Matthew 5:27

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID. The words [ tois (G3588) archaiois (G744)] "by," or "to them of old time," in this verse are insufficiently supported, and probably were not in the original text. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY. Interpreting this seventh commandment, as they did the sixth commandment the traditional perverters of the law restricted the breech of it to acts of criminal sexual intercourse between, or with, married persons exclusively. Our Lord now dissipates such delusions....

Matthew 5:27._Thou shalt not commit adultery. _Christ proceeds with his subject, and shows, that the law of God not only has authority over the life, in a political view, to form the outward manners, but that it requires pure and holy affections of the heart. We must remember what I have already stated, that though Christ quotes the very words of the law, it is the gross and false meaning, which had been put upon it by dishonest interpreters, that he blames. He has already told us, that he did not come as a new Legislator, but as the faithful expounder of a law which had been already given. It might be objected that, through long practice, that interpretation had grown old. Christ expressly admits this, but meets it by saying, that the antiquity of an error ought not to be allowed to plead in its favor....

27-32 Victory over the desires of the heart, must be attended with painful exertions. But it must be done. Every thing is bestowed to save us from our sins, not in them. All our senses and powers must be kept from those things which lead to transgression. Those who lead others into temptation to sin, by dress or in other ways, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselves guilty of their sin, and will be accountable for it. If painful operations are submitted to, that our lives may be saved, what ought our minds to shrink from, when the salvation of our souls is concerned? There is tender mercy under all the Divine requirements, and the grace and consolations of the Spirit will enable us to attend to them....

Verse Matthew 5:27. _YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID BY THEM OF OLD_] By _the ancients_, τοις αρχαιοις, is omitted by nearly a _hundred_ MSS., and some of them of the very greatest antiquity and authority; also by the _Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Gothic_, and _Sclavonian_ versions; by _four_ copies of the old _Itala_; and by _Origen, Cyril_, _Theophylact, Euthymius_, and _Hilary_. On this authority _Wetstein_ and _Griesbach_ have left it out of the text....

YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID BY THEM OF OLD TIME, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY - See the notes at Matthew 5:21. Our Saviour in these verses explains the seventh commandment. It is probable that the Pharisees had explained this commandment, as they had the sixth, as extending only to the external act; and that they regarded evil thoughts and a wanton imagination as of little consequence, or as not forbidden by the law. Our Saviour assures them that the commandment did not regard the external act merely, but the secrets of the heart, and the movements of the eye. He declares that they who indulge a wanton desire, that they who look on a woman to increase their lust, have already, in the sight of God, violated the commandment, and committed adultery in the heart. Such was the guilt of David, whose deep and awful crime fully shows the danger of indulging in evil

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 5:1 AND SEEING THE MULTITUDES; _i.e. _those spoken of in Matthew 4:25—the multitudes who were at that point of time following him. HE WENT UP. From the lower ground by the lake. INTO A MOUNTAIN; Revised Version, _into the mountain _(εἰς τὸ ὄρος);_ i.e. _not any special mountain, but "the mountain nearest the place spoken of—the mountain near by" (Thayer); in contrast to any lower place, whether that was itself fairly high ground (as probably Luke 9:28) or the shore of the lake. The actual spot here referred to may have been far from, or, and more probably ...

YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID,.... These forms of speech, as well as what follows, BY THEM OF OLD TIME, have been explained, in ver. 21. The law here mentioned, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, is recorded in Exodus 20:14 and the meaning of our Lord is, not that the then present Jews had heard that such a law had been delivered "to the ancients", their fathers, at Mount Sinai; for that they could read in their Bibles: but they had received it by tradition, that the sense of it, which had been given to their ancestors, by the ancient doctors of the church, was, that this law is to be taken strictly, as it lies, and only regards the sin of uncleanness in married persons; or, what was strictly adultery, and that actual; so that it had no respect to fornication, or unchaste thoughts, words, or actions, but that single act only....

Matthew 5:1. _And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,-_ Our Saviour soon gathered a congregation. The multitudes perceived in him a love to them, and a willingness to impart blessing to them, and therefore they gathered about him. He chose the mountain and the open air for the delivery of this great discourse, and we should be glad to find such a place for our assemblies; but in this variable climate we cannot often do so. «And when he was set.» The Preacher sat, and the people stood. We might make a helpful change if we were sometimes to adopt a similar plan now. I am afraid that ease of posture may contribute to the creation of slumber of heart in the hearers. There Christ sat, and «his disciples came unto him.» They formed the inner circle that was ever nearest to hi

5. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KING CONCERNING HIS KINGDOM. CHAPTER S 5-7 _ 1. The Characteristics of the heirs of the Kingdom.(Matthew 5:1 .) 2. The Confirmation of the Law and its Expansion.(Matthew 5:17 .)_ CHAPTER 5 In the closing of the last chapter we saw our Lord Jesus Christ surrounded by a great multitude of people, which followed Him and who were attracted by the King's presence, before whom the various diseases had to flee. If we turn to the eighth chapter we find the continuation of these scenes we had in the last half of the fourth chapter. Between these two Chapter s are three very important ones, which are as such found only in this Gospel. The contents of the fifth, sixth and seventh Chapter s are in the form of a continued discourse of our Lord, commonly called “t

MATTHEW 5:27 F. ADULTERY. Jesus again extends the scope of the prohibition from actions to thoughts. There is so mething more here than the seventh or even the tenth commandment, where the coveting is only a matter of property (_cf._ Job 31:1; Job 31:7). The papyri show that a married woman is probably meant in Matthew 5:28. MATTHEW 5:29 F. THE RIGHT EYE AND HAND (_cf. Matthew 18:8_ f. Ma