Matthew · Chapter 10
And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
John Wesley
V. 2. The first, Simon-The first who was called to a constant attendance on Christ; although Andrew had seen him before Simon. Acts 1:13.
Adam Clarke
Verse 2. Apostles] This is the first place where the word is used. apostolov, an apostle, comes from apostellw, I send a message. The word was anciently used to signify a person commissioned by a king to negotiate any affair between him and any other power or people. Hence apostoloi and khrukev, apostles and heralds, are of the same import in Herodotus. See the remarks at the end of chap. 3.
It is worthy of notice, that those who were Christ’s apostles were first his disciples; to intimate, that men must be first taught of God, before they be sent of God. Jesus Christ never made an apostle of any man who was not first his scholar or disciple. These twelve apostles were chosen. 1. That they might be with our Lord, to see and witness his miracles, and hear his doctrine. 2. That they might bear testimony of the former, and preach his truth to mankind.
The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; &c.] We are not to suppose that the word prwtov, first, refers to any kind of dignity, as some have imagined; it merely signifies the first in order-the person first mentioned. A pious man remarks: “God here unites by grace those who were before united by nature.” Though nature cannot be deemed a step towards grace, yet it is not to be considered as always a hinderance to it. Happy the brothers who are joint envoys of Heaven, and the parents who have two or more children employed as ambassadors for God! But this is a very rare case; and family compacts in the work of the ministry are dangerous and should be avoided.
Joseph Benson
Verses 2-4. The first, Simon — The first who was called to a constant attendance on Christ: although Andrew had seen him before Simon, John 1:41. James the son of Zebedee — The fisherman, and John his brother — The beloved disciple; who were also called at the same time with the two former, as they were fishing at the sea of Galilee, Mark 1:19. The word Iakwbov, which we translate James, is the same name with that of the patriarch; but immemorial custom has appropriated, in our language, the name James to the two apostles, and Jacob to the patriarch. Lebbeus, who was also called Judas, or Jude, the brother of James. Simon the Canaanite — So called, it seems, because he was a native of Cana. And Judas, named Iscariot, from Iscarioth, the place of his birth, a town of the tribe of Ephraim, near the city of Samaria.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 2-4. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. In Hebrew, shallokim, messengers. Our Gothic and Saxon ancestors, having no names of office which answer to those in the gospel, called the apostles “knights,” and afterwards “thanes.” But thane implied dignity, added to knighthood, being often connected with lieutenancy over a county, or a district, for the king. The Romans sometimes called them “legates.”
The first, SIMON, surnamed Peter, after his glorious confession of faith. Matthew 16:18. See the Introduction to his first epistle. The second, ANDREW, Peter’s brother. The name is Greek, and designates a man by way of eminence, distinguished for wisdom and virtue. The third, JAMES, son of Zebedee, to distinguish him from James the son of Alpheus. He was the first of the twelve that received the crown of martyrdom, being beheaded with the sword by the command of Herod Antipas, the third of that name. Acts 12:2.
The fourth, JOHN, the beloved disciple.
The fifth, PHILIP, or Philippus, as in Latin; another gentile name, denoting a lover of horses. The jews we find had adopted many heathen names. The sixth, BARTHOLOMEW, that is, Bar Talmai, the son of Talmai, or the son of him who suspended the waters. Bartholomew carried the gospel to the Indians, where report says he suffered martyrdom. Bartholomew, in this list, falls in exactly as Nathaniel does in the first of John; hence the two names are thought by many to belong to the same person. The seventh, THOMAS, surnamed Didymus. Baronius says that he travelled to India, where he suffered martyrdom.
The eighth, MATTHEW, whom Mark puts the seventh, but through modesty he puts Thomas as his senior.
The ninth, JAMES, son of Alpheus, often called James the less. He was thrown from a battlement of the temple, and his brains beaten out with a club, by the command of Ananias the highpriest. Joseph. Antiq. book 20. chap. 8. See the Introduction to his epistle.
The tenth, LEBBEUS, surnamed Thaddeus in the Syriac, the better to distinguish him from Judas the traitor, Jude being his first name. The eleventh, SIMON the Canaanite, or Cananæus, because some say he was a native of Cana in Galilee. But Grotius derives it from the Hebrew surname, anq, which Luke properly renders Zelwthv, Zelotes, because of his zeal and piety.
The twelfth, JUDAS, surnamed Iscariot, that is, traitor, after he had betrayed the Lord. We find the like surnames among heathen writers.
Daniel Whedon
2. Apostles — The word apostle signifies one sent. It is derived from the Greek word apostellw, apostello, which is the very word used in verse 5, and translated sent forth.
Richard Watson
Verse 2. Now the names of the twelve apostles. — The order in which some of these became disciples may be thus collected from the different gospels. Andrew, Peter’s brother, and John, having been disciples of the Baptist, first joined themselves to Christ; then Andrew fetched his brother Peter, and spent the rest of the day with our Lord. — The next day Philip was called, and Nathanael, generally supposed to be Bartholomew. But these returned to their occupations, and when the call was given, which implied that they were to give up themselves wholly to be trained to the ministration of his doctrine, Peter was first called, (see Luke 5:3-10,) then James and John, and probably Andrew at the same time. The call of Matthew is also distinctly related: but of the special calling of the others we have no account, save that the whole twelve are here enumerated together. The catalogues are not formed with reference to rank and dignity, but to order only; for if rank had been implied, the catalogues would have exactly agreed in the gospels and the Acts; yet Peter is in them all named first, and Judas Iscariot last; Peter as having been, in fact, first called to the office of the ministry, as noticed above, while Judas is very naturally put last as the traitor, unless indeed he was the last called.
Peter. — To Simon the name of Peter was given, in Syriac Cephos, in Greek Petrov, from wetra a stone, the first main stone laid upon the foundation corner stone, which is Christ himself, who is also the top corner stone, or “head of the corner.”
Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
John Wesley
V. 3. Lebbeus-Commonly called Judas, the brother of James.
Adam Clarke
Verse 3. Bartholomew] Many are of opinion that this was Nathanael, mentioned John 1:46, whose name was probably Nathanael bar Talmai, Nathanael, the son of Talmai: here, his own name is repressed, and he is called Bar Talmai, or Bartholomew, from his father. Matthew the publican] The writer of this history. See the preface. James the son of Alpheus] This person was also called Cleopas, or Clopas, Luke 24:18; John 19:25. He had married Mary, sister to the blessed Virgin, John 19:25.
Joseph Benson
Verses 2-4. The first, Simon — The first who was called to a constant attendance on Christ: although Andrew had seen him before Simon, John 1:41. James the son of Zebedee — The fisherman, and John his brother — The beloved disciple; who were also called at the same time with the two former, as they were fishing at the sea of Galilee, Mark 1:19. The word Iakwbov, which we translate James, is the same name with that of the patriarch; but immemorial custom has appropriated, in our language, the name James to the two apostles, and Jacob to the patriarch. Lebbeus, who was also called Judas, or Jude, the brother of James. Simon the Canaanite — So called, it seems, because he was a native of Cana. And Judas, named Iscariot, from Iscarioth, the place of his birth, a town of the tribe of Ephraim, near the city of Samaria.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 2-4. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. In Hebrew, shallokim, messengers. Our Gothic and Saxon ancestors, having no names of office which answer to those in the gospel, called the apostles “knights,” and afterwards “thanes.” But thane implied dignity, added to knighthood, being often connected with lieutenancy over a county, or a district, for the king. The Romans sometimes called them “legates.”
The first, SIMON, surnamed Peter, after his glorious confession of faith. Matthew 16:18. See the Introduction to his first epistle. The second, ANDREW, Peter’s brother. The name is Greek, and designates a man by way of eminence, distinguished for wisdom and virtue. The third, JAMES, son of Zebedee, to distinguish him from James the son of Alpheus. He was the first of the twelve that received the crown of martyrdom, being beheaded with the sword by the command of Herod Antipas, the third of that name. Acts 12:2.
The fourth, JOHN, the beloved disciple.
The fifth, PHILIP, or Philippus, as in Latin; another gentile name, denoting a lover of horses. The jews we find had adopted many heathen names. The sixth, BARTHOLOMEW, that is, Bar Talmai, the son of Talmai, or the son of him who suspended the waters. Bartholomew carried the gospel to the Indians, where report says he suffered martyrdom. Bartholomew, in this list, falls in exactly as Nathaniel does in the first of John; hence the two names are thought by many to belong to the same person. The seventh, THOMAS, surnamed Didymus. Baronius says that he travelled to India, where he suffered martyrdom.
The eighth, MATTHEW, whom Mark puts the seventh, but through modesty he puts Thomas as his senior.
The ninth, JAMES, son of Alpheus, often called James the less. He was thrown from a battlement of the temple, and his brains beaten out with a club, by the command of Ananias the highpriest. Joseph. Antiq. book 20. chap. 8. See the Introduction to his epistle.
The tenth, LEBBEUS, surnamed Thaddeus in the Syriac, the better to distinguish him from Judas the traitor, Jude being his first name. The eleventh, SIMON the Canaanite, or Cananæus, because some say he was a native of Cana in Galilee. But Grotius derives it from the Hebrew surname, anq, which Luke properly renders Zelwthv, Zelotes, because of his zeal and piety.
The twelfth, JUDAS, surnamed Iscariot, that is, traitor, after he had betrayed the Lord. We find the like surnames among heathen writers.
Daniel Whedon
3 James, son of Zebedee. John. James. John.
Richard Watson
Verse 3. James the son of Alphæus. — To distinguish him from James the brother of John, both the sons of Zebedee. Alphæus is from yplt, which is pronounced Alpha, or Cleophi; hence this Alpheus is called Cleopas, Luke 24:18.
Lebbæus whose surname was Thaddæus. — Judas, or Jude, was called Lebbæus, from Lebba, a town in Galilee, to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. Judas, in Syriac, is Thaddai.
Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
John Wesley
V. 4. Iscariot-So called from Iscarioth, (the place of his birth,) a town of the tribe of Ephraim, near the city of Samaria.
Adam Clarke
Verse 4. Simon] He was third son of Alpheus, and brother of James and Jude, or Judas, Matthew 13:55.
The Canaanite] This word is not put here to signify a particular people, as it is elsewhere used in the Sacred Writings; but it is formed from the Hebrew anq kana, which signifies zealous, literally translated by Luke, Luke 6:15, zhlwthv, zelotes, or the zealous, probably from his great fervency in preaching the Gospel of his Master. But see Clarke “Luke 6:15”.
Judas Iscariot] Probably from the Hebrew twyrq vya ish kerioth, a man of Kerioth, which was a city in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:25, where it is likely this man was born.
As arkca iscara, signifies the quinsy, or strangulation, and Judas hanged himself after he had betrayed our Lord, Dr. Lightfoot seems inclined to believe that he had his name from this circumstance, and that it was not given him till after his death.
Who also betrayed him] Rather, even he who betrayed him, or delivered him up; for so, I think, o kai paradouv auton should be translated. The common translation, who ALSO betrayed him, is very exceptionable, as it seems to imply, he was betrayed by some others, as well as by Judas.
Joseph Benson
Verses 2-4. The first, Simon — The first who was called to a constant attendance on Christ: although Andrew had seen him before Simon, John 1:41. James the son of Zebedee — The fisherman, and John his brother — The beloved disciple; who were also called at the same time with the two former, as they were fishing at the sea of Galilee, Mark 1:19. The word Iakwbov, which we translate James, is the same name with that of the patriarch; but immemorial custom has appropriated, in our language, the name James to the two apostles, and Jacob to the patriarch. Lebbeus, who was also called Judas, or Jude, the brother of James. Simon the Canaanite — So called, it seems, because he was a native of Cana. And Judas, named Iscariot, from Iscarioth, the place of his birth, a town of the tribe of Ephraim, near the city of Samaria.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 2-4. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. In Hebrew, shallokim, messengers. Our Gothic and Saxon ancestors, having no names of office which answer to those in the gospel, called the apostles “knights,” and afterwards “thanes.” But thane implied dignity, added to knighthood, being often connected with lieutenancy over a county, or a district, for the king. The Romans sometimes called them “legates.”
The first, SIMON, surnamed Peter, after his glorious confession of faith. Matthew 16:18. See the Introduction to his first epistle. The second, ANDREW, Peter’s brother. The name is Greek, and designates a man by way of eminence, distinguished for wisdom and virtue. The third, JAMES, son of Zebedee, to distinguish him from James the son of Alpheus. He was the first of the twelve that received the crown of martyrdom, being beheaded with the sword by the command of Herod Antipas, the third of that name. Acts 12:2.
The fourth, JOHN, the beloved disciple.
The fifth, PHILIP, or Philippus, as in Latin; another gentile name, denoting a lover of horses. The jews we find had adopted many heathen names. The sixth, BARTHOLOMEW, that is, Bar Talmai, the son of Talmai, or the son of him who suspended the waters. Bartholomew carried the gospel to the Indians, where report says he suffered martyrdom. Bartholomew, in this list, falls in exactly as Nathaniel does in the first of John; hence the two names are thought by many to belong to the same person. The seventh, THOMAS, surnamed Didymus. Baronius says that he travelled to India, where he suffered martyrdom.
The eighth, MATTHEW, whom Mark puts the seventh, but through modesty he puts Thomas as his senior.
The ninth, JAMES, son of Alpheus, often called James the less. He was thrown from a battlement of the temple, and his brains beaten out with a club, by the command of Ananias the highpriest. Joseph. Antiq. book 20. chap. 8. See the Introduction to his epistle.
The tenth, LEBBEUS, surnamed Thaddeus in the Syriac, the better to distinguish him from Judas the traitor, Jude being his first name. The eleventh, SIMON the Canaanite, or Cananæus, because some say he was a native of Cana in Galilee. But Grotius derives it from the Hebrew surname, anq, which Luke properly renders Zelwthv, Zelotes, because of his zeal and piety.
The twelfth, JUDAS, surnamed Iscariot, that is, traitor, after he had betrayed the Lord. We find the like surnames among heathen writers.
Daniel Whedon
4 John, his brother. Andrew. John. Andrew.
Richard Watson
Verse 4. Simon the Canaanite. — From the Hebrew anq, zeal, whence St. Luke calls him, by interpretation, “Simon Zelotes;” a name given to him, as some thought, for his zeal and piety, but others, from his having belonged to a sect called Zealots, because of their zeal for the law, and their instant execution of it, without waiting for authority. — This was called “the judgment of zeal.” — But it is doubtful whether this sect appeared so long before the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, when their fanatical zeal is specially recorded by Josephus. Certainly he was not a Canaanite, in the sense of being a descendant of Canaan.
Judas Iscariot. — The town of Carioth, in Judah, is the most probable derivation of the cognomen of the traitor.
Men more influential for their rank, and more eminent for learning, our Lord might have called. Centurions and rulers of synagogues had believed on him, and Nicodemus, a Jewish doctor, at an early period, became his disciple; but the whole work was to be manifestly of God, and it was to be demonstrated as much above the reach of human wisdom to plan, as of human influence to promote. “Plain integrity,” says one very justly, “and honest simplicity, were the qualifications which Christ sought; and he found them more easily in the fishing vessels of the sea of Galilee, than in the banqueting rooms or splendid houses on the shore.” In fact, all that was in the first instance wanted was men of character, to state facts; men of simplicity, to report the doctrines they had been taught, and as they had been delivered to them; and men of holy courage, willing to suffer and to die for the truth. When languages were wanted, they received them by special gift; and when they were called to dispute, “a mouth and wisdom” were given to them for the occasion. Thus they were kept immediately dependent upon their Master, even after he had ascended to heaven, unbiassed by the speculative taste which all the learning of that day tended to form; and they were thereby the fitter channels through which to convey the water of life in the same purity with which it had issued from the FOUNTAIN itself. One, indeed, and but one, proved false; but, happily for the world, he betrayed his Master before he could betray his cause, to the establishment of which his treachery was made signally subservient.
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
John Wesley
V. 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth-Herein exercising his supreme authority, as God over all. None but God can give men authority to preach his word.
Go not-Their commission was thus confined now, because the calling of the Gentiles was deferred till after the more plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost.
Enter not-Not to preach; but they might to buy what they wanted, John 4:9.
Adam Clarke
Verse 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded] To be properly qualified for a minister of Christ, a man must be, 1. filled with the spirit of holiness; 2. called to this particular work; 3. instructed in its nature, &c.; and, 4. commissioned to go forth, and testify the Gospel of the grace of God. These are four different gifts which a man must receive from God by Christ Jesus. To these let him add all the human qualifications he can possibly attain; as in his arduous work he will require every gift and every grace.
Go not into the way of the Gentiles] Our Lord only intended that the first offers of salvation should be made to the Jewish people; and that the heathen should not be noticed in this first mission, that no stumbling-block might be cast in the way of the Jews.
Into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not] The Samaritans had afterwards the Gospel preached to them by Christ himself, John 4:4, &c., for the reason assigned above. Such as God seems at first to pass by are often those for whom he has designed his greatest benefits, (witness the Samaritans, and the Gentiles in general,) but he has his own proper time to discover and reveal them.
The history of the Samaritans is sufficiently known from the Old Testament. Properly speaking, the inhabitants of the city of Samaria should be termed Samaritans; but this epithet belongs chiefly to the people sent into that part of the promised land by Salmanezer, king of Assyria, in the year of the world 3283, when he carried the Israelites that dwelt there captives beyond the Euphrates, and sent a mixed people, principally Cuthites, to dwell in their place. These were altogether heathens at first; but they afterwards incorporated the worship of the true God with that of their idols. See the whole account, 2 Kings 17:5, &c. From this time they feared Jehovah, and served other gods till after the Babylonish captivity. From Alexander the Great, Sanballat, their governor, obtained permission to build a temple upon Mount Gerizim, which the Jews conceiving to be in opposition to their temple at Jerusalem, hated them with a perfect hatred, and would have no fellowship with them. The Samaritans acknowledge the Divine authority of the law of Moses, and carefully preserve it in their own characters, which are probably the genuine ancient Hebrew; the character which is now called Hebrew being that of the Chaldeans. The Samaritan Pentateuch is printed in the London Polyglott, and is an undeniable record. A poor remnant of this people is found still at Naplouse, the ancient Shechem; but they exist in a state of very great poverty and distress, and probably will soon become extinct.
Joseph Benson
Verses 5, 6. These twelve Jesus sent forth — Namely, to preach the gospel and to work miracles; exercising therein his supreme authority over his Church. And commanded, Go not into the way of the Gentiles — That is, into their country. Their commission was thus confined now, because the calling of the Gentiles was deferred till after the more plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost. And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not — In travelling through Palestine the apostles would often have occasion to go into Samaria; but they were not to enter the cities thereof with a design to preach. It is true, in the beginning of his ministry, our Lord himself preached to the Samaritans with great success, John 4:41, 42; and therefore, had he sent his apostles among them, numbers, in all probability, would have been induced to believe; but the inveterate enmity which the Jews bore to the Samaritans made the conversion of the latter improper at this time, as it would have laid a great stumbling-block in the way of the conversion of the Jews: as preaching now to the Gentiles would also have done. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel — He calls the Jews lost sheep, because, as he had told his disciples, Matthew 9:36, they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd, and so were in danger of perishing. See Isaiah 49.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 5. Go not into the way of the gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; for that would have obstructed their admission into the synagogues. The jews would regard them as unclean. Besides, the jews having the promises, had the first claims. For the present, the lost sheep of the house of Israel afforded them an ample sphere; he who attempts too much does nothing well. To this caution St. Paul agrees, it being meet that the jews should first hear the word of life. Acts 13:46.
Daniel Whedon
5 Philip. Philip Philip. Philip.
Richard Watson
Verse 5. Way of the Gentiles, &c. — That the apostles on this mission were forbidden to go to Gentile nations or among the Samaritans, in deference to the, prejudices of the Jews, or in the least degree to give sanction to their notions of superiority over the heathens or semi-heathens, with whom they were surrounded, is a very unfounded notion, and is wholly inconsistent with that spirit of charity and kindness to the whole world which so often breaks forth in the discourses of our Lord himself. This mission of the twelve, as appears by the foregoing chapter, proceeded from Christ’s deeply excited compassion for the neglected and perishing condition of the Jewish people; so that their degradation and misery, not their fancied superiority, were implied in it. Christ, indeed, was sent first and principally to the Jews, and so were his apostles; and the reason was obvious. — Christianity was to be built upon the foundation of the Old Testament, as the same dispensation perfected. No other people had been placed in such a course of training to receive it; and either the Jews, who held the prophecies of this new dispensation, and certain principles common both to the new and to the old, must be convinced of the truth of Christ’s claims and doctrines, or be reasonably silenced by appeals to what they held sacred, before Christianity could be proposed to any distant nation with hope of success. The kind affection of our Lord to his country — for among his other illustrious human virtues he has shown us what a pure and ardent patriotism really is — would impel him to seek first the salvation of his own people; but the design was higher than this. The Gospel system had been yet but imperfectly announced, and indeed was incomplete as wanting the facts of the great sacrifice, the resurrection, the ascension, and the priesthood of its Founder, by all which, many important prophecies were yet to be accomplished; and the time, therefore, was not come for its being propounded to Gentile nations, who did not admit the preliminary and preparatory dispensation of the Old Testament. Yet before Christianity received its perfect form, and was stamped by the hand of its Divine Author with its final seal, an opportunity for effecting great good presented itself among the Jews. John the Baptist had, by his preaching, produced a great impression upon the people, and led them to expect the immediate appearance of Messiah: now, the office of the apostles, to be sent forth in different directions, was to declare that Jesus was that Messiah; to work miracles in his name, in order to prove it: to relate his mighty works; and, no doubt, to repeat his sayings and discourses; thus calling forth prayer, and incipient faith, and, spiritual desires, and disposing many at least to receive the Gospel when it should, in its complete form and its fulness of evidence, be proposed to them; for the subject of their preaching was to be, “The kingdom, of heaven is at hand.” Great immediate good was to be done, and the seed of a large future harvest was sown. Nor are we to understand the prohibition of our Lord so strictly as to suppose that the Gentiles who mingled with the Jews, many of whom were either proselytes or well affected to many truths in the Jewish religion, or that the Samaritans they might meet with, were to be wholly neglected. Christ himself did not despise this class of men, though he too was sent, as he sent his apostles, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” that is, chiefly and principally. “The WAY of the Gentiles” means the road leading to the Gentile nations; therefore they were not to go to the Gentiles as nations; and into any CITY of the Samaritans they were not to enter, that is, to fulfil their mission. These were to be visited in the fulness of time. But many individual Gentiles in Judea were as well prepared, by their previous knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures, to receive benefit from their mission as the Jews, and probably many individual Samaritans also, as their Master himself had found.
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Adam Clarke
Verse 6. But go rather to the lost sheep, &c.] The Jewish Church was the ancient fold of God; but the sheep had wandered from their Shepherd, and were lost. Our blessed Lord sends these under-shepherds to seek, find, and bring them back to the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls.
Joseph Benson
Verses 5, 6. These twelve Jesus sent forth — Namely, to preach the gospel and to work miracles; exercising therein his supreme authority over his Church. And commanded, Go not into the way of the Gentiles — That is, into their country. Their commission was thus confined now, because the calling of the Gentiles was deferred till after the more plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost. And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not — In travelling through Palestine the apostles would often have occasion to go into Samaria; but they were not to enter the cities thereof with a design to preach. It is true, in the beginning of his ministry, our Lord himself preached to the Samaritans with great success, John 4:41, 42; and therefore, had he sent his apostles among them, numbers, in all probability, would have been induced to believe; but the inveterate enmity which the Jews bore to the Samaritans made the conversion of the latter improper at this time, as it would have laid a great stumbling-block in the way of the conversion of the Jews: as preaching now to the Gentiles would also have done. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel — He calls the Jews lost sheep, because, as he had told his disciples, Matthew 9:36, they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd, and so were in danger of perishing. See Isaiah 49.
Daniel Whedon
6 Bartholomew. Bartholomew. Bartholomew. Thomas.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Adam Clarke
Verse 7. And as ye go, preach] poreuomenoi de khrussete, and as you proceed, proclaim like heralds-make this proclamation wherever ye go, and while ye are journeying. Preach and travel; and, as ye travel, preach-proclaim salvation to all you meet. Wherever the ministers of Christ go, they find lost, ruined souls; and, wherever they find them, they should proclaim Jesus, and his power to save. For an explanation of the word proclaim or preach, see Clarke on “Matthew 3:1”. From this commission we learn what the grand subject of apostolic preaching was-THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND! This was the great message. “They preached,” says Quesnel, “to establish the faith; the kingdom, to animate the hope; of heaven, to inspire the love of heavenly things, and the contempt of earthly; which is at hand, that men may prepare for it without delay.”
Joseph Benson
Verses 7, 8. And as ye go, preach — Khrussete, proclaim, namely, with ardour and zeal, as becomes my heralds. The word is derived from khrux, a herald. “Probably,” says Doddridge, “they were to make this proclamation with a loud voice, as they passed through the streets of the towns they went to, as Jonah delivered his message to Nineveh.” The kingdom of heaven is at hand — Hggiken, hath approached. Publish everywhere the glad tidings of the approach of the Messiah’s kingdom, promised by the prophets. Properly speaking, the kingdom of heaven, or gospel kingdom, did not begin till the Jewish dispensation was abolished, and therefore the apostles, in our Lord’s time, and even our Lord himself, preached the approach only, and not the actual existence of that kingdom. But though the apostles were directed to preach the approach of this kingdom, they did not yet fully understand its nature, that it was not to be a temporal, but a spiritual kingdom, consisting in the dominion of truth and grace, of righteousness, peace, and joy within men. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, &c. — Perform all these miraculous cures in confirmation of your mission, to prove to men the certain truth and unspeakable importance of your message. Freely ye have received — All things; in particular the power of working miracles: freely give — Exert that power wherever you come, and that in a manner honourable to yourselves and me: scorn the thought of making any gain of those for whom these works of mercy and power are performed. That this clause relates to the miraculous cures which the apostles were empowered to perform, and not to the stated offices of the apostolical function, is evident from Luke 10:7, where our Lord, in giving a like commission to the seventy, bid them eat and drink what was set before them, “because the labourer was worthy of his hire.” Nay, in this very charge, no sooner did he order the apostles to give freely, than he forbade them to provide gold, &c., because the labourer, says he, is worthy of his meat, plainly insinuating that while they were preaching the gospel, they had a right to a maintenance from those who enjoyed the benefit of their labours, and should in the course of the divine providence be supplied with all things necessary.
Daniel Whedon
7 Thomas. Matthew. Matthew. Bartholomew.
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
John Wesley
V. 8. Cast out devils-It is a great relief to the spirits of an infidel, sinking under a dread, that possibly the Gospel may be true, to find it observed by a learned brother, that the diseases therein ascribed to the operation of the devil have the very same symptoms with the natural diseases of lunacy, epilepsy, or convulsions; whence he readily and very willingly concludes, that the devil had no hand in them.
But it were well to stop and consider a little. Suppose God should suffer an evil spirit to usurp the same power over a man's body, as the man himself has naturally; and suppose him actually to exercise that power; could we conclude the devil had no hand therein, because his body was bent in the very same manner wherein the man himself might have bent it naturally? And suppose God gives an evil spirit a greater power, to effect immediately the organ of the nerves in the brain, by irritating them to produce violent motions, or so relaxing them that they can produce little or no motion; still the symptoms will be those of over tense nerves, as in madness, epilepsies, convulsions; or of relaxed nerves, as in paralytic cases. But could we conclude thence that the devil had no hand in them? Will any man affirm that God cannot or will not, on any occasion whatever, give such a power to an evil spirit? Or that effects, the like of which may be produced by natural causes, cannot possibly be produced by preternatural? If this be possible, then he who affirms it was so, in any particular case, cannot be justly charged with falsehood, merely for affirming the reality of a possible thing. Yet in this manner are the evangelists treated by those unhappy men, who above all things dread the truth of the Gospel, because, if it is true, they are of all men the most miserable.
Freely ye have received-All things; in particular the power of working miracles; freely give-Exert that power wherever you come. Mark 6:7; Luke 9:2.
Adam Clarke
Verse 8. Raise the dead] This is wanting in the MSS. marked EKLMS of Griesbach, and in those marked BHV of Mathai, and in upwards of one hundred others. It is also wanting in the Syriac, (Vienna edition,) latter Persic, Sahidic, Armenian, Sclavonic, and in one copy of the Itala; also in Athanasius, Basil, and Chrysostom. There is no evidence that the disciples raised any dead person previously to the resurrection of Christ. The words should certainly be omitted, unless we could suppose that the authority now given respected not only their present mission, but comprehended also their future conduct. But that our blessed Lord did not give this power to his disciples at this time, is, I think, pretty evident from Matthew 10:1, and from Luke 9:6, 10; Luke 10:19, 20, where, if any such power had been given, or exercised, it would doubtless have been mentioned. Wetstein has rejected it, and so did Griesbach in his first edition; but in the second (1796) he has left it in the text, with a note of doubtfulness. Freely ye have received, freely give.] A rule very necessary, and of great extent. A minister or labourer in the Gospel vineyard, though worthy of his comfortable support while in the work, should never preach for hire, or make a secular traffic of a spiritual work. What a scandal is it for a man to traffic with gifts which he pretends, at least, to have received from the Holy Ghost, of which he is not the master, but the dispenser. He who preaches to get a living, or to make a fortune, is guilty of the most infamous sacrilege.
Joseph Benson
Verses 7, 8. And as ye go, preach — Khrussete, proclaim, namely, with ardour and zeal, as becomes my heralds. The word is derived from khrux, a herald. “Probably,” says Doddridge, “they were to make this proclamation with a loud voice, as they passed through the streets of the towns they went to, as Jonah delivered his message to Nineveh.” The kingdom of heaven is at hand — Hggiken, hath approached. Publish everywhere the glad tidings of the approach of the Messiah’s kingdom, promised by the prophets. Properly speaking, the kingdom of heaven, or gospel kingdom, did not begin till the Jewish dispensation was abolished, and therefore the apostles, in our Lord’s time, and even our Lord himself, preached the approach only, and not the actual existence of that kingdom. But though the apostles were directed to preach the approach of this kingdom, they did not yet fully understand its nature, that it was not to be a temporal, but a spiritual kingdom, consisting in the dominion of truth and grace, of righteousness, peace, and joy within men. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, &c. — Perform all these miraculous cures in confirmation of your mission, to prove to men the certain truth and unspeakable importance of your message. Freely ye have received — All things; in particular the power of working miracles: freely give — Exert that power wherever you come, and that in a manner honourable to yourselves and me: scorn the thought of making any gain of those for whom these works of mercy and power are performed. That this clause relates to the miraculous cures which the apostles were empowered to perform, and not to the stated offices of the apostolical function, is evident from Luke 10:7, where our Lord, in giving a like commission to the seventy, bid them eat and drink what was set before them, “because the labourer was worthy of his hire.” Nay, in this very charge, no sooner did he order the apostles to give freely, than he forbade them to provide gold, &c., because the labourer, says he, is worthy of his meat, plainly insinuating that while they were preaching the gospel, they had a right to a maintenance from those who enjoyed the benefit of their labours, and should in the course of the divine providence be supplied with all things necessary.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 8. Heal the sick. Confirm your mission and doctrine by those divine and gracious works which shall command assent, till men can more leisurely search the scriptures, and examine the superior grace and glory of the new covenant.
Daniel Whedon
8 Matthew. Thomas. Thomas. Matthew.
Richard Watson
Verse 8. Raise the dead. — Because we have no account of the apostles raising the dead before the ascension of Christ, it has been contended that these words have been interpolated; in favour of which, it is pleaded that they are not found in several MSS. and versions. They are, however, found in the Vulgate, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, and in the Cambr. and Alex. MSS., and in several of the fathers; nor for such an interpolation can any good reason be conjectured. The allegation that the twelve apostles, during this their first mission, raised no dead to life, or it is thought the fact would have been mentioned, proves nothing; for neither do we read that they “cleansed any lepers, and yet that power is expressly committed to them. It may, however, be granted that they did not, at that time, raise any dead to life; yet to argue from this against the clause in the text entirely overlooks one of the main circumstances connected with the exercise of these powers; that they were not to be wielded at the judgment and discretion of man. The occasions for their exercise were presented to them by a special providence, and the powers were to be exercised on consideration, prayer, and looking up to God for intimations of his will. It could never be intended that they should raise all the dead to life, whom they might meet on their journey, carried out for burial. Our Lord did not thus use his power, as they well knew; but that when it should seem to be for the glory of God, and when they were under the impulse of that superior power by which alone the attempt could be effectual. No such occasions might or probably did occur on this journey; but that power was with them which was adequate to the case, had the wisdom of God so appointed; and it continued with them through their whole apostolic life, but still subject to be exerted only under special impulses. It is farther to be observed, that the discourse is not to be considered as applicable only to their first limited apostolical journey, although that was the occasion which called it forth. See note on verse 17.
Freely ye have received, &c. — They were to receive no money, no compensation, but the bare support afforded by a free hospitality; although, when they healed diseases, the gratitude of many might offer them considerable gifts. They were to be decently supported in their work; and this was to be the standing rule of future times as to ministers, and its limit; but whether this support was to be given in kind or money, circumstances may determine. The intention of the rule is to prohibit making a gain of godliness, and to prevent the ministry from being regarded as a lucrative profession. They were therefore to go forth in full dependence upon Providence, and, under that, the good will of well disposed men. No money was to be taken in their purses, eiv tav zwnav}}, girdles, which the orientals and even Romans used as purses. Nor were they to take a scrip, phra, the bag in which travellers carried provisions from stage to stage; nor two coats, citwn, vests or tunics; nor shoes, upodhmata, which some distinguish from sandals. They were, however, originally the same, although, in a later age, the shoe was a covering for the whole foot, as distinguished from sandalion, which defended only the sole. The meaning certainly was, not that they should go barefoot, as some have understood it, any more than that they should go without coats; but that they should not take two pair of sandals, as they were not to take two coats, nor yet staves. St. Mark says, “save a staff only,” which shows that one was permitted. Two staves were therefore prohibited, as two coats and two pair of sandals: should, therefore, their staff be broken or lost, they were to look to the kindness of those to whom they preached to furnish them with this part of the necessary equipment of an eastern traveller, as well as for a supply of sandals and coats when needed; so absolute was to be their trust in God, so free were they to keep themselves from those anxieties which superfluity always brings with it; and yet such care was taken to remind the people of the duty of a liberal hospitality to guests sent by such a Master and on such an errand, that they might want nothing necessary to health and comfort, when it was seen that their necessities called for supplies; for, adds our Lord, the labourer is worthy of his meat, thv trofhv, of his maintenance, including here all necessaries, but not money. — Michaelis, who holds that Matthew’s gospel was first written in Hebrew, conjectures, that before the words shoes and staves, stood ala, “except only;” it would then be read, that the disciples were to take nothing with them but shoes and staves; but the sense does not require this conjectural amendment; and the notion of a Hebrew original is exceedingly doubtful. See the introduction.
Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
John Wesley
V. 9. Provide not-The stress seems to lie on this word: they might use what they had ready; but they might not stay a moment to provide any thing more, neither take any thought about it. Nor indeed were they to take any thing with them, more than was strictly necessary. 1. Lest it should retard them. 2. Because they were to learn hereby to trust to God in all future exigencies.
Adam Clarke
Verse 9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses] eiv tav xwnav umwn, in your GIRDLES. It is supposed that the people of the east carry their money in a fold of their girdles. This is scarcely correct: they carry it in a purse in their bosom, under their girdles. This I have often observed.
In a thousand instances an apostolic preacher, who goes to the wilderness to seek the lost sheep, will be exposed to hunger and cold, and other inconveniences; he must therefore resign himself to God, depending on his providence for the necessaries of life. If God have sent him, he is bound to support him, and will do it: anxiety therefore, in him, is a double crime, as it insinuates a bad opinion of the Master who has employed him. Every missionary should make himself master of this subject.
Have no money in your purse, is a command, obedience to which was secured by the narrow circumstances of most of the primitive genuine preachers of the Gospel. Whole herds of friars mendicants have professed the same principle, and abandoned themselves to voluntary poverty; but if the money be in the heart it is a worse evil. In the former case, it may be a temptation to sin; in the latter, it must be ruinous.
Joseph Benson
Verses 9, 10. Provide neither gold — As if he said, Though I forbid you to take money for the miraculous cures which you shall perform, I do not mean that you should beforehand lay up money for your support during your journey. You are not even to provide the clothes and shoes which you may have occasion for before you return; because you shall be supplied with whatever you need by those to whom you preach the gospel. Our Lord forbade his disciples to provide beforehand such things as might be necessary during their journey, because they would be an encumbrance and would incommode them in travelling. He probably also ordered them to go out thus unfurnished, partly that they might be inured, in his own lifetime, to bear the hardships they would be exposed to afterward, when discharging the apostolical office; and partly that their faith in the providence of God might be confirmed. For it must have afforded them great comfort ever after, to reflect on the singular care that was taken of them while out on their first mission, wholly unprepared to execute such an undertaking. Accordingly this was the use which Christ himself directed them to make of it, Luke 22:35. It may not be improper to observe here, that the word zwnaiv, here rendered purses, properly means girdles: because the people in the East had a custom of carrying their money in a kind of fob-pocket, or fold, made in the duplicate of their girdles. The word thra, rendered scrip, was a sort of large bag, in which shepherds and those who journeyed carried their provisions. Thus the bag into which David put the smooth stones wherewith he smote Goliah, is called both a scrip and a shepherd’s bag. Our Lord, in saying, Neither two coats nor shoes, means that they were only to take one coat and one pair of shoes, that is, only the articles of raiment which they were wearing. “In the account which Mark gives of the repetition of these instructions, immediately before the disciples took their journey, he says, they were permitted to be shod with sandals; (all’ upodedemenouv sandalia, 6:9.) The sandal was a piece of strong leather or wood fastened to the sole of the foot with strings, which they tied round the foot and ankle; but the shoe was a kind of short boot, that covered the foot and part of the leg, and was a more delicate piece of dress than the sandal.” — Macknight. Nor yet staves — Though in the margin we read, Gr. a staff, which is the common reading, many manuscripts and versions have rabdouv, staves, which some think reconciles this place with Luke 9:3; and removes the seeming contradiction from Mark 6:8, where we read, Take nothing save a staff only; that is, as they explain it, he that had a staff might take it to walk with: but none of them were to take any sort of rod or staff besides, wherewith to defend themselves, because, being the servants of the Lord, they were to be defended by his power as well as supported by his bounty. But the more probable solution of the difficulty seems to be, any one of them that had a staff in his hand, might take it: but as for those who were walking without staves, they were not to provide them.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses. The ancients wore belts or girdles round their flowing robes; and in those zwnav, zones or belts, they carried their money. Nearly all the critics pause at this restriction, the former times being dissimilar to the modern. There were then synagogues and devout persons like Gaius and Lydia, who received the servants of the Lord. But who now can trust the Lord for bread? We are now forced to send out missionaries at great expense, there being no synagogues to take them in. We pray for native preachers to be raised up in India, and in Africa, who shall go out on the primitive plan, in the spirit of Elijah, and of the holy apostles, and illuminate the dark recesses of the earth with the light of the knowledge of the Lord.
Daniel Whedon
9 James, son of Alpheus. James. James. James.
Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
John Wesley
V. 10. Neither scrip-That is, a wallet, or bag to hold provisions: Nor yet a staff-We read, Mark 6:8, Take nothing, save a staff only. He that had one might take it; they that had none, might not provide any. For the workman is worthy of his maintenance-The word includes all that is mentioned in the 9th and 10th verses; Matthew 10:9,10 all that they were forbidden to provide for themselves, so far as it was needful for them. Luke 10:7.
Adam Clarke
Verse 10. Nor scrip for your journey] To carry provisions. This was called lymrwt tormil, by the rabbins; it was a leathern pouch hung about their necks, in which they put their victuals. This was properly, the shepherd’s bag.
Neither two coats, &c.] Nothing to encumber you.
Nor yet staves] rabdon, a staff, as in the margin, but, instead of rabdon, staff, which is the common reading, all the following MSS. and versions have rabdouv, staves, and CEFGKLMPS. V. ninety-three others, Coptic, Armenian, latter Syriac, one of the Itala, Chrysostom, and Theophylact. This reading is of great importance, as it reconciles this place with Luke 9:3, and removes the seeming contradiction from Mark 6:8; as if he had said: “Ye shall take nothing to defend yourselves with, because ye are the servants of the Lord, and are to be supported by his bounty, and defended by his power. In a word, be like men in haste, and eager to begin the important work of the ministry. The sheep are lost-ruined: Satan is devouring them: give all diligence to pluck them out of the jaws of the destroyer.”
The workman is worthy of his meat.] thv trofhv autou, of his maintenance. It is a maintenance, and that only, which a minister of God is to expect, and that he has a Divine right to; but not to make a fortune, or lay up wealth: besides, it is the workman, he that labours in the word and doctrine, that is to get even this. How contrary to Christ is it for a man to have vast revenues, as a minister of the Gospel, who ministers no Gospel, and who spends the revenues of the Church to its disgrace and ruin!
Joseph Benson
Verses 9, 10. Provide neither gold — As if he said, Though I forbid you to take money for the miraculous cures which you shall perform, I do not mean that you should beforehand lay up money for your support during your journey. You are not even to provide the clothes and shoes which you may have occasion for before you return; because you shall be supplied with whatever you need by those to whom you preach the gospel. Our Lord forbade his disciples to provide beforehand such things as might be necessary during their journey, because they would be an encumbrance and would incommode them in travelling. He probably also ordered them to go out thus unfurnished, partly that they might be inured, in his own lifetime, to bear the hardships they would be exposed to afterward, when discharging the apostolical office; and partly that their faith in the providence of God might be confirmed. For it must have afforded them great comfort ever after, to reflect on the singular care that was taken of them while out on their first mission, wholly unprepared to execute such an undertaking. Accordingly this was the use which Christ himself directed them to make of it, Luke 22:35. It may not be improper to observe here, that the word zwnaiv, here rendered purses, properly means girdles: because the people in the East had a custom of carrying their money in a kind of fob-pocket, or fold, made in the duplicate of their girdles. The word thra, rendered scrip, was a sort of large bag, in which shepherds and those who journeyed carried their provisions. Thus the bag into which David put the smooth stones wherewith he smote Goliah, is called both a scrip and a shepherd’s bag. Our Lord, in saying, Neither two coats nor shoes, means that they were only to take one coat and one pair of shoes, that is, only the articles of raiment which they were wearing. “In the account which Mark gives of the repetition of these instructions, immediately before the disciples took their journey, he says, they were permitted to be shod with sandals; (all’ upodedemenouv sandalia, 6:9.) The sandal was a piece of strong leather or wood fastened to the sole of the foot with strings, which they tied round the foot and ankle; but the shoe was a kind of short boot, that covered the foot and part of the leg, and was a more delicate piece of dress than the sandal.” — Macknight. Nor yet staves — Though in the margin we read, Gr. a staff, which is the common reading, many manuscripts and versions have rabdouv, staves, which some think reconciles this place with Luke 9:3; and removes the seeming contradiction from Mark 6:8, where we read, Take nothing save a staff only; that is, as they explain it, he that had a staff might take it to walk with: but none of them were to take any sort of rod or staff besides, wherewith to defend themselves, because, being the servants of the Lord, they were to be defended by his power as well as supported by his bounty. But the more probable solution of the difficulty seems to be, any one of them that had a staff in his hand, might take it: but as for those who were walking without staves, they were not to provide them.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 10. Neither two coats. Two tunics, or upper-coats, as they would encumber the messengers on their journies; for the king’s business requires haste. Ministers of the heavenly world should not be encumbered with earth.
Daniel Whedon
10 Lebbeus, Thaddeus. Thaddeus. Simon Zelotes. Simon Zelotes.
And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
John Wesley
V. 11. Inquire who is worthy-That you should abide with him: who is disposed to receive the Gospel.
There abide-In that house, till ye leave the town. Mark 6:10; Luke 9:4.
Adam Clarke
Verse 11. Into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter] In the commencement of Christianity, Christ and his preachers were all itinerant. Inquire who in it is worthy] That is, of a good character; for a preacher of the Gospel should be careful of his reputation, and lodge only with those who are of a regular life.
There abide till ye go thence.] Go not about from house to house, Luke 10:7. Acting contrary to this precept has often brought a great disgrace on the Gospel of God. Stay in your own lodging as much as possible, that you may have time for prayer and study. Seldom frequent the tables of the rich and great; if you do, it will unavoidably prove a snare to you. The unction of God will perish from your mind, and your preaching be only a dry barren repetition of old things; the bread of God in your hands will be like the dry, mouldy, Gibeonitish crusts, mentioned Joshua 9:5. He who knows the value of time, and will redeem it from useless chit-chat, and trifling visits, will find enough for all the purposes of his own salvation, the cultivation of his mind, and the work of the ministry. He to whom time is not precious, and who lives not by rule, never finds time sufficient for any thing-is always embarrassed-always in a hurry, and never capable of bringing one good purpose to proper effect.
Joseph Benson
Verses 11-13. Into whatsoever city, &c., ye shall enter, inquire who is worthy — That you should abide with him, that is, who is of a good character, and disposed to receive the gospel. And there abide — In that house, till ye leave the town. It is of much consequence that a preacher of the gospel should not endanger his reputation, by taking up his lodging in a disreputable family, or by removing from one family to another, out of regard to some little matter of domestic convenience or entertainment. This is more fully expressed in the instructions to the seventy, Luke 10:7. “In the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: go not from house to house.” Doubtless the disciples on some occasions might change their quarters with decency; but our Lord absolutely forbade them to do it for the sake of better entertainment or accommodation, that they might not give mankind the least cause of imagining that they served their bellies, or were particularly solicitous about conveniences. When ye come into a house, salute it — In the usual Jewish form, “Peace, (that is, all blessings,) be to this house.” If the house be worthy — Of it, God shall give them the peace you wish them. If not, he shall give you what they refuse. The same will be the case when we pray for them that are not worthy.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 11. Enquire who in it is worthy. Who is of good report, and whose door sometimes opens to religious men. The rulers of the synagogues generally received public charities. To go to a bad man’s house would give an ill savour to the cause. The blessings of peace resting on that house, and comprising all covenant mercies, will be a full reward for the favours of hospitality. God still blesses the house of Obed-Edom because of the ark, and the descendants of that family shall also be blessed. See Isaiah 44:3. The workman in the harvest day is worthy of his meat.
Daniel Whedon
11 Simon, the Canaanite. Simon. Judas, bro. of James.
Judas, bro. of
James.
Richard Watson
Verse 11. Worthy. — Not PIOUS, as some suppose; for of whom were the apostles to obtain their information, but from those they might casually meet, persons who would generally direct them to the highest professors of the piety most popular in that day; the ostentatious Pharisees, who were the most likely persons to reject them? But by the “worthy,” are probably meant liberal and bountiful persons, well known for practising hospitality to strangers: which was generally a good indication of moral worth, though not an infallible one; and our Lord prepares them for disappointment in some instances, even from persons who had this good report. There abide. — They were not to go from house to house through fickleness of temper, or show that they could not bear with the infirmities of those by whom they were entertained, should they be exercised with this trial of meekness; or that they were discontented with the accommodations afforded them. If, upon the whole, their entertainers were willing to receive them, and out of respect to their message, they were to show themselves indifferent to all inferior considerations, and to practise humility, patience, and self-denial.
And when ye come into an house, salute it.
John Wesley
V. 12. Salute it-In the usual Jewish form, "Peace (that is, all blessings) be to this house."
Adam Clarke
Verse 12. Salute it] legoutev eirhnh en tw oikw toutw, saying, “Peace be to this house.” This clause, which, as explanatory of the word aspasasqe, is necessary to the connection in which it now stands, is added, by the MSS. D and L, and forty-three others, the Armenian, Ethiopic, Slavonic, Saxon, Vulgate, all the copies of the old Itala, Theophylact, and Hilary. The clause is also found in several modern versions. The modern Greek has legontev, eirhnh eiv to skhpri touto. The Italian, by Matthew, of Erberg, and of Diodati, renders it thus: Pace sia a questa casa. Peace be to this house.
It is found also in Wickliff, and in my old MS. Seyinge, pees be to this hous. Some suppose it is an addition taken from Luke; but there is nearly as much reason to believe he took it from Matthew.
Peace, שלום, among the Hebrews, had a very extensive meaning:-it comprehended all blessings, spiritual and temporal. Hence that saying of the rabbins, wb twlwlk twkrbh lkv שלום lwdg Gadal shalom, shecol haberacoth culoloth bo. Great is PEACE, for all other blessings are comprehended in it. To wish peace to a family, in the name and by the authority of Christ, was in effect a positive promise, on the Lord’s side, of all the good implied in the wish. This was paying largely even beforehand. Whoever receives the messengers of God into his house confers the highest honour upon himself, and not upon the preacher, whose honour is from God, and who comes with the blessings of life eternal to that man and his family who receives him.
In India, it is customary for a way-faring man, when night draws on, to enter a house, and simply say, “Sir, I am a guest with you this night.” If the owner cannot lodge him, he makes an apology, and the traveller proceeds to another house.
Joseph Benson
Verses 11-13. Into whatsoever city, &c., ye shall enter, inquire who is worthy — That you should abide with him, that is, who is of a good character, and disposed to receive the gospel. And there abide — In that house, till ye leave the town. It is of much consequence that a preacher of the gospel should not endanger his reputation, by taking up his lodging in a disreputable family, or by removing from one family to another, out of regard to some little matter of domestic convenience or entertainment. This is more fully expressed in the instructions to the seventy, Luke 10:7. “In the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: go not from house to house.” Doubtless the disciples on some occasions might change their quarters with decency; but our Lord absolutely forbade them to do it for the sake of better entertainment or accommodation, that they might not give mankind the least cause of imagining that they served their bellies, or were particularly solicitous about conveniences. When ye come into a house, salute it — In the usual Jewish form, “Peace, (that is, all blessings,) be to this house.” If the house be worthy — Of it, God shall give them the peace you wish them. If not, he shall give you what they refuse. The same will be the case when we pray for them that are not worthy.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 12, 13. When ye come into a house, salute it. Erasmus says that some old copies of the Greek had the adjection, “peace be to this house;” and that other copies had the words in the margin. The next words, And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it, indicate that the sense is incomplete without it. This, Erasmus adds, is the old Hebrew salutation, shalom lecho, peace be to thee. If this salutation were received with an open countenance, the disciple would know that the Son, the prince of peace, was there.
Daniel Whedon
12 Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot — —
2. First, Simon, who is called Peter — Peter was a native of Bethsaida, in Galilee, and was the son of a certain Jonas, whence he is named on one occasion in the Gospel history Simon Bar-jona, that is, son of Jona, (Matthew 16:17.) Along with his brother Andrew, he followed the occupation of a fisherman at the Sea of Galilee. It is probable that before they became known to Christ they were both disciples of John the Baptist. John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, states this fact in regard to Andrew, and informs us that Andrew introduced Simon to our Lord, who gave him the Syriac name of Cephas, equivalent to the Greek Petros, which signifies a stone. It was not till some time after this introduction that Peter was called to the special discipleship, (Matthew 4:18-20.) Most of what we know of Peter is derived from the New Testament, especially from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and his own two epistles. Subsequent to his history in the Acts, he seems to have lived in the East, as one of his epistles is addressed to the Churches of Asia Minor and was written from Babylon. According to ecclesiastical history of authentic character, he was subsequently at Rome, and there suffered martyrdom under the reign of Nero. The story that he was Bishop of Rome, upon which popery asserts her claim to supremacy, has no historical value.
Andrew his brother — The name of Andrew, though of Greek origin, was common among the Jews. The apostle of this name was, like his brother Peter, a native of the Galilean Bethsaida. He was a disciple of John the Baptist, and was led by John’s testimony to believe in Jesus. He introduced Peter to our Lord, but was soon surpassed by him in eminence of apostolic character. Together with Peter, he was called from his fishing net to be a fisher of men. He is not very conspicuous in the Gospels. He is mentioned at the feeding of the five thousand, as the introducer of several Greeks to our Lord, and as asking, with Peter, James, and John, for an explanation of our Lord’s remark touching the destruction of the temple. Tradition affirms that he afterward preached in Scythia, and that he was crucified at Patrae in Achaia.
James the son of Zebedee — James and John were the sons of Zebedee and Salome of Bethsaida, in Galilee. Their father seems to have been a man of some wealth, prosecuting the business of fishing in the lake, with hired workmen. The respectability of the family is evidenced by John’s acquaintance with the high priest, and easy circumstances are indicated by the fact that John became responsible for the maintenance of his Lord’s mother. These two brothers were summoned to the apostleship soon after the call of Peter and Andrew, and, like them, paid a prompt obedience to the call. They were selected to be witnesses with Peter alone on several solemn occasions, as at the transfiguration, and at the agony at Gethsemane. It was for James and John that the ambitious Salome asked the premiership or place of prime honour in the Messiah’s kingdom. They were styled by our Lord “sons of thunder,” probably from their ardent temperament and bold eloquence as preachers. James was one of the first Christian martyrs, being slain by Herod Agrippa, as narrated in Acts 12:2. Clement of Alexandria says that such was his firmness in death, that the officer at his execution was converted thereby to Christianity, and was martyred with him.
And John his brother — Of John we have said much in the foregoing notes. With the exception of Peter, he is the most conspicuous and the most interesting character in the apostolic college. To the books of the New Testament he contributed a Gospel, three epistles, and the Apocalypse. He survived all the apostles, living at Ephesus, perhaps as bishop, until about the close of the first century. His character appears to have been affectionate, and as some think, almost feminine. Wonder has been felt why he should have been called a son of thunder. But those who remember that he was the author of the Apocalypse can hardly be at a loss for a reason.
3. Philip — Philip was the fifth of the apostles who came from Bethsaida. He was one of the less conspicuous of the twelve. His first acquaintance with the Lord is narrated in the first chapter of John. To him our Lord put the question previous to the miracle of feeding the five thousand, which tested his faith, and proved him not to be very spiritual. The same want of spirituality is manifested by his request at the last supper: “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” When certain Greeks desired of him an introduction to Jesus, he hesitated, and consulted Andrew concerning the matter. This indicates that he enjoyed less nearness to Jesus than other apostles. Tradition says that he preached the Gospel in Phrygia. Nor did his early want of spiritual elevation prevent his wearing a martyr’s crown, as he is said to have incurred a martyr’s fate at Hierapolis. Bartholomew — The Hebrew form of this name is Bar-tolmai, or son of Tolma. Bartholomew is supposed to be identical with Nathanael, mentioned in the first chapter of John’s Gospel. The reason for this supposition is that Philip and Bartholomew are mentioned together in the first three Gospels, while no Nathanael is mentioned; whereas in the fourth Gospel Philip and Nathanael are associated, without any mention of Bartholomew. Bartholomew, then, was the “Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile.” He is not often distinctively mentioned by the evangelists. He is said to have preached the Gospel in India. It is an authentic fact of ecclesiastical history, that a copy of Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew was found by Pantaenus in India, left there by Bartholomew. It is not known where he died.
Thomas — The two names of this apostle, Thomas and Didymus, signify in the Greek and Hebrew languages respectively, twin. Of his origin or family relations there is no authentic account. He is remarkable among the apostles for his rigid demand of sensible evidence of the Lord’s resurrection. Yet his appears not to have been a diseased skepticism. His mind travelled slowly, and required a solid basis of truth. When he felt his foundations firm, his fidelity to his Lord was true, and his courage bold. Thomas is said, traditionally, to have preached the Gospel in Parthia. The Christians of the Syrian Church in India claim him as their founder, and call themselves by his name.
Matthew the publican — Of Matthew a full account is prefixed to his Gospel in this volume.
James the son of Alpheus — Called by Mark, James the Less. His father Alpheus is also called Cleophas, and his mother was Mary, sister of the virgin mother. James was therefore cousin of the Lord.
Our view is that there were three Jameses, of whom the following parallel sketches will give a correct view.
1. JAMES, son of
Zebedee and
Salome, and
brother of
John.
One of the
twelve.
Matthew 10:2Matthew
10:2.
One of the
three specially
honoured
disciples.
2. JAMES, (the
Less,) son of
Alpheus or
Cleophas.
One of the
twelve.
Matthew 10:2Matthew
10:2.
Jude the
apostle was
his brother,
(Luke 6:16Luke
6:16,) and this
3. JAMES, son of Joseph and
Mary, and half brother of the
Lord Jesus.
Not one of the twelve nor at
first a believer in Jesus.
Matthew 10:2-4; John 7:5John
7:5.
Named among the family of
Jesus. Matthew 13:55:
Brethren of the Lord appear as
believers, yet separate from the
Matthew 17:1Matthew
17:1; 26:37.
Killed with the
sword of
Herod-AgrippaActs 12:2.
Jude was
author of
Jude’s epistle.
The mother of
James was
Mary, sister of
the blessed
mother; so
that he was
cousin of the
Lord. John 19:25John
19:25;
Luke 24:10Luke
24:10.
He had a
brother Joses.
Matthew 27:56Matthew
27:56.
twelve. Acts 1:13, 14.
James, not one of the twelve,
has a vision of the risen Lord.
James, though not of the
twelve, postnamed an apostle.
Called by Eusebius “the Just.”
Resident pastor at Jerusalem.
“James, Cephas, and John, who
seemed to be pillars.”
“Paul went in with us unto
James: and all the elders were
present.” Acts 21:18.
Certain came from James to
Peter. Galatians 2:12.
Present at council. Acts 15:6Acts
15:6-29.
Author of the Epistle. Martyred
at Jerusalem.
Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus — He is called Thaddeus by Mark, and Judas (the Greek form of the name Judah) by Luke. He is the “Judas not Iscariot” mentioned by John, John 14:22. He was probably brother of James the Less, son of Mary, (sister of the virgin mother,)and therefore cousin-german of the Saviour. His name is found in the question of the Nazarenes, “James and Joses and Simon and Judas.” He was probably the Jude who wrote the epistle bearing that name. Little or nothing is known of his subsequent history. But his grandchildren are summoned to appear before the Emperor Domitian, as has been mentioned in our notes on the first chapter of Matthew.
4. Simon the Canaanite — Least is known in regard to this apostle of all the twelve. He is not mentioned in the New Testament out of the catalogue. The epithet Canaanite is an Aramaic word, signifying Zealot. This name indicates that he had belonged to the fanatical sect of Judas the Gaulonite before he became an apostle of Jesus.
Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him — Luke styles him the traitor, that is, betrayer. His name is uniformly brought last because he was the least respected. The name Iscariot is the Greek form for Isch Kerioth, or man of Kerioth. Kerioth was a small town of Judea. Judas is conspicuous among the apostles for dark traits of character, and the events of a dark history. So much will have to be said of him in our future notes, that we may say very little here.
§ 57. — CHARGE TO THE APOSTLES, 5-42.
The unity of this discourse demonstrates the oneness of its delivery, a point disputed by Olshausen and others. It consists properly of three parts. The first (5-15) directs their demeanour during this present trial mission. The second (16-23) predicts their trials and persecutions through their whole apostolate. The third (24-42) states the duty of suffering, the struggle to ensue, and the results, namely, the reward and penalty of the acceptance or rejection of their Gospel. The discourse, therefore, is complete and symmetrical. There is not a sentence or a word inappropriate to the occasion.
I. DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR PRESENT JOURNEY, 5-15.
This first part of the discourse is also divisible into three parts: 1. Their journey and business, 5-8. 2. Their provisions, 9, 10. 3. Their reception, 11-14.
5. Go — This was the word — Go. It embraced the commission of an apostle, and it embraces the mission of every preacher. Christ is his starting point, the world his field, souls his object; and he is not to stand, but to move; not to stay, but to GO.
Not into the way of the Gentiles — Our Lord’s direction first tells them where not to go. The way or route through the nations and tribes lying out of Palestine, is prohibited. Any city of the Samaritans — Our Lord forbids not going into the way of the Samaritans, but into any city of theirs. Samaria lay between Galilee and Judea. The way from one to the other therefore lay through Samaria. Into this way our Lord himself went, but not into any city of that section. The Gospel might be dropped by them, as by our Lord himself passingly and by the way, but not be directly carried into any centre of population.
Why did our Lord thus limit his apostles to Palestine and to Israel? For the same reason, we may reply, that he made Israel primitively his chosen people. The whole Old Testament dispensation was limited to Israel. Amid the apostacy of the nations, God deposited his truth, his ordinances, and his oracles for safe preservation with one people. Upon one land he concentrated the light of his truth. These deposits were there held in reserve for the fulness of the times, in order that, when the proper period should arrive, that light might be diffused, and ultimately fill the whole earth. As he who would fill a whole room with light first deposits the light in the lamp, so God, to illuminate the nations, first deposits his truth in his lamp, his chosen people. It was fitting, therefore, that this first mission should not be limitless and without concentration. The land of the Messiah should be the place for preaching the Messiah. Israel, unfaithful as he had been, was still the best prepared medium to receive and propagate the Messiah’s doctrine. The oracles, the prophecies, the types, the temple, the sacrifices, all of which pointed to the Messiah, were still in Israel. Jews were therefore the first receivers and first proclaimers of the Gospel. As Christ had chosen twelve tribes from the nations, so he chose twelve apostles from the tribes. It was the mission of the apostles to indoctrinate the tribes, that the tribes might indoctrinate the nations. But after the Lord’s resurrection an enlarged commission, embracing the world, was conferred upon them. They were to go into all nations, and preach the Gospel to every creature.
The peculiar history of the Samaritans is mostly learned from the Old Testament. After the revolt of the ten tribes Samaria became their capital, and from it the population generally received the name Samaritans. In the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, the main body of the better population were taken captive and transported by Shalmanezer to Assyria. 2 Kings 17. To fill their place, a population of Assyrians was colonized by the same king in northern Palestine. These idolaters were assailed by lions; and considering their depredations to be produced by the anger of Jehovah, the God of Israel, they sent for a priest of the tribe of Levi, who came by their wish and dwelt in Bethel, to teach them the religion of the true God. A mixed religion as well as a mixed people resulted. Idolatry and Judaism were combined in their doctrines; Assyrian and Israelite blood were blended in their race. When the Jews returned from their captivity to Judea, feuds arose between the Samaritans and Jews, which last to the present hour. In the reign of Darius Nothus, king of Persia, Manasses, son of the high priest of the Jews, married the daughter of Sanballat, the governor of Samaria; and being required by the Mosaic law to divorce her, he preferred to go over to the Samaritans. Under the patronage of his father in law he became Samaritan high priest, with a temple erected for him on Mount Gerizim. From that time Jew and Samaritan became hateful to each other. In our Saviour’s time Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. John 4:9. The worst thing a Jew supposed he could utter of Jesus was, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil. John 8:48. Our Saviour in the present verse recognizes the Jews as the covenant people in distinction from Samaritans; but on several occasions he manifested his purity from the Jewish malignity against them. He made a Samaritan the hero of one of his parables, in disparagement of a Jewish priest and Levite. Luke 10:33. The Samaritans, many of them, believed upon him. John 4:29. See also Luke 9.
Of the Samaritans but a few families now remain, namely, at Nablous, the ancient Shechem. They have a venerable copy of the law, strictly keep the Sabbath, observe the ancient festivals, and firmly expect the Messiah.
6. But go rather — Having told them where not to go, our Lord now teaches them whither they should go. Lost sheep — Lost, as having forsaken the true shepherd, and wandered from the true fold. Yet still they are sheep, not wolves. They are children of the covenant, and especially are they the sheep, who are predisposed and ready to obey the true voice of the shepherd when heard. House — That is, family or lineage.
7. As ye go — Our Lord here implies that they would continually extend their missionary travels. They were to be true itinerants, travelling after they had preached, and preaching as they travelled.
The kingdom of heaven — A kingdom which is the opposite of the kingdoms of this world, and still more of the kingdom of hell. Of this kingdom the crown prince is Messiah. When, therefore, they proclaimed the approach of this kingdom, they of course implied the Messiah’s coming.
8. Heal the sick — The preaching was to be confirmed by the miracle. The miraculous powers were a foretaste and premonition of the nature of that kingdom. They were the first rays of its manifestation; and the powers of that kingdom, exercised by these apostles, prove them its true heralds. The four evils which these miracles removed, namely, sickness, leprosy, death, and devils, were all tokens and products of the reign of hell. Raise the dead — This clause, being omitted by some manuscripts of the New Testament, is suspected by some able critics to be an interpolation. The absence of any account of such miracle by them performed, does, indeed, prove nothing; for no account is given, of any performances during this mission. But the supposition of so great a miracle stands opposed to the general analogy of that state of pupilage in which the apostles remained during the Saviour’s life. Freely give — Sell no miracles; sell no Gospel. As the apostleship, the Gospel, and the power were received by you unbought, so give that Gospel unsold. All this freeness, however, presupposes that the gratitude of those whom you freely bless will, not, indeed, pay you, but freely give you all your needs require. The miracle by which you save other’s lives and souls, must not sustain your own. You are not to live by miracle.
9. Provide — Thus far our Lord has described their errand; he now comes to their equipment; which is to be no equipment at all. Whoever has money in his pocket, raiment upon his person, may keep them and go; but nothing additional must he provide. The Saviour here specifies the three current metals which formed the money of the day. Parallel to these we have, at the present day, gold, silver, and copper, making the eagle, the dollar, the cent. Not a brass penny or farthing was the apostle to provide for his journey. Purses — The folds of the girdle served, as a Jewish purse, to carry money. But allusion may be made to the custom of sewing money in a girdle or belt, to be worn next the skin, for safe keeping.
10. Nor scrip — The scrip was a wallet slung by thongs upon the person, to contain provisions or other necessaries. They are, as Dr. Thomson states, “merely the skins of kids stripped of wool and tanned by a very simple process.” Dr. T. well adds. “By the way, the entire ‘outfit’ of these first missionaries shows that they were plain fishermen, farmers, or shepherds; and to such men there was no extraordinary self-denial in the matter or the mode of their mission. We may expound the ‘instructions’ given to these primitive evangelists somewhat after the following manner: Provide neither silver, nor gold, nor brass in your purses. You are going to your brethren in the neighbouring villages, and the best way to get to their hearts and their confidence is to throw yourselves upon their hospitality. Nor was there any departure from the simple manners of the country in this. Neither do they encumber themselves with two coats. They are accustomed to sleep in the garments they have on during the day, and in this climate such plain people experience no inconvenience from it. They wear a coarse shoe, answering to the sandal of the ancients, but never take two pairs of them; and although the staff is an invariable companion of all wayfarers, they are content with one. Of course, such ‘instructions’ can have only a general application to those who go forth, not to neighbours of the same faith and nation, but to distant climes, and to heathen tribes.” Nor yet staves — The plural of staff. According to the parallel passage in Mark, our Lord expressly permitted a staff. Some have, therefore, found an imaginary contradiction in the passage. To reconcile the discrepancy, commentators have imagined that a single staff was permitted, but not two staves or more. But who ever heard of a traveller providing himself with a number of staves? The true meaning is, that he who had a staff might take it, but he who had not should not provide it.
Workman is worthy of his meat — Humanly speaking, indeed, every man is entitled to an equivalent for what he gives. The man who gives his talents, his acquirements, his labour for a people’s good, is humanly entitled to pay. Hence, in a true sense, the people do not give, but pay. It is not a charity, but a debt. There is a pecuniary obligation as well as a divine requirement. Yet who can pay the value of the Gospel? See note on verse 8.
11. Inquire who in it is worthy — Worthy to receive the offer of the Gospel by their readiness to receive it and to entertain its ministers. The apostles enter a town and inquire who is spiritually minded, where lives a pious Jew, or what man is predisposed to believe in the celebrated Jesus of Nazareth. Him they conclude to be worthy, and to his house they apply for admittance.
12. Salute it — According to the customary form among the Jews, namely, “Peace be to this house.” But this was not to be a mere form. In that phrase of technical politeness, religion should breathe a divine power. It is not a compliment, but a prayer and a blessing.
Richard Watson
Verse 12. Salute it. — That is, the house-hold, the family. What the salutation was we learn from St. Luke: “Peace be to this house;” which indeed is added here in the Vulgate, Pax huic domui. Peace signifies every kind of felicity. “Great is peace,” say the rabbins; “for all other blessings are comprehended in it.”
And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
John Wesley
V. 13. If the house be worthy-of it, God shall give them the peace you wish them. If not, he shall give you what they refuse. The same will be the case, when we pray for them that are not worthy.
Adam Clarke
Verse 13. If that house be worthy] If that family be proper for a preacher to lodge in, and the master be ready to embrace the message of salvation. Your peace] The blessings you have prayed for shall come upon the family: God will prosper them in their bodies, souls, and substance. But if it be not worthy] As above explained.
Let your peace] The blessings prayed for, return to you. prov umav epistrafhtw, it shall turn back upon yourselves. They shall get nothing, and you shall have an increase.
The trials, disappointments, insults, and wants of the followers of Christ become, in the hand of the all-wise God, subservient to their best interests: hence, nothing can happen to them without their deriving profit from it, unless it be their own fault.
Joseph Benson
Verses 11-13. Into whatsoever city, &c., ye shall enter, inquire who is worthy — That you should abide with him, that is, who is of a good character, and disposed to receive the gospel. And there abide — In that house, till ye leave the town. It is of much consequence that a preacher of the gospel should not endanger his reputation, by taking up his lodging in a disreputable family, or by removing from one family to another, out of regard to some little matter of domestic convenience or entertainment. This is more fully expressed in the instructions to the seventy, Luke 10:7. “In the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: go not from house to house.” Doubtless the disciples on some occasions might change their quarters with decency; but our Lord absolutely forbade them to do it for the sake of better entertainment or accommodation, that they might not give mankind the least cause of imagining that they served their bellies, or were particularly solicitous about conveniences. When ye come into a house, salute it — In the usual Jewish form, “Peace, (that is, all blessings,) be to this house.” If the house be worthy — Of it, God shall give them the peace you wish them. If not, he shall give you what they refuse. The same will be the case when we pray for them that are not worthy.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 12, 13. When ye come into a house, salute it. Erasmus says that some old copies of the Greek had the adjection, “peace be to this house;” and that other copies had the words in the margin. The next words, And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it, indicate that the sense is incomplete without it. This, Erasmus adds, is the old Hebrew salutation, shalom lecho, peace be to thee. If this salutation were received with an open countenance, the disciple would know that the Son, the prince of peace, was there.
Daniel Whedon
13. Your peace return to you — The blessing they cannot receive. Resume it, and bear it away with yourself. And when thus rejected be careful that no anger of yours shall mar the peace that comes back to you.
Richard Watson
Verse 13. But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. — If you are rejected out of hatred to your Master and his message, your office and your work, let your peace return; that is, it shall return, the imperative being used for the prophetic future: they were to withdraw a benediction which could only be pronounced in Christ’s name; and he engages to ratify their act. This is a proof that more than the ordinary salutations are here intended; for our Lord was not teaching his apostles the common forms of civility, which they well enough understood. Let your peace RETURN to you, is a Hebraism. Thus it is said of God’s word, that it “would return to him void,” on the supposition that it failed to produce its effect; and prayer not answered is said to return “into the bosom.” The sense, therefore, is that, in the case stated, the peace prayed for would not be imparted, the blessing offered would not be given.
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
John Wesley
V. 14. Shake off the dust from your feet-The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country, they stopped at the borders and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the Gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathens and idolaters.
Adam Clarke
Verse 14. Shake off the dust of your feet.] The Jews considered themselves defiled by the dust of a heathen country, when was represented by the prophets as a polluted land, Amos 7:17, when compared with the land of Israel, which was considered as a holy land, Ezekiel 45:1; therefore, to shake the dust of any city of Israel from off one’s clothes or feet was an emblematical action, signifying a renunciation of all farther connection with them, and placing them on a level with the cities of the Heathen. See Clarke on “Amos 9:7”.
Joseph Benson
Verses 14, 15. Whosoever shall not receive you — That is, entertain you kindly; nor, in an obedient manner, hearken to your words, when you depart, &c., shake off the dust of your feet — The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country they stopped at the borders, and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathen and idolaters. Verily, It shall be more tolerable, &c. — As if he had said, And indeed you have reason to shake off the dust of your feet in such a case, for whatever profession such Jews may make of their regard to the true God, and however they may continue to boast of their national privileges, their punishment at the day of final judgment shall not only be greater than that of the generality of Gentile sinners, but even than that of those monsters of unnatural wickedness who formerly inhabited Sodom and Gomorrah, and were consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven. For the people of those cities never sinned against such extraordinary light and such singular favours as they will do who reject the gospel now to be preached to them, with great plainness and power, by you, and attested by such miracles as I shall enable you to perform.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 14, 15. And whosoever shall not receive you, coming with peace, coming with an extra mission, to announce the approach of the Messiah’s kingdom, shake off the dust of your feet against that house, or that city; for if they shall renounce that hope, there is no other hope. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, the souls that once inhabited the plain, than for that city in the day of judgment, or the day of retribution, when the Roman armies shall come and burn the city and temple of the Lord.
Daniel Whedon
14. Dust of your feet — Such was the custom of stricter Jews in departing from a heathen city. But henceforth the rejecters of Jesus, though Jews by blood, are heathen in heart. The meaning of the symbol of shaking the dust from your feet, is solemn and striking. It declares the city polluted, and not a particle of it shall adhere to the apostle’s person. It is given over to itself, and consigned to its own destruction.
Richard Watson
Verse 14. Shake off the dust of your feet. — The Jews thought the dust of heathen lands polluted, and were careful to free themselves from it. Of this, Wetstein has given many examples from their writers, as, “The dust of Syria defiles, like the dust of other heathen countries.” By this significant act, therefore, not performed in passion and resentment, but solemnly, as commanded by Christ, the apostles were to declare that house or city which rejected them, as worthy only to be ranked with the polluted dries of the heathen, even with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.
Adam Clarke
Verse 15. In the day of judgment] Or, punishment,-krisewv. Perhaps not meaning the day of general judgment, nor the day of the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans; but a day in which God should send punishment on that particular city, or on that person, for their crimes. So the day of judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, was the time in which the Lord destroyed them by fire and brimstone, from the Lord out of heaven. If men are thus treated for not receiving the preachers of the Gospel, what will it be to despise the Gospel itself-to decry it-to preach the contrary-to hinder the preaching of it-to abuse those who do preach it in its purity-or to render it fruitless by calumnies and lies! Their punishment, our Lord intimates, shall be greater than that inflicted on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah!
Joseph Benson
Verses 14, 15. Whosoever shall not receive you — That is, entertain you kindly; nor, in an obedient manner, hearken to your words, when you depart, &c., shake off the dust of your feet — The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country they stopped at the borders, and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathen and idolaters. Verily, It shall be more tolerable, &c. — As if he had said, And indeed you have reason to shake off the dust of your feet in such a case, for whatever profession such Jews may make of their regard to the true God, and however they may continue to boast of their national privileges, their punishment at the day of final judgment shall not only be greater than that of the generality of Gentile sinners, but even than that of those monsters of unnatural wickedness who formerly inhabited Sodom and Gomorrah, and were consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven. For the people of those cities never sinned against such extraordinary light and such singular favours as they will do who reject the gospel now to be preached to them, with great plainness and power, by you, and attested by such miracles as I shall enable you to perform.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 14, 15. And whosoever shall not receive you, coming with peace, coming with an extra mission, to announce the approach of the Messiah’s kingdom, shake off the dust of your feet against that house, or that city; for if they shall renounce that hope, there is no other hope. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, the souls that once inhabited the plain, than for that city in the day of judgment, or the day of retribution, when the Roman armies shall come and burn the city and temple of the Lord.
Daniel Whedon
15. Sodom and Gomorrah — Genesis 19. For their sins these cities were destroyed by a miraculous fire from Jehovah. But, as Jude informs us, this was but a symbol of eternal wrath, by which they were set forth as suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The temporal fire is a visible emblem of the invisible fire never to be quenched.
It shall be more tolerable — It is to be remarked that our Lord here speaks in the future; that is, a time is coming at some future day. What future day that is, he now specifies. The day of judgment — Of that day of judgment Jesus gives a vivid description in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. See also Rev. 20. Than for that city — Our Lord is not here threatening the innocent bricks and walls, but the guilty inhabitants of the cities who reject his Gospel. And from his words we learn: 1. That there is a future day in which the inhabitants of the earth, at the different periods of its history, are to stand before the judgment-seat of God and receive their sentence. 2. The degree of punishment will be measured according to the privileges enjoyed and the guilt incurred. 3. Acceptance of the message of God when sent is the only method of escape and the only means of salvation.
Richard Watson
Verse 15. In the day of judgment, than for that city. — That is, than for the inhabitants of that city. Collective bodies of men composing cities and nations have their punishment in this life; but in the final judgment they will be dealt with as individuals: “EVERY ONE shall give account of himself to God.” Some modern critics, relying on that frail ground, the absence of the article before hmera, render it “A day of judgment;” forgetting that, in the very same day here mentioned, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are also to be judged. The day mentioned can therefore be no other than THE day of final judgment. Let two things here be strongly marked:
1. That the severest TEMPORAL judgments upon sinful men, do not satisfy the claims of the offended justice of a holy God. The wretched inhabitants of the cities of the plain are still reserved to public trial and future vengeance.
2. That terrible as their case will be, it shall be more tolerable, more supportable, than that of those who reject the Gospel of Christ, an act which involves a contempt of the highest manifestation of the Divine mercy.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Adam Clarke
Verse 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves] He who is called to preach the Gospel is called to embrace a state of constant labour, and frequent suffering. He who gets ease and pleasure, in consequence of embracing the ministerial office, neither preaches the Gospel, nor is sent of God. If he did the work of an evangelist, wicked men and demons would both oppose him.
Wise (fronimoi prudent) as serpents, and harmless as doves.] This is a proverbial saying: so in Shir hashirim Rabba, fol. 16, “The holy blessed God said to the Israelites, Ye shall be towards me as upright as the doves; but, towards the Gentiles, as cunning as serpents.”
There is a beauty in this saying which is seldom observed. The serpent is represented as prudent to excess, being full of cunning, Genesis 3:1; 2 Corinthians 11:3; and the dove is simple, even to stupidity, Hosea 7:11; but Jesus Christ corrects here the cunning of the serpent, by the simplicity of the dove; and the too great simplicity of the dove, by the cunning of the serpent. For a fine illustration of this text, see the account of the Boiga:-
“This species is remarkably beautiful, combining the richest colours of the finest gems with the splendour of burnished gold, mingled with dark brown shades, which contrast and heighten its brilliant ornaments. The whole under surface of the head and body is of a silver white, separated from the changing blue of the back by a golden chain on each side, the whole length of the body. This fine blue and silver, ornamented with gold, by no means give a full idea of the beautiful embroidery of the boiga. We must take in all the reflected tints of silver colour, golden yellow, red, blue, green, and black, mingled, and changing in the most extraordinary and beautiful manner possible; so that, when about to change its skin, it seems studded with a mixed assemblage of diamonds, emeralds, topazes, sapphires, and rubies, under a thin transparent veil of bluish crystal. Thus, in the rich and torrid plains of India, where the most splendid gems abound, nature seems to have chosen to reunite them all, together with the noble metals, to adorn the brilliant robe of the boiga. This is one of the most slender of serpents in proportion to its length. The specimens in the royal collection, which exceed three feet in length, are hardly a few lines in diameter. The tail is almost as long as the body, and at the end is like a needle for fineness; yet it is sometimes flattened above, below, and on the two sides, rendering it in some measure square. From the delicacy of its form, its movements are necessarily extremely agile; so that, doubling itself up several times, it can spring to a considerable distance, with great swiftness. It can twine and twist itself, most readily, and nimbly, around trees or other such bodies; climbing, or descending, or suspending itself, with the utmost facility. The boiga feeds on small birds, which it swallows very easily, notwithstanding the small diameter of its body, in consequence of the great distensibility of its jaws, throat, and stomach, common to it with other serpents. It conceals itself under the foliage of trees, on purpose to surprise the small birds, and is said to attract them by a peculiar kind of whistling, to which the term of song has been applied; but we must consider this as an exaggeration, as its long divided tongue, and the conformation of its other organs of sound, are only adapted for producing a hiss, or species of simple whistle, instead of forming a melodious assemblage of tones. Yet, if nature has not reckoned the boiga among the songsters of the woods, it seems to possess a more perfect instinct than other serpents, joined to more agile movements, and more magnificent ornament. In the isle of Borneo, the children play with the boiga, without the smallest dread. They carry it in their hands, as innocent as themselves, and twist it about their necks, arms, and bodies, in a thousand directions. This circumstance brings to recollection that fine emblem of Candour and Confidence imagined by the genius of the ancients: a child smiling on a snake, which holds him fast in his convolutions. But, in that beautiful allegory, the snake is supposed to conceal a deadly poison; while the boiga returns caress for caress to the Indian children who fondle it, and seems pleased to be twisted about their delicate hands. As the appearance of such nimble and innocent animals in the forests must be extremely beautiful, displaying their splendid colours, and gliding swiftly from branch to branch, without possessing the smallest noxious quality, we might regret that this species should require a degree of heat greatly superior to that of our regions, and that it can only subsist near the tropics, in Asia, Africa, and America. It has usually a hundred and sixty-six large plates, and a hundred and twenty-eight pairs of small plates, but is subject to considerable variation. “According to this representation, the boiga is not merely to be praised for its beauty, but may be said to fulfil the old maxim of combining the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove.” Cepede’s Hist. of Oviparous Quadrupeds and Serpents. Instead of akeraioi, harmless, or as the Etymol. Mag. defines it, without mixture of evil, the Cod. Bezæ reads aploustatoi,
simple-uncompounded,-so all the copies of the old Itala, the Vulgate, and the Latin fathers; but this curious and explanatory reading is found in no other Greek MS.
Joseph Benson
Verse 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves — I now send you forth weak and defenceless among a wicked, cruel, and persecuting people. “Considering the nature of the tidings which the apostles were now sent out to publish, namely, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand — considering, also, the number and variety of the miraculous cures which they were to be enabled to perform in confirmation of their doctrine, together with the greatness of the benefits they were to confer upon the families who should entertain them kindly, it is reasonable to think that they were flattering themselves with the hopes of great honour and acceptance wherever they came. In the meantime, the event was by no means to answer their expectation. They were everywhere to be despised, persecuted, delivered up into the hands of public justice, and punished as evil doers. Our Lord, therefore, who thought fit to forewarn them of these things, made them large promises of the divine aid, and gave them directions with respect to their conduct in every circumstance.” — Macknight. Be ye therefore wise as serpents — On the one hand, be so prudent as not to irritate the wicked, and those who shall oppose you, either by your behaviour or your doctrine, unnecessarily, and avoid all unnecessary dangers: and harmless as doves — On the other hand, let not your prudence degenerate into craft, lest it lead you to betray the truth, or to encourage or countenance men in their evil practices; maintain at all times a holy simplicity of soul; and to your prudence join a harmless and inoffensive behaviour, rendering yourselves remarkable for integrity amid the greatest temptations, and for meekness amid the greatest provocations.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be aware that the whole world lieth in the wicked one. Notwithstanding the power of conscience, notwithstanding all their engaging airs of politeness, and all the restraints of covenant grace, when the spirit of persecution is once roused, they will be to you what the wolves are to the sheep. Therefore being weak and defenceless as sheep, be harmless as doves, of which no birds are afraid. Join also to innocence of manners, the wisdom and prudence of the serpents, which in times of danger cover their heads, or retreat and hide themselves in rocks and thickets. Let prudence keep you from parties, let your tongue be unpolluted with slander, and be the fathers and the friends of all committed to your care. The eagle and the serpent are famed for acuteness of sight.
tam cernis acutum
Quàm aut aquila aut serpens.
EPIDAURIUS.
We must also be as bold as lions, which in ranging the forests and plantations fear no danger, and never turn away in battle. Thus ministers must carry the gospel, and boldly testify the truth, so as to commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. They must neither rashly expose themselves to danger, nor decline the testimony of Jesus when brought before magistrates. See Psalms 58:4Psalm 58:4.
Daniel Whedon
II. PREDICTIONS OF APOSTOLIC ENDURANCE OF PERSECUTION, 16-23. In this second part our Lord expands the view from the present trial mission, so as to comprehend the warfare and sufferings of their entire apostolate.
16. Sheep in the midst of wolves — A most impressive image of the contrast between the meek messenger of the Gospel and the persecutors by whom he will be surrounded. Helpless, unarmed, undefended, to all appearance his only destiny is destruction.
Wise as serpents, harmless as doves — The secret stealth of the serpent has rendered him a favourite Oriental image of cunning. But the same word is here used that we find in the Septuagint, Genesis 3:1: “The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.” Harmless as doves — By the same symbolism, abounding in Scripture, the dove is the emblem of innocence and purity. By this combination of emblems of contrasted character our Lord describes the true Christian wisdom. It is innocently artful; it is simple yet sharp-sighted; it is inventive to accomplish schemes of good.
As the serpent is the bodily emblem of Satan, so the dove is the bodily emblem of the Holy Spirit. The true apostle is to be shrewd like Satan, yet pure like the Spirit of his Master.
Richard Watson
Verse 16. Wise as serpents. — Not wise or skilful to inflict injury, which, indeed serpents are, by hiding themselves, and striking their victim unawares. This interpretation is excluded by the next simile, harmless as doves; but, as the instinct of the serpent leads him also adroitly to shun danger by quickly retiring into his hiding place, so our Lord enjoins upon his disciples a prudent foresight of impending evils, and a timely escape from them; in opposition to that fanatical courting and braving of persecution, in which some ardent minds might be apt to indulge. This precept, however, shows that Holy Scripture as to be interpreted by a collation of its parts, or we might fall into the greatest errors. In other passages our Lord enjoins the exposing ourselves to all risks and sufferings for the sake of the truth; and even to rejoice in persecutions for his name’s sake. Between these there is no contradiction, but the finest moral harmony. Whenever duty, honestly interpreted, without the bias of self- love, allows us to escape danger by the exercise of prudence, not only respect to ourselves, but also that we may prevent others from grievously sinning, by indulging their malignity against Christ, requires that we ought to embrace the opportunity of doing so. — When, however, safety cannot be secured without injury to our Master’s truth and cause, no consideration will induce the faithful disciple to desert his post, or to shrink from death itself. PASSION is excluded from our religion, that calm PRINCIPLE may exhibit its more noble triumphs.
Harmless as doves. — This admits of no limitation; but is to be the character of disciples at all times and under all circumstances, whether they fight or fly. Harmless akeraiov, which some derive from a, privative, and keraw, or kerannumi, to mingle and hence render it pure, without malice: so Hesychius. But the antithesis appears thus to be lost. As our Lord obviously meant to enjoin prudence, rightly understood, upon his disciples by the proverbial example of the serpent, he must have intended to guard them against that cunning of the serpent which is employed to injure and destroy; the opposite to which is not so properly freedom from malice, which is not an obvious quality of the dove, as harmlessness, which has rendered the dove everywhere the emblem of peace. The derivation may therefore be better drawn from a, privative, and keraizw, to hurt, and is therefore accurately expressed in our translation. The expression was probably proverbial.
But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
John Wesley
V. 17. But think not that all your innocence and all your wisdom will screen you from persecution.
They will scourge you in their synagogues-In these the Jews held their courts of judicature, about both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. Matthew 24:9.
Adam Clarke
Verse 17. But beware of men] Or, be on your guard against men, twn anqrwpwn THESE men; i.e. your countrymen; those from whom you might have reasonably expected comfort and support; and especially those in power, who will abuse that power to oppress you.
Councils] sunedria, sanhedrins and synagogues. See Clarke on “Matthew 5:22”. “By synagogues we may understand here, not the places of public worship, but assemblies where three magistrates, chosen out of the principal members of the synagogue, presided to adjust differences among the people: these had power, in certain cases, to condemn to the scourge, but not to death. See Acts 22:19; 2 Corinthians 11:24, compared with Luke 12:11.” See Lightfoot.
Joseph Benson
Verses 17, 18. Beware of men — That is, be on your guard against the men of the world with whom you converse, that you do not, by any inadvertency, give them advantage against you: and think not that all your innocence and all your wisdom united can screen you from persecution. For they will deliver you up to the councils — They will seek all occasions of mischief against you, and deliver you up to the sanhedrim, and other inferior courts of judicature: and they will scourge you in their synagogues — A sort of discipline which was used in their synagogues, where they held their courts about both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. Comp. Matthew 23:34, and Acts 22:19. And ye shall be brought before governors — Namely, to be punished by them as malefactors, not for any crimes wherewith they can charge you, but for my sake. Although these things did not happen while the apostles were out on their first mission, yet they came to pass after Christ’s ascension, when Peter and John were called before the sanhedrim, Acts 4:6, 7, and beaten, Acts 5:40: also when James and Peter were brought before Herod, Acts 12:3; Paul before Agrippa and his wife, and the Roman governors, Gallio, Felix, Festus; and, last of all, before the Emperor Nero, and his prefect, Helius Cæsarianus. For a testimony against them and the Gentiles — All these things will be permitted to befall you, that your innocence may be manifested, the truth of the gospel demonstrated, and an opportunity afforded you of testifying it with greater solemnity both to Jews and Gentiles. “The patience which the apostles showed under continual persecutions, and the courage wherewith they went to death, in confirmation of their doctrine, became strong proofs of their innocence and of the truth of the gospel. Moreover, if the apostles had never been brought before the supreme powers, nor defended their cause in the presence of kings and governors, it might have been said that because Christianity could not bear a strict examination from able judges, it was preached to none but men of vulgar understanding, who were not capable of detecting it. But, when persons of the highest distinction for birth, fortune, capacity, and learning, had the gospel laid before them in the defences which the apostles were obliged to make, at the public tribunals of every country, its standing such a trial was certainly a great confirmation of its truth to persons of inferior note.” — Macknight.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 17. Beware of men. Beware of the scribes and jewish teachers, who will bring upon you every evil in their power, through enmity of heart, and through the eclipse of their honour. You have therefore the more need of prudence. The same spirit induced the papist bishops to burn the protestant martyrs.
Daniel Whedon
17. Beware of men — These wolves are men. And men, as such, are depraved in heart. Of all such, in their depraved, unregenerated character, have a care, for evil is to be expected from them. The evils to be expected our Lord next describes. Councils — The smaller courts in Palestine, yet including the grand Sanhedrim in Jerusalem. Scourge you in their synagogues — Scourging is mentioned as a punishment in the Mosaic law. (Deuteronomy 25:23.) The criminal, being laid upon the ground, was scourged with a whip of three lashes, so that thirteen blows should inflict thirty-nine stripes. This was the forty save one which St. Paul received, 2 Corinthians 11:24. In their synagogues — The synagogue was the ordinary place of the Jewish courts of justice. Matthew 23:24; Acts 22:19.
Richard Watson
Verse 17. But beware of men, &c. — Whether the article before anqrwpon has the emphasis assigned to it by Middleton and others who regard it either as making a renewed mention of the class of men previously designated as “wolves,” or as signifying Jews in opposition to heathens, a still less probable supposition, is quite conjectural; and, indeed, either view only serves to divert the reader from what appears to be the true antithesis, which lies not between one class of men and another, but is an implied one between MEN and SERPENTS. The last idea in our Lord’s mind was the mischievous nature of the serpent tribe, all imitation of which he forbids to his disciples; and this naturally leads him to caution them against MEN, as more venomous, cunning, and deadly than serpents themselves: but beware of men.
Councils, synagogues. — The councils here mentioned are the courts attached to each synagogue, which had the power of scourging. The disciples are forewarned that they would be delivered up to councils to be proceeded against as delinquents, and the result would be the infliction of “forty stripes, save one,” as many of the disciples afterward experienced; for our Lord must be understood, not as speaking of what should happen to the twelve apostles during the temporary mission on which he was now sending them, nor as confining his remarks and exhortations to them alone, but through them to all his persecuted disciples afterward, and to them with respect to their whole ministry to the end of their life. This is clear from the next verse: And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles; so that his words manifestly extend to those times also when they should be employed in their mission among the Gentile nations, to whom they were as yet commanded not to go. This consideration is necessary for the right understanding of several parts of this discourse; for if it be restrained only to the first limited mission of the apostles, it becomes in many parts obscure. The scourging of delinquents was performed by the chuzan, or servant of the synagogue. The practice was for the superior judge to rest passages out of the law during the infliction of the punishment; the second judge numbered the stripes; and the third gave the order to strike before each blow. St. Paul was thus scourged in the synagogue five times. The instrument of scourging was a leathern thong, doubled and twisted.
And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Adam Clarke
Verse 18. Ye shall be brought before governors, &c.] “This affords a striking proof of the prescience of Christ. Who could have thought, at that time, that these despised and illiterate men could excite so much attention, and be called upon to apologize for the profession of their faith before the tribunals of the most illustrious personages of the earth ?” Wakefield. By governors and kings we may understand, the Roman proconsuls, governors of provinces, and the kings who were tributary to the Roman government, and the emperors themselves, before whom many of the primitive Christians were brought.
For a testimony against them and the Gentiles.] That is, to render testimony, both to Jews and Gentiles, of the truth and power of my Gospel.
Joseph Benson
Verses 17, 18. Beware of men — That is, be on your guard against the men of the world with whom you converse, that you do not, by any inadvertency, give them advantage against you: and think not that all your innocence and all your wisdom united can screen you from persecution. For they will deliver you up to the councils — They will seek all occasions of mischief against you, and deliver you up to the sanhedrim, and other inferior courts of judicature: and they will scourge you in their synagogues — A sort of discipline which was used in their synagogues, where they held their courts about both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. Comp. Matthew 23:34, and Acts 22:19. And ye shall be brought before governors — Namely, to be punished by them as malefactors, not for any crimes wherewith they can charge you, but for my sake. Although these things did not happen while the apostles were out on their first mission, yet they came to pass after Christ’s ascension, when Peter and John were called before the sanhedrim, Acts 4:6, 7, and beaten, Acts 5:40: also when James and Peter were brought before Herod, Acts 12:3; Paul before Agrippa and his wife, and the Roman governors, Gallio, Felix, Festus; and, last of all, before the Emperor Nero, and his prefect, Helius Cæsarianus. For a testimony against them and the Gentiles — All these things will be permitted to befall you, that your innocence may be manifested, the truth of the gospel demonstrated, and an opportunity afforded you of testifying it with greater solemnity both to Jews and Gentiles. “The patience which the apostles showed under continual persecutions, and the courage wherewith they went to death, in confirmation of their doctrine, became strong proofs of their innocence and of the truth of the gospel. Moreover, if the apostles had never been brought before the supreme powers, nor defended their cause in the presence of kings and governors, it might have been said that because Christianity could not bear a strict examination from able judges, it was preached to none but men of vulgar understanding, who were not capable of detecting it. But, when persons of the highest distinction for birth, fortune, capacity, and learning, had the gospel laid before them in the defences which the apostles were obliged to make, at the public tribunals of every country, its standing such a trial was certainly a great confirmation of its truth to persons of inferior note.” — Macknight.
Daniel Whedon
18. Brought before governors — Procurators and proconsuls. Such were Pilate, Felix, and Festus. And kings — Such were Herod, Agrippa, and the Roman emperor. For a testimony against them — A memento in the great day of judgment, that the Gospel had been preached unto them, and had been rejected by them. And the Gentiles — For our Lord is now contemplating a field of trial far beyond the boundaries of Palestine, to which he had limited their present trial mission. From the humble encounters which they were to undergo before the magistrates and mobs in the towns of Palestine; our Lord mounts to their arraignments before the great ones of the earth and their expanded missions into the various Gentile nations. Here is a quiet yet signal prophecy of the spread of the Gospel in distant lands, and an intimation of the persecutions which marked the progress of Christianity for several centuries.
Richard Watson
Verse 18. A testimony against them. — The first preachers of the Gospel gave a strong testimony to the truth of their religion by the readiness which they showed to suffer in attestation of the facts on which it was built, and the truth of which they had the means of knowing with certainty; while the Divine origin of its doctrines derived a powerful evidence from the calm heroism, the meek and forgiving spirit, with which they inspired the sufferers. This was also a testimony AGAINST their persecutors, because it rendered the cruelties they exercised upon holy, benevolent, and peaceful men inexcusable, and a crime against God, though done often under the sanction of public laws.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
John Wesley
V. 19. Take no thought-Neither at this time, on any sudden call, need we be careful how or what to answer. Luke 12:11.
Adam Clarke
Verse 19. Take no thought how or what ye shall speak] mh merimnhsete-Be not anxiously careful, because such anxiety argues distrust in God, and infallibly produces a confused mind. In such a state, no person is fit to proclaim or vindicate the truth. This promise, It shall be given you, &c., banishes all distrust and inquietude on dangerous occasions; but without encouraging sloth and negligence, and without dispensing with the obligation we are under to prepare ourselves by the meditation of sacred truths, by the study of the Holy Scriptures, and by prayer.
It shall be given you in that same hour what] This clause is wanting in the MSS. D and L, and several others, some versions, and several of the fathers: but it is found in Mark 13:11, without any various reading; and in substance in Luke 11:13.
Joseph Benson
Verse 19. But take no thought how or what ye shall speak — When you are compelled to appear before such personages be not anxiously careful about your defence there, or how you shall answer for yourselves, but cheerfully confide in the divine direction, which shall certainly be given you, and shall be abundantly sufficient for you. The apostles being, in general, persons of a low education, and wholly unacquainted with the laws of the different countries whither they were to go, and with the forms of their courts, might have been much terrified at the thought of appearing before kings, governors, and other persons of distinction, and might have feared lest, in the hurry of their spirits, they should be betrayed into some impropriety of language or behaviour, by which the cause of the gospel might be injured. Nothing, therefore, could have been more proper, or better suited to the circumstances in which they were placed, than the promise which our Lord here makes them, which, if received in faith, was sufficient to prevent a thousand anxious apprehensions. Observe, reader, neither at such a time as is here referred to, nor on any sudden call, need the true disciples of Jesus be careful what or how to answer.
Daniel Whedon
19. Take no thought — Our Lord here earnestly places the mind of the persecuted apostle on its true basis. Let him renounce all earthly tempers and human ingenuity, and cast himself in simple, Christlike dependence upon divine aid.
Richard Watson
Verse 19. It shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. — As they would often be questioned, not only as to matters of fact touching their conduct, but as to their motives, designs, and opinions, their appearance before magistrates would necessarily often demand both the statement and defence of the truths of Christianity, and, before Jewish rulers, appeals also to the prophecies of the Old Testament, in which they would have to encounter, not only violent prejudices, but subtle objections. They might naturally therefore be anxious, lest, in such circumstances, through fear, they might lose their self-possession, and through hurry of spirit injure both the truth and themselves. The promise of our Lord was therefore designed to remove all anxiety in this respect. It assured them of special assistance, both as to WHAT and HOW they should speak, which two particulars comprehend every thing in a suitable and truly eloquent discourse. The matter and the manner both were to be under Divine suggestion; but the latter is not to be understood of the graces of delivery, but of “the spirit and power” of their addresses. — Such is the import of the promise made to the apostles; but it contains no more than all true Christians in all ages may expect, when called upon in any way to bear their testimony to the truth; for new revelations are not at all intended in the text, and in fact do not appear to have been ever made to the first preachers in such circumstances. What is promised is the power to give a clear, convincing, energetic statement of what had been already revealed; an assistance which was to suggest the fittest topics, and the most appropriate manner of stating them. — Why, then, should we be told that other Christians have no authority to look up to Christ their Master with the same confidence? Those who have descanted on the fanaticism of looking for new revelations on the authority of this text, do not themselves understand its meaning, which implies, not the revelation of new truth, but the power of stating effectually that which had been communicated. Let the private Christian, then, when placed in difficult circumstances, and yet is called upon to speak concerning his religion, rely upon the promise of his Master, both to aid his THOUGHTS, and influence his SPIRIT and manner; and let ministers also have the same holy confidence in Divine help in their great though regular employment of PREACHING the Gospel. Nor did it follow from this promise, that the apostles were not previously to study their religion, or to revolve in their minds the points on which they might be interrogated: they were not to be careless as to the matter, but simply not anxious and distracted; for that is the import of mh merimnhshte, the words used. This also is applicable to the ordinary exercise of the ministry. After all the previous thought which may have been employed, the dependence, as to the statement of truth in a proper and influential manner, is to be placed upon Christ; and if prayer for Divine aid means any thing, that aid must be similar to the assistance here promised to the apostles when they had to “give a reason of the hope within them” before governors and kings. Like them, too, all true “ministers of Christ are authorized to dismiss distracting anxiety, as to what or how they shall speak, and to make their preaching “a work of faith,” as well as “a labour of love.” Those who choose to write their sermons at full length, and read or repeat, them from memory, of course, give up all claim in this promise.
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Adam Clarke
Verse 20. For it is-the Spirit of your Father, &c.] This was an extraordinary promise, and was literally fulfilled to those first preachers of the Gospel; and to them it was essentially necessary, because the New Testament dispensation was to be fully opened by their extraordinary inspiration. In a certain measure, it may be truly said, that the Holy Spirit animates the true disciples of Christ, and enables them to speak. The Head speaks in his members, by his Spirit; and it is the province of the Spirit of God to speak for God. Neither surprise, defect of talents, nor even ignorance itself, could hurt the cause of God, in the primitive times, when the hearts and minds of those Divine men were influenced by the Holy Spirit.
Your Father] This is added to excite and increase their confidence in God.
Daniel Whedon
20. It is not ye that speak — Their words will be God’s words. In the demoniacs the devils spake through the human organs. In the arraigned apostles the Holy Spirit shall speak, making their voice his voice, and their tongue his organ. The Spirit of your Father — It is God’s Spirit, and at that moment he recognises you as sons of God. Hence our Lord does not here say, My Father, but places the protecting fatherhood of God directly over his apostles.
The assurances here given that premeditation of their speech was unnecessary to the apostles before their persecutors, are not to be rashly applied to every preacher in the administration of the Gospel. A neglect of preparation for the pulpit is carelessness; an avoidance of it under the expectation of inspiration is fanaticism. No doubt a divine influence attends a faithful administration of the word, but not so as to supersede the best and fullest exertion of the human faculties.
We have here the doctrine of inspiration stated in its strongest form. In the apostles, in the moment of trial, the Holy Spirit would reside, and the words they spake should be his words. Its existence with the apostles, at any rate, in certain exigencies, is here beyond doubt asserted. And who can affirm, that in those sacred documents, the New Testament Scriptures, the same inspiration does not exist. If the apostles were furnished with this inspiration in their momentary times of trial, how much more important, that in recording their words for ages for the instruction of the Church and the conversion of the world, they should possess the same high qualification.
Richard Watson
Verse 20. For it is not you that speak, &c. — You alone do not speak; or, you speak not without special and direct assistance; but the Spirit of your Father speaketh in you, by ordering your thoughts, and giving you “utterance.” And He who “made man’s mouth” to be his instrument, is still “with the mouth” of his faithful servants to this day.
And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Adam Clarke
Verse 21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother, &c.] What an astonishing enmity is there in the soul of man against God and goodness! That men should think they did God service, in putting to death those who differ from them in their political or religious creed, is a thing that cannot be accounted for but on the principle of an indescribable depravity. O shame to men! devil with devil damn’d
Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational; though under hope
Of heavenly grace; and, God proclaiming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy!
PAR. LOST, b. ii. l. 496.
Joseph Benson
Verse 21. And the brother, who believeth not, shall deliver up the believing brother to death, and the father the child, &c. — As if he had said, All the wisdom and justice of your apologies, though divinely inspired, will not disarm the malice of your unreasonable enemies, which shall prevail to such a degree as even to triumph over natural affection, and break asunder the strictest bonds of social life: for the nearest relations shall betray one another, not only to some slighter punishments, but even to violent and tormenting deaths. And fathers shall thus become the murderers, instead of being the guardians and protectors, of their children: and children, on the other hand, forgetting all the obligations of filial duty and affection, shall rise up, as witnesses, against their own parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men — Namely, of all that know not God. You, my apostles, notwithstanding all the humanity of your character, and benevolent design of your office, shall be the objects of general aversion, censure, and persecution, and all this for my name’s sake — That is, for your attachment to me and my cause, though it be the cause of righteousness and truth, of the redemption and salvation of the human race. But he that endureth to the end shall be saved — But be not discouraged at the prospect of these trials, for he that perseveres in the faith and practice of the gospel, and who bears constantly and with invincible patience these persecutions, (which my grace is sufficient to enable you all to do,) shall be finally and eternally saved from all sin and misery, into the kingdom and glory of God: whatever extremities he may be called to suffer in this world, God will not only deliver him from the destruction which shall come upon the wicked, but will repay his fidelity with unspeakable and everlasting felicity in the next.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 21. The brother shall deliver up the brother to death. Such shall be the bigotry and enmity against the christian religion, as was exemplified in the treatment of the early christians, Acts 8:4; and more widely so in all the papal persecutions of the reformed churches. Our books of martyrs should still be studied, and often read. But the words that follow are the consolation of the church. The hairs of your head are all numbered: ver.
30. See more on Mark 8:34.
Daniel Whedon
21. Brother shall deliver up the brother to death — Persecution shall arise, in which all natural ties shall be disregarded. These predictions were amply fulfilled in the first ages of Christianity. Shall deliver up — Shall give information of them to the magistrate, and shall surrender them to the officer or government in pursuit of them. Children shall rise up against their parents — The children shall start up, accuse their parents of being Christians, and cause them to be put to death.
Richard Watson
Verse 21. Children shall rise up. — That is, if the term be taken forensically, as witnesses in the courts in which their believing parents shall be prosecuted; but it need not be so restricted. The words intimate that religious hatred should sever the tenderest bonds of natural affection, and overcome and pervert the strongest instincts of human nature. This declaration is to be regarded in the light of a prediction, which, in many subsequent ages, has been most fully accomplished; and who but He that “knew what was in man,” and whose omniscient eye could search the depths of the future, could have so accurately traced this repulsive feature in the dark history of religious persecutions? The experience of past ages afforded little aid to conjecture here. That persecution “for righteousness’ sake,” in which the highest degree of truth and holiness uniformly provoked the most diabolical enmity, arising from an unmixed hatred of truth and holiness themselves, which, since Christianity was first introduced into our world, has been practised in almost every age and place, both by Jews, pagans, and hypocritical Christians, had no parallel in the ancient world. To foresee this extraordinary moral phenomenon, and to foretell it, was, in the proper sense, to utter a prophecy, every part of which has been exactly and a thousand times exemplified.
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
John Wesley
V. 22. Of all men-That know not God. Matthew 24:13.
Adam Clarke
Verse 22. Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake] Because ye are attached to me, and saved from the corruption that is in the world; therefore the world will hate you. “The laws of Christ condemn a vicious world, and gall it to revenge.”
He that endureth to the end shall be saved] He who holds fast faith and a good conscience to the end, till the punishment threatened against this wicked people be poured out, he shall be saved, preserved from the destruction that shall fall upon the workers of iniquity. This verse is commonly understood to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem. It is also true that they who do not hold fast faith and a good conscience till death have no room to hope for an admission into the kingdom of God.
Daniel Whedon
22. Shall be hated of all men — That is, of all men out of the Christian community. Tacitus, the Roman historian, says, like a true pagan, that “the Christians were convicted of enmity to the human race;” Jews hated them as revolters from their own religion. Pagans could tolerate each other, and respect and worship each other’s gods. But the Christians abhorred all paganism, and so all pagans abhorred them; thus, Christians were hated of all men, whether Jews or Gentiles. The Christian was surrounded on every side by Jewish and by pagan rites. Every hour of the day, and at every turn, he was called upon to manifest his aversion to them. The consequence was, that while every other sect was tolerated, Christianity was the object of bloody persecution. For my name’s sake — This endurance of persecution, and this abhorrence of false religions, was neither a fiery fanaticism nor a vain superstition. It was for Jesus’s sake. It was suffering for truth, for Christ, and for God. Endureth to the end — To the end of his life and probation. To have once put faith in Christ is not the full condition of salvation. Faith, and perseverance of faith to the end, are the complete condition. That faith may be renounced. The Saviour once accepted, may be afterward rejected. Apostacy, total and final, may forfeit the reward.
Richard Watson
Verse 22. Endureth to the end, &c. — Some have explained the end to mean the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; and the salvation here promised to the enduring, to be deliverance from the calamities which should befall the Jews; but this is too limited and secular an interpretation. The end is the termination of the sufferings and trials of each individual, which would not, however, in all its forms cease but with the life of the faithful disciple; and the salvation is deliverance from eternal wrath, to which every one who should be ashamed of confessing Christ would be inevitably doomed. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life,” may be taken as our Lord’s own comment upon these words, in his message to one of the persecuted Churches of Asia Minor. The practice of many commentators to refer so many of the allusions in the discourses of John the Baptist, and those of our Lord, to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the deliverance of the Christians, has destroyed the force of many of the most impressive passages in both. This misapplication, in many instances, is absurd; in others it corrupts the sense of Scripture, and destroys its spirituality. In the present instance, the promise, that he that endureth to the end shall be saved, can have no important meaning when considered as a part of a discourse which contains solemn directions to the apostles, as to the exercise of their ministry to the end of their life, and through them to all ministers. What appositeness to this great design would there have been in saying, “He that continues a Christian until Jerusalem is besieged by the Romans, shall escape being shut within its walls?” a danger to which not more than one or two, if any, of the apostles were exposed, they being for the most part absent from Judea; but, if otherwise, it has no correspondence with the labours, sufferings, and rewards of the faithful, enduring minister of Christ, as set forth in other passages, which connect, them all with the interests of the soul, and the solemnities and glories of eternity. These remarks are made to guard the reader against those false and generally debasing interpretations of Scripture which often occur even among learned commentators, both domestic and foreign, who, not being spiritual men themselves, or prone largely to sacrifice the sense of particular passages to some favourite theory or principle of interpretation, greatly mislead the inattentive and incautious.
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
John Wesley
V. 23. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel-Make what haste ye will;
till the Son of man be come-To destroy their temple and nation.
Adam Clarke
Verse 23. But when they persecute you] It is prudence and humility (when charity or righteousness obliges us not to the contrary) to avoid persecution. To deprive those who are disposed to do evil of the opportunities of doing it; to convey the grace which they despise to others; to accomplish God’s designs of justice on the former, and of mercy on the latter, are consequences of the flight of a persecuted preacher. This flight is a precept to those who are highly necessary to the Church of Christ, an advice to those who might imprudently draw upon themselves persecution, and of indulgence for those who are weak. But this flight is highly criminal in those mercenary preachers who, through love to their flesh and their property, abandon the flock of Christ to the wolf. See Quesnel. In this city, flee ye into another] There is a remarkable repetition of this clause found in the MSS. DL and eight others; the Armenian, Saxon, all the Italia except three; Athan., Theodor., Tertul., August., Ambr., Hilar., and Juvencus. Bengel, in his gnomon approves of this reading. On the above authorities Griesbach has inserted it in the text. It probably made a portion of this Gospel as written by Matthew. The verse in the MSS. is as follows:-But when they shall persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; and if they persecute in the other, flee ye unto another. Ye shall not have gone over (ended or finished, margin) the cities, &c.] The word teleshte here is generally understood as implying to go over or through, intimating that there should not be time for the disciples to travel over the cities of Judea before the destruction predicted by Christ should take place. But this is very far from being the truth, as there were not less than forty years after this was spoken, before Jerusalem was destroyed: teleiwn kai manqanantwn are used by the Septuagint. 1 Chronicles 25:8, for those who teach and those who learn. And toiv teleioiv is used by the apostle, 1 Corinthians 2:6, for those who are perfectly instructed in the things of God. Ovid has used the Latin perficio, which answers to the Greek teleiow in exactly the same sense. Phillyrides puerum cithara perfecit Achillem.
“Chiron TAUGHT the young Achilles to play on the harp.” For these reasons some contend that the passage should be translated, Ye shall not have INSTRUCTED, i.e. preached the Gospel in the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be came. The Greek divines call baptism teleiwsiv or initiation. See Leigh. Crit. sacr. Edit. Amst. p. 326, 328.
Dr. Lightfoot supposes the meaning to be: “Ye shall not have travelled over the cities of Israel, preaching the Gospel, before the Son of man is revealed by his resurrection, Romans 1:4; compare Acts 3:19, 20; 5:26. To you first, God, raising up his Son, sent him to bless you, &c. The epoch of the Messiah is dated from the resurrection of Christ.” After all, the place may be understood literally; for telein tav poleiv, to finish the cities, is only a concise mode of speech, for telein odon dia tav poleiv, to complete the journey through the cities. To finish the survey, to preach in every one:-till the Son of man be come, may refer either to the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of pentecost, or to the subversion of the Jewish state. See Rosenmuller.
Joseph Benson
Verse 23. But, &c. — As if he had said, I do not say this with a view to encourage you to rush upon martyrdom before you have a plain and lawful call to it; on the other hand, it will rather be your duty to prolong your useful lives to the utmost limits you lawfully may. Therefore, when they persecute you in one city, flee to another — And though this may contract the time of your abode in each, be not discouraged at that, which may, on the whole, be no inconvenience: for ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel — To preach the gospel in each of them, make what haste you will, until the Son of man shall come — To destroy their capital city, temple, and nation. The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus is often called the coming of the Son of man. See Matthew 24:27, 37, 39, 44; Luke 18:5.
Daniel Whedon
23. Persecute you in this city — Our Lord now momentarily reverts to the present trial and specimen mission upon which they are just proceeding. It is to towns and cities, rather than to rural districts, that they are going. Nay, they are commencing, as it were, the entire circuit (which they will never complete) of the cities of Palestine. They have no time to delay and fight the battle in cities that reject them. Driven from one city, let them hasten to another. They will not have visited even then all the cities of Israel before their special mission to Israel will be closed. Jesus will come at his resurrection, and give them a new commission for all the nations of the earth.
The command to flee was little accordant with a false human courage. But a heroism such as the world admires is not what Christ required. Christians who acted from the spirit of opposition, or the love of glory, were very apt to apostatize in the time of danger. The true martyr never sought death; never made a display of heroism; and never failed when, reposing faith in Christ, he meekly suffered for his name.
The Son of man — We have before remarked that this epithet was usually applied to our Lord by himself alone. See note on Matthew 8:20. Its first application to the Messiah is in Daniel 7:13: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,” etc. Upon this passage we may remark:
1. The Jews of all ages applied this pictorial description to their future Messiah. Our Saviour, therefore, in claiming this title, and habitually applying it to himself, claimed the title of Messiah.
2. This picture and title intimate that the Messiah would possess a human nature, and spring from a human origin, and therefore refer primarily to the humility of the Messiah. With a pure humility, therefore, does our Lord make it his own habitual epithet for himself.
3. Yet the title includes also his exaltation and glorification. He is seen “in the clouds of heaven.” He is led as a Son into the presence and before the throne of his Father Almighty. There is he invested with a divine royalty. Beneath him is placed a kingdom universal and eternal. This is the kingdom of heaven, yet it rules over the earth, comprehending authority over all nations.
4. This scenic picture has a complete fulfilment in the resurrection and ascension of Christ; when coming in body from the tomb, and in soul from Hades, he announced that all power was given to him, and ascended to the presence in glorified state of the Father Almighty. There was he invested with a universal kingdom, and took his seat on the right hand of the majesty of God. There shall he reign until he has subdued all enemies under his feet. Compare note on Matthew 16:28, and Matthew 28:18. Till the Son of man be come — The apostles will not have gone over the cities of Israel till that coming, foreseen by Daniel, shall have withdrawn them from their special mission to Israel, and given them a mission to the world.
Of this expression, till the Son of man be come, very different interpretations have been given by commentators.
It has been referred to the judgment day, or second advent of Christ to judge the world. But this event did not take place in a shorter period than was requisite for the apostles to have gone over all the cities of Israel. It is referred, however, by the great body of commentators, to the destruction of Jerusalem. Thus Stier gives a very plausible exposition, importing that the apostles will not be able to complete the circuit of Israel before that Christ, by his providence, will have overthrown the Jewish state, and have abolished the externalities of the Jewish dispensation. Nevertheless I am unable to adopt this view, as I shall show more fully in my notes on Matthew 24 and 25. I will here remark, that the destruction of Jerusalem is, I think, nowhere called the coming of Christ. There is nothing in that event to render it a terminus of the past, or a commencement of the future. Judaism ended at the crucifixion. At that moment her ritual, her sacrifices, her temple, her priesthood, her whole status, were null, and nothing in the world. The resurrection and ascension were the inauguration of the new dispensation. And what explains this clause specially is, that then the cities of Israel were no longer the circumscribed field of the apostolic mission, but a universal commission was given. Hence it is that our Lord charges his apostles that, with the speediest circuit, they would not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come. Compare note on Matthew 16:28, and Matthew 28:18.
Richard Watson
Verse 23. Ye shall not have gone over the cities, &c. — Ou mh teleshte tav poleiv, ye shall not end or finish the cities, says the margin, that is, by visiting them. The meaning is, “Ye shall not have accomplished your mission to the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come;” or, “Ye shall scarcely have conveyed to all those cities the tidings of salvation before the Son of man come.” The coming of the Son of man signifies his awful manifestation as the Judge of the Jewish nation, by the ever memorable and fatal invasion of the Romans, and the entire consequent subversion of their polity; which invisible coming of his he several times refers to in his prophecies, as the type of his final advent as the Judge of the world. This is another proof that the address here made to the apostles referred also to their future ministry after his resurrection, and that of his other commissioned servants; and the object of it was to quicken them to a zealous itinerancy through all the cities of Israel, by intimating that the judgment of that wretched people could not long be delayed. They had a great work to do, and but little space to do it in. Judgment was at the door in its most awful forms, and the ministers of salvation were therefore to employ every effort in plucking as many out of the fire as possible. There was no time to be lost in disputing with the incorrigibly obstinate; “when, therefore, they persecute you in one city, flee to another,” and compass the length and breadth of a devoted land in order to save some. To refer this coming of the Son of man to his resurrection or ascension, has no warrant from any similar use of the phrase, and, in fact, wholly obscures the passage; for the apostles were not employed in this work until the resurrection of Christ, except only for a very short time, after which they returned and remained with Christ. If, therefore, the work assigned them, of visiting all the cities of Israel, was subsequent to the resurrection and ascension, then the coming of “the Son of man” must be subsequent to that event also, and can only be referred to his coming to judge and destroy the nation. Some render telein, to instruct; but this is far-fetched; and there is no necessity for departing from the common rendering for the objection, that, as many years elapsed before the destruction of Jerusalem, there could be no such scarcity of time to go over the cities of Israel as seems to be intimated; that would be true, if nothing more had been meant than paying a hasty visit to each; but our Lord refers to the serious and laborious efforts of his apostles and other disciples to bring the Jews to embrace the Gospel, in order that they might escape the threatened judgments of God; and forty years was but a short time for them to pursue such labours amid prejudice, calumny, and persecution, so as to discharge their consciences as to every city, and town, and village of Judea, to render all inexcusable, and to train up, out of so corrupt a mass, those numerous, though small Hebrew Churches, which by their instrumentality were in fact raised up.
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord.
John Wesley
V. 24. Luke 6:30; John 15:20.
Adam Clarke
Verse 24. The disciple is not above his master] Or in plainer terms, A scholar is not above his teacher. The saying itself requires no comment, its truth and reasonableness are self-evident, but to the spirit and design we should carefully attend. Jesus is the great teacher: we profess to be his scholars. He who keeps the above saying in his heart will never complain of what he suffers. How many irregular thoughts and affections is this maxim capable of restraining! A man is not a scholar of Christ unless he learn his doctrine; and he does not learn it as he ought unless he put it in practice.
Joseph Benson
Verses 24-26. The disciple is not above his master — As if he had said, As for the unkind usage I have warned you to expect, you have no reason to be surprised at it, considering what I have intimated respecting the persecutions awaiting my disciples for righteousness’ sake. See Matthew 5:10-12. And, that you may bear all with a becoming fortitude, consider that they have calumniated, traduced, and persecuted me your Master, for which cause you, my disciples, cannot think it hard if they shall calumniate and persecute you: for if they have called the master, Beelzebub, how much more, &c. — This cannot refer to the quantity of reproach and persecution; (for in this the servant cannot be above his Lord;) but only to the certainty of it. Fear them not therefore — Be not afraid of their calumnies, however false or malicious, for ye have only the same usage that your Lord has: and neither shall their wickedness nor your innocence be always concealed: both shall be manifested, at least, in the day of judgment. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, &c. — “The words,” says Whitby, “are capable of two good senses: 1st, Let not the dread of these persecutors deter you from preaching the gospel, as despairing of the success of it; for, though at present it seems to be hidden from the world, and it is likely to be obscured for a while by the calumnies of the Jews and others, I will cause it to shine through all the world, and dissipate all the clouds they cast over it, and will render it mighty to cast down whatever exalts itself against the knowledge of God, &c. Or, 2dly, thus, Fear not the calumnies with which they shall load you, as they did your Master, for I will make the innocence and the excellence of your doctrine as clear as the light; and your integrity in the dispensing of it, and your patience in suffering for it, to redound to your praise, honour, and glory, throughout all ages, and especially at my revelation from heaven, 1 Peter 1:7.”
Daniel Whedon
III. THE DUTY, THE STRUGGLE, AND THE ISSUE, 24-42.
The duty: The reasonableness, the safety, and the reward of confessing Christ, 24-33. The struggle: A division between the nearest connections, a stern necessity of preferring truth to human ties, 34-39. The issue: All that receive Christ in his apostles, and who benefit and further their mission in faith, shall join them in the reward, 40-42.
This, the closing part of the discourse, stands in close connection with the train of thought which it completes. The previous part has described their mission and duties as apostles; what follows describes rather the case of those to whom they preach, yet including also those who preach. If persecutions must be suffered, to suffer is reasonable, it is safe, it attains a reward.
The Duty, 24-33.
24. Disciple is not above his master — So, according to many Jewish proverbs, the pupil of the rabbi was far his inferior. If the master undergo indignity, still deeper insult must the servant accept. And so with what force could our suffering Saviour, who endured the cross, require his disciples to endure by his own previous yet unparalleled example! He is our precedent for suffering, our pattern in suffering, but infinitely above us in the measure of suffering. He is our Lord, not by suffering less, but in the supremacy of his endurance.
Richard Watson
Verse 24. The disciple is not above his master, &c. — The consideration of the humiliations, persecutions, and reproaches of our blessed Lord, will always greatly tend to sustain the patience of the suffering disciples. We can only successfully run the race of difficulty, as the race of duty, by “looking unto Jesus.”
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
John Wesley
V. 25. How much more-This cannot refer to the quantity of reproach and persecution: (for in this the servant cannot be above his lord:) but only to the certainty of it. Matthew 12:24.
Adam Clarke
Verse 25. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master] Can any man who pretends to be a scholar or disciple of Jesus Christ, expect to be treated well by the world? Will not the world love its own, and them only? Why, then, so much impatience under sufferings, such an excessive sense of injuries, such delicacy? Can you expect any thing from the world better than you receive? If you want the honour that comes from it, abandon Jesus Christ, and it will again receive you into its bosom. But you will, no doubt, count the cost before you do this. Take the converse, abandon the love of the world, &c., and God will receive you.
Beelzebub] This name is variously written in the MSS. Beelzebaul, Beelzeboun, Beelzebud, but there is a vast majority in favour of the reading Beelzebul, which should, by all means, be inserted in the text instead of Beelzebub. See the reasons below, and see the margin. It is supposed that this idol was the same with bwbz בעל Baalzebub the god fly, worshipped at Ekron, 2 Kings 1:2, &c., who had his name changed afterwards by the Jews to lwbz בעל Baal zebul, the dung god, a title expressive of the utmost contempt. It seems probable that the worship of this vile idol continued even to the time of our Lord; and the title, being applied by the Jews to our blessed Lord, affords the strongest proof of the inveteracy of their malice.
Dr. Lightfoot has some useful observations on this subject, which I shall take the liberty to subjoin.
“For the searching out the sense of this horrid blasphemy, these things are worthy observing,
“I. Among the Jews it was held, in a manner, for a matter of religion, to reproach idols, and to give them odious names. R. Akibah saith, Idolatry pollutes, as it is said, Thou shalt cast away the (idol) as something that is abominable, and thou shalt say to it, Get thee hence: (Isaiah 30:22.) R. Lazar saith, Thou shalt say to it, Get thee hence: that which they call the face of God, let them call the face of a dog. That which they call swk ˆy[ ein cos, the FOUNTAIN OF A CUP, let them call xwq ˆy[ ein kuts, the FOUNTAIN OF TOIL (or of flails.) That which they call hydg gediyah, FORTUNE, let them call ayylg geliya, a STINK, &c. That town which sometimes was called Bethel, was afterwards called Bethaven. See also the tract Schabbath.
“II. Among the ignominious names bestowed upon idols, the general and common one was lwbz Zebul, DUNG, or a DUNGHILL. ‘Even to them that have stretched out their hands lwbzb bezebul in a dunghill, (that is, in an idol temple, or in idolatry,) there is hope. Thou canst not bring them (into the Church) because they have stretched forth their hands bezebul, in a dunghill. But yet you cannot reject them, because they have repented.’ And a little after, He that sees them dunging, בזבלינ (that is, sacrificing,) to an idol, let him say, Cursed be he that sacrifices to a strange god. Let them, therefore, who dare, form this word in Matthew into Beelzebub. I am so far from doubting that the Pharisees pronounced the word BEELZEBUL, and that Matthew so wrote it, that I doubt not but the sense fails if it be writ otherwise. “III. Very many names of evil spirits, or devils, occur in the Talmud, which it is needless here to mention. Among all the devils, they esteemed that devil the worst, the foulest, as it were, the prince of the rest, who ruled over the idols, and by whom oracles and miracles were given forth among the Heathens and idolaters. And they were of this opinion for this reason, because they held idolatry, above all other things, chiefly wicked and abominable, and to be the prince and head of evil. This demon they called lwbz בעל Baal-zebul, not so much by a proper name, as by one more general and common; as much as to say, the lord of idolatry: the worst devil, and the worst thing: and they called him the prince of devils, because idolatry is the prince (or chief) of wickedness.”
Joseph Benson
Verses 24-26. The disciple is not above his master — As if he had said, As for the unkind usage I have warned you to expect, you have no reason to be surprised at it, considering what I have intimated respecting the persecutions awaiting my disciples for righteousness’ sake. See Matthew 5:10-12. And, that you may bear all with a becoming fortitude, consider that they have calumniated, traduced, and persecuted me your Master, for which cause you, my disciples, cannot think it hard if they shall calumniate and persecute you: for if they have called the master, Beelzebub, how much more, &c. — This cannot refer to the quantity of reproach and persecution; (for in this the servant cannot be above his Lord;) but only to the certainty of it. Fear them not therefore — Be not afraid of their calumnies, however false or malicious, for ye have only the same usage that your Lord has: and neither shall their wickedness nor your innocence be always concealed: both shall be manifested, at least, in the day of judgment. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, &c. — “The words,” says Whitby, “are capable of two good senses: 1st, Let not the dread of these persecutors deter you from preaching the gospel, as despairing of the success of it; for, though at present it seems to be hidden from the world, and it is likely to be obscured for a while by the calumnies of the Jews and others, I will cause it to shine through all the world, and dissipate all the clouds they cast over it, and will render it mighty to cast down whatever exalts itself against the knowledge of God, &c. Or, 2dly, thus, Fear not the calumnies with which they shall load you, as they did your Master, for I will make the innocence and the excellence of your doctrine as clear as the light; and your integrity in the dispensing of it, and your patience in suffering for it, to redound to your praise, honour, and glory, throughout all ages, and especially at my revelation from heaven, 1 Peter 1:7.”
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 25. Beelzebub. See on Numbers 32:38. The Greek is, Beelzeboul. The Greeks altered foreign names to agree with their own language.
Daniel Whedon
25. Called the master of the house — Our Lord presents himself now under a slightly new figure. In the last verse he was a rabbi, with his pupils. In the present expression he is a householder, with his domestics. Their foes have not shrunk to call him by the most opprobrious epithets; still less respect can be expected for them. Beelzebub — This word is the Greek form of the name of Baal-zebub, (the Philistine god worshipped at Ekron,) signifying the lord of flies. See 2 Kings 1:2. But the reading of the word in this verse, best supported by the manuscripts, is, by a slight alteration, Beelzeboul. This is undoubtedly here the true form. The Jews were accustomed to express their contempt of a thing by some slight change of its name, which gave it a disgusting or even indecent meaning. Beelzeboul signifies lord of dung. And the word dung was also their contemptuous epithet for idolatry, since they intended to give the filthiest possible name to what they considered the vilest possible sin. Beelzebub, therefore, they changed to Beelzeboul, lord of dung, or perhaps, idolatry. No worse epithet did they feel themselves able to invent for Jesus. It was perhaps from the title lord of idolatry, thus acquired, that Beelzebub was reputed prince of devils. And in the extremity of their hatred, their attributing to Jesus the name of this supreme demon, indicated their consciousness of the mighty power he manifested.
And now the discipleship of Christ is a great family, and if its enemies have launched their foulest calumnies against its illustrious head, what right have its members to expect exemption from reproach?
Richard Watson
Verse 25. Beelzebub. — Our translators have followed the Vulgate in writing this name Beelzebub, instead of Beelzebul, which is undoubtedly the true reading. Baalzebub was an Ekronite or Philistine idol, bwbz בעל, mentioned 2 Kings 1:2, and this in Greek is written beelzeboul, Beelzebul, the b being changed into l, because no word in Greek is found to end in b. The same idol is meant by each appellation; and as this was a chief deity among the pagan nations which surrounded the Jews, and as the latter believed all the false deities of the heathens to be evil spirits, the name was transferred to Satan, and commonly used as a name for “the prince of devils.” Baalzebub signifies the lord of flies, this deity being probably the object of special trust for deliverance from hornets, locusts, and other winged insects, the scourge of those countries; but with the Jews of our Lord’s time it was merely employed as one of the names of Satan. The notion of Lightfoot that Baalzebub was altered by the Jews into Beelzebul, from lwbz Zebul, DUNG, in order to express their contempt of this and other idols invented by them, and that it was in this contemptuous sense that it was applied to our Lord by the Pharisees, appears to be no better than an ingenious conjecture; for the Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions agree with the Vulgate, which indicates that the oriental name was Beelzebub. If Beelzebul be the same as Beelzebub, the change in the final letter when expressed in Greek is sufficiently accounted for above; and if Beelzebul were a different deity from Beelzebub, the word may mean the Lord of heaven, or the celestial habitation, lwbz, Zebul having that signification: and this was probably the same deity whom the Phenicians, neighbours of the Ekronites, worshipped under the name of ˆmc בעל, Baal Shemin Lord of the heavens. Beside this, the name of Beelzebub or Beelzebul was not given to our Lord with reference to these idols at all, but to Satan himself. It was not, therefore, so much a name of jeering contempt as of deep malignant blasphemy. They called him, in fact, a devil, a chief devil, or, as when speaking out fully on another occasion, “Thou hast A DEVIL, and art mad.”
Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
John Wesley
V. 26. Therefore fear them not-For ye have only the same usage with your Lord.
There is nothing covered-So that however they may slander you now, your innocence will at length appear. Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17; 12:2.
Adam Clarke
Verse 26. Fear them not] A general direction to all the persecuted followers of Christ. Fear them not, for they can make you suffer nothing worse than they have made Christ suffer; and under all trials he has promised the most ample support.
For there is nothing covered, &c.] God sees every thing; this is consolation to the upright and dismay to the wicked; and he will bring into judgment every work, and every secret thing, whether good or bad, Ecclesiastes 12:14.
Joseph Benson
Verses 24-26. The disciple is not above his master — As if he had said, As for the unkind usage I have warned you to expect, you have no reason to be surprised at it, considering what I have intimated respecting the persecutions awaiting my disciples for righteousness’ sake. See Matthew 5:10-12. And, that you may bear all with a becoming fortitude, consider that they have calumniated, traduced, and persecuted me your Master, for which cause you, my disciples, cannot think it hard if they shall calumniate and persecute you: for if they have called the master, Beelzebub, how much more, &c. — This cannot refer to the quantity of reproach and persecution; (for in this the servant cannot be above his Lord;) but only to the certainty of it. Fear them not therefore — Be not afraid of their calumnies, however false or malicious, for ye have only the same usage that your Lord has: and neither shall their wickedness nor your innocence be always concealed: both shall be manifested, at least, in the day of judgment. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, &c. — “The words,” says Whitby, “are capable of two good senses: 1st, Let not the dread of these persecutors deter you from preaching the gospel, as despairing of the success of it; for, though at present it seems to be hidden from the world, and it is likely to be obscured for a while by the calumnies of the Jews and others, I will cause it to shine through all the world, and dissipate all the clouds they cast over it, and will render it mighty to cast down whatever exalts itself against the knowledge of God, &c. Or, 2dly, thus, Fear not the calumnies with which they shall load you, as they did your Master, for I will make the innocence and the excellence of your doctrine as clear as the light; and your integrity in the dispensing of it, and your patience in suffering for it, to redound to your praise, honour, and glory, throughout all ages, and especially at my revelation from heaven, 1 Peter 1:7.”
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 26. Fear them not. In this most instructive charge, after preparing the minds of the disciples for the work, our Lord next prepares them to meet danger. This is by faith in God, to whom futurity is without a veil, and who will suffer nothing to happen to his prudent servants but for good. He will develope the plots of their enemies, and number the hairs of their head. How calm is that mind at the worst of times, which can trust and not be afraid. Let ministers often read this admirable code of divine instructions; let them weigh and amplify all the expressions, that fully entering into the Saviour’s views, they may be prepared to do the whole of his blessed will. The reward is temporal and eternal life, both to the preacher and to the good man who receives him. Thus our Lord preserved the lives of his disciples by flight when Jerusalem was taken; while the wary jews who believed on Jesus, but did not confess him openly for fear of the synagogue, were enclosed and perished in the siege. So it shall be with all those ministers and hypocrites who assume and retain a profession of religion for secular interest.
Daniel Whedon
26. Nothing covered, that shall not be revealed — All their words and deeds of darkness and violence shall be exposed in the broad light of God’s judgment.
Richard Watson
Verse 26. There is nothing covered, &c. — As our Lord had been just referring to the gross and malicious slanders with which his disciples should be assailed, and as he here fortifies their minds against the fear of calumniators, it is most natural to refer these words to that ultimate justification of their characters and motives which Divine Providence would bring about; so that these words also have a prophetic character. For a time obloquy “covered” and “hid” the faith, the charity, and the purity of the first preachers of the Gospel; and in place of these virtues the worst motives were attributed to them. They were regarded “as the filth and off-scouring of all things, and not fit to live,” “men that turned the world upside down,” “pestilent fellows, and movers of sedition;” but what was thus covered and hid has been revealed. How truly has “the righteousness” of these men, who laid character as well as life upon the altar of sacrifice, “been brought forth as brightness, and their judgment as the noonday!” What honours, true and grateful honours, have been for ages rendered to the apostles, evangelists, and prophets of primitive Christianity, while the names of their revilers have perished in the dust, or been preserved only on the records of infamy! And the hallowed fame of these heroic men still extends; new nations every year learn their history, read their writings, derive life and salvation from the truth for which they suffered and died; and pronounce, and to the end of time shall pronounce, with admiration, affection, and the joyful hope of seeing them in person, these names once cast out as evil, and which were joyfully surrendered to be a “proverb and a byword” for the sake of Christ, and for the salvation of the world. Thus also has constancy in suffering in a righteous cause been often since their day rewarded; and those great imitators of apostolic zeal and patience, by whose efforts fallen truth has so often been raised up in the Church, and the kingdom of darkness successfully assailed, and who long were objects of popular abuse, or the hatred of proud persecutors, have either outlived every calumny, or left a name, the reputation of which God himself has so cared for as to cause it to be embalmed in the grateful homage of succeeding generations.
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
John Wesley
V. 27. Even what I now tell you secretly is not to be kept secret long, but declared publicly. Therefore,
What ye hear in the ear, publish on the house-top-Two customs of the Jews seem to be alluded to here. Their doctors used to whisper in the ear of their disciples what they were to pronounce aloud to others. And as their houses were low and flat roofed, they sometimes preached to the people from thence. Luke 12:3.
Adam Clarke
Verse 27. What I tell you in darkness] A man ought to preach that only which he has learned from God’s Spirit, and his testimonies; but let him not pretend to bring forth any thing new, or mysterious. There is nothing that concerns our salvation that is newer than the new covenant; and in that there are, properly speaking, no mysteries: what was secret before is now made manifest in the Gospel of the ever-blessed God. See Ephesians 3:1-12.
What ye hear in the ear] The doctor who explained the law in Hebrew had an interpreter always by him, in whose ears he softly whispered what he said; this interpreter spoke aloud what had been thus whispered to him. Lightfoot has clearly proved this in his Horæ Talmudicæ, and to this custom our Lord here evidently alludes. The spirit of our Lord’s direction appears to be this: whatever I speak to you is for the benefit of mankind,-keep nothing from them, declare explicitly the whole counsel of God; preach ye, (khruxate proclaim,) on the house-tops. The houses in Judea were flat-roofed, with a ballustrade round about, which were used for the purpose of taking the air, prayer, meditation, and it seems, from this place, for announcing things in the most public manner. As there are no bells among the Turks, a crier proclaims all times of public worship from the house-tops. Whoever will give himself the trouble to consult the following scriptures will find a variety of uses to which these housetops were assigned. Deuteronomy 22:8; Joshua 2:6; Judges 9:51; Nehemiah 8:16; 2 Samuel 11:2; 2 Kings 23:12; Isaiah 15:3; Jeremiah 32:29, and Acts 10:9.
Lightfoot thinks that this may be an allusion to that custom, when the minister of the synagogue, on the Sabbath eve, sounded with a trumpet six times, upon the roof of a very high house, that from thence all might have notice of the coming in of the Sabbath. The first blast signified that they should heave off their work in the field: the second that they should cease from theirs in the city: the third that they should light the Sabbath candle, &c.
Joseph Benson
Verses 27, 28. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light — The doctrines of the gospel which I deliver to you in private, and in obscure parables, preach plainly and openly, without the fear of man, in the audience of all. And what ye hear, as it were whispered, in the ear, preach ye — Proclaim publicly, as though you addressed multitudes, from the house-tops. Two customs of the Jews seem to be alluded to here. Their doctors used to whisper in the ear of their disciples what they were to pronounce aloud to others. And as their houses were low and flat-roofed, they sometimes preached to the people from thence. And, according to Hegesippus, they carried James the Just to the top of the temple to preach to the people at the passover. And fear not them that kill the body — Be not afraid of any thing which ye may suffer for proclaiming it, even though the boldness of your testimony should at length cost you your lives: for they who kill the body, are not able to kill, or hurt, the soul — The spiritual and immaterial part of you: this “will still survive in all its vigour, while its tabernacle lies in ruins.” So Dr. Doddridge, who justly observes, “These words contain a certain argument to prove the existence of the soul in a separate state, and its perception of that existence; else the soul would be as properly killed as the body.” On this argument Dr. Whitby enlarges as follows: “These words contain a certain evidence that the soul dies not with the body, but continued afterward in a state of sensibility: for that which, it is allowed, men can do to the body, it is denied that they can do to the soul. But, if by killing the body men could make the soul also to perish till the reunion and reviviscence both of body and soul; or, if by killing the body they could render the soul insensible, or deprive it of all power of thinking or perceiving any thing, they would kill the soul; for it is not easy to conceive how an intelligent, thinking, and perceiving being can be more killed than by depriving it of all sensation, thought, and perception; the body itself being killed by a total privation of sense and motion. It remains, that the soul doth not perish with the body, nor is it reduced into an insensible state by the death thereof.” Add to this, our Lord may well be supposed to speak here as the Jews would certainly understand his words; now they would certainly thus understand him, it being their received opinion, [namely, that of the Pharisees,] that the soul, after the death of the body, is in bliss or misery, and therefore continues in a state of sensibility. But, fear him, &c. — Fear lest, being unfaithful in so important a trust, you should incur the displeasure of Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell — Who has power to fill the separate spirit with unspeakable anguish, and at the final judgment to reunite it to the body, and to condemn both to everlasting misery in that infernal prison. It must be observed, that instead of apokteinai, to kill, the word apolesai, to destroy, is used in this second clause, which also often signifies to torment. “What an awful verse is this before us! How fit is it that this eternal and almighty God should be the object of our humble fear! and that in comparison of him we should fear nothing else! All the terrors and all the flatteries of the world are disarmed by this! an idea which, in every state of life, should engage us to be faithful to God; so shall we be most truly faithful to ourselves.”
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 27. What ye hear in the ear, as a whisper, preach ye on the house- tops. The roofs in the east being generally flat, they often addressed people in the street from the roof or balcony of their houses. By this we learn, that ministers must not shrink from the arduous duties of declaring the whole counsel of God.
Daniel Whedon
27. What I tell you in darkness — My words uttered in privacy, or enveloped in parables, shall also come forth. As their deeds are to come to the light of condemnation, so my Gospel shall come forth to publication, to vindication, and to victory. That speak ye — Be ye its publishers. In light — In publicity. So far from allowing persecution to suppress the word, carry it forth from this preparatory retirement and proclaim it to the world. Hear in the ear — The pupil of the rabbi held his ear intent to receive the utterances of his master. Upon the housetops — It is still a custom in the East to make public proclamation to the city from a housetop. Dr. Thomson says: “At the present day local governors in country districts cause their commands thus to be published. Their proclamations are generally made in the evening, after the people have returned from their labours in the field. The public crier ascends the highest roof at hand, and lifts up his voice in a long-drawn call.”
Richard Watson
Verse 27. What I tell you in darkness. — This duty is urged by the preceding consideration: if God will take care of the interest and reputation of those who suffer reproach for the sake of Christ, let this animate you to the great duty of openly and fearlessly proclaiming the Gospel. Darkness here means privacy; for to his disciples alone, partially before, and especially after his resurrection, our Lord opened the full and perfect system of his religion; but not for themselves only, for they were thus made “stewards,” dispensers, “of the mysteries of God.”
What ye hear in the ear, &c. — This allusion is to a practice in the Jewish synagogues. After the return from the captivity the pure Hebrew was no longer the vernacular tongue of the Jews, yet the law continued to be read in that language; but that its sense might be conveyed to the people, an interpreter, called Targumists, was attached to every synagogue, into whose ear the doctor in a soft voice read the Hebrew text, and the interpreter pronounced it aloud in the common dialect. The Jewish doctors too employed interpreters, from notions of dignity, into whose ear they whispered their instructions in the Hebrew tongue; and they declared them to the multitude in their own dialect. But our Lord gives stronger emphasis to the open and earnest publication of the truths he should privately teach his disciples, by enjoining that they should preach them upon the house- tops. The Jewish houses had flat roofs, and so also had their public buildings, from which proclamations were made to the people. The publication of the Gospel is therefore to be a PUBLIC OFFICIAL PROCLAMATION to all ranks of people. This custom appears to explain the words of Christ better than that of sounding a trumpet from the roof by the minister of the synagogue to announce the approach of the Sabbath.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
John Wesley
V. 28. And be not afraid-of any thing which ye may suffer for proclaiming it.
Be afraid of him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell-It is remarkable, that our Lord commands those who love God, still to fear him, even on this account, under this notion.
Adam Clarke
Verse 28. Fear not them which kill the body] twn apokteinontwn. Those who slay with acts of cruelty, alluding probably to the cruelties which persecutors should exercise on his followers in their martyrdom. But are not able to kill the soul. Hence we find that the body and the soul are distinct principles, for the body may be slain and the soul escape; and, secondly, that the soul is immaterial, for the murderers of the body are not able, mh dunamenwn, have it not in their power, to injure it. Fear him] It is, not hell-fire we are to fear, but it is God; without the stroke of whose justice hell itself would be no punishment, and whose frown would render heaven itself insupportable. What strange blindness is it to expose our souls to endless ruin, which should enjoy God eternally; and to save and pamper the body, by which we enjoy nothing but the creatures, and them only for a moment!
Joseph Benson
Verses 27, 28. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light — The doctrines of the gospel which I deliver to you in private, and in obscure parables, preach plainly and openly, without the fear of man, in the audience of all. And what ye hear, as it were whispered, in the ear, preach ye — Proclaim publicly, as though you addressed multitudes, from the house-tops. Two customs of the Jews seem to be alluded to here. Their doctors used to whisper in the ear of their disciples what they were to pronounce aloud to others. And as their houses were low and flat-roofed, they sometimes preached to the people from thence. And, according to Hegesippus, they carried James the Just to the top of the temple to preach to the people at the passover. And fear not them that kill the body — Be not afraid of any thing which ye may suffer for proclaiming it, even though the boldness of your testimony should at length cost you your lives: for they who kill the body, are not able to kill, or hurt, the soul — The spiritual and immaterial part of you: this “will still survive in all its vigour, while its tabernacle lies in ruins.” So Dr. Doddridge, who justly observes, “These words contain a certain argument to prove the existence of the soul in a separate state, and its perception of that existence; else the soul would be as properly killed as the body.” On this argument Dr. Whitby enlarges as follows: “These words contain a certain evidence that the soul dies not with the body, but continued afterward in a state of sensibility: for that which, it is allowed, men can do to the body, it is denied that they can do to the soul. But, if by killing the body men could make the soul also to perish till the reunion and reviviscence both of body and soul; or, if by killing the body they could render the soul insensible, or deprive it of all power of thinking or perceiving any thing, they would kill the soul; for it is not easy to conceive how an intelligent, thinking, and perceiving being can be more killed than by depriving it of all sensation, thought, and perception; the body itself being killed by a total privation of sense and motion. It remains, that the soul doth not perish with the body, nor is it reduced into an insensible state by the death thereof.” Add to this, our Lord may well be supposed to speak here as the Jews would certainly understand his words; now they would certainly thus understand him, it being their received opinion, [namely, that of the Pharisees,] that the soul, after the death of the body, is in bliss or misery, and therefore continues in a state of sensibility. But, fear him, &c. — Fear lest, being unfaithful in so important a trust, you should incur the displeasure of Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell — Who has power to fill the separate spirit with unspeakable anguish, and at the final judgment to reunite it to the body, and to condemn both to everlasting misery in that infernal prison. It must be observed, that instead of apokteinai, to kill, the word apolesai, to destroy, is used in this second clause, which also often signifies to torment. “What an awful verse is this before us! How fit is it that this eternal and almighty God should be the object of our humble fear! and that in comparison of him we should fear nothing else! All the terrors and all the flatteries of the world are disarmed by this! an idea which, in every state of life, should engage us to be faithful to God; so shall we be most truly faithful to ourselves.”
Daniel Whedon
28. Fear not them which kill the body — Neither miraculous power nor divine promise insures the apostles against bodily harm or bodily death. But they are enjoined to possess a superiority to fear of these corporeal injuries. And in these words is the primal source of the martyr spirit. It is courage founded on faith. Body… soul — We have here the two parts of man’s compound nature placed in contrast. They are two separate things. The body is not the soul. The soul is not the body. This is demonstrably the doctrine of the text. Them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul — From these words, it follows that the body may be dead, and the soul alive. Men can murder the body, they can extinguish its corporeal life. They may burn it to ashes, and scatter its particles to the four winds. Yet still the soul is alive. No blows can murder it, no fire can burn it, no water drown or quench it. Nothing less than this can be the meaning of the text, and against the text no materialism can stand. But rather fear him — Namely, God. Fear, then, and fear as the dread of punishment, is a right and suitable feeling. And those who say that such a feeling is too base to be indulged, are contradicted by this text. And those who deny any punishment from God after the death of the body, contradict these words of Christ. To destroy both soul and body — The Lord does not say kill both soul and body. To destroy is not to kill, still less to annihilate, but to ruin. Our Lord’s words teach, not the dismissal of the soul from existence, but its catastrophe and ruin in existence. And this is an evil, a destruction, which we are bound to fear, as a possible reality beyond our bodily death. In hell — In Gehenna. This word Gehenna, or valley of Hinnom, in its primitive and literal sense, designated a gorge south of Jerusalem, otherwise called Tophet, where the offals of the city were ordinarily burned. As a place of defilement and perpetual fire, it became to the Jewish mind the emblem, and the word became the name, of the perpetual fire of retribution in a world to come. Hence, loose reasoners have endeavoured to maintain that this valley was the only hell. And upon this sophism the heresy of Universalism is mainly founded. But the present text demonstrates that beyond the death of the body, and therefore in a future state, there is a hell or Gehenna, which the soul may suffer, more terrible than bodily death, and more to be feared than any evil that man can inflict. God is the author of that evil; it lies beyond death, it is executed upon the soul as well as the body. No plausible interpretation can expel these meanings from this text.
The following statement is from Kitto’s Cyclopedia:
“Hell is represented by Sheol in the Old, and by Hades in the New Testament. But hell, as the place of final punishment for sinners, is more distinctively indicated by the term Gehenna, which is the word translated ‘hell’ in Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6. It is also distinctively indicated by such phrases as ‘the place of torment,’ (Luke 16:28;) ‘everlasting fire,’ (Matthew 25:41;) ‘the hell of fire,’ ‘where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,’ (Mark 9:44.) The dreadful nature of the abode of the wicked is implied in various figurative expressions, such as ‘outer darkness,’ ‘I am tormented in this flame,’ ‘furnace of fire,’ ‘unquenchable fire,’ ‘where their worm dieth not,’ ‘the blackness of darkness,’ ‘torment in fire and brimstone,’ ‘the ascending smoke of their torment,’ ‘the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone,’ (Matthew 8:12; 13:42; 22:13; 25:30; Luke 16:24; comp. Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:43-48; Jude 1:13; comp. Revelation 14:10, 11; 19:20; 20:14; 21:8.) The figure by which hell is represented as burning with fire and brimstone is probably derived from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as that which describes the smoke as ascending from it, (comp. Rev. 14:10, 11, with Genesis 19:24, 28.) To this coincidence of description Peter also most probably alludes in 2 Peter 2:6.” Is it not more probably derived from the fire of Gehenna? In regard to the valley of Hinnom, see supplementary note, page 351 (End of Matthew).
Richard Watson
Verse 28. Are not able to kill the soul. — Thus our Lord at once declares the soul’s immortality, and shows how limited is the power of tyrannous persecutors; their malignant arm reaches not the soul; it can neither destroy its peace here, nor its happy existence hereafter. This text also furnishes a decisive argument in favour of the conscious existence of the soul in a separate state. For, not to urge that we cannot conceive of the existence of the soul at all without consciousness; yet, if by the death of the body it were deprived of perception and thought, of activity and enjoyment, though all these should be restored at the last day, it would be as truly killed as the body, which also at the resurrection shall have its life, sensation, and activity more perfectly restored. It is only upon the basis of the soul’s immortality, that a true courage in the way of duty can be built: well might he be excused from suffering for any truth, who has no hope beyond the present life. “That man,” says Epictetus, “deserves to be terrified, axiov esti fobeisqai, who has not learned that he himself is not flesh and bones, but that his proper self is that which uses these, and suitably employs them.”
Destroy both soul and body in hell. — The meaning is not that the punishment of bad men in a future life is annihilation; for the word is often used to express continuance in a state of wretchedness, as Matthew 15:24; and, whatever more modern rabbins may have thought, the utter destruction of the souls of the wicked in a future state was not the opinion of the Jews of our Lord’s age, except of the Sadducees, who, being materialists, made no distinction between the soul and the body. We have, on this point, the sentiment of Philo: “Men think that death is the end of their troubles, whereas it is only the beginning of them. It is the lot of the wicked that they live in death, and suffer as it were continual death.”
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
John Wesley
V. 29, 30. The particular providence of God is another reason for your not fearing man. For this extends to the very smallest things. And if he has such care over the most inconsiderable creatures, how much more will he take care of you, (provided you confess him before men, before powerful enemies of the truth,) and that not only in this life, but in the other also?
Adam Clarke
Verse 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?] assariou. A Roman AS was one-tenth of a DENARIUS, which was about
sevenpence-halfpenny, and one-tenth of sevenpence-halfpenny makes just three farthings.
The word assarion, which we translate farthing, is found among the rabbins in the word rsy[ aisar, which, according to Maimonides, is equal to four grains of silver, but is used among them to express a thing of the lowest, or almost no value. Our Lord seems to have borrowed the expression, One of them shall not fall on the ground, &c., from his own countrymen. In Bereshith Rabba, sec. 79, fol. 77, it is said: In the time in which the Jews were compelled to apostatize, Rab. Simeon, Ben. Jochai, and Eliezer his son hid themselves in a cave, and lived upon dry husks. After thirteen years they came out; and, sitting at the mouth of the cave, they observed a fowler stretching his nets to catch birds; and as often as the Bath Kol said swmyd dimos, escape! the bird escaped; but when it said alwqps spicula, a dart, the bird was taken. Then the rabbin said, Even a bird is not taken without Heaven, i.e. without the will of God, how much less the life of man! The doctrine intended to be inculcated is this: The providence of God extends to the minutest things; every thing is continually under the government and care of God, and nothing occurs without his will or permission; if then he regards sparrows, how much more man, and how much more still the soul that trusts in him! Fall on the ground] Instead of epi thn ghn, Origen, Clement, Chrysostom, Juvencus, and six MSS. of Mathai, read eiv thn pagida, into a snare. Bengel conjectures that it might have been written at first, epi thn paghn; that the first syllable pa being lost out of the word, ghn, the earth, instead of paghn, snare, became the common reading. Without your Father.] Without the will of your Father: thv boulhv, the will or counsel, is added here by Origen, Coptic, all the Arabic, latter Persic, Gothic, all the Itala except two; Tert., Iren., Cypr., Novatian, and other Latin fathers. If the evidence be considered as insufficient to entitle it to admission into the text, let it stand there as a supplementary italic word, necessary to make the meaning of the place evident.
All things are ordered by the counsel of God. This is a great consolation to those who are tried and afflicted. The belief of an all-wise, all-directing Providence, is a powerful support under the most grievous accidents of life. Nothing escapes his merciful regards, not even the smallest things of which he may be said to be only the creator and preserver; how much less those of whom he is the Father, Saviour, and endless felicity! See Clarke on “Luke 12:7”.
Joseph Benson
Verses 29-31. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing — As if he had said, The particular providence of God is another reason for your not fearing man. For this extends to the very smallest things, even to sparrows and the hairs of your heads, which are all numbered. In other words, the meanest of God’s creatures are under the protection of his providence, insomuch that nothing befalls them without its direction; and therefore your enemies cannot touch even your bodies without your heavenly Father’s permission. A most consolatory doctrine this, indeed, and a strong reason why we should exercise a continual dependance on God, and in all circumstances and situations cast our care on him who thus careth for us. Fear ye not therefore — Lest ye should be overlooked or neglected, ye, my rational and immortal creatures, especially ye my children, adopted and regenerated, and above all, ye ministers of my word, honoured with so important an employment as that of preaching my gospel: ye are of more value than many sparrows — Yea, than the whole species of them: and therefore you may assure yourselves that providence will watch over you.
Joseph Sutcliffe
Ver. 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, a vile price paid by the poor for sin-offerings. Yet not one of them is taken in the snare without your heavenly Father. He will then take more care of you than of sparrows.
Daniel Whedon
29. Are not — Our Lord now farther states an additional reason for the feeling of safety in suffering in his behalf. They are under an infallible divine protection. Two sparrows — The sparrow is the very emblem of a being of little consequence. A farthing — Equal to about half a cent of our money. Fall on the ground — That is, perish or expire. Without your Father — Not their Father, but your Father. They are his creatures, you are his children. They are but animated forms, you are undying souls. They are naturally perishable, you are immortal. They are taken care of not so much for themselves as for you.
Richard Watson
Verses 29-31. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? &c. — This passage forcibly and affectingly declares the providence of God as the foundation of an assured trust on the part of the disciples, even in the most perplexed and dangerous circumstances. — The connection of the argument with what precedes is, “Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;” so limited is their power, so short the arm of your most potent adversary: but this is not the only reason why you ought not to fear these wrathful and tyrannous men; even the limited power they have they cannot exert independently of the Divine permission. — Their hearts and hands are grasped by an invisible but superior control; and neither in their own time, nor in their own manner, can they injure or destroy you. Either they shall be entirely restrained from injuring you at all, or, when left to follow the impulses of their own bad passions, all results are still under the control of God. Till your work is done, or till your sufferings shall be for his glory and your own advantage, they rage only in a chain which they cannot break. — This is supported by a general illustration applicable to the trust and comfort of Christ’s true disciples, beyond the immediate occasion which called it forth. Sparrows are mentioned as representing the smallest and most insignificant class of birds, of so little value that two were sold for a farthing, an assarium, about three of our farthings; yet so minute and universal is the providence of God, that nothing to which he has given life dies but by his permission. As in the sermon on the mount God is represented as caring to provide the fowls of heaven with food, so here he is introduced as regulating the production and the extinction of the life of every individual, however small and contemptible. The argument then arises from the less to the greater; ye are of more value than many sparrows; and if the life of an individual bird cannot perish without your Father, how much less the life of a human being, the life of a ransomed child of God, the life of a man sent forth on the greatest work upon earth, to proclaim salvation, and that under God’s special commission, as his own ambassador! Nor is the notice and care of God directed to individual persons only, but to whatever concerns that individual, however minute: the very hairs of your head are all numbered. This mode of expression appears to he taken from 1 Samuel 14:45; “And the people said, Shall Jonathan die? — God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground;” that is, he shall not sustain the least conceivable injury. The very brightness of this revelation of the doctrine of a particular providence has dazzled the eye of mere human philosophy. A general providence it may often admit; but not this condescension of the Divine Being to particulars. The true reason, however, is, that, with all its pretence to high and noble views of God, it, in fact, grovels in low and unworthy conceptions of his wisdom and power; and it knows nothing of his LOVE, his peculiar love to those who trust in him. But, even in right reason, the care of the whole necessarily implies the care of all the parts, however minute; and if it was not beneath God to create the smallest objects, it can never be thought below him to preserve and order them. Nor ought the allegation, that God has established general laws, to be suffered to obscure in our minds the great truth which these words of Christ contain. These general laws depend for their efficiency upon his continued agency; for natural things have no powers which they derive not from him; and these they cannot exercise independently of him; or even that general government of the world which is conceded would be put out of his hand. Ordinarily, there is in God what has been called an ACQUIESCENCE in a common course of events, or rather his power ordinarily works in an observable, regular manner; but there is also INTERPOSITION as well as acquiescence, or prayer and individual trust must be expunged from religion, and with them religion itself must lose the great foundations upon which it rests. — These then are the noble views which are opened to us by the Divine Teacher. God regulates every thing, however minute, without degradation to his glorious majesty, and without embarrassment to his infinite intelligence. He governs absolutely without violence to the moral freedom of accountable beings, and their contending volitions wonderfully but certainly work out his purposes; but no general arrangement can render his special interposition impracticable, since all is foreseen and all provided for. The true disciple may therefore fully “trust in his mercy:” God himself takes his cause into his hand, orders his steps, weighs out his blessings and his afflictions, wards off his dangers, controls his enemies, disposes all the events of life into a course of hallowing discipline, and never permits him to fall into the hands of an enemy except when by that means some good to the Church, and some benefit to the suffering disciple himself, are to be accomplished by it; so that, even then, “he maketh the wrath of man to praise him.” This may often take place by an inscrutable process; but the result is certain.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Adam Clarke
Verse 30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.] Nothing is more astonishing than the care and concern of God for his followers. The least circumstances of their life are regulated, not merely by that general providence which extends to all things, but by a particular providence, which fits and directs all things to the design of their salvation, causing them all to co-operate for their present and eternal good. Romans 5:1-5.
Joseph Benson
Verses 29-31. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing — As if he had said, The particular providence of God is another reason for your not fearing man. For this extends to the very smallest things, even to sparrows and the hairs of your heads, which are all numbered. In other words, the meanest of God’s creatures are under the protection of his providence, insomuch that nothing befalls them without its direction; and therefore your enemies cannot touch even your bodies without your heavenly Father’s permission. A most consolatory doctrine this, indeed, and a strong reason why we should exercise a continual dependance on God, and in all circumstances and situations cast our care on him who thus careth for us. Fear ye not therefore — Lest ye should be overlooked or neglected, ye, my rational and immortal creatures, especially ye my children, adopted and regenerated, and above all, ye ministers of my word, honoured with so important an employment as that of preaching my gospel: ye are of more value than many sparrows — Yea, than the whole species of them: and therefore you may assure yourselves that providence will watch over you.
Daniel Whedon
III. THE DUTY, THE STRUGGLE, AND THE ISSUE, 24-42.
The duty: The reasonableness, the safety, and the reward of confessing Christ, 24-33. The struggle: A division between the nearest connections, a stern necessity of preferring truth to human ties, 34-39. The issue: All that receive Christ in his apostles, and who benefit and further their mission in faith, shall join them in the reward, 40-42.
This, the closing part of the discourse, stands in close connection with the train of thought which it completes. The previous part has described their mission and duties as apostles; what follows describes rather the case of those to whom they preach, yet including also those who preach. If persecutions must be suffered, to suffer is reasonable, it is safe, it attains a reward.
The Duty, 24-33.
24. Disciple is not above his master — So, according to many Jewish proverbs, the pupil of the rabbi was far his inferior. If the master undergo indignity, still deeper insult must the servant accept. And so with what force could our suffering Saviour, who endured the cross, require his disciples to endure by his own previous yet unparalleled example! He is our precedent for suffering, our pattern in suffering, but infinitely above us in the measure of suffering. He is our Lord, not by suffering less, but in the supremacy of his endurance.
Richard Watson
Verses 29-31. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? &c. — This passage forcibly and affectingly declares the providence of God as the foundation of an assured trust on the part of the disciples, even in the most perplexed and dangerous circumstances. — The connection of the argument with what precedes is, “Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;” so limited is their power, so short the arm of your most potent adversary: but this is not the only reason why you ought not to fear these wrathful and tyrannous men; even the limited power they have they cannot exert independently of the Divine permission. — Their hearts and hands are grasped by an invisible but superior control; and neither in their own time, nor in their own manner, can they injure or destroy you. Either they shall be entirely restrained from injuring you at all, or, when left to follow the impulses of their own bad passions, all results are still under the control of God. Till your work is done, or till your sufferings shall be for his glory and your own advantage, they rage only in a chain which they cannot break. — This is supported by a general illustration applicable to the trust and comfort of Christ’s true disciples, beyond the immediate occasion which called it forth. Sparrows are mentioned as representing the smallest and most insignificant class of birds, of so little value that two were sold for a farthing, an assarium, about three of our farthings; yet so minute and universal is the providence of God, that nothing to which he has given life dies but by his permission. As in the sermon on the mount God is represented as caring to provide the fowls of heaven with food, so here he is introduced as regulating the production and the extinction of the life of every individual, however small and contemptible. The argument then arises from the less to the greater; ye are of more value than many sparrows; and if the life of an individual bird cannot perish without your Father, how much less the life of a human being, the life of a ransomed child of God, the life of a man sent forth on the greatest work upon earth, to proclaim salvation, and that under God’s special commission, as his own ambassador! Nor is the notice and care of God directed to individual persons only, but to whatever concerns that individual, however minute: the very hairs of your head are all numbered. This mode of expression appears to he taken from 1 Samuel 14:45; “And the people said, Shall Jonathan die? — God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground;” that is, he shall not sustain the least conceivable injury. The very brightness of this revelation of the doctrine of a particular providence has dazzled the eye of mere human philosophy. A general providence it may often admit; but not this condescension of the Divine Being to particulars. The true reason, however, is, that, with all its pretence to high and noble views of God, it, in fact, grovels in low and unworthy conceptions of his wisdom and power; and it knows nothing of his LOVE, his peculiar love to those who trust in him. But, even in right reason, the care of the whole necessarily implies the care of all the parts, however minute; and if it was not beneath God to create the smallest objects, it can never be thought below him to preserve and order them. Nor ought the allegation, that God has established general laws, to be suffered to obscure in our minds the great truth which these words of Christ contain. These general laws depend for their efficiency upon his continued agency; for natural things have no powers which they derive not from him; and these they cannot exercise independently of him; or even that general government of the world which is conceded would be put out of his hand. Ordinarily, there is in God what has been called an ACQUIESCENCE in a common course of events, or rather his power ordinarily works in an observable, regular manner; but there is also INTERPOSITION as well as acquiescence, or prayer and individual trust must be expunged from religion, and with them religion itself must lose the great foundations upon which it rests. — These then are the noble views which are opened to us by the Divine Teacher. God regulates every thing, however minute, without degradation to his glorious majesty, and without embarrassment to his infinite intelligence. He governs absolutely without violence to the moral freedom of accountable beings, and their contending volitions wonderfully but certainly work out his purposes; but no general arrangement can render his special interposition impracticable, since all is foreseen and all provided for. The true disciple may therefore fully “trust in his mercy:” God himself takes his cause into his hand, orders his steps, weighs out his blessings and his afflictions, wards off his dangers, controls his enemies, disposes all the events of life into a course of hallowing discipline, and never permits him to fall into the hands of an enemy except when by that means some good to the Church, and some benefit to the suffering disciple himself, are to be accomplished by it; so that, even then, “he maketh the wrath of man to praise him.” This may often take place by an inscrutable process; but the result is certain.
Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Adam Clarke
Verse 31. Fear ye not-ye are of more value] None can estimate the value of a soul, for which Christ has given his blood and life! Have confidence in his goodness; for he who so dearly purchased thee will miraculously preserve and save thee. Did the poet intend to contradict Christ when he said:-
“He sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A HERO perish, or a SPARROW fall?”
How cold and meagre is this shallow deistical saying! But could the poet mean, that a sparrow is of as much worth in the sight of God, who regards (if we may believe him) things only in general, as an immortal soul, purchased by the sacrifice of Christ?
Joseph Benson
Verses 29-31. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing — As if he had said, The particular providence of God is another reason for your not fearing man. For this extends to the very smallest things, even to sparrows and the hairs of your heads, which are all numbered. In other words, the meanest of God’s creatures are under the protection of his providence, insomuch that nothing befalls them without its direction; and therefore your enemies cannot touch even your bodies without your heavenly Father’s permission. A most consolatory doctrine this, indeed, and a strong reason why we should exercise a continual dependance on God, and in all circumstances and situations cast our care on him who thus careth for us. Fear ye not therefore — Lest ye should be overlooked or neglected, ye, my rational and immortal creatures, especially ye my children, adopted and regenerated, and above all, ye ministers of my word, honoured with so important an employment as that of preaching my gospel: ye are of more value than many sparrows — Yea, than the whole species of them: and therefore you may assure yourselves that providence will watch over you.
Daniel Whedon
31. More value than many sparrows — Were men as transient in existence as sparrows, they would be of as little value. The words of the poet would then be true, who says of the Deity,
“He sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall.”
If man be perishable as the sparrow, he approaches no nearer to infinity than the sparrow. To the eye of the Infinite, therefore, both would be equal; but since man’s immortal nature endures as long as the Deity himself, he thereby becomes infinitely more valuable than the animal that perisheth. Under such a protector, then, as God, and so valuable in his sight, why should we fear to suffer, since he will never permit us utterly to perish for his truth? Fully, therefore, does it follow that it is most safe to suffer for Christ.
Richard Watson
Verses 29-31. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? &c. — This passage forcibly and affectingly declares the providence of God as the foundation of an assured trust on the part of the disciples, even in the most perplexed and dangerous circumstances. — The connection of the argument with what precedes is, “Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;” so limited is their power, so short the arm of your most potent adversary: but this is not the only reason why you ought not to fear these wrathful and tyrannous men; even the limited power they have they cannot exert independently of the Divine permission. — Their hearts and hands are grasped by an invisible but superior control; and neither in their own time, nor in their own manner, can they injure or destroy you. Either they shall be entirely restrained from injuring you at all, or, when left to follow the impulses of their own bad passions, all results are still under the control of God. Till your work is done, or till your sufferings shall be for his glory and your own advantage, they rage only in a chain which they cannot break. — This is supported by a general illustration applicable to the trust and comfort of Christ’s true disciples, beyond the immediate occasion which called it forth. Sparrows are mentioned as representing the smallest and most insignificant class of birds, of so little value that two were sold for a farthing, an assarium, about three of our farthings; yet so minute and universal is the providence of God, that nothing to which he has given life dies but by his permission. As in the sermon on the mount God is represented as caring to provide the fowls of heaven with food, so here he is introduced as regulating the production and the extinction of the life of every individual, however small and contemptible. The argument then arises from the less to the greater; ye are of more value than many sparrows; and if the life of an individual bird cannot perish without your Father, how much less the life of a human being, the life of a ransomed child of God, the life of a man sent forth on the greatest work upon earth, to proclaim salvation, and that under God’s special commission, as his own ambassador! Nor is the notice and care of God directed to individual persons only, but to whatever concerns that individual, however minute: the very hairs of your head are all numbered. This mode of expression appears to he taken from 1 Samuel 14:45; “And the people said, Shall Jonathan die? — God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground;” that is, he shall not sustain the least conceivable injury. The very brightness of this revelation of the doctrine of a particular providence has dazzled the eye of mere human philosophy. A general providence it may often admit; but not this condescension of the Divine Being to particulars. The true reason, however, is, that, with all its pretence to high and noble views of God, it, in fact, grovels in low and unworthy conceptions of his wisdom and power; and it knows nothing of his LOVE, his peculiar love to those who trust in him. But, even in right reason, the care of the whole necessarily implies the care of all the parts, however minute; and if it was not beneath God to create the smallest objects, it can never be thought below him to preserve and order them. Nor ought the allegation, that God has established general laws, to be suffered to obscure in our minds the great truth which these words of Christ contain. These general laws depend for their efficiency upon his continued agency; for natural things have no powers which they derive not from him; and these they cannot exercise independently of him; or even that general government of the world which is conceded would be put out of his hand. Ordinarily, there is in God what has been called an ACQUIESCENCE in a common course of events, or rather his power ordinarily works in an observable, regular manner; but there is also INTERPOSITION as well as acquiescence, or prayer and individual trust must be expunged from religion, and with them religion itself must lose the great foundations upon which it rests. — These then are the noble views which are opened to us by the Divine Teacher. God regulates every thing, however minute, without degradation to his glorious majesty, and without embarrassment to his infinite intelligence. He governs absolutely without violence to the moral freedom of accountable beings, and their contending volitions wonderfully but certainly work out his purposes; but no general arrangement can render his special interposition impracticable, since all is foreseen and all provided for. The true disciple may therefore fully “trust in his mercy:” God himself takes his cause into his hand, orders his steps, weighs out his blessings and his afflictions, wards off his dangers, controls his enemies, disposes all the events of life into a course of hallowing discipline, and never permits him to fall into the hands of an enemy except when by that means some good to the Church, and some benefit to the suffering disciple himself, are to be accomplished by it; so that, even then, “he maketh the wrath of man to praise him.” This may often take place by an inscrutable process; but the result is certain.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
John Wesley
V. 32. Whosoever shall confess me-Publicly acknowledge me for the promised Messiah. But this confession implies the receiving his whole doctrine, Mark 8:38, and obeying all his commandments. Luke 9:26.
Adam Clarke
Verse 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men] That is, whosoever shall acknowledge me to be the Messiah, and have his heart and life regulated by my spirit and doctrine. It is not merely sufficient to have the heart right before God; there must be a firm, manly, and public profession of Christ before men. “I am no hypocrite,” says one; neither should you be. “I will keep my religion to myself” i.e. you will not confess Christ before men; then he will renounce you before God. We confess or own Christ when we own his doctrine, his ministers, his servants, and when no fear hinders us from supporting and assisting them in times of necessity.
Joseph Benson
Verses 32, 33. Whosoever, &c. — As a further encouragement to you to cast off all unnecessary cares and fears, to trust in God, and arm yourselves with courage to encounter, and resolution to endure whatever persecutions, injuries, or other trials he in his providence may permit to befall you, be assured, whatever you may now suffer for your fidelity to me, it will, on the whole, be most amply rewarded. For whosoever shall confess me — That is, publicly acknowledge me for the promised Messiah, receiving my whole doctrine for the rule of his faith and practice, obeying all my precepts, relying on my promises, revering my threatenings, and imitating my example: him will I confess before my Father — Him will I own as my true disciple in the presence of my Father at the day of final judgment, and will claim for him the rewards which my Father has promised to such. But whosoever shall deny me — Whosoever shall be ashamed or afraid to acknowledge his relation to me, or shall not confess me before men, in the sense now mentioned, him will I also deny, &c. — As having any relation to me, in that awful day. “There is an unspeakable majesty in this article of our Lord’s discourse. Although he was now in the lowest state of humanity, he declares that his confessing us before God is the greatest happiness, and his denying us the greatest misery that can possibly befall us.”
Daniel Whedon
32. Whosoever — Whether of yourselves who preach, or of those who hear your preaching. Shall confess me — Shall acknowledge in the face of persecution that I am his Lord and Master. Him will I confess — It requires courage and truthfulness to confess one amid enemies and despisers, however glorious he may be. So it requires constancy and truthfulness to confess an unworthy and humble creature before a company of grand and glorious persons. The former courage is displayed toward Christ by the Christian in this world. In recompense, Christ will display the latter constancy and truth in the day of final judgment.
Richard Watson
Verse 32. Confess me, &c. — To confess Christ is openly to acknowledge our faith in him, and publicly to observe the rules and ordinances of his religion. Omologew properly signifies to use the same language or words as another; and hence, says Wahl, in the New Testament, by implication, “to profess the same things as another, to admit what another professes.” Him, therefore, who publicly and courageously confesses Jesus to be what he professed to be, that is, the Christ, and acts suitably to that belief, him will Christ publicly confess to be what he himself professes to be: that is, a true disciple of Christ. See the note on Luke 12:8.
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
John Wesley
V. 33, 34. Whosoever shall deny me before men-To which ye will be strongly tempted. For
Think not that I am come-That is, think not that universal peace will be the immediate consequence of my coming. Just the contrary. Both public and private divisions will follow, wheresoever my Gospel comes with power. Yet this is not the design, though it be the event of his coming, through the opposition of devils and men.
Adam Clarke
Verse 33. Whosoever shall deny me] Whosoever prefers his worldly interest to his duty to God, sets a greater value on earthly than on heavenly things, and prefers the friendship of men to the approbation of GOD. Let it be remembered, that to be renounced by Christ is to have him neither for a Mediator nor Saviour. To appear before the tribunal of God without having Christ for our Advocate, and, on the contrary, to have him there as our Judge, and a witness against us,-how can a man think of this and not die with horror!
Joseph Benson
Verses 32, 33. Whosoever, &c. — As a further encouragement to you to cast off all unnecessary cares and fears, to trust in God, and arm yourselves with courage to encounter, and resolution to endure whatever persecutions, injuries, or other trials he in his providence may permit to befall you, be assured, whatever you may now suffer for your fidelity to me, it will, on the whole, be most amply rewarded. For whosoever shall confess me — That is, publicly acknowledge me for the promised Messiah, receiving my whole doctrine for the rule of his faith and practice, obeying all my precepts, relying on my promises, revering my threatenings, and imitating my example: him will I confess before my Father — Him will I own as my true disciple in the presence of my Father at the day of final judgment, and will claim for him the rewards which my Father has promised to such. But whosoever shall deny me — Whosoever shall be ashamed or afraid to acknowledge his relation to me, or shall not confess me before men, in the sense now mentioned, him will I also deny, &c. — As having any relation to me, in that awful day. “There is an unspeakable majesty in this article of our Lord’s discourse. Although he was now in the lowest state of humanity, he declares that his confessing us before God is the greatest happiness, and his denying us the greatest misery that can possibly befall us.”
Daniel Whedon
33. Whosoever shall deny me… him will I also deny — The shame of man on earth, of Christ in the world to come. Before my Father — Our Lord styles God your Father and my Father; but in very different senses. He is their Father as they are his children and under his protection. God, the sovereign, is his Father when, as his only begotten Son, he judges the world.
The Struggle, 34-39.
The result of Christ’s coming and of their preaching will not be merely peace, but a sword, a struggle, a series of struggles, dividing communities, severing the nearest ties, and requiring a preference of the true and the right above the loved and the dear.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Adam Clarke
Verse 34. Think not that I am come to send peace, &c.] The meaning of this difficult passage will be plain, when we consider the import of the word peace, and the expectation of the Jews. I have already had occasion to remark, (Matthew 10:12,) that the word שלום shalom, rendered by the Greeks eirhnh, was used among the Hebrews to express all possible blessings, temporal and spiritual; but especially the former. The expectation of the Jews was, that, when the Messiah should come, all temporal prosperity should be accumulated on the land of Judea; therefore thn ghn, in this verse, should not be translated the earth, but this land. The import of our Lord’s teaching here is this, Do not imagine, as the Jews in general vainly do, that I am come to send forth, (ballein,) by forcing out the Roman power, that temporal prosperity which they long for; I am not come for this purpose, but to send forth (ballein) the Roman sword, to cut off a disobedient and rebellious nation, the cup of whose iniquity is already full, and whose crimes cry aloud for speedy vengeance. See also Clarke on “Luke 12:49”. From the time they rejected the Messiah, they were a prey to the most cruel and destructive factions; they employed their time in butchering one another, till the Roman sword was unsheathed against them, and desolated the land.
Joseph Benson
Verses 34-36. Think not that I am come, &c. — As if he had said, Because the prophets have spoken glorious things of the peace and happiness of the world under the reign of the Messiah, whom they have named, for that reason, the Prince of peace, you may imagine that I am come to put the world into that happy state forthwith; and that universal peace will be the immediate consequence of my coming. But this is far from being the case; for, though the nature of my government be such as might produce abundant felicity, inasmuch as my religion breathes nothing but love, men will not lay aside their animosity, nor will they exercise a mutual friendship among themselves as soon as the gospel is preached to them. No; such is their wickedness, that they will make the gospel itself an occasion of such bitter dissensions that it will look as if I had not come to send peace, but a sword among men. For, as I told you before, the nearest relations shall quarrel among themselves, and both public and private divisions will follow wheresoever my gospel comes with power. Yet, observe well, reader, this is not the design, though it be the event of his coming, through the opposition of devils and men to his truth and the blessed effects of it. And a man’s foes — The foes of a man that is converted to my religion, and loves and follows me, shall be they of his own household — Persons of his own family, or such as are nearly related to him.
Daniel Whedon
34. Think not that I am come to send peace — From the meekness of my character and my Gospel you might imagine that I am to send peace, not only in spirit, but in result among mankind. But not so; my mission is to separate the righteous from the wicked. My goodness is to attract to itself all the good who have affinity with it. And this affinity of the good for the good, and of evil for the evil, will produce a division, a ferment, a strife, a sword. When the right goes forth into a world of wrong there must be war. Each principle will rally its own adherents and its own army under its own banner, and terrible will he the struggle until right or wrong, heaven or hell, attain the victory.
Richard Watson
Verse 34. To send peace, but a sword. — Those who refer this to the Roman sword, which, about forty years after Christ’s ascension, desolated Judea, forcibly break off the words from their connection. From the persecutions which our Lord predicted should be excited against his religion, he proceeds to declare the dissensions of which, through the guilty passions of men, it should be the innocent occasion; a prophetic declaration equally remarkable as the former, and an effect which had no exact parallel in the previous history of man; so that to foretell this, as the consequence of the introduction of a religion of pure benevolence and charity, could only result from a certain prescience of the future. As to the mode of expression used, it is to be observed, that in the Hebrew idiom one is said to do that which he is the occasion of being done, however undesigned by him, nay, though directly contrary to his intentions. Thus Isaiah is commanded to “make the heart of the people fat, and their ear heavy,” because the mission on which he was sent would have that effect, through the criminal obstinacy of his hearers; and Jeremiah calls himself “a man of strife and contention to the whole land,” because the delivery of his exhortations and reproofs had occasioned great strife against himself among the exasperated rulers. Attention to these peculiarities in the style of speaking which obtained among the Hebrews, is absolutely necessary to a right interpretation of many passages; and, for want of it, some very false conclusions have been drawn from the texts in which they occur. To apply this to our Lords words: the end of Christ’s coming was unquestionably to establish peace on earth; but because sharp dissensions, and the alienation of friends and families, have often been the result, through the violent enmity of the carnal mind to truth and holiness, he represents himself, according to the oriental mode of speaking, as having sent, not PEACE, but a SWORD, and as setting a man at variance with his father, &c.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Adam Clarke
Verse 35. I am come to set a man at variance] The spirit of Christ can have no union with the spirit of the world. Even a father, while unconverted, will oppose a godly child. Thus the spirit that is in those who sin against God is opposed to that spirit which is in the followers of the Most High. It is the spirits then that are in opposition, and not the persons.
Joseph Benson
Verses 34-36. Think not that I am come, &c. — As if he had said, Because the prophets have spoken glorious things of the peace and happiness of the world under the reign of the Messiah, whom they have named, for that reason, the Prince of peace, you may imagine that I am come to put the world into that happy state forthwith; and that universal peace will be the immediate consequence of my coming. But this is far from being the case; for, though the nature of my government be such as might produce abundant felicity, inasmuch as my religion breathes nothing but love, men will not lay aside their animosity, nor will they exercise a mutual friendship among themselves as soon as the gospel is preached to them. No; such is their wickedness, that they will make the gospel itself an occasion of such bitter dissensions that it will look as if I had not come to send peace, but a sword among men. For, as I told you before, the nearest relations shall quarrel among themselves, and both public and private divisions will follow wheresoever my gospel comes with power. Yet, observe well, reader, this is not the design, though it be the event of his coming, through the opposition of devils and men to his truth and the blessed effects of it. And a man’s foes — The foes of a man that is converted to my religion, and loves and follows me, shall be they of his own household — Persons of his own family, or such as are nearly related to him.
Daniel Whedon
35. I am come to set a man at variance against his father — So God set faithful Abraham at variance against his father, the idolatrous Terah. So religion sets the pious child in opposition to the impious parent. So temperance sets the sober child at variance with the drunken father. For the right, the pure, the good are at variance with the wrong, the defiled, the bad. Light is as much opposed to darkness, as darkness is to light. Truth would annihilate error, and holiness hates sin. The daughter against her mother — The Christianized daughter shall abhor the lusts and licentiousness of her heathen mother. The converted mother shall turn with horror from the impurity of her heathen daughter. The daughter-in-law — The ties of marriage are often dearer than the ties of consanguinity. Yet even these must yield to higher claims and the ties of God and truth, higher than any ties of man to man.
And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
John Wesley
V. 36. And the foes of a man-That loves and follows me. Micah 7:6.
Adam Clarke
Verse 36. A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.] Our Lord refers here to their own traditions. So Sota, fol. 49. “A little before the coming of the Messiah, the son shall insult the father, the daughter rebel against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and each man shall have his own household fur his enemies.” Again, in Sanhedrin, fol. 97, it is said: “In the age in which the Messiah shall come, the young men shall turn the elders into ridicule; the elders shall rise up against the youth, the daughter against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and the man of that age shall be excessively impudent; nor shall the son reverence his father.” These are most remarkable sayings, and, by them, our Lord shows them that he was the Messiah, for all these things literally took place shortly after their final rejection of Christ. See the terrible account, given by Josephus, relative to the desolations of those times. Through the just judgment of God, they who rejected the Lord that bought them became abandoned to every species of iniquity; they rejected the salvation of God, and fell into the condemnation of the devil.
Father Quesnel’s note on this place is worthy of deep attention. “The father (says he) is the enemy of his son, when, through a bad education, an irregular love, and a cruel indulgence, he leaves him to take a wrong bias, instructs him not in his duty, and fills his mind with ambitious views. The son is the father’s enemy, when he is the occasion of his doing injustice, in order to heap up an estate for him, and to make his fortune. The mother is the daughter’s enemy, when she instructs her to please the world, breeds her up in excess and vanity, and suffers any thing scandalous or unseemly in her dress. The daughter is the mother’s enemy, when she becomes her idol, when she engages her to comply with her own irregular inclinations, and to permit her to frequent balls and plays. The master is the enemy of his servant, and the servant that of his master, when the one takes no care of the other’s salvation, and the latter is subservient to his master’s passions.”
Joseph Benson
Verses 34-36. Think not that I am come, &c. — As if he had said, Because the prophets have spoken glorious things of the peace and happiness of the world under the reign of the Messiah, whom they have named, for that reason, the Prince of peace, you may imagine that I am come to put the world into that happy state forthwith; and that universal peace will be the immediate consequence of my coming. But this is far from being the case; for, though the nature of my government be such as might produce abundant felicity, inasmuch as my religion breathes nothing but love, men will not lay aside their animosity, nor will they exercise a mutual friendship among themselves as soon as the gospel is preached to them. No; such is their wickedness, that they will make the gospel itself an occasion of such bitter dissensions that it will look as if I had not come to send peace, but a sword among men. For, as I told you before, the nearest relations shall quarrel among themselves, and both public and private divisions will follow wheresoever my gospel comes with power. Yet, observe well, reader, this is not the design, though it be the event of his coming, through the opposition of devils and men to his truth and the blessed effects of it. And a man’s foes — The foes of a man that is converted to my religion, and loves and follows me, shall be they of his own household — Persons of his own family, or such as are nearly related to him.
Daniel Whedon
36. A man’s foes… of his own household — The division line of principle shall cut like a straight sword right through the centre of the house. Upon either side that line, born of the same blood, are the opposing adherents of heaven and hell.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
John Wesley
V. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me-He that is not ready to give up all these, when they stand in competition with his duty.
Adam Clarke
Verse 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me] He whom we love the most is he whom we study most to please, and whose will and interests we prefer in all cases. If, in order to please a father or mother who are opposed to vital godliness, we abandon God’s ordinances and followers, we are unworthy of any thing but hell.
Joseph Benson
Verses 37, 38. He that loveth father or mother more than me — He that is not ready to give up all these when they stand in competition with his duty; is not worthy of me — Nor shall have any interest in my saving benefits. And he that taketh not his cross, &c. — Every one condemned to crucifixion by the Romans was compelled to carry the cross, on which he was to be suspended, to the place of execution. Thus our Lord himself was treated. Now, as this was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment, the allusion to it, on this occasion, may justly be looked on as the first hint given by Jesus of the kind of death he was to suffer. And the words express this sentiment with great energy, that no man is worthy of Christ, that is, worthy to bear his name, or be accounted a true Christian, unless he be willing to suffer whatever pain or inconvenience cannot be avoided but by doing some evil or omitting some good; yea, and to endure the greatest hardships, and all sorts of persecutions, even the most shameful and painful death, rather than renounce his religion and deny Christ.
Daniel Whedon
37. He that loveth father or mother more than me — Think not that the sacrifice of kindred ties is to be made by the wicked alone. Earthly affections, when they come in collision, must be postponed to divine obligations. Truth is more authoritative than a parent. The Redeemer hath done more for us than the nearest relative. Where the drawings of affection would seduce us to sin their power must be rejected.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
John Wesley
V. 38. He that taketh not his cross-That is, whatever pain or inconvenience cannot be avoided, but by doing some evil, or omitting some good. Matthew 16:24; Luke 14:27.
Adam Clarke
Verse 38. He that taketh not his cross] i.e. He who is not ready, after my example, to suffer death in the cause of my religion, is not worthy of me, does not deserve to be called my disciple.
This alludes to the custom of causing the criminal to bear his own cross to the place of execution; so Plutarch, ekastov ruv kakourgwn ekferei ton autou stauron. Each of the malefactors carries on his own cross. See Clarke on “John 19:17”.
Joseph Benson
Verses 37, 38. He that loveth father or mother more than me — He that is not ready to give up all these when they stand in competition with his duty; is not worthy of me — Nor shall have any interest in my saving benefits. And he that taketh not his cross, &c. — Every one condemned to crucifixion by the Romans was compelled to carry the cross, on which he was to be suspended, to the place of execution. Thus our Lord himself was treated. Now, as this was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment, the allusion to it, on this occasion, may justly be looked on as the first hint given by Jesus of the kind of death he was to suffer. And the words express this sentiment with great energy, that no man is worthy of Christ, that is, worthy to bear his name, or be accounted a true Christian, unless he be willing to suffer whatever pain or inconvenience cannot be avoided but by doing some evil or omitting some good; yea, and to endure the greatest hardships, and all sorts of persecutions, even the most shameful and painful death, rather than renounce his religion and deny Christ.
Daniel Whedon
38. Taketh not his cross — As our Saviour had not been crucified, some have affirmed that he could not have uttered these words at this time. And some sceptical writers have affirmed that it is put into the mouth of Jesus in this passage by an anachronism on the part of the evangelist. But death by crucifixion, though a Roman punishment, had already been made by the Roman dominion perfectly familiar to Jewish eyes. It was the natural subject of allusion whenever the highest punishment of the law was to be mentioned. And for the same reason that it was the most obvious punishment specified in this discourse, it was the mode of our Saviour’s death. It was the representative method of capital execution. If the Lord was conscious that this was to be the mode of his own death, it would be rather a covert allusion to the secret future fact, than a proper prediction or prophecy.
Our Lord here indeed specifies what did not take place at his own crucifixion. One did follow him, taking up not his own cross, but the cross of the Saviour. But what the Lord here commands is, that each follower should take up, not his Saviour’s cross, but his own. The requirement is, that as Christ bore his own cross to his own crucifixion, so his followers should bear each his own cross to his own crucifixion. So the great crucified leader is followed by an endless train of crucified followers. They are crucified symbolically, in all their sufferings of mind or body, in behalf of Christ and of truth. Each follower who hath the spirit of his Master, is crucified in fact or in readiness of spirit. The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of martyrdom.
Richard Watson
Verse 38. That taketh not his cross and followeth, &c. — There is an allusion here to the custom of the Romans, who compelled those who were to be crucified to bear the cross on which they were to suffer to the place of execution; but, as crucifixion was not a Jewish punishment, and even if the power of life and death had now been taken away from the Jews by the Romans, this was but a recent event, it can scarcely be thought that they had become so familiar with it as that “to take the cross” should have already become proverbial for the endurance of sufferings. The notion of Grotius, that the Jews had the phrase from the Persians, who used that punishment, can scarcely be admitted, because it was long since the Persians had had any power in Judea, and even then the Jews were permitted to use their own laws and customs. The words of our Lord had probably a prophetic reference to the manner of his own death, and had a meaning therefore which was to be hereafter more fully explained. He was to take his cross, and endure this barbarous Roman punishment; and he here declares, that every one who is not willing to follow him in this respect, that is, to die for the truth, is not worthy of him, that is, not worthy of him as his Lord and Master, or to be called his disciple. The cross stands for DEATH, in its most frightful and ignominious forms, but includes all other minor sufferings to be endured for the truth; but it is ridiculous to apply this phrase of taking up the cross, as is often done, to express submission to some little mortification of our will, or to some duty not quite agreeable to our views and feelings: By a careless habit of using the language of Scripture, the force of many important passages of Scripture is silently undermined.
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
John Wesley
V. 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it-He that saves his life by denying me, shall lose it eternally; and he that loseth his life by confessing me, shall save it eternally. And as you shall be thus rewarded, so in proportion shall they who entertain you for my sake. Matthew 16:25; John 12:25.
Adam Clarke
Verse 39. He that findeth his life, &c.] i.e. He who, for the sake of his temporal interest, abandons his spiritual concerns, shall lose his soul; and he who, in order to avoid martyrdom, abjures the pure religion of Christ, shall lose his soul, and perhaps his life too. He that findeth his life shall lose it, was literally fulfilled in Archbishop Cranmer. He confessed Christ against the devil, and his eldest son, the pope. He was ordered to be burnt; to save his life he recanted, and was, notwithstanding, burnt. Whatever a man sacrifices to God is never lost, for he finds it again in God. There is a fine piece on this subject in Juvenal, Sat. viii. l. 80, which deserves to be recorded here.
----------- ambiguæ si quando citabere testis
Incertæque rei, Phalaris liect imperet ut sis
Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro,
Summum crede nefas ANIMAM præferre PUDORI
Et propter VITAM VIVENDI perdere causas.
---------- If ever call’d
To give thy witness in a doubtful case,
Though Phalaris himself should bid thee lie,
On pain of torture in his flaming bull,
Disdain to barter innocence for life;
To which life owes its lustre and its worth.
Wakefield.
Joseph Benson
Verses 39-42. He that findeth his life shall lose it — He that saves his life by denying me shall lose it eternally; and he that loses his life by confessing me shall save it eternally. Or, as Macknight expresses it, “He that makes shipwreck of faith and a good conscience to save his life, shall lose that which is really his life — his everlasting happiness; whereas, he that maintaineth integrity at the expense of life, and all its enjoyments, shall find what is infinitely better — a blessed immortality.” It is justly observed by Campbell, that there is a kind of a paronomasia in the sentence, whereby the same word is used in different senses, in such a manner as to convey the sentiment with greater energy to the attentive. “He who, by making a sacrifice of his duty, preserves temporal life, shall lose eternal life; and contrariwise.” The trope has a beauty in the original which we cannot give it in a version: the word yuch being equivocal, and signifying both life and soul, and consequently being much better fitted for exhibiting, with entire perspicuity, the two meanings, than the English word life. The Syro- Chaldaic, which was the language then spoken in Palestine, had, in this respect, the same advantage with the Greek. He that receiveth you receiveth me — And as you shall be thus rewarded, so, in proportion, shall they who entertain you for my sake. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet — That is, because he is such, shall receive a prophet’s reward — Shall have a reward like that conferred on a prophet. It is evident, that by a prophet here is meant, not merely one that foretels future events, but a minister of God in general. And the word decomai, rendered receive, plainly signifies here to entertain in an hospitable way, as it does also Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25, &c. Nor can the gradation, in the following words, be understood without such an interpretation, for Jesus descends here from a prophet to a righteous man, and from a righteous man to a disciple, termed a little one, that is, any believer, however poor, mean, and contemptible in the world. It must be observed, that what renders the good works here mentioned valuable in the sight of God, and procures them a recompense from him, is their being done out of regard for him and his blessed Son. By the rewards here promised, Le Clerc understands the happiness of heaven, paraphrasing the worsts thus: “He that showeth kindness to a prophet, on account of his mission and doctrine, or to a righteous man, on account of his righteousness, especially if by so doing he exposes himself to persecution, shall be as highly rewarded as that righteous man or prophet shall be; nay, he who doth any good office whatever to the meanest of my disciples, though it should be but the small service of handing a cup of cold water to them, shall not go unrewarded,” that is, if he shall give it to him in the name of a disciple, or with a real affection to him, on account of his relation to me. This seems to be the true interpretation of the passage. Thus also Dr. Hammond, “How great soever your persecutions are, and how dangerous soever it be to profess to be a follower of Christ, yet shall no man have reason to fear the entertaining of you; for the same protection which awaits you, and the same reward that attends you, shall await them that receive you. It shall be as if they had entertained, not only angels, but Christ and God himself. He that doth support, and enable a prophet to do His work that sent him, shall receive the same reward that he should if himself had been sent to prophesy.” This, “as it is a great incitement to others to express their kindness to Christ’s ministers and faithful servants, so is it also to his ministers to apply themselves to his service with a ready mind, and with the utmost diligence in the execution of their pastoral office.” — Whitby.
Daniel Whedon
39. He that findeth his life — Findeth his life by avoiding the cross mentioned in the last verse. Our Lord uses the word findeth here in the sense of saveth, in order to form an antithesis with the word loseth. But the greatest difficulty in the interpretation of this verse is in the word life. The Greek word yuch, psyche, signifies either life or soul, inasmuch as it is the presence of the soul in the body which constitutes it a living body. It is the same word as is rendered soul in verse 28. In our view it should have been rendered soul throughout the discourse. The force of the antithesis, then, in the present verse would be this: He that, by avoiding the cross, findeth or saveth his soul, (as the vivifier of his body,) shall lose it in the future world. He attains a present, earthly, and corporeal retention of his soul, by the future loss of his soul in the world to come. He that loseth his life — Loseth his soul from his body by a martyr’s death. Shall find it — In the world of heavenly blessedness.
The Result, 40-42.
All that receive the apostles, and God and Christ, in them, shall share with the apostles in their reward.
Richard Watson
Verse 39. He that findeth his life, &c. — To find and to lose here signifies the same as to save and to lose. Hence in Proverbs 29:10, we read, “the just shall SEEK his soul;” shall seek it successfully; that is, shall find it: in other words, shall save or preserve it. We have here another instance of that enigmatical manner of speaking often adopted by our Lord, especially when he uses strong antitheses; and which gives them so great a force. The term LIFE is manifestly used in two senses, both for the animal life, and the immortal soul: “he that findeth or saveth his bodily life by cowardly desertion of my cause, shall lose his life,” or soul, that is, the felicity of the immortal principle in man; and he that loseth his bodily life for my sake, shall find, or save his life, that is, his soul, which shall be raised to the blessedness of a higher and future life. The paranomasia in this instance was favoured by the original word yuch, which signifies both life and soul, as also does the Syriac word. It is a somewhat striking remark of Tertullian, with reference to our Lord’s phrases, to save life, and to lose it for his sake, that the heathen judges, when they would persuade a Christian to renounce his faith, made use of these terms, Serva animam tuam, “Save your life;” and, Noli animam tuam perdere, “Do not throw your life away.”
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
John Wesley
V. 40. Matthew 18:5; Luke 10:16; John 13:20.
Adam Clarke
Verse 40. He that receiveth you] Treats you kindly, receiveth me; I will consider the kindness as shown to myself; for he who receiveth me, as the true Messiah, receiveth that God by whose counsels and through whose love I am come.
Joseph Benson
Verses 39-42. He that findeth his life shall lose it — He that saves his life by denying me shall lose it eternally; and he that loses his life by confessing me shall save it eternally. Or, as Macknight expresses it, “He that makes shipwreck of faith and a good conscience to save his life, shall lose that which is really his life — his everlasting happiness; whereas, he that maintaineth integrity at the expense of life, and all its enjoyments, shall find what is infinitely better — a blessed immortality.” It is justly observed by Campbell, that there is a kind of a paronomasia in the sentence, whereby the same word is used in different senses, in such a manner as to convey the sentiment with greater energy to the attentive. “He who, by making a sacrifice of his duty, preserves temporal life, shall lose eternal life; and contrariwise.” The trope has a beauty in the original which we cannot give it in a version: the word yuch being equivocal, and signifying both life and soul, and consequently being much better fitted for exhibiting, with entire perspicuity, the two meanings, than the English word life. The Syro- Chaldaic, which was the language then spoken in Palestine, had, in this respect, the same advantage with the Greek. He that receiveth you receiveth me — And as you shall be thus rewarded, so, in proportion, shall they who entertain you for my sake. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet — That is, because he is such, shall receive a prophet’s reward — Shall have a reward like that conferred on a prophet. It is evident, that by a prophet here is meant, not merely one that foretels future events, but a minister of God in general. And the word decomai, rendered receive, plainly signifies here to entertain in an hospitable way, as it does also Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25, &c. Nor can the gradation, in the following words, be understood without such an interpretation, for Jesus descends here from a prophet to a righteous man, and from a righteous man to a disciple, termed a little one, that is, any believer, however poor, mean, and contemptible in the world. It must be observed, that what renders the good works here mentioned valuable in the sight of God, and procures them a recompense from him, is their being done out of regard for him and his blessed Son. By the rewards here promised, Le Clerc understands the happiness of heaven, paraphrasing the worsts thus: “He that showeth kindness to a prophet, on account of his mission and doctrine, or to a righteous man, on account of his righteousness, especially if by so doing he exposes himself to persecution, shall be as highly rewarded as that righteous man or prophet shall be; nay, he who doth any good office whatever to the meanest of my disciples, though it should be but the small service of handing a cup of cold water to them, shall not go unrewarded,” that is, if he shall give it to him in the name of a disciple, or with a real affection to him, on account of his relation to me. This seems to be the true interpretation of the passage. Thus also Dr. Hammond, “How great soever your persecutions are, and how dangerous soever it be to profess to be a follower of Christ, yet shall no man have reason to fear the entertaining of you; for the same protection which awaits you, and the same reward that attends you, shall await them that receive you. It shall be as if they had entertained, not only angels, but Christ and God himself. He that doth support, and enable a prophet to do His work that sent him, shall receive the same reward that he should if himself had been sent to prophesy.” This, “as it is a great incitement to others to express their kindness to Christ’s ministers and faithful servants, so is it also to his ministers to apply themselves to his service with a ready mind, and with the utmost diligence in the execution of their pastoral office.” — Whitby.
Daniel Whedon
40. He that receiveth you — The phrase that receiveth you, imports undoubtedly receiving in faith their mission. It implies the heartfelt acceptance of Christianity, and the reception of the saving grace of the Gospel. Receiveth me — As his accepted and sufficient Saviour.
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
John Wesley
V. 41. He that entertaineth a prophet-That is, a preacher of the Gospel: In the name of a prophet-That is, because he is such, shall share in his reward.
Adam Clarke
Verse 41. He that receiveth a prophet] profhthn, a teacher, not a foreteller of future events, for this is not always the meaning of the word; but one commissioned by God to teach the doctrines of eternal life. It is no small honour to receive into one’s house a minister of Jesus Christ. Every person is not admitted to exercise the sacred ministry; but none are excluded from partaking of its grace, its spirit, and its reward. If the teacher should be weak, or even if he should be found afterwards to have been worthless, yet the person who has received him in the name, under the sacred character, of an evangelist, shall not lose his reward; because what he did he did for the sake of Christ, and through love for his Church. Many sayings of this kind are found among the rabbins, and this one is common: “He who receives a learned man, or an elder, into his house, is the same as if he had received the Shekinah.” And again: “He who speaks against a faithful pastor, it is the same as if he had spoken against God himself.” See Schoettgen.
Joseph Benson
Verses 39-42. He that findeth his life shall lose it — He that saves his life by denying me shall lose it eternally; and he that loses his life by confessing me shall save it eternally. Or, as Macknight expresses it, “He that makes shipwreck of faith and a good conscience to save his life, shall lose that which is really his life — his everlasting happiness; whereas, he that maintaineth integrity at the expense of life, and all its enjoyments, shall find what is infinitely better — a blessed immortality.” It is justly observed by Campbell, that there is a kind of a paronomasia in the sentence, whereby the same word is used in different senses, in such a manner as to convey the sentiment with greater energy to the attentive. “He who, by making a sacrifice of his duty, preserves temporal life, shall lose eternal life; and contrariwise.” The trope has a beauty in the original which we cannot give it in a version: the word yuch being equivocal, and signifying both life and soul, and consequently being much better fitted for exhibiting, with entire perspicuity, the two meanings, than the English word life. The Syro- Chaldaic, which was the language then spoken in Palestine, had, in this respect, the same advantage with the Greek. He that receiveth you receiveth me — And as you shall be thus rewarded, so, in proportion, shall they who entertain you for my sake. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet — That is, because he is such, shall receive a prophet’s reward — Shall have a reward like that conferred on a prophet. It is evident, that by a prophet here is meant, not merely one that foretels future events, but a minister of God in general. And the word decomai, rendered receive, plainly signifies here to entertain in an hospitable way, as it does also Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25, &c. Nor can the gradation, in the following words, be understood without such an interpretation, for Jesus descends here from a prophet to a righteous man, and from a righteous man to a disciple, termed a little one, that is, any believer, however poor, mean, and contemptible in the world. It must be observed, that what renders the good works here mentioned valuable in the sight of God, and procures them a recompense from him, is their being done out of regard for him and his blessed Son. By the rewards here promised, Le Clerc understands the happiness of heaven, paraphrasing the worsts thus: “He that showeth kindness to a prophet, on account of his mission and doctrine, or to a righteous man, on account of his righteousness, especially if by so doing he exposes himself to persecution, shall be as highly rewarded as that righteous man or prophet shall be; nay, he who doth any good office whatever to the meanest of my disciples, though it should be but the small service of handing a cup of cold water to them, shall not go unrewarded,” that is, if he shall give it to him in the name of a disciple, or with a real affection to him, on account of his relation to me. This seems to be the true interpretation of the passage. Thus also Dr. Hammond, “How great soever your persecutions are, and how dangerous soever it be to profess to be a follower of Christ, yet shall no man have reason to fear the entertaining of you; for the same protection which awaits you, and the same reward that attends you, shall await them that receive you. It shall be as if they had entertained, not only angels, but Christ and God himself. He that doth support, and enable a prophet to do His work that sent him, shall receive the same reward that he should if himself had been sent to prophesy.” This, “as it is a great incitement to others to express their kindness to Christ’s ministers and faithful servants, so is it also to his ministers to apply themselves to his service with a ready mind, and with the utmost diligence in the execution of their pastoral office.” — Whitby.
Daniel Whedon
41. He that receiveth a prophet — That is, with a faithful acceptance of his message. In the name of a prophet — With a full recognition of his character and mission, and in spite of the persecutions of a faithless world. Shall receive a prophet’s reward — Sharing both the prophet’s faith and the prophet’s danger, he shall share the prophet’s reward.
Richard Watson
Verse 41. A prophet in the name of a prophet. — That is, to receive a Christian teacher in the name of, or in consideration of his being a Christian teacher, a servant of Christ, and a publisher of his messages, and not merely from common hospitality, or personal friendship, or for his parts and eloquence; but, as it is expressed in the preceding verse, receiving Christ himself in and by him who represents Christ as his ambassador. He shall receive a prophet’s reward; a reward proportioned to the office which is held by him who is received, and which he that receives honours. There is here, no doubt, an allusion to the special benefits conferred upon several persons mentioned in the Old Testament, who received the prophets in ancient times; as the hostess of Elijah, whose barrel of meal did not waste, and whose cruse of oil did not fail, until the famine of the land ceased; and the two instances in which the deceased children of those who entertained prophets were restored to life, one by Elijah, the other by Elisha. Similar rewards are not intended; but still great rewards either in time or eternity, and sometimes in both.
A righteous man. — That is, a private Christian who bears not the office of a minister of Christ. In the early times especially, it was necessary for Christians to practise a liberal hospitality toward each other, by opening their houses to believing travellers, lest they should be exposed to mix with idolaters. To such acts Christ promises a blessing, provided every such righteous man be received as a righteous man; that is, in respect of his faith in Christ, and his relationship to him as one of his disciples. Even should he prove a hypocrite, yet being received as a sincere disciple of Christ, the host shall not lose his reward.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
John Wesley
V. 42. One of these little ones-The very least Christian. Mark 9:41.
Adam Clarke
Verse 42. A cup of cold water] udatov, of water, is not in the common text, but it is found in the Codex Bezæ, Coptic, Armenian, Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Slavonic, all copies of the Itala, Vulgate, and Origen. It is necessarily understood; the ellipsis of the same substantive is frequent, both in the Greek and Latin writers. See Wakefield.
Little ones] My apparently mean and generally despised disciples. But a cup of water in the eastern countries was not a matter of small worth. In India, the Hindoos go sometimes a great way to fetch it, and then boil it that it may do the less hurt to travellers when they are hot; and, after that, they stand from morning to night in some great road, where there is neither pit nor rivulet, and offer it, in honour of their god, to be drunk by all passengers. This necessary work of charity, in these hot countries, seems to have been practised by the more pious and humane Jews; and our Lord assures them that, if they do this in his name, they shall not lose their reward. See the Asiatic Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 142.
Verily-he shall in no wise lose his reward.] The rabbins have a similar saying: “He that gives food to one that studies in the law, God will bless him in this world, and give him a lot in the world to come.” Syn. Sohar. Love heightens the smallest actions, and gives a worth to them which they cannot possess without it. Under a just and merciful God every sin is either punished or pardoned, and every good action rewarded. The most indigent may exercise the works of mercy and charity; seeing even a cup of cold water, given in the name of Jesus, shall not lose its reward. How astonishing is God’s kindness! It is not the rich merely whom he calls on to be charitable; but even the poor, and the most impoverished of the poor! God gives the power and inclination to be charitable, and then rewards the work which, it may be truly said, God himself hath wrought. It is the name of Jesus that sanctifies every thing, and renders services, in themselves comparatively contemptible, of high worth in the sight of God. See Quesnel.
ST. MATTHEW
Joseph Benson
Verses 39-42. He that findeth his life shall lose it — He that saves his life by denying me shall lose it eternally; and he that loses his life by confessing me shall save it eternally. Or, as Macknight expresses it, “He that makes shipwreck of faith and a good conscience to save his life, shall lose that which is really his life — his everlasting happiness; whereas, he that maintaineth integrity at the expense of life, and all its enjoyments, shall find what is infinitely better — a blessed immortality.” It is justly observed by Campbell, that there is a kind of a paronomasia in the sentence, whereby the same word is used in different senses, in such a manner as to convey the sentiment with greater energy to the attentive. “He who, by making a sacrifice of his duty, preserves temporal life, shall lose eternal life; and contrariwise.” The trope has a beauty in the original which we cannot give it in a version: the word yuch being equivocal, and signifying both life and soul, and consequently being much better fitted for exhibiting, with entire perspicuity, the two meanings, than the English word life. The Syro- Chaldaic, which was the language then spoken in Palestine, had, in this respect, the same advantage with the Greek. He that receiveth you receiveth me — And as you shall be thus rewarded, so, in proportion, shall they who entertain you for my sake. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet — That is, because he is such, shall receive a prophet’s reward — Shall have a reward like that conferred on a prophet. It is evident, that by a prophet here is meant, not merely one that foretels future events, but a minister of God in general. And the word decomai, rendered receive, plainly signifies here to entertain in an hospitable way, as it does also Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25, &c. Nor can the gradation, in the following words, be understood without such an interpretation, for Jesus descends here from a prophet to a righteous man, and from a righteous man to a disciple, termed a little one, that is, any believer, however poor, mean, and contemptible in the world. It must be observed, that what renders the good works here mentioned valuable in the sight of God, and procures them a recompense from him, is their being done out of regard for him and his blessed Son. By the rewards here promised, Le Clerc understands the happiness of heaven, paraphrasing the worsts thus: “He that showeth kindness to a prophet, on account of his mission and doctrine, or to a righteous man, on account of his righteousness, especially if by so doing he exposes himself to persecution, shall be as highly rewarded as that righteous man or prophet shall be; nay, he who doth any good office whatever to the meanest of my disciples, though it should be but the small service of handing a cup of cold water to them, shall not go unrewarded,” that is, if he shall give it to him in the name of a disciple, or with a real affection to him, on account of his relation to me. This seems to be the true interpretation of the passage. Thus also Dr. Hammond, “How great soever your persecutions are, and how dangerous soever it be to profess to be a follower of Christ, yet shall no man have reason to fear the entertaining of you; for the same protection which awaits you, and the same reward that attends you, shall await them that receive you. It shall be as if they had entertained, not only angels, but Christ and God himself. He that doth support, and enable a prophet to do His work that sent him, shall receive the same reward that he should if himself had been sent to prophesy.” This, “as it is a great incitement to others to express their kindness to Christ’s ministers and faithful servants, so is it also to his ministers to apply themselves to his service with a ready mind, and with the utmost diligence in the execution of their pastoral office.” — Whitby.
Daniel Whedon
42. One of these little ones — A tender appellation for his apostles. They were sheep in the midst of wolves, they were harmless like doves, they were tender like little ones. A cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple — In the glowing climate of Palestine, the pursued and persecuted apostle might find a cup of cold water the preservation of his life. And whosoever, in recognition of his discipleship, that is, because he was a disciple of Jesus, and from love to his Master, shall furnish him this precious boon, shall in no wise lose his reward. His faith has worked by love, and has been justified by works.
Here, therefore, is no shadow of a denial of the doctrine of justification by faith; but an assertion that works in faith are graciously rewarded of God. And in such faith the slightest work, the simplest cup of cold water, is a noble investment for a great reward.
It is said that in India the Hindoos go often a great distance for water, boil it to render it healthful, and then, in honour of some idol, stand by the roadside until night offering drink to travellers. Such an act of faith in Christ performed for his apostles cannot fail of its reward. This commissioning of the apostles opens the SIXTH PERIOD of our Lord’s history upon earth. It is the period of his expanding ministry. See Historical Synopsis. His apostles go forth; the Baptist retreats from the world; the fame of Jesus fills the palace of Herod; and the faith of his disciples is so established that at the next period he commits to them the keys of his kingdom and prepares for his departure. Matthew 16:13-21. Neither Matthew nor either of the other evangelists gives a detailed account of the mission of the apostles. While our Saviour was upon earth, and preaching, it seems as if the evangelist held all other ministries of little account. Mark tells us (Mark 6:12, 13) that “they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.” And in Mark 6:30: “The apostles gathered themselves unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.” And this was followed by their crossing over Lake Gennesaret, and the feeding of the five thousand. We are informed in the first verse of the next chapter, that when Jesus had finished this discourse, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
Richard Watson
Verse 42. A cup of cold water. — An acceptable gift to the thirsty traveller in those countries, and often not easily to be procured but by the benevolence of hospitable persons. Yet where water was abundant, as in cities, it was a present of small value. Some poor persons indeed might have no more to give; yet, being offered in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, it shall in no wise lose its reward. In the Talmud it is said, that whoever entertains a man well instructed in the law, and causes him to eat and drink, shall be more blessed than the house of Obed Edom was for the ark’s sake; for the ark neither ate nor drank with him. This as well as many other sayings, similar to those of our Lord, we may again remark, were in all probability borrowed from the New Testament, with which the wise men among the Jews in former times were very conversant. Thus they have imitated the words of Christ in verse 29 of this chapter, saying, “A bird without God does not perish; much less, a man: a bird without God does not fly away; much less, the soul of a man;” with many other instances. Our Lord here calls his disciples his little ones, oi mikroi, referring either to the humble condition of the disciples, as Beza thinks; or, probably, as Koinoel thinks, the word is used like the Hebrew ˆycq, which signifies both a little one and a disciple.
John Wesley
V. 1. His twelve disciples-Hence it appears that he had already chosen out of his disciples, those whom he afterward termed apostles. The number seems to have relation to the twelve patriarchs, and the twelve tribes of Israel. Mark 3:14; 6:7; Luke 6:13; 9:1.
Adam Clarke
Verse 1. Twelve disciples] Our Lord seems to have had the twelve patriarchs, heads of the congregation of Israel, in view, in his choosing twelve disciples. That he had the plan of the ancient Jewish Church in his eye is sufficiently evident from Matthew 19:28; and from Luke 10:1; 22:30; John 17:1, &c., and Revelation 21:12-14. He gave them power against unclean spirits] The word kata, against, which our translators have supplied in Italic, is found in many MSS. of good note, and in the principal versions. Here we find the first call to the Christian ministry, and the end proposed by the commission given. To call persons to the ministry belongs only to Him who can give them power to cast out unclean spirits. He whose ministry is not accompanied with healing to diseased souls, was never called of God. But let it be observed, that, though the spiritual gifts requisite for the ministry must be supplied by God himself, yet this does not preclude the importance of human learning. No man can have his mind too well cultivated, to whom a dispensation of the Gospel is committed. The influence of the Spirit of God was no more designed to render human learning useless, than that learning should be considered as superseding the necessity of Divine inspiration.
Joseph Benson
Verse 1. And when he had called his twelve disciples — From the evangelist’s naming them the twelve, it appears that he considered them as elected before this, though he has given no account of it in his gospel. The number seems to have relation to the twelve patriarchs and the twelve tribes of Israel. He gave them power against unclean spirits — Evil spirits are called unclean, because they are wicked, and delight in wickedness; which is the only pollution of a spiritual being. And to heal all manner of sickness, &c. — By this power of working miracles the apostles, though men of low degree and illiterate, were enabled to draw the attention of their countrymen, and to gain credit to the before unheard-of doctrine which they were to preach; and by our Lord’s giving them this power he gave a striking proof of his Deity, for who but God can communicate any such power to man?
Joseph Sutcliffe
Verse 1. He called to him his twelve disciples. Jesus chose twelve that they might sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Luke 22:30. And that they might be the twelve foundations and gates of his church. Revelation 21:12-14. But this preference to the twelve did not hinder the extraordinary powers of the Spirit from being conferred on other apostolic men. And who would have thought, when they left their nets, that they should fill eternal thrones? Believer, take courage; thy small beginning will come to a throne and a crown in the issue. God never yet deceived a soul that simply trusted in his word. — Our Lord had now been through a great part of the country, and had called whom he would for the work. They had no concern in their call and elevation: it was the Lord who drew them from the treasures of his providence, and gave them talents and powers to do the work required of them.
Richard Watson
1 Christ sendeth out his twelve apostles, enabling them with power to do miracles, 5 giveth them their charge, teacheth them, 16 comforteth them against persecutions: 40 and promiseth a blessing to those that receive them. CHAPTER 10. Verse 1. Twelve disciples. — They had before followed him under the character of disciples; but were now expressly made APOSTLES. The word signifies a messenger, any one sent by another for any purpose whatever. In Herodotus it signifies a herald; and in a still higher sense it is used, like the Hebrew twlv, for legate or ambassador. It is a word of dignity, but only according to the character of the sender, the message, and the person sent. In the highest sense it is applied to Christ himself, who is the “Apostle and High Priest of our profession;” in the next degree it is given to the twelve apostles of Christ, to whom St. Paul was afterward added; then, in 2 Corinthians 8:23, Titus and other brethren are called “apostles of the Churches,” where it is rendered “messengers” in our translation. — “The apostles of Christ,” and “the apostles of the Lamb,” are phrases which seem not to have been used but with reference to “THE TWELVE” and ST. PAUL. Some, indeed, think that the title was, in its higher sense, applied also to Barnabas and other distinguished founders of the Christian faith; but this does not so clearly appear. Many fancies have been built upon the number of apostles being limited to twelve, and allusions have been found in the circumstance to the twelve patriarchs, the twelve spies, the twelve stones in Aaron’s breastplate, the twelve fountains found by the Israelites in the wilderness, the twelve oxen which supported Solomon’s molten laver, &c., &c., for all of which plausible or absurd reasons have been given; but the best use to be made of such speculations is to teach us the necessity of interpreting Scripture with sobriety; for the whole charm of such discoveries of mysteries in the number twelve is dissipated when we recollect that in fact, after St. Paul was called, the number of the apostles of equal rank and dignity, by whom the foundations of the Christian Church were laid, was not twelve but thirteen. If any reason at all can be assigned for the number of twelve being first fixed upon, it appears to have been with reference to their being first sent only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” to prepare a spiritual Israel for Christ, before the formal calling of the Gentiles. — Their number was therefore that of the twelve tribes, who were mingled in one population after the return from the captivity, the genealogies of Levi and Judah only being preserved with much care with reference to the priesthood and the Messiah. But when the Gentiles were to be called, one was added to the number, not to exclude the rest from ministering to the Gentiles, but to give a strong sanction to the doctrine of the equality of believing Gentiles and believing Jews, with which St. Paul was specially charged. He gave them power, &c. — This is the grand distinction between the miraculous powers of Christ and those of his apostles. The one was inherent in himself, the other was expressly communicated by him, and was never employed but as his power, not as theirs who exercised it. The distinction, before noticed, will here again be remarked between “CASTING OUT unclean spirits, and HEALING all manner of sickness;” so that possession is excluded expressly from the class of sicknesses and diseases.