{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"MAT","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Matthew","commonName":"Matthew","introduction":"THE author of this Gospel was a publican or tax gatherer, residing at Capernaum, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. As to his identity with the \"Levi\" of the second and third Gospels, and other particulars, see on Mat 9:9. Hardly anything is known of his apostolic labors. That, after preaching to his countrymen in Palestine, he went to the East, is the general testimony of antiquity; but the precise scene or scenes of his ministry cannot be determined. That he died a natural death may be concluded from the belief of the best-informed of the Fathers--that of the apostles only three, James the Greater, Peter, and Paul, suffered martyrdom. That the first Gospel was written by this apostle is the testimony of all antiquity.\n\nFor the date of this Gospel we have only internal evidence, and that far from decisive. Accordingly, opinion is much divided. That it was the first issued of all the Gospels was universally believed. Hence, although in the order of the Gospels, those by the two apostles were placed first in the oldest manuscripts of the Old Latin version, while in all the Greek manuscripts, with scarcely an exception, the order is the same as in our Bibles, the Gospel according to Matthew is \"in every case\" placed first. And as this Gospel is of all the four the one which bears the most evident marks of having been prepared and constructed with a special view to the Jews--who certainly first required a written Gospel, and would be the first to make use of it--there can be no doubt that it was issued before any of the others. That it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem is equally certain; for as HUG observes [Introduction to the New Testament, p. 316, FOSDICK'S translation], when he reports our Lord's prophecy of that awful event, on coming to the warning about \"the abomination of desolation\" which they should \"see standing in the holy place,\" he interposes (contrary to his invariable practice, which is to relate without remark) a call to his readers to read intelligently--\"Whoso readeth, let him understand\" (Mat 24:15) --a call to attend to the divine signal for flight which could be intended only for those who lived before the event. But how long before that event this Gospel was written is not so clear. Some internal evidences seem to imply a very early date. Since the Jewish Christians were, for five or six years, exposed to persecution from their own countrymen--until the Jews, being persecuted by the Romans, had to look to themselves--it is not likely (it is argued) that they should be left so long without some written Gospel to reassure and sustain them, and Matthew's Gospel was eminently fitted for that purpose. But the digests to which Luke refers in his Introduction (see on Luk 1:1) would be sufficient for a time, especially as the living voice of the \"eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word\" was yet sounding abroad. Other considerations in favor of a very early date--such as the tender way in which the author seems studiously to speak of Herod Antipas, as if still reigning, and his writing of Pilate apparently as if still in power--seem to have no foundation in fact, and cannot therefore be made the ground of reasoning as to the date of this Gospel. Its Hebraic structure and hue, though they prove, as we think, that this Gospel must have been published at a period considerably anterior to the destruction of Jerusalem, are no evidence in favor of so early a date as A.D. 37 or 38--according to some of the Fathers, and, of the moderns, TILLEMONT, TOWNSON, OWEN, BIRKS, TREGELLES. On the other hand, the date suggested by the statement of IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 3.1], that Matthew put forth his Gospel while Peter and Paul were at Rome preaching and founding the Church--or after A.D. 60--though probably the majority of critics are in favor of it, would seem rather too late, especially as the second and third Gospels, which were doubtless published, as well as this one, before the destruction of Jerusalem, had still to be issued. Certainly, such statements as the following, \"Wherefore that field is called the field of blood unto this day\" (Mat 27:8); \"And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day\" (Mat 28:15), bespeak a date considerably later than the events recorded. We incline, therefore, to a date intermediate between the earlier and the later dates assigned to this Gospel, without pretending to greater precision.\n\nWe have adverted to the strikingly Jewish character and coloring of this Gospel. The facts which it selects, the points to which it gives prominence, the cast of thought and phraseology, all bespeak the Jewish point of view from which it was written and to which it was directed. This has been noticed from the beginning, and is universally acknowledged. It is of the greatest consequence to the right interpretation of it; but the tendency among some even of the best of the Germans to infer, from this special design of the first Gospel, a certain laxity on the part of the Evangelist in the treatment of his facts, must be guarded against.\n\nBut by far the most interesting and important point connected with this Gospel is the language in which it was written. It is believed by a formidable number of critics that this Gospel was originally written in what is loosely called Hebrew, but more correctly Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic, the native tongue of the country at the time of our Lord; and that the Greek Matthew which we now possess is a translation of that work, either by the Evangelist himself or some unknown hand. The evidence on which this opinion is grounded is wholly external, but it has been deemed conclusive by GROTIUS, MICHAELIS (and his translator), MARSH, TOWNSON, CAMPBELL, OLSHAUSEN, CRESWELL, MEYER, EBRARD, LANGE, DAVIDSON, CURETON, TREGELLES, WEBSTER and WILKINSON, &c. The evidence referred to cannot be given here, but will be found, with remarks on its unsatisfactory character, in the Introduction to the Gospels prefixed to our larger Commentary, pp. 28-31.\n\nBut how stand the facts as to our Greek Gospel? We have not a title of historical evidence that it is a translation, either by Matthew himself or anyone else. All antiquity refers to it as the work of Matthew the publican and apostle, just as the other Gospels are ascribed to their respective authors. This Greek Gospel was from the first received by the Church as an integral part of the one quadriform Gospel. And while the Fathers often advert to the two Gospels which we have from apostles, and the two which we have from men not apostles--in order to show that as that of Mark leans so entirely on Peter, and that of Luke on Paul, these are really no less apostolical than the other two--though we attach less weight to this circumstance than they did, we cannot but think it striking that, in thus speaking, they never drop a hint that the full apostolic authority of the Greek Matthew had ever been questioned on the ground of its not being the original. Further, not a trace can be discovered in this Gospel itself of its being a translation. MICHAELIS tried to detect, and fancied that he had succeeded in detecting, one or two such. Other Germans since, and DAVIDSON and CURETON among ourselves, have made the same attempt. But the entire failure of all such attempts is now generally admitted, and candid advocates of a Hebrew original are quite ready to own that none such are to be found, and that but for external testimony no one would have imagined that the Greek was not the original. This they regard as showing how perfectly the translation has been executed; but those who know best what translating from one language into another is will be the readiest to own that this is tantamount to giving up the question. This Gospel proclaims its own originality in a number of striking points; such as its manner of quoting from the Old Testament, and its phraseology in some peculiar cases. But the close verbal coincidences of our Greek Matthew with the next two Gospels must not be quite passed over. There are but two possible ways of explaining this. Either the translator, sacrificing verbal fidelity in his version, intentionally conformed certain parts of his author's work to the second and third Gospels--in which case it can hardly be called Matthew's Gospel at all--or our Greek Matthew is itself the original.\n\nMoved by these considerations, some advocates of a Hebrew original have adopted the theory of a double original; the external testimony, they think, requiring us to believe in a Hebrew original, while internal evidence is decisive in favor of the originality of the Greek. This theory is espoused by GUERICKS, OLSHAUSEN, THIERSCH, TOWNSON, TREGELLES, &c. But, besides that this looks too like an artificial theory, invented to solve a difficulty, it is utterly void of historical support. There is not a vestige of testimony to support it in Christian antiquity. This ought to be decisive against it.\n\nIt remains, then, that our Greek Matthew is the original of that Gospel, and that no other original ever existed. It is greatly to the credit of DEAN ALFORD, that after maintaining, in the first edition of his Greek Testament the theory of a Hebrew original, he thus expresses himself in the second and subsequent editions: \"On the whole, then, I find myself constrained to abandon the view maintained in my first edition, and to adopt that of a Greek original.\"\n\nOne argument has been adduced on the other side, on which not a little reliance has been placed; but the determination of the main question does not, in our opinion, depend upon the point which it raises. It has been very confidently affirmed that the Greek language was not sufficiently understood by the Jews of Palestine when Matthew published his Gospel to make it at all probable that he would write a Gospel, for their benefit in the first instance, in that language. Now, as this merely alleges the improbability of a Greek original, it is enough to place against it the evidence already adduced, which is positive, in favor of the sole originality of our Greek Matthew. It is indeed a question how far the Greek language was understood in Palestine at the time referred to. But we advise the reader not to be drawn into that question as essential to the settlement of the other one. It is an element in it, no doubt, but not an essential element. There are extremes on both sides of it. The old idea, that our Lord hardly ever spoke anything but Syro-Chaldaic, is now pretty nearly exploded. Many, however, will not go the length, on the other side, of HUG (in his Introduction to the New Testament, pp. 326, &c.) and ROBERTS (\"Discussions of the Gospels,\" &c., pp. 25, &c.). For ourselves, though we believe that our Lord, in all the more public scenes of His ministry, spoke in Greek, all we think it necessary here to say is that there is no ground to believe that Greek was so little understood in Palestine as to make it improbable that Matthew would write his Gospel exclusively in that language--so improbable as to outweigh the evidence that he did so. And when we think of the number of digests or short narratives of the principal facts of our Lord's history which we know from Luke (Luk 1:1-4) were floating about for some time before he wrote his Gospel, of which he speaks by no means disrespectfully, and nearly all of which would be in the mother tongue, we can have no doubt that the Jewish Christians and the Jews of Palestine generally would have from the first reliable written matter sufficient to supply every necessary requirement until the publican-apostle should leisurely draw up the first of the four Gospels in a language to them not a strange tongue, while to the rest of the world it was the language in which the entire quadriform Gospel was to be for all time enshrined. The following among others hold to this view of the sole originality of the Greek Matthew: ERASMUS, CALVIN, BEZA, LIGHTFOOT, WETSTEIN, LARDNER, HUG, FRITZSCHE, CREDNER, DE WETTE, STUART, DA COSTA, FAIRBAIRN, ROBERTS.\n\nOn two other questions regarding this Gospel it would have been desirable to say something, had not our available space been already exhausted: The characteristics, both in language and matter, by which it is distinguished from the other three, and its relation to the second and third Gospels. On the latter of these topics--whether one or more of the Evangelists made use of the materials of the other Gospels, and, if so, which of the Evangelists drew from which--the opinions are just as numerous as the possibilities of the case, every conceivable way of it having one or more who plead for it. The most popular opinion until recently--and perhaps the most popular still--is that the second Evangelist availed himself more or less of the materials of the first Gospel, and the third of the materials of both the first and second Gospels. Here we can but state our own belief, that each of the first three Evangelists wrote independently of both the others; while the fourth, familiar with the first three, wrote to supplement them, and, even where he travels along the same line, wrote quite independently of them. This judgment we express, with all deference for those who think otherwise, as the result of a close study of each of the Gospels in immediate juxtaposition and comparison with the others. On the former of the two topics noticed, the linguistic peculiarities of each of the Gospels have been handled most closely and ably by CREDNER [Einleitung (Introduction to the New Testament)], of whose results a good summary will be found in DAVIDSON'S Introduction to the New Testament. The other peculiarities of the Gospels have been most felicitously and beautifully brought out by DA COSTA in his Four Witnesses, to which we must simply refer the reader, though it contains a few things in which we cannot concur. \n\n\n\nNext: Matthew Chapter 1\n\n","order":40,"numberOfChapters":28,"sha256":"85230502f7845520bbf6f2983f2d40076dbb901c7feac0d1cfa0d62c8b7d54f8","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAT/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAT","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":28,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAT/28.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAT","chapter":28},"totalNumberOfVerses":525},"chapter":{"number":13,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship--the article in the received text lacks authority \n\nand sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore--How graphic this picture!--no doubt from the pen of an eye-witness, himself impressed with the scene. It was \"the same day\" on which the foregoing solemn discourse was delivered, when His kindred thought Him \"beside Himself\" for His indifference to food and repose--that same day retiring to the seashore of Galilee; and there seating Himself, perhaps for coolness and rest, the crowds again flock around Him, and He is fain to push off from them, in the boat usually kept in readiness for Him; yet only to begin, without waiting to rest, a new course of teaching by parables to the eager multitudes that lined the shore. To the parables of our Lord there is nothing in all language to be compared, for simplicity, grace, fulness, and variety of spiritual teaching. They are adapted to all classes and stages of advancement, being understood by each according to the measure of his spiritual capacity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, &c.--These parables are SEVEN in number; and it is not a little remarkable that while this is the sacred number, the first FOUR of them were spoken to the mixed multitude, while the remaining THREE were spoken to the Twelve in private--these divisions, four and three, being themselves notable in the symbolical arithmetic of Scripture. Another thing remarkable in the structure of these parables is, that while the first of the Seven--that of the Sower--is of the nature of an Introduction to the whole, the remaining Six consist of three pairs--the Second and Seventh, the Third and Fourth, and the Fifth and Sixth, corresponding to each other; each pair setting forth the same general truths, but with a certain diversity of aspect. All this can hardly be accidental.\n\nFirst Parable: THE SOWER (Mat 13:3-9, Mat 13:18-23).\n\nThis parable may be entitled, THE EFFECT OF THE WORD DEPENDENT ON THE STATE OF THE HEART. For the exposition of this parable, see on Mar 4:1-9, Mar 4:14-20.\n\nReason for Teaching in Parables (Mat 13:10-17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["And the disciples came, and said unto him--\"they that were with Him, when they were alone\" (Mar 4:10). \n\nWhy speakest thou to them in parables?--Though before this He had couched some things in the parabolic form, for more vivid illustration, it would appear that He now, for the first time, formally employed this method of teaching.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven--The word \"mysteries\" in Scripture is not used in its classical sense--of religious secrets, nor yet of things incomprehensible, or in their own nature difficult to be understood--but in the sense of things of purely divine revelation, and, usually, things darkly announced under the ancient economy, and during all that period darkly understood, but fully published under the Gospel (Co1 2:6-10; Eph 3:3-6, Eph 3:8-9). \"The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,\" then, mean those glorious Gospel truths which at that time only the more advanced disciples could appreciate, and they but partially. \n\nbut to them it is not given--(See on Mat 11:25). Parables serve the double purpose of revealing and concealing; presenting \"the mysteries of the kingdom\" to those who know and relish them, though in never so small a degree, in a new and attractive light; but to those who are insensible to spiritual things yielding only, as so many tales, some temporary entertainment.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["For whosoever hath--that is, keeps; as a thing which he values. \n\nto him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance--He will be rewarded by an increase of what he so much prizes. \n\nbut whosoever hath not--who lets this go or lie unused, as a thing on which he sets no value. \n\nfrom him shall be taken away even that he hath--or as it is in Luke (Luk 8:18), \"what he seemeth to have,\" or, thinketh he hath. This is a principle of immense importance, and, like other weighty sayings, appears to have been uttered by our Lord on more than one occasion, and in different connections. (See on Mat 25:9). As a great ethical principle, we see it in operation everywhere, under the general law of habit; in virtue of which moral principles become stronger by exercise, while by disuse, or the exercise of their contraries, they wax weaker, and at length expire. The same principle reigns in the intellectual world, and even in the animal--if not in the vegetable also--as the facts of physiology sufficiently prove. Here, however, it is viewed as a divine ordination, as a judicial retribution in continual operation under the divine administration.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Therefore speak I to them in parables--which our Lord, be it observed, did not begin to do till His miracles were malignantly ascribed to Satan. \n\nbecause they seeing, see not--They \"saw,\" for the light shone on them as never light shone before; but they \"saw not,\" for they closed their eyes. \n\nand hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand--They \"heard,\" for He taught them who \"spake as never man spake\"; but they \"heard not,\" for they took nothing in, apprehending not the soul-penetrating, life-giving words addressed to them. In Mark and Luke (Mar 4:12; Luk 8:10), what is here expressed as a human fact is represented as the fulfilment of a divine purpose--\"that seeing they may see, and not perceive,\" &c. The explanation of this lies in the statement of the foregoing verse--that, by a fixed law of the divine administration, the duty men voluntarily refuse to do, and in point of fact do not do, they at length become morally incapable of doing.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["And in them is fulfilled--rather, \"is fulfilling,\" or \"is receiving its fulfilment.\" \n\nthe prophecy of Esaias, which saith-- (Isa 6:9-10 --here quoted according to the Septuagint). \n\nBy hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, &c.--They were thus judicially sealed up under the darkness and obduracy which they deliberately preferred to the light and healing which Jesus brought nigh to them.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your cars, for they hear--that is, \"Happy ye, whose eyes and ears, voluntarily and gladly opened, are drinking in the light divine.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired--rather, \"coveted.\" \n\nto see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them--Not only were the disciples blessed above the blinded just spoken of, but favored above the most honored and the best that lived under the old economy, who had but glimpses of the things of the new kingdom, just sufficient to kindle in them desires not to be fulfilled to any in their day. In Luk 10:23-24, where the same saying is repeated on the return of the Seventy--the words, instead of \"many prophets and righteous men,\" are \"many prophets and kings\"; for several of the Old Testament saints were kings.\n\nSecond and Seventh Parables or First Pair:\n\nTHE WHEAT AND THE TARES, and THE GOOD AND BAD FISH (Mat 13:24-30, Mat 13:36-43, Mat 13:47-50).\n\nThe subject of both these parables--which teach the same truth, with a slight diversity of aspect--is: THE MIXED CHARACTER OF THE KINGDOM IN ITS PRESENT STATE, AND THE FINAL ABSOLUTE SEPARATION OF THE TWO CLASSES.\n\nThe Tares and the Wheat (Mat 13:24-30, Mat 13:36-43).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field--Happily for us, these exquisite parables are, with like charming simplicity and clearness, expounded to us by the Great Preacher Himself. Accordingly, we pass to: Mat 13:36-38. See on Mat 13:36; Mat 13:38\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way--(See on Mat 13:38-39).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also--the growth in both cases running parallel, as antagonistic principles are seen to do.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["So the servants of the householder came--that is, Christ's ministers. \n\nand said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?--This well expresses the surprise, disappointment, and anxiety of Christ's faithful servants and people at the discovery of \"false brethren\" among the members of the Church.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["He said unto them, An enemy hath done this--Kind words these from a good Husbandman, honorably clearing His faithful servants of the wrong done to his field. \n\nThe servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?--Compare with this the question of James and John (Luk 9:54), \"Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume\" those Samaritans? In this kind of zeal there is usually a large mixture of carnal heat. (See Jam 1:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["But he said, Nay--\"It will be done in due time, but not now, nor is it your business.\" \n\nlest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them--Nothing could more clearly or forcibly teach the difficulty of distinguishing the two classes, and the high probability that in the attempt to do so these will be confounded.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["Let both grow together--that is, in the visible Church. \n\nuntil the harvest--till the one have ripened for full salvation, the other for destruction. (See on Mat 13:39). \n\nand in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers--(See on Mat 13:39). \n\nGather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them--\"in the fire\" (Mat 13:40). \n\nbut gather the wheat into my barn--Christ, as the Judge, will separate the two classes (as in Mat 25:32). It will be observed that the tares are burned before the wheat is housed; in the exposition of the parable (Mat 13:41, Mat 13:43) the same order is observed: and the same in Mat 25:46 --as if, in some literal sense, \"with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked\" (Psa 91:8).\n\nThird and Fourth Parables or Second Pair:\n\nTHE MUSTARD SEED and THE LEAVEN (Mat 13:31-33).\n\nThe subject of both these parables, as of the first pair, is the same, but under a slight diversity of aspect, namely--\n\nTHE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM FROM THE SMALLEST BEGINNINGS TO ULTIMATE UNIVERSALITY.\n\nThe Mustard Seed (Mat 13:31-32).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["Which indeed is the least of all seeds--not absolutely, but popularly and proverbially, as in Luk 17:6, \"If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,\" that is, \"never so little faith.\" \n\nbut when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs--not absolutely, but in relation to the small size of the seed, and in warm latitudes proverbially great. \n\nand becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof--This is added, no doubt, to express the amplitude of the tree. But as this seed has a hot, fiery vigor, gives out its best virtues when bruised, and is grateful to the taste of birds, which are accordingly attracted to its branches both for shelter and food, is it straining the parable, asks TRENCH, to suppose that, besides the wonderful growth of His kingdom, our Lord selected this seed to illustrate further the shelter, repose and blessedness it is destined to afford to the nations of the world?\n\nThe Leaven (Mat 13:33).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened--This parable, while it teaches the same general truth as the foregoing one, holds forth, perhaps, rather the inward growth of the kingdom, while \"the Mustard Seed\" seems to point chiefly to the outward. It being a woman's work to knead, it seems a refinement to say that \"the woman\" here represents the Church, as the instrument of depositing the leaven. Nor does it yield much satisfaction to understand the \"three measures of meal\" of that threefold division of our nature into \"spirit, soul, and body,\" alluded to in Th1 5:23, or of the threefold partition of the world among the three sons of Noah (Gen 10:32), as some do. It yields more real satisfaction to see in this brief parable just the all-penetrating and assimilating quality of the Gospel, by virtue of which it will yet mould all institutions and tribes of men, and exhibit over the whole earth one \"kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them--that is, on this occasion; refraining not only from all naked discourse, but even from all interpretation of these parables to the mixed multitude.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying-- (Psa 78:2, nearly as in the Septuagint). \n\nI will open my mouth in parables, &c.--Though the Psalm seems to contain only a summary of Israelitish history, the Psalmist himself calls it \"a parable,\" and \"dark sayings from of old\"--as containing, underneath the history, truths for all time, not fully brought to light till the Gospel day.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field, &c.--In the parable of the Sower, \"the seed is the word of God\" (Luk 8:11). But here that word has been received into the heart, and has converted him that received it into a new creature, a \"child of the kingdom,\" according to that saying of James (Jam 1:18), \"Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.\" It is worthy of notice that this vast field of the world is here said to be Christ's own--\"His field,\" says the parable. (See Psa 2:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["The tares are the children of the wicked one--As this sowing could only be \"while men slept,\" no blame seems intended, and certainly none is charged upon \"the servants\"; it is probably just the dress of the parable.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["The enemy that sowed them is the devil--emphatically \"His enemy\" (Mat 13:25). (See Gen 3:15; Jo1 3:8). By \"tares\" is meant, not what in our husbandry is so called, but some noxious plant, probably darnel. \"The tares are the children of the wicked one\"; and by their being sown \"among the wheat\" is meant their being deposited within the territory of the visible Church. As they resemble the children of the kingdom, so they are produced, it seems, by a similar process of \"sowing\"--the seeds of evil being scattered and lodging in the soil of those hearts upon which falls the seed of the world. The enemy, after sowing his \"tares,\" \"went his way\"--his dark work soon done, but taking time to develop its true character. \n\nThe harvest is the end of the world--the period of Christ's second coming, and of the judicial separation of the righteous and the wicked. Till then, no attempt is to be made to effect such separation. But to stretch this so far as to justify allowing openly scandalous persons to remain in the communion of the Church, is to wrest the teaching of this parable to other than its proper design, and go in the teeth of apostolic injunctions (1Co. 5). \n\nAnd the reapers are the angels--But whose angels are they? \"The Son of man shall send forth His angels\" (Mat 13:41). Compare Pe1 3:22, \"Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":41,"content":["The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom--to which they never really belonged. They usurped their place and name and outward privileges; but \"the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners [abide] in the congregation of the righteous\" (Psa 1:5). \n\nall things that offend--all those who have proved a stumbling-block to others \n\nand them which do iniquity--The former class, as the worst, are mentioned first.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":42,"content":["And shall cast them into a furnace of fire--rather, \"the furnace of fire\": \n\nthere shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth--What terrific strength of language--the \"casting\" or \"flinging\" expressive of indignation, abhorrence, contempt (compare Psa 9:17; Dan 12:2): \"the furnace of fire\" denoting the fierceness of the torment: the \"wailing\" signifying the anguish this causes; while the \"gnashing of teeth\" is a graphic way of expressing the despair in which its remedilessness issues (see Mat 8:12)!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":43,"content":["Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father--as if they had been under a cloud during the present association with ungodly pretenders to their character, and claimants of their privileges, and obstructors of their course. \n\nWho hath ears to hear, let him hear--(See Mar 4:9).\n\nFifth and Sixth Parables or Third Pair: THE HIDDEN TREASURE and THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE (Mat 13:44-46).\n\nThe subject of this last pair, as of the two former, is the same, but also under a slight diversity of aspect: namely--\n\nTHE PRICELESS VALUE OF THE BLESSINGS OF THE KINGDOM. And while the one parable represents the Kingdom as \"found without seeking,\" the other holds forth the Kingdom as \"sought and found.\"\n\nThe Hidden Treasure (Mat 13:44).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":44,"content":["Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field--no uncommon thing in unsettled and half-civilized countries, even now as well as in ancient times, when there was no other way of securing it from the rapacity of neighbors or marauders. (Jer 41:8; Job 3:21; Pro 2:4). \n\nthe which when a man hath found--that is, unexpectedly found. \n\nhe hideth, and for joy thereof--on perceiving what a treasure he had lighted on, surpassing the worth of all he possessed. \n\ngoeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field--in which case, by Jewish law, the treasure would become his own.\n\nThe Pearl of Great Price (Mat 13:45-46).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":45,"content":["Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":46,"content":["Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it--The one pearl of great price, instead of being found by accident, as in the former case, is found by one whose business it is to seek for such, and who finds it just in the way of searching for such treasures. But in both cases the surpassing value of the treasure is alike recognized, and in both all is parted with for it.\n\nThe Good and Bad Fish (Mat 13:47-50).\n\nThe object of this brief parable is the same as that of the Tares and Wheat. But as its details are fewer, so its teaching is less rich and varied.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":47,"content":["Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind--The word here rendered \"net\" signifies a large drag-net, which draws everything after it, suffering nothing to escape, as distinguished from a casting-net (Mar 1:16, Mar 1:18). The far-reaching efficacy of the Gospel is thus denoted. This Gospel net \"gathered of every kind,\" meaning every variety of character.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":48,"content":["Which, when it was full, they drew to shore--for the separation will not be made till the number of the elect is accomplished. \n\nand sat down--expressing the deliberateness with which the judicial separation will at length be made. \n\nand gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away--literally, \"the rotten,\" but here meaning, \"the foul\" or \"worthless\" fish: corresponding to the \"tares\" of the other parable.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":49,"content":["So shall it be at the end of the world, &c.--(See on Mat 13:42). We have said that each of these two parables holds forth the same truth under a slight diversity of aspect. What is that diversity? First, the bad, in the former parable, are represented as vile seed sown among the wheat by the enemy of souls; in the latter, as foul fish drawn forth out of the great sea of human beings by the Gospel net itself. Both are important truths--that the Gospel draws within its pale, and into the communion of the visible Church, multitudes who are Christians only in name; and that the injury thus done to the Church on earth is to be traced to the wicked one. But further, while the former parable gives chief prominence to the present mixture of good and bad, in the latter, the prominence is given to the future separation of the two classes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":51,"content":["Jesus saith unto them--that is, to the Twelve. He had spoken the first four in the hearing of the mixed multitude: the last three He reserved till, on the dismissal of the mixed audience, He and the Twelve were alone (Mat 13:36, &c.). \n\nHave ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":52,"content":["Then said he unto them, Therefore--or as we should say, \"Well, then.\" \n\nevery scribe--or Christian teacher: here so called from that well-known class among the Jews. (See Mat 23:34). \n\nwhich is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven--himself taught in the mysteries of the Gospel which he has to teach to others. \n\nis like unto a man that is an householder which bringeth forth--\"turneth\" or \"dealeth out.\" \n\nout of his treasure--his store of divine truth. \n\nthings new and old--old truths in ever new forms, aspects, applications, and with ever new illustrations.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":53,"content":["HOW JESUS WAS REGARDED BY HIS RELATIVES. ( = Mar 6:1-6; Luk 4:16-30). (Mat 13:53-58)\n\nAnd it came to pass, that, when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":54,"content":["And when he was come into his own country--that is, Nazareth; as is plain from Mar 6:1. See on Joh 4:43, where also the same phrase occurs. This, according to the majority of Harmonists, was the second of two visits which our Lord paid to Nazareth during His public ministry; but in our view it was His first and only visit to it. See on Mat 4:13; and for the reasons, see Luk 4:16-30. \n\nWhence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?--\"these miracles.\" These surely are not like the questions of people who had asked precisely the same questions before, who from astonishment had proceeded to rage, and in their rage had hurried Him out of the synagogue, and away to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, to thrust Him down headlong, and who had been foiled even in that object by His passing through the midst of them, and going His way. But see on Luk 4:16, &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":55,"content":["Is not this the carpenter's son?--In Mark (Mar 6:3) the question is, \"Is not this the carpenter?\" In all likelihood, our Lord, during His stay under the roof of His earthly parents, wrought along with His legal father. \n\nis not his mother called Mary?--\"Do we not know all about His parentage? Has He not grown up in the midst of us? Are not all His relatives our own townsfolk? Whence, then, such wisdom and such miracles?\" These particulars of our Lord's human history constitute the most valuable testimony, first, to His true and real humanity--for they prove that during all His first thirty years His townsmen had discovered nothing about Him different from other men; secondly, to the divine character of His mission--for these Nazarenes proclaim both the unparalleled character of His teaching and the reality and glory of His miracles, as transcending human ability; and thirdly, to His wonderful humility and self-denial--in that when He was such as they now saw Him to be, He yet never gave any indications of it for thirty years, because \"His hour was not yet come.\" \n\nAnd his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":56,"content":["And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? An exceedingly difficult question here arises--What were these \"brethren\" and \"sisters\" to Jesus? Were they, First, His full brothers and sisters? or, Secondly, Were they His step-brothers and step-sisters, children of Joseph by a former marriage? or, Thirdly, Were they cousins, according to a common way of speaking among the Jews respecting persons of collateral descent? On this subject an immense deal has been written, nor are opinions yet by any means agreed. For the second opinion there is no ground but a vague tradition, arising probably from the wish for some such explanation. The first opinion undoubtedly suits the text best in all the places where the parties are certainly referred to (Mat 12:46; and its parallels, Mar 3:31; Luk 8:19; our present passage, and its parallels, Mar 6:3; Joh 2:12; Joh 7:3, Joh 7:5, Joh 7:10; Act 1:14). But, in addition to other objections, many of the best interpreters, thinking it in the last degree improbable that our Lord, when hanging on the cross, would have committed His mother to John if He had had full brothers of His own then alive, prefer the third opinion; although, on the other hand, it is not to be doubted that our Lord might have good reasons for entrusting the guardianship of His doubly widowed mother to the beloved disciple in preference even to full brothers of His own. Thus dubiously we prefer to leave this vexed question, encompassed as it is with difficulties. As to the names here mentioned, the first of them, \"JAMES,\" is afterwards called \"the Lord's brother\" (see on Gal 1:19), but is perhaps not to be confounded with \"James the son of AlphÃ&brvbrus,\" one of the Twelve, though many think their identity beyond dispute. This question also is one of considerable difficulty, and not without importance; since the James who occupies so prominent a place in the Church of Jerusalem, in the latter part of the Acts, was apparently the apostle, but is by many regarded as \"the Lord's brother,\" while others think their identity best suits all the statements. The second of those here named, \"JOSES\" (or Joseph), must not be confounded with \"Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus\" (Act 1:23); and the third here named, \"SIMON,\" is not to be confounded with Simon the Kananite or Zealot (see on Mat 10:4). These three are nowhere else mentioned in the New Testament. The fourth and last-named, \"JUDAS,\" can hardly be identical with the apostle of that name--though the brothers of both were of the name of \"James\"--nor (unless the two be identical, was this Judas) with the author of the catholic Epistle so called.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":58,"content":["And he did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief--\"save that He laid His hands on a few sick folk, and healed them\" (Mar 6:5). See on Luk 4:16-30.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Matthew Chapter 14\n\n"]}],"introduction":"JESUS TEACHES BY PARABLES. ( = Mark 4:1-34; Luk 8:4-18; Luk 13:18-20). (Mat. 13:1-52)\n\nThe same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAT/13.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAT","chapter":13},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAT/14.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAT","chapter":14},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAT/12.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAT","chapter":12},"numberOfVerses":40}