C. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KINGDOM, 1–27 After contrasting the New Law with the Mosaic Law and with Pharisaic rules and conduct, Jesus proceeds to lay down rules for the guidance of His disciples in the Christian life. The passage occurs in St Luke’s report of the Sermon on the Mount (ch. Luke 6:37-3... [ Continue Reading ]
ΜῊ ΚΡΊΝΕΤΕ Κ.Τ.Λ. This is the form which the ‘_lex talionis_,’ or law of reciprocity, takes in the kingdom of heaven. The censorious spirit is condemned, it is opposed to the ἐπιείκεια, ‘forbearance,’ ‘fairness in judgment,’ that allows for faults, a characteristic ascribed to Jesus Christ Himself,... [ Continue Reading ]
ΜΕΤΡΗΘΉΣΕΤΑΙ for ἀντιμετρηθήσεται taken from parallel passage Luke 6:38. In Matthew 7:28 again the simple verb is preferred on good authority to the compound συνετέλεσεν. 2. ΚΡΊΜΑ, ‘judgment’ either (1) in the sense of a judicial sentence as Romans 2:2, τὸ κρίμα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστὶν κατὰ�, or (2) a rule o... [ Continue Reading ]
ΒΛΈΠΕΙΣ. Of seeing the external surface of a thing contrasted with κατανοεῖς, which implies thoughtful perception. It is the contrast between judging from the outside and examination of the heart. ΚΆΡΦΟΣ. A ‘twig,’ ‘splinter,’ dry particle of hay (κάρφη Xen. _Anab._ I. 5, 10), straw, &c. Cp. Aristo... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΚ ΤΟΥ͂ ὈΦΘΑΛΜΟΥ͂ for ἀπὸ τ. ὀφθ. ἀπὸ denoting removal from the _surface_, perhaps introduced from a note to mark and heighten the contrast. But the evidence for ἐκ is not decisive. 4. ἌΦΕΣ ἘΚΒΆΛΩ. ‘Let me cast out.’ See Winer, p. 356 _b_, and note 3, where instances of this case of ἄφες with conju... [ Continue Reading ]
ΚΑΤΑΠΑΤΉΣΟΥΣΙΝ for καταπατήσωσιν the subjunctive was a correction to a more regular construction. 6. The connection between this verse and the preceding section is not quite obvious. It seems to be this. Although evil and censorious judgment is to be avoided, discrimination is needful. The Christia... [ Continue Reading ]
7, 8. Here each verse contains a triplet with ascending climax, αἰτεῖτε—ζητεῖτε—κρούετε. Each line of the one answers to the corresponding line of the other, with which it might be read continuously. It is a simple instance of a special characteristic of Hebrew poetry, of which examples sometimes el... [ Continue Reading ]
ὋΝ ἘᾺΝ ΑἸΤΉΣΗΙ for ὃν αἰτήσει and ἐὰν αἰτήσῃ for ἢ καὶ αἰτήσει (Matthew 7:10) are also grammatical corrections tending to explain the structure. 9. Translate: ‘Or what man is there from among you of whom his son shall ask a loaf—he will not give him a stone, will he?’ Here the regular interrogative... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἢ ΚΑῚ ἸΧΘῪΝ ΑἸΤΉΣΕΙ. See Critical Notes. Regarding the construction as independent, translate (1) ‘Or again (the son) will ask a fish—will (the father) give him a serpent?’ or (2) understanding the relative δν from the previous clause, ‘or will he of whom his son shall ask,’ &c. It may be noted tha... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΟΝΗΡΟΊ. ‘Evil’ as compared with the perfect righteousness of God. ἈΓΑΘΆ. For this St Luke (Luke 11:13) has ‘the Holy Spirit,’ shewing that spiritual rather than temporal ‘good things’ are intended.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΟΥ̓͂Ν. The practical result of what has been said both in regard to judgment and to prayer is mutual charity. The thought of the divine judgment teaches forbearance; the thought of the divine goodness teaches kindness. (_c_) The narrow entrance to the Kingdom, 13, 14 These verses are linked to th... [ Continue Reading ]
ΕἸΣΈΛΘΕΤΕ for εἰσέλθατε was a change to a more regular form. 13. ΕἸΣΈΛΘΑΤΕ … ΠΎΛΗΣ. Luke 13:24-25. The illustration seems to be drawn from a mansion having a large portal at which many enter, and a narrow entrance known to few, with broad and narrow ways leading respectively to each. One is the gate... [ Continue Reading ]
ὍΤΙ is rightly adopted, though τί has a great preponderance of external authority; of the uncials, א* B* and X alone exhibit ὅτι. The variant probably illustrates an interesting cause of error, by which the initial letter was sometimes overlooked through being reserved for subsequent revision and mo... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΡΟΣΈΧΕΤΕ�. The classical constructions of προσέχειν (νοῦν) are τινί, πρός τι, πρός τινι: from the idea of attention to a thing comes that of caution about a thing, and ἀπὸ denotes the source of expected danger, cp. φοβεῖσθαι�. St Luke has this unclassical usage Luke 12:1, προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς�, and Lu... [ Continue Reading ]
(_d_) The false guides to the narrow entrance, and the test of the true, Matthew 7:15-23... [ Continue Reading ]
ἌΚΑΝΘΑ. A thorn tree, a kind of acacia. Athenæus describes it as having a round fruit on small stalks. It would give additional point to the saying if there were a distant but deceptive likeness between grapes and the berries of the ἄκανθα. ΤΡΊΒΟΛΟΣ. The caltrop, a prickly plant reckoned by Virgil... [ Continue Reading ]
ΜῊ ΠΟΙΟΥ͂Ν. ‘If it does not produce.’ To this day in the East trees are valued only so far as they produce fruit.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἈΠῸ ΤΩ͂Ν ΚΑΡΠΩ͂Ν Κ.Τ.Λ. Re-echoed by a beautiful poetical figure from Matthew 7:16. See Jebb’s _Sacred Lit._ p. 195–197. The well-known lines of Dryden, ‘What passion cannot music raise and quell’; and those of Southey in a passage beginning and ending ‘How beautiful is night!’ are quoted in illustr... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΝ ἘΚΕΊΝΗΙ ΤΗ͂Ι ἩΜΈΡΑΙ. A well-known Hebraism for ‘the last day.’ This is a forecast far into the distant future, when it would be worth while to assume Christianity, when hypocrisy would take the form of pretending to be a follower of the now despised Jesus. (See Canon Mozley’s sermon, _On the reve... [ Continue Reading ]
ὉΜΟΛΟΓΕΙ͂Ν. Properly to ‘agree,’ ‘admit’: in late Greek to ‘assert,’ ‘affirm.’ ΟΥ̓ΔΈΠΟΤΕ ἜΓΝΩΝ. ‘Never recognised you as being my disciples, with my name on your lips your heart was far from me.’ Each false claim is answered by the Judge. As prophets he does not recognise them. He bids the false ca... [ Continue Reading ]
ὉΜΟΙΏΣΩ, the reading of _textus receptus_ for ὁμοιωθήσεται, has considerable, but not the most ancient evidence to support it. The variation from the passive ὁμοιωθήσεται, Matthew 7:26, has some point. Christ Himself sanctions the first part of the comparison, but leaves the other as a generally acc... [ Continue Reading ]
ΚΑΤΈΒΗ … ἮΛΘΟΝ … ἜΠΝΕΥΣΑΝ. Both the tense and the emphatic position of the verbs give great vivacity to the description. ΟἹ ΠΟΤΑΜΟΊ. ‘Streams,’ rather than ‘floods,’ A.V. ἦλθαν, ‘came,’ because before there had been only a dry channel.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΞΕΠΛΉΣΣΟΝΤΟ. The tense implies the continuance of the astonishment, or the passing of it from group to group. The meaning of this astonishing discourse was not lost upon the audience. No word could express more clearly the wonder and sense of novelty excited by the language and (as we may believe)... [ Continue Reading ]
ἮΝ ΓΆΡ ΔΙΔΆΣΚΩΝ. The analytic imperfect indicates vividly the continuance of the action, ‘He was teaching,’ not as A.V. ‘taught.’ The thought of the listeners was: ‘While He was teaching we felt all along that He was a lawgiver, not merely an interpreter of the law.’ ὩΣ ΟἹ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΕΙ͂Σ ΑΥ̓ΤΩ͂Ν. Whos... [ Continue Reading ]