圣经注释书

本章一开头，论到约翰的洗礼，便是福音的开始（可 1:1）；之前的不过是序言或引言，这里才是"耶稣基督福音的起头"。彼得也指出同一个时间起点（徒 1:22），从约翰施洗起首——因为那时基督才首次在他里面显明，又借着他向世界显明。本章内容：一、晨星荣耀的升起——施洗约翰（太 3:1）。1. 他所传的道（太 3:2）；2. 圣经在他身上的应验（太 3:3）；3. 他的生活方式（太 3:4）；4. 群众蜂拥归向他，并归服他的洗礼（太 3:5、6）；5. 他对法利赛人和撒都该人所讲的信息——他在其中竭力引导他们悔改（太 3:7-10），并如此将他们引到基督面前（太 3:11、12）。二、随后公义的日头更荣耀地照耀出来：其中我们看到，1. 他对约翰洗礼的尊重（太 3:13-15）；2. 圣灵降下、又有声音从天上来，所赐给他的尊荣（太 3:16、17）。

John the Baptist begins to preach, Matthew 3:1. The subject of his preaching, Matthew 3:2, Matthew 3:3. Description of his clothing and food, Matthew 3:4. The success of his ministry, Matthew 3:5, Matthew 3:6. His exhortation to the Pharisees, Matthew 3:7-9. He denounces the judgments of God against the impenitent, Matthew 3:10. The design of his baptism, and that of Christ, Matthew 3:11, Matthew 3:12. He baptizes Christ in Jordan, Matthew 3:13-15; who is attested to be the Messiah by the Holy Spirit, and a voice from heaven, Matthew 3:16, Matthew 3:17.

EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO ST. MATTHEW.

I.—ON THE HISTORY OF OUR LORD’S LIFE TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS MINISTRY (Matthew 3).

A BRIEF review of the events that affected more or less directly the human life of the Christ will, it is believed, be helpful to most readers. Of the early childhood we have no record but the simple statement that “the Child grew, and waxed strong, being filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:40). Outwardly, we must believe, it presented no startling features. There was the simple life of home, and in due course the lessons given in the synagogue, and the worship of the Sabbath, and the habits of a devout household. The annual pilgrimage of Joseph and Mary to keep the Passover at Jerusalem (Luke 2:41) would be the one conspicuous break in the year’s routine of labour in the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. At the age of twelve (A.D. 8) there was the first manifest unfolding of the higher life (see Luke 2:19), but, so far as we know, it stood absolutely alone, and the growth was quiet and orderly as before. Only in the absolute sinlessness, in the absence of the faults of childhood, could that growth have differed from the growth of other children of the same time and place. He too was subject to His parents, and worked with Joseph as a carpenter. And in that home (the question who they were being still reserved) were also the “brothers” of the Lord—James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55), and His sisters. The death of Joseph must have left Him, in the common course of things, as the head of the household, and we may believe that the other members of it, more and more, looked to Him for guidance, and depended upon Him for their support. It is at least probable that the yearly visits to Jerusalem were not intermitted, and that He who was made “under the Law,” gave the same proofs of His obedience to it as were given by every devout Israelite. Partly as claiming descent from David, partly from the devout habits of His own life and that of His reputed father, He must have been prominent in the small community of Nazareth, and probably exercised the function commonly assigned to devout laymen, of reading the Sabbath lessons in the synagogue (Luke 4:16). Thus much we may venture to picture to ourselves of the outward life. Of the veil that shrouds the growth of the inward life we may hardly dare to lift a corner. Prayer to His Father in Heaven, in part with the one necessary exception) after the manner of the prayer which He afterwards taught His disciples, the patient expectation that waited till His hour should come, gentle and loving care for His mother and His brethren, not without the power to reprove when reproof was necessary, delight in the solitude of the hills, the changing aspect of the skies, and the beauty of the dowers of the field, all these made up a life of harmony and noble holiness. But as it passed on. it hardly appeared likely to be more than this. The very tranquillity of its growth must have made His mother’s heart sink within her, as with the sickness of hope deferred. It was not till the preaching of the Baptist showed that His hour had come, that there was outwardly more than the life of a man of the peasant class, of blameless purity and intense devotion.

In the mean time events were passing round Him, which more or less affected those whom His ministerial work was afterwards to embrace. Archelaus, after the massacre referred to in the Note on Matthew 2:22, went to Rome to defend himself before the Emperor against the charge of cruelty, and to maintain his right to the kingdom against the claims of Antipas. Augustus, true to the balancing policy of Roman rule, made Antipas Tetrarch of Galilee, and Archelaus Ethnarch of Judæa. The latter ruled with as much cruelty as ever. Complaints again multiplied, and in A.D. 6 he was deposed and banished to Gaul, and Judæa, as a Roman province, was placed under the direct government of a Procurator. The immediate effect of this was to move the dormant fanaticism of a population who fondly flattered themselves that they had “never been in bondage to any man,” and when the census taken at the time of our Lord’s birth was followed by actual taxation (the “tribute” or poll-tax of Matthew 22:17), the discontent broke out in the revolt of Judas of Gamala, commonly known as “of Galilee” (Acts 5:37). That province furnished the greater part of his adherents, and they took as their watchword, “We have no master but God,” and refused to pay tribute. The insurrection was suppressed, Judas himself slain, and his followers dispersed; but the party was not extinct, and Josephus writing seventy years afterwards, in the time of Vespasian and Titus, enumerates it, together with Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, among the four sects of the Jews (Ant. xviii. 1, § 1). The question put by the Pharisees and Herodians, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar?” was one which must have been often discussed in Nazareth and the neighbouring villages from the time of our Lord’s childhood. The policy of the Tetrarch of Galilee led him, on the other hand, to court the favour of Rome. The new town of Tiberias (built A.D. 18), the new name, the Sea of Tiberias. which it gave to the Lake of Galilee, bore witness of Herod’s adulation of the Emperor who had succeeded Augustus in A.D. 14. Coming nearer to the time of the commencement of our Lord’s ministry we may note the Tetrarch’s divorce of his first wife, the daughter of Aretas; his incestuous and adulterous marriage with Herodias, the daughter of his brother Aristobulus, and the wife of his brother Philip; and the war with Aretas in which this act involved him. The government of Judæa, after the deposition of Archelaus, under five successive Procurators, presented no events of any striking importance, but in A.D. 25-26 we come to the more memorable name of Pontius Pilate. One of his first acts was to remove the Roman garrison from Cæsarea to Jerusalem. and the troops were accordingly stationed in the Tower of Antonius, which rose (as we see in Acts 21:34-35) from the precincts of the Temple. They brought with them the standards that bore the image of the Emperor, and this roused the population to a white heat of fury, to which Pilate at last yielded (Jos. Ant. xviii. 3, § 1). Other provocations, however, followed. Gilt shields bearing the names of heathen deities were suspended in the Procurator’s palace at Jerusalem, and were only removed by a special order from Tiberius. The consecrated Corban, or treasure of the Temple, was employed for the construction of an aqueduct, and the riot that followed (probably the insurrection which made Barabbas the hero of the people) was only suppressed by Pilate’s sending into the crowd soldiers in disguise, armed with concealed daggers, who massacred both rioters and unoffending spectators (Jos. Wars, ii. 9, §4). It is probable that the slaughter of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices (Luke 13:1), was connected with this outbreak. Such was the state of things when the voice of the Baptist was heard in the wilderness of Judæa. In the mean time the influence of Roman rule was seen in language, government, customs, in the employment of the publicans, in the centurions stationed with their troops at Capernaum, in the adoption of Roman manners at the feasts of the Tetrarch’s Court, in the forced service to which the peasants of Galilee were subject, in the frequent use of the Roman punishment of scourging, in the crosses upon which rebels and robbers were exposed in shameful nakedness to die the most agonising of all forms of death.

CHAPTER 3.

THE MINISTRY OF THE BAPTIST, AND THE BAPTISM OF JESUS.

This chapter and part of the next, containing the narrative of the temptation (Matthew 4:1-11), form the prelude to the public ministry of Jesus. John, of whom we have not heard before, appears as consecrating Jesus to His Messianic calling by baptism, and from the baptism Jesus passes to the scene of moral trial. In what year of Christ’s life these events happened is not indicated. The new narrative begins with the vague phrase, “in those days”. But it is obvious from the contents that Jesus has now reached manhood; His thoughts and experiences are those of mature years. From childhood to manhood is an absolute blank in our Gospel. The evangelist gives a genesis of Christ’s body, but no genesis of His mind. As we see it in the sequel, it is a miracle of wisdom. It too, doubtless, had its genesis and history, but they are not given or even hinted at. Christ is ushered on the scene an unexplained prodigy. One would like to know how He reached this unprecedented height of wisdom and grace (Luke 2:52). The only possible source of knowledge is reasoning back from the outcome in the full-grown man. Jesus grew, and the final result may reveal in part the means and process of growth. The anti-Pharisaic spirit and clean-cut descriptions of Pharisaic ways imply antecedent study, perhaps in Rabbinical schools. The parables may not have been so extempore as they seem, but may be the ripe fruit of long brooding thought, things new and yet old.

CHAPTER 3

Matthew 3:2. καὶ λέγων] Lachm. and Tisch. have merely λέγων, only after B א, Hil. and some Verss. The superfluous καί was easily overlooked.

Matthew 3:3. ὑπό] B C D א, 1, 13, 33, 124, 157, 209, Syrcur Sahid. Aeth. Vulg. It. Sax. read διά; so Griesbach, Gersdorf, Schulz, Lachm., Tisch. Correctly; see on Matthew 2:17.

Matthew 3:4. The position ἦν αὐτοῦ (Lachm., Tisch.) is, by means of B C D א, 1, 209, so sufficiently attested, that it must be preferred to the ordinary position αὐτοῦ ἦν, which spontaneously suggested itself to the copyists.

Matthew 3:6. Ἰορδάνῃ] B C* M Δ א, Curss., and many Verss. and Fathers, add ποταμῷ; so Lachm. and Tisch. 8. Addition from Mark 1:5.

Matthew 3:7. The αὐτοῦ was easily passed over after βάπτισμα as unnecessary; it is wanting, however, only in B א*, Sahid. Or. Hil., but is deleted by Tisch. 8.

Matthew 3:8. καρπὸν ἄξιον] Elz. has καρποὺς ἀξίους, after too weak testimony. Retained by Fritzsche. It arose from the copyists, who deemed the plural more appropriate to the sense, and had Luke 3:8 in view.

Matthew 3:10. δὲ καί] Lachm. Tisch.: δέ, which is so preponderantly attested by B C D M Δ א, Curss. Verss. Or. Ir. Did. Bas., that δὲ καί is to be regarded as introduced from Luke 3:9.

Matthew 3:14. Instead of ὁ δὲ Ἰωάννης, Lachm. and Tisch. 8 have only ὁ δέ, after B א, Sahid. Eus. Correctly; the name was much more easily interpolated than omitted.

Matthew 3:16. The transposition εὐθὺς ἀνέβη in B D א, Curss. Verss. and Fathers (so Lachm. and Tisch.), is a change, which assigned to the εὐθύς its more usual place (Gersdorf, I. p. 485).

αὐτῷ] is bracketed by Lachm., deleted by Tisch., but has a decided preponderance of witnesses in its favour, and its significance was easily misunderstood and passed over.

καί] before ἐρχόμ. is to be defended on decisive testimony, against Tisch. 8; comp. on Matthew 3:2.

Mt 3:1-12.

约翰的传道与事奉。 （ =

Mr 1:1-8；Lu 3:1-18）。

关于本段的恰当引言，须参阅

Lu 3:1, 2。

这里，正如 BENGEL 所精辟指出的，新约的帷幕仿佛被揭开，教会最伟大的时代就此开始。连主自己的年龄也是据此确定的

(Lu 3:23)。

新约别处再无如此详尽的年代精确性；而这恰好出自那位声称“从起初都详细考察了”乃是其福音书独到之处的人

(Mt 1:3)。

显然，他正式的叙事正由此开始。

Lu 3:1：

凯撒提庇留在位第十五年——不是从他奥古斯都死后完全登基算起，而是从他与其父共同治理帝国之时算起，比通常的计算早三年，约在罗马建城 779 年末，亦即比通常算法约早四年。

本丢·彼拉多作犹太巡抚——他的正式头衔是procurator（巡抚），但其权力却超过该职的常规。任职约十年之后，他被召往罗马应对控告；但未及抵达，提庇留已死（主后 35 年），不久之后，可怜的彼拉多便自杀了。

希律作加利利分封的王——（参见

Mr 6:14）。

他兄弟腓力——这位腓力与那位名为希律·腓力的截然不同，远胜于他；后者的妻子希罗底去与希律·安提帕同居（参见

Mr 6:17）。

作以土利亚分封的王——位于巴勒斯坦东北，其名源自以实玛利之子以突（Itur 或 Jetur）

(1Ch 1:31)，

古时属玛拿西半支派。

和特拉可尼地方——更在东北，介于以土利亚与大马士革之间；是一岩石嶙峋、盗贼出没之地，奥古斯都将其交予大希律以维持秩序。

吕撒聂作亚比利尼分封的王——更在东北；据 ROBINSON 所言，此名得自距大马士革十八英里的亚比拉（Abila）。

Lu 3:2：

亚那和该亚法作大祭司——前者虽已被废黜，仍保留相当影响力，并且可能以撒珥（sagan，副职）的身份，与其女婿该亚法一同行使大祭司的多项职权

(Joh 18:13； Ac 4:6)。

大卫时代，撒督与亚比亚他同任祭司

(2Sa 15:35)，

看来设二职乃是固定的惯例

(2Ki 25:18)。

神的话临到撒迦利亚的儿子约翰，在旷野里——当论到耶稣时，从不用这种说法，因为祂自己就是那活着的道；而对于一切仅仅是受造之神使者，他们所说的话原是外加于他们的元素。参见

Joh 3:31。

如今我们已预备好研读马太的开头几句。

1. 那时——即基督在拿撒勒隐居生活之时，也就是上一章所留下的情形。

施洗的约翰出来，传道——比他的主早约六个月。

在犹太的旷野——即约旦河的荒凉谷地，人烟稀少、牧场贫瘠，在耶路撒冷以北约略之处。

那时——这里所指的日子不可能是前章所提的日子，因为约翰只比基督大六个月。也许马太有意把耶稣住在拿撒勒的整个时期都纳入他的叙述；其意思是"在耶稣仍住在拿撒勒的那些日子"，约翰开始传道。约翰大概不至于在救主开始其事工之前很久，便开始施洗或传道；因此，从第二章末尾所提的时候，到第三章开头所提的时候，其间相隔二十五年或更多。

施洗约翰——或称施洗者约翰，如此称呼是因他的主要职分，即施洗的职分。洗礼，即以水施行的礼仪，是犹太人所熟知的，他们在从异教中接纳归信者进入其宗教时，便施行此礼。——Lightfoot。

传道——译作"传道"的词，意指以公开传令者的方式宣告，发布告示。新约所记载的讲论大多简短，有时只由一句话组成。它们是对某个重大真理的公开宣告。约翰呼召人悔改的讲论，看来正是如此。

在犹太的旷野——这地区位于耶路撒冷以东，沿约旦河与死海延伸。译作"旷野"的词，并不像我们所理解的那样，指无边森林、全然无人居住之地；而是指多山、崎岖、人烟稀少的地区，相当程度为森林与岩石所覆盖，更宜放牧而不宜耕种。那些地方也有居民，甚至有村庄，但它们是这个国家中相对未定居的部分，1 Samuel 25:1-2。在约书亚的时代，在那时称为旷野的地方有六座城，Joshua 15:61-62。