Matthew 9:3

II. BLASPHEMY.

3. Certain of the scribes said within themselves.

They had scented heresy from afar, and had come to pry censoriously and inquisitorially into the teaching of the wonderful upstart rabbi. (See Luke 5:17.)-- Morison. The scribes, or rabbis, were the heads of the nation in the widest sense; for the religion of the people was also their politics. They were the theologians, the jurists, the legislators, the politicians, and, indeed, the soul of Israel.-- Geikie. They had apparently come to see how the new teacher who had so startled them at Jerusalem was carrying on his work in Galilee, and as far as they could to hinder it.-- Ellicott. The Lord saw the reasonings of the scribes, just as he had seen the faith of the bearers, and the penitence of him whom they bore.-- Stier.

This man blasphemeth.

"Blasphemy," says Sir John Mackenzie, in his Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal (Tit. iii., 1), "is called in law, divine lese majesty or treason; and it is committed either (1) by denying that of God which belongs to him as one of his attributes, or (2) by attributing to him that which is absurd, and inconsistent with his divine nature," or, as it may be added (3), by assuming to one's self, or ascribing to others, what is an incommunicable property or prerogative of God. It is with. reference to this third form of the crime that the word is used in the passage before us.-- Morison. If Christ were but. man, as they imagined, the scribes would have been right. And yet so far he had not said that he forgave the sins, but merely declared them forgiven. Christ says nothing more than the prophets frequently say when they announce the 'grace of God (Calvin). But he does now assume the power which they have denied him, and this without calling in question their principle, that only God can forgive sins.-- Abbott. It was the turning-point in the life of Jesus, for the accusation of blasphemy, muttered in the hearts of the rabbis present, was the beginning of the process which ended, after. time, on Calvary, and he knew it.-- Geikie.