at feasts, and the chief seats in the | for one is your Master, even Christ; synagogues, and all ye are brethren.3 9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in hea 8 But be not ye called Rabbi: ven. 1 John i. 38; iii. 2, 26; xx. 16. 2 Jas. iii. 1. and never sitting as we do. The chief seat, or the uppermost one, was the middle couch at the upper end of the table. This the Pharisees loved as a post of honour or distinction. Chief seats in the synagogues. The seats usually occupied by the elders of the synagogue, near the pulpit. They love a place of distinction. Note, ch. iv. 23. 4 3 Epb. iii. 15. Rev. i. 9; xxii. 9. 4 Ch. vi. 9. were not to do any thing that implied a wish or a willingness that it should be appended to their names. Every thing which would tend to make a distinction among them, or destroy their parity; every thing which would lead the world to suppose that there were ranks and grades among them as ministers, they were to avoid. It is to be observed that the command is, that they were not to receive the title. "Be not ye called Rabbi." The Saviour did not forbid them to give the title to others when it was customary or not regarded as improper. Comp. Acts xxvi. 25; but they were not to receive it. It was to be unThis title corre 7. Greetings in the markets. Marks of particular respect shown to them in public places. Markets were places where multitudes of people were assembled together. They were pleased with particular attention among the multitude, and desired that all should show them particular respect. Greetings. Salu-known among them. tations. See Note, Luke x. 4. To be called, Rabbi, Rabbi. This word literally signifies great. It was a title given to eminent teachers of the law among the Jews; a title of honour and dignity, denoting their authority and ability to teach. They were gratified with such titles, and wished it given to themselves as denoting superiority. Every time it was given to them it implied their superiority to the persons who used it; and they were fond, therefore, of hearing it often applied to them. There were three titles in use among the Jews, Rab, Rabbi, and Rabban, denoting different degrees of learning and ability, as literary degrees do among us. 3. Be not ye, &c. Jesus forbade his disciples to seek such titles of distinction. The reason he gave was that he was himself their Master and Teacher. They were on a level; they were to be equal in authority; they were brethren; and they should neither covet nor receive a title which implied either an elevation of one above another, or which appeared to infringe on the absolute right of the Saviour to be their only Teacher and Master. The command here is an express command to his disciples not to receive such atit.e of distinction. They were not to covet it; they were not to seek it; they sponds with the titie, Doctor of Divinity, as applied to ministers of the gospel; and so far as I can see, the spirit of the Saviour's command is violated by the reception of such a title, as it would have been by their being called Rabbi. It is a literary distinction. It does not appropriately pertain to office. It makes a distinction among ministers. It tends to engender pride, and a sense of superiority in those who obtain it; and envy and a sense of inferiority in those who do not; and the whole spirit and tendency of it is contrary to the simplicity that is in Christ. 9. And call no man your father, &c. This does not of course forbid us to apply the term to our real father. Religion requires all proper honour to be shown to him. Exod. xx. 12. Matt xv. 4. Eph. vi. 1—3. But the word father also denotes authority, eminence, superiority, a right to command, and a claim to particular respect. In this sense it is used here. In this sense it belengs eminently to God, and it is not right to give it to men. Christian brethren are equal. God only has supreme authority. He only has a right to give laws, to declare doctrines to bind the conscience, to punish disobedience. The jewish teachers affected that title because they seem to have supposed that a teacher formed the man, or gave him real life, and sought therefore to be called father. Christ taught them that the source of all life and truth was God; and they ought not to seek or receive a title which properly belongs to him. 10. Neither-masters. Leaders. Those who go before others; who claim, therefore, the right to direct and control others. This was also a title conferred on jewish teachers. Neither of these commands forbids us to give proper titles of civil office to men, or to render them the honour belonging to their station. Matt. xxii. 21. Rom. xiii. 7. 1 Pet. ii. 17. They forbid the disciples of Jesus to seek or receive mere empty titles, producing distinctions among themselves, implying authority to control the opinions and conduct of others, and claiming that others should acknowledge them to be superior to them. 11, 12. See Note, ch. xx. 26. He that humbleth himself, &c. God will exalt or honour him that is humble, and that seeks a lowly place among men. That is true religion, and God will reward it. 3 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 de 3 Isa. ix. 14, 15; xxxiii. 14. Zech. xi. 17. Luke xi. 43, 44. the kingdom of heaven. Note, Matt. iii. 2. They shut it up by their doctrines. By teaching false doctrines respecting the Messiah; by binding the people to an observance of their traditions; by opposing Jesus, and attempting to convince the people that he was an impostor, they prevented many from becoming his followers. Many were ready to embrace Jesus as the Messiah, and were about entering into the kingdom of heaven, i. e. the church, but they prevented it. Luke says, ch. xi. 52, that they had taken away the key of knowledge, and thus prevented their entering in. That is, they had taken away the right interpretation of the an cient prophecies respecting the Messiah, and thus had done all they could to prevent the people from receiving Jesus as the Redeemer. 14. Devour widows' houses. The word houses is here used to denote property or possessions of any kind. You take away, or get possession of, by improper arts and pretences. This was done in two ways: 1. They pretended to a very exact knowledge of the law, and to a perfect observance of it. They pretended to ex13. Woe unto you. You are guilty, traordinary justice to the poor, friendship and punishment will come unto you. for the distressed, and willingness to aid He proceeds to state wherein they were those who were in embarrassed circumguilty. This most eloquent, most appal- stances. They thus induced widows and ling, and most terrible of all discourses poor people to commit the management ever delivered to mortals, was pronounced of their property to them, as guardians in the temple, in the presence of multi- and executors, and then took advantage tudes. Never was there more faithful of them, and defrauded them. 2. By dealing, more terrible reproof, more pro- their long prayers they put on the appearfound knowledge of the workings of hypo- ance of great sanctity, and induced many crisy, or more skill in detecting the con- weak women to give them much, under cealments of sin. This was the last of pretence of devoting it to religious purChrist's public discourses; and it is a poses. Long prayers. Their prayers most impressive summary of all he ever are said to have been often three hours in had said, or had to say, of a wicked and length. One rule among them, says hypocritical generation. Scribes and Lightfoot, was to meditate an hour, then Pharisees. Note, Matt. iii. 7. Hypo-pray an hour, and then meditate another crites. Note, Matt. vi. 2. hour, all of which was included in their Ye shut up 1 vour widows' houses, 1 and for a 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 child of hell than yourselves. Exod. xxii. 22-24. Job xxii. 9; xxxi. 16-20. 2 Tim. iii. 6. Tit. i. 11. 2 John viii. 44. Acts xiii. 10. Eph. ii. 3. long prayers or devotions. ¶ Damnation. Condemnation. The word here probably refers to future punishment. It does not always, however. It means, frequently, no more than condemnation, or the divine disapprobation of a certain course of conduct, as in 1 Cor. xi. 29: "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself." That is, he that eateth and drinketh in an unworthy manner, disorderly, not with reverence, is guilty, and his conduct will be disapproved or condemned by God; referring solely to the impropriety of the manner of partaking of the Lord's supper, and not at all to the worthiness or unworthiness of the person. See Notes on that place. Compare Rom. xiv. 23. For a pretence. For appearance or show; in order that they might the better defraud poor people. They would not be condemned for making long prayers, but because they did it with an evil design. Public prayers should, however, be short, and always to the point. A teacher praying in a Sunday school should pray for the school, and usually not for everything else. 15. Ye compass sea and land. Ye take every means, spare no pains to gain proselytes. ¶ Proselyte. One that comes over from a foreign nation, religion, or sect, to us. A convert. Among the Jews there were two kinds of proselytes. 1. Proselytes of righteousness, or those who wholly and fully embraced the jewish religion, were baptized, circumcised, and who conformed to all the rites of the Mosaic institutions. 2. Proselytes of the gate, or those who approved of the jewish religion, renounced the pagan superstitions, and conformed 16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17 Ye fools 5 and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? John ix. 3 Ch. xv. 14. Isa. lvi. 10, 11. 39-41. 4 Ch. v. 33, 34. Jas. v. 12. 5 Psa. xciv. 8. to some of the rites of the Jews, but were not circumcised or baptized. Twofold more the child of hell. That is, twice as bad. To be a child of hell, was a Hebrew phrase, signifying to be deserving of hell, to be awfully wicked. Note, ch. i. 1. The jewish writers themselves say that the proselytes were "scabs of Israel," and "hindered the coming of the Messiah" by their great wickedness. The Pharisees gained them either to sweil their numbers, or to make gain by extorting their money under various pretences; and when they had accomplished that, they took no pains to instruct them, or to restrain them. They had renounced their superstition, which had before somewhat restrained them. The Pharisees had given them no religion in its place to restrain them, and they were consequently left to the full indulgence of their vices. 16. Whosoever shall swear, &c. See Note, ch. v. 33-37. The temple. Note, ch. xxi. 12. ¶ It is nothing. It amounts to nothing. It is not binding. The gold of the temple. Either the golden vessels in the temple, the candlestick, &c., or the gold with which the doors and other parts of the temple were covered; or the gold in the treasury. This, it seems, they considered far more sacred than any other part of the temple, but it is not known why. He is a debtor. He is bound to keep his oath. He is guilty if he violates it. 17. The temple that sanctifieth the gold. To sanctify is to make holy. The gold had no holiness but what it derived from the temple. If in any other place it would be no more holy than any other gold. It was foolish, then, to suppose that that was more holy than the temple from which it received all the sanctity which it possessed. 18. The altar. The altar of burntofferings, in the court of the priests. Note, ch. xxi. 12. It was made of brass, about thirty feet in length and breadth, and fifteen feet in height. 2 Chron. iv. 1. On this altar were offered all the beasts and bloody oblations of the tempie. The gift that is upon it. The gift or offering made to God, so called because it was devoted or given to him. The gift upon this altar was always beasts and birds. 19. The altar that sanctifieth the gift. The altar, dedicated to God, gave all the value or holiness to the offering, and must therefore be the greatest, or of the most importance. If, therefore, either bound to the fulfilment of an oath, it must be the altar. 21. Him that dwelleth therein. That is, God. The temple was his house, his dwelling. In the first, or Solomon's temple, he dwelt between the cherubim, in the most holy place. He manifested himself there by a visible symbol, in the form of a cloud resting on the merey-seat. 1 Kin. viii. 10, 13. Psa. lxxx. 1. 22. The throne of God. Heaven is his throne, ch. v. 34. It is so called as being the place where he sits in glory. Jesus says, here, that all who swear at all, do in fact swear by God, or the oath is good for nothing. To swear by an altar, a gift, or a temple, is of no force, unless it be meant to appeal to God himself. The essential thing in an oath is calling God to witness our sincerity. If a real oath is taken, therefore, God is appealed to. If not, it is foolish and wicked to swear by anything else. 21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him 3 that dwelleth therein. 22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 5 ye pay tithe of mint and anise 6 and cummin, and have omitted the 32 Chron. vi. 2. Psa. xxvi. 8. 4 Ch. v 34 Psa. xi. 4. Isa. Ixvi. 1. Luke xi. 42. • Dill. 23. Ye pay tithe. A tenth part. The law required the Jews to devote a tenth part of all their property to the support of the Levites. Numb. xviii. 20-24. Another tenth part they paid for the service of the sanctuary, commonly in cattle or grain; but where they lived far from the place of worship, they changed it to money. Deut. xiv. 22, 23, 24. Besides these, there was to be every third year a tenth part given to the poor, to be eaten at their own dwellings. Deut. xiv. 28, 29. So that nearly one-third of the property of the Jews was devoted to religious services by law. This was beside the voluntary offerings which they made. How much more mild and gentle are the laws of Christianity under which we live! Mint. A garden herb, in the original so called from its agreeable flavour. It was used to sprinkle the floors of their houses and synagogues, to produce a pleasant fragrance. Anise. Known commonly among us as dill. It has a fine aromatic smell, and is used by confectioners and perfumers. ¶ Cummin. A plant of the same genus, like fennel, and used for similar purposes. These were all herbs of little value. The law of Moses said that they should pay tithes of the fruits of the earth. Deut. xiv. 22. It said nothing, however, about herbs. It was a question whether they should be tithed. The Pharisees maintained, in their extraordinary strictness, that they ought. Our Saviour says that they were precise in doing small matters, which the law had not expressly commanded, while they omitted the greater things which it had enjoined. ¶Judgment. Justice to others, as magistrates, neighbours, citizens. Giv ing to all their just dues. Mercy. Compassion and kindness to the poor and miserable. Faith. Piety towards God; confidence in him. Faith in God here means that we are to give to him what is his due; as mercy and justice mean to do to men, in all circumstances, what is right toward them. These ought ye to have done. Attention to even the smallest points of the law of God is proper, but it should not interfere with the higher and more important parts of that law. 24. Which strain at a gnat, &c. This is a proverb. There is, however, a mistranslation or misprint here, which makes the verse unmeaning. To strain at a gnat conveys no sense. It should have been, to strain out a gnat; and so it is printed in some of the earlier versions; and so it was undoubtedly rendered by the translators. The common reading is a misprint, and should be corrected. The Greek means, to strain out by a cloth or sieve. Agnat. The gnat has its origin in the water, not in great rivers, but in pools and marshes. In the stagmant waters they appear in the form of small grubs, or larvae. These larvæ retain their form about three weeks, after which they turn to chrysalids; and after three or four days they pass to the form of gnats. They are then distinguished by their well-known sharp sting. It is probable that the Saviour here refers to the insect as it exists in its grub or larva form, before it appears in the form of a gnat. Water is then its element, and those who were nice in their drink would take pains to strain it out. Hence the proverb. See Calmet's Dic. Art. Gnat. It is here used to denote a very small matter, as a camel is to denote a large object." You, Jews, 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first 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! for ye are like unto 3 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 3 Luke xi. 44. Acts xxiii. 3. 41 Sam. xvi. 7. Psa. li. 6. Jer. xvii. 9, 10. take great pains to avoid offence in very small matters, superstitiously observing the smallest points of the law, like a man carefully straining out the animalculæ from his wine; while you are at no pains to avoid great sins; hypocrisy, deceit, oppression, and lust; like a man who should swallow a camel." The Arabians have a similar proverb: "He eats an elephant, and is suffocated with a gnat." He is troubled with little things, but rays no attention to great matters. The outside ap 25. The cup and the platter. The drinking cup, and the dish containing food. The Pharisees were diligent in observing all the washings and oblations required by their traditions. Full of extortion and excess. peared well. The inside was filled with the fruit of extortion, oppression, and wickedness. The meaning is that though they took much pains to appear well, yet they obtained a living by extortion and crime. Their cups, neat as they appeared outward, were filled not with the fruits of honest industry, but were extorted from the poor by wicked arts. Instead of excess, many manuscripts and editions of the Greek Testament read wickedness. 26. Cleanse first, &c. Let them be filled with the fruits of honest industry, and then the outside and the inside will be really clean. By this allusion to the cup and platter, he taught them that it was necessary to cleanse the heart first, that the external conduct might be really pure and holy. 27. Like unto whited sepulchres. For the construction of sepulchres, see Note, ch. viii. 28. Those tombs were annually whitewashed, to prevent the people |