Christ proves the resurrection, A. M. 4037. n A. D. 33. 24 Saying, Master, " Moses said, If || shall she be of the seven? for they A. M. 4037. a man die, having no children, his all had her. brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25 Now, there were with us seven brethren: || and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased; and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the 3 seventh. 27 And last of all the woman died also. n Deut. xxv. 5.———3 Gr. seven. 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. q 30 For in the resurrection, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God r Exod. iii. 6, 16; Mark xii. 26; Luke xx. 37; Acts vii. 32; Heb. xi. 16. resurrection, or future state, that every man's wife should be restored to him.”—Macknight. deny the resurrection, that is, that the soul and the body of man shall hereafter be reunited; and our Lord brings an argument from the Pentateuch Verses 29, 30. Jesus answered, Ye do err, not to prove-What? Not that they shall be reunited, || knowing the Scriptures—Which plainly assert a fu(to this it has not even the most distant relation,) || ture state; nor the power of God-Who created spibut that the soul subsists after the body is dissolved. | rit as well as matter, and can preserve it in existence This many would have admitted, who denied the re- when the body is dissolved, and can also raise the surrection; yet so evidently did his argument strike || body from the dust and render it immortal; and who at the root of the scheme of the Sadducees, that they || can make the whole man completely happy in the were silenced by it, and, to the conviction of the knowledge, love, and enjoyment of himself, without hearers, confuted. Now this could not have hap- || any of the pleasures or objects of this visible and pened, if the fundamental error of the Sadducees temporal world. For in the resurrection they neihad been barely the denial of the resurrection of ther marry, &c.—Our Lord proceeds to observe the body, and not the denial of the immortality of || further, that they entirely mistook the nature of the the soul, or of its actual subsistence after death. If life to be enjoyed in a future state: that those who possible, the words, Luke xx. 38, tavtes avtw (wow, || attained it being as the angels of God, incorruptible all live to him, (namely, the patriarchs and all the and immortal, marriage and the procreation of an faithful dead,) make it still more evident that our || offspring were no longer necessary to continue the Lord considered this, namely, the proving that the species, or maintain the population of the spiritual soul still continued to live after a person's natural || world. death, was all that was incumbent on one who would confute the Sadducees. Now if this was the subversion of Sadducism, Sadducism must have con- || sisted in denying that the soul continues to live after the body dies. Certainly our Lord's answer here, and much of St. Paul's reasoning, 1 Cor. xv., proceeds on the supposition of such a denial. Thus, 2 Mac. xii. 42-44, the author proves that Judas believed a resurrection, from his offering sacrifices for the souls of the slain, which shows that by a resur-ings Christ demonstrates the certainty of a future rection he meant a future state. Verses 31, 32. But as touching the resurrection of the dead-Or the future state, (see on verse 23,) have ye not read that which was spoken by God— Namely, in the books of Moses, for which the Sadducees had a peculiar value; but which Christ here shows they did not understand; but were as ignorant of them as they were of the power of God, They had drawn their objection to a future state from the writings of Moses; and from those writ state! I am the God of Abraham, &c.-The arguVerses 24-28. Master, Moses said, If a man die, ment runs thus: God is not the God of the dead, &c.-" The argument by which the Sadducees en- but of the living: (for that expression, Thy God, deavoured to confute the notion of a future state implies both benefit from God to man, and duty from was taken from the Jewish law of marriage, which, || man to God :) but he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, to give their objection the better colour, they obser- and Jacob: therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ved was God's law, delivered by Moses. As they are not dead, but living. Therefore the soul does not believed the soul to be nothing but a more refined || die with the body. So indeed the Sadducees supkind of matter, they thought if there was any fu- posed, and it was on this ground that they denied ture state, it must resemble the present; and, that the resurrection and a future state. It cannot be men being in that state material and mortal, the objected to this interpretation, that it lays too much numan race could not be continued, nor the indivi- stress on the words, I am, which are not in the Heduals made happy, without the pleasures and con-brew. For our Lord's application of the citation in veniences of marriage. Hence they affirmed it to be a necessary consequence of the doctrine of the the present tense, (8k ɛ5ɩ o deos Dεoc veкpov, God is not the God of the dead,) plainly implies that no S 35 Then one of them which was A. M. 4037 A. D. 33 a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 33 And when the multitude heard this, they|| 36 Master, which is the great commandment were astonished at his doctrine. 34 * But when the Pharisees had heard T in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, * Thou shalt love that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they || the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with were gathered together. all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Chap. vii. 28. * Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, gospel, t Mark xii. 28.————" Luke x. 25.—— Deut. vi. 5; x. 12; xxx. 6; Luke x. 27. other tense of the verb can be supplied. Accord- with so complete an answer to a cavil in which the ingly the words are so rendered by the LXX., Eyo Sadducees were wont to triumph as invincible; εiμɩ о ƉEOS т8 патроs σ8, Оɛos Abрaaμ, &c., I am the God they were astonished at his doctrine-At the clearof thy father, the God of Abraham, &c. ; Exod. iii. 6. ness and solidity of his reasoning, and the manifest In a similar way Dr. Campbell states the argument: || confutation of a sect whose principles they consider"When God appeared to Moses in the bush, (which || ed as fundamentally erroneous, and subversive of was long after the death of the patriarchs,) he said || all piety and virtue. unto him, I am the God of Abraham, &c.; now God Verses 34-36. When the Pharisees heard that he is not the God of the dead, of those who, being des- || had put the Sadducees to silence-Gr. ori epiμoce, titute of life, and consequently of sensibility, can that he had stopped their mouths, or so confuted neither know nor honour him: he is the God of that he had confounded them, and rendered them those only who love and adore him, and are by con- || unable to make any reply; they were gathered tosequence alive. These patriarchs, therefore, though || gether-It is not said with what design: but it is dead in respect to us, who enjoy their presence here probable from verses 15, 16, with a malicious one, no longer, are alive in respect of God, whom they namely, to try, though the Sadducees had been still serve and worship." Others, however, choose || baffled in their attempt upon him, as they themselves to explain the argument thus: To be the God of any || had also been, when they united with the Herodians, person is to be his exceeding great reward, Gen. xv. 1. if they could yet any way expose him to the peoWherefore, as the patriarchs died without having ple. Then one of them, a lawyer—Or teacher of the obtained the promises, Heb. xi. 39, they must || law, (namely, of Moses,) as the word voμikos always exist in another state to enjoy them, that the vera- means in the New Testament, that is, a scribe, asked city of God may remain sure. Besides, the apostle || him a question, tempting, or trying him—Not, it tells us that God is not ashamed to be called their seems, with any ill design, but barely to make furGod, because he has prepared for them a city, Heb. || ther trial of that wisdom which he had shown in xi. 16, which implies, that he would have reckoned || silencing the Sadducees. For, according to Mark, it it infinitely beneath him to own his relation, as God, || was in consequence of his perceiving that our Lord to any one for whom he had not provided a state || had answered the Sadducees well, that this person of permanent happiness. The argument, taken either way, is conclusive; for which cause we may suppose that both the senses of it were intended, || to render it full of demonstration. With what satisfaction should we read this vindication of so important an article of our faith and hope! How easily did our Lord unravel and expose the boasted argument of the Sadducees, and cover with just confusion all the pride of those bold wits, who valued themselves so much on that imaginary penetration, which laid men almost on a le- || vel with brutes. Indeed, objections against the resurrection and a future state, much more plausible || than this of theirs, may be answered in that one saying of our Lord's: Ye know not the Scriptures nor the power of God. Were the Scripture doctrine on this subject considered on the one hand, and the omnipotence of the Creator on the other, it could not seem incredible to any that God should preserve the soul in immortality, or raise the dead. Acts xxvi. 8. asked the question here mentioned. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?—This was a famous question among the Jews. "Some of their doctors declared that the law of sacrifices was the great commandment, because sacrifices were both the expiations of sin and thanksgivings for mercies; others bestowed this honour on the law of circumcision, because it was the sign of the covenant established between God and the nation; a third sort yielded to the law of the sabbath, because, by that appointment, both the knowledge and practice of the institutions of Moses were preserved; and to name no more, there were some who affirmed the law of meats and washings to be of the greatest importance, because thereby the people of God were effectually separated from the company and conversations of the heathen." But Jesus, with much better reason, decided in favour of a command inclusive of the whole of piety, and leading to every holy temper, word, and work. Verses 37-40. Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Verse 33. And when the multitude-Which was Lord thy God with all thy heart-Concerning this present in the temple at the time; heard this-This || first and great commandment, and the words where unthought-of, and yet convincing argument, together with Moses prefaced it, see note on Deut. vi. 5; and 40 Ꮓ C A. D. 33. 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou z On these two commandments hang all on my right hand, till I make thine enemies he law and the prophets. 41 Ta While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. || thy footstool? for the elucidation of this whole paragraph, see them to give him, from Psa. lxxxix. 35, 36; and Isa. the notes on Mark xii. 28–34, where the conversation|| xi. 1." He saith, How then doth David in spirit, which our Lord had with this scribe is related more || rather, by the Spirit; that is, by inspiration; call at large. On these two commandments hang all him Lord-If he be merely the son, or descendant the law and the prophets-That is, they contain the|| of David? if he be, as you suppose, the son of man, substance or abridgment of all the religious and a mere man? "The doctors, it seems, did not look moral duties contained in the law and the prophets, || for any thing in their Messiah more excellent than which therefore may be all said to hang or depend || the most exalted perfections of human nature; for, on them. The expression, says Dr. Whitby, is a though they called him the Son of God, they had metaphor taken from a custom mentioned by Ter- no notion that he was God, and so could offer no tullian of hanging up their laws in a public place to solution of the difficulty. Yet the latter question be seen of all men; and it imports that in these pre- might have shown them their error. For if the cepts is compendiously contained all that the law Messiah was to be only a secular prince, as they and prophets require, in reference to our duty to|| supposed, ruling the men of his own time, he never God and man; for though there be some precepts could have been called Lord by persons who died of temperance which we owe to ourselves, yet are before he was born; far less would so mighty a king they such as we may be moved to perform from as David, who also was his progenitor, have called the true love of God and of our neighbour; whom him Lord. Wherefore, since he rules over, not the || f we truly love we cannot be wanting in them. || vulgar dead only of former ages, but even over the For the love of God will make us humble and con- kings from whom he was himself descended, and tented with our lot; it will preserve us from all his kingdom comprehends the men of all countries Intemperance, impatience, and unholy desires; it and times, past, present, and to come, the doctors, will make us watchful over ourselves, that we may if they had thought accurately upon the subject, keep a good conscience, and solicitous for our eter- should have expected in their Messiah a king differnal welfare. And the love of our neighbour will ent from all other kings whatever. Besides, he is free us from all angry passions, envy, malice, re- to sit at God's right hand till his enemies are made venge, and other unkind tempers: so that both taken the footstool of his feet; made thoroughly subject together will introduce into us the whole mind that unto him. Numbers of Christ's enemies are subwas in Christ, and cause us to walk as he walked. jected to him in this life; and they who will not bow Verses 41-46. While the Pharisees were gath- to him willingly, shall, like the rebellious subjects ered, &c.-That is, during this conference, expect- of other kingdoms, be reduced by punishment. ing to have found an opportunity to insnare him, as Being constituted universal judge, all, whether he was still teaching the people in the temple; Jesus friends or enemies, shall appear before his tribunal, asked them—“The Pharisees, having in the course where, by the highest exercise of kingly power, he of our Lord's ministry proposed many difficult shall doom each to his unchangeable state." And questions to him, with a view to try his prophetical no man was able to answer him a word—None of gifts, he, in his turn, now that a body of them was them could offer the least shadow of a solution to gathered together, thought fit to make trial of their the difficulty which he had proposed. Neither skill in the sacred writings. For this purpose he || durst any man ask him any more questions—“The publicly asked their opinion of a difficulty concern- || repeated proofs which he had given of the prodiing the Messiah's pedigree, arising from Psa. cx.: gious depth of his understanding, had impressed What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? them with such an opinion of his wisdom, that they Whose son do you expect the Messiah to be, who judged it impossible to insnare him in his discourse. was promised to the fathers? They say unto him, For which reason they left off attempting it, and The son of David-This was the common title of from that day forth troubled him no more with their the Messiah in that day, which the scribes taught insidious questions."-Macknight. || || Jesus warns the people against ST. MATTHEW. the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. CHAPTER XXIII. In the preceding chapter we had an account of several discourses of Christ with the scribes and Pharisees; here we have his discourse concerning them. (1,) He allows their office, 2, 3. (2,) He warns his disciples against imitating their hypocrisy and pride, 4–12. (3,) He denounces divers woes on them for their blindness, hypocrisy, and iniquity, 13–33. (4,) He passes sentence upon Jerusalem, and foretels the destruction of the city and temple, especially for the sin of persecution, 34-39. bath, by which they made that day a burden, which was designed to be a joy and delight: but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers— They press upon the people a strictness in religion which they themselves will not be bound by, but secretly transgress their own traditions, which they || publicly enforce. Verses 1-3. Then spake Jesus to the multitude-witness their many additions to the law of the sabLeaving all converse with his adversaries; whom he now gave up to the hardness of their hearts. The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat-Or, chair—That is, read and expound the law of Moses, and are the appointed teachers of the people. The Jewish doctors, as is well known, always taught sitting. The name Pharisees being the appellation of a sect, it cannot be supposed that our Lord meant Verses 5-7. All their works they do to be seen of to say of all the party that they sat in Moses's chair. || men-They have the praise of men in view in all Such a character was applicable to none but the their actions. Hence they are constant and abunddoctors of the sect; for which reason we must sup- ant in those duties of religion which come under pose that the name scribes and Pharisees is a the observation of men; but with respect to those Hebraism for the Pharisean scribes. All there- that are of a more spiritual nature, and lie between fore they bid you observe, &c.—That is, all that they || God and their own souls, or should be performed in read out of the law, and enforce on the manifest the retirements of their closets, they desire to be authority thereof, that observe and do-Readily and excused. As the mere form of godliness will procheerfully: "All," says Theophylact, "that they cure them a name to live, which is all they aim at; require, εκ των Μοσεως βιβλων, απο τ8 Θε8 νόμοs, from the they therefore trouble not themselves about the law of God out of the books of Moses." An inter- power of it, which is essential to being alive indeed. pretation which must be allowed of. Because Christ They make broad their phylacteries-The Jews elsewhere requires his disciples to beware of the || understanding those words literally, It shall be as a leaven, that is, the doctrine, of the scribes and Pha- || token upon thy hand, and as frontlets between thine risees; because they taught for doctrines the com- eyes, (Exod. xiii. 16;) And thou shalt bind these mandments of men, and by their traditions made words for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be void the law of God; and were blind leaders of the as frontlets between thine eyes, (Deut. vi. 8,) used to blind. But do not ye after their works-By no wear little scrolls of paper or parchment bound on means imitate their practices; for they say and do their wrists and foreheads, on which several texts not—They give many precepts to their disciples, || of Scripture were written. These they supposed, which they do not perform themselves. As we as a kind of charm, would preserve them from danmust not receive corrupt doctrines for the sake of ger. And hence they seemed to have been called any laudable practices of those that teach them; so|| phylacteries, or preservatives. See the notes on we must not imitate bad examples for the sake of these passages. And enlarge the borders (or fringes) the plausible doctrines of those that give them. of their garments-Which God had enjoined them to wear, to remind them of doing all the commandments, Num. xv. 38. These, as well as their phylacteries, the Pharisees affected to wear broader and larger than other men. And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, &c.—In which guests of the first quality were used to sit; and the chief seats in the Verse 4. For they bind heavy burdens-Not only insisting upon the most minute circumstances of the ceremonial law, called a yoke, Acts xv. 10; and|| pressing the observation of them with more strictness and severity than God himself did; but by adding to his word, and imposing their own inven 10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is sees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom your Master, even Christ. g James iii. 1; 2 Cor. i. 24; 1 Pet. v. 3.———h Mal. i. 6. i Chap. xx. 26, 27. of heaven against men: for ye neither go in k Job xxii. 29; Prov. xv. 33; xxix. 23; Luke xiv. 11; xviii. 14; James iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5. Luke xi. 52. as these, the ambitious seeking of them, and glorying in them; 2d, that authority and dominion over the consciences of men, which the Pharisaical doctors had usurped; telling the people that they ought to believe all their doctrines, and practise all their injunctions, as the commands of the living God. synagogues—“There showing their pride, where || your Master, even Christ—The infallible instructer they ought to have taught others humility."-Theo- and guide of his church in all matters of faith and phylact. And greetings, or salutations, in the practice; commissioned by his Father to reveal his markets-And other places of common concourse. || will, and teach all that is needful to be known, beAnd to be called of men, Rabbi, rabbi-A title of lieved, or done, in order to salvation; whose apostles honour, which they were fond of having repeated even were only to be regarded as his ministers and at every sentence. "The word rabbi properly sig- || ambassadors, and only to be credited because, by nifies great, and was prefixed to the names of those their gifts and miraculous powers derived from him, doctors who had rendered themselves remarkable they manifested that they taught men those things by the extent of their learning, or who were the || which he had commanded, and by his Spirit had reauthors of new schemes in divinity; heads of sects, vealed to them. Thus our Lord, the more effectwhose fame had gained them many followers. Thisually to enforce this warning against an unlimited title the Jewish doctors were particularly fond of, || veneration for the judgments and decisions of men, because it was a high compliment paid to their un- as a most important lesson, puts it in a variety of derstanding, gave them vast authority with their lights, and prohibits them from regarding any man disciples, and made them look big in the eyes of the|| with an implicit and blind partiality as teacher, faworld. It was the very next thing to infallible." ther, or guide. Upon the whole, the things forbidVerses 8-10. Be not ye called rabbi-Do not af- || den are, 1st, a vain-glorious affectation of such titles fect those titles of reverence and respect which give || too much honour or authority to man. The Jewish doctors were called rabbis, fathers, and masters, by their several disciples, whom they required both || to believe implicitly what they affirmed, without asking any further reason, and to obey unreservedly what they enjoined, without seeking for any further Verses 11, 12. But he that is greatest among you, authority. But our Lord here teaches his apostles, &c.-If any one among you would in reality be and their successors in the ministry of the gospel, || greater than another, let him be the more condethat they were to be very different from these Jew- scending, kind, and ready cheerfully to serve others ish teachers. They were to decline being called in love. The words may either imply, 1st, a promise rabbi, because the thing signified by the term be- that such should be accounted greatest, and stand longed solely to their Master, in whom the whole || highest in the favour of God, who should be most treasures of divine knowledge and wisdom are hid; || humble, submissive, and serviceable: or, 2d, a preand who, for that reason, is the only infallible teacher || cept enjoining the person who should be advanced of his church; and also, because they owed none of to any place of dignity, trust, or honour in the their knowledge to themselves, but derived it en-church, to consider himself as peculiarly called tirely from him, in which respect they were all || thereby, not to be a lord, but a minister, and to serve brethren, and on a level. And they were to call no || others in love. Thus Paul, who knew his privilege man father upon earth-To consider no man as the as well as duty, though free from all, yet made father of their religion, that is, the founder, author, || himself servant of all, 1 Cor. ix. 19. And our Lord or director of it; to look up to no man with the re- || frequently pressed it upon his disciples to be humble verence wherewith a child should regard a father, or so as to yield an absolute subjection to his will and pleasure, or be absolutely swayed and governed thereby; because one was their Father who is in heaven, the source, as of their being, so of all their blessings, and especially of their religion; the fountain and founder of it; the life and Lord of it. Our Lord adds, Neither be ye called masters-Gr. KaonAnrai, leaders, or guides. That is, of the judgments and consciences of men, because, says he, one is and self-denying, mild and condescending, and to abound in all the offices of Christian love, though mean, and to the meanest; and of this he set a continual example. Whosoever shall exalt himself, shall be humbled, &c.—It is observable that no one sentence of our Lord's is so often repeated as this: it occurs with scarcely any variation at least ten times in the evangelists. Verses 13-15. But wo to you, scribes, &c.—Our Lord pronounced eight blessings upon the mount |