Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 6

Matthew 6:1. After προσέχ. Tisch. inserts δέ, no doubt only in conformity with L Z א, Curss. Verss.; yet correctly, inasmuch as δέ would be readily omitted from its coming immediately after the syllable TE, and from its reference not being noticed.

δικαιοσύνην] Elz. Matth. Scholz have ἐλεημοσύνην, against B D א, 1, 209, 217, It. (Brix. excepted) Vulg. Or. and some other Fathers. A false gloss.

Matthew 6:4. αὐτός] not found in B K L U Z א, Curss. Vulg. It. Copt. Syrcur and several Fathers. It seemed superfluous, and was accordingly omitted, and that all the more readily that it is likewise wanting in Matthew 6:6; Matthew 6:18. Cancelled by Fritzsche, Lachm. and Tisch. 8.

σοι] Elz. Griesb. Matth. Scholz add ἐν τῷ φανερῷ, which is not found in B D Z א, Curss. Codd. gr. in Aug. Syrcur Copt. Vulg. and several Fathers. Also in the case of Matthew 6:6, the testimonies in favour of omitting are essentially the same; while, as regards Matthew 6:18, the testimony for excluding is far more decided. It should be retained in Matthew 6:4; Matthew 6:6, but in Matthew 6:18 it is an interpolation, and ought to be deleted.[418]

Matthew 6:5. προσεύχῃ, οὐκ ἔσῃ] Lachm. and Tisch.: προσεύχησθε, οὐκ ἔσεσθε, after B Z, 1, 22, 116, Copt. Sahid. Aeth. Goth. It. Vulg. Or. Chrys. Aug. Correctly; the singular was occasioned by the use of that number in what precedes and follows. א has προσεύχῃ οὐκ ἔσεσθε; see, however, Tisch. on Cod. א.

Matthew 6:12. ἀφίεμεν] D E L Δ Π, 157, 253, Ev. 26 : ἀφίομεν; B Z א*, 1, 124 (on the margin), Harl. For. Or. Nyss. Bass.: ἀφήκαμεν. So Lachm. and Tisch. The latter is to be adopted. The reading of the Received text and ἀφίομεν are from Luke 11:4, into which, again, as quoted in Origen (once), ἀφήκαμεν has found its way from our present passage.

Matthew 6:13. πονηροῦ] Elz. Matth. add the doxology: ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, Ἀμήν. Against a preponderance of testimony, and contrary to the whole connection with Matthew 6:14 f. A very old (Syr.) addition from the liturgy; one, however, that has assumed a variety of forms.

Matthew 6:15. τὰ παραπτ. αὐτῶν] is correctly deleted by Tisch. It is wanting in D א, Curss. Vulg. It. Syr. Aug., and how easy was it mechanically to insert it as a supplement from Matthew 6:14!

Matthew 6:18. σοι] Elz. Fritzsche add ἐν τῷ φανερῷ; see on Matthew 6:4.

Instead of κρυπτῷ, Lachm. and Tisch., in both instances, have κρυφαίῳ, after B D א, 1, 22; correctly, seeing that κρυπτῷ is the common reading, and derived from Matthew 6:4; Matthew 6:6.

Matthew 6:21. Instead of ὑμῶν, B א, 1, 128, and important Verss. and Fathers, have σου both times, which Griesb. has recommended, and Fritzsche, Lachm. Tisch. have adopted. Correctly; ὑμῶν is taken from Luke 12:34.

Matthew 6:22. After the first ὀφθαλμός Lachm. has σου, only after B, Vulg. Aeth. Codd. It. Or. Hil. Taken from the one which fallows. Then in what comes next Lachm. places the ᾖ immediately after οὖν, only according to B. In א and several Verss. and Fathers οὖν is omitted; deleted by Tisch. 8, against decisive testimony. Coming as it does after ἐάν, it might easily be left out through an oversight on the part of the transcriber.

Matthew 6:25. καὶ τί] Fritzsche, Lachm. ἢ τί, according to B, Curss. and a few Verss. and Fathers. Too inadequate testimony. א Curss. Verss. and Fathers, who are followed by Tisch. 8, omit καὶ τί πίητε altogether. In conformity with Luke 12:22.

Matthew 6:28. Instead of αὐξάνει, κοπιᾷ, and νήθει, Lachm. and Tisch. have the plurals, after B א, Curss. Ath. Chrys. Correctly. See Luke 12:27. Likewise in Matthew 6:32, where Lachm. and Tisch. have ἘΠΙΖΗΤΟῦΣΙΝ, the sing, is used to conform with Luke 12:30.

Matthew 6:33. Τ. ΒΑς. Τ. ΘΕΟῦ Κ. Τ. ΔΙΚΑΙΟς. ΑὐΤΟῦ] Lachm.: Τ. ΔΙΚΑΙΟς. ΚΑῚ ΤῊΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΊΑΝ ΑὐΤΟῦ, only after B. In א, Τ. ΘΕΟῦ is wanting; and its omission, in which Tisch. 8 concurs, is favoured by the testimony of the reading in B. Several Verss. and Fathers also leave out Τ. ΘΕΟῦ, which, as being a supplement, ought to be deleted. The testimony is decisive, however, in favour of putting Τ. ΒΑς. first.

Matthew 6:34. ΤᾺ ἙΑΥΤῆς] Lachm. and Tisch. have merely ἙΑΥΤῆς, according to important. testimony. Correctly; from the genitive not being understood, it was attempted to explain it by means of ΤΆ, and in other ways (ΠΕΡῚ ἙΑΥΤῆς, ἙΑΥΤΉΝ, ἙΑΥΤῇ).

[418] Lachm. and Tisch. have deleted ἐν τῷ φανερῷ in all the three passages; in ver. 18 it is also erased by Griesb. Matth. and Scholz.

Matthew 6:1. Connection: However (προσέχετε δέ, be upon your guard), to those doctrines and prescriptions regarding the true δικαιοσύνη, I must add a warning with reference to the practice of it (ποιεῖν, 1 John 3:7). This warning, stated in general terms in Matthew 6:1, is then specially applied in Matthew 6:2 to almsgiving, in Matthew 6:5 to prayer, and in Matthew 6:16 to fasting. Accordingly δικαιοσύνη is righteousness generally (Matthew 5:6; Matthew 5:10; Matthew 5:20), and not benevolence specially, which, besides, it never means, not even in 2 Corinthians 9:10, any more than צרקה (not even in Proverbs 10:2; Proverbs 11:4; Daniel 4:24), which in the LXX., and that more frequently by way of interpretation, is rendered by ἐλεημοσύνη, in which the δικαιοσύνη manifests itself by acts of charity; comp. Tob 2:14; Tob 12:9.

On εἰ δὲ μήγε, after which we are here to supply προσέχετε τὴν δικαιοσύν. ὑμ. μὴ ποιεῖν, etc., see on 2 Corinthians 11:16.

μισθὸν … οὐρανοῖς] See on Matthew 5:12; Matthew 5:46.

Matthew 6:2. Μὴ σαλπίσῃς] do not sound a trumpet, metaphorically: make no noise and display with it (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus). Comp. Achill. Tat. viii. p. 507; Cic. ad Div. xvi. 21 : “te buccinatorem fore existimationis meae.” Prudent, de Symmach. ii. 68. Here ἔμπρ. refers to the idea of a person sounding a trumpet, which he holds up to his mouth. Others (Calvin, Calovius, Wolf, Paulus, also τινές referred to by Euth. Zigabenus) render: cause not a trumpet to be sounded before thee. They think that, in order to make a display, the Pharisees had actually made the poor assemble together by the blowing of trumpets. But the expression itself is as decidedly incompatible with this extraordinary explanation as it is with the notion that what is meant (Homberg, Schoettgen) is the sound produced by the clinking of the money, dropped into the alleged trumpet-like chests in the temple (see on Mark 12:41), and this notwithstanding that it is added, ἐν τ. συναγ. κ. ἐν τ. ῥύμ. On the injunction generally, comp. Babyl. Chagig. f. v. 1 : “R. Jannai vidit quendam nummum pauperi dantem palam; cui dixit: praestat non dedisse, quam sic dedisse.” In the synagogues it was the practice to collect the alms on the Sabbath; Lightfoot and Wetstein on this passage.

ὑποκριταί] in classical writers means actors; in the New Testament, hypocrites. “Hypocrisis est mixtura malitiae cum specie bonitatis,” Bengel.

ἀπέχουσι … αὐτε͂ν] inasmuch as they have already attained what was the sole object of their liberality, popular applause, and therefore have nothing more to expect. ἀπέχειν, to have obtained, to have fully received. See on Php 4:18.

Matthew 6:3. Σοῦ δέ] in emphatic contrast to hypocrites.

μὴ γνώτω ἡ ἀριστερά σου, κ.τ.λ.] The right hand gives, let not the left hand know it. Proverbial way of expressing entire freedom from the claiming anything like self-laudation. For sayings of a similar kind among the Fathers, see Suicer, Thes. I. p. 508. De Wette, following Paulus, thinks that what is referred to is the counting of the money into the left hand before it is given away with the right. This is out of place, for the warning is directed, not against a narrow calculating, but against an ostentatious almsgiving. For the same reason we must object to the view of Luther, who says: “When you are giving alms with the right hand, see that you are not seeking to receive more with the left, but rather put it behind your back,” and so on.

Matthew 6:4. Ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ] who sees, i.e. knows what goes on in secret, where He is equally present. Grotius and Kuinoel arbitrarily take the words to be equivalent to τὰ ἐν τῷ κρ.

αὐτὸς ἀποδώσει σοι] He Himself will reward you, that is, at the Messianic judgment (i.e. ἐν τῷ φανερῷ, 2 Corinthians 5:10); αὐτός forms a contrast to the human rewards, which the hypocrites, with their ostentatious ways of acting, managed to secure in the shape of applause from their fellow-men, Matthew 6:2.

Matthew 6:5. Οὐκ ἔσεσθε] See the critical remarks. The future, as in Matthew 5:48.

ὅτι] as in Matthew 5:45.

φιλοῦσιν] they have pleasure in it, they love to do it,—a usage frequently met with in classical writers (Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 910 f.), though in the New Testament occurring only here and in Matthew 23:6 f.

ἑστῶτες] The Jew stood, while praying, with the face turned toward the temple or the holy of holies, 1 Samuel 1:26; 1 Kings 8:22; Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11; Lightfoot, p. 292 f.; at other times, however, also in a kneeling posture, or prostrate on the ground. Therefore the notion of fixi, immobiles (Maldonatus), is not implied in the simple ἑστῶτ., which, however, forms a feature in the picture; they love to stand there and pray.

ἐν ταῖς γονίαις τ. πλ.] not merely when they happen to be surprised, or intentionally allow themselves to be surprised (de Wette), by the hour for prayer, but also at other times besides the regular hours of devotion, turning the most sacred duty of man into an occasion for hypocritical ostentation.

Matthew 6:6. Ταμεῖον] any room in the interior of the house, as opposed to the synagogues and the streets. We are therefore not to think exclusively of the closet in the strict sense of the word, which was called ὑπερῷον; see note on Acts 1:13. For the expression, comp. Isaiah 24:20; for ταμεῖον, conclave, see Xen. Hell. v. 4. 5; Matthew 24:26; Sir 29:12; Tob 7:17.

ἀποδώσει σοι] for thy undemonstrative piety. It is not public prayer in itself that Jesus condemns, but praying in an ostentatious manner; rather than this, He would have us betake ourselves to a lonely room. Theophylact: ὁ τόπος οὐ βλάπτει, ἀ̓λλʼ ὁ τρόπος καὶ ὁ σκόπος.

Matthew 6:7. Δέ] indicating a transition to the consideration of another abuse of prayer.

βαττολογεῖν] (Simplic. ad Epict. p. 340) is not to be derived, with Suidas, Eustathius, Erasmus, from some one of the name of Battus (passages in Wetstein), who, according to Herod. v. 155, was in the habit of stammering, but, as already Hesychius correctly perceived (κατὰ μίμησιν τῆς φωνῆς), is to be regarded as a case of onomatopoeia (comp. Βάτταλος as a nickname of Demosthenes, βατταρίζω, βατταρισμός, βατταριστής), and means, properly speaking, to stammer, then to prate, to babble, the same thing that is subsequently called πολυλογία. B א have the form βατταλογ.; see Tisch. 8.

οἱ ἐθνικοί] Whose prayers, so wordy and full of repetitions (hence, fatigare Deos), were well known. Terent. Heautont. v. i. 6 ff. In Rabbinical writers are found recommendations sometimes of long, sometimes of short, prayers (Wetstein). For an example of a Battological Jewish prayer, see Schoettgen, p. 58 f., comp. Matthew 23:15; and for disapproval of long prayers, see Ecclesiastes 5:1, Sir 7:14.

ἐν τῇ πολυλογίᾳ αὐτῶν] in consequence of their much speaking; they imagine that this is the cause of their being heard. As to the thing, consider the words of Augustine: “Absit ab oratione multa locutio, sed non desit multa precatio, si fervens perseveret intentio;” the former, he adds, is “rem necessariam superfluis agere verbis,” but the multum precari is: “ad eum, quem precamur, diuturna et pia cordis excitatione pulsare” (Ep. 130. 20, ad probam).