sinners. ἀλλά, which sets the righteous over against sinners, is the strong adversative. It is not with the righteous but with sinners that his mission is concerned. Cf. Robert Munger, “The church is the only fellowship in the world where the one requirement for membership is the unworthiness of the candidate” (cited by C. H. Talbert, Reading Luke [New York, 1984], p. 64).

³⁶ We should not understand this to mean that Jesus had no business with those the world sees as righteous. After all, when the prophet cites the Lord as saying, “I want compassion and not sacrifice,” he is not saying that people should not offer sacrifice. He is saying that people should do both, but also that God’s priority puts compassion first. So here Jesus is not denying that he would ever call “righteous” people; he is saying that his priority is with sinners.

³⁷ We should notice that the prophets insisted that ethical conduct was more important than fasting (e.g., Isa. 58:6–7; Jer. 14:12; Zech. 7; 8:19).

³⁸ After νηστεύομεν some MSS read πυχνά (chiefly א^a and some OL), but this should probably be considered an assimilation to the text of Luke. More difficult is whether to accept πολλά (with א^b C D K L etc.). The word is absent from Mark, and the question is whether copyists put it in to make Matthew’s text agree with that of Mark (the word is lacking in א^* B etc.) or whether Matthew himself used it. ‍Tasker‍ sees internal evidence as against it “as the question at issue is not the frequency of fasting but the practice of it at all.” It is perhaps slightly more likely that we should accept the word.

³⁹ It is introduced by μή.

⁴⁰ οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ νυμφῶνος, where “sons” indicates those who are closely involved in the noun that follows. νυμφών (found in the New Testament only in the three accounts of this incident and as a v.l. in 22:10) means “the bridal hall.” ‍NASB‍ translates “attendants of the bridegroom”; ‍REB‍, “the bridegroom’s friends”; and ‍NIV‍, “the guests of the bridegroom.”

⁴¹ This imagery is used in the Old Testament to refer to God (e.g., Isa. 54:5–6; 62:4–5; Jer. 31:32; Hos. 2:16–20). Jesus’ words may be, as Carson thinks, “implicitly christological: he himself is the messianic bridegroom, and the Messianic Age has dawned.”

Johnson The Interpreter’s Bible, VII: S. E. Johnson, The Gospel according to St. Matthew, Exegesis (Nashville, 1951)

⁴² ἀπαίρω has no necessary implication of violence, but we should notice that Jesus speaks of being taken away, not of “going away”; the expression refers to the crucifixion. France thinks that it perhaps echoes Isaiah 53:8 and that it “suggests a violent end, and the beginnings of official opposition in this chapter would give an early intimation of this eventual outcome.”

⁴³ A. M. Hunter remarks that this saying is “an awkward bit of evidence for those who deny that Jesus could have foreseen the Cross from an early date”; “the saying itself surely cries out to be put early in the story, for it belongs to a time when the lightheartedness of Jesus’ disciples betrays no apprehension of danger. In short, the saying proves that in the full tide of the Galilean ministry Jesus faced the probability of death” (The Work and Words of Jesus [London, 1950], pp. 93–94).

Carr Cambridge Greek Testament: A. Carr, The Gospel according to St Matthew (Cambridge, 1892)

⁴⁴ ἐπιβάλλει ἐπίβλημα. The verb may be used of “put or lay upon” in various senses (Matthew’s only other use is for arresting a prisoner, 26:50). The noun denotes anything put or thrown on something. In the New Testament it is used only in this saying (and parallels).

⁴⁵ ῥάχος means a “ragged, tattered garment” (‍LSJ‍); it points to a worn rather than to a torn piece of clothing.

⁴⁶ ἄγναφος (derived from χνάπτω, “to card” wool) means “uncarded, undressed” and thus “new” (so ‍GNB‍).

⁴⁷ παλαιός means “old,” often with the idea that it is worn out or antiquated. ἱμάτιον often means a cloak, an outer garment, but it may be used in the sense of clothing in general.

⁴⁸ πλήρωμα, which Matthew uses only here, means “that which fills.” This could be another name for the patch (as McNeile, e.g., holds), but if so we are left without a meaning for αὐτοῦ (McNeile attaches it to ἱματίου, but its position in the sentence is against this). Michael G. Steinhauser denies that πλήρωμα is synonymous with ἐπίβλημα and translates, “No one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on to an old cloak; because the patch of unshrunk cloth draws the overlapping section of the unshrunk cloth from the cloak and the tear becomes worse” (‍ET‍, LXXXVII [1975–76], p. 313). This is an awkward translation, but it does seem to give the sense of it. Many modern translations simply ignore αὐτοῦ.

⁴⁹ οὐδέ carries on the negative, adding another instance of the same kind. Matthew uses the word 27 times, the most in any one book (next is Luke with 19 occurrences).

⁵⁰ οἶνος means “wine, normally the fermented juice of the grape … the word for ‘must’, or unfermented grape juice, is τρύξ” (‍BAGD‍).

⁵¹ Wineskins “were usually made from whole goat hides, the neck and the feet being tied. Naturally an opening was left for the escape of gases formed by fermentation” (J. F. Ross, ‍IDB‍, IV, p. 850).

⁵² If renders εἰ δὲ μή γε, where the negative negates the previous negative (in 6:1 it negated a previous positive): it signifies “but if (they do) not (refrain from putting new wine into old wineskins) the skins burst. …” See the note by J. L. Boyer, ‍GTJ‍, 4 (1983), pp. 182–83.

⁵³ ἀλλά.

⁵⁴  Matthew utilizes two words for new: νέος, used with wine, strictly means “the new primarily in reference to time, the young, recent” while χαινός, used with wineskins, signifies rather “the new primarily in reference to quality, the fresh, unworn” (‍AS‍). χαί is employed to introduce result, “and so” (‍NRSV‍).

⁵⁵ Gundry asks, “if we were to identify the new wine with the gospel and set it in contrast with the old wineskins of Judaistic forms, what could we make of the concern not to let the old wineskins of Judaistic forms perish?” But Jesus is not calling for the old wineskins to be preserved from perishing; he is saying that it is the new wineskins into which the new wine is put that are to be preserved. Ridderbos remarks, “Jesus did not mean to condemn the old forms; He merely said that they had had their time.”

TIM G. Bornkamm, G. Barth, and H. J. Held, Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew (London, 1963)

⁵⁶ It is possible to take Mark 5:21 as the conclusion to the previous story and to discern a new beginning, not necessarily in the same place, in verse 22. Mark has such transitions a number of times, for example, Mark 3:20, 31; 10:46.

⁵⁷ ἄρχων can denote leadership of many kinds, as is indicated by the variety of translations here: “a synagogue official” (‍NASB‍), “a president of the synagogue” (NEB), “one of the officials” (‍JB‍), “a Jewish official” (‍GNB‍). εἱς here has the force of the indefinite article (τις) rather than the numeral “one” (‍BDF‍ 247[2]). Cf. 8:19.

⁵⁸ The ἀρχισυνάγωγος was the leading man in the synagogue organization. According to I. Sonne, he “was responsible for maintaining order during the meetings and removing disturbances (Luke 4:13); he was authorized to distribute honors, such as the reading of the Torah, reading from the Prophets, and preaching” (‍IDB‍, IV, p. 489). There could be a number of officials with this title (Acts 13:15).

⁵⁹ Matthew alone uses the verb προσχυνέω here (see on 2:2; 4:9). The verb may mean no more than “bow down” and indicate respect. But it can also indicate the worship of a deity (as in 4:10), and it is probable that this is why Matthew uses it so often of Jesus. Even if in a given context respect seems required, this Evangelist is not unmindful of the worship that is due to Jesus. Turner thinks that the imperfect has the meaning “request” here, “as distinct from the aorist which means worship” (‍M, III‍, p. 65), but this does not seem probable.

⁶⁰ Matthew usually has ἄρτι after indicatives, but here it precedes an indicative. But its meaning is clear: it refers to what has happened in the immediate past.

⁶¹ Burton says of this conditional clause, “The protasis states a supposition which refers to the future, suggesting some probability of its fulfilment” (‍Burton, MT‍, 250). Turner sees more than this. “This kind of conditional clause has almost a temporal meaning (‘when’ for ‘if’) and represents rather more than mere probability. There was no doubt in the woman’s mind. She said to herself, ‘After I have touched that garment, I shall receive my healing’ ” (‍Grammatical Insights‍, p. 33).

⁶² The imperfect ἔλεγεν may mean “she kept saying.”

⁶³ Bengel argues that the term shows that “she was, therefore, not advanced in years.”

⁶⁴ σέσωχεν.

⁶⁵ Turner takes σέσωχεν as “a true resultative perfect denoting a past action of which the results still vividly survive”: “from that very hour received her wholeness ἐσώθη” (‍M, III‍, p. 69). Elsewhere he gives Jesus’ meaning as “You have received healing and are now in perfect health” (‍Grammatical Insights‍, p. 33).

Ketub. Ketubot

⁶⁶ For an account of mourning and burial customs see Daniel Rops, Daily Life in Palestine at the Time of Christ (London, 1961), pp. 328–34. ‍Schweizer‍ says that flute players at funerals “seem to have been employed only in Jewish households” (on v. 18, p. 229).

⁶⁷ χοράσιον is found 3 times in Matthew, 5 times in Mark, and nowhere else in the New Testament. It is a diminutive of χόρη, “girl.”

⁶⁸ The strong adversative ἀλλά; far from the death they believed to have taken place, she was in what was for Jesus no more than sleep.

⁶⁹ Cf. ‍Fenton‍, “the Christians would not have told the story unless they believed that it was a miracle. They understood Jesus to mean ‘Death is not the end, because I have come to raise the dead, to awake those who are asleep.’ ”

⁷⁰ It is not easy to get an adequate English equivalent of χαταγελάω; the prefix shows that a meaning like “laughed him down” is required, that is, they “derided him” (cf. ‍LSJ‍).

⁷¹ The verb ἐχβάλλω may here have something of the notion of force. It is unlikely that a crowd of noisy and busy mourners would easily have allowed themselves to be removed from the house that was the center of attention.

⁷² φήμη is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luke 4:14. It means something said (cf. φημί) and thus a report. News like this would, of course, be spread by word of mouth. There is a textual problem: whether we should read αὕτη (with B K L W etc.), αὐτῆς (א C Θ), or αὐτοῦ (D sah. etc.). Metzger explains why we should accept the first reading: “The more difficult expression ἡ φήμη αὕτη appears to have been alleviated by scribes either by reading αὐτῆς (“the news about her”) or by substituting αὐτοῦ (“his fame”).

⁷³ τυφλός is an adjective, but the masculine is often used as a noun, as here. It occurs 50 times in the New Testament, of which Matthew has 17, just over one third of the whole; he is the most frequent user of the term. On the frequency of eye trouble in Palestine Daniel Rops remarks: “The hot summers, with their brilliant light and their all-pervading dust, caused a great deal of eye-disease; and this is still the case, for at present the ophthalmic hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem treats twenty thousand patients a day” (Daily Life in Palestine at the Time of Christ [London, 1962], p. 321).

⁷⁴ χράζοντες certainly indicates that they were making a noise; Lenski renders “yelling,” and Moffatt, “shrieked” (which probably exaggerates).

⁷⁵ ἐλεέω is usually translated “Have mercy,” but “pity” seems more appropriate here; it is not a matter of being merciful to people who deserved harshness but of seeking pity for those in an unfortunate plight.

REB The Revised English Bible (Oxford and Cambridge, 1989)

⁷⁶ This is the only place in Matthew where πιστεύω is followed by ὅτι, a construction that points to the content of the faith. Matthew has the verb 11 times: 4 times it is followed by the dative (= accept as true), 4 times it is used absolutely, once each it is followed by ὅτι, εἰς, and ἐπί.

⁷⁷ ‍Chrysostom‍ comments that to lead them higher, and to teach them how they should think of him, “He did not say, ‘Believe ye that I am able to entreat my Father, that I am able to pray’ but, ‘that I am able to do this?’ ” (p. 211).

NRSV The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, 1990)

NIV The Holy Bible, New International Version (Grand Rapids, 1978)

LB The Living Bible

GNB Good News Bible (London and New York, 1976)

JB The Jerusalem Bible (London, 1966)

Bruner F. D. Bruner, The Christbook, Matthew 1–12 (Waco, 1987)

⁷⁸ It is difficult to find a good translation for the verb ἐμβριμάομαι, which is found 5 times only in the New Testament. It is connected with βρίμη, “strength” (‍AS‍), and is used for the snorting of horses. When used of people it seems to signify strong emotion, and thus here it signifies a strict charge. Some exegetes suggest that it should be understood in terms of anger, but this does not suit the context here; sternly is about as far as we can go. Some translations have “warned” (‍NASB‍, ‍JB‍), but it is not easy to understand what the warning could mean.

⁷⁹ δέ has adversative force, “But, (instead of obeying Jesus) they. …”

⁸⁰ διαφημίζω means “make known by word of mouth, spread the news about” (‍BAGD‍). We would expect it to have an object like “the news,” or “what had happened,” but instead we have αὐτόν, “him.” It was Jesus they made known.

⁸¹ χωφός is found 7 times in Matthew, 3 times in Mark, 4 times in Luke, and nowhere else in the New Testament. It has the meaning “blunt, dull,” and when used of the senses it may mean “dumb” or “deaf” or both (‍AS‍; those born deaf are mostly dumb as well). Here the meaning is clearly “dumb” (and perhaps “deaf” as well), and in 11:5 “deaf.”

Chrysostom John Chrysostom, Homilies on St. Matthew (NPNF, 1st ser., vol. X)

⁸² οὐδέποτε ἐφάνη οὕτως, “never was it seen thus”; Matthew has οὐδέποτε in 5 of its 16 New Testament occurrences (it is mostly used with past tenses as here, but cf. the future in 26:33). The verb means “appear, become visible” and is used here with the meaning “happened.”

⁸³ The instrumental use of ἐν.

⁸⁴ Since this verse is omitted in some MSS (D some OL syr^s), ‍REB‍ puts it in the margin; Allen, Zahn, and others likewise reject it. But it has strong attestation and may well be presupposed by 10:25 (‍Carson‍); it should be read.

⁸⁵ Matthew has all the cities only here; it is not a common expression. He uses χώμη only 4 times (Luke has it 12 times).

⁸⁶ σπλαγχνίζομαι is found 5 times in Matthew, 4 in Mark, and 3 in Luke only in the New Testament. It is connected with τὰ σπλάγχνα, “the entrails,” which were regarded as the seat of the emotions. But in distinction from χαρδία, this is “a more blunt, forceful and unequivocal term” (H. Köster, ‍TDNT‍, VII, p. 549). It is “the seat of the feelings, affections, esp. of anger” (‍LSJ‍). It is significant that whereas when the emotions are strongly involved the Greeks thought of anger, the Christians thought of compassion. This is the only place in the New Testament where the verb is followed by περί (ἐπί is more common).

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans. G. W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids, 1964-76)

NASB New American Standard Bible (La Habra, 1972)

⁸⁷ σχύλλω meant originally “to skin, flay” and thus came to be used metaphorically for serious trouble of any kind. The second verb is ῥίπτω, “to throw, hurl,” which might be used of violent action (like Judas hurling the money into the sanctuary, 27:5), or of nonviolent action such as the laying of people at the feet of Jesus (15:30). Clearly it means that the people in question are “down,” that is, “downcast,” “dejected.” McNeile thinks that the reference is to the people “as sheep, mishandled and lying helpless.”

⁸⁸ ‍Barclay‍ points out that “the orthodox religious leaders” and Jesus saw ordinary people in different ways: “The Pharisees saw the common people as chaff to be destroyed and burned up; He saw them as a harvest to be reaped and to be saved” (p. 356).

⁸⁹ ἐργάτης can denote any workman, but it is used especially of agricultural laborers.

⁹⁰ There is a noble rabbinic saying attributed to R. Tarfon, “The day is short and the task is great and the labourers are idle and the wage is abundant and the master of the house is urgent” (‍’Abot‍ 2:15).

⁹¹ δέομαι, used here only in Matthew but 22 times in the New Testament, means prayer that springs from a sense of need (‍AS‍ gives the first meaning of the verb as “to want for oneself; 1. to want, need”). To appreciate the need is to be driven to prayer.

⁹² “The prayer is not to be a substitute for the labor: the disciples were to be reapers as well as praying men. But the work will not be done without prayer” (‍Buttrick‍).

⁹³ Carr says that ἐχβάλῃ “denotes the enthusiastic impulse of mission work.”

⁹⁴ Patte asks, “what will be the predominant role? The positive role of a shepherd? Or the judgmental role of the harvesters?” But in this passage Jesus is not speaking about two different roles; he is talking about the care God has for his own and the importance of bringing them home to him.

BAGD Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, rev. and aug. by William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Frederick W. Danker from the 5th edn. (Chicago, 1979)

¹ ‍AB‍ emphasizes the importance of the messianic community: “even if we had no evidence from the OT, the Qumran literature is evidence enough that in contemporary Jewish thinking a Messiah without a Messianic Community was unthinkable.”

² ἐξουσία is here followed by the genitive of that over which the authority is exercised; it may also be used of the one who exercises authority (Rev. 12:10).

³ We might have expected authority ἵνα…, but Matthew says ὥστε (which he uses 15 times). He is more interested in the result than the purpose. Burton finds the construction to express “Tendency or conceived result thought of as such” (‍Burton, MT‍, 371), while Moule thinks it “perhaps” indicates purpose (‍IBNTG‍, p. 140; a number of others hold that this shows that ὥστε can signify purpose). There is some notion of force in ἐχβάλλω; it was not to be expected that the evil spirits would cheerfully and easily leave people they “possessed,” but the Twelve had the power to expel them.

⁴ ἀπόστολος is found once each in Mark and John also, and 6 times in Luke. But it occurs 28 times in Acts and 34 in Paul; it was a significant word in the life of the early church, though apparently not so much so during the lifetime of Jesus. I have examined the word in chapter III of my Ministers of God (London, 1964). Many commentators draw attention to the Jewish functionary called the shaliaḥ and cite the adage “a man’s shaliaḥ is as it were himself.” But this overlooks the fact that there is no evidence for the shaliaḥ as early as the time of Jesus. G. W. H. Lampe says, “The institution which we know in the fourth century almost certainly came into existence later than the time of the New Testament, and the ‘shaliachate’ in this sense is not likely to have contributed anything to the development of the Christian apostolate” (Some Aspects of the New Testament Ministry [London, 1949], pp. 15–16).

Barclay William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1958)

⁵ Matthew has ὁ Ἰσχαριώτης, but Mark and Luke Ἰσχαριώθ. The list in Acts omits the traitor. The meaning of Iscariot is disputed. It may be a place name meaning “man of Kerioth” (cf. Josh. 15:25; Jer. 48:24, 41), though some other suggestions are that it is derived from the Latin sicarius, referring to a rebellious group, or that it reflects the man’s occupation and means “Judas the dyer,” or that it signifies “Judas the red-head,” or “carrier of the leather bag.” The first suggestion is probably the best, and it agrees with the fact that Judas’s father was also called Iscariot (John 6:71). The aorist participle is used of action future to the time of which Matthew writes, though antecedent to the time of writing (cf. ‍BDF‍ 339[1]; ‍Burton, MT‍, 142).

⁶ Καναναῖος is not to be seen as “Canaanite” but as a translation of the Aramaic קַנְאָו, and thus means “Zealot”; Matthew and Mark have transliterated, while Luke has translated the word. NEB has “Simon, a member of the Zealot party.” It is not clear that there was a party of Zealots as early as this; there was hostility to Roman rule, but that those who opposed it were called “Zealots” does not appear to be attested until the war of A.D. 66–70. Some scholars hold that Simon was a member of the resistance movement, but the term may indicate simply that he was zealous for God’s law.

⁷ D and some other MSS call this man Lebbaeus, and the later MSS give him both names.

Calvin J. Calvin, A Harmony of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids, 1980 rpt.)

⁸ The verb ἀποστέλλω is related to the word ἀπόστολος; it was fitting that the “apostles” should engage in “apostling.”

⁹ παραγγέλλω. ‍AS‍ (sub ἐντέλλω) notes that this verb is used “esp. of the transmitted orders of a military commander” (passed along a line of soldiers?). It is used of a variety of people in authority, but the note of authority is constant.

¹⁰ Turner takes ἐθνῶν as an objective genitive with the meaning “a way leading to” (‍M, III‍, p. 212), but Moule regards the genitive as practically doing the duty of an adjective to give the meaning, “to Gentile parts” (‍IBNTG‍, p. 38).

¹¹ δέ has adversative force, since it sets the Jews over against all those outside that nation. μᾶλλον (9 times in Matthew; only 1 Corinthians with 10 has more) indicates a preference: rather than going to the Gentiles and Samaritans they were to go to Israel.

¹² ἀπόλλυμι (19 times in Matthew, 27 in Luke; next are Mark and John with 10) can mean “lose” (Luke 15:8–9), but also “ruin, destroy” (Mark 1:24) and even “kill” (2:13) or “destroy eternally” (Rom. 14:15). McNeile, Bruner, and others favor “perished” as the meaning here, but “lost” seems more probable, “sheep that have wandered from the fold” (‍Mounce‍).

¹³ δωρεάν means “in the manner of a gift”; it points to the freeness with which God had supplied the needs of the disciples, and it formed a model for their own giving,

¹⁴ χτάομαι means “procure for oneself, acquire, get” (‍BAGD‍); it points to a serious effort to acquire what would be necessary to sustain them on their journey. Gundry and others think that this refers not to money for the journey, but to money from the journey (cf. Goodspeed, “Do not accept gold …”). This is a possible meaning of the verb, but the same verb covers two tunics, shoes, and a staff. Would it be likely that they would acquire these on their journey? Moreover, Mark tells us that Jesus introduced the words with the command that they “take nothing for the journey” (Mark 6:8).

¹⁵ In verse 9 μή introduces a negative command, and this is carried on with a string of μηδέ. Here we have μή again, after which μηδέ is resumed. But there seems to be no difference in meaning.

¹⁶ Michaelis says, “When he put εἰς ὁδόν after πήραν Mt. was undoubtedly thinking of the travelling wallet which would contain what was needed en route, not of the beggar’s sack which would be empty at the start and filled during the journey” (‍TDNT‍, VI, p. 121, n. 14).

¹⁷ We see the distinction in Yebamot 12:1, where we find that the rite of halitzah (Deut. 25:9) is valid if performed with a shoe but not if performed with a sandal unless the sandal has a heel piece. Daniel-Rops distinguishes between the shoe and the sandal (Daily Life in Palestine at the Time of Christ [London, 1962], pp. 217–18). ‍LSJ‍ gives the meaning of ὑπόδημα as “sole bound under the foot with straps, sandal,” but adds that it may also be used of “a shoe or half-boot, which covered the whole foot.”

¹⁸ In Mark 6:8–9 the Twelve were to take (αἴρω) a staff and sandals; the difference may be that in Matthew they are not to acquire (χτάομαι) these things. In both accounts Jesus is prohibiting elaborate preparations for their journey.

¹⁹ Allen thinks it possible “that Christ wished His missioners to avoid anything that would make them look like ordinary travellers journeying for purposes of trade or pleasure.”

Ber. Berakot

²⁰ Cf. Edersheim, “The symbolic reasons underlying this command would, in both cases, be probably the same: to avoid even the appearance of being engaged on other business, when the whole being should be absorbed in the service of the Lord” (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, I [London, 1890], p. 643). Against this view is the fact that two tunics are prohibited, as well as staff, shoes, bag, and wallet.

²¹ γάρ.

²² τροφή is used 4 times in Matthew; it may be used literally of things to eat (as here) or metaphorically.

²³ δʼ comes rather later in its clause than is usual; it serves to link this with the preceding. On ἣν... ἄν ‍BDF‍ comments, “Relative clauses which can be converted into conditional clauses usually make no assertions about concrete realities, but rather general assertions or suppositions, so that ὅς... ἄν, corresponding to the ἐάν of the conditional clause proper, appears as a rule” (‍BDF‍ 380[1]).

²⁴ ἐξετάζω (twice in Matthew and once in John only in the New Testament) means “scrutinize, examine” and may be used “as legal t.t. question judicially” (‍BAGD‍).

²⁵ ἐλθάτω is a 3rd person imperative; the meaning is not “you allow your peace to come …” but something like “then may your peace come. …” A similar caution is involved in interpreting ἐπιστραφήτω. We are not to think of the apostles as in some way withdrawing their kind words (as ‍GNB‍, “take back your greeting”), but the imperative is rather directed at the words themselves. They will not bring peace on unworthy people. In the similar Luke 10:6 there is a future, not an imperative.

²⁶ ἐχτινάσσω means “to shake off.” In Mark 6:11 it refers to shaking the feet, and in Acts 18:6 to shaking clothing. This is Matthew’s one use of the word. An example of the practice is given in Acts 13:51.

²⁷ See ‍SBk‍, I, p. 571. Earth from a foreign country is included in a list of things that convey uncleanness, alongside that from a grave area (‍Ohol.‍ 2:3;  ‍Ṭohar.‍ 4:5).

²⁸ Cf. ‍BAGD‍, the city of Sodom was an example “of extraordinary sinfulness” and as such “as proof of the terrible power of God to punish.” It mentions an inscription in Pompeii that includes the words “Sodoma Gomora”; this indicates a very widespread reputation for the two cities.

²⁹ ἀνεχτός occurs 3 times in Matthew and twice in Luke only in the New Testament. It derives from ἀνέχω, which in the New Testament is always middle with the meaning “to bear with, endure” (‍AS‍).

³⁰ D. R. A. Hare comments on “how large a proportion of the material in the chapter is concerned with the non-acceptance of the gospel and the hostility with which the missionaries are treated. There is no instruction regarding what is to be done with converts in a successful mission!” (The Theme of Jewish Persecution of Christians in the Gospel according to St. Matthew [Cambridge, 1967], p. 98).

Plummer A. Plummer, An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Matthew (London, 1910)

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