Matthew 16:8

_THE PHARISEES ALSO WITH THE SADDUCEES CAME, AND TEMPTING DESIRED HIM THAT HE WOULD SHEW THEM A SIGN FROM HEAVEN._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

8._Why do you think within yourselves, etc.? _The disciples again show how little they had profited by the instructions of their Master, and by his wonderful works. What he had said about being on their guard against _the leaven _is rashly interpreted by them as if Christ intended only to withdraw them from outward intercourse. As it was customary among the Jews not to take food in company with irreligious men, the disciples imagine that the Pharisees were classed with such persons. This ignorance might perhaps have been endured; but they are forgetful of a favor which they lately received, and do not consider that Christ has the remedy his power to hinder them from being compelled to pollute themselves by meat and drink, and therefore he reproves them sharply, as they deserved. And certainly it was shameful ingratitude that, after having seen bread created out of nothing, and in such ab...

5-12 Christ speaks of spiritual things under a similitude, and the disciples misunderstand him of carnal things. He took it ill that they should think him as thoughtful about bread as they were; that they should be so little acquainted with his way of preaching. Then understood they what he meant. Christ teaches by the Spirit of wisdom in the heart, opening the understanding to the Spirit of revelation in the word....

Verse Matthew 16:8. _WHEN JESUS PERCEIVED, HE SAID_] αυτοις, _unto them_, is wanting in BDKLMS, and twenty others; one of the Syriac, the Armenian, Ethiopic, Vulgate, and most of the Itala; also in Origen, Theophylact, and Lucifer Calaritanus. Mill approves of the omission, and Griesbach has left it out of the text. _O YE OF LITTLE FAITH_] There are degrees in _faith_, as well as in the other graces of the Spirit. _Little faith_ may be the seed of _great faith_, and therefore is not to be despised. But many who should be strong in faith have but a small measure of it, because they either give way to sin, or are not careful to improve what God has already given....

The account in these verses is also recorded in Mark 8:13. Matthew 16:5 AND WHEN HIS DISCIPLES WERE COME TO THE OTHER SIDE - That is, to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Mark says that he entered into a ship again, and departed to the other side. The conversation with the Pharisees and Sadducees had been on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. See the notes at Matthew 15:39. They crossed from that side again to the east. HAD FORGOTTEN TO TAKE BREAD - That is, had forgotten to lay in a sufficient supply. They had, it seems, not more than one loaf,...

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 16:1 _The Pharisees and Sadducees desire a sign. _(Mark 8:11.) MATTHEW 16:1 THE PHARISEES ALSO WITH THE SADDUEEES; rather, _and the Pharisees and Sadducees. _The scribes and Pharisees are often mentioned together as watching or attacking Jesus; but this is the first time that we hear of Pharisees combining with Sadducees for this purpose. The two sects were directly opposed to each other, the traditional belief of the former being antagonistic to the scepticism and materialism of the latter. But both were hostile to Christ, whose teaching, on the one hand interfered with rabbinism, and on the

WHICH WHEN JESUS PERCEIVED,.... Without hearing any of their debates, but by his omniscience; for he knew the doubts and unbelief, and anxious solicitude of their minds, as well as their private reasonings one with another: HE SAID UNTO THEM, O YE OF LITTLE FAITH; a phrase used upon a like occasion, when he would dissuade his disciples from an anxious distressing care about a livelihood, Matthew 6:30 See Gill "Mt 6:30": WHY REASON YE AMONG YOURSELVES, BECAUSE YE HAVE BROUGHT NO BREAD? blaming one another for your negligence and forgetfulness in this matter; distressing your minds, as if you should be famished and starved, because ye have not brought a quantity of bread, as you used to do with you....

4. THE GREAT ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE REJECTED KING CONCERNING HIMSELF. CHAPTER 16 1. Pharisees and Sadducees Asking a Sign. (Matthew 16:1 .) 2. Instructions Concerning the Leaven. (Matthew 16:5 .) 3. Peter's Confession. (Matthew 16:13 .) 4. The Future Building of the Church Announced. (Matthew 16:17 .) 5. The Announcement of His Death and Resurrection. (Matthew 16:21 .) 6. Peter's Rebuke and the Lord's Answer. (Matthew 16:22 .) 7. The Pa

THE BLINDNESS OF THE DISCIPLES REBUKED (Mark 8:14 *, Luke 11:53 f., Luke 12:1). Note how Mt avoids the idea that Jesus had forgotten the bread. The Sadducees are mentioned again in 6. The detached saying about leaven in Mark 8:15 probably refers to plots of the Pharisees and Herod, but Mt. (Matthew 12) interprets leaven as teaching, and so has to substitute Sadducees for Herod, and carries the substitution back to Matthew 16:1. He makes Jesus read the disciples-' thoughts (Matthew 16:8) instea

BLIND TO THE SIGNS (Matthew 16:1-4)...