Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 6.

THE SERMON CONTINUED.

From Scribe law, the main theme of Matthew 6:21-34, the Teacher passes to speak of Pharisaic practice.

Matthew 6:1 describes the general character of Pharisaic righteousness. hen follow three special examples: alms, Matthew 6:2-4; prayer, Matthew 6:5-6; fasting, Matthew 6:16-18. The transition from the one theme to the other was almost inevitable, and we may be sure that what follows formed part of the instruction on the hill.

Matthew 6:1. προσέχετε (τὸν νοῦν understood), to attend to; here, with μὴ following, take heed, be on your guard against.—δικαιοσύνην, not ἐλεημοσύνην (T. R.), is the reading demanded in a general introductory statement. Alms formed a very prominent part of Pharisaic righteousness, and was in Rabbinical dialect called righteousness, צדקה (vide Weber, p. 273), but it was not the whole, and it is a name for the whole category that is wanted in Matthew 6:1. If Jesus spoke in Aramaic He might, as Lightfoot (Hor. Hebr.) suggests, use the word tsedakah both in the first and in the following three verses; in the first in the general sense, in the other places in the special sense of alms.—ἔμπροσθεν τ. ἀνθρώπων. In chap. Matthew 5:16 Christ commands disciples to let their light shine before men. Here He seems to enjoin the contrary. The contradiction is only apparent. The two places may be combined in a general rule thus: Show when tempted to hide, hide when tempted to show. The Pharisees were exposed, and yielded, to the latter temptation. They did their righteousness, πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι, to be seen. Their virtue was theatrical, and that meant doing only things which in matter and mode were commonly admired or believed by the doers to be. This spirit of ostentation Christ here and elsewhere represents as the leading feature of Pharisaism.—εἰ δὲ μήγε, a combination of four particles frequently occurring in the Gospels, meaning: if at least ye do not attend to this rule, then, etc. γέ is a very expressive particle, derived by Klotz, Devar. ii. 272, from ΓΕΩ, i.e., ΕΑΩ, or from ἄγε, and explained as meant to render the hearer attentive. Bäumlein, dissenting from Klotz’s derivation, agrees substantially with his view of its meaning as isolating a thought from all else and placing it alone in the light (Untersuchungen über Griechische Partikeln, p. 54) = “Mark my words, for if you do not as I advise then,” etc.—μισθὸν οὐκ ἔχετε: on μισθὸν, vide Matthew 5:46. The meaning is that theatrical virtue does not count in the Kingdom of God. Right motive is essential there. There may be a reward, there must be, else theatrical religion would not be so common; but it is not παρὰ τῷ πατρί.

Matthew 6:2-4. Almsgiving. Matthew 6:2. ἐλεημοσύνην, mercy in general, but specifically alms, as a common mode of showing mercy. Compare our word charity.—σαλπίσῃς: to be understood metaphorically, as there is no evidence of the literal practice. Furrer gives this from Consul Wetstein to illustrate the word. When a man (in Damascus) wants to do a good act which may bring a blessing by way of divine recompense on his own family, e.g., healing to a sick child, he goes to a water-carrier with a good voice, gives him a piece of money, and says “Sebil,” i.e., give the thirsty a fresh drink of water. The water-carrier fills his skin, takes his stand in the market, and sings in varied tones: “O thirsty, come to the drink-offering,” the giver standing by, to whom the carrier says, as the thirsty drink, “God forgive thy sins, O giver of the drink” (Zscht. für M. und R., 1890. Vide also his Wanderungen d. d. H. L., p. 437).—ὑποκριταὶ, stage-players in classics, used in N. T. in a moral and sinister sense, and for the Christian mind heavily burdened with evil connotation—hypocrites! What a deepening of the moral sense is implied in the new meaning! The abhorrence of acting for effect in religion is due to Christ’s teaching. It has not yet quite banished the thing. There are religious actors still, and they draw good houses.—συναγωγαῖς: where alms were collected, and apparently also distributed.—ῥύμαις, streets, in eastern cities narrow lanes, a late meaning; in earlier Greek = impetus—onset. Vide Rutherford’s New Phryn., 488. Cf. πλατειῶν, Matthew 6:5. πλατεῖα, supp. ὁδός = a broad street.—δοξασθῶσιν: in chap. Matthew 5:16 God is conceived as recipient of the glory; here the almsgiver, giving for that purpose.—ἀμὴν: introducing a solemn statement, and a very serious one for the parties concerned.—ἀπέχουσι, they have in full; they will get no more, nothing from God: so in Luke 6:24, Php 4:18 (vide on Mark 14:41). The hypocrite partly does not believe this, partly does not care, so long as he gets the applause of his public.

Matthew 6:3. μὴ γνώτω: in proverbial form a counsel to give with simplicity. Let not even thy left hand, if possible even thyself, know, still less other men; give without self-consciousness or self-complacency, the root of ostentation.—ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ: known to the recipient, of course, but to no other, so far as you are concerned, hardly even to yourself. “Pii lucent, et tamen latent,” Beng.—ὁ βλέπων ἐ. τ. κ., who seeth in the dark. “Acquainted with all my ways.” Psalms 139, a comfort to the sincerely good, not to the counterfeits.—ἀποδώσει σοι: a certainty, and not merely of the future. The reward is present; not in the form of self-complacency, but in the form of spiritual health, like natural buoyancy, when all physical functions work well. A right-minded man is happy without reflecting why; it is the joy of living in summer sunshine and bracing mountain air. The ἐν τῷ φανερῷ here and in Matthew 6:6 and Matthew 6:18, a gloss by some superficial copyist, ignores the inward present reward, and appeals in a new form to the spirit of ostentation.

Matthew 6:5-6. Prayer. ὡς οἱ ὑποκριταί, as the actors. We shrink from the harshness of the term “hypocrite”. Jesus is in the act of creating the new meaning by the use of an old word in a new connection.—φιλοῦσι stands in place of an adverb. They love to, are wont, do it with pleasure. This construction is common in classics, even in reference to inanimate objects, but here only and in Matthew 23:6-7 in N. T.—ἑστῶτες, ordinary attitude in prayer. στῆναι and καθῆσθαι seem to be used sometimes without emphasis to denote simply presence in a place (so Pricaeus).—συναγωγαῖς, γωνίαις τ. πλατ.: usual places of prayer, especially for the “actors,” where men do congregate, in the synagogue for worship, at the corners of the broad streets for talk of business; plenty of observers in both cases. Prayer had been reduced to system among the Jews. Methodising, with stated hours and forms, began after Ezra, and grew in the Judaistic period; traces of it even in the later books of O. T., e.g., Daniel 6:10-11 (vide Schultz, Alt. Theol.). The hour of prayer might overtake a man anywhere. The “actors” might, as De Wette suggests, be glad to be overtaken, or even arrange for it, in some well-frequented place.—ὅπως φανῶσιν τ. α. in order that they may appear to men, and have it remarked: how devout!

Matthew 6:6 : true prayer in contrast to the theatrical type.—σὺ δὲ, hou, my disciple, in opposition to the “actors”.—ὅταν, when the spirit moves, not when the customary hour comes, freedom from rule in prayer, as in fasting (Matthew 9:14), is taken for granted.—τὸ ταμεῖον, late form for ταμιεῖον (Lobeck, Phryn., 493), first a store-chamber, then any place of privacy, a closet (Matthew 24:26). Note the σου after ταμ. and θύραν and πατρί, all emphasising isolation, thy closet, thy door, thy Father.—κλείσας, carefully shutting thy door, the door of thine own retreat, to exclude all but thy Father, with as much secrecy as if you were about a guilty act. What delicacy of feeling, as well as sincerity, is implied in all this; greatly to be respected, often sinned against.—τῷ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, He who is in the secret place; perhaps with allusion to God’s presence in the dark holy of holies (Achelis). He is there in the place from which all fellow-men are excluded. Is social prayer negatived by this directory? No, but it is implied that social prayer will be a reality only in proportion as it proceeds from a gathering of men accustomed to private prayer.

Matthew 6:7-15. Further instruction in prayer. Weiss (Mt.-Evan.) regards this passage as an interpolation, having no proper place in an anti-Pharisaic discourse. Both the opinion and its ground are doubtful. As regards the latter, it is true that it is Gentile practice in prayer that is formally criticised, but it does not follow that the Pharisees were not open to the same censure. They might make long prayers, not in ignorance, but in ostentation (Lutteroth), as a display of devotional talent or zeal. But apart from the question of reference to the Pharisees, it is likely that prayer under various aspects formed one of the subjects of instruction in the course of teaching on the hill whereof these chapters are a digest.

Matthew 6:7. βατταλογήσητε: a ἅπαξ λεγ. in N. T., rarely used anywhere, and of doubtful derivation. Some (Erasmus, e.g.) have thought it was formed from Battus, the stammerer mentioned by Herod. (iv. 155), or from a feeble poet of the name who made long hymns full of repetitions (Suidas, Lexicon), but most now incline to the view that it is onomatopoetic. Hesychius (Lex.) takes this view of the kindred word βατταρίζειν (ἐμοὶ μὲν δοκεῖ κατὰ μίμησιν τῆς φωνῆς πεποιῆσθαι). It points to the repetition without end of the same forms of words as a stammerer involuntarily repeats the same syllable, like the Baal worshippers shouting from morning till noon, “O Baal, hear us” (1 Kings 18:26, cf. Acts 19:34, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians”). This repetition is characteristic of Pagan prayer, and when it recurs in the Church, as in saying many Aves and Paternosters, it is Paganism redivivus.—ἐθνικοί, the second of three references to Pagans (Matthew 5:47, Matthew 6:32) in the Sermon on the Mount, not to be wondered at. The Pagan world was near at hand for a Jew belonging to Galilee with its mixed population. Pagan customs would be familar to Galileans, and it was natural that Jesus should use them as well as the theory and practice of scribes and Pharisees, to define by contrast true piety.—πολυλογίᾳ, epexegetical of βατταλογ. The Pagans thought that by endless repetitions and many words they would inform their gods as to their needs and weary them (“fatigare deos”) into granting their requests.

Matthew 6:8, οὖν, infers that disciples must not imitate the practice described, because it is Pagan, and because it is absurd. Repetition is, moreover, wholly uncalled for.—οἶδεν γὰρ: the God whom Jesus proclaims—“your Father”—knows beforehand your needs. Why, then, pray at all? Because we cannot receive unless we desire, and if we desire, we will pray; also because things worth getting are worth asking. Only pray always as to a Being well informed and willing, in few words and in faith. With such thoughts in mind, Jesus proceeds to give a sample of suitable prayer.