Bibelkommentare

To destroy (καταλῦσαι)

Lit., to loosen down, dissolve; Wyc., undo.

Jot, tittle (ἰῶτα κεραία)

Jot is for jod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Tittle is the little bend or point which serves to distinguish certain Hebrew letters of similar appearance. Jewish tradition mentions the letter jod as being irremovable; adding that, if all men in the world were gathered to abolish the least letter in the law, they would not succeed. The guilt of changing those little hooks which distinguish between certain Hebrew letters is declared to be so great that, if such a thing were done, the world would be destroyed.

Hell-fire (τήν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός)

Rev., more accurately, the hell of fire. The word Gehenna, rendered hell, occurs outside of the Gospels only at James 3:6. It is the Greek representative of the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom, or Valley of Hinnom, a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where, after the introduction of the worship of the fire-gods by Ahaz, the idolatrous Jews sacrificed their children to Molech. Josiah formally desecrated it, "that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech" (2 Kings 23:10). After this it became the common refuse-place of the city, into which the bodies of criminals, carcasses of animals, and all sorts of filth were cast. From its depth and narrowness, and its fire and ascending smoke, it became the symbol of the place of the future punishment of the wicked. So Milton:

"The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence

And black Gehenna called, the type of hell."

As fire was the characteristic of the place, it was called the Gehenna of fire. It should be carefully distinguished from Hades (ᾅδης), which is never used for the place of punishment, but for the place of departed spirits, without reference to their moral condition. This distinction, ignored by the A. V., is made in the Rev.

Agree with (ἴσθι εὐνοῶν)

Lit., be well-minded toward; inclined to satisfy by paying or compromising. Wyc., Be thou consenting to.

Officer (ὑπηρέτῃ)

Denoting a subordinate official, as a herald or an orderly, and in this sense applied to Mark as the "minister" or attendant of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:5). It furnishes an interesting instance of the expansion of a word from a limited and special meaning into a more general one; and also of the influence of the Gospel in lifting words into higher and purer associations. Formed with the verb ἐρέσσω, to row, it originally signified a rower, as distinguished from a soldier, in a war-galley. This word for a galley-slave comes at last, in the hands of Luke and Paul, to stand for the noblest of all offices, that of a minister of the Lord Jesus (Luke 1:2; Acts 26:16; 1 Corinthians 4:1).

Offend (σκανδαλίξει)

The word offend carries to the English reader the sense of giving offence, provoking. Hence the Rev., by restoring the picture in the word, restores its true meaning, causeth to stumble. The kindred noun is σκάνδαλον, a later form of σκανδάληθρον, the stick in a trap on which the bait is placed, and which springs up and shuts the trap at the touch of an animal. Hence, generally, a snare, a stumbling-block. Christ's meaning here is: "If your eye or your hand serve as an obstacle or trap to ensnare or make you fall in your moral walk." How the eye might do this may be seen in the previous verse. Bengel observes: "He who, when his eye proves a stumbling-block, takes care not to see, does in reality blind himself." The words scandal and slander are both derived from σκάνδαλον; and Wyc. renders, "If thy right eye slander thee." Compare Aeschylus, "Choephori," 301,372.

Coat, cloke (χιτῶνα, ἱμάτιον)

The former, the shirt-like under-garment or tunic; the latter, the mantle, or ampler over-garment, which served as a covering for the night, and therefore was forbidden by the Levitical law to be retained in pledge overnight (Exodus 22:26, Exodus 22:27). To yield up this without resistance therefore implies a higher degree of concession.

Shall compel thee to go (ἀγγαρεύσει)

This word throws the whole injunction into a picture which is entirely lost to the English reader. A man is travelling, and about to pass a post-station, where horses and messengers are kept in order to forward royal missives as quickly as possible. An official rushes out, seizes him, and forces him to go back and carry a letter to the next station, perhaps to the great detriment of his business. The word is of Persian origin, and denotes the impressment into service, which officials were empowered to make of any available persons or beasts on the great lines of road where the royal mails were carried by relays of riders.

Borrow (δανίσασθαι)

Properly, to borrow at interest.