Matthew 13:14-15

he prophetic citation, given as such by Matthew only, may be due to him, though put into the mouth of Jesus. It is conceivable, however, that Jesus might use Isaiah's words in Isaiah's spirit, i.e., ironically, expressing the bitter feeling of one conscious that his best efforts to teach his countrymen would often end in failure, and in his bitterness representing himself as sent to stop ears and blind eyes. Such utterances are not to be taken as deliberate dogmatic teaching. If, as some allege, the evangelists so took them, they failed to understand the mind of the Master. The quotation exactly follows the Sept [80] The verb καμμύω (Matthew 13:15, ἐκάμμυσαν) is condemned by Phryn. as barbarous, the right word being καταμύειν.

[80] Septuagint.