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Matthew 15:11. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth— Our Lord, addressing the multitude, observed to them, that nothing could be more absurd than the precepts which the Scribes and Pharisee endeavoured to inculcate: anxious about trifles, they neglected the great duties of morality, which are of unchangeable obligation. They shuddered with horror at hands unwashed, but were perfectly easy under the guilt of impure minds; although not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; because, in the sight of God, cleanness and uncleanness are qualities not of the body, but of the mind, which can be polluted by nothing but sin. Our Lord did not at all mean to overthrow the distinction which the law had established between things clean and unclean in the matter of men's food; that distinction, like all the other emblematical institutions of Moses, was wisely appointed, being designed to teach the Israelites how carefully the familiar company and conversation of the wicked is to be avoided: he only affirmed; that in itself no kind of meat can defile the mind, which is the man, though by accident it may: a man may bring guilt upon himself by wilfully eating what is pernicious to his health, or by excess in the quantity of food and liquor; and a Jew might have done it by presumptuously eating what was forbidden by the Mosaic law, which still continued in force; yet inall these instances the pollution would arise from the wickedness of the heart, and be proportionable to it: which is all that our Lord asserts. See Macknight, Doddridge, Calmet.

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Matthew 15:13. Every plant, &c.— Every plantation, Φυτεια, that is to say, doctrine. The metaphor was familiar in the time of our Lord, and is still used by the Jewish writers, with whom to pull up plantations signifies "to deny articles of faith." See Heylin and Wetstein.

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Matthew 15:14. They be blind leaders, &c.— "Teachers who foolishly think to lead their disciples to perfection by the observation of precepts wherein there is not the smallest degree of true piety; and who will not be convinced of the contrary: for which cause, both the guides and the guided, who prefer ignorance to knowledge, and superstition to religion, shall fall into the ditch of eternal perdition. Therefore let them alone; concern not yourselves about them."

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Matthew 15:15. Declare unto us this parable— The disciples, not understanding their Master's doctrine concerning meats, desired him, when they came home, to explain it. See Mark 7:17. He complied, and shewed them that meats, being of a corporeal nature, cannot defile the mind, or make a man a sinner in the sight of God, unless when used immoderately, or in opposition to the commandment of God; in which case the pollution arises from the man, and not from the meat: whereas that which proceedeth out of the man's mouth, coming from his heart, really pollutes the mind. See Matthew 15:18. The verb φρασον, rendered, declare, signifies properly, make known or explain, Comp. ch. Matthew 13:36.

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Matthew 15:19. Evil thoughts— Διαλογισμοι πονηροι, evil reasonings: So I choose to render it, says Dr. Doddridge, as better suiting both the original and the occasion, and as containing a more universal and important truth; for those thoughts only defile the heart, which it willingly admits, and does as it were hold a parley and converse with; and I fear there are multitudes in the present age like these Pharisees, who are contracting immense guilt by those corrupt and sophistical reasonings, on the subtilty of which they may highly value themselves and each other. See Mark 7:21-22. Dr. Heylin renders it ill designs; and instead of blasphemies, he reads calumnies. The original wordincludesallreviling,backbiting,and evil-speaking. It is remarkable, that three of the crimes here mentioned as pollutions of the mind, namely, murder, false-witness, and blasphemy, were on this very occasion committed by the persons who charged our Lord with impiety, because he neglected such ceremonial precepts of religion as were of human invention: for while they feigned the highest reverence for the divine law, they were making void its most essential precepts. At the very time that they condemned the disciples for so small an offence as eating with unwashen hands, contrary only to the tradition of the elders, the Scribes and Pharisees were murdering Jesus by their calumnies and false-witnessings, notwithstanding it was the whole study of his life to do them all the good possible.

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Matthew 15:20. These are the things which defile a man— Thus our Lord defended his disciples by a beautiful chain of reasoning, wherein he has shewn the true nature of actions, and loaded with perpetual infamy those Jewish teachers and all their posterity who should imitate them; the main strokes of whose characters are, that by their frivolous superstitions they weaken and sometimes destroy the eternal and immutable rules of righteousness. It may be proper just to observe, that St. Matthew represents these evil things as proceeding out of the mouth, Mat 15:18 not so much by way of contrast to meats which enter by the mouth into the man, as because some of them are committed with the faculty of speech, such as false-witness and blasphemy; and others of them are helped forwards by its assistance; as adultery, deceit, &c.

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Matthew 15:23. But he answered her not a word— Jesus did not seem to regard the woman, intending that the greatness of her faith should be made to appear; an end, highly worthy of the wisdom of Jesus; because it not only justified his conduct in working a miracle for a heathen, but was a sharp rebuke to the Jews for their infidelity. In the mean time his disciples, being ignorant of his design, were uneasy at the woman's importunity, thinking, that issue was permitted to follow them, they should soon be discovered. Desirous, therefore, to get rid of her, they intreated their master to dismiss her, as he was used to dismiss such petitioners, that is to say, with the grant of her request. The version of 1729 renders the clause, His disciples came and intreated him to grant her request; for, said they, she is very importunate with us. As it appears from Mar 7:24 that Christ was entered into an house, and that the application of this woman prevented his being concealed, as he seemed desirous to have been; it appears probable, that, having learned that Jesus was there, she watched for the disciples, as they went in and out, and having cried after them some time, she at length got admittance into the house, and with the profoundest respect accosted him; at first from some distance, and then drew near, and threw herself at his feet. See Doddridge.

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Matthew 15:24. I am not sent but, &c.— See the note on ch. Matthew 10:5. "Though I am come to save all the nations of the world,my ministry must be confined to the Israelites." Thus at first Jesus seemed to refuse both the woman's request, and the disciples' intercession in her behalf: our Lord's answer was well adapted to their own prejudices. And as they entertained high notions of the Jewish prerogative, they were so well satisfied with the reply, that we hear them no more pleading for this unhappy Gentile.

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