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10 Neither be ye called ▾ masters: for one is your w Master, even Christ. 11 But he that is greatest among you shall g ch. xx. 26, 27. be your I servant. 12 h And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

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Job xxii. 29.
Luke xiv. 11:

Prov. xv. 33:
xxix. 23.

xviii. 14. James iv. 6.

1 Pet. v. 5.

Tit. i. 11.

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. [14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a 12 Tim. f. 6. pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.] 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the a child of hell than yourselves. 16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, 'Whosoever shall swear by kch. xv. 14. the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by

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See note.

I render, ministering servant.
I literally, before men: i. e. in their faces.
a render, son.

Life, p. 441, and the opening of the Au-
thor's dedication of the book). 11.]
It may serve to shew us how little the
letter of a precept has to do with its true
observance, if we reflect that he who of all
the Heads of sects has most notably vio-
lated this whole command, and caused
others to do so, calls himself servus ser-
vorum Dei' ("servant of the servants of
God").-It must be noted (see margin)
that the word here rendered "servant" in
the A. V., is not that usually so translated
(doulos), which properly means slave or
bondsman: but diaconos, which is in the
same version rendered minister in chap. xx.
26.

12.] This often-repeated saying points here not only to the universal character of God's dealings, but to the speedy humiliation of the lofty Pharisees; and as such finds a most striking parallel in Ezek. xxi. 26, 27. 13.] In Luke xi. 52 it is added " ye have taken away the key of knowledge"-the Key being, not the Key of, i. e. admitting to, Knowledge, but the Key which is the Knowledge itself, the true simple interpretation of Scripture, which would have admitted them, and caused them to admit others, into the Kingdom of Heaven, by the recognition of Him of whom the Scriptures testify; whereas now by their perverse interpretations they had shut

1

Z omit.

ver. 24.

out both themselves and others from it. See a notable instance of this latter in John ix. 24. They shut the door as it were in men's faces who were entering. [On the interpolated ver. 14, see notes on Mark (xii. 40). It is wanting in almost all the oldest authorities. It appears to have been inserted here by the copyists from Mark, as above, or from Luke xx. 47.]

15.] And with all this betrayal of your trust as the teachers of Israel (John iii. 10 literally), as if all your work at home were done. This was their work of supererogation-not commanded them, nor in the spirit of their law. The Lord speaks not here of those pious Godfearing men, who were found dwelling among the Jews, favouring and often attending their worship-but of the proselytes of righteousness, so called, who by persuasion of the Pharisees, took on them the whole Jewish law and its observances. These were rare -and it was to the credit of our nature

that they were. For what could such a proselyte, made by such teachers, become? A disciple of hypocrisy merely-neither a sincere heathen nor a sincere Jew-doubly the child of hell: condemned by the religion which he had left-condemned again by that which he had taken. 16-22.] The Lord forbade all swearing to His own

29.

:

the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. 17 Ye fools, and m Exod. xxx. blind for whether is greater, the gold, mor the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever d sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19 Ye [e fools and] n Exod. xxix. blind: for b whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 23 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by 22 And he that shall swear

37.

01 Kings viii. him that g° dwelleth therein.

13. 2 Chron.

vi. 2. Ps. xxvi. 8:

cxxxii. 14.

p Ps. xi. 4. ch. v. 34.

Acts vii. 49.

Hos. vi. 6.

21 And

by heaven, sweareth by P the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye h pay tithe of mint and anise and 91 Sam. xv. 22. cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. r Mark vii. 4. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for

Micah vi. 8.

ch. ix. 13: xii. 7.

bi.e. which of the two.

d render, shall swear.

f

render, hath sworn.

h render, tithe (the verb).
krender, swallowing the.

disciples, ch. v. 34; and by the very same
reasoning-because every oath is really and
eventually an oath by God-shews these
Pharisees the validity and solemnity of
every oath. This subterfuge became noto-
rious at Rome. See citation in my Gr. Test.

The reading dwelt in ver. 21 is remarkable; God did not then dwell in the Temple, nor had He done so since the Captivity.

23, 24.] It was doubtful, whether Levit. xxvii. 30 applied to every smallest garden herb: but the Pharisees, in their over-rigidity in externals, stretched it to this, letting go the heavier, more difficult, and more important (see ver. 4) matters of the Law. In the threefold enumeration, our Lord refers to Micah vi. 8 (see also Hosea xii. 6)-where to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, are described as being better than all offerings. these these last, are the great points on which your exertions should have been spent-and then, if for the sake of these they be observed, the others should not be neglected. The gold here is probably not the ornamental gold, but the Corban-the sacred treasure. They were fools and blind, not to know and see, that no inanimate thing can witness an

read, hath sanctified.

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e omitted in many ancient authorities.
8 many ancient authorities read, dwelt.
i render, straining out the.

oath, but that all these things are called in to do so because of sanctity belonging to them, of which God is the primary source: -the order likewise of the things hallowed, being, in their foolish estimate of them, reversed: for the gold must be less than the temple which hallows it, and the gift than the altar-not as if this were of any real consequence, except to shew their folly-for vv. 20-22, every oath is really an oath by God. But these men were servants only of the temple ("your house," ver. 38) and the altar, and had forgotten God. The straining the gnat is not a mere proverbial saying. The Jews (as do now the Buddists in Ceylon and Hindostan) strained their wine, &c., carefully that they might not violate Levit. xi. 20, 23, 41, 42 (and, it might be added, Levit. xvii. 10-14). The "strain at a gnat" in our present auth. vers. for "strain out a gnat of the earlier English vss., seems not to have been a mistake, as sometimes supposed, but a deliberate alteration, meaning, "strain [out the wine] at [the occurrence of] a gnat." The camel is not only opposed, as of immense size, but is also joined with the other as being equally unclean. 25-28.] This woe is founded

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26 Thou

S

for Acts xxiii. 3.

ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter,
but within they are full of extortion and excess.
blind Pharisee, cleanse first 1 that which is within the cup
and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones,
and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly
appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the
prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we
would not have been partakers with them in the blood of
the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto
selves, that ye are the m children of them which
the prophets. 32 u Fill ye up then the measure of
fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye P generation of vipers, how can
ye escape the ¶ damnation of hell?

t

yourkilled

your

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35.

34 w Wherefore behold I send unto you prophets, and wise wch. xxi. 34, 1 render, the inside of. • render, also.

m render, sons. P render, offspring.

not on a literally, but a typically denoted practice of the Pharisees. Our Lord, in the ever-deepening denunciation of His discourse, has now arrived at the delineation of their whole character and practices by a parabolic similitude. are full of] The straining out of the gnat is a cleansing pertaining to the outside, as compared with the inner composition of the wine itself, of which the cup is full: see Rev. xviii. 3. The exterior is not in reality pure when the interior is foul: it is not a clean cup,' unless both exterior and interior be clean. Observe, the emphasis is on be: "that its exterior also may not appear to be, but really become, pure." 27.] The Jews used once a year (on the fifteenth of the month Adar) to whitewash the spots where graves were, that persons might not be liable to uncleanness by passing over them (see Num. xix. 16). This goes to the root of the mischief at once: "your heart is not a temple of the living God, but a grave of pestilent corruption: not a heaven, but a hell. And your religion is but the whitewash-hardly skin-deep."

29-33.]

The guilt resting on these present Pharisees, from being the last in a progressive series of generations of such hypocrites and

n render, murdered.
I render, judgment.

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persecutors, forms the matter of the last
Woe. The burden of this hypocrisy is, that
they, being one with their fathers, treading
in their steps, but vainly disavowing their
deeds, were, by the very act of building
the sepulchres of the prophets, joined with
their prophet-persecuting acts, convicting
themselves of continuity with their fathers'
wickedness. See, as clearly setting forth
this view, Luke xi. Instead of the peni-
tent confession, "We have sinned, we and
our fathers," this last and worst generation
in vain protests against their participation
in their fathers' guilt, which they are mean-
while developing to the utmost, and filling
up its measure (Acts vii. 52).' Stier. Again
notice the emphasis, which is now markedly
on sons; thus bringing out that relation in
all its fulness and consequences.
Fill ye up also (as well as they) the mea-
sure (of iniquity) of your fathers.
Ver. 33 repeats almost verbatim the first
denunciation of the Baptist-in this, the last
discourse of the Lord: thus denoting the
unchanged state of these men, on whom the
whole preaching of repentance had now been
expended. One weighty difference however
there is then it was, "who hath warned
you to flee?" the wonder was, how they be-

32.]

x Acts v. 40:

vii. 58, 59:

xxii. 19. y ch. x. 17.

2 Cor. xi. 24, 25.

z Rev. xviii.

24.

men, and scribes : and × some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 z that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, a from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of xxiv. 20, 21. Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these

a Gen. iv. 8.

1 John iii. 12. b 2 Chron.

And

thought themselves of escaping-now, how shall ye escape? On serpents, see Rev. xii. 9. 34.] From the similar place in the former discourse (Luke xi. 49, see notes there) it would appear that the wherefore refers to the whole last denunciation:— since ye are bent upon filling up the iniquities of your fathers, in God's inscrutable purposes ye shall go on rejecting His messengers.' Notice the difference between "the wisdom of God" in Luke xi. 49, and I, with its emphasis, here. These words are nowhere written in Scripture, nor is it necessary to suppose that to be our Lord's meaning. He speaks this as Head of His Church, of those whom He was about to send: see Acts xiii. 1: 1 Cor. xii. 8: Eph. iii. 5. He cannot, as some think, include Himself among those whom He sends-the Jews may have crucified many Christian teachers before the destruction of Jerusalem. Eusebius relates from Hegesippus the crucifixion of Symeon son of Clopas, in the reign of Trajan. The and takes out the "crucify," the special, from the "kill," the general; with, of course, somewhat of emphasis: "yea, and even crucify." The prophets were the Apostles, who, in relation to the Jews, were such-the wise men, Stephen and such like, men full of the Holy Ghost-the scribes, Apollos, Paul (who indeed was all of these together), and such. On scourge in your synagogues, see Acts v. 40; xxii. 19; xxvi. 11. 35.] that, not in such a way that,' as some: but strictly in order that. righteous (or innocent) blood is a common expression in the O. T. See 2 Kings xxi. 16; xxiv. 4: Jer. xxvi. 15; and more especially Lam. iv. 13, which perhaps our Lord referred to in speaking this.

all the.... blood] Thus in Babylon, Rev. xviii. 24, is found the blood of all that were slain upon the earth. Every such signal judgment is the judgment for a series of long-crying crimes and these judgments do not exhaust God's anger, Isa. ix. 12, 17, 21. The murder of Abel was the first in the strife between unrighteousness and holiness, and as these Jews represent, in their conduct both in former times and now, the murderer of the

Who

first, they must bear the vengeance of the whole in God's day of wrath. Zacharias son of Barachias is has been much disputed. We may conclude with certainty that it cannot be (as Augustine and Greswell suppose) a future Zacharias, mentioned by Josephus, as son of Baruch, and slain in the temple just before the destruction of Jerusalem-for our Lord evidently speaks of an event past, and never prophesies in this manner elsewhere. Origen has preserved a tradition, that Zacharias father of John the Baptist was slain by them in the temple; but in the absence of all other authority, this must be suspected as having arisen from the difficulty of the allusion here. Most likely (see Lightfoot in loc., and note on Luke xi. 49) it is Zacharias the son of Jehoiada, who was killed there, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21, and of whose blood the Jews had a saying, that it never was washed away till the temple was burnt at the captivity.

son of

Barachias does not occur in Luke xi. 51, and perhaps was not uttered by the Lord Himself, but may have been inserted by mistake, as Zachariah the prophet was son of Barachiah, see Zech. i. 1. between the temple and the altar] He was killed in the priest's court, where the altar of burnt-offerings was. On ver. 36, see note on ch. xxiv. 34. It is no objection to the interpretation there maintained, that the whole period of the Jewish course of crime is not filled up by it: the death of Abel can by no explanation be brought within its limits or responsibility; and our Lord's saying reaches far deeper than a mere announcement of their responsibility for what they themselves had done. The Jews stood in the central point of God's dealings with men; and as they were the chosen for the election of grace, so, rejecting God and His messengers, they became, in an especial and awful manner, vessels of wrath. Our Lord

mentions this last murder, not as being the last even before His own day, but because it was connected specially with the cry of the dying man, The Lord look upon it and require it. Compare Gen. iv. 10. This death of Zacharias was the

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things shall come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Luke xiii. 34. Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them 42 Chron. which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens

f

e

xxiv. 21. e Deut. xxxii. 11, 12.

f

xci. 4.

ye shall say, g Blessed is & PSA, cxviii.

26. ch. xxi. 9.

' under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your P. xvii. 8: house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till he that cometh in the name of the Lord. XXIV. 1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said unto them, See not all these things? verily I ye shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall Luke xix. 44. not be thrown down.

:

say unto

you,

a There

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples

r read, he answered and said.

last in the arrangement of the Hebrew Canon of the O. T., though chronologically that of Urijah, Jer. xxvi. 23, was later.

37.] These words were before spoken by our Lord, Luke xiii. 34: see notes there, and compare ch. xxiv. 28. how often would I have gathered must be understood of all the messages of repentance and mercy sent by the prophets, for our Lord's words embrace the whole time comprised in the historic survey of ver. 35, as well as His own ministry. On the similitude, see Deut. xxxii. 11: Ps. xvii. 8; xxxvi. 7; lvii. 1; lxi. 4: Isa. xxxi. 5: Mal. iv. 2. ye would not] See Isa. xxviii. 12; xxx. 15. The tears of our Lord over the perverseness of Jerusalem are witnesses of the freedom of man's will to resist the grace of God.

38, 39.] This is our Lord's last and solemn departure from the temple-the true "Let us depart hence." your house-no more God's, but your house -said primarily of the temple,-then of Jerusalem, and then of the whole land in which ye dwell. Ye shall not see meHe did not shew Himself to all the people after His resurrection, but only to chosen witnesses, Acts x. 41. till ye shall

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a 1 Kings ix. 7. Jer. xxvi. 18. Micah iii. 12.

HIS COMING, AND OF THE TIMES OF THE
END. Mark xiii. 1-37. Luke xxi. 5-36.
Matt. omits the incident of the widow's
mite, Mark xii. 41-44. Luke xxi. 1-4.

1, 2.] St. Mark expresses their re-
marks on the buildings; see note there:-
they were probably occasioned by ver. 38
of the last chapter. Josephus writes,
"Cæsar gave orders to pull down the
whole city and the temple.... and all
the area of the city was so levelled by the
workmen, that a traveller would never
believe that it had been inhabited."
3.] From Mark we learn that it was Peter
and James and John and Andrew who
asked this question. With regard to the
question itself, we must, I think, be care-
ful not to press the clauses of it too much,
so as to make them bear separate meanings
corresponding to the arrangements of our
Lord's discourse. As expressed in the
other Evangelists, the question was con-
cerning the time, and the sign, of these
things happening, viz. the overthrow of
the temple and desolation of Judæa, with
which, in the then idea of the Apostles,
our Lord's coming and the end of the
world were connected. Against this mis-
take He warns them, vv. 6, 14,-Luke
ver. 24,―and also in the two first parables
in our ch. xxv.
For the understand-
ing of this necessarily difficult prophetic
discourse, it must be borne in mind that
the whole is spoken in the pregnant lan-
guage of prophecy, in which various fulfil-
ments are involved. (1) The view of the
Jewish Church and its fortunes, as repre-
senting the Christian Church and its his-

M

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