39 See SBk , I, pp. 574–75.
31 Matthew has ἐγώ 210 times. This is considerably below John’s total of 465 and a little below Luke’s 215, but more than in any other book. Matthew is fond of this emphasis.
32 “We are not primarily fighters, we are not allowed to be haters, and we cannot even use the arsenal of invective that revolutionary movements find indispensable for motivation; thus in these ways disciples, factually, are sheep” (Bruner, p. 380).
33 “Wolves seem hardly convertible things; Sheep strange missionaries to be sent to them. But so Christ describes their position. And for centuries it was their willingness to die for Christ and men; that was the greatest converting quality in the apostles of Christ” (Glover).
34 Cf. G. Bornkamm, “they are also comforted, for this is no unforeseen disaster, but exposure to danger is involved in the very fact that they are sent out by Jesus. In a series of sayings from v. 11 on Mt. brings out the eschatological significance of the relation of the disciples to the world by clearly contrasting their authority and the persecution which awaits them” (TDNT, IV, pp. 310–11).
35 φρόνιμος, from φρήν, “midriff,” which was considered the organ of thought, and thus “mind, thought”; φρόνιμος signifies “practically wise, sensible, prudent” (AS).
36 W. Foerster points out the widespread “idea of the cunning and malice of snakes, as indicated in the expression ‘to nourish a snake in one’s bosom,’ related proverbs, and many phrases” (TDNT, V, p. 567).
37 ἀχέραιος means “unmixed” and points to single-mindedness in doing the right; “it demands not naivety, but an irreproachable honesty” (France).
38 περιστερά means a pigeon or dove (the ancients apparently did not differentiate closely). “The dove, which fr. the viewpoint of natural science in ancient times, has no bile, was for the early Christians the symbol of all kinds of virtues” (BAGD).
39 See SBk, I, pp. 574–75.
Mak. Makkot
Sanh. Sanhedrin
40 There is a useful account of the Jewish system in TDNT, IV, p. 516.
41 ἡγεμών is found in Matthew in 10 of its 20 New Testament occurrences. It can mean a prince (2:8) but more often it is used of governors, often of Pilate.
42 γάρ. We might have expected the finite verb, but we have the participle οἱ λαλοῦντες.
43 But is the strong adversative ἀλλά.
44 Rise up renders the verb ἐπανίστημι (again in the New Testament only in Mark 13:12); it means something like “rise up in rebellion” and here indicates a complete disregard for parental authority. θανατόω means “kill someone, hand someone over to be killed, esp. of the death sentence and its execution” (BAGD).
45 The periphrastic tense points to more than a passing whim; there will be continuing hatred. Robertson takes the tense as “expressing continuance” (p. 357); he says that it was “The very failure of the future to express durative action clearly” that led to this periphrastic construction (p. 889).
46 εἰς τέλος lacks the article and could mean simply “finally.” But in this context it is more likely to signify the end of the trials in question.
47 ὄταν.
48 “It sometimes happens that there is more real heroism in daring to fly from danger than in stopping to meet it. To stop and meet useless risks, because one is afraid of being called a coward, is one of the subtlest forms of cowardice; and the desire to be thought brave is not a high motive for courageous action” (Plummer, p. 152).
49 The word is ἑτέραν, which strictly means “the other of two,” but in this context surely means “next.” The use here “is peculiar” (BDF 306[2]), but Turner finds it an example of the classical use for “a definite division into two” (M, III, p. 197). Bruce understands the meaning as “not merely to another city numerically distinct, but to a city presumably different in spirit.”
50 τελέω (7 times in Matthew out of 28 times in the New Testament) means “bring to an end,” “finish,” “complete.”
51 The verb is ἔρχομαι, which is used for a variety of comings (including that of Jesus at the end of the age, which BAGD sees here).
52 The Quest of the Historical Jesus (London, 1911), pp. 357–62.
AB The Anchor Bible: W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew (New York, 1971)
53 G. Bornkamm remarks, “the title and address of Jesus as χύριος in Matthew have throughout the character of a divine Name of Majesty. The legitimation of this from Scripture is found in Ps. 110.1 (22.41ff.)” (TIM, pp. 42–43). On this Kingsbury says, “The effect of Bornkamm’s essay was to put an end for all practical purposes to the dispute, as far as Matthew’s Gospel is concerned, over whether kyrios is a christological title or merely an expression of human respect.” He sees the present passage as “enunciating the principle that the disciples and others in Matthew’s Gospel who approach Jesus uttering the word kyrie are acknowledging thereby that he is a figure not merely of human but of lordly, or divine, dignity” (Matthew, p. 104).
54 ἀρχετός occurs in the New Testament twice in Matthew and once in 1 Peter. It is connected with ἀρχέω, “to suffice.” ἵνα is here equivalent to the infinitive; it does not have telic force.
55 εἰ... ἐπεχάλεσαν is a condition of reality, “if (as they have done). …”
LXX The Septuagint
56 If it be held unlikely that people would use the name of a demon as an insult, we should probably accept the suggestion that the term was simply “a vulgar insult with no reference to a demon” (McNeile). But a reference to a demon is more likely.
57 οἰχιαχός is found in the New Testament again only in verse 36. It means any member of a household and is often used of a member of the family. But it could also be used of dependents, and it is, of course, used in this way here.
58 εἰς τὸ οὖς = “into the ear”; the singular shows that whispering is meant. Jesus is referring to something spoken in such a way that it will be heard only by the one for whom the words are directly intended.
59 The coming of the Sabbath, for example, was announced from the highest rooftop in the town (SBk, I, p. 580). Six blasts were blown on the trumpet, the first for those in the fields to cease work, the second for those in the town and the shops to desist, and so on (Shab. 35b).
60 φοβέομαι is here followed by ἀπό (though in v. 26 and later in this verse it takes the accusative). This may be a Hebraism (Robertson, p. 577), though Lenski views it as “indicating a fear that causes one to flee from what is feared.” The construction is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in the parallel passage, Luke 12:4.
61 ἀποχτείνω (13 times in Matthew; 74 times in the New Testament) can refer to any way of bringing the life of the body to an end. In this verse it is also used of ending true spiritual life.
62 ψυχή can refer to this earthly life (2:20; Rev. 8:9) or to the soul as the inner life (26:38). It may also signify that part of us which transcends this earthly life and survives death (here). E. Schweizer comments on the present passage: “Here again ψυχή is ultimately life in the authenticity which God intended and which has still to be regarded as bodily life even in hell. Thus man can be presented only as corporeal, but what affects the body does not necessarily affect the man himself, for whom a new body has already been prepared by God” (TDNT, IX, p. 646).
63 μὴ δυναμένων: they are not able.
64 “Two types of fear are here contrasted: fear of men is a self-interested cowardice, but fear of God is a healthy response of awe and obedience in the face of the Almighty” (France).
65 Bonnard points out that this does not mean that the body has little importance but rather that “God alone decides the destiny of the whole person.”
66 στρουθίον is a diminutive of στρουθός, “sparrow,” and thus means “little sparrow”; Jesus cites a very small bird and uses a diminutive even of that! MM cites evidence “that of all birds used for food sparrows were the cheapest.” An inscription of the Emperor Diocletian setting out the maximum prices that might be paid for various articles of commerce shows that sparrows were the cheapest of birds used for food (see LAE, pp. 272–74).
67 The question is introduced with the emphatic οὐχί, which decisively looks for a positive answer.
68 A different word from that in 5:26. The ἀσσάριον (diminutive of the Latin as) was a Roman copper coin of small value, one sixteenth of a drachma, and a drachma was the wage paid to a laborer for a day’s work. Coins of various nationalities circulated in first-century Palestine.
69 Another view is that of Barclay: “God marks the sparrow every time it lights and hops upon the ground” (I, p. 389). But Mounce objects that this “removes the idea of martyrdom that is central to the section.”
70 ἄνευ, elsewhere in the New Testament only twice in 1 Peter (and a v.l. in Mark 13:2). It means much the same as χωρίς, “without,” “apart from.”
RSV The Revised Standard Version
71 Turner includes the singular χεφαλῆς among those “Contrary to normal Greek and Latin practice” where “Something belonging to each person in a group of people is placed in the sing.” as in Aramaic and Hebrew (M, III, pp. 23, 24).
72 ἀριθμέω occurs only here in Matthew (and once in Luke and Revelation).
73 μὴ φοβεῖσθε may mean “Stop being afraid” or “Do not be in a continuing state of fear”; either way the command makes it clear that the believer should live a life without fear. The verb is in the aorist imperative in verse 26, and in the present in verse 28 as well as here.
74 διαφέρω, literally “carry through,” comes to mean “differ”; when one thing differs from another, it may well be in the sense that it is worth more. At any rate this verb is used of such differences.
75 Both πᾶς and ὅστις (see on 2:6) are favorite Matthean words. The combination includes all who are in the class described. οὖν carries the argument along in logical sequence. Jesus has been speaking of the care the Father has for his creation. Therefore allegiance to him is important.
76 ὁμολογέω has meanings like “promise” and “agree,” but it is also used in the sense of a public declaration and is used especially in this way for confessing Christ. It is usually followed by the accusative (as it is in 2 Clem. 3:2 in quoting this saying). Burton includes this among passages with “Future Supposition with More Probability” and notes that it is rare either in classical or New Testament Greek to have the subjunctive without ἄν (Burton, MT, 307). ἐν ἐμοί is an Aramaism (BAGD, 4).
77 “Again we have a claim which is monstrous if He who makes it is not conscious of being Divine. Who is it that is going to own us or renounce us before God’s judgment-seat (32, 33)? Who is it that promises with such confidence that the man who loses his life for His sake shall find it?” (Plummer, p. 157).
78 Robinson denies that this passage has in view arbitrary rewards and punishments: “It is in the nature of things that a man cannot be on both sides at once. If he belongs to Jesus, is one of his friends, holds a place in his company, then it follows that he will admit and even claim his position. If he fails, then by that very act he excludes himself from the divine community whose essential bond is a common love and loyalty to Christ.”
79 βάλλω is somewhat unexpected for bringing peace, though the verb is, of course, used in senses like “to put, place” as well as the more vigorous “throw.” But the meaning is clear enough. The verb is used 34 times by Matthew, where Mark and Luke have it 18 times and John 17. It occurs 28 times in Revelation, but it does not occur at all in Paul or Hebrews or in 1 and 2 Peter.
80 The strong adversative ἀλλά marks the contrast, not peace but a sword.
81 μάχαιρα (7 times in Matthew, 29 times in the New Testament) means a large knife or a small sword, a dirk (see AS). Here, of course, there is no particular emphasis on the size of the weapon. It is simply used as a symbol of strife.
Argyle A. W. Argyle, The Gospel according to Matthew (Cambridge, 1963)
82 In a series on “Uncomfortable Words” Matthew Black examines this saying (which he calls “The Violent Word”). He interprets “fire” in the Lukan equivalent as referring to judgment and thinks that Matthew has added “the symbolism of the Sword. The Final Judgment of God on the earth will be by Fire and Sword” (ET, LXXXI [1969–70], p. 118). That our understanding of final judgment may be helped by the symbolism of fire and sword is undoubted. But in this passage the subject is division in families, not the final judgment.
83 διχάζω means “to cut into two parts,” thus “divide,” “set at variance.” Moule says of the infinitive here, “its basic, literal, meaning must actually be consecutive” (IBNTG, pp. 143–44).
84 There was a rabbinic view that “when Messiah comes” there will be a number of evils, and one of them will be that “daughters will rise up against their mothers, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law” (Sanh. 97a).
85 ἐχθρός is connected with ἔχθος, “hatred,” and may mean passively “hated,” “hateful,” or, actively, “hating” (AS). Either way it indicates hostility and thus is the general term for enemy.
86 οἰχιαχός, in the New Testament again only in verse 25, signifies any member of a household.
87 ὑπέρ with the accusative is used primarily of place, “over, above, across,” but from this it comes to indicate degree, as here.
88 Matthew uses φιλέω 5 times in all (it occurs 13 times in John and 25 times in the New Testament). ἀγαπάω occurs 141 times, so it is much commoner. G. Stählin points out that in nonbiblical Greek φιλέω is the more common word, but this is reversed in LXX (TDNT, IX, p. 116). There appears to be little difference in meaning in the two words in the New Testament. I have examined the use of φιλέω in Testaments of Love (Grand Rapids, 1981), ch. 11.
89 There is a rabbinic saying about looking for lost property; if a man is seeking “that of his father and that of his teacher, his teacher’s has first place—for his father did but bring him into this world, but his teacher that taught him wisdom brings him into the world to come” (B. Meṣ. 2:11). But Jesus claims more than this, for he is more than simply a teacher; he is the Savior.
90 Matthew has σταυρός 5 times, which is more than in any other book in the New Testament (Mark and John have it 4 times, and it is spread over the Pauline epistles 10 times; the New Testament total is 27).
91 BDF denies that χαί here is equivalent to οὐδέ and gives the meaning as “and yet follows me” (445[3]).
92 “The words about losing one’s life to find it are among the most quoted of all Jesus’ sayings—six times altogether in the gospels—doubtless because it summed up, in words from his own lips, that aspect of him with which his later followers were particularly drawn to identify themselves” (Green). Cf. 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25.
93 The aorist participle εὑρών here looks forward to the action that will occur. So with ἀπολέσας.
94 ἀπόλλυμι, used, for example, of losing or destroying one of the members of the body in 5:29, 30.
95 AB translates “the Prophet” and a little later “the Righteous One,” seeing the passage as referring to Jesus and the rewards he would give to those who received him. But this is not the way the Greek reads.
96 Another view is that prophet refers to any disciple, regarded as a charismatic, one in whom the Spirit dwells. Thus Schweizer thinks that both disciple and good man refer to the disciple: “The first term refers to the charismatic activity of the disciple, the second one to his obedience towards God’s Law as interpreted by Jesus” (NTS, XVI [1969–70], p. 223). But this passage surely means that there is a difference between a prophet, a good man, and one of the “little ones”; that is the thrust of it all.
97 Turner construes εἰς here as causal (M, III, p. 266). “By a usage similar to that with ref. to Heb. שֵׁם … but also common in Hellenistic … of all that the name implies” (AS, 2).
98 μισθός means “wages” as well as “reward,” and if this meaning be held to be the right one here, then Jesus will be saying, “he will receive the wage of a prophet, remuneration befitting a prophet.”
99 For δίχαιος see on 1:19. The word has about it the air of “rightness,” justice, or conformity to the law of God, and it could be translated as “a just man” or “a righteous man.” Matthew is very fond of the word, which he uses 17 times. D. Hill argues that in Matthew the term, when linked with “prophets,” refers to teachers in the early church (NTS, XI [1964–65], pp. 296–302). But the evidence is not convincing.
100 “To receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man is to receive him as one who shows the divinely appointed way in his life” (T. W. Manson, The Sayings of Jesus [London, 1949], p. 183).
101 μόνον is omitted by D syrs.c, but it should be read. It is absent from the Markan equivalent (Mark 9:41), and the word is certainly Matthean; it is found 7 times in this Gospel, twice in Mark, and once in Luke. It “appears to represent a genuine Matthean touch” (Metzger). The word “water” is omitted; we have simply “a cup of cold —.”
102 Carr points to a gradation, “apostles—prophets—the saints—the young disciples. The simplest act of kindness done to one of Christ’s little ones as such shall have its reward.”
103 TDNT, IV, p. 651. The rabbis mostly have a different usage. For them the young or the small are the immature. Cf. R. Jose b. Judah of Kefar ha-Babli: “He that learns from the young, to what is he like? To one that eats unripe grapes and drinks wine from his winepress. And he that learns from the aged, to what is he like? To one that eats ripe grapes and drinks old wine” (’Abot 4:20). Cf. SBk, I, p. 592. Michel further says, “Whereas the term ‘the small’ is used disparagingly in the Rabbis (the immature, those who are not yet great and old), and whereas μέγας has a particular glory in the Greek and Hellenistic world, and μιχρός is usually disdained (at best it is only a means and way for the μέγας), the saying on the lips of Jesus seems to point paradoxically to a secret, a concealed inner or future dignity” (TDNT, IV, p. 652).
104 οὐ μή (see on 5:18).
1 τελέω is here followed by a participle of that which is completed (in 10:23 Matthew used an accusative). Burton calls this “the substantive participle” and points out that though it here agrees grammatically with the subject of the verb, it is logically the object (Burton, MT, 459). Turner takes it as “a predicate answering to the subject” (M, III, p. 158). διατάσσω points to the giving of orders.
2 δέ is common in Matthew. Here it will have some adversative force as it distinguishes between Jesus and John, to whom the narrative now turns. There are parallels to this section in Luke 7:18–35.
3 σύ is emphatic, and probably ἕτερον also (so Gundry, “Are you the Coming One, or should we expect another?”).
4 Vincent Taylor finds the expression used of Jesus a few times, but says, “Clearly, the title had only a brief and restricted currency in certain circles” (The Names of Jesus [London, 1953], p. 79; he cites H. J. Cadbury, “There is no evidence that it was a Jewish or Christian technical term”). The participle is in the present tense, but “In confident assertions regarding the future, a vivid, realistic present may be used for the future” (BDF 323).
5 Part of the expectation was that the Messiah would free captives (Isa. 61:1; cf. Luke 4:18), and John’s failure to secure release may have been a factor in his thinking.
6 προσδοχάω (twice in Matthew) means “wait for, look for, expect, in hope, in fear, or in a neutral state of mind” (BAGD). προσδοχῶμεν could be the present indicative (with a future meaning, “Shall we look…?”) or the present subjunctive (with a deliberative meaning, “Should we look…?”).
7 The use of ἕτερον may mean a Messiah of a different kind (so Mounce); McNeile thinks that this cannot be pressed, but H. W. Beyer says that the word “may involve a more or less pronounced qualitative distinction, in which case the term acquires theological significance.” He gives the sense of it here as “the qualities which Jewish expectation attributed to the Messiah might better fit another than Jesus” (TDNT, II, p. 702).
8 Matthew uses τυφλός 17 times, which is more than in any other book; he is very interested in blindness. ἀναβλέπω means “look up, see again” (BAGD) and may possibly indicate that many people were blind not from birth, but as a result of diseases of the eye, which appear to have been common and very serious (see the articles in ISBE : Blindness, and IDB). But this cannot be pressed, for the verb is used for the cure of a man blind from birth (John 9:11, 15, 18).
9 χωφός may mean “deaf” or “dumb” (see on 9:32), but here the verb makes it clear that it is deafness that is in mind.
10 The word is πτωχός (see on 5:3), connected with πτώσσω, “to crouch, cower,” and is used of a beggar, one who has nothing.
11 εὐαγγελίζομαι is used here only in Matthew, and 54 times in the New Testament. Moffatt omits the preaching to the poor here on the grounds that it “seems a harmonistic interpolation from Luke vii.22, ” but this is a gratuitous assumption. The verb is normally a deponent, but it is usually taken here as a passive with the sense it has in the translation. If it is middle, the meaning is that the poor are preaching the good news and the reference is to the preaching of the disciples. But this is not a likely reading of the passage.
12 σχανδαλίζω, a frequent verb in Matthew (see on 5:29). It is connected with the bait stick of a trap and comes to have the meaning of triggering off trouble in any one of a variety of ways.
13 ἐν is used with a causal significance, “because of me” (cf. 6:7; 13:57).
14 There is an ambiguity in that τί might be understood as “what?” or as “why?” and a further uncertainty as to where the question mark is to be placed. Thus we might translate, “Why did you go out into the wilderness? To look at a reed shaken by the wind?” And so with the other questions down to verse 9 (Filson takes this view, and McNeile thinks it more natural and vivid). Curiously RSV begins with “What did you go out to behold?” but in verse 8 changes to “Why did you go out? To see a man…?” and retains “Why” in verse 9. The NEB has “What” in the first two questions but changes to “Why” in the third (some MSS put προφήτην before ἰδεῖν, which would require this translation, but Metzger rejects this reading). Whichever way we take it, the infinitive denotes purpose: “in order to see.”
15 Robinson remarks that verses 7–11 “give us the best picture of John that we have. He stands out as a rugged, fearless, sturdy hero, with the independence and inspiration of a prophet.”
16 ἔρημος is strictly an adjective meaning “solitary, deserted,” but BAGD lists it in a section of which it says, “adj. attributes whose noun is customarily omitted come to have substantival force and therefore receive the art.” (ὁ, ἡ, τό, II.2.b).
MM J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (London, 1914-29)
17 ἀλλά used “before independent clauses, to indicate that the preceding is to be regarded as a settled matter, thus forming a transition to someth. new”; here, “you could not have wanted to see that” (BAGD, 3).
18 In verse 7 we have θεάσασθαι but now ἰδεῖν. The change is probably no more than stylistic.
19 περισσότερον, the comparative of περισσός, which itself means “more than sufficient, over and above, abundant” (AS). This is the one place in which Matthew uses this exuberant word. If it is neuter, it signifies “something more,” that is, something beyond a prophet; it then points to John’s place in the whole chain of events, including the fulfilment of the prophecy, and not simply to the man himself. If it is masculine, it means “one who is beyond a prophet”; in other words, John is an exceedingly great person.
20 The passage is quoted also in Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27. All three are substantially the same, but there are slight differences from LXX. Evidently they shared a common text form (unless Matthew and Luke both derive the words from Mark).
21 The emphatic ἐγώ is used.
22 ἄγγελος means a messenger and is used of human messengers, such as those sent by the Baptist (Luke 7:24) and by Jesus (Luke 9:52); here it is used of a human messenger sent by God. Mostly in the New Testament it is used of messengers sent by God and of a more than human kind, so the common translation is “angel.”
23 Hamann says that the passage “in a veiled way suggests that the coming of God expected in Malachi is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, and of that coming John is the way-preparer.” Lenski regards the translation not as “free” but rather as “interpretative”: it gives the meaning of the original.
24 χατασχευάζω is the perfective of σχευάζω, “to prepare,” and signifies, “equip, furnish fully” (LSJ).
25 Cf. Midrash Rabbah, Exodus, “In the millennium, likewise, when he will reveal himself, salvation will come to Israel, as it says, Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me” (32.9).
26 γεννητός is found in the New Testament only here and in Luke 7:28. Strictly it points to the action of the male parent and means “begotten.”
27 μιχρός can denote that which is small in size or stature, but may also signify small “in esteem, importance, influence, power … the one of least importance in the Kingdom of Heaven” (BAGD, 1.c; they also note that F. Dibelius and O. Cullmann “prefer ‘youngest’, and refer it to Christ”; this view, however, is improbable.
28 The disciples of Jesus “are greater, not in their moral character or achievements, but in their privileges” (Johnson). “The thought is that it is better to enter the kingdom than to herald its coming” (Allen). “In the dispensation of promise, his significance was unsurpassed. Nevertheless it was nothing compared to the message brought by the least of Jesus’ disciples and followers in the dispensation of fulfillment” (Ridderbos).
29 μείζων is used of the greatness of John in his superiority to all others, and then the same word brings out the greatness of the least in the kingdom.
30 βιάζω may be used transitively, “inflict violence on,” or intransitively, “use force, violence.” The position is complicated by the fact that the verb may be used as a deponent, so that βιάζεται may be a middle with an active sense (transitive or intransitive), or a genuine passive; it thus may mean “inflicts violence,” “uses violence,” or “suffers violence.” The Mishnah ‘Eduy. 8:7 says that Elijah will come “to remove afar those that were brought nigh by violence and to bring nigh those that were removed afar by violence.” This refers to people brought wrongly by violence into the number of the Israelites and those excluded from the number by violence. It is not unlike what Jesus is saying.
31 Stendahl sees the possibilities as “ ‘the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence (passive) and men of violence grab it’ or ‘the Kingdom of Heaven manifests itself violently (or: powerfully; reflexive) and keen and daring men take hold of it’. The latter meaning fits better into Mt.’s context, but the former … is more natural from a linguistic point of view.” Hill puts it this way: “The allusion may be to the opposition of Satan and evil spirits to the Kingdom, or to the violence of Herod Antipas to John; but a more likely explanation is that the reference is either to Zealots who try to bring in the Kingdom by employing force against the Romans, or to Jewish antagonists of Jesus who continued to persecute Christians.”
32 βιαστής, which means “violent, impetuous man” (BAGD, who note only three other uses of the term, “all three in a bad sense”). P. W. Barnett argues that the meaning here is people like those who tried to make Jesus king in John 6:14–15 (RThR, XXXVI [1977], pp. 65–70).
33 The verb ἁρπάζω, like βιάζω, may be understood in a good sense or a bad sense. It means “seize,” and may be used in the sense of stealing (12:29), of taking away by force (13:19; it is used of an arrest in Acts 23:10), or of being caught up for blessing (e.g., Paul’s being caught up to the third heaven; 2 Cor. 12:2). Schweizer points out that Matthew’s only other use of the verb is for the action of the devil (13:19); he notes that the verb “actually means ‘take by force’ ” and further, “The suggestion that it should be understood in the good sense as the violent struggle of a passionate faith is almost out of the question” (p. 262). E. Moore has examined the use of the two verbs in Josephus (NTS, 21 [1974–75], pp. 519–43), and concludes that they are used “especially in combination, to signify the direct employment of physical violence as a means of coercion, and that they carry with them a strong overtone of censure” (p. 540).
34 “Matthew’s inclusion of it in a passage explaining the rejection and persecution of those who belong to the kingdom makes it clear that he understood it as describing hostility to the kingdom. From the days of John, there are violence, rejection, and persecution against those who belong to the kingdom and thus against the kingdom itself” (Patte, p. 161). Luke 16:16 resembles this passage, but there the thought is that people press their way into the kingdom. Jesus may have used similar language to bring out different truths, or, as Barclay holds (II, p. 8), there may have been a saying of which Matthew and Luke preserve different parts.
35 προφητεύω occurs 28 times in the New Testament, whereas προφήτης is found 144 times; the noun is thus much more common than the verb, which is used 11 times in 1 Corinthians and no more than 4 times in any other book (Matthew, Acts). It means to utter a revelation from God; the prophet could say, “Thus saith the LORD —.”
36 J. Jeremias holds that εἰ θέλετε δέξασθαι “seems to be designed to indicate that this interpretation of the figure of the Baptist is new and that the fulfilment of the Elijah prophecy does not take place in the form of a reincarnation” (TDNT, II, p. 937).
37 Calvin comments that by these words, “He reproves their hardness, for they are maliciously blind in clear light” (II, p. 8).
38 See further my The Gospel according to John (Grand Rapids, 1971), pp. 134–36.
39 μέλλω is used here simply to bring out the thought of the future.
40 ὁμοιόω is a Matthean word (8 times out of 15 in the New Testament; Luke has it 3 times). It signifies “declare to be like, compare.” γενέα may mean a clan, or a generation (all those living at a given time), or the time of a generation, or the prevailing and characteristic attitude of a generation. Nixon comments, “This generation were the privileged witnesses of the redemptive acts of the new covenant, as had been the generation of the Exodus in the old covenant. … They are therefore in a particularly responsible position in their reaction to the gospel.” Cf. Ridderbos, “ ‘This generation’ refers not merely to the people of Jesus’ day but, more importantly, to all people with their attitude.”
41 Matthew and Luke both have ὅμοιος 9 times (and Revelation 21 times). No other New Testament book has it more than twice. It means “like,” “similar,” mostly, as here, with the dative of the person or thing with which the comparison is made.
42 παιδίον, another Matthean word (18 times out of 52 in the New Testament).
43 ὀρχέομαι is used again of children dancing in Luke 7:32, twice of the dancing of the daughter of Herodias (14:6; Mark 6:22), and nowhere else in the New Testament.
44 θρηνέω, here only in Matthew (and 4 times in the New Testament), means “mourn, lament”; it may be used of singing a dirge.
45 χόπτω may mean “cut off,” as of branches (21:8); it is used in the middle of beating one’s breast as an act of mourning.
46 φαγός (again in the New Testament only in Luke 7:34) means “an eater,” “a glutton.” οἰνοπότης is a drinker of wine, but taken strictly that meant just about everyone (wine and water were the only beverages generally available). So the term was used to denote someone who drank to excess, a drunkard.
AB The Anchor Bible: W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew (New York, 1971)
47 I. Abrahams has a chapter on “Publicans and Sinners” in which he draws attention to the combination “publicans and robbers” in rabbinic literature. These, he finds, “were not those who neglected the rules of ritual piety, but were persons of immoral life, men of proved dishonesty or followers of suspected and degrading occupations” (Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels, I [New York, 1967], p. 55). It is probably relevant that Jesus uses the term “sinners,” not “robbers,” but in any case the important point is that he reached out to people whom the Pharisees and the like excluded from fellowship. They saw them as having no possibility of receiving the blessing of God.
48 Cf. Green, “the Jewish people have never really meant to take the kingdom seriously; they will neither repent with John because it is near, nor rejoice with Jesus because it is here.”
49 It is possible also to understand the children who piped and mourned as dictating to the others what they should do and the others as declining. Then the current generation is seen as dictating to John and to Jesus, who both declined to comply (cf. Lenski). But the view in the text is more natural; the people of the day did not demand that John or Jesus should live in this or that way.
50 διχαιόω = “show to be just, vindicate.” The aorist is interesting, and is probably gnomic. This use of ἀπό will come under the heading “cause, means or outcome” (BAGD, V).
GNB Good News Bible (London and New York, 1976)
51 N. B. Stonehouse refers to the “once-popular notion that the ministry of Jesus began with nearly universal success” and says, “the extent of his outward success in the springtime of his Galilean ministry seems commonly to have been greatly exaggerated” (Witness, p. 148).
52 ὀνειδίζω (3 times in Matthew) may be used of insults (27:44), but it may also be used as here for reproaches that are fully justified.
53 Turner thinks that the meaning is “the cities in which ‘his very many mighty works’ were performed” (Grammatical Insights, p. 34). The superlative can indeed be used in an elative sense, but this is not likely here, for it would imply that all the mighty works were done in these three cities. “Most of his mighty works” is the meaning.
JB The Jerusalem Bible (London, 1966)
Menaḥ. Menaḥot
54 It seems to be the town mentioned in the Talmud (Menaḥ. 85a) as famous for its wheat. Among the ruins are those of a synagogue that includes a carved seat bearing an Aramaic inscription, which is perhaps an example of “Moses’ seat” (23:2).
55 The name means “House of fishing,” which indicates the characteristic occupation of its inhabitants. There is some dispute about the exact location of this town. It is usually accepted that it was Bethsaida Julius, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee to the east of the Jordan where that river flows into the Sea of Galilee. But there is disagreement as to whether there was also a Bethsaida to the west of the river (Mark 6:45 is said to indicate a Bethsaida on the western side); D. F. Payne thinks that a suburb of Bethsaida Julius on the west bank of the Jordan is the best suggestion (IBD, I, p. 190). For our present purpose this does not greatly matter; it is enough to know that there was a flourishing center in which Jesus had an extensive ministry, most of which has not been reported.
56 σάχχος (once each in Matthew and Luke, twice in Revelation) means the material out of which sacks were made, rough and dark cloth (cf. Rev. 6:12), and thus suitable for use as garments in times of mourning (cf. 1 Kings 20:31–32). σποδός (once each in Matthew, Luke, and Hebrews only in the New Testament) means “ashes”; its link with sackcloth underlines the unattractiveness that conveyed the idea of mourning. People put ashes on their heads (2 Sam. 13:19), sat in ashes (Jon. 3:6; cf. Luke 10:13), lay in them (Esth. 4:3), and rolled in them (Jer. 6:26).
57 πλήν means “only, nevertheless, however, but”; it is “the real colloq. word for this idea” (BAGD, 1.b). JB has “and still.”
58 ἀνεχτός is connected with ἀνέχω, “to bear up”; it thus signifies “bearable.” Cf. Carson, “There are degrees of felicity in paradise and degrees of torment in hell (12:41; 23:13; cf. Luke 12:47–48), a point Paul well understood (Rom. 1:20–2:16).”
59 Bruner remarks, “It is going to go better in the judgment day for notorious pagans than for self-satisfied saints.”
60 It is introduced by μή. The text behind KJV makes the words a statement: “which art exalted unto heaven,” but the attestation is inadequate and transcriptional probability is against it (see the note in Metzger).
61 ᾅδης (twice in Matthew, Luke, and Acts, and 4 times in Revelation only in the New Testament) was originally the name of the god of the underworld, then the name of the underworld itself. NEB here has “exalted to the skies” and “brought down to the depths,” a translation that is suitable for modern doubters but scarcely one that fits the meaning for first-century people who saw heaven and hell as realities.
62 εἰ in the protasis with aorists in both clauses points to a condition contrary to fact: “If the mighty works had been done in Sodom (as they were not), it would have remained (as it has not).”
63 Kingsbury points out that for Matthew “Jesus is uniquely the Son of God” and that it is in this pericope “that this is most emphatically brought out” (Matthew, pp. 42, 43).
64 χαιρός (in Matthew 10 times) may indicate a point of time or a period of time; here it is quite general. For ἐχεῖνος see on 3:1.
65 Howard includes the construction in his discussion of “Semitisms in the New Testament.” He finds it 45 times in Matthew (15 in Mark, 38 in Luke), and says that the participle “is strictly redundant (in the sense that nothing has been said to which an answer is needed) only in a few places”; in this Gospel he finds it here and in 12:38; (15:15?); 17:4; 28:5 (M, II, p. 453).
66 ἐξομολογέω in the active means “profess, agree” and in the middle “acknowledge, confess,” from which it is but a step to “praise.”
67 A. M. Hunter, NTS, VIII (1961–62), p. 243. His whole article, a reappraisal of Matthew 11:25–30, is very valuable. He argues strongly for the authenticity of the paragraph. H. D. Betz has a useful history of interpretations of the passage (JBL, 86 [1967], pp. 10–24).
68 εὐδοχία means “goodwill.” It is perhaps unexpected to have ἔμπροσθεν, but, as BAGD puts it, “It is a reverential way of expressing oneself, when one is speaking of an eminent per., and esp. of God, not to connect him directly w. what happens, but to say that it took place ‘before him.’ ”
69 Lenski thinks that the reference is to the incarnation, but there seems to be no good reason for taking the words in this way.
70 παραδίδωμι (see on 4:12) is found in this Gospel more than in any other book of the New Testament. It is the usual word for handing on traditions (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:3).
71 ἐπιγινώσχει. The verb is sometimes held to have the meaning “know fully, exactly,” but this is not easy to prove. J. Armitage Robinson has a lengthy examination of this verb and its cognate noun (St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians [London, 1907], pp. 248–54) in which he finds γνῶσις to be the wider word with ἐπίγνωσις knowledge directed toward a particular object. We should notice that in the Lucan parallel the verb is γινώσχω.
72 “The Son is not only the organ of revelation but is himself a mystery to be revealed; the knowledge of the Father and the knowledge of the Son are two sides of the same mystery, which is now revealed, and so the Father and the Son in fellowship with one another are both subject and object of revelation” (N. B. Stonehouse, Witness, p. 212). Cf. 16:17.
73 ᾧ ἐάν is general, “to whomever”; Jesus is not claiming to found an exclusive set of gnostics, people with a special spiritual endowment. His revelation is open to anyone who comes humbly. It is not easy to get an idiomatic English equivalent, and a number of translations bring out the universal aspect by rendering with a plural, “those to whom. …”
74 The verb βούλομαι (which Matthew uses only twice) signifies a decision of the will, often after deliberation. There is no thought of caprice.
75 Luke T. Johnson makes a number of observations on “this extraordinarily rich passage”: “First, because he is gentle and lowly, Jesus personifies membership in God’s kingdom (cf. 5:3–5). Second, as Torah revealed God’s will, so Jesus reveals the Father to whom he wishes (11:27). Third, in contrast to scribes and Pharisees—the ‘wise’ from whom the revelation is hidden, 11:25—Jesus gives a light burden. Fourth, his ‘yoke’ corresponds exactly to the symbol of Torah as ‘yoke of the kingdom of God.’ Fifth, as the Pharisees looked to Torah to learn God’s ways, so those whom Jesus calls are to ‘learn from me.’ Sixth, the commandment that, above all, defined Jews in society was the Sabbath observance, which was regarded as participation in God’s own Sabbath rest; here, learning from Jesus brings rest for the soul” (The Writings of the New Testament [Philadelphia, 1986], p. 190).
76 δεῦτε (which serves as the plural of δεῦρο) occurs in Matthew 6 times out of its 12 New Testament occurrences. It invites people to come.
77 χοπιάω has a meaning like “labor to the point of weariness,” and the question is whether we should bring out in our translation the labor or the suffering. Since this context has nothing about work, either for God or people, it seems that we should accept some such meaning as weary.
78 φορτίζω is not common in the New Testament (elsewhere only in Luke 11:46). It is connected with φόρτος, a load or burden (used in some MSS in Acts 27:10 of the cargo of a ship). The perfect participle here indicates a continuing burden. Plummer differentiates the verbs: “The one implies toil, the other endurance. The one refers to the weary search for truth and for relief for a troubled conscience; the other refers to the heavy load of observances that give no relief, and perhaps also to the sorrows of life, which, apart from the consolations of a true faith, are so crushing” (p. 170).
79 AS points out that ἀναπαύω in LXX translates 14 different Hebrew words, so it covers a wide range of meaning. MM says that it “is a technical term of agriculture,” and the examples it cites show that it is used of sowing light crops, not only of fallowing.
’Abot ’Abot
SBk H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, 4 vols. (Munich, 1922-28)
80 This is overlooked by discussions such as that of M. Maher (NTS, 22 [1975–76], pp. 97–103), where all the emphasis is put on the rabbinic delight in the law.
81 K. H. Rengstorf speaks of “the point where with perfect clarity the yoke of Jesus and the yoke of a divine dominion conceived in human terms divide with all the sharpness with which the Gospel is distinct from the Law” (TDNT, II, p. 901).
82 ὅτι may mean “that”: “learn from me that I am gentle …”; but for seems more probable.
83 πραΰς (3 times in Matthew and once in 1 Peter only in the New Testament) means “gentle, humble, considerate, meek in the older favorable sense” (BAGD).
84 ταπεινός (here only in Matthew) has a negative connotation in Greek writings generally. We would convey the idea by some such term as “servile”; it “expresses both the low estate of the man who lives in poor and petty relations, esp. the slave, and also the base disposition resulting therefrom” (W. Grundmann, TDNT, VIII, p. 2).
85 The word is ἀνάπαυσις, “cessation, rest, refreshment” (AS, who goes on to distinguish this word from ἄνεσις, on which he says, “[lit. the relaxation of the strings of a lyre], prop. signifies the rest or ease which comes from the relaxation of unfavourable conditions, as, e.g. affliction: ἀνάπ. the rest which comes from the temporary cessation of labour”). Tasker thinks that it would be better translated “relief,” for Jesus promises not inactivity and repose but “relief from such crushing burdens as crippling anxiety, the sense of frustration and futility, and the misery of a sin-laden conscience” (p. 122).
86 χρηστός, which Matthew uses only here, means both kindly and useful.
87 φορτίον is a diminutive of φόρτος, which means a load, and is often used of a ship’s cargo. Jesus does not call people to bear huge burdens.
88 Lenski quotes Bernhard, “What can be lighter than a burden which unburdens us and a yoke which bears its bearer?”
Morgan G. C. Morgan, The Gospel according to Matthew (London, n.d.)
1 This is not to say that no other nation ever had any equivalent of the Sabbath. Special days were observed by a number of peoples, and it is pointed out that the Babylonians in particular had a Sabbath. But the Jewish observation of the Sabbath set them apart from other peoples in New Testament times.
2 C. G. Montefiore says, “in spite of many restrictions and regulations the Sabbath was upon the whole a joy and a blessing to the immense majority of Jews throughout the Rabbinic period” (The Synoptic Gospels, I [London, 1909], p. 93).
Shab. Shabbat
Ḥag. Ḥagiga
3 To take an example at random: “If a man took out aught in his right hand or in his left hand, in his bosom or on his shoulder, he is culpable; for this last was the manner of carrying of the sons of Kohath. If [he took it out] on the back of his hand, or with his foot or with his mouth or with his elbow, on in his ear or in his hair or in his wallet [carried] mouth downwards, or between his wallet and his shirt, or in the hem of his shirt, or in his shoe or in his sandal, he is not culpable, since he has not taken it out after the fashion of them that take out [a burden]” (Shab. 10:3). If one took all the regulations in this way, it was a tremendous burden even to remember what was and what was not permissible.
4 The Aramaic שַׁבְּתָא was transliterated as σάββατα, which was taken as a plural in Greek and a singular σάββατον formed from it (used in v. 2).
5 σπόριμος is an adjective meaning fit for sowing; in the neuter plural it was used for fields of grain.
6 Carr points out that the Pharisaic interpretation really destroyed the Sabbath. “If sabbatical observances prevented men from satisfying hunger, the Sabbath was no longer a blessing but an injury to man.”
7 ὁ δέ, where the article has something of its original demonstrative force and acts as subject; δέ has adversative force.
Bengel J. A. Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament, I (Edinburgh, 1866)
8 Cf. M. Green, “the Pharisees were so anxious to study what Scripture said that they could not hear what Scripture meant” (p. 125).
9 The plural ἔφαγον (א B 481) is unexpected, for the previous verb is in the singular and we expect this one to agree, as indeed it does in many MSS (as p70 C D etc.), and in the parallel passages in Mark and Luke. ὅ is also difficult since the reference is to loaves and we expect a masculine plural; perhaps the meaning is that it is the action, the thing, that is not lawful.
10 It is not easy to translate ἄρτους τῆς προθέσεως. πρόθεσις has the idea of setting forth, and thus presenting, and the meaning appears to be the loaves that were presented to God (GNB has “bread offered to God”; NIV, “consecrated bread”; NRSV’s “bread of the Presence” is not easy to understand; perhaps the idea is that the bread was placed before the Lord and was thus always in his presence).
11 These were very large loaves. G. J. Wenham speaks of them as “huge” and explains that “the figures suggest that about 3 liters or 3½ lbs. of flour went into each loaf” (The Book of Leviticus [Grand Rapids, 1979], p. 310, n. 6).
12 ἤ is found in Matthew 67 times (next is 1 Corinthians with 49 instances); it is used here “to introduce a question which is parallel to a preceding one or supplements it” (BAGD, 1.d.β).
13 See Daube, pp. 67–71. The technical point is that the incident with David belonged to the haggadah, while that of the priests in the temple was an example of halakah; it was based on an actual commandment given in Scripture. Daube concludes, “Scripture—thus the argument in Matthew runs—ordains that the observance of the Sabbath must yield to the temple service; a fortiori it must yield in the present case, where something greater than the temple demands consideration. There is nothing haggadhic about this. The argument is of a kind which no student of halakha could lightly dismiss” (Daube, p. 71).
14 βεβηλόω occurs in the New Testament again only in Acts 24:6. AS derives it from βέβηλος, and this from βαίνω, “permitted to be trodden,” and thus unhallowed.
15 μείζων is read by C L Δ f13 etc., but the great majority of MSS have μεῖζον; since this is the harder reading, it is accepted by most scholars.
M, J. H. Moulton, III, Syntax, by Nigel Turner (Edinburgh, 1963)
16 Cf. Birger Gerhardsson, “That which is being contrasted here is, on the one hand, the outward sacrificial service, and, on the other, the perfect spiritual sacrifice that Jesus and his disciples are offering and which is characterized by ‘mercy’ ” (R. Banks, ed., Reconciliation and Hope [Exeter and Grand Rapids, 1974], p. 28).
17 εἰ with the pluperfect indicative (aoristic in meaning; cf. BDF 347[3]) in the protasis and an aorist indicative with ἄν in the apodosis.
18 Literally “what it is,” but the meaning is clearly “what it signifies,” “what it means.”
LXX The Septuagint
19 θέλω means “I will”; it is used of the demands God makes on his people, his will for them (see on 1:19).
20 In the parallel passage Mark emphasizes “even of the Sabbath,” but Matthew’s word order puts the emphasis rather on Son of man (BDF 472[1b]).
21 “If rulings about Sabbath observance are to be made, it is not the Pharisees but ‘the Son of Man,’ as ‘Lord of the Sabbath,’ who has authority to say how to observe properly the day of rest” (Filson).
22 Matthew uses a number of verbs in a formula, such as “going on from there,” “passing by from there,” and the like (cf. 4:21; 9:9; 11:1; 13:53, etc.).
23 Mounce, however, holds that it was: “their” synagogue, he says, “refers to the synagogue of the Pharisees (cf. v. 2). It does not reveal a later period in history when Jewish Christians were no longer welcome in local synagogues.” We may agree that the expression does not point to a later period without tying it closely to the Pharisees.
24 For Matthew’s characteristic χαὶ ἰδού see on 1:20.
25 ξηρός means “dry”; it is used of branches or plants (and in 23:15, Matthew’s only other use of the word, for dry land). As applied to a hand it seems to indicate that there was a problem with some of the muscles; the hand was “withered” (NRSV), “paralysed” (GNB), “deformed” (LB), “shriveled” (NIV).
26 According to The Gospel according to the Hebrews the man said to Jesus, “I was a mason seeking a livelihood with my hands: I pray thee, Jesu, to restore me mine health, that I may not beg meanly for my food” (James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 5).
Yoma Yoma
27 εἰ is used here as an interrogative particle to introduce the question (which Turner notes as “a Bibl. Greek usage” (M, III, p. 333). τοῖς σάββασιν is a plural; they refer to Sabbaths in general, to the habitual practice, and not to this one occasion. θεραπεύω (see on 4:23) means “to render service,” but the kind of service it denotes is usually healing, and this is clearly in mind here.
28 χατηγορέω is used of bringing charges in court, and this may be in their minds. But it is also used of slanderous accusations, and there may be nothing more in it than the hope of discrediting Jesus.
29 ὁ δέ has adversative force.
30 The emphatic form οὐχί stresses the certainty of the action he will take; it “insists on an affirmative answer. … Jesus’ point is, ‘Of course, a man will rescue his sheep on the Sabbath’ ” (Chamberlain, p. 158).
31 Very strict Jews would not do this, and, for example, the Damascus Document forbids it (see the passage in T. H. Gaster, The Scriptures of the Dead Sea Sect [London, 1957], p. 87). But other Jews were more considerate. Some thought that while a man should not actually haul an animal out, he could throw into he pit material like bedding that would enable the animal to scramble out (Shab. 128b; there is a discussion of ways of getting animals out of such plights in Shab. 117b). Gundry points out that at best the rabbis made it possible for the animal to scramble out itself, but Jesus was addressing a general audience, “who might be expected to disregard the niceties of rabbinic pilpulism.”
32 πόσος (which Matthew uses 8 times, more than in any other New Testament book) means “how great,” but here, “to what degree? how much?” (BAGD). οὖν is here inferential; it indicates that what follows is an inference from what precedes.
33 διαφέρω means literally “carry through,” “carry about” (as in Mark 11:16), from which it comes to mean “differ” and, since when things differ one is normally better than the other, it comes to mean “excel,” as here.
34 ὥστε (in Matthew 15 times, the most in any New Testament book) may introduce an independent clause, as here, to give a meaning like “for this reason.” Matthew has this construction again in 19:6; 23:31, but mostly, like other writers, he follows it with the infinitive.
35 χαλῶς is an adverb meaning “well, beautifully”; here it signifies “beneficially” and thus “good.”
36 ὑγιής means “healthy, sound.”
37 Their purpose is brought out in a number of ways. συμβούλιον may mean “counsel” or “council”; here, of course, it is the former, and it indicates a firmness about their decision; it was only the method that as in doubt. χατʼ αὐτοῦ leaves no doubt that they were “against” him, ὅπως introduces a clause of purpose, and ἀπολέσωσιν means that that purpose was nothing less than Jesus’ death.
38 “The argument has the effect of placing Jesus firmly within the Law, rightly understood: he does good on the Sabbath, and so fulfils the will of God, who desires merciful action rather than ritualistic legalism” (Hill).
39 Gutzwiller comments, “They would rather walk over dead bodies than change their path, and they convince themselves that, by doing so, they show service to God. They want to give glory to God and they decide to kill him. It is difficult to know whether this is tragic, ironic, or merely grotesque.”
40 Again we have ὁ δέ, where δέ is adversative. ὁ goes with Ἰησοῦς, as normally in this Gospel. Gundry thinks that δέ is used “in order to contrast Jesus’ withdrawal with the Pharisees’ plot.
41 There is a good deal of Matthean language here. ἀναχωρέω occurs in Matthew in 10 of its 14 New Testament occurrences. It means “go back, withdraw,” often in the sense of withdrawing from danger (Abbott-Smith). Matthew has ἐχεῖθεν 12 times out of 27, and ἀχολουθέω 25 times out of 90, in both cases the most in any New Testament book. Many MSS have ὄχλοι before or after πολλοί, and the word may have fallen out of the text. But it is more likely that it was inserted to agree with a common Matthean expression (4:25; 8:1, etc.).
42 ἐπιτιμάω means “1. rebuke, reprove, censure, also speak seriously, warn in order to prevent an action or bring one to an end” (BAGD). Abbott-Smith differentiates it from ἐλέγχω 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.” ἵνα indicates purpose.
43 Cf. Hendriksen, “It is not a word for word reproduction but the result of profound sympathetic reflection” (p. 519).
44 παῖς, of course, means “child” as well as “servant.” BAGD indicates that it is used with reference “to a relation betw. one human being and another” that from the point of view of age may mean “youth,” of descent “son,” of social position “servant.” Here the thought is that of servant.
45 αἱρετίζω is found here only in the New Testament. BAGD gives the meaning of the middle as “choose for oneself.” Two other verbs in this quotation are likewise not found elsewhere in the New Testament, ἐρίζω and τύφομαι, and none of the three is found in the LXX version of the prophecy.
46 Turner classes this with other quotations from LXX in which ἡ ψυχή μου = ἐγὼ αὐτός. He adds, “But clearly the contexts intend us to feel the force of the double meaning of נפשׁ as soul and life, which cannot be rendered so neatly in Greek” (M, III, p. 43).
47 BAGD understands this use of πνεῦμα “as that which differentiates God fr. everything that is not God” (BAGD, 5).
48 χρίσις is more frequent in this Gospel than in any other New Testament book (12 times). It often conveys the notion of judgment, the passing of a sentence, which leads to the meaning “condemn.” But the impartial weighing of evidence means that right is done, and the word is used, as here, for “justice” (cf. Luke 11:42). The servant will make sure that right is done to the nations as well as to Israel. Curiously Moffatt translates the word as “religion” (cf. JB, “the true faith”), but it is justice that it connotes. Cf. Lenski, “Mishpat, χρίσις is not ‘religion’ but ‘right’ as established forensically at the judgment bar of Jehovah” (p. 473).
49 χραυγάζω, which Matthew uses only here, may be used of animal noises, of the cries demons make when expelled from people (Luke 4:41), of the angry yells of a mob (Acts 22:23), of the expressions of exultation at the triumphal entry (John 12:13), and of Jesus’ calling of Lazarus from the tomb (John 11:43). The common factor seems to be noise: all the passages speak of a loud voice. BAGD gives the meaning here as “cry for help,” but this scarcely seems to be correct; the thought is that of quietness rather than of an appeal for aid.
50 πλατεῖα (the feminine of the adjective πλατύς, “broad”) is used with ὁδός in the sense “street”; it denotes a broad street as against ῥύμη, “a lane.”
Glover R. Glover, A Teacher’s Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew (London, 1956)
51 συντρίβω means “shatter, break in pieces” (Mark 5:4; 14:3). It cannot be used with that full force here, but it certainly makes clear that the reed is not in good shape.
52 λίνον is used again in the New Testament only in some MSS of Revelation 15:6. It means “flax” or “linen” and thus anything made from this material. Here it is clearly a lamp wick.
53 GNB discards the imagery to bring out the meaning with “He will be gentle to those who are weak, and kind to those who are helpless.”
54 This is an unusual use of ἐχβάλλω, which normally has a meaning like “throw out, discard” or perhaps “drive out,” often with the notion of force. Here the thought is rather “to cause to proceed to its goal” (AS). Matthew uses νῖχος only here.
55 There is characteristic Matthean language here. This Evangelist uses δαιμονίζομαι (see on 4:24) 7 times, τυφλός 17 times, and χωφός 7 times, in each case the most in any New Testament book.
56 ἐξίστημι occurs here only in this Gospel. It means “to put out of its place” and thus “to drive out of one’s senses, to amaze.”
57 It is introduced by μήτι, which often looks for the answer “No” but which may be used “in questions in which the questioner is in doubt concerning the answer” (BAGD, which classes this question in the latter category). NASB renders, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?”; Filson, “Is this perhaps the Son of David?”; and NRSV, “Can this be…?”
58 οὗτος.
59 ἐρημόω is used here only in Matthew. It is cognate with ἔρημος (see on 3:1) and conveys the thought of being made a desolation: it points to total loss.
60 εἰ with the indicative; the condition is obviously false, but if it were true then what follows must necessarily be the case.
61 Cf. Chamberlain, “For the sake of the argument, Jesus assumes as true the Pharisees’ statement that he casts out demons by Beelzebub to prove them wrong” (pp. 195–96).
62 Josephus testifies to exorcisms in his day (War 7.185); he says that the practice goes back to Solomon’s time and goes on to describe an exorcism he himself had witnessed (Ant. 8.45–49). A demon is cast out in Tobit 6:16–17; 8:1–3. Cf. Acts 19:13. For Jewish ideas about demons see SBk, IV.1, pp. 501–35.
63 ἄρα (which Matthew uses 7 times, second in the New Testament only to Romans, with 11) is an inferential particle “in class. usage never at the beginning of its clause … 3. in the apodosis of conditional sentences, to emphasize the result, then, as a result” (BAGD).
64 φθάνω, here only in Matthew, can mean “come before,” but it may also signify “come upon” with the idea of confrontation or hostility.
65 Patte thinks that the kingdom of God in this Gospel refers “to an aggressive manifestation of the power of God which asserts itself against satanic and demonic powers.” He contrasts this with “the kingdom of heaven,” which “refers to the authority of God — an authority which, at present, is not imposed upon people through the use of power but which people (should) recognize and acknowledge in the meekness and mercy of the Father and the Son” (p. 177). This is an interesting distinction, but it does not seem to be demonstrated in the way Matthew actually uses the two expressions. From the same evidence Albright and Mann find that “ ‘Kingdom of God’ in the Matthean tradition is applied to the Father’s reign after the judgment of the End, and ‘Kingdom of heaven’ to the continuing community of The Man, lasting up to the time of the judgment” (p. 155). For Lenski the sense of the two expressions “is quite the same” (p. 480). According to Fenton, it is used as a contrast to the kingdom of Satan (v. 26).
66 ἤ is a Mattheanism (67 times in Matthew; next most frequent is 1 Corinthians with 49 occurrences).
67 For δύναμαι see on 3:9; with the negative it points to the sheer impossibility of taking the goods of the strong man without taking measures to counter his strength.
68 Matthew uses ἰσχυρός only 3 times. The adjective may refer to physical strength or to moral or spiritual power. It is used of divine strength as well as of human might.
69 ἁρπάζω means “to seize,” often with the notion of the use of force.
70 διαρπάζω is a strengthened form of the verb rendered “seize” earlier in the verse. It means “plunder thoroughly.” NEB has “ransack,” and JB “burgle.”
71 Barclay illustrates: “We may take this saying and apply it to ourselves and to the Church. If our presence does not strengthen the Church, then our absence is weakening it” (II, p. 40).
72 This is Matthew’s first use of βλασφημία, a term he will use 4 times in all. Its use is similar to that of the verb βλασφημέω (see on 9:3). It denotes abusive speech of all kinds, slander, defamation, and the like. Religiously it signifies all kinds of speech derogatory of the deity.
73 ἀφίημι is another favorite Matthean word: Matthew has it 47 times whereas no other book has it more than Mark with 34. It has a wide range of meanings, such as “let go,” “send away,” “cancel,” and others, but it is the characteristic word for “pardon,” “forgive.” While other words such as χαρίζομαι or ἀπολύω may be used for “forgive,” the one we meet again and again is ἀφίημι.
74 Buttrick quotes Whittier,
What if thine eye refuse to see,
Thine ear of Heaven’s free welcome fail,
And thou a willing captive be,
Thyself thine own dark jail?
75 H. W. Beyer says of this sin, “It denotes the conscious and wicked rejection of the saving power and grace of God towards man” (TDNT, I, p. 624). See further my Spirit of the Living God (London, 1960), pp. 48–49. Filson comments, “though he is ‘Son of Man,’ human in lot and situation but destined for triumph and glory, forgiveness and eternal salvation are open to those who blasphemously berate him. But he knows the Spirit directs his life; to call these Spirit-effected healings the work of Satan reveals the speaker’s hopeless bankruptcy.”
76 Luke, An Introduction and Commentary2 (Leicester and Grand Rapids, 1988), p. 231. Cf. Robinson, “The only ‘Spirit’ that can cast out devils is manifestly the ‘holy Spirit’. To call this evil is to confuse all moral and spiritual issues, to identify God with Satan. This is an attitude which makes a return to God, a genuine repentance, impossible, and in no circumstances can he who is guilty of it be forgiven” (p. 113).
77 ὅς ἐάν.
78 χατά is used here “in a hostile sense” (BAGD, I.2.b), or, perhaps better, “after words and expressions that designate hostile speech” (BAGD, I.2.b.β).
79 “The possibility of this sin thus arises only with the Pentecostal era when the Holy Spirit has been poured out by Jesus on the disciples and has become their indwelling possession” (O. Procksch, TDNT, I, p. 104).
80 Carson says, “The distinction between blasphemy against the Son of Man and blasphemy against the Spirit is not that the Son of Man is less important than the Spirit, or that the first sin is prebaptismal and the second postbaptismal, still less that the first is against the Son of Man and the second rejects the authority of Christian prophets. Instead, within the context of the larger argument the first sin is rejection of the truth of the gospel (but there may be repentance and forgiveness for that), whereas the second sin is rejection of the same truth in full awareness that that is exactly what one is doing—thoughtfully, willfully, and self-consciously rejecting the work of the Spirit.”
81 Cf. Alan Richardson, “to reject the inbreaking Aeon (the Kingdom of God) and to dismiss the signs of its arrival—such as the exorcisms which demonstrate the overthrow of Satan’s counter-kingdom—as the work of Beelzebub, is to reject the salvation which God is bringing and is in fact to be guilty of unforgivable sin against the New Age” (An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament [London, 1958], p. 108).
82 αἰών occurs 8 times in Matthew. It may be used, as here, for this present age, the whole time of life on earth. This is set in contrast to the age to come, the age that comprises all future time, the era that will be ushered in by the coming in triumph of the Messiah and that means the reign of God.
83 There are Old Testament examples of sin that cannot be forgiven (e.g., Num. 15:30–31; 1 Sam. 3:14).
84 Matthew is fond of the disjunctive ἤ (see on v. 29). It is used here of opposites that are mutually exclusive (either … or), but it may also be found with expressions that are similar or supplement one another (as in 5:17).
85 The reasoning may be, “In your thinking make the tree good and its fruit will be good, make it evil and evil fruit follows.”
86 Matthew has σαπρός 5 times out of its 8 New Testament occurrences. It means “decayed, rotten,” and may be used of fish (13:48) as well as of trees. It certainly brings out the uselessness of the tree in question.
87 Notice how Jesus slips in being evil in the same way as in 7:11; for him this is a fundamental truth; it can be assumed, it is not necessary to prove it.
88 The verb is δύναμαι (see on 3:9). It points to the power to do (or with the negative, as here, lack of power to do) certain things.
89 Good here is not χαλός as in verse 33, but ἀγαθός (see on 5:45). If it differs from the former term, it will signify inner excellence as against excellence that shows itself in outward appearance. Evil in this verse is the word used in verse 34, not that in verse 33.
90 ἀργός (from ἀ privative + ἔργον, “work”) means “inactive, idle, worthless.” REB has “thoughtless”; GNB, “useless.”
91 γάρ is rendered For. ἐχ more commonly means “out of,” but here it is used “of the underlying rule or principle according to, in accordance with” (BAGD, 3.i).
Bruner F. D. Bruner, The Christbook, Matthew 1–12 (Waco, 1987)
92 Glover comments, “It does not occur to them that what they ask for is before their eyes; and what they need, is not light, but sight. More than His deeds, Himself is the great sign, than which none could be greater or more Divine.”
93 σημεῖον occurs 13 times in Matthew (17 in John). It may be used of a distinguishing mark (26:48; 2 Thess. 3:17), but in the New Testament it is more commonly used of a miraculous sign of some sort (John uses it of Jesus’ miracles, as deeds that have important spiritual significance). In the Synoptic Gospels it is more commonly used of miracles demanded of Jesus that he refused to perform. Paul finds the seeking of signs characteristic of Jews (1 Cor. 1:22).
94 Josephus says that Theudas persuaded his followers to go with him to the Jordan. Theudas said “that he was a prophet and that at his command the river would be parted and would provide them an easy passage” (Ant. 20.97). It was this kind of sign that Jesus was asked to produce. That the rabbis thought such signs occurred is made clear from Talmudic stories about rabbis a little later than Jesus’ time. Thus we read that the disciples of R. Jose b. Kisma said to him, “Master, give us a sign.” He refused at first, but then turned the waters of the grotto of Paneas into blood (Sanh. 98a). When R. Eliezer’s arguments were not accepted he moved a tree a hundred cubits (according to another report, four hundred cubits), made a river flow backwards, and did other curious things (B. Meṣ. 59b).
95 K. H. Rengstorf remarks that the demand for a sign “is more an assault on God’s freedom in so far as it lays upon God its own basic principles concerning what may be and what may not. In the last resort this is what makes of those who demand a sign … a γενεὰ πονηρὰ χαὶ μοιχαλίς … a society which breaks away from God by emancipating itself from Him in its judgment and acts” (TDNT, VII, p. 236). A little later than Jesus’ time Josephus writes of the Jews: “that period had, somehow, become so prolific of crime of every description amongst the Jews, that no deed of iniquity was left unperpetrated, nor, had man’s wit been exercised to devise it, could he have discovered any novel form of vice” (War 7.259). There is evidence that the generation was literally adulterous (e.g., Ps. Sol. 8:11), but Jesus is speaking of spiritual things.
96 Interestingly there was a Jewish idea that the Messiah would come in such a generation (see SBk, I, pp. 641–42).
97 The verb is ἐπιζητεῖ, on which Gundry comments, “he prefixes a perfective ἐπί to ζητεῖ with the result that the meaning ‘seeks’ is intensified to something like ‘insists on.’ ”
98 The genitive τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ seems to be a genitive of apposition, “the sign that is Jonah.” Matthew has προφήτης 37 times (next highest is Acts with 30). His preponderance is perhaps connected with his interest in the fulfilment of prophecy, though here it is the experience of the prophet rather than his predictions that is primarily in mind.
99 χοιλία is used of the digestive organs and more generally of the inward parts of the body; it may be used, for example, of the womb (19:12). Here it denotes the stomach. ὥσπερ indicates correspondence: “just as.” On the relevance of Jonah, Bengel comments, “it was as much believed that he would not return from the fish, as it was that Jesus would not return from the heart of the earth; yet both of them did return.”
100 χῆτος is found here only in the New Testament. It means “any sea-monster or huge fish” (LSJ).
101 The rabbis said, “A day and a night make an ‘Onah and a part of an ‘Onah is as the whole”; and again, “The part of a day is as the whole day” (SBk, I, p. 649).
102 οὕτως (in Matthew 32 times, which is more than anywhere else in the New Testament) corresponds to ὥσπερ at the beginning. χαρδία (see on 5:8) can refer to the innermost part; J. Behm explains it as “the inward part, the bosom, of the earth” (TDNT, III, p. 613). Or it may signify “heart in the sense interior, center” (BAGD, 2).
103 In the Lucan equivalent of the saying there is no reference to the resurrection, and Jonah himself seems to be the sign, probably with reference to his preaching. But there is no question that in Matthew the resurrection of Jesus is stressed.
104 ἄνδρες strictly means males, but here it signifies inhabitants generally. The word is not common in Matthew (8 times; Luke has it 27 times). Νινευίτης, “Ninevite,” is found in the New Testament only here and twice in Luke.
105 “In its individualizing use (the article) focuses attention on a single thing or single concept, as already known or otherwise more definitely limited. … The art. takes on the idea of χατʼ ἐξοχήν ‘par excellence’ ” (BAGD, II.1.a.a).
106 εἰς here has “the Semitic causal sense … they repented because of the preaching of Jonah” (M, III, p. 255).
107 χήρυγμα. In view of its common use in modern discussions of the New Testament it comes as something of a surprise that it occurs only 8 times in the New Testament, 6 times in Paul and once each in Matthew and Luke.
108 νότου lacks the article as regularly with the points of the compass (BDF 253[5]). But there may here be some influence from the Hebrew construct state.
109 Cf. Calvin, “It will be well to consider this antithesis. A woman, quite uneducated in the school of God, came from a distant land to learn from Solomon, an earthly king. The Jews, pupils of God’s Law, reject His highest and indeed unique Teacher, the Head of all the prophets” (II, p. 59).
110 ὅταν is “a temporal particle … of an action that is conditional, possible, and, in many instances, repeated” (BAGD). It is especially common in the Gospels (which range from 17 occurrences in John to 29 in Luke), but the highest number elsewhere in the New Testament is 12 in 1 Corinthians.
REB The Revised English Bible (Oxford and Cambridge, 1989)
111 The participle ἐλθόν is more or less equivalent to a conditional: “if it comes and finds —.”
112 σχολάζω, again in the New Testament only in Luke 11:25 (the parallel to this story) and 1 Corinthians 7:5. It is used of people, where it means “to be at leisure” (curiously, as it seems to us, this is the root from which we get “school”). It is also used of things in the sense “to be unoccupied, empty.”
113 σαρόω means “to sweep,” and the perfect indicates a completed job. χοσμέω signifies “to order, arrange” (it is used in Homer of marshalling armies). So it gets meanings like “adorn, furnish” (AS).
114 μεθʼ ἑαυτοῦ.
115 χατοιχέω (see on 2:23) conveys the notion of permanent residence; the demons have no intention of moving on in due course.
116 τὰ ἔσχατα, “the last things,” the final state of affairs, here compared with the former state of the man.
117 “There is a terrible persistence in wickedness: it returns, and the soul not indwelt by the rightful Tenant is always beleaguered. Reformation is never enough …” (Buttrick). Cf. Filson, “The power of God, and not merely the skill of trained counsellors, is needed to resolve the deep-seated crisis which evil brings to man.”
118 ἔτι means “yet, still”; BAGD notes that it may be used “in positive statements, to denote that a given situation is continuing” (1.a).
119 ὅστις (see on 2:6). The term is frequent in Matthew; here its force is heightened with the addition of ἄν.
120 Matthew speaks of God as “Father” 44 times in all, which compares with 5 in Mark, 17 in Luke, and 42 in Paul. Only John has it more often (122 times). It means a lot to Matthew that God is a Father to believers. It is a tender word and speaks of love and care on the one hand, and love and devotion on the other.
121 Cf. Gutzwiller, “throughout this whole passage there is a warning, a deep seriousness. Man faces the decision either to accept Satan and become possessed by him, or to accept God and be called into his love” (p. 147).
1 C. H. Dodd has a well-known definition of a parable as “a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought” (The Parables of the Kingdom [London, 1936], p. 16). There is an extensive literature on the parables, but perhaps particular mention should be made of J. Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus (London, 1954); K. E. Bailey, Poet and Peasant (Grand Rapids, 1985); J. C. Little, ET, LXXXVII (1975–76), pp. 356–60; LXXXVIII (1976–77), pp. 40–44, 71–75; M. Black, BJRL, 42 (1959–60), pp. 273–87.
2 Filson comments, “The Synoptic Gospels contain about five dozen separate parables; the Gospel of John has almost none of these; the rest of the N.T. offers no real parallels. This is fatal to the idea that the early Church created the parables; no one in the Church even attempted to rival Jesus in this teaching method. He used parables not only to illustrate and clarify truth but also to capture the imagination, direct the will, and lead to obedience.”
3 It was said of R. Meir that in his public discourses “a third was Halachah, a third Haggadah, and a third consisted of parables” (Sanh. 38b). But not many early parables are recorded; according to Strack and Billerbeck only one (told by Hillel) survives from pre-Christian times (SBk, I, p. 654).
4 “The form had already been established; what Jesus did was to take it and make such wide and varied use of it that he gave the parable as a method of teaching renewed vitality. In fact, he perfected the form so well that Christians were reluctant to use it thereafter, knowing they could never be as effective as he was” (AB, p. CXXXII).
5 συνάγω is a favorite word of Matthew’s (24 times out of 59 in the New Testament). It means “gather together” and may be used of things or of people. πρός means “to”; the people gathered “to” Jesus.
6 αἰγιαλός, “shore, beach,” occurs again in Matthew only in verse 48. εἱστήχει is pluperfect, with the meaning “stood,” “were standing.”
7 Tasker, however, thinks that ἐλάλησαν may be an inceptive aorist meaning, “he began to speak.” Tasker adds, “It was the first time Jesus embarked on this policy.”
8 This is Matthew’s first use of παραβολή, a term he will use 12 times in this chapter and 5 times in the rest of his Gospel. In LXX it translates the Hebrew מָשָׁל, which is from a root meaning “to be like,” and which means a wise saying: it may be a cryptic one-liner or a more extensive expression; it often signifies an enigmatic figure of speech. There is not much that is of the same sort as Jesus’ parables, but the expression introduces us to a class of sayings that convey truth vividly and in a manner that requires the hearer to think.
9 Matthew uses the participle ὁ σπείρων, “the sowing one”; such a participle often conveys the thought of the person who does the action continually. NIV has “farmer,” but the word means “sower” (who may or may not be a farmer).
10 “The Order of Sowing and Ploughing” (NTS, 25 [1978–79], pp. 123–29).
11 παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν may be understood as meaning on the edge of the path or perhaps on the land immediately beside the path. In either place it would not be ploughed.
12 πετεινός signifies “winged”; in the neuter it refers to “a winged thing,” and thus “a bird.”
13 χατεσθίω occurs only here in Matthew (and as a v.l. in 23:13). AS regards it as a “perfective” compound of ἐσθίω, with the meaning “eat up,” “devour.”
14 ἄλλα strictly means “others of the same kind,” and while there is no particular emphasis on that here, that is surely the meaning. Matthew follows it with δέ (and so throughout the parable), whereas Mark and Luke prefer χαί; he is making a slight contrast between one group of seeds and the others.
15 πετρώδης (πέτρα, εῖδος) = rocklike, stony; it occurs in the New Testament only in this parable in Matthew and Mark. Matthew has the plural, “stony places,” but Mark the singular, “the rock” (in the interpretation he has the plural).
16 ἐξανατέλλω (only in this parable in Mark elsewhere in the New Testament) means “to spring up”; coupled with the adverb this means that the plant was quick-growing. Minus the ἐξ the same verb is used of the sun’s rising in verse 6.
17 διὰ τό with the infinitive “expresses cause” (Chamberlain, p. 108).
18 This is the one place in Matthew where ἥλιος occurs without the article; the meaning, of course, is “the” sun.
19 χαυματίζω (once each in Matthew and Mark and twice in Revelation) signifies “burn, scorch.”
20 ξηραίνω, from ξηρός, “dry,” signifies “to dry up, wither.”
21 Strictly ἐπί means “upon,” but Jesus is not speaking of seeds that were caught on the thorns. Rather, the meaning is “up to,” “near.” ἄχανθα (ἀχή, “a point”) means prickly plants in general; it does not denote any one particular plant.
22 If the imperfect ἐδίδου is used strictly, it means that the seed once sown (aorist, ἔπεσεν) kept on bearing.
23 For the meaning of προσέρχομαι and its unexpected frequency in Matthew see on 4:3; for the disciples see on 5:1.
24 Once a parable is divorced from its setting, “an ingenious mind can make a parable mean almost anything” (Melinsky, p. 49). McNeile can say, “If the parable transparently teaches a single truth, modern writers ought to be agreed upon what it is. But they are not” (p. 195), while Mounce, after a survey of critical opinions on the parable of the sower, states, “This rather widespread disagreement on how parables should be understood argues the fragile nature of critical conjecture” (pp. 129–30).
25 δέ sets Jesus in contrast to his questioners: they were puzzled, “But he —.” ὅτι may be taken as recitative (as by NASB, REB, etc.) or causal (KJV, JB). The latter is probably to be preferred, for “because” follows aptly on “Why?” and ὅτι does not seem to be used in the recitative sense after the words that precede it here (Carson cites D. Wenham for the point). If the word is taken as recitative, the reason for the parables will be that given in verse 13.
26 “The disciples receive far more frequent special instructions in Matthew than in any other Gospel,” which means that “the disciples often fail to understand, but that they come to understand through Jesus’ explanation (13:51)” (U. Luz, in Stanton, pp. 102–3). He also says, “discipleship is always related to the teaching of the historical Jesus” (p. 105).
27 Some commentators make a great deal of the fact that there was a group of “mystery religions” that had secret rites into which converts were initiated. It is certainly the case that there were such religions, but there is no evidence that either Jesus or the early church was interested in them.
NRSV The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, 1990)
28 Cf. G. Bornkamm, “They are enabled to understand the parables of Jesus in a different way from the people, for the parables mediate to them more than a general understanding of the nature of the βασιλεία; they point them to the incursion of the divine rule in the word and work of Jesus” (TDNT, IV, pp. 818–19). Hill says, “the ‘secret’ is the purpose of God concerning his Kingdom—that it is inaugurated in the person, words and work of Jesus of Nazareth”; he cites Bonnard for the further point “that it is established only after loss and disappointment.”
Plummer A. Plummer, An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Matthew (London, 1910)
29 Cf. Buttrick, “A man who exercises his strength increases it: such is his due reward. A man who neglects his muscles loses them: such is his proper penalty. We ourselves would not deeply wish it otherwise. The universe, meaning the very rule of God, is not a moral topsy-turveydom, but a rectitude in love.”
30 This is an example of a conditional relative clause; such clauses “usually make no assertions about concrete realities, but rather general assertions or suppositions” (BDF 380[1]).
31 περισσεύω means “to exceed a fixed number or measure” (GT) and thus “to be in abundance” or “to have in abundance.” Matthew has the verb 5 times, which is the same number as in Philippians and more than in any book other than 2 Corinthians, which has it 10 times.
32 διὰ τοῦτο means “on account of this,” “therefore,” and may be used “in real and supposed answers and inferences” (BAGD, B.II.2). Here, of course, the real reason follows.
33 λαλέω is used for speaking in parables as in verses 3 and 10; it recurs in verses 33 and 34. ὅτι may mean “that” or “because,” probably the latter. Mark and Luke have ἵνα, but we should not think Matthew is softening the point; after all, he proceeds to use the same quotation to make the same point and what he has said in verses 11–12 agrees with this.
34 Matthew uses βλέπω 20 times, which is more than in any other book (17 times in John is next). It is used of perception with the eyes, but also sometimes of mental perception (e.g., 22:16).
35 ἀναπληρόω is found only here in Matthew (his usual word is πληρόω). The compound has the meaning “to fill completely”; G. Delling understands the meaning here to be that the prophecy “is ‘fully actualised’ in the rejection of Christ’s message and work” (TDNT, VI, p. 306). This is also Matthew’s only use of προφητεία, which here means the prophetic words rather than the gift of prophecy or the prophetic activity. The same prophecy is cited again in Acts 28:26–27.
LXX The Septuagint
36 ἀχοῇ (see on 4:24) is literally “with hearing”; here the thought is something like “no matter how often you hear.” The problem is not that the people will not hear the message: they will hear it again and again (cf. NIV, “you will be ever hearing”). But they will not act on it. χαί here has the sense “and yet,” while not is the emphatic double negative οὐ μή. The construction reflects the Hebrew infinitive absolute and results in “Greek that was possible, however unidiomatic” (M, I, p. 76).
37 Again there is the emphatic double negative. The verb is ἴδητε, which may be used in the sense “see,” but also, as here, with the meaning “perceive”; it is set over against βλέψετε rather than as an example of what that verb means.
38 παχύνω is found in the New Testament again only in Acts 28:27 in quoting the same Isaiah passage. It derives from παχύς, “thick,” and has the meaning “to thicken, fatten” and in the passive “to grow fat.” Metaphorically it signifies “to make dull or stupid” (AS); here it signifies that the people have become sluggish in their reasoning processes (“their minds are dull,” GNB).