Bible Commentaries

Commanding (διατάσσων)

The preposition διά has a distributive force: giving to each his appropriate charge.

Their cities (αὐτῶν)

The towns of those to whom he came - the Galilaeans. Compare Matthew 4:23.

Two of his disciples (δύο)

But the correct reading is διά, by. He sent by his disciples. So Rev.

Thou

Emphatic. Art thou "the Coming One?" - a current phrase for the Messiah.

The lame walk

Tynd., The halt go.

Be offended (σκανδαλιοθῇ)

See on Matthew 5:29. Rev., shall find none occasion of stumbling. Compare Wyc., shall not be slandered.

As they departed (τούτων δὲ πορευομένων)

Rev., more literal and better, as these went their way; or while they, John's disciples, were departing' thus giving the simultaneousness of Jesus' words with the act of departure.

To see (θεάσασθαι)

Rev., to behold. θεᾶσθαι, like θεωρεῖν, expresses the calm, continuous contemplation of an object which remains before the spectator. Compare John 1:14. Another verb is used in Christ's repetition of the question, Matthew 11:8, Matthew 11:9; ἰδεῖν in the ordinary sense of seeing. The more earnest expression suits the first question.

Suffereth violence (βιάζεται)

Lit., is forced, overpowered, taken by storm. Christ thus graphically portrays the intense excitement which followed John's ministry; the eager waiting, striving, and struggling of the multitude for the promised king.

The violent take it by force (βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν)

This was proved by the multitudes who followed Christ and thronged the doors where he was, and would have taken him by force (the same word) and made him a king (John 6:15). The word take by force means literally to snatch away, carry off. It is often used in the classics of plundering. Meyer renders, Those who use violent efforts, drag it to themselves. So Tynd., They that make violence pull it unto them. Christ speaks of believers. They seize upon the kingdom and make it their own. The Rev., men of violence, is too strong, since it describes a class of habitually and characteristically violent men; whereas the violence in this case is the result of a special and exceptional impulse. The passage recalls the old Greek proverb quoted by Plato against the Sophists, who had corrupted the Athenian youth by promising the easy attainment of wisdom: Good things are hard. Dante has seized the idea:

"Regnum coelorum (the kingdom of heaven) suffereth violence

From fervent love, and from that living hope

That overcometh the divine volition;

Not in the guise that man o'ercometh man,

But conquers it because it will be conquered,

And conquered, conquers by benignity."

Parad., xx., 94-99.

If ye will (εἰ θέλετε)

More correctly, Rev., If ye are willing or disposed. For there would naturally be an unwillingness to receive the statement about John's high place, in view of John's imprisonment.