Matthew 7:11

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 διαβάλλων τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν). The evil specially in view, as required by the connection, is selfishness, a grudging spirit: “If ye then, whose own nature is rather to keep what you have than to bestow it on others, etc.” (Hatch, Essays in [48]. Gr., p. 81). οἴδατε διδόναι soletis dare, Maldon. Wetstein; rather, have the sense to give; with the infinitive as in Philippians 4:12, 1 Timothy 3:5. Perhaps we should take the phrase as an elegant expression for the simple δίδοτε. So Palairet. δόματα, four times in N. T. for the attic δῶρον, δώρημα; δομ. ἀγαθὰ, gifts good not only in quality (bread not stone, etc.) but even in measure, generous, giving the children more than they ask. πόσῳ μᾶλλον, a fortiori argument. ὁ πατὴρ, etc., the Father whose benignant nature has already been declared, Matthew 5:45. ἀγαθὰ, good things emphatically, insignia dona, Rosenm., and only good (James 1:17, an echo of this utterance). This text is classic for Christ's doctrine of the Fatherhood of God.

[48] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.