CHAPTER 7. THE SERMON CONTINUED AND CLOSED. The contents of this chapter are less closely connected and more miscellaneous than in the two preceding. In Matthew 7:1-12 the polemic against Pharisaism seems to be continued and concluded. Matthew 7:6-11 Weiss regards as an interpolation foreign to the... [ Continue Reading ]
μὴ κρίνετε, judge not, an absolute prohibition of a common habit, especially in religious circles of the Pharisaic type, in which much of the evil in human nature reveals itself. “What levity, haste, prejudice, malevolence, ignorance; what vanity and egotism in most of the judgments pronounced in th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Against judging_.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ᾧ γὰρ, etc.: Vulgatissimum hoc apud Judaeos adagium, says Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.). Of course; one would expect such maxims, based on experience, to be current among all peoples (_vide_ Grotius for examples). It is the _lex talionis_ in a new form: _character for character_. Jesus may have learned s... [ Continue Reading ]
_Proverb of the mote and beam_. Also current among Jews and Arabs (_vide_ Tholuck). κάρφος, a minute dry particle of chaff, wood, etc. δοκός, a wooden beam (_let in_, from δέχομαι) or joist, a monstrous symbol of a great fault. A beam in the eye is a natural impossibility; _cf._ the camel and the ne... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκβάλω, hortatory conjunctive, first person, supplies place of imperative which is wanting in first person; takes such words as ἄγε, φέρε, or as here ἄφες, before it. _Vide_ Goodwin, section 255. For ἄφες modern Greek has ἄς, a contraction, used with the subjunctive in the first and third persons (_... [ Continue Reading ]
ὑποκριτά : because he acts as no one should but he who has first reformed himself. “What hast _thou_ to do to declare my statutes?” Psalms 50:16. διαβλέψεις, thou will see clearly, _vide_ Mark 8:24-25, where three compounds of the verb occur, with ανά, διά, and ἐν. Fritzsche takes the future as an i... [ Continue Reading ]
_A complementary counsel_. No connecting word introduces this sentence. Indeed the absence of connecting particles is noticeable throughout the chapter: Matthew 7:1; Matthew 7:6-7; Matthew 7:13; Matthew 7:15. It is a collection of ethical pearls strung loosely together. Yet it is not difficult to su... [ Continue Reading ]
Αἰτεῖτε, ζητεῖτε, κρούετε, threefold exhortation with a view to impressiveness; first literally, then twice in figurative language: seek as for an object lost, knock as at a barred door, appropriate after the parable of the neighbour in bed (Luke 11:5-8). The promise of answer is stated in correspon... [ Continue Reading ]
_Admonition to prayer_ : presupposes deferred answer to prayer, tempting to doubt as to its utility, and consequent discontinuance of the practice. A lesson more natural at a later stage, when the disciples had a more developed religious experience. The whole subject more adequately handled in Luke... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 7:8, teration in form of a general proposition: πᾶς γὰρ, for every one, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἢ answers to a state of mind which doubts whether God gives in answer to prayer at all, or at least gives what we desire. τίς ἐξ ὑμῶν ἀν.: argument from analogy, from the human to the divine. The construction is broken. Instead of going on to say what the man of the parable will do, the sentence cha... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 7:11, πονηροὶ, morally evil, a strong word, the worst fathers being taken to represent the class, the point being that hardly the worst will treat their children as described. There is no intention to teach a doctrine of depravity, or, as Chrysostom says, to calumniate human nature (οὐ διαβά... [ Continue Reading ]
_The golden rule_. οὖν here probably because in the source, _cf._ καὶ in quotation in Hebrews 1:6. The connection must be a matter of conjecture with Matthew 7:11, a, “Extend your goodness from children to all,” Fritzsche; with Matthew 7:11, b, “Imitate the divine goodness,” Bengel; with Matthew 7:1... [ Continue Reading ]
_The two ways_ (Luke 13:23-25). From this point onwards we have what commentators call the _Epilogue_ of the sermon, introduced without connecting particle, possibly no part of the teaching on the hill, placed here because that teaching was regarded as the best guide to the right way. The passage it... [ Continue Reading ]
_Warning against pseudo-prophets_. Again, without connecting particle and possibly not a part of the Sermon on the Mount. But the more important question here is: Does this section belong to Christ's teaching at all, or has it been introduced by the Evangelist that false teachers of after days appea... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπὸ τ. καρπῶν. By the nature of the case difficult to detect, but discernible from their _fruit_. ἐπιγνώσεσθε. Ye shall know them through and through (ἐπί) if ye study carefully the outcome of their whole way of life. Matthew 7:16. μήτι, do they perhaps, τι suggesting doubt where there is none = me... [ Continue Reading ]
_An enlargement in parabolic fashion on the principle of testing by fruit_.... [ Continue Reading ]
nother illustration from good and bad trees of the same kind. ἀγαθὸν, sound, healthy; σαπρὸν, degenerate, through age or bad soil. According to Phryn., σαπρός was popularly used instead of αἰσχρός in a moral sense (σαπράν οἱ πολλοὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ αἰσχράν, p. 377). Each tree brings forth fruit answering to... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐ δύναται, etc. Nothing else is possible or looked for in nature.... [ Continue Reading ]
en look on this as so certain that they do not hesitate to cut down and burn a degenerate tree, as if it were possible it might bring forth good fruit next year. μὴ ποιοῦν, if it do not, that once ascertained. Weiss thinks this verse is imported from Matthew 3:10, and foreign to the connection.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἄραγε : final inference, a very lively and forcible composite particle; again with similar effect in Matthew 17:26. The γε should have its full force as singling out for special attention; “at least from their fruits, if by no other means”. It implies that to know the false prophet is hard. Matthew... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ λέγων, ὁ ποιῶν : Of all, whether disciples or teachers, the principle holds good without exception that not saying “Lord” but doing God's will is the condition of approval and admittance into the kingdom. Saying “Lord” includes taking Jesus for Master, and listening to His teaching with appreciati... [ Continue Reading ]
_False discipleship_. From false teachers the discourse naturally passes to spurious disciples. Luke's version contains the kernel of this passage (Luke 6:46). Something of the kind was to be expected in the teaching on the hill. What more likely than that the Master, who had spoken such weighty tru... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, the great dread judgment day of Jehovah expected by all Jews, with more or less solemn awe; a very grave reference. τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι : thrice repeated, the main ground of hope. Past achievements, prophesyings, exorcisms, miracles are recited; but the chief point insisted on is: all... [ Continue Reading ]
τότε. When they make this protestation, the Judge will make a counter protestation ὁμολογήσω αὐτοῖς, I will own to them. Bengel's comment is: aperte. Magna _potestas_ hujus dicti. But there is a certain apologetic tone in the expression, “I will confess” (“profess,” A.V [49] and R.V [50]), as if to... [ Continue Reading ]
Πᾶς ὅστις. Were the reading ὁμοιώσω adopted, this would be a case either of attraction πᾶς for πάντα to agree with ὅστις (Fritzsche), or of a broken construction: nominative, without a verb corresponding, for rhetorical effect. (Meyer, _vide_ Winer, § lxiii., 2, d.) ἀκούει, ποιεῖ : hearing and doing... [ Continue Reading ]
_Epilogue_ (Luke 6:47-49, which see for comparative exegesis). οὖν, Matthew 7:24, may be taken as referring to the whole discourse, not merely to Matthew 7:21-23 (Tholuck and Achelis). Such a sublime utterance could only be the grand finale of a considerable discourse, or series of discourses. It is... [ Continue Reading ]
What follows shows his wisdom, justified by events which he had anticipated and provided for; not abstract possibilities, but likely to happen every year certain to happen now and then. Therefore the prudence displayed is not exceptional, but just ordinary common sense. καὶ : observe the five καὶ in... [ Continue Reading ]
μωρῷ, Jesus seems here to offend against His own teaching, Matthew 5:22, but He speaks not in passion or contempt, but in deep sadness, and with humane intent to prevent such folly. Wherein lay the second builder's folly? Not in deliberately selecting a bad foundation, but in taking no thought of fo... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ … ἄνεμοι : exactly the same phrases as in Matthew 7:25, to describe the oncome of the storm. προσέκοψαν : a different word for the assault on the house struck upon it with immediate fatal effect. It was not built to stand such rough handling. The builder had not thought of such an eventuality. ἔ... [ Continue Reading ]
_Concluding statement as to the impression made by the discourse_. A similar statement occurs in Mark 1:22; Mark 1:27, whence it may have been transferred by Matthew. It may be assumed that so unique a teacher as Jesus made a profound impression the very first time He spoke in public, and that the p... [ Continue Reading ]
ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων : Fritzsche supplies, after ἔχων, τοῦ διδάσκειν, and renders, He taught as one having a right to teach, because He could do it well, “scite et perite,” a master of the art. The thought lies deeper. It is an ethical, not an artistic or æsthetical contrast that is intended. The scribe... [ Continue Reading ]