Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 10.

THE GALILEAN MISSION.

The beginnings of the mission to the neglected “lost” sheep of Israel may be found in the Capernaum feast (Matthew 9:10). As time went on Jesus felt increasingly the pressure of the problem and the need for extended effort. Matthew’s call was connected with the first stage of the movement, and that disciple was Christ’s agent in bringing together the gathering of publicans and sinners. He is now about to employ all the intimate disciples He has collected about Him and through them to spread the movement all over Galilee. They will be a poor substitute for Himself, yet not wholly useless like the scribes, for they have heard His teaching on the hill and imbibed somewhat of His spirit of love.

Matthew 10:1-15. The Twelve: their names, mission, and relative instructions (Mark 3:14-19; Mark 6:7-13, Luke 9:1-6).

Matthew 10:1. προσκαλεσάμενος: this does not refer to the call to become disciples, but to a call to men already disciples to enter on a special mission.—τοὺς δώδεκα, the Twelve. The article implies that a body of intimate disciples, twelve in number, already existed. The evangelist probably had Mark 3:14 in view. He may also reflect in his language the feeling of the apostolic age to which the Twelve were familiar and famous. Hitherto we have made the acquaintance of five of the number (Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 9:9). Their calls are specially reported to illustrate how the body of twelve grew.—ἐξουσίαν, authority, not to preach, as we might have expected, but to heal. The prominence given to healing in this mission may surprise and disappoint, and even tempt to entertain the suspicion that the exalted ideas concerning the Twelve of after years have been read into the narrative. This element is certainly least prominent in Mark. Yet to some extent it must have had a place in the mission. The people in Galilee had all heard of Jesus and His work, and it was no use sending the Twelve unless they could carry with them something of His power.—πνευμάτων α., genitive objective, as in John 17:3, Romans 9:21. ὥστε ἐκ … καὶ θεραπεύειν, dependent also on ἐξουσίαν (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:5), ὥστε with infinitive indicating tendency of the power, πᾶσαν νόσον, etc., echo of Matthew 4:23.

Matthew 10:2. τῶν δὲ δώδ. ἀποστόλων: etc., the evangelist finds here a convenient place for giving the names of the Twelve, called here for the first and last time ἀπόστολοι, with reference at once to the immediate minor mission (from ἀποστέλ. λειν, vide Matthew 10:5) and to the later great one. One half of them are for us mere names, and of one or two even the names are doubtful, utterly obscure, yet, doubtless, in their time and sphere faithful witnesses. They are arranged in pairs, as if following the hint of Mark that they were sent out by two and two, each pair connected with a καὶ (so in Luke, not in Mark).—πρῶτος: at the head of the list stands Peter, first not only numerically (Meyer) but in importance, a sure matter of fact, though priestly pretensions based on it are to be disregarded. He is first in all the lists.—ὁ λεγ. Πέτρος: a fact already stated (Matthew 4:18), here repeated probably because the evangelist had his eye on Mark’s list (Matthew 3:16) or possibly to distinguish this Simon from another in the list (No. 11).

Matthew 10:3. Βαρθολομαῖος, the 6th, one of the doubtful names, commonly identified with Nathanael (John 1:46).—Ματθαῖος ὁ τελώνης, one of four in the list with epithets: Peter the first, Simon the zealot, Judas the traitor, Matthew the publican; surely not without reason, except as echoing Matthew 9:9 (Meyer). Matthew stands second in his pair here, before Thomas in Mark and Luke. Position and epithet agree, indicative, Euthy. suggests, of modesty and self-abasement.

Matthew 10:4. Σίμων ὁ Καναναῖος: Luke gives τὸν καλ. Ζηλωτὴν = the zealot, possibly a piece of information based on an independent reliable source, or his interpretation of the Hebrew word קַנְאָנִי. The form Καναναῖος seems to be based on the idea that the word referred to a place. Jerome took it to mean “of Cana,” “de vico Chana Galilaeae”. Ἰούδας ὁ Ἰσκαριώτης: last in all the lists, as Peter is first. The epithet is generally taken as denoting the place to which he belonged: the man of Issachar (Grotius); but most render: the man of Kerioth (in Judah, Joshua 15:25, Jeremiah 48:41); in that case the one non-Galilean disciple. The ending, -ωτης, is Greek; in Mark the Hebrew ending, -ωθ, is given.

Matthew 10:5-15. Instructions to the missioners.

Matthew 10:5. Τούτους τ. δώδ: These, the Twelve, Jesus sent forth, under the injunctions following (παραγγείλας).—εἰς ὀδὸν ἐθ. μὴ ἀπέλθητε. This prohibition occurs in Matthew only, but there is no reason to doubt its authenticity except indeed that it went without saying. The very prohibition implies a consciousness that one day the Gospel would go the way of the Gentiles, just as Matthew 5:17 implies consciousness that fulfilling, in the speaker’s sense, would involve annulling.—ὁδὸν ἐθνῶν, the way towards (Meyer), the genitive being a genitive of motion (Fritzsche, Kühner, § 414, 4), or a way within or of, parallel to πόλιν Σαμαρειτῶν in next clause.—εἰς π. Σαμ., not even in Samaria should they carry on their mission. The prohibition is total. πόλιν does not refer to the chief city (Erasmus, Annot., metropolis) or to the towns as distinct from the rural parts through which at least they might pass (Grotius). It means any considerable centre of population. The towns and villages are thought of as the natural sphere of work (Matthew 10:11). The reason of the double prohibition is not given, but doubtless it lay in the grounds of policy which led Christ to confine His own work to Israel, and also in the crude religious state of the disciples.

Matthew 10:6. ἀπολωλότα, “the lost sheep,” an expression consecrated by prophetic use (Jeremiah 50:6, Swete’s ed., Matthew 27:6), the epithet here first introduced, often occurring in Gospels, was used by Jesus not in blame but in pity. “Lost” in His vocabulary meant “neglected” (Matthew 9:36), in danger also of course, but not finally and hopelessly given over to perdition, salvable if much needing salvation. The term is ethical in import, and implies that the mission had moral and religious improvement mainly in view, not mere physical benefit through healing agency; teaching rather than miraculous acts.

Matthew 10:7. πορευόμενοι κηρύσσετε, as ye go, keep preaching; participle and finite verb, both present. Preaching first in the Master’s thoughts, if not in the evangelist’s (Matthew 10:1).—ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τ. ο.: the theme is, of course, the kingdom longed for by all, constantly on the lips of Jesus. The message is: It has come nigh to you and is here. Very general, but much more, it may be taken for granted, was said. The apprentice apostles could as yet make no intelligent theoretic statement concerning the Kingdom, but they could tell not a little about the King, the Master who sent them, the chief object of interest doubtless for all receptive souls. It was a house mission (not in synagogue) on which they were sent (Matthew 10:12). They were to live as guests in selected dwellings, two in one, and two in another, for a time, and their preaching would take the form of familiar conversation on what they had seen and heard Jesus do and say. They would talk by the hour, healing acts would be very occasional, one or two in a village.