C 10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? 11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. c Matt. xi. 14; Mark ix. 11. future glory. The conversation which Moses and Elias held with him respecting his death teaches us, that in this subject the glorified saints felt an eminent interest. That they should thus discourse on his death to encourage him to undergo it, is a most improbable conjecture; he needed no counsel or solace from them; but from his lips they might learn more of the mystery of that event which occupied the attention of the celestial world, more than of its manner, and reasons, and effects, than had hitherto been made known even to them; and thus we are reminded, that Christ crucified is the grand life-giving theme, both to the saints in heaven, and those on earth, and will indeed continue to be to all eternity. A sensible demonstration was also given, in the real appearance of the two men who had for so many ages ceased to be inhabitants of this world, of the immortality of the soul. The presence of Moses proved also, that betwixt death, and the resurrection from the dead, the disembodied spirit exists in a state of consciousness and vigour; and, as to the righteous, in a state of glory and felicity. Elijah's body had been taken up to heaven; but he also appeared in "glory," by which the great transforming change, which shall pass upon the bodies of the righteous, at their resurrection, was declared; of which the transfiguration of Christ himself was an additional emblem; for after his glorious body shall the vile body" of believers be finally fashioned." See note on Luke ix. 31. Verse 10. That Elias must first come? -This question appears to have been suggested by what had just occurred. The three disciples had seen Elias, but in glory, and as a transient visitant, and this they knew was not what the scribes meant by his coming; but that he should ap 46 66 pear publicly, in order to fulfil his prophetic office, before the manifestation of the Messiah. And as they grounded this expectation upon the express words of Malachi, the disciples very naturally felt the difficulty, and applied to Christ to solve it. Verse 11. Elias shall first come.— e.-It is a mistake to suppose that our Lord declares, that there should be a coming of Elias subsequent to the time in which he spoke. The verb indeed is in the present tense: "Elias first cometh: " and though it is said that the present is used for the future, to accord with the verb in the next clause, yet there is as much reason to assume that, there, the future is used for the present. The fact is, that our Lord here speaks only by concession; he allows that the interpretation of the scribes was just, that Elias should come before the Messiah, "and restore all things;" but then he immediately adds, that Elias is come already; and that the Elias spoken of by the prophet Malachi was John the Baptist, and not Elijah the Tishbite. And restore all things. -The word amоkabiornμ has two significations, to restore, and to complete. It is here to be taken in the latter sense: "Elias truly shall first come, and shall complete all things;" that is, all things predicted of him by the prophets. Thus John the Baptist became the herald of Messiah; he prepared the way of the Lord; he preached repentance and reformation, with great effect, and completed the succession of divine dispensations which were to precede that of Messiah. "And shall RESTORE all things," as Campbell well observes, "is, to say the least, a very indefinite expression. This remark must be extended to the verbal noun αποκατ ταστατις, which when similarly circumstanced ought to be rendered completion, 12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. d 14 ¶ And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, 15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. 16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse d Mark ix. 17; Luke ix. 38. or accomplishment, not restoration, or restitution, as in Acts iii. 21.” Our translators have followed the Vulgate; but the Syriac and Persic versions have the clause, "and shall complete all things." Verse 12. And they knew him not.That is, they did not acknowledge him as the Elias of prophecy, or as the herald of Messiah. Verse 14. Kneeling down to him.—That is, he fell down at his knees, embracing them, a peculiarly earnest mode of supplication, mentioned both by Homer and Virgil. The word is yovuñetwv, and this advolutio ad genua, as Grotius has shown, is to be distinguished from in genua procumbens, or kneeling. Verse 15. He is a lunatic.—Zeλŋviagerai, he is moon-struck, not insane, but epileptic, which disease was thought to be greatly influenced by the moon as well as mad mean time the father of this afflicted child, finding their master absent, had made application to the disciples to cure him, and they were not able; which was probably a matter of malignant exultation to the scribes who were present. Whether they attempted it and failed, or were afraid to make the attempt, does not appear; probably the latter. A difficulty here arises which has not always been satisfactorily solved. "Why," it may be asked, “since Christ had given power to the twelve to cast out unclean spirits, and they had formerly found the devils subject to them through the name of Christ,' could they not cast out this demon, and restore the child?" The true answer appears to be, that that fulness of miraculous power with which they were before invested had reference to the special mission on which they were sent; and when that was terminated, although they were not deprived of it, yet the case before them being one of a very formidable description, the youth being grievously torn and tormented, that specific act of faith which appears to have been required in every particular case here failed them; and that probably, because during the absence of Christ they had not been engaged, like him and the three apostles with him, in special acts of fasting and prayer. Verse 17. O faithless and perverse gene generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. 18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of and the child was cured from that very hour. him 19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. e Luke xvii. 6. ration, &c.—If this reproof were addressed to the disciples, the terms of it must be taken in a milder and more limited sense than that in which they are employed by our Lord when he reproves the Jews at large: but still, in the mildest sense, it would imply that the disciples had not, during Christ's absence, been giving themselves up to prayer; and that their faith had become languid; nay, that a degree of positive unbelief as to being able, even in the name of their Master, to cure so desperate a case as that before them, had invaded their minds; for with "unbelief" they are charged, verse 20. But, without supposing the disciples blameless, or not to be comprehended in the general rebuke in the degree in which it was applicable to them, it is reasonably supposed by most interpreters, that the reproof was addressed to all present, and especially to the scribes, who had probably mocked at the inability of the disciples to effect a cure in the name of their Master; although they themselves had seen or heard of innumerable instances of his power over both natural diseases, and those which were supernaturally inflicted. An occasion was thus afforded them for the discovery of their utter faithlessness and perversity of mind; and these ill qualities had been strongly manifested by the manner in which they laid hold upon it to detract from the power of Christ's trious display of Christ's power, which followed, confounded and humbled them before the people. For the evil spirit was permitted to put forth all his power when the youth was brought to Christ: "Straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming:" and when the devil was commanded to come out, he "cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him; and the child was as one dead, insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and he arose." Mark ix. 26, &c. Thus every thing was permitted to manifest the more strikingly the fierceness and obstinacy of the possession, and the saving might of Christ, and the more forcibly to abash the gainsaying scribes, whose exultation, like that of "the hypocrite, was but for a moment." Verse 20. Your unbelief.-Your want of entire RELIANCE on my almighty power, and on my absolute faithfulness. A grain of mustard seed.—Which, as before said, is the smallest of seeds growing into a tree, and therefore, among the Jews, furnished a common proverb to express a small quantity of any thing. This faith is usually called by divines, "the faith of miracles ;" and has been said to be a supernatural persuasion given to a man, that God will effect some particular supernatural work by him, in that very moment. In the present age, so far removed from those times when those supernatural gifts were imparted, the sub 21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. ject is necessarily obscure, and was perhaps left without further explanation because of the intended temporary duration of miraculous powers. That a faith with out charity might exist which should remove mountains, that is, effect things really impossible to mere human power, and which therefore commanded an adequate exertion of the divine energy to produce the result, we learn from St. Paul, who appears to have had this text in his thoughts from his reference to the removing of "mountains." But this faith, though it might not be saving to the individual, differed from saving faith only as it was directed to a different object. Faith, in both cases, does not mean mere credence given to some truth proposed; but trust or reliance. Faith is saving when it is the trust of a heart, broken and contrite on account of sin, in the great atonement, which is the only object of saving faith; so the faith by which miracles were wrought by the disciples of Christ, was also trust or reliance, but its object was the name or power of Christ, and this undoubtedly some persons appear to have possessed, who had not the faith which placed them in a state of salvation. The majority of those who were endued with miraculous powers were no doubt pious persons, but they were bestowed upon some who, though not wholly without incipient signs of grace, never gave themselves up fully to the sanctifying influence of Christ's religion; and they remained with others after much spiritual declension, as not being necessarily connected with the state of the heart, or of that faith, the actings of which, being directed to Christ as the SAVIOUR, draws life and salvation from him. It is thus that the distinction may be clearly made between the faith which saves, and the faith which wrought miracles; and it appears to have been sufficiently well understood in apostolic times that the possession of the latter was not in itself a sufficient indication of Christian character, and that the effect which fol lowed put no honour upon the individual Faith, And nothing shall be impossible to you.— Nothing necessary to give testimony to the doctrine you are commissioned to teach, to afford you greater facilities for promoting the salvation of men; and to illustrate the mercy and charity of your religion. The promise was limited by the nature of the case, and the commission they had received. "It is not faith," says Mr. Baxter, "but presumption, which hath no promise of success, if they or any are confident of working any miracle which Christ never commissioned or called them to work, or promised his blessing to.” Verse 21. This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.—Our Lord does not here probably mean that different kinds of demons inflict different species of diseases, and that because of a difference of a kind, they are more easy or more difficult to expel; but that when a possession by any demon took place, which, as in this instance, presented very fearful signs of rage and torment, even an ordinary faith would give way to doubt, under the 22 And while they abode in Galileee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: 23 And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry. 24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? f Matt. xx. 17; Mark ix. 31; Luke ix. 44. * Called in the original, didrachma, being in value fifteen pence. impression of the difficulty of the case, unless supported and invigorated by that spiritual habit of mind which is nourished by special and frequent acts of fasting and earnest prayer. It does not therefore follow from this, as some have supposed, that the disciples had cast out any devils without fasting and prayer, for these were the habits of all pious Jews; but that it required a more than ordinary attention to these duties to maintain that loftiness of faith which should not give place under the impressions naturally made upon the mind by the more formidable displays of Satanic agency. This verse is wanting in the Vatican and a few other мss. and versions, but is contained in others of great authority; and all have it in Mark ix. 29: so that of its genuineness, as a part of holy writ, there can be no doubt. Verse 22. And while they abode in GaliΙερ.-Αναστρεφομενων must here be translated, passed through, for they were on their way back through Galilee to Caper naum. Betrayed.-Delivered up; the word not signifying treachery; προδιδοναι is to betray. Verse 23. And they were exceeding sorry. -They did not as yet comprehend the connexion of our Lord's death with his glory, and the establishment of his kingdom; and as for his resurrection from the dead, St. Mark says, they "questioned with one another what the rising from the dead should mean;" probably, how it should be necessary for him to die if he was so soon to return to life again; and why he could not as well establish his kingdom now he was still alive, without being brought to life again, or whether he spoke figuratively only on this subject. Great was the obscurity of their minds; but it is to be remembered that our Lord simply stated that he should die and rise again, without entering into any explanation of the reasons. They that received tribute-money. – οι τα δίδραχμα λαμβανοντες, those that col. lected the didrachmas, one being paid by each individual. The Attic drachma was the fourth part of a shekel, and the didrachma half a shekel, which sum was paid annually for the service of the temple, by every Israelite, excepting women, children, and servants, and that throughout the world. The value of the half shekel was about fifteen pence of our money. This temple-tribute was voluntary, though still expected of every one; and is not to be confounded with the Roman tribute or poll-tax, which was paid in Roman money, and was of course, as laid upon a conquered people, compulsory. The persons collecting the templetribute were not publicans or the receivers of the civil taxes, but the servants of the temple, the aroσToλo, sent out by the priests for that purpose. Doth not your master pay tribute?— Tа didpaxua the didrachma; that is, the half-shekel contribution? The ques tion is sufficiently in proof that this was not a Roman tax, for which demand would have been made without any such inquiry. But as this was vo a |