u Prov. xxi. 13. ch. vi. 12. James ii. 13. a ch. xii 15. servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and XIX. 1 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the f coasts of Judæa beyond Jordan; 2a and great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. 3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4 And he answered and said unto who owed him aught. e omitted in the oldest MSS. could only have full light cast on it by the great act of Atonement which the Lord was about to accomplish. We may see from that consideration, how properly it belongs to this last period of His ministry. 35.] my Father, not your Father, as in the similar declaration in ch. vi. 14, 15. This is more solemn and denunciatory, "for it is not seemly that God should be called the Father of such an one, so wicked and malicious." Chrysostom. CHAP. XIX. 1-12.] REPLY TO THE PHARISEE'S QUESTION CONCERNING DIVORCE, Mark x. 1-12. This appears to be the journey of our Lord into the region beyond Jordan, mentioned John x. 40. If so, a considerable interval has elapsed since the discourse in ch. xviii. 1.] The borders of Judæa beyond Jordan forms one continuous description. Bethany, where He went, was beyond Jordan, but on the confines of Judæa. See notes on Mark x. 1, and Luke ix. 51. 2.] This agrees with what is said John x. 41, 42. For healed, St. Mark has taught. 3.] This was a question of dispute between the rival Rabbinical schools of Hillel and Shammai; the former asserting the right of arbitrary divorce, from Deut. xxiv. 1, the other denying it except in case of adultery. It was also, says De Wette, a delicate question in the place where our Lord now was,—in the them, Have ye b с shall b Gen. i. 27: v. 2. e Gen. ii. 24. Eph. v. 31. not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 41 Cor. vi. 16: 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asun d e vii. 2. ch. v. 81. der. 7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then com- e Deut. xxiv. 1. mand to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? 8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 f And I say unto fch. v. 32. you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for 11. fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: render, hath not been. for dominions of Herod Antipas. every cause;-i. e. is any charge which a man may choose to bring against his wife to justify him in divorcing her? 4-6.] On these verses we may remark, (1) that our Lord refers to the Mosaic account of the Creation as the historical fact of the first creation of man; and grounds his argument on the literal expressions of that narrative. (2) That He cites both from the first and second chapters of Genesis, and in immediate connexion; thus shewing them to be consecutive parts of a continuous narrative, which, from their different diction, and apparent repetition, they have sometimes been supposed not to be. (3) That he quotes as spoken by the Creator the words in Gen. ii. 24, which were actually said by Adam; they must therefore be understood as said in prophecy, by divine inspiration, which indeed the terms made use of in them would require, since the relations alluded to by those terms did not yet exist. As Augustine says, 'God said by man that which man foretold.' (4) That the force of the argument consists in the previous unity of male and female, not indeed organically, but by implica tion, in Adam. Thus it is said in Gen. i. 27, He made them (man, as a race) male (not a male) and female (not, man and woman): but then the male and female were implicitly shut up in one; and therefore after the creation of woman from man, when one man and one woman were united in marriage they should be one flesh, because woman was taken out of man. The answer then is, that abstractedly, from the nature of marriage, it is indissoluble. The words they twain are in the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch, but not in 1 Cor. vii. 10, the Hebrew. 5. one flesh] Stier remarks, that the essential bond of marriage consists not in unity of spirit and soul, by which indeed the marriage state should ever be hallowed and sweetened, but without which it still exists in all its binding power-the wedded pair are ONE FLESH, i. e. ONE MAN within the limits of their united life in the flesh, for this world: beyond this limit, the marriage is broken by the death of the flesh. And herein alone lies the justification of a second marriage, which in no way breaks off the unity of love in spirit with the former partner, now deceased. 7-9.] In this second ques But tion, the Pharisees imagine that they have overthrown our Lord's decision by a permission of the law, which they call a command (compare ver. 7 with ver. 8). He answers them that this was done by Moses on account of their hardness and sinfulness, as a lesser of evils, and belonged to that dispensation which entered, Rom. v. 20; was added because of transgressions, Gal. iii. 19. This He expresses by the your and you, as opposed to the general terms used before. Only that fornication, which itself breaks marriage, can be a ground for dissolving it. The question, whether demonstrated approaches to fornication, short of the act itself, are to be regarded as having the same power, must be dealt with cautiously, but at the same time with full remembrance that our Lord does not confine the guilt of such sins to the outward act only see ch. v. 28. St. Mark gives this last verse (9) as spoken to the disciples in the house; and his minute accuracy in such matters of detail is well known. This enactment by our Lord is a formal repetition of what He had said be : 7, 9, 17. and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit g1 Cor. vii. 2, he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. 12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of h 1 Cor. vii. 32, men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. 24: ix. 5, 15. h 13 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, Suffer little come unto me: for of 15 And he laid his hands ich. xviii. 3. children, and forbid them not, to such is the kingdom of heaven. 1 on them, and departed thence. 16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, m [Good] render, expedient. krender, made. render, the little children: see Mark x. 14, where the words in the original momit. See in St. Mark and St. Luke. are the same. fore in the Sermon on the Mount, ch. v. 32. Some expositors (principally modern) have fallen into the mistake of supposing that the dictum applies to the marrying a woman divorced on account of fornication. But the full English way of rendering the sentence, would be, a woman thus divorced, viz. not on account of fornication. 10.] the case, not the cause of divorce just mentioned; nor, the condition of the man with his wife: but the account to be given, the original ground and principle,' of the relationship of man and wife. The disciples apprehend that the trials and temptations of marriage would prove sources of sin and misery. This question and its answer are peculiar to Matthew. 11, 12.] this saying, viz. of yours. The for in ver. 12 shews that the sense is carried on. Our Lord mentions the three exceptions, the to whom it is given not to marry. 1. Those who from natural incapacity, or if not that, inaptitude, have no tendencies towards marriage: 2. Those who by actual physical deprivation, or compulsion from men, are prevented from marrying: 3. Those who in order to do the work of God more effectually (as e. g. St. Paul), abstain from marriage, see 1 Cor. vii. 26. The eunuchs and made eunuchs in the two first cases are to be taken both literally and figuratively: in the latter, figuratively only. It is to be observed that our Lord does not here utter a word from which any superiority can be attributed to the state of celibacy: the imperative in the last clause being not a command but a permission, as in Rev. xxii. 17. His estimate for us of the expediency of celibacy, as a general question, is to be gathered from the parable of the talents, where He visits with severe blame the burying of the talent for its safer custody. The remark is Neander's, and the more valuable, as he himself lived and died unmarried. notes. 13-15.] THE BRINGING OF CHILDREN TO JESUS. Mark x. 13-16. Luke xviii. 15-17. After the long divergence of ch. ix. 51-xviii. 14, Luke here again falls into the synoptic narrative. This incident is more fully related in Mark, where see Our Evangelist has that he should put his hands on them, and pray (see Gen. xlviii. 14: Acts vi. 6), where the other two have only that He should touch them.' The connexion in which it stands here and in Mark seems to be natural, immediately after the discourse on marriage. Some further remarks of our Lord, possibly on the fruit of marriage, may have given rise to the circumstance. 16-30.] ANSWER TO THE ENQUIRY OF A RICH YOUNG MAN, AND DISCOURSE THEREUPON. Mark x. 17-31. Luke xviii. n m Deut. v. 17. ch. xv. 4. Lev. xix. 18. Galv. 14. ch. xxii. 39. Rom. xiii. 9. James ii. S. Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 17 And he said unto him, a Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. 18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no Exod. xx. 13. murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19 Honour thy 1 father and thy mother: and, m Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept [from my youth up]: what lack I yet? 21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, "go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. 23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That 。 a rich man shall P hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a n read, "Why askest thou me concerning good? There is one good; but وو see note. • omit. See in St. Mark and St. Luke. 18-30. 16.] From Luke ver. 18 we learn that he was a ruler: from Mark ver. 17, that he ran to our Lord. The spirit in which he came,-which does not however appear here so plainly as in the other gospels, from the omission of "good,” and the form of our Lord's answer,- seems to have been that of excessive admiration for Jesus as a man of eminent virtue, and of desire to know from Him by what work of exceeding merit he might win eternal life. This spirit He reproves, by replying that there is but One Good, and that the walking by His grace in the way of holiness is the path to life. On the question and answer, as they stand in the received text, and on their doctrinal bearing, see notes to Mark. This passage furnishes one of the most instructive and palpable cases of the smoothing down of apparent discrepancies by correcting the Gospels out of one another and thus reducing them to conformity. 18.] De Wette observes well, that our Lord gives this enumeration of the commandments to bring out the self-righteous spirit of the young man, which He before saw. He only mentions those of the second table, having in ver. 17, in His declaration respecting "good," included those of the first. Mark has the addition of "Defraud not," representing "Luke i. 33: n ch. vi. 20. 35. 1 Tim. o ch. xiii. 22. 1 Cor. i. 26. 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. P render, with difficulty. probably the tenth commandment. 19.] The addition of Thou shalt love &c. is peculiar to Matthew. 20.] We may remark that this young man, though selfrighteous, was no hypocrite, no Pharisee: he spoke earnestly, and really strove to keep, as he really believed he had kept, all God's commandments. Accordingly St. Mark adds, that Jesus looking upon him loved him in spite of his error there was a nobleness and openness about him, contrasted with the hypocritical bearing of the Pharisees and Scribes. 21, 22.] Our Lord takes him on his own shewing. As St. Mark and St. Luke add, "One thing is wanting to thee." Supposing thy statement true, this topstone has yet to be laid on the fabric. But then it is to be noticed, that part of that one thing is Come and follow me (taking up thy cross, Mark). Stier remarks, that this was a test of his observance of the first commandment of the first table: of breaking which he is by the result convicted. 24.] Lightfoot brings instances from the Talmud of similar proverbial expressions regarding an elephant: we have a case in ch. xxiii. 24, of a camel being put for any thing very large and we must remember that the object here was to set forth the greatest human impossibility, p Gen. xviii. 14. Jer. xxxii. 17. Luke i. 37. rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. 27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon Rev. ii. twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And q ch. iv. 20. Luke v. 11. r Luke xxii. 28, 29, 30. 1 Cor. vi, 2, 3. 20. every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, [44 or wife,] or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 30 s But many that are first shall Luke xiii. 80. be last; and the last shall be first. XX. 1 For the king¶ one ancient MS. reads heaven, and perhaps, as God stands in the parallel places, Mark x. 25, Luke xviii. 25, this may be the true reading. s ch. xx. 16: xxi. 31, 32. ¶¶ omitted in the oldest MSS. Origen expressly says that wife is not included. and to magnify divine grace, which could accomplish even that. 25.] Who, not What rich man, which would have been a far shallower and narrower enquiry, but a general question-what man? Besides the usual reason given for this question, 'since all are striving to be rich,' we must remember that the disciples yet looked for a temporal Kingdom, and therefore would naturally be dismayed at hearing that it was so difficult for any rich man to enter it. 26. beheld them] Probably to give force to and impress what But does not hide from them their reward: CHAP. XX. 1-16.] PARABLE OF THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD. Peculiar to Matthew. In interpreting this difficult Parable, we must first carefully observe its occasion and connexion. It is bound |