V. (1) What is known as the Sermon on the Mount is obviously placed by St. Matthew (who appears in the earliest traditions connected with his name as a collector of our Lord’s “Oracles” or discourses) in the fore-front of his record of His work, as a great pattern-discourse, that which more than any... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED. — The word differs from that used in Matthew 23:39; Matthew 25:34, as expressing a permanent state of felicity, rather than the passive reception of a blessing bestowed by another. THE POOR IN SPIRIT. — The limitation, as in “the pure _in heart,”_ points to the region of life in which the p... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT MOURN. — The verb is commonly coupled with weeping (Mark 16:10; Luke 6:25; James 4:9; Revelation 18:15). Here, as before, there is an implied, though not an expressed, limitation. The “mourning” is not the sorrow of the world that worketh “death” (2 Corinthians 7:10) for failure, suffering... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MEEK. — The word so rendered was probably used by St. Matthew in its popular meaning, without any reference to the definition which ethical writers had given of it, but it may be worth while to recall Aristotle’s account of it (_Eth. Nicom._ v. 5) as the character of one who has the passion of r... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH DO HUNGER AND THIRST. — We seem in this to hear the lesson which our Lord had learnt from the recent experience of the wilderness. The craving of bodily hunger has become a parable of that higher yearning after righteousness, that thirsting after God, even as the hart desireth the water-brooks... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MERCIFUL. — The thought is the same as that afterwards embodied in the Lord’s Prayer. They who are pitiful towards men their brethren are _ipso facto_ the objects of the divine pity. The negative aspect of the same truth is presented in James 2:13. In this case, the promised blessing tends to pe... [ Continue Reading ]
PURE IN HEART. — Here, as with the poor in spirit, the noun determines the region in which the purity is to be found — the “heart” as representing desires and affections, as the “spirit” represents the will and higher personality. The purity so described is not that which was the ideal of the Pharis... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEACEMAKERS. — Our version rightly distinguishes between the temper which is simply “peaceable” in itself (James 3:17), and this, the higher form of the same grace, acting energetically upon others. To be able to say with power to those who are bitter foes, “Sirs, ye are brethren”.(Acts 7:26), i... [ Continue Reading ]
PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE. — Here again there is a profound significance in the order. The work of the peacemakers is not a light and easy work. Often, as of old, when we “labour for peace,” men “make them ready for battle” (Psalms 120:7); but not the less is the blessing sure to follow. Ami... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE YE. — Here, for the first time, the beatitude is uttered, not as a general law, but as the portion of the listening disciples to whom the Teacher spoke. The words contain three forms, hardly three successive grades, of suffering: (1) the vague contempt. showing itself in gibes and nickna... [ Continue Reading ]
REJOICE, AND BE EXCEEDING GLAD. — The second word implies a glorious and exulting joy. The same combination is found, possibly as an actual echo of its use here, in 1 Peter 1:8; 1 Peter 4:13; Revelation 19:7. YOUR REWARD. — The teaching of Luke 17:10 shows that even here the reward is not “of debt,... [ Continue Reading ]
YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH. — The words are spoken to the disciples in their ideal character, as the germ of a new Israel, called to a prophetic work, preserving the earth from moral putrescence and decay. The general reference to this antiseptic action of salt is (as in Colossians 4:6, and possib... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. — In its highest or truest sense the word belongs to Christ, and to Him only (John 1:9; John 8:12). The comparison to the “candle” or “lamp” in Matthew 5:15 shows, indeed, that even here the disciples are spoken of as shining in the world with a derived brightness flowing to... [ Continue Reading ]
LIGHT A CANDLE. — The word so rendered was probably a portable lamp rather than a candle in the common meaning of the word. The candles of the seven-branched candlestick of the Temple were undoubtedly lamps supplied with oil, and so probably were the “candles” of household use. The word is not the s... [ Continue Reading ]
LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE. — The English form of the sentence is somewhat misleading, or at least ambiguous. It is not simply, Let your light so shine that men may glorify; but, “Thus, like the lamp on its stand, let your light shine....” The motive to publicity is, however, the direct opposite of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Here a new section of the discourse begins, and is carried on to the end of the chapter. From the ideal picture of the life of the society which He came to found, our Lord passes to a protest against the current teaching of the scribes, sometimes adhering to the letter and neglecting the spirit, som... [ Continue Reading ]
VERILY. — The first occurrence in the Gospel of the word so common in our Lord’s teaching seems the right place for dwelling on its meaning. It is the familiar _Amen_ of the Church’s worship — the word which had been used in the same way in that of the wilderness (Numbers 5:22; Deuteronomy 27:15) an... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL BREAK ONE OF THESE LEAST COMMANDMENTS. — The words seem at first to imply that even the ceremonial law was to be binding in its full extent upon Christ’s disciples. The usage of the time, however, confined the word to the moral laws of God (as in Sir. 32:23-24), and throughout the New Testamen... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL EXCEED. — Better, _Shall abound more than._ SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. — Here, for the first time, the scribes are mentioned in our Lord’s teaching. The frequent combination of the two words (thirteen times in the first three Gospels) implies that for the most part they were of the school of the P... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THEM OF OLD TIME. — There is no reasonable doubt that the marginal reading, _to them of old time,_ is right. The construction is identical with that of Romans 9:12; Romans 9:26_;_ Galatians 3:16; Revelation 6:11; Revelation 9:4. Two questions present themselves for answer: (1) Who were “they of o... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAY UNTO YOU. — The _I_ is emphasized in the Greek. It was this probably that, more than anything else, led to the feeling of wonder expressed in Matthew 7:28. The scribe in his teaching invariably referred to this Rabbi and that; the new Teacher spoke as one having a higher authority of His own.... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THOU BRING THY GIFT TO THE ALTAR. — Literally, _If thou shouldst be offering._ Our Lord was speaking to Jews as such, and paints, therefore, as it were, a scene in the Jewish Temple. The worshipper is about to offer a “gift” (the most generic term seems intentionally used to represent any kind of... [ Continue Reading ]
LEAVE THERE THY GIFT. — The words describe an act which would appear to men as a breach of liturgical propriety. To leave the gift and the priest, the act of sacrifice unfinished, would be strange and startling, yet that, our Lord teaches, were better than to sacrifice with the sense of a wrong unco... [ Continue Reading ]
AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY. — The imagery is changed, and returns to that of human tribunals, which has met us in Matthew 5:22. The man whom we have wronged appears as the “adversary,” the prosecutor bringing his charge against us. The impulse of the natural man at such a time, even if conscious of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE UTTERMOST FARTHING. — The Greek word is derived from the Latin _quadrans,_ the fourth part of the Roman _as,_ a small copper or bronze coin which had become common in Palestine. The “mite,” half the _quadrans_ (Mark 12:42), was the smallest coin in circulation. The “farthing” of Matthew 10:29 is... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THEM OF OLD TIME. — Omitted in the best MSS. If retained, translate as before, _to them of old time._ It was probably inserted for the sake of conformity with Matthew 5:21. Here the words are simply those of the divine commandment, but it is given as it was taught in the Rabbinic schools, simply... [ Continue Reading ]
TO LUST AFTER HER. — The intent is more strongly marked in the Greek than in the English. It is not the passing glance, not even the momentary impulse of desire, but the continued gaze by which the impulse is deliberately cherished till it becomes a passion. This noble and beautiful teaching, it has... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THY RIGHT EYE OFFEND THEE. — The Greek verb means, strictly, to cause another to stumble or fall into a snare, and this was probably the sense in which the translators used the word “offend.” It is doubtful, however, whether it ever had this factitive sense in English outside the Authorised versi... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THY RIGHT HAND OFFEND THEE. — The repetition of the same form of warning has, in part, the emphasis of iteration, but it points also to a distinct danger. Not the senses only, through which we receive impressions, but the gifts and energies which issue in action, may become temptations to evil; a... [ Continue Reading ]
IT HATH BEEN SAID. — The better MSS. give, “_But_ it was said,” as though stating an implied objection to the previous teaching. Men might think that they could avoid the sin of adultery by taking the easy course of divorcing one wife before marrying another. WHOSOEVER SHALL PUT AWAY... — The quotat... [ Continue Reading ]
SAVING FOR THE CAUSE OF FORNICATION. — The most generic term seems intentionally used to include ante-nuptial as well as post-nuptial sin, possibly, indeed, with reference to the former only, seeing that the strict letter of the Law of Moses made death the punishment of the latter, and so excluded t... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THEM OF OLD TIME. — Read, _to them of old time,_ as before. Here, again, the reference is to the letter of the Law as taught by the Rabbis, who did not go beyond it to its wider spirit. To them the Third Commandment was simply a prohibition of perjury, as the Sixth was of murder, or the Seventh o... [ Continue Reading ]
SWEAR NOT AT ALL. — Not a few interpreters, and even whole Christian communities, as _e.g._ the Society of Friends, see in these words, and in James 5:12, a formal prohibition of all oaths, either promissory or evidential, and look on the general practice of Christians, and the formal teaching of th... [ Continue Reading ]
(34-35) NEITHER BY HEAVEN;... NOR BY THE EARTH;... NEITHER BY JERUSALEM. — Other formulæ of oaths meet us in Matthew 23:16; James 5:12. It is not easy at first to understand the thought that underlies such modes of speech. When men swear by God, or the name of Jehovah, there is an implied appeal to... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THY HEAD. — This is apparently chosen as an extreme instance of a common oath in which men found no reference to God. Yet here, too, nothing but an implied reference to Him fits it to be an oath at all. He made us, and not we ourselves, and the hairs of our head are not only numbered, but are sub... [ Continue Reading ]
LET YOUR COMMUNICATION. — One of the few instances in which our translators seem to have preferred a somewhat pedantic Latin word for the more literal and homely English _speech._ (Comp. Luke 24:17.) YEA, YEA. — St. James reproduces the precept in James 5:12 of his Epistle, but the phrase is found... [ Continue Reading ]
AN EYE FOR AN EYE. — Here again the scribes first took their stand on the letter, regardless of the aim and purpose, of the Law, and then expanded it in a wrong direction. As originally given, it was a check on the “wild justice” of revenge. It said, where the equilibrium of right had been disturbed... [ Continue Reading ]
RESIST NOT EVIL. — The Greek, as before in Matthew 5:37, may be either masculine or neuter, and followed as it is by “whosoever,” the former seems preferable; only here it is not “the evil one,” with the emphasis of pre-eminence, but, as in 1 Corinthians 5:13, the human evil-doer. Of that mightier “... [ Continue Reading ]
IF ANY MAN WILL SUE THEE AT THE LAW. — The Greek is somewhat stronger: _If a man will go_ — i.e., _is bent on going_ — _to law with thee._ The verse presents another aspect of the same temper of forbearance. Not in regard to acts of violence only, but also in dealing with the petty litigation that d... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER SHALL COMPEL THEE. — The Greek word implies the special compulsion of forced service as courier or messenger under Government, and was imported from the Persian postal system, organised on the plan of employing men thus impressed to convey Government dispatches from stage to stage (Herod.... [ Continue Reading ]
GIVE TO HIM THAT ASKETH. — Here again our Lord teaches us by the method of a seeming paradox, and enforces a principle binding upon every one in the form of a rule which in its letter is binding upon no man. Were we to give to all men what they ask, we should in many cases be cursing, not blessing,... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR, AND HATE THINE ENEMY. — In form the latter clause was a Rabbinic addition to the former; and this is important as showing that our Lord deals throughout not with the Law as such, but with the scribes’ exposition of it. But it can hardly be said these words, as far as n... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESS THEM THAT CURSE YOU, DO GOOD TO THEM THAT HATE YOU. — The latter words are omitted in so many of the most ancient MSS. that most recent editors hold that they were inserted in the fourth or fifth century, so as to bring the verse into verbal agreement with Luke 6:28. Taking it as it stands her... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT YE MAY BE. — Literally, and with far fuller meaning, _that ye may become._ We cannot become like God in power or wisdom. The attempt at that likeness to the Godhead was the cause of man’s fall, and leads evermore to a like issue; but we cannot err in striving to be like Him in His love. (Comp.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PUBLICANS. — An account of the “publicans” of our Lord’s time will find a more fitting place in the Notes on Matthew 9:9. Here, it may be remarked that our Lord puts Himself, as it were, on the level of those to whom He speaks. They despised the publicans as below them, almost as a Pariah caste,... [ Continue Reading ]
IF YE SALUTE YOUR BRETHREN. — The prominence of salutation in the social life of the East gives a special vividness to this precept. To utter the formal “Peace be with you,” to follow that up by manifold compliments and wishes, was to recognise those whom men saluted as friends and brothers. But thi... [ Continue Reading ]
BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT. — Literally, _Ye therefore shall be perfect_ — the ideal future that implies an imperative. YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. — The better reading gives, _your heavenly Father._ The idea of perfection implied in the word here is that of the attainment of the end or ideal comp... [ Continue Reading ]