Комментарии к Библии

Matthew 5:44. ἐχθροὺς may be taken in all senses: national, private, religious. Jesus absolutely negatives hatred as inhuman. But the sequel shows that He has in view the enemies whom it is most difficult to love—διωκόντων: those who persecute on account of religion. The clauses imported into the T. R. from Luke have a more general reference to enmities arising from any cause, although they also receive a very emphatic meaning when the cause of alienation is religious differences. There are no hatreds so bitter and ruthless as those originating therein. How hard to love the persecutor who thinks he does God service by heaping upon you all manner of indignities. But the man who can rejoice in persecution (Matthew 5:12) can love and pray for the persecutor. The cleavage between Christians and unbelievers took the place of that between the chosen race and the Gentiles, and tempted to the same sin.

Matthew 5:45-47. Characteristically lofty inducements to obey the new law; likeness to God (Matthew 5:45); moral distinction among men (Matthew 5:46-47).—υἱοὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν: in order that ye may be indeed sons of God: noblesse oblige; God’s sons must be Godlike. “Father” again. The new name for God occurs sixteen times in the Sermon on the Mount; to familiarise by repetition, and define by discriminating use.—ὅτι, not = ὅς, but meaning “because”: for so your Father acts, and not otherwise can ye be His sons.—ἀνατέλλει, sometimes intransitive, as in Matthew 4:16, Luke 12:54, here transitive, also in Sept[34], Genesis 3:18, etc., and in some Greek authors (Pindar. Isth. vi., 110, e.g.) to cause to rise. The use of καίειν (Matthew 5:15) and ἀνατέλλειν in an active sense is a revival of an old poetic use in later Greek (exx. of the former in Elsner).—βρέχει = pluit (Vulg[35]), said of God, as in the expression ὔοντος τοῦ Διὸς (Kypke, Observ. Sac.). The use of this word also in this sense is a revival of old poetic usage.—πονηροὺς, ἀγαθούς; δικαίους, ἀδίκους, not mere repetition. There is a difference between ἀγαθός and δίκαιος similar to that between generous and just. πονηροὺς may be rendered niggardly—vide on Matthew 6:23. The sentiment thus becomes: “God makes His sun rise on niggardly and generous alike, and His rain fall on just and unjust”. A similar thought in Seneca, De benif. vi. 26: “Si deos imitaris, da et ingratis beneficia, nam et sceleratis sol oritur, et piratis patent maria”. The power of the fact stated to influence as a motive is wholly destroyed by a pantheistic conception of God as indifferent to moral distinctions, or a deistic idea of Him as transcendent, too far above the world, in heaven, as it were, to be able to take note of such differences. The divine impartiality is due to magnanimity, not to indifference or ignorance. Another important reflection is that in this word of Jesus we find distinct recognition of the fact that in human life there is a large sphere (sun and rain, how much these cover!) in which men are treated by Providence irrespectively of character; by no means a matter of course in a Jewish teacher, the tendency being to insist on exact correspondence between lot and character under a purely retributive conception of God’s relation to man.

[34] Septuagint.

[35] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).

Matthew 5:46. μισθὸν: here, and three times in next chapter; one of several words used in this connection of thought—περισσὸν (Matthew 5:47), τέλειοι (Matthew 5:48)—having a legal sound, and capable of being misunderstood. The scribes and Rabbis had much to say about merit and reward—vide Weber, Die Lehren des Talmud, c. xix. § 59, on the idea of Sechûth (merit). Totally opposed to Rabbinism, Jesus did not lose His balance, or allow Himself to be driven into extremes, after the usual manner of controversialists (Protestants and Catholics, e.g.). He speaks of μισθὸς without scruple (cf. on Luke 6:32).—τελῶναι (τέλος, tax, ὠνέομαι), first mention of a class often referred to in the Gospels, unpopular beyond their deserts; therefore, like women unjustly treated by husbands, befriended by Jesus; the humble agents of the great farmers of taxes, disliked as representing a foreign yoke, and on account of too frequent acts of injustice, yet human and kindly within their own class, loving those that loved them. Jesus took advantage of this characteristic to win their love by friendly acts.

Matthew 5:47. ἀσπάσησθε, “Salute,” a very slight display of love from our Western point of view, a mere civility; more significant in the East; symbolic here of friendly relations, hence Tholuck, Bleek and others interpret, “to act in a friendly manner,” which, as Meyer remarks, is, if not the significatio, at least the adsignificatio.—περισσὸν, used adverbially, literally “that which is over and above”; A. V[36], “more”; here, tropically = distinguished, unusually good = “quid magnum, eximium, insigne” (Pricaeus), so in Romans 3:1. In Plutarch, Romulus, xi., of one who excelled in casting horoscopes. Christ would awaken in disciples the ambition to excel. He does not wish them to be moral mediocrities, men of average morality, but to be morally superior, uncommon. This seems to come perilously near to the spirit of Pharisaism (cf. Galatians 1:14, προέκοπτον), but only seems. Christ commends being superior, not thinking oneself superior, the Pharisaic characteristic. Justin, Apol. i. 15, mixes Matthew 5:46-47, and for περισσὸν puts καινὸν, and for τελῶναι, or ἐθνικοὶ, πόρνοι: “If ye love those who love you what new thing do ye? for even fornicators do this.”—ἐθνικοὶ, here as elsewhere in the Gospels associated with τελῶναι (Matthew 18:17). A good many of the publicans would be Gentiles. For a Jew it was a virtue to despise and shun both classes. Surely disciples will not be content to be on a moral level with them! Note that Jesus sees some good even in despised classes, social outcasts.

[36] Authorised Version.

Matthew 5:48. Concluding exhortation. οὖν, from an ancient form of the participle of the verb εἶναι (Klotz, Devar.) = “things being so;” either a collective inference from all that goes before (Matthew 5:21-47) or as a reflection on the immediately preceding argument. Both come to the same thing. Godlike love is commended in Matthew 5:44-47, but the gist of all the six illustrations of Christ’s way of thinking is: Love the fulfilling of the law; obviously, except in the case of oaths, where it is truth that is enjoined. But truth has its source in love; Ephesians 4:15 : ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ, “truthing it in love”.—ἔσεσθε, future, “ye shall be” = BE.—ὑμεῖς, ye, emphatic, in contrast with τελ. and ἐθν., who are content with moral commonplace and conventional standards.—Τέλειοι: in general, men who have reached the end, touched the ideal, that at least their purpose, not satisfied with anything short of it. The τέλειοι are not men with a conceit of perfection, but aspirants—men who seek to attain, like Paul: διώκω εἰ καὶ καταλάβω, Php 3:12, and like him, single-minded, their motto: ἓν δέ. Single-mindedness is a marked characteristic of all genuine citizens of the kingdom (Matthew 6:33), and what the Bible means by perfection. All men who attain have one great ruling aim. That aim for the disciple, as here set forth, is Godlikeness—ὡς ὁ πατὴρ … τέλειός ἐστιν. God is what His sons aspire to be; He never sinks below the ideal: impartial, benignant, gracious love, even to the unworthy; for that, not all conceivable attributes, is what is in view. ὡς, not in degree, that were a discouraging demand, but in kind. The kind very necessary to be emphasised in view of current ideas and practice, in which holiness was dissociated from love. The law “Be holy for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44) was taken negatively and worked out in separation from the reputedly sinful. Jesus gave it positive contents, and worked it out in gracious love.

CHAPTER 6.

THE SERMON CONTINUED.

From Scribe law, the main theme of Matthew 6:21-34, the Teacher passes to speak of Pharisaic practice.

Matthew 6:1 describes the general character of Pharisaic righteousness. hen follow three special examples: alms, Matthew 6:2-4; prayer, Matthew 6:5-6; fasting, Matthew 6:16-18. The transition from the one theme to the other was almost inevitable, and we may be sure that what follows formed part of the instruction on the hill.

Matthew 6:1. προσέχετε (τὸν νοῦν understood), to attend to; here, with μὴ following, take heed, be on your guard against.—δικαιοσύνην, not ἐλεημοσύνην (T. R.), is the reading demanded in a general introductory statement. Alms formed a very prominent part of Pharisaic righteousness, and was in Rabbinical dialect called righteousness, צדקה (vide Weber, p. 273), but it was not the whole, and it is a name for the whole category that is wanted in Matthew 6:1. If Jesus spoke in Aramaic He might, as Lightfoot (Hor. Hebr.) suggests, use the word tsedakah both in the first and in the following three verses; in the first in the general sense, in the other places in the special sense of alms.—ἔμπροσθεν τ. ἀνθρώπων. In chap. Matthew 5:16 Christ commands disciples to let their light shine before men. Here He seems to enjoin the contrary. The contradiction is only apparent. The two places may be combined in a general rule thus: Show when tempted to hide, hide when tempted to show. The Pharisees were exposed, and yielded, to the latter temptation. They did their righteousness, πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι, to be seen. Their virtue was theatrical, and that meant doing only things which in matter and mode were commonly admired or believed by the doers to be. This spirit of ostentation Christ here and elsewhere represents as the leading feature of Pharisaism.—εἰ δὲ μήγε, a combination of four particles frequently occurring in the Gospels, meaning: if at least ye do not attend to this rule, then, etc. γέ is a very expressive particle, derived by Klotz, Devar. ii. 272, from ΓΕΩ, i.e., ΕΑΩ, or from ἄγε, and explained as meant to render the hearer attentive. Bäumlein, dissenting from Klotz’s derivation, agrees substantially with his view of its meaning as isolating a thought from all else and placing it alone in the light (Untersuchungen über Griechische Partikeln, p. 54) = “Mark my words, for if you do not as I advise then,” etc.—μισθὸν οὐκ ἔχετε: on μισθὸν, vide Matthew 5:46. The meaning is that theatrical virtue does not count in the Kingdom of God. Right motive is essential there. There may be a reward, there must be, else theatrical religion would not be so common; but it is not παρὰ τῷ πατρί.

Matthew 6:2-4. Almsgiving. Matthew 6:2. ἐλεημοσύνην, mercy in general, but specifically alms, as a common mode of showing mercy. Compare our word charity.—σαλπίσῃς: to be understood metaphorically, as there is no evidence of the literal practice. Furrer gives this from Consul Wetstein to illustrate the word. When a man (in Damascus) wants to do a good act which may bring a blessing by way of divine recompense on his own family, e.g., healing to a sick child, he goes to a water-carrier with a good voice, gives him a piece of money, and says “Sebil,” i.e., give the thirsty a fresh drink of water. The water-carrier fills his skin, takes his stand in the market, and sings in varied tones: “O thirsty, come to the drink-offering,” the giver standing by, to whom the carrier says, as the thirsty drink, “God forgive thy sins, O giver of the drink” (Zscht. für M. und R., 1890. Vide also his Wanderungen d. d. H. L., p. 437).—ὑποκριταὶ, stage-players in classics, used in N. T. in a moral and sinister sense, and for the Christian mind heavily burdened with evil connotation—hypocrites! What a deepening of the moral sense is implied in the new meaning! The abhorrence of acting for effect in religion is due to Christ’s teaching. It has not yet quite banished the thing. There are religious actors still, and they draw good houses.—συναγωγαῖς: where alms were collected, and apparently also distributed.—ῥύμαις, streets, in eastern cities narrow lanes, a late meaning; in earlier Greek = impetus—onset. Vide Rutherford’s New Phryn., 488. Cf. πλατειῶν, Matthew 6:5. πλατεῖα, supp. ὁδός = a broad street.—δοξασθῶσιν: in chap. Matthew 5:16 God is conceived as recipient of the glory; here the almsgiver, giving for that purpose.—ἀμὴν: introducing a solemn statement, and a very serious one for the parties concerned.—ἀπέχουσι, they have in full; they will get no more, nothing from God: so in Luke 6:24, Php 4:18 (vide on Mark 14:41). The hypocrite partly does not believe this, partly does not care, so long as he gets the applause of his public.