Matthew 11:28-30

The gracious invitation. Full of O. T. reminiscences, remarks Holtz., H.C., citing Isaiah 14:3; Isaiah 28:12; Isaiah 55:1-3; Jeremiah 6:16; Jeremiah 31:2; Jeremiah 31:25, and especially Sir 6:24-3; Sir 6:28-3; Sir 51:23-3. De Wette had long before referred to the last-mentioned passage, and Pfleiderer has recently (Urch., 513) made it the basis of the assertion that this beautiful logion is a composition out of Sirach by the evangelist. The passage in Sirach is as follows: ἐγγίσατε πρὸς μὲ ἀπαίδευτοι, καὶ αὐλίσθητε ἐν οἴκῳ παιδείας. διότι ὑστερεῖτε ἐν τούτοις, καὶ αἱ ψυχαὶ ὑμῶν διψῶσι σφόδρα; ἤνοιξα τὸ στόμα μου, καὶ ἐλάλησα, κτήσασθε ἑαυτοῖς ἄνευ ἀργυρίου. τὸν τράχηλον ὑμῶν ὑπόθετε ὑπὸ ζυγὸν, καὶ ἐπιδεξάσθω ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν παιδείαν · ἐγγύς ἐστιν εὑρεῖν αὐτήν · ἴδετε ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑμῶν ὅτι ὀλίγον ἐκοπίασα, καὶ εὗρον ἐμαυτῷ πολλὴν ἀνάπαυσιν. [72] There are unquestionably kindred thoughts and corresponding phrases, as even Kypke points out (“Syracides magna similitudine dicit”), and if Sirach had been a recognised Hebrew prophet one could have imagined Matthew giving the gist of this rhetorical passage, prefaced with an “as it is written”. It is not even inconceivable that a reader of our Gospel at an early period noted on the margin phrases culled from Sirach as descriptive of the attitude of the one true σοφός towards men to show how willing he was to communicate the knowledge of the Father-God, and that his notes found their way into the text. But why doubt the genuineness of this logion ? It seems the natural conclusion of Christ's soliloquy; expressing His intense yearning for receptive scholars at a time when He was painfully conscious of the prevalent unreceptivity. The words do not smell of the lamp. They come straight from a saddened yet tenderly affectionate, unembittered heart; simple, pathetic, sincere. He may have known Sirach from boyhood, and echoes may have unconsciously suggested themselves, and been used with royal freedom quite compatibly with perfect originality of thought and phrase. The reference to wisdom in Matthew 11:19 makes the supposition not gratuitous that Jesus may even have had the passage in Sirach consciously present to His mind, and that He used it, half as a quotation, half as a personal manifesto. The passage is the end of a prayer of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, in which that earlier Jesus, personating wisdom, addresses his fellowmen, inviting them to share the benefits which σοφία has conferred on himself. Why should not Jesus of Nazareth close His prayer with a similar address in the name of wisdom to those who are most likely to become her children those whose ear sorrow hath opened? This view might meet Martineau's objection to regarding this logion as authentic, that it is not compatible with the humility of Jesus that He should so speak of Himself (Seat of Authority, p. 583). Why should He not do as another Jesus had done before Him: speak in the name of wisdom, and appropriate her attributes?

[72] Of the above the R. V. gives the following translation: “Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and lodge in the house of in struction. Say wherefore are ye lacking in these things, and your souls are very thirsty? I opened my mouth and spake. Get her for yourselves without money. Put your neck under the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction. She is hard at hand to find. Behold with your eyes how that I laboured but a little, and found for myself much rest.”