Commentari biblici

The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came — Came forth, saith St Mark, to wit, out of the coasts of Magdala, as soon as ever our Saviour arrived there, to quarrel him, and keep him from doing good. So active are the devil’s instruments to hinder the kingdom of God and the good of souls. Truth never wants an adversary; she goes seldom without a scratched face, as the proverb is. The Pharisees and Sadducees, though at deadly difference between themselves, yet can easily combine against Christ. So to this day the priests disparage the Jesuits, the Jesuits the priests, the priests again the monks, the monks the friars, but they can all conspire against Protestants, whom they jointly persecute. Dogs, though they fight never so fierce, and mutually intertear one another, yet if a hare run by they give over, and run after her. Martial makes mention of a hare on the Sicilian shore, that having hardly escaped the hounds that hunted her, was devoured by a sea dog; whereupon he brings her in thus complaining:

" In me omnis terraeque aviumque marisque rapina est:

Forsitan et coeli, si canis astra tenet. "

Tempting desired him — Or questioned him to and fro, sifted him by interrogatories, pretending to be his friends, and to seek satisfaction only. επηρωτησαν , vicissim interrogabant. All this savour strongly of putrid hypocrisy, quae ipsis domestica erat virtus, as Aretius. Socinus did in like sort set upon Zanchius. "He was," saith Zanchius, "a learned man, and of unblamable conversation, but full of heresies, which yet he never propounded to me otherwise than by way of question, as seeming desirous to be better informed." Homo fuit p1enus diversarum haereseon, quas tamen mihi nunquam proponebat nisi disputandi causa, et semper interrogans quasi cuperet doceri. Zaneh. By this subtle means he drew away many, and sought to work upon Zanchius, as did also Matthaeus Gribaldus, and some such others. But when they could not prevail, they brake friendship with him, and he with them, for the which he praiseth God from the bottom of his heart.

Show them a sign — Them, αυτοις , ipsis, i. q. solis. by all means, as more worshipful men than the multitude, such as might merit an extraordinary sign. See here their satanical arrogance. So Herod would see our Saviour, that he might see a sign from him. He looked upon him no otherwise than upon some common magician, that would sure show him his best tricks. Thus these hypocrites here would gladly be gratified, but they were deceived.

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He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair, … — q.d. Are you so weatherwise (which yet is not your profession)? are ye so skilful in nature, and yet so ignorant of Scripture, as not to know that now is the time for the Messiah to come, and that I am he? Surely you are either notorious sots, or deep dissemblers, or both, in seeming so curiously to search after the truth, which yet you neither care to know, nor obey.

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And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

Can you not discern the sign of the times? — The men of Issachar were in great account with David, because "they had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," 1 Chronicles 12:32 ; "A prudent man foreseeth an evil, and hideth himself," Proverbs 22:3 . He foreseeth it; not by divination, or star gazing, but by a judicious collection and connection of causes and consequences: as, if God be the same that ever, as holy, just, powerful, …; if sin be the same that ever, as foul, loathsome, pernicious, …; then such and such events will follow upon such and such courses. As God hath given us signs, and fore tokens of a tempest, so he hath also of an ensuing judgment, and blames those that take not notice thereof; sending them to school to the stork and swallow, Jeremiah 8:7 . If Elias see but a cloud as a hand arising from Carmel, he can tell that great store of rain will follow, that the whole heaven will anon be covered. Finer tempers are sooner sensible of change of weather. Moses, as more acquainted with God, spies his wrath at first setting out: so might we have done ere it came to this, and have redeemed a great part of our present sorrows, had we had our eyes in our heads, Ecclesiastes 2:14 , had we not been of those wilful ones, who seek straws to put out their eyes also, as Bernard hath it, or that wink for the filty talk, saith Justin Martyr, that they may not see, when some unsavoury potion is ministered unto them. a

a Qui festucam quaerunt unde oculos sibi eruant. Bern. εκουσιως καταπινοντες το πικρον .

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A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

A wicked and adulterous generation — See Trapp on " Matthew 12:39 " The same wedge serves the same knot. They shall have no new answer from Christ, till they have made better use of the old. Let them return to thee, not thou to them, Jeremiah 15:19 .

And he left them, and departed — Because he saw his sweet words were even spilt upon them. Frustra lavantur Aethiopes et certatur cum hypocritis: none are more obstinate and obdurate.

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And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

They had forgotten to take bread — As wholly transported with fervour in following Christ, the bread of life. This is the fault of but a few today: worldly cares eat up heavenly desires, as the lean kine in Pharaoh’s dream did the fat.

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Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Take heed and beware of the leaven — Or take knowledge of, and then take heed of, false doctrine; Οραν , cognitionis est, προσεχειν , autem cautelae. which is fitly called leaven, because it soureth, swelleth, spreadeth, corrupteth the whole lump, and all this secretly, cunningly, easily, suddenly; neither can our eyes discern it from dough by the colour, but only our palate by the taste. Now the ear trieth words, as the mouth trieth meat, Job 34:3 . Try all things before you trust anything. Those that sow false doctrine are somewhere in the Acts called λοιμοι , pests, botches, for their danger of infection, Acts 24:5: some can carry their collusion so clearly, that if possible the very elect might be deceived; like serpents, they can sting without hissing; like cur-dogs, A dog: now always depreciative or contemptuous; a worthless, low-bred, or snappish dog. ŒD suck your blood without biting. Nota est Arrii κυβεια , saith one, qua Constantini deride Nicovena elusit examen, by the cogging of a dye, by the adding of one iota, they corrupted the sense of the whole synod, ομοιουσιον ponentes pro ομοουσιον . The Valentinians had a trick to persuade before they taught. Habuerunt artificium quo prius persuaderent quam docerent. Tertull. The ancient Anti-trinitarians set forth a base book of their doctrines under Cyprian’s name, and sold it dog-cheap, that men might the sooner buy it, and be led by it, as Ruffinus complains. Take heed and beware of such: ye are not ignorant of their wiles.

Of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees — Κακοι μεν θριπες, κακοι ηδε και ιπες . Never a barrel better herring. (Erasm. Adag.) Howbeit, the Sadducees affected, by their very name, to be held the only just men; haply because they held that all the reward that righteous men are to look for is here in this world. (Josephus.) The occasion of this heresy is said to be this: When Antigonus taught that we must not serve God for wages, his scholars understood him as if he had utterly denied all future rewards or recompence attending a godly life: and thence framed their heresy, denying the resurrection, world to come, angels, devils, and lived as epicures and libertines.

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And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.

It is because we have taken no bread — Oh the dulness that is in the best to receive or retain heavenly mysteries! Surely, as owls see best by night, and are blind by day: so in deeds of darkness we are sharp sighted, wise to do evil; but in spirituals we are blinder than beetles, our wits serve us not, we are singularly stupid and stubborn.

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Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?

O ye of little faith — Fides famem non formidat. It was want of faith that made them fear they should perish in the wilderness for lack of bread: God was better to them than their fears. He makes the best living of it that lives by faith. Feed on faith; so Tremellius reads that, Psalms 37:3 .

Why reason ye among yourselves — τι διελογιζεσθε , Disserere significat, ac verbis inter se disceptare. They likely laid the fault of forgetfulness one upon another: but none found fault with himself for his unbelief and carnal reasoning.

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