Matthew 10:4

Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Simon the Canaanite; rather 'Kananite' [ Kananitees (G2581)], but better still, 'the Zealot' [ Zeelootees (G2208)], as he is called in Luke 6:15, where the original term should not have been retained as in our version ("Simon, called Zelotes"), but rendered 'Simon, called the Zealot.' The word "Kananite" is just the Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic, term for 'Zealot' [Heb. qaana' (H7065) 'jealous' or 'zealous'-Chald. qan'an]. Probably before his acquaintance with Jesus, he belonged to the sect of the Zealots, who bound themselves, as a sort of voluntary ecclesiastical police, to see that the law was not broken with impunity.

And Judas Iscariot - that is, Judas of Kerioth, a town of Judah (Joshua 15:25); so called to distinguish him from "Judas the brother of James" (Luke 6:16).

Who also betrayed him - a note of infamy attached to his name in all the catalogues of the Twelve.

Remarks:

(1) As the reapers of every harvest are appointed by the proprietor of the field, so the labourers whom God will own in "His harvest" are of His own appointing, and to be sought of Him by prayer (Matthew 9:38). Even the Lord Jesus spent a whole night in prayer to God before selecting the Twelve Apostles (Luke 6:12). But just as in that case the Redeemer followed up His prayer by action, so must we. If to take action for providing preachers without asking them from God be the spirit of naturalism, to cry to God for preachers and do nothing to provide them, is mere fanaticism; but to do both, with full assurance that each is indispensable for its own purposes, and necessary to make the other available - this is to tread in the very footsteps of Christ. In every age and every land the nature of the steps requisite on our part to procure and prepare the proper labourers will vary; but our action in this matter is not superseded by divine interpositions. The Lord indeed will not bind Himself to employ none on whom no human preparation has been bestowed; and facts prove that to disown the labours of all on whom the stamp of an organized Church has not been affixed, would be to that to disown the labours of all on whom the stamp of an organized Church has not been affixed, would be to fight against God.

But to make such exceptional cases determine the Church's line of procedure, in so solemn a matter as the Gospel ministry, would be short-sighted and ruinous. On the other hand, as the tendency of all churches is to depend upon its own measures for providing qualified preachers of the everlasting Gospel, it will be our true wisdom to drink in the spirit of the Master's teaching here - that the Lord appoints His own labourers, and for this thing must be entreated of us to do it for us; remembering that whatever be the gifts which men bring to the work of the ministry, and whatever their external success in it, unless they be of God's own selecting and appointing, they have no right to be there, and are liable at the last to hear from the lips of the Lord of the harvest those awful words, "I never knew you."

(2) Did the Redeemer, as He beheld the multitudes harassed and abandoned, like shepherdless sheep, have compassion upon them, and go out in thought to the vastness of the harvest to be gathered in and the fewness of the labourers to do it; and did He call the attention of His disciples to this affecting state of things, that they might enter into His own mind about it, and, like Himself, carry the matter to God for relief? Then, what a model-attitude for ourselves is here held up before us! Were the churches, and all the true followers of Christ, to direct their eye steadily upon the spiritually wretched and necessitous condition of the world, until their eye affected their heart, and the cry of faith went up from it to God, to send forth labourers into His harvest, how speedily would the answer come, and in how rich a form! Nor would it be confined to the direct object of their prayer. For He, whose own very attitude in the days of His flesh would thus be reflected by His believing people, would set the seal of His complacency upon them in a thousand ways-drying up the fountains of dissension and separation and weakness among themselves, and drawing them into love and concord and strength, to the astonishment of a surrounding world. Blessed Jesus, shall not this consummation be realized at length? "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath at all times" to see this great sight, which we cannot doubt will be fulfilled in its season. On the choice of the apostles, we observe,

(3) That the number Twelve was fixed on to correspond with the number of the tribes of Israel, as is evident from Matthew 19:28; as the number of Seventy, to go on a subsequent mission (Luke 10:1), had certainly a reference to the seventy elders of Israel, on whom the Spirit of the Lord was made to rest, that they might bear along with Moses the burden of administration (Numbers 11:16-4; Numbers 11:25).

(4) The relationship existing among those Twelve is one of the most remarkable facts. There were no fewer than three pairs of brothers among them: Andrew and Peter; James and John; James the less and Judas, or Lebbaeus, or Simon the Zealot-not to speak of the special tie which bound Bartholomew, or Nathanael, to Philip, and the common tie that bound them all together as disciples-probably the most devoted and advanced-of John the Baptist, and as drawn mostly from the same locality. Reasons for all this may easily be imagined; but we here leave the fact to speak for itself.

(5) Our Enangelist enumerates the Twelve in couples, with evident allusion to their being sent on this mission "by two and two" (Mark 6:7).

(6) In all the first three lists the names are arranged in three quaternions, or divisions of four each. Nor can it be doubted that this has reference to some distribution of them by the Lord Himself; because in all of them Philip stands first in the second quaternion-as in the third, James the son of Alpheus.

(7) The first quaternion evidently stood highest in order. Peter and James and John, who constituted a sacred trio in some of the leading events of our Lord's public life, were at the head of all; Andrew being associated with them, to make up the first quaternion, not only as being Peter's Brother, but as having been the first to "bring him to Jesus" (John 1:41). In the lists of Matthew and Luke he stands next after Peter, from connection with him; while in the other two lists the sacred trio stand first, the name of Andrew completing that quaternion.

(8) When our Evangelist says, "The first, Simon" - without assigning a number to any of the rest-while in the other three lists his name stands first, as it does here, the evident design is to hold forth his prominence among the Twelve: not as having any authority above the rest-for not a vestige of this appears in the New Testament-but as marking the use which His Lord made of him above any of the rest; for which his qualifications, in spite of failing, stand out on almost every page of the Gospel History, and in the earlier portion of the Acts of the Apostles.

(9) With the exception of the four first names, the rest are almost unknown in the New Testament; and the slight variety with which they are arranged in the several lists shows the little prominence with which they were regarded for the purposes of this History.

(10) In all the catalogues the name of Judas not only stands last, but "traitor" is added to it as a brand of abhorrence; and so revolting were the associations connected with his name, that the beloved disciple, in recording a deeply interesting question put at the last supper by Judas to his Lord, hastens to explain, in a sweet parenthesis, that it was "not Iscariot" that he meant (John 14:22).

(11) How terrific is the warning which the case of Judas holds forth to the ministers of Christ, not to trust in any gifts, any offices, any services, any success, as sure evidence of divine acceptance, apart from that "holiness without which no man shall see the Lord"!

This directory divides itself into three distinct parts. The first part-extending from 5 to 15-contains directions for the brief and temporary mission on which they were now going forth, with respect to the places they were to go to, the works they were to do, the message they were to bear, and the manner in which they were to conduct themselves. The second part-extending from Matthew 10:16 to Matthew 23:1 - contains directions of no such limited and temporary nature, but opens out into the permanent exercise of the Gospel ministry. The third part-extending from Matthew 10:24 -is of wider application still, reaching not only to the ministry of the Gospel in every age, but to the service of Christ in the widest sense. It is a strong confirmation of this threefold division, that each part closes with the words, "VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU" (Matthew 10:15; Matthew 10:23; Matthew 10:42).