Commentari biblici

Is betrayed (παραδίδοται)

The present tense expresses here something which, though future, is as good as present, because already determined, or because it must ensue in virtue of an unalterable law. Thus the passover is (γίνεται): it must come round at the fixed season. The Son of Man is betrayed according to the divine decree. Compare Matthew 26:24.

Palace (αὐλὴν)

But the word never means palace in the New Testament. It is the court, the open court or hall, forming the centre of an oriental building, and often used as a meeting-place. Rev., court. Wyc., hall.

An alabaster box (ἀλάβαστρον)

Rev., cruse; flask in margin. Lit., an alabaster, just as we call a drinking-vessel made of glass a glass. Luther renders glass. It was a kind of cruet, having a cylindrical form at the top. Pliny compares these vessels to a closed rosebud, and says that ointments are best preserved in them.

To what purpose is this waste?

Wyc., Whereto this loss? Tynd., What needed this waste? See on John 12:3.

When Jesus understood it (γνοὺς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς)

The A. V. implies that some time elapsed before Jesus was aware of the disciples' complaint. But the statement is that Jesus perceived it at once. Rev., rightly, Jesus perceiving it.

Good work (καλὸν)

Lit., beautiful, but in a moral sense: an excellent, morally beautiful deed.

What will ye give? (τί θέλετέ μοι δοῦναι?)

Rather, What are ye willing to give me? It brings out the chaffering aspect of the transaction. So Rev.

They covenanted with him for (ἔστησαν αὐτῷ)

But the meaning is, they weighed unto him; or, very literally, they placed for him (in the balance). Although coined shekels were in circulation, weighing appears to have been practised, especially when considerable sums were paid out of the temple-treasury.

Thirty pieces of silver (τριάκοντα ἀργύρια)

Matthew refers to Zechariah 11:12. These pieces were shekels of the sanctuary, of standard weight, and therefore heavier than the ordinary shekel. See on Matthew 17:24. Reckoning the Jerusalem shekel at seventy-two cents, the sum would be twenty-one dollars and sixty cents. This was the price which, by the Mosaic law, a man was condemned to pay if his ox should gore a servant (Exodus 21:32). Our Lord, the sacrifice for men, was paid for out of the temple-money, destined for the purchase of sacrifices. He who "took on him the form of a servant" was sold at the legal price of a slave.

Such a man (τὸν δεῖνα)

The indefiniteness is the Evangelist's, not our Lord's. He, doubtless, described the per- son and where to find him.

He sat down (ἀνέκειτο)

But this rendering misses the force of the imperfect tense, which denotes something in progress. The Evangelist says he was sitting or reclining, introducing us to something which has been going on for some time.