Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 12:11-12

Christ's reply, by two home-thrusting questions and an irresistible conclusion. τίς … ἄνθρωπος. One is tempted here, as in Matthew 7:9, to put emphasis on ἄνθρωπος : who of you not dead to the feelings of a man? Such questions as this and that in Luke 15:4 go to the root of the matter. Humanity was what was lacking in the Pharisaic character. πρόβατον ἕν : one sheep answering to the one working hand, whence perhaps Luke's ἡ δεξιὰ (Matthew 6:6). ἐὰν ἐμπέσῃ. The case supposed might quite well happen; hence in the protasis ἐὰν with subjunctive, and in the apodosis the future (Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, § 250). A solitary sheep might fall into a ditch on a Sabbath; and that is what its owner would do if he were an ordinary average human being, viz., lift it out at once. What would the Pharisee do? It is easy to see what he would be tempted to do if the one sheep were his own. But would he have allowed such action as a general rule? One would infer so from the fact that Jesus argued on such questions ex concesso. In that case the theory and practice of contemporary Pharisees must have been milder than in the Talmudic period, when the rule was: if there be no danger, leave the animal in the ditch till the morrow (vide Buxtorf, Syn. Jud., c. xvi.). Grotius suggests that later Jewish law was made stricter out of hatred to Christians.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 12:11-12

Old Testament

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