Commentari biblici

Verse 1. - Matthew only. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end. The same formula recurs in Matthew 7:28; Matthew 13:53; Matthew 19:1; Matthew 26:1. In all five cases it marks the end of important speeches.

(1) The sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7:27);

(2) the charge to the disciples (Matthew 10:5-42);

(3) the parables (Matthew 13:1-52);

(4) discourses to the disciples (Matthew 18.);

(5) prophecies about the end of the world, etc. (Matthew 24, 25.). (Cf. Introduction, p. 3 ). for the bearing that this has upon the sources of the Gospel.) Of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence. Whence? We have no knowledge. Perhaps the place had been named in the original context, from which the discourse was derived. Ch. 9:35 suggests that it was some place on his journey (cf. Alford), but our verse in itself implies rather some fixed centre of work, e.g. Capernaum. To teach and to preach in their cities. If he ceases to speak at length, it is that he may begin more aggressive work (cf. Matthew 7:28, 29; Matthew 13:53, 54). Their. It is hardly by accident that the word recurs, with the same reference, as it seems, to the Jews generally, in the passages just quoted (cf. Matthew 12:9, note).

Verses 2-24. - JESUS THE ONE THAT SHOULD COME.

(1) Vers. 2-6: The Baptist's question, and its answer: the Coming One has come.

(2) Vers. 7-15: Jesus' recognition of the greatness of John as herald.

(3) Vers. 16-19: Yet both John and he himself are rejected.

(4) Vers. 20-24: Woe on those who disregard the signs of God's work. Verses 2-6. - The Baptist's question, and its answer. Parallel passage: Luke 7:18-23. Verse 2. - Now when John had (omit, with the Revised Version) heard in the prison; i.e. Machaerus (Schurer, 1. 2:27; comp. Matthew 3:1, note; Matthew 14:1, note). Matthew alone tells us that he was already in prison. The works of Christ; of the Christ (Revised Version); τοῦ Ξριστοῦ. Not the proper name, but the official title (Matthew 1:16, 17, notes). The title may be merely due to the evangelist's narrative, or may represent the actual terms in which the message was brought to John. It brings out the pathos of the situation. John had prepared the way of the Christ, and had at the baptism taken part in his anointing. Yet of all the works that the Christ now did there was none to set his kinsman and herald free. He sent two of his disciples; by his disciples (Revised Version). Possibly the slight difference between διά, the true reading here, and δύο, which is genuine in Luke, points to the common source (observe here a Greek source) having been written, but with the close similarity in sound this need not have been the case. Observe that the true reading lays slightly more emphasis on the fact of the inquiry coming from John himself (vide infra). "Sent by" is the equivalent of the Hebrew שלח ביד (Exodus 4:13; 1 Samuel 16:20; 1 Kings 2:25; comp. also Revelation 1:1).

Verse 3. - And said unto him. The question was brought from John; the answer is sent back to him (ver. 4). This points to the cause of the question lying ultimately, not with his disciples, but with himself. Although John might justly fear that they would follow him rather than Jesus (cf. Matthew 9:14, note), yet he seems to have made this inquiry for his own sake. He who stood on the Jewish side of the threshold of the kingdom (ver. 11) did not understand the methods by which the King was acting, and thus his faith was tried (comp. Tertullian, 'Adv. Marc.,' 4:18). In this he recalls his great prototype, whose plans seemed to have failed and his boldness to have done no good (1 Kings 19:13, 14). To both the answer implied that success was assured to quiet spiritual work. Art thou (emphatic) he that should come? he that cometh (Revised Version); ὁ ἐρχόμενος (comp. Matthew 3:11, note). The title was probably derived from Psalm 118:26, and would become the more known from the LXX. of Habakkuk 2:3 (comp. Hebrews 10:37), and perhaps also from a directly Messianic interpretation of Genesis 49:10. Or do we look for. The word (προσδοκῶμεν) contains no thought of looking about for, but only of earnest expectation. Another? Ἕτερον, and so in Luke 7:19; but ἄλλον in Luke 7:20 (where, however, Westcott and Heft margin reads ἕτερον). Observe that in both records the evangelist's own summary of John's message speaks of a difference in kind, but that in the form given by the messengers (Luke 7:20) it is only a matter of a second person coming (comp. Galatians 1:6, 7; 1 Corinthians 12:8, etc.; 1 Corinthians 15:39, etc.). John's disciples, that is to say, are represented as failing to catch the point of their master's question whether he must look, after all, for a Messiah who acts differently from the way in which Jesus acts.

Verse 4. - Jesus; and Jesus (Revised Version, with even the Received Text). Answered and said unto them. He makes no verbal self-defence, but appeals to the effects of his work. Observe that a similar appeal to effects of the same character as those mentioned here - restoration to normal powers and bringing spiritual truths home to the poorest - is still the great argument for the Messiahship of Jesus. Go; go your way (Revised Version); πορευθέντες (cf. ver. 7). And show John again; and tell John (Revised Version); for ἀπαγγέλλω does not in itself contain the idea of bringing word in answer to an inquiry, but merely emphasizes the source or place from which the message comes (Matthew 8:33; cf. Bishop Westcott on 1 John 1:2, 5). Those (the, Revised Version) things which ye do hear and see. Observe that in Luke

(1) the order of the verbs is reversed;

(2) the tense is not the present, as here, but the aorist, the miracles being regarded from the point of time when the disciples had returned to John. The present tense in Matthew brings out what St. Luke had already indicated by his preceding explanatory verse that the messengers arrived when the Lord was actually performing miracles.

Verse 5. - The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear (and, Revised Version), the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. The first and the last of the examples selected by our Lord are fulfilments or' prophecy (Isaiah 61:1). Observe that

(1) the words are taken from the LXX. (εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοις... τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν), which, perhaps, represents a different reading from the Massoretic text (cf. Cheyne, in loc., 'Critical Note').

(2) Our Lord reverses the order of the expressions, taking the restoration of sight to the blind as the commencement of a series of physical miracles, and thus making spiritual work the climax.

(3) He does not quote Isaiah's phrase, "liberty to the captives," although the quotation of its context could not but suggest it to John, the reason being, it would seem, that he desired to call John's attention away from the more political part of Messiah's work to that which alone forms the basis of permanent political improvement - the restoration of the individual.

(4) In accordance with this is the fact that when he was laying stress on the character of his adherents as the one qualification for sharing in his kingdom, he alluded to the same passage of Isaiah (vide Matthew 5:3-5). John was not wholly emancipated from the Jewish tendency to regard the external results of the kingdom; our Lord's mind dwelt rather on the internal results. Although John's difficulty had been felt when he heard of the works (ver. 2, note), our Lord only said in reply, "Tell him of my works." It was an old message, and yet a new one. In the nature of those works, when fully understood, lay the true solution of his difficulty. Observe that here also Christ adds a Beatitude (ver. 6). The blind (Matthew 9:27, note), (and the lame. The "and" is doubtless genuine here, its omission in some manuscripts being due to the parallel passage in Luke. Observe the rhythm, "blind and lame," "lepers and deaf," "and dead and poor." Perhaps this is the result of oral transmission. The lame walk (Isaiah 35:6). The dead are raised up. "Quod novissime factum erat juveni Nainitico" (Bengel; and so Ellicott, 'Hist. Lects.,' pp. 181, 183, edit. 1861). The gospel; good tidings (Revised Version text [not margin], probably to suggest to English readers the reference to Isaiah 61:1).

Verse 6. - And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended (Matthew 5:29, note) in me; shall find none occasion of stumbling in me (Revised Version). But exhibits perfect trust under delay and disappointment (James 1:12).

Verses 7-15. - Jesus recognition of the greatness of John as herald. Vers. 7-11: parallel passage: Luke 7:24-28. Verse 7. - And as they departed; and as these went their way (Revised Version). Fulfilling his command (ver. 4). It' we may combine the language of St. Matthew and St. Luke ("when the messengers of John were departed"), we may say that they had left the circle immediately round our Lord, but were hardly further than the outskirts of the crowd. What went ye out into the wilderness to see? to behold (Revised Version); θεάσασθαι (cf. θέατρον,). It almost suggests that they went out as though to see a spectacle. They were stirred by no deeper motive. Bengel compares John 5:35. A reed shaken with the wind? If the reed referred to by our Lord was the papyrus, which still grows freely in certain parts of the Jordan valley, the description of this plant in 'Rob Roy on the Jordan,' ch. 17, is specially interesting: "There is first a lateral trunk, lying on the water and half-submerged. This is sometimes as thick as a man's body, and from its lower side hang innumerable string-like roots from three to five feet long, and of a deep purple colour .... These pendent roots... retard much of the surface-current where the papyrus grows On the upper surface of the trunks the stems grow alternately in oblique rows;, their thickness at the junction is often four inches, and their height fifteen feet, gracefully tapering until at the top is a little round knob, with long, thin brown, wire-like hairs eighteen inches long, which rise and then, recurving, hang about it in a thyrsus-shaped head." He also says, "The whole jungle of papyrus was floating upon the water, and so the waves raised by the breeze were rocking the green curtain to and fro." This explained "a most curious hissing, grinding, bustling sound, that was heard like waves upon a shingly beach," as "the papyrus stems were rubbing against each other as they nodded out and in." It is, however, much more probable that the reed referred to was "the Arundo donax, a very tall cane, growing twelve feet high, with a magnificent panicle of blossom at the top, and so slender and yielding that it will lie perfectly flat under a gust of wind, and immediately resume its upright position." It grows especially on the western side of the Dead Sea (cf. Tristram, 'Natural History of the Bible,' p. 4,37, edit. 1889). To our Lord's question no answer was needed. John had rejected the overtures of the nationalists (John 1:19-21), and had not feared to rebuke a king (Matthew 14:4).

Verse 8. - Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. Menahem the Essene was by the wish of Herod the Great made deputy to Hillel in the Sanhedrin, but afterwards left his office. "Whither did he go out? Abai said. He went out to destruction. Rabba said, He went out for the service of the king. There is also a Baraitha [i.e. an 'uncanonical' Mishna] to this effect, that Menahem went out for the service of the king, and there went out with him eighty pairs of disciples clothed in Syrian robes" (Talm. Bab., 'Chagigah,' 16b, edit. Streane). It has been conjectured, though hardly on sufficient evidence, that our Lord was thinking of this case; but the Talmudic passage at least illustrates the gorgeousness of the apparel of the courtiers, and suggests the luxury of living that St. Luke speaks of ("They which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts"). It is, however, only fair to Menahem to say that Gratz ('Geschichte der Judaer,' 3. p. 230, edit. 1877) is able to suppose that he merely went back again to his solitude.