NEW
TESTAMENT VOLUME
New
Commentary on
Matthew
3 & 4
Based on the classic
commentary of
Jamieson,
Fausset, and Brown
General
Editor:
J.
D. Douglas
New
Testament Editor:
Chapter
3
1-12 THE PREACHING AND MINISTRY OF JOHN (SEE MARK
1:1-8; LUKE 3:1-
18.)
For the proper
introduction to this section, we must go to Luke 3:1, 2. Here,
as Bengel well observes, the curtain of the NT is, as it were, drawn up, and the
greatest of all epochs of the church begins. Even our Lord’s own age is
determined by it (Luke 3:23). No such elaborate chronological precision is to be
found elsewhere in the NT, and it comes fitly from Luke, who claims it as the
particular recommendation of his Gospel, that “he had traced down all things
with precision from the very first” (1:3). Thus, the reader should see the
comments on Luke 3:1, 2 because they introduce the reader to material that
precedes this narrative.
1 In those days—of
Christ’s secluded life at Nazareth (2:23). came John the
Baptist, preaching—about six months before his Master. in the
wilderness of
Judaea—the desert valley of the Jordan, thinly peopled and with hardly any
vegetation, a little north of Jerusalem.
2 And saying,
Repent ye—Though the word
strictly denotes “a change of
mind,” it has respect here (and whenever it is used in connection with
salvation)
primarily to that sense of sin which leads the sinner to turn away from his sin
to
God for salvation. for the kingdom of heaven is at hand [or, near]—This
sublime phrase, used in none of the other Gospels, occurs in this peculiarly
Jewish Gospel nearly thirty times, alluding to Daniel’s grand vision of the
Son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days, to receive his
investiture in a worldwide kingdom (Dan. 7:13, 14). John declared that this
kingdom was near. This heavenly kingdom may not have been the kind of
kingdom the Jews were anticipating, for they were looking for an earthly
kingdom in the political domain. Christ’s coming would bring a heavenly
kingdom with a spiritual domain—inside the hearts of men. Such a kingdom
required repentance from its participants, so that they might receive
deliverance
from sin’s rule in their lives. John’s great work, accordingly, was to
awaken this
feeling and hold out the hope of a speedy and precious remedy.
3 For this is he
that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias [Isaiah] saying,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness—see comments on Luke 3:2.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight—This prediction
is
quoted in all the four Gospels, showing that it was regarded as an outstanding
one, and the predicted forerunner as the connecting link between the old and the
new economies. Like the great ones of the earth, the Prince of Peace was to have
his immediate approach heralded and his way prepared; and the call here—taking
it generally—is a call to put out of the way whatever would obstruct his
progress
and hinder his complete triumph, whether those hindrances were public or
personal, outward or inward. In Luke (3:5, 6) the quotation is thus continued:
“Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought
low;
and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made
smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Leveling and smoothing
are
here the obvious figures whose sense is conveyed in the first words of the
proclamation—“Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” The idea is that every
obstruction shall be so removed as to reveal to the whole world the salvation of
God in him whose name is the “Savior” (cf. Ps 98:3; Isa. 11:10; 49:6; 52:10;
Luke 2:31, 32; Acts 13:47).
4 And the same
John had his raiment of camel’s hair [woven of it] and a
leathern girdle about his loins—the prophetic dress of Elijah (2 Kings
1:8; and
see Zech. 13:4). and his meat was locusts—the great well-known Eastern
locust,
a food of the poor (Lev. 11:22), and wild honey—made by wild bees (1
Sam.
14:25, 26). This dress and diet, with the shrill cry in the wilderness, would
recall
the stern days of Elijah.
5 Then went out to
him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region
round about Jordan—From the
metropolitan center to the extremities of the
Judean province the cry of this great preacher of repentance and herald of the
approaching Messiah brought myriad penitents.
6 And were
baptized of him in Jordan, confessing [aloud] their sins—This
baptism was at once a public seal of their felt need of deliverance from sin, of
their expectation of the coming deliverer, and of their readiness to welcome him
when he appeared. The baptism itself startled them and was intended to do so.
They were familiar enough with the baptism of proselytes from heathenism; but
this baptism of Jews themselves was quite new and strange to them.
7 But when he saw
many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his
baptism—presumably, to be
baptized by John, he said unto them, O
generation of vipers—“Viper-brood,” expressing the deadly influence of
both
sects alike upon the community. Mutually and entirely antagonistic as were their
religious principles and spirit, the stern prophet charged both alike with being
the
poisoners of the nation’s religious principles. In 12:34 and 23:33, the same
strong
language is applied by the faithful and true Witness to the Pharisees
specifically—the only party that had enough zeal to diffuse this poison. who
hath warned you [given you the hint] to flee from the wrath to come?
One
commentator said that they came to John’s baptism “from a sense of fear like
snakes fleeing from a forest fire” (Nixon). However, it seems that John more
than
suspected it was not so much their own spiritual anxieties as the popularity of
his
movement that had drawn them there. What an expression this is, “The wrath to
come!” God’s “wrath,” in Scripture, is his righteous displeasure against
sin and
consequently against all in whose lives sin is found. This wrath arises out of
the
essential and eternal opposition of his nature to all moral evil. This is called
“the
coming wrath,” not as being wholly future—for as a pronounced sentence it
lies
on the sinner already, and its effects, both inward and outward, are to some
extent experienced even now—although the impenitent sinner will not have
sentence publicly and irrevocably passed upon him and will not have it
discharged upon him until “the judgment of the great day.” Nevertheless, the
unrepentant are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God’s
righteous judgments will be revealed (see Rom. 2:5, RSV). But all true believers
are saved from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10). Doubtless, those coming to
John’s baptism did not have all this understanding concerning “the wrath to
come,” but those who came to be baptized with all sincerity sensed that they
were fleeing from the coming wrath.
8 Bring forth
therefore fruits [the true
reading clearly is “fruit”] meet for
repentance—that is, such fruit as befits true repentance. John, now being
gifted
with a knowledge of the human heart like a true minister of righteousness and
lover of souls, here directs them how to evidence and carry out their
repentance,
supposing it genuine; and in the following verses he warns them of their danger
in case it was not.
9 And think not to
say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our
father—The Jews believed
quite confidently that they would be the heirs of the
Messiah’s kingdom because (and only because) they were the children of
Abraham. But, as Paul so thoroughly argues in the Epistle to the Romans, the
children of Abraham are the children of faith. for I say unto you, that God
is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham—i.e., “Flatter
not
yourselves with the delusion that God stands in need of you to make good his
promise of a seed to Abraham; for I tell you that, though you were all to
perish,
God is able to raise up children to Abraham out of stones.” Though the stern
speaker may have pointed as he spoke to the pebbles of the bare clay hills that
lay around, John was clearly alluding to the remnant of Jewish believers and
vast
number of Gentile believers. The Gentiles, at that time stone-dead in their
sins,
would soon take the place of the Jews in becoming the true children of Abraham
(see Rom. 4 and 11).
10 And now also
[And even already] the axe is laid unto the root of the
trees—as it were ready to strike: an expressive figure of impending
judgment,
only to be averted in the way next described. therefore every tree which
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire—Language
so personal and individual as this can scarcely be understood of any national
judgment like the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, in which the chosen
people were extruded from their holy land and holy privileges, but John’s
warning would serve as a dark shadow, cast before, of a more terrible
retribution
to come. The “fire,” which in another verse is called “unquenchable,”
can be no
other than that future “torment” and “everlasting punishment” (Matt.
25:46). The
third Gospel here adds several important particulars (Luke 3:10-16).
11 I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance [see comments on
Luke 1:16]: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I—In Mark and
Luke
this is more emphatic—“But there cometh the mightier than I,” whose
shoes
[sandals] I am not worthy to bear—The sandals were tied and untied, and
borne
about by the lowest servants. he shall baptize you—the emphatic
“He”: “He it
is,” to the exclusion of all others, “that shall baptize you.” with the
Holy Ghost
[Spirit]—In saying this John demonstrated that, far from thinking that he had
any
equality with the Messiah, he considered himself to be Christ’s lowest
servant.
He, the servant, would baptize with water (the outward symbol of purification);
the Lord Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit himself, and so dispense the
inward, spiritual reality. and with fire—To take this as a distinct
baptism from
that of the Spirit—a baptism of the impenitent with hell-fire—is exceedingly
unnatural. Yet this was the view of Origen among the Fathers and among several
modern commentators. Nor is it much better to refer it to the fire of the great
day,
by which the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. The Greek
has but one preposition, “in” (en),
before the two nouns: “Spirit” (pneuma)
and
“fire” (puri),
which indicates two aspects of one event. Thus, the Spirit-baptism
is also a fire-baptism. The expression “fire” indicates the fiery character
of the
Spirit’s operations upon the soul—searching, consuming, refining,
sublimating—
as nearly all good interpreters understand the words. And thus, in two
successive
clauses, the two most familiar emblems—water and fire—are employed to set
forth the same purifying operations of the Holy Spirit upon the soul. It was
prophesied in the OT that the Messiah would come to purify Israel with the
refiner’s fire (see Mal. 3:2-5).
12 Whose fan
[winnowing fork] is in his hand—ready for use. The
winnower would throw the wheat stalks into the air with a winnowing fork. The
chaff would be blown away, while the grain, being heavier, would fall to the
ground. The grain would be collected for use, the chaff collected and burned;
and
thus the threshing floor would be totally cleansed. The image shows how Christ
separates the genuine and useful believers from the false and worthless. and
he
will thoroughly purge his floor—that is, the visible church. and gather
his
wheat—his true-hearted saints; so called for their solid worth (cf. Amos
9:9;
Luke 23:31). into the garner [barn]—“the kingdom of their Father,”
as this
“garner” or “barn” is beautifully explained by our Lord in the parable
of the
wheat and the tares (13:30, 43). but he will burn up the chaff—empty,
worthless professors of religion, void of all spiritual reality and character
(see Ps.
1:4). with unquenchable fire—the strength of this apparent
contradiction of
figures: to be burnt up, but with a fire that is unquenchable; the one
expressing
the utter destruction of all that constitutes one’s true life, the other the
continued
consciousness of existence in that awful condition. Luke 3:18-20 provides
further
details of John’s speech.
13-17 THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST AND DESCENT OF THE SPIRIT
(SEE MARK
1:9-11; LUKE 3:21, 22; JOHN 1:31-34.)
13 Then cometh
Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized
of him—Moses rashly
anticipated the divine call to deliver his people, and for
this was forced to flee the house of bondage and wait in obscurity for forty
years
more (Exod. 2:11). Not so this greater than Moses. He had now spent thirty years
in privacy at Nazareth, gradually ripening for his public work and calmly
waiting
for the time appointed of the Father. Now it had arrived. Luke (3:21) has this
important addition—“Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass
that Jesus being baptized . . .”—implying that Jesus waited until all other
applicants for baptism that day had been taken care of before he stepped
forward,
that he might not seem to be merely one of the crowd. Thus, as he rode into
Jerusalem upon a colt “which no one has ever ridden” (Luke 19:30, NIV) and
lay
in “a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid” (John 19:41, NIV), so in
his
baptism, too.
14 But John
forbade him—rather, “was
[in the act of] hindering him,” or
“attempting to hinder him” (as is indicated by the Gk. imperfect tense). saying
I
have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?—The
emphasis of
his most remarkable speech lies all in the pronouns: I (the servant) need to be
baptized by you (the Master), and you (the Master) come to me (the servant)?
That this was the emphasis in the Baptist’s words will be clearly seen if it
be
observed that he evidently regarded Jesus as himself needing no purification but
rather qualified to impart it to those who did. And do not all his other
testimonies
to Christ fully bear out this sense of the words? But it were a pity if, in the
glory
of this testimony to Christ, we should miss the beautiful spirit in which it was
borne—“Lord, must I baptize you? Can I bring myself to do such a
thing?”
15 And Jesus
answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now—“Let
it
pass for the present.” for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness—i.e.,
it
is fitting for both of us (John and Jesus) to go through with the baptism—John
to
perform it and Jesus to receive it—because it was God’s will. Jesus was not
fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law, for there was no law that
required
baptism. Jesus was complying with the Father’s demands and thus doing what
was right and proper in accordance with the divine will. He did not need
to be
baptized, but by doing so he identified with a humanity that needed repentance
and baptism, and presented himself as a model of obedience to the divine will.
Then he suffered him—i.e., John permitted him to be baptized.
16 And Jesus, when
he was baptized, went up straightway out of
[from]
the water—Mark has “out of the water.” “and,” adds Luke (3:21),
“while he was
praying”; a grand piece of information. the heavens were opened—Mark
says,
“He saw the heavens, being split open” (Gk.) The “open heaven” is
referred to in
prophetic visions (Ezek. 1:1; Rev. 4:1; 19:11) and times of heavenly unveilings
(Acts 7:56). and he saw the Spirit of God descending—that is, he only
saw it,
with the exception of his honored servant, as he tells us himself (John
1:32-34);
the bystanders apparently saw nothing. like a dove, and lighting [coming]
upon
him—The simile of “Spirit” and “dove” primarily indicates here
that the Spirit of
God’s descent was like the descent of a dove; the other meaning (and this is
the
one made explicit in Luke 3:22) is that the Spirit had a form like a dove’s.
And
the fourth Gospel gives us one more piece of information here, on the authority
of one who saw and testified of it: “John bare record, saying, I saw the
Spirit
descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” And he adds that
this last particular was expressly given him as part of the sign by which he was
to
recognize and identify him as the Son of God: “And I knew him not: but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with
the Holy Ghost [Spirit]. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of
God”
(John 1:32-34). This perfectly compares with the predicted descent of the Spirit
upon Messiah (Isa. 11:2): “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.”
We
cannot doubt that it was this permanent and perfect resting of the Holy Spirit
upon the Son of God that was here visibly manifested.
17 And lo a voice
from heaven, saying This is—Mark
and Luke give it in
the direct form, “Thou art.” my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased—The
verb in Greek is a constative aorist; it expresses the Father’s constant
delight and
pleasure in his Son. This declaration from the Father to the Son echoes the
prophetic statement made by God through Isaiah: “Behold, My Servant, whom I
uphold; My chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon
Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isa. 42:1, NASB). Was this
voice
heard by the bystanders? From Matthew’s form of it, one might suppose it so
designed; but it would appear that it was not, and probably only John heard and
saw anything peculiar about the great baptism.
Chapter
4
1-11 THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (SEE MARK 1:12, 13; LUKE
4:1-13.)
1 Then—an
indefinite note of sequence. But Mark’s word (1:12) fixes what
we should have presumed was meant, that it was “immediately” after his
baptism; and with this agrees the statement of Luke (4:1). was Jesus led up—
i.e., from the low Jordan valley to some more elevated spot. of the spirit—the
Holy Spirit immediately before spoken of as descending upon him at his baptism
and abiding upon him. Luke, connecting these two scenes, as if the one were but
the sequel of the other, says, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from
Jordan
and was led by the Spirit . . .” (4:1, NIV). Mark’s expression has a
startling
sharpness about it—“Immediately the Spirit driveth him” (lit. “thrust
him out”).
(See the same word in Matt. 9:25; 13:52; Mark 1:43; 5:40; John 10:4.) The
thought thus strongly expressed is the mighty constraining impulse of the Spirit
under which he went; while Matthew’s more gentle expression, “was led up,”
intimates how purely voluntary on his on part this action was. into the
wilderness—probably the wild Judean desert. The particular spot which
tradition
has fixed upon has hence got the name of Quarantana or Quarantaria,
from the
forty days. to be tempted—The Greek word peirazein
means simply to try
or make proof of; and when ascribed to God in his dealings with men, it means
and can mean no more than this. Thus, Genesis 22:1, “It came to pass that God
did tempt Abraham,” or put his faith to a severe proof. (See Deut. 8:2.) But
for
the most part in Scripture the word is used in a bad sense and means to entice,
solicit, or provoke to sin. Hence the name here given to the wicked one—“the
tempter” (4:3). Accordingly, “to be tempted” here is to be understood both
ways.
The Spirit conducted him into the wilderness simply to have his faith tried; but
as
the agent in this trial was to be the wicked one, whose whole object would be to
seduce him from his allegiance to God, it was a temptation in the bad sense of
the
term. Yet since he was God and could not sin in any way, whether by action,
word, or inner desire (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26), we must not think that the devil
could have succeeded in the temptation. The temptation, nevertheless, was real,
for Hebrews 4:15 says he was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was
without sin” (NIV and NIV Study Bible). Jesus took the position of man, as a
true human being, to defeat Satan (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8). Satan tempted him to
leave that position and reassume only his divine office. Jesus resisted and
thereby
defeated Satan for the sake of all humanity. Now, as a trustworthy high priest,
he
can help all who are tempted (Heb. 2:18). There is an obvious parallel to
Jesus’
success in overcoming the devil in contrast to Adam and Eve’s failure in
resisting
the devil. But the connection between Jesus’ wilderness temptation and
Israel’s
wilderness trial is even more noticeable. Each of Jesus’ retorts came from the
Scripture, specifically from Deuteronomy 6–8. In that part of Deuteronomy,
Moses recounted the wilderness trials and gracious provision of God. of the
devil—The word signifies a slanderer, an accuser—one who accuses
another.
Hence that other name given him (Rev. 12:10): “The accuser of the brethren,
who accuseth them before our God day and night.” Mark (1:13), says “He was
forty days tempted of Satan,“
a word signifying an adversary, one who lies in
wait for, or sets himself in opposition to another. These and other names of the
same fallen spirit point to different features in his character or operations.
2 And when he had
fasted forty days and forty nights—Luke says, “When
they were quite ended.” he was afterward an hungered—evidently
implying
that the sensation of hunger was unfelt during all the forty days; coming on
only
at their close. It was apparently so with Moses (Exod. 34:28) and Elijah (1
Kings
19:8) for the same period. A supernatural power of endurance was of course
imparted to the body, but this probably operated through a natural law—the
absorption of the Redeemer’s Spirit in the dread conflict with the tempter.
(See
comments on Acts 9:9.) Had we only this Gospel, we should suppose the
temptation did not begin until after this. But it is clear, from Mark’s
statement,
that “he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan,” and Luke’s,
“being
forty days tempted of the devil,” that there was a forty days’ temptation before
the three specific temptations afterwards recorded.
3 And when the
tempter came to him—Evidently
we do not have here a
new scene. he said, if thou be the Son of God—In the first two tests,
Satan said,
“If you are the Son of God” not because he disbelieved Jesus’ divine
sonship but
because he wanted Jesus to act in accordance with his divine prerogatives and
thereby fail to pass the test as a man. But the whole point of the test was for
Jesus
to take a man’s position in submission to God and to thwart Satan’s attacks
on
his humanity. command that these stones be made bread—rather,
“loaves,”
answering to “stones” in the plural; whereas Luke, having said, “Command
this
stone,” in the singular, adds, “that it be made bread,” in the singular.
The
sensation of hunger seems now to have come on in all its keenness—no doubt to
open a door to the tempter, of which he is not slow to avail himself.
4 But he answered
and said, It is written—in
Deuteronomy 8:3. Man shall
not live by bread alone—more emphatically, as in the Greek, “Not by
bread
alone shall man live.” but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of
God—Of all passages in OT Scripture, none could have been more
appropriate:
“The Lord . . . led thee [said Moses to Israel, at the close of their
journeyings]
these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know
what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of the LORD” (Deut.
8:2, 3). Now, if Israel spent not forty days but
forty years in a wilderness, where there were no means of human subsistence, not
starving but divinely provided for, to prove to every age that human support
depends not upon bread but upon God’s unfailing word of promise and pledge of
all needful providential care, could Jesus depend upon any other sustenance but
that which the Father would provide? True, the Son of God was able enough to
turn stones into bread; but what the Son of God is able to do is not the present
question, rather, What is man’s duty under want of the necessities of life? As
man, therefore, Jesus would await the divine supply, not doubting that at the
right
time it would arrive. The second temptation in this Gospel is in Luke’s the
third.
That Matthew’s order is the right one will appear quite clearly in the sequel.
5 Then the devil
taketh him up into the holy city—so
called (as in Isa.
48:2; Neh. 11:1) from its being “the city of the Great King” (Ps. 48:2), the
seat of
the temple, the metropolis of all Jewish worship. and setteth him on a
pinnacle
[rather, the pinnacle] of the temple—a certain well-known projection.
Whether
this refers to the highest summit of the temple, which bristled with golden
spikes
(Josephus, Antiquities, 5.5, 6); or whether it refers to another peak, on
Herod’s
royal portico, overhanging the ravine of Kidron, at the valley of Hinnom—an
immense tower built on the very edge of this precipice, from the top of which
dizzy height Josephus says one could not look to the bottom Antiquities,
15.11,
5)—is not certain; but the latter is probably meant. Some commentators have
thought that Satan was tempting Jesus to make a public display of his
divinity—
perhaps even prove by a sudden descent from the sky that he was the Messiah (a
sign for which the Jews were looking—Mal. 3:1). But since Matthew says
nothing about any people being present at this scene, the temptation must not
have been related to a public manifestation.
6 And saith unto
him, If thou be the Son of God—As
this temptation starts
with the same point as the first—Satan’s determination to get Jesus to leave
his
standing as a man and seize upon his divine prerogatives—it seems clear to us
that the one came directly after the other; and as the third temptation shows
that
the hope of carrying that point was abandoned, and all was staked upon a
desperate venture, we think that the third temptation is thus shown to be the
last,
as will appear still more when we come to it. cast thyself down—“from
hence”
(Luke 4:9). for it is written—in Psalm 91:11, 12. Doubtless the
tempter, having
felt the power of God’s Word in the former temptation, was eager to try the
effect
of it from his own mouth (see 2 Cor. 11:14). He shall give his angels charge
concerning thee; and in [rather, on] their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest
at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone—The quotation is precisely
as it
stands in the Hebrew text and in the Septuagint except that after the first
clause
the words “to keep thee in all thy ways” are here omitted. Not a few good
expositors have thought that this omission was intentional, to conceal the fact
that this would not have been one of “his ways,” i.e., of duty. But as our
Lord’s
reply makes no allusion to this but seizes on the great principle involved in
the
promise quoted, so when we look at the promise itself, it is plain that the
sense of
it is precisely the same whether the clause in question is inserted or not.
7 Jesus said unto
him, It is written again—in
Deuteronomy 6:16. In
essence, Jesus said, “True, it is so written, and on that promise I implicitly
rely;
but in using it there is another Scripture which must not be forgotten: Thou
shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God—Preservation in danger is divinely pledged;
Jesus
would not create danger, either to put the promised security to the test, or to
demand a display of it. To do so would be “to tempt the Lord thy God,”
which,
being expressly forbidden, would forfeit the right to expect preservation.
8 Again, the devil
taketh him up [or unto] an
exceeding high mountain,
and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them—Luke
(4:5) adds the important clause, “in a moment of time”—a clause that seems
to
furnish a key to the true meaning. That a scene was presented to our Lord’s
natural eye seems plainly expressed. But to limit this to that which the natural
eye could take in, is to distort the expression “all the kingdoms of the
world.” It
remains, then, to gather from the expression “in a moment of time”—which
manifestly is intended to intimate some supernatural operation—that it was
permitted to the tempter to extend preternaturally for a moment our Lord’s
range
of vision and throw a “glory” or glitter over the scene of vision: a thing
not
inconsistent with the analogy of other scriptural statements regarding the
permitted operations of the wicked one. In this case, the “exceeding height”
of
the “mountain” from which this sight was beheld would favor the effect to be
produced.
9 And saith unto
him, All these things will I give thee—“and the glory of
them,” adds Luke. But Matthew, having already said that this was “showed
him,”
did not need to repeat it here. Luke (4:6) adds these other very important
clauses,
here omitted—“for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I
want to”
(NIV). Was this wholly false? We answer, Is not Satan three times called by our
Lord himself “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11)? Does not
the
apostle call him “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4)? And still further, is
it not
said that Christ came to destroy by his death “him that hath the power of
death,
that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14)? No doubt these passages only express men’s
voluntary subjection to the rule of the wicked one while they live. In this
sense
he speaks what is not devoid of truth when he says, “It has been given to
me.”
But how does he deliver this to whomsoever he wants? As employing
whomsoever he pleases of his willing subjects in keeping men under his power.
In this case his offer to our Lord was that of a deputed supremacy commensurate
with his own, though as his gift and for his purposes. if thou wilt fall down
and
worship me—This was the sole but monstrous condition. No Scripture, it
will be
observed, is quoted now, because none could be found to support so blasphemous
a claim. In fact, he has ceased now to present his temptations under the mask of
piety, and he stands out unblushingly as the rival of God himself in his claims
on
the homage of men. Despairing of success as an angel of light, he throws off all
disguise and with a splendid bribe solicits divine honor. This again shows that
we
are now at the last of the temptations and that Matthew’s order is the true
one.
10 Then saith
Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan—Since the tempter
has now thrown off the mask and stands forth in his true character, our Lord no
longer deals with him as a pretended friend and pious counselor but calls him by
his right name—his knowledge of which from the outset he had carefully
concealed till now—and orders him off. for it is written—in
Deuteronomy 6:13.
Thou shalt worship—In the Hebrew text and in the Septuagint it is,
“You shall
fear”; but as the sense is the same, so “worship” is here used to show
emphatically that what the tempter claimed was precisely what God had
forbidden. the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve—The word
“serve” in the second clause is one never used by the Septuagint of any but
religious service; and in this sense exclusively is it used in the NT as we find
it
here. Once more the word “only,” in the second clause—not expressed in the
Hebrew text and the Septuagint—is here added to bring out emphatically the
negative and prohibitory feature of the command. (See Gal. 3:10 for a similar
supplement of the word “all” in a quotation from Deut. 27:26.)
11 Then the devil
leaveth him—cf. Luke 4:2. and,
behold, angels came
and ministered unto him—or supplied him with food, as the same expression
means in Mark 1:31 and Luke 8:3. Thus did angels to Elijah (1 Kings 19:5-8).
Several good commentators think they ministered not only food, but supernatural
support and cheer also. But this would be the natural effect rather than the
direct
object of the visit. And after having refused to claim the illegitimate
ministration
of angels in his behalf, oh, with what deep joy would he accept their services
when sent, unasked, at the close of all this temptation, direct from him whom he
had so gloriously honored!
12-25 CHRIST BEGINS HIS GALILEAN MINISTRY. THE CALLING
OF PETER
AND ANDREW, JAMES AND JOHN. JESUS’ FIRST GALILEAN CIRCUIT. (SEE
MARK 1:14-20; 35-39; LUKE 4:14, 15.)
There is here a
notable gap in history, which but for the fourth Gospel we
should never have discovered. If we took the history of the Synoptic Gospels
only, we could draw three inferences, each of which would be erroneous
according to the testimony of the fourth Gospel: first, that our Lord awaited
the
close of John’s ministry, by his arrest and imprisonment, before beginning his
own; next, that there was but a brief interval between the baptism of our Lord
and
the imprisonment of John; and further, that our Lord not only opened his work in
Galilee, but never ministered outside of it, and never visited Jerusalem at all,
nor
kept a Passover until he went there to become “our Passover, sacrificed for
us.”
The fourth Gospel alone gives the true succession of events; not only recording
those important openings of our Lord’s public work that preceded the
Baptist’s
imprisonment—extending to the end of the third chapter—but so specifying the
Passover which occurred during our Lord’s ministry as to enable us to line up,
with a large measure of certainty, the events of the first three Gospels
according
to the successive Passovers which they embraced. Eusebius, the ecclesiastical
historian, who, early in the fourth century, gave much attention to this
subject, in
noticing these features of the Evangelical Records, says (3:24) that John wrote
his Gospel at the entreaty of those who knew the important materials he
possessed, and he filled up what was lacking in the first three Gospels.
12 Now when Jesus
had heard that John was cast into prison—more
simply, “was delivered up,” as recorded in 14:3-5; Mark 6:17-20; Luke 3:19,
20.
he departed into Galilee—as recorded, in its proper place, in John
4:1-3.
13 And leaving
Nazareth—The reason he left
Nazareth is explained in Luke
4:16-30; in short, he was violently ousted by his own townspeople. he came
and
dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast—maritime Capernaum, on
the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee; but the precise spot is unknown. (See
comments on 11:23.) Our Lord seems to have chosen it for several reasons: four
or five of the twelve disciples lived there; it had a considerable and mixed
population, securing some freedom from that intense bigotry that characterized
all places where Jews in large numbers dwelt nearly alone; it was central, so
that
not only on the approach of the annual festivals did large numbers pass through
it
or near it, but on any occasion multitudes could easily be collected about it;
and
for crossing and recrossing the lake, which our Lord had so often occasion to
do,
no place could be more convenient. But one other reason for the choice of
Capernaum remains to be mentioned—the only one specified by Matthew—i.e.,
Jesus went there to fulfill prophecy. in the borders of Zabulon and
Nephthalim—the one lying to the west of the Sea of Galilee, the other to
the
north of it; but the precise boundaries cannot now be traced out. Matthew names
these locations because of the messianic prophecy connected with them.
14, 15 That it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Isaiah] the
prophet—see Isaiah 9:1, 2, or, as in the Hebrew text, 8:23 and 9:1. saying,
The
land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea—the
coast skirting the Sea of Galilee westward—beyond Jordan—a phrase commonly
meaning eastward of Jordan; but here and in several places it means westward of
the Jordan. The word seems to have the general meaning of “the other side”;
the
nature of the case determining which side that was. Galilee of the Gentiles—so
called from its position, which made it the frontier between the Holy Land and
the external world. While Ephraim and Judah were separated from the world by
the Jordan Valley on one side and the hostile Philistines on another, the
northern
tribes were on the direct highway of all the invaders from the north, in
unbroken
communication with the promiscuous races who had always occupied the heights
of Lebanon, and in close and peaceful alliance with the most commercial nation
of the ancient world, the Phoenicians. Twenty of the cities of Galilee were
actually annexed by Solomon to the adjacent kingdom of Tyre, and formed, with
their territory, the “boundary” or “offscouring” (Gebul
or Cabul)
of the two
dominions—at a later time still known by the general name of “the boundaries
[coasts or borders] of Tyre and Sidon.” In the first great deportation of the
Jewish
population, Naphtali and Galilee suffered the same fate as the transjordanic
tribes
before Ephraim or Judah had been molested (2 Kings 15:29). In the time of the
Christian era this original disadvantage of their position was still felt; the
speech
of the Galileans betrayed them by its uncouth pronunciation (Matt. 26:73); and
their distance from the seats of government and civilization at Jerusalem and
Caesarea gave them their character for turbulence or independence, depending on
whether it was viewed by their friends or their enemies.
16 The people
which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which
sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up—The
prophetic strain
to which these words belong begins with Isaiah 7, to which chapter 6 is
introductory, and goes down to the end of chapter 12. It belongs to the reign of
Ahaz and turns upon the combined efforts of the two neighboring kingdoms of
Syria and Israel to crush Judah. In these critical circumstances Judah and her
king
were, by their ungodliness, provoking the Lord to sell them into the hands of
their enemies. What, then, is the relationship of this prophetic strain to the
passage here quoted? First, Judah shall not perish because Immanuel, the
virgin’s
son, is to come forth from his loins. Next, one of the invaders shall soon
perish,
and the kingdoms of neither be enlarged. Further, while the Lord will be the
sanctuary of such as confide in these promises and await their fulfillment, he
will
drive to confusion, darkness, and despair the vast multitude of the nation who
despised his oracles. This carries us down to the end of the eighth chapter of
Isaiah. At the opening of the ninth chapter a sudden light is seen breaking in
upon one particular part of the country, the part which was to suffer most in
these
wars and devastations—“the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, the
way
of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee and the Gentiles.” The rest of the prophecy
stretches over both the Assyrian and the Chaldean captivities and terminates in
the glorious messianic prophecy of chapter 11 and the choral hymn of chapter 12.
This is the point seized on by Matthew. By Messiah’s taking up his abode in
those very regions of Galilee and shedding his glorious light upon them, the
prediction was now fulfilled. The Light of life had come to those who dwelt in
the darkness and lived under the shadow of death; in fact, the Light
“dawned”
(or, “sprung up”) upon them. This indicates that the dawning of Jesus’
ministry
began with the people most alienated from God, the people—both Jews and
Gentiles—who desperately needed the Light of life. Jesus had come to give this
living light to all men (see John 1:5, 9; 12:46; and especially 8:12 which is
nearly
a paraphrase of Isa. 9:2 and Matt. 4:16).
17 From that time
Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent; for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand—Jesus
repeated the identical summons of his
honored forerunner. Our Lord sometimes speaks of the new kingdom as already
come—in his own person and ministry; and he sometimes speaks of a kingdom
yet to come. In other words, Jesus’ message concerning the kingdom carried
with
it a sense of “already here but not yet here.” On one hand, the kingdom had
already come because Jesus had come to be with his people and to call them to
himself; on the other hand, the Kingdom in its consummate manifestation was yet
to come.
18-22 THE CALLING OF PETER AND ANDREW, JAMES AND JOHN
18 And Jesus,
walking—The word “Jesus”
here does not appear in any
Greek manuscripts; it was inserted by the KJV translators for the sake of
continuity in the narrative. by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon
called Peter—for the reason mentioned in 16:18.
19 And he saith
unto them, Follow me—rather,
as the same expression is
rendered in Mark, “Come ye after me.” and I will make you fishers of men—
raising them from a lower to a higher fishing, as David was from a lower to a
higher form of shepherding (Ps. 78:70-72).
21 And going on
from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son
of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship—rather, “in the ship,” their fishing
boat.
22 And they
immediately left the ship and their father—Mark adds an
important clause: “They left the ship and their father Zebedee in the ship
with the
hired servants; showing that the family was well-off. and
followed him—Two
harmonistic questions here arise: First, was this the same calling as that
recorded
in John 1:35-42? Clearly not. For, (1) that call was given while Jesus
was yet in
Judea: this, after his return to Galilee. (2) Here, Christ calls Andrew;
there,
Andrew solicits an interview with Christ. (3) Here, Andrew and Peter are
called
together: there, Andrew having been called, with an unnamed disciple, who was
clearly the beloved disciple (see comments on John 1:40), went and brought
Peter his brother to Christ, who then called him. (4) Here, John is
called along
with James his brother: there, John is called along with Andrew, after having
had
an interview with Jesus; no mention being made of James, whose call, if it then
took place, would not likely have been passed over by his own brother. Thus far
nearly all are agreed. But on the next question opinion is divided: Was this the
same calling as that recorded in Luke 5:1-11? Many able critics think so. But
the
following considerations are against it. First, here in Matthew the four are
called
separately, in pairs: in Luke, all together. Next, in Luke, after a glorious
miracle:
here, the one pair are casting their net, the other are mending theirs. Further,
here
our Lord had made no public appearance in Galilee, and so had gathered none
around him; he is walking alone by the shores of the lake when he accosts the
two pairs of fishermen: in Luke, the multitude are pressing upon him, and
hearing
the word of God, as he stands by the Lake of Gennesaret—a state of things
implying a somewhat advanced state of his early ministry, and some popular
enthusiasm. Regarding these successive callings, see comments on Luke 5:1.
23-35 FIRST GALILEAN CIRCUIT
23 And Jesus went
about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues—These
were houses of local worship. It cannot be proved that they existed before the
Babylonian captivity; but as they began to be erected soon after it, probably
the
idea arose among the captives who did not have the Temple to go to. In our
Lord’s time, the rule was to have a synagogue wherever ten learned men or
professed students of the law resided; and they extended to Syria, Asia Minor,
Greece, and most places of the dispersion. The larger towns had several, and in
Jerusalem the number approached 500. In terms of eldership and mode of
worship, the early Christian churches were modeled after the synagogue. and
preaching the gospel [proclaiming the glad tidings] of the kingdom, and
healing all manner of sickness [every disease] and all manner of disease
[every complaint]—The word means any incipient malady.
24 And his fame
went throughout all Syria—reaching
first to the part of it
adjacent to Galilee, called Syro-Phoenicia (Mark 7:26), and then extending far
and wide. and they brought unto him all sick people—all that were
ailing or
unwell. [those] that were taken with divers diseases and torments—i.e.,
acute
disorders. and those which were possessed with devils—that were
demonized
or possessed with demons. and those which were lunatic—lit.
“moon-struck.”
and those that had the palsy—paralytics, a word not naturalized when
the KJV
was made. and he healed them—These healings became his credentials and
illustrations of “the glad tidings” which he proclaimed. After reading this
account
of our Lord’s first preaching tour, can we wonder at what follows?
25 And there
followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and
from Decapolis [lit. “ten
cities”]—a region lying to the east of Jordan, so called
as containing ten cities, founded and chiefly inhabited by Greek settlers. and
from Jerusalem and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan—meaning from
Perea. Thus not only was all Palestine moved by Jesus, but all the adjacent
regions. But the more immediate object for which this is here mentioned is to
give the reader some idea both of the vast concourse and of the varied
complexion of eager attendants upon the great Preacher, to whom the astonishing
discourse of the next three chapters was ad dressed. (Concerning the importance
which our Lord himself attached to this first preaching circuit, and the
preparation which he made for it, see comments on Mark 1:35-39.)
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