Matthew 7:13

By the narrow gate

(δια της στενης πυλης). The Authorized Version "at the strait gate" misled those who did not distinguish between "strait" and "straight." The figure of the Two Ways had a wide circulation in Jewish and Christian writings (cf. Deuteronomy 30:19; Jeremiah 21:8; Jeremiah 21:1). See the Didache i-vi; Barnabas xviii-xx. "The narrow gate" is repeated in verse Matthew 7:14 andstraitened the way

(τεθλιμμενη η οδος) added. The way is "compressed," narrowed as in a defile between high rocks, a tight place like στενοχωρια in Romans 8:35. "The way that leads to life involves straits and afflictions" (McNeile). Vincent quotes the Pinax or Tablet of Cebes, a contemporary of Socrates: "Seest thou not, then, a little door, and a way before the door, which is not much crowded, but very few travel it? This is the way that leadeth unto true culture." "The broad way" (ευρυχωρος) is in every city, town, village, with the glaring white lights that lure to destruction.