Matthew 25:31-46

The Judgment programme. Much diversity of opinion has prevailed in reference to this remarkable passage; as to the subjects of the judgment, and the authenticity of this judgment programme as a professed logion of Jesus. Are the judged all mankind, Christian and non-Christian, or Christians only, or non-Christian peoples, including unbelieving Jews, or the Jewish people excluded? Even as early as Origen it was felt that there was room for doubt on such points. He says (Comm. in Ev. M.): “Utrum segregabuntur gentes omnes ab omnibus qui in omnibus generationibus fuerint, an illae tantum quao in consummatione fuerint derelictae, aut illae tantum quae crediderunt in Deum per Christum, et ipsae utrum omnes, an non omnes, non satis est manifestum. Tamen quibusdam videtur de differentiâ eorum, quae crediderunt haec esse dicta.” Recent opinion inclines to the view that the programme refers to heathen people only, and sets forth the principle on which they shall be judged. As to the authenticity of the logion critics hold widely discrepant views. Some regard it as a composition of the evangelists. So Pfleiderer, e.g., who sees in it simply the literary expression of a genial humane way of regarding the heathen on the part of the evangelist, an unknown Christian author of the second century, who had charity enough to accept Christlike love on the part of the heathen as an equivalent for Christian faith (Urchristenthum, p. 532). Holtzmann, H. C., also sees in it a second-hand composition, based on 4 Esdras 7:33 35, Apoc. Bar. 83:12. Weiss, on the other hand, recognises as basis an authentic logion of Jesus, setting forth love as the test of true discipleship, which has been worked over by the evangelist and altered into a judgment programme for heathendom. Wendt (L. J., p. 186) thinks that the logion in its original form was such a programme. This seems to be the most probable opinion.