Matthew 21:29

Repented [μ ε τ α μ ε λ η θ ε ι ς]. This is a different word from that in Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; metanoeite, Repent ye. Though it is fairly claimed that the word here implies all that is implied in the other word, the New Testament writers evidently recognize a distinction, since the noun which corresponds to the verb in this passage [μ ε τ α μ ε λ ε ι α] is not used at all in the New Testament, and the verb itself only five times; and, in every case except the two in this passage (see ver. 32), with a meaning quite foreign to repentance in the ordinary gospel sense. Thus it is used of Judas, when he brought back the thirty pieces (Matthew 27:3); of Paul's not regretting his letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:8); and of God (Hebrews 7:21). On the other hand, metanoew, repent, used by John and Jesus in their summons to repentance (Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17), occurs thirty - four times, and the noun metanoia, repentance (Matthew 3:8; Matthew 3:11), twenty - four times, and in every case with reference to that change of heart and life wrought by the Spirit of God, to which remission of sins and salvation are promised. It is not impossible, therefore, that the word in this passage may have been intended to carry a different shade of meaning, now lost to us. Metamelomai, as its etymology indicates (meta, after, and melw, to be an object of care), implies an after - care, as contrasted with the change of mind denoted by metanoia. Not sorrow for moral obliquity and sin against God, but annoyance at the consequences of an act or course of acts, and chagrin at not having known better. "It may be simply what our fathers were wont to call hadiwist (had - I - wist, or know better, I should have acted otherwise)" (Trench). Metameleia refers chiefly to single acts; metanoia denotes the repentance which affects the whole life. Hence the latter is often found in the imperative : Repent ye (Matthew 3:2; iv.; 17; Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19); the former never. Paul's recognition of the distinction (2 Corinthians 7:10) is noteworthy. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance [μ ε τ α ν ο ι α ν] unto salvation," a salvation or repentance "which bringeth no regret on thinking of it afterwards" [α μ ε τ α μ ε λ η τ ο ν]. There is no occasion for one ever to think better of either his repentance or the salvation in which it issued.