_CHRIST REPROVETH THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES FOR TRANSGRESSING GOD'S COMMANDMENTS THROUGH THEIR OWN TRADITIONS; AND TEACHETH HOW THAT WHICH GOETH INTO THE MOUTH DOTH NOT DEFILE A MAN: HE HEALETH THE DAUGHTER OF THE WOMAN OF CANAAN, AND ALSO GREAT MULTITUDES: AND WITH SEVEN LOAVES, AND A FEW LITTLE FI... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CAME TO JESUS, &C.— The law of Moses required external cleanness as a part of religion: not however for its own sake, but to signify with what carefulness God's servants should purify their minds from moral pollutions: accordinglytheir duties are prescribed by Moses with such moderation, as was... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HE ANSWERED, &C.— It was easy for our Lord to retort upon the Pharisees the charge of impiety which they had brought against his disciples, being themselves guilty of the grossest violations of the divine law, through the regard which they shewed to their own traditions. Accordingly, he produces... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HYPOCRITES, &C.— See note on Isaiah 29:13. In St. Mark, our Lord makes this citation at the beginning of his discourse, Mark 7:6. Possibly therefore he cited and applied it twice; first, at the beginning, as St. Mark tells us; and having proved that it was truly applicable to the Scribes and Phar... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT THAT WHICH GOETH INTO THE MOUTH DEFILETH— Our Lord, addressing the multitude, observed to them, that nothing could be more absurd than the precepts which the Scribes and Pharisee endeavoured to inculcate: anxious about trifles, they neglected the great duties of morality, which are of unchangeab... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY PLANT, &C.— _Every plantation,_ Φυτεια, that is to say, _doctrine._ The metaphor was familiar in the time of our Lord, and is still used by the Jewish writers, with whom _to pull up plantations_ signifies "to deny articles of faith." See Heylin and Wetstein.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BE BLIND LEADERS, &C.— "Teachers who foolishly think to lead their disciples to perfection by the observation of precepts wherein there is not the smallest degree of true piety; and who will not be convinced of the contrary: for which cause, both the guides and the guided, who prefer ignorance... [ Continue Reading ]
DECLARE UNTO US THIS PARABLE— The disciples, not understanding their Master's doctrine concerning meats, desired him, when they came home, to explain it. See Mark 7:17. He complied, and shewed them that meats, being of a corporeal nature, cannot defile the mind, or make a man a sinner in the sight o... [ Continue Reading ]
EVIL THOUGHTS— Διαλογισμοι πονηροι, _evil reasonings:_ So I choose to render it, says Dr. Doddridge, as better suiting both the original and the occasion, and as containing a more universal and important truth; for those thoughts only defile the heart, which it willingly admits, and does as it were... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE ARE THE THINGS WHICH DEFILE A MAN— Thus our Lord defended his disciples by a beautiful chain of reasoning, wherein he has shewn the true nature of actions, and loaded with perpetual infamy those Jewish teachers and all their posterity who should imitate them; the main strokes of whose characte... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JESUS WENT THENCE— It may easily be believed, that the Pharisees were highly offended at the liberty which Jesus took in the preceding discourse; for he had plucked off from them the mask wherewith they had covered their deformity, and rendered themselves so venerable in the eyes of the people.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HE ANSWERED HER NOT A WORD— Jesus did not seem to regard the woman, intending that the greatness of her faith should be made to appear; an end, highly worthy of the wisdom of Jesus; because it not only justified his conduct in working a miracle for a heathen, but was a sharp rebuke to the Jews f... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM NOT SENT BUT, &C.— See the note on ch. Matthew 10:5. "Though I am come to save all the nations of the world,_my_ ministry must be confined to the Israelites." Thus at first Jesus seemed to refuse both the woman's request, and the disciples' intercession in her behalf: our Lord's answer was well... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS NOT MEET TO TAKE THE CHILDREN'S BREAD, &C.— The Jews gloried greatly in the honourable title of _God's children,_ because of all nations they alone knew and worshipped the true Jehovah: they gave the name of dogs to the heathens for their idolatry and other pollutions, by which they had in the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHE SAID, TRUTH, LORD— Ναι, Κυριε : which is sometimes used as a form of assenting, and sometimes of intreating. "I acknowledge, Lord, the truth and justice of what thou hast said; nevertheless let me have such kindness as the dogs of any family enjoy: from the plenty of miraculous cures which t... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JESUS ANSWERED—O WOMAN! GREAT IS THY FAITH— Jesus having thus made it evident that the woman possessed a very high degree of faith, a just notion of his power and goodness, and of her own unworthiness, wrought with pleasure the cure which she solicited on behalf of her daughter, and atthe same... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JESUS DEPARTED FROM THENCE— Jesus at length departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, returned to the sea of Galilee through the region of Decapolis, on the east side of Jordan. See Mark 7:31. Having continued in Decapolis a considerable time, the fame of his being in the country reached ever... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE COMPASSION ON THE MULTITUDE— Σπλαγχνιζομαι, a very expressive word, signifying _My bowels yearn,_ or _are moved,_ see ch. Matthew 9:36. It is pleasing to remark the strong compassion which our blessed Lord continually discovered in all his actions toward mankind. The multitude, it is probable... [ Continue Reading ]
AND CAME INTO THE COASTS OF MAGDALA— Bengelius properly separated this verse from the present chapter, and placed it at the beginning of the next; for it was on the coasts of _Magdala_ that the Pharisees came to our Saviour. Compare Mark 8:10 where it is said, that _Jesus came into the parts of Dalm... [ Continue Reading ]