Matthew 4

Mt 4:1-11.

TEMPTATION OF

CHRIST.

Mr 1:12, 13;

Lu 4:1-13).

1. Then--an indefinite note of sequence. But Mark's word

(Mr 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

(Lu 4:1).

was Jesus led up--that is, from the low Jordan valley to some more

elevated spot.

of the Spirit--that blessed 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, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan,

and was led," &c. Mark's expression has a startling sharpness about

it--"Immediately the Spirit driveth Him"

(Mr 1:12),

"putteth," or "hurrieth Him forth," or "impelleth Him." (See the same

word in

Mr 1:43; 5:40;

Mt 9:25; 13:52;

Joh 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 own

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--"an almost

perpendicular wall of rock twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the

plain" [ROBINSON, Palestine]. The supposition of those who incline

to place the temptation amongst the mountains of Moab is, we think, very

improbable.

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,

Ge 22:1,

"It came to pass that God did tempt Abraham," or put his faith to a

severe proof. (See

De 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"

(Mt 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. The unworthy inference which

some would draw from this is energetically repelled by an apostle

(Jas 1:13-17).

of the devil--The word signifies a slanderer--one who casts

imputations upon another. Hence that other name given him

(Re 12:10),

"The accuser of the brethren, who accuseth them before our God day and

night." Mark

(Mr 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. What was

the high design of this? First, as we judge, to give our Lord a taste

of what lay before Him in the work He had undertaken; next, to make

trial of the glorious equipment for it which He had just received;

further, to give Him encouragement, by the victory now to be won, to go

forward spoiling principalities and powers, until at length He should

make a show of them openly, triumphing over them in His cross: that the

tempter, too, might get a taste, at the very outset, of the new kind of

material in man which he would find he had here to deal with;

finally, that He might acquire experimental ability "to succor them

that are tempted"

(Heb 2:18).

The temptation evidently embraced two stages: the one continuing

throughout the forty days' fast; the other, at the conclusion of that

period.

FIRST

STAGE:

2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights--Luke says

"When they were quite ended"

(Lu 4:2).

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. So it was apparently with Moses

(Ex 34:28)

and Elijah

(1Ki 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 on

Ac 9:9).

Had we only this Gospel, we should suppose the temptation did not begin

till after this. But it is clear, from Mark's statement, that "He was

in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan"

(Mr 1:13),

and Luke's, "being forty days tempted of the devil"

(Lu 4:2),

that there was a forty days' temptation before the three

specific temptations afterwards recorded. And this is what we have

called the First Stage. What the precise nature and object of the forty

days' temptation were is not recorded. But two things seem plain

enough. First, the tempter had utterly failed of his object, else it

had not been renewed; and the terms in which he opens his second attack

imply as much. But further, the tempter's whole object during the forty

days evidently was to get Him to distrust the heavenly testimony borne

to Him at His baptism as

THE

SON OF

GOD--to persuade Him to regard it as but a splendid

illusion--and, generally, to dislodge from His breast the consciousness

of His Sonship. With what plausibility the events of His previous

history from the beginning would be urged upon Him in support of this

temptation it is easy to imagine. And it makes much in support of this

view of the forty days' temptation that the particulars of it are not

recorded; for how the details of such a purely internal struggle could

be recorded it is hard to see. If this be correct, how naturally does

the SECOND

STAGE of the temptation open! In Mark's brief notice of the

temptation there is one expressive particular not given either by

Matthew or by Luke--that "He was with the wild beasts"

(Mr 1:12),

no doubt to add terror to solitude, and aggravate the horrors of the

whole scene.

3. And when the tempter came to him--Evidently we have here a new

scene.

he said, if thou be the Son of God, 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

(Lu 4:3).

The sensation of hunger, unfelt during all the forty days, 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; "Thou still clingest

to that vainglorious confidence that Thou art the Son of God, carried

away by those illusory scenes at the Jordan. Thou wast born in a

stable; but Thou art the Son of God! hurried off to Egypt for fear of

Herod's wrath; but Thou art the Son of God! a carpenter's roof supplied

Thee with a home, and in the obscurity of a despicable town of Galilee

Thou hast spent thirty years, yet still Thou art the Son of God! and a

voice from heaven, it seems, proclaimed it in Thine ears at the Jordan!

Be it so; but after that, surely Thy days of obscurity and trial

should have an end. Why linger for weeks in this desert, wandering

among the wild beasts and craggy rocks, unhonored, unattended,

unpitied, ready to starve for want of the necessaries of life? Is this

befitting "the Son of God?" At the bidding of "the Son of God" surely

those stones shall all be turned into loaves, and in a moment present

an abundant repast."

4. But he answered and said, It is written--

(De 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 Old Testament Scripture, none could have been pitched upon

more apposite, perhaps not one so apposite, to our Lord's purpose. "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," &c., "Now, if Israel spent, not forty days, but forty

years in a waste, howling wilderness, where there were no means of human

subsistence, not starving, but divinely provided for, on purpose 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, am I, distrusting this word of God, and despairing of relief, to

take the law into My own hand? True, the Son of God is able enough to

turn stones into bread: but what the Son of God is able to do is not the

present question, but what is man's duty under want of the

necessaries of life. And as Israel's condition in the wilderness did not

justify their unbelieving murmurings and frequent desperation, so

neither would Mine warrant the exercise of the power of the Son of God

in snatching despairingly at unwarranted relief. As man, therefore, I

will await divine supply, nothing doubting that at the fitting time it

will arrive." The second temptation in this Gospel is in Luke's the

third. That Matthew's order is the right one will appear, we think,

quite clearly in the sequel.

5. Then the devil taketh him up--rather, "conducteth Him."

into the holy city--so called (as in

Isa 48:2;

Ne 11:1)

from its being "the city of the Great King," the seat of the temple,

the metropolis of all Jewish worship.

and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple--rather, "the pinnacle"--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 Kedron, 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.

6. And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God--As this temptation

starts with the same point as the first--our Lord's determination not to

be disputed out of His Sonship--it seems to us clear that the one came

directly after the other; and as the remaining temptation shows that the

hope of carrying that point was abandoned, and all was staked upon a

desperate venture, we think that remaining temptation is thus shown to

be the last; as will appear still more when we come to it.

cast thyself down--"from hence"

(Lu 4:9).

for it is written--

(Ps 91:11, 12).

"But what is this I see?" exclaims stately BISHOP

HALL. "Satan himself with a Bible under his arm

and a text in his mouth!" 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

(2Co 11:14).

He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands--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 and

the Septuagint, save 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," that is, 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 be inserted or not.

7. Jesus said unto him, It is written again--

(De 6:16),

as if he should say, "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: shall I then create danger, either to put the

promised security skeptically to the proof, or wantonly to demand a

display of it? That were 'to tempt the Lord my God,' which, being

expressly forbidden, would forfeit the right to expect preservation."

8. Again, the devil taketh him up--"conducteth him," as before.

into--or "unto"

an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the

world, and the glory of them--Luke

(Lu 4:5)

adds the important clause, "in a moment of time"; a clause which 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 the

most extensive scene which the natural eye could take in, is to give a

sense to the expression, "all the kingdoms of the world," quite

violent. 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

(Lu 4:6).

But Matthew having already said that this was "showed Him," did not

need to repeat it here. Luke

(Lu 4:6)

adds these other very important clauses, here omitted--"for that is,"

or "has been," "delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it."

Was this wholly false? That were not like Satan's unusual policy, which

is to insinuate his lies under cover of some truth. What truth, then,

is there here? We answer, Is not Satan thrice called by our Lord

Himself, "the prince of this world"

(Joh 12:31; 14:30; 16:11)?

Does not the apostle call him "the god of this world"

(2Co 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, and his power to surround death

to them, when it comes, with all the terrors of the wages of sin. But

as this is a real and terrible sway, so all Scripture represents men as

righteously sold under it. In this sense he speaks what is not devoid of

truth, when he says, "All this is delivered unto me." But how does he

deliver this "to whomsoever he will?" 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 ends.

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

counsellor, but calls him by his right name--His knowledge of which from

the outset He had carefully concealed till now--and orders him off. This

is the final and conclusive evidence, as we think, that Matthew's must

be the right order of the temptations. For who can well conceive of the

tempter's returning to the assault after this, in the pious character

again, and hoping still to dislodge the consciousness of His Sonship,

while our Lord must in that case be supposed to quote Scripture to one

He had called the devil to his face--thus throwing His pearls before

worse than swine?

for it is written--

(De 6:13).

Thus does our Lord part with Satan on the rock of Scripture.

Thou shalt worship--In the Hebrew and the Septuagint it is,

"Thou shalt 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

New Testament, as we find it here. Once more the word "only," in the

second clause--not expressed in the Hebrew and the Septuagint--is

here added to bring out emphatically the negative and prohibitory

feature of the command. (See

Ga 3:10

for a similar supplement of the word "all" in a quotation from

De 27:26).

11. Then the devil leaveth him--Luke says, "And when the devil had

exhausted"--or "quite ended," as in

Lu 4:2

--"every (mode of) temptation, he departed from him till a season." The

definite "season" here indicated is expressly referred to by our Lord

in

Joh 14:30

and Lu 22:52, 53.

and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him--or supplied Him with

food, as the same expression means in

Mr 1:31

and Lu 8:3.

Thus did angels to Elijah

(1Ki 19:5-8).

Excellent critics think that they ministered, not food only, but

supernatural support and cheer also. But this would be the natural

effect rather than the direct object of the visit, which

was plainly what we have expressed. 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! What "angels' food" would this repast be to Him! and as He

partook of it, might not a Voice from heaven be heard again, by any who

could read the Father's mind, "Said I not well, This is my beloved Son,

in whom I am well pleased?"

Mt 4:12-25.

CHRIST

BEGINS

HIS

GALILEAN

MINISTRY--CALLING OF

PETER AND

ANDREW,

JAMES AND

JOHN--HIS

FIRST

GALILEAN

CIRCUIT.

Mr 1:14-20, 35-39;

Lu 4:14, 15).

There is here a notable gap in the history, which but for the fourth

Gospel we should never have discovered. From the former Gospels we

should have been apt to draw three inferences, which from the fourth one

we know to be erroneous: 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 out of it, and

never visited Jerusalem at all nor kept a passover till He went thither

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 which 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 off, 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

[Ecclesiastical History, 3.24] that John wrote his Gospel at the

entreaty of those who knew the important materials he possessed, and

filled up what is wanting in the first three Gospels. Why it was

reserved for the fourth Gospel, published at so late a period, to supply

such important particulars in the life of Christ, it is not easy to

conjecture with any probability. It may be, that though not

unacquainted with the general facts, they were not furnished with

reliable details. But one thing may be affirmed with tolerable

certainty, that as our Lord's teaching at Jerusalem was of a depth and

grandeur scarcely so well adapted to the prevailing character of the

first three Gospels, but altogether congenial to the fourth; and as the

bare mention of the successive passovers, without any account of the

transactions and discourses they gave rise to, would have served little

purpose in the first three Gospels, there may have been no way of

preserving the unity and consistency of each Gospel, so as to furnish by

means of them all the precious information we get from them, save by the

plan on which they are actually constructed.

Entry into Galilee

(Mt 4:12-17).

12. Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison--more

simply, "was delivered up," as recorded in

Mt 14:3-5;

Mr 6:17-20;

Lu 3:19, 20.

he departed--rather, "withdrew."

into Galilee--as recorded, in its proper place,

in

Joh 4:1-3.

13. And leaving Nazareth--The prevalent opinion is that this refers

to a first visit to Nazareth after His baptism, whose details are

given by Luke

(Lu 4:16,

&c.); a second visit being that detailed by our Evangelist

(Mt 13:54-58),

and by Mark

(Mr 6:1-6).

But to us there seem all but insuperable difficulties in the

supposition of two visits to Nazareth after His baptism; and on the

grounds stated in

Lu 4:16,

&c., we think that the one only visit to Nazareth is that

recorded by Matthew

(Mt 13:53-58),

Mark

(Mr 6:1-6),

and Luke

(Lu 4:14-30).

But how, in that case, are we to take the word

"leaving Nazareth" here? We answer, just as the same word is used in

Ac 21:3,

"Now when we had sighted Cyprus, and left it on the left, we

sailed into Syria,"--that is, without entering Cyprus at all, but

merely "sighting" it, as the nautical phrase is, they steered southeast

of it, leaving it on the northwest. So here, what we understand the

Evangelist to say is, that Jesus, on His return to Galilee, did not, as

might have been expected, make Nazareth the place of His stated

residence, but, "leaving [or passing by] Nazareth,"

he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the

seacoast--maritime Capernaum, on the northwest shore of the Sea of

Galilee; but the precise spot is unknown. (See on

Mt 11:23).

Our Lord seems to have chosen it for several reasons. Four or five of

the Twelve lived there; it had a considerable and mixed population,

securing some freedom from that intense bigotry which even to this day

characterizes all places where Jews in large numbers dwell nearly

alone; it was centrical, 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 high reason

for the choice of Capernaum remains to be mentioned, the only one

specified by our Evangelist.

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.

14. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the

prophet--

(Isa 9:1, 2

or, as in Hebrew, Isaiah 8:23, and 9:1).

saying--as follows:

15. 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

got 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, as STANLEY says, were separated

from the world by the Jordan valley on one side and the hostile

Philistines on another, the northern tribes were in the direct highway

of all the invaders from the north, in unbroken communication with the

promiscuous races who have always occupied the heights of Lebanon, and

in close and peaceful alliance with the most commercial nation of the

ancient world, the Phœnicians. 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 transportation of the Jewish

population, Naphtali and Galilee suffered the same fate as the

trans-jordanic tribes before Ephraim or Judah had been molested

(2Ki 15:29).

In the time of the Christian era this original disadvantage of their

position was still felt; the speech of the Galileans "bewrayed them" by

its uncouth pronunciation

(Mt 26:73);

and their distance from the seats of government and civilization at

Jerusalem and Cæsarea gave them their character for turbulence or

independence, according as 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 commences with the seventh chapter of

Isaiah, to which the sixth chapter is introductory, and goes down to the

end of the twelfth chapter, which hymns the spirit of that whole strain

of prophecy. 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 burden of this prophetic strain, on to

the passage here quoted? First, Judah shall not, cannot 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 fulfilment, He will drive to

confusion, darkness, and despair the vast multitude of the nation who

despised His oracles, and, in their anxiety and distress, betook

themselves to the lying oracles of the heathen. This carries us down to

the end of the eighth chapter. 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 the eleventh

chapter and the choral hymn of the twelfth chapter. Well, this is the

point seized on by our Evangelist. By Messiah's taking up His abode in

those very regions of Galilee, and shedding His glorious light upon

them, this prediction, He says, of the Evangelical prophet was now

fulfilled; and if it was not thus fulfilled, we may confidently affirm

it was not fulfilled in any age of the Jewish ceremony, and has received

no fulfilment at all. Even the most rationalistic critics have

difficulty in explaining it in any other way.

17. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent; for the

kingdom of heaven is at hand--Thus did our Lord not only take up the

strain, but give forth the identical summons of His honored forerunner.

Our Lord sometimes speaks of the new kingdom as already come--in His own

Person and ministry; but the economy of it was only "at hand" until

the blood of the cross was shed, and the Spirit on the day of Pentecost

opened the fountain for sin and for uncleanness to the world at large.

Calling of Peter and Andrew James and John

(Mt 4:18-22).

18. And Jesus, walking--The word "Jesus" here appears not to belong

to the text, but to have been introduced from those portions of it which

were transcribed to be used as church lessons; where it was naturally

introduced as a connecting word at the commencement of a lesson.

his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers--"called

Peter" for the reason mentioned in

Mt 16:18.

19. And he saith unto them, Follow me--rather, as the same expression

is rendered in Mark, "Come ye after Me"

(Mr 1:17).

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 feeding

(Ps 78:70-72).

20. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

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.

with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and he called them.

22. And they immediately left the ship and their father--Mark adds

an important clause: "They left their father Zebedee in the ship with

the hired servants"

(Mr 1:20);

showing that the family were in easy circumstances.

and followed him--Two harmonistic questions here arise: First,

Was this the same calling as that recorded in

Joh 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 on

Joh 1:40),

goes and fetches Peter his brother to Christ, who then calls him. (4)

Here, John is called along with James his brother: there, John is called

along with Andrew, after having at their own request 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

Lu 5:1-11?

Many able critics think so. But the following considerations are to us

decisive against it. First here, 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 solitary 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 stage of His early ministry, and some popular enthusiasm.

Regarding these successive callings, see on

Lu 5:1.

First Galilean Circuit

(Mt 4:23-25).

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 Babylonish captivity; but as they began to be erected

soon after it, probably the idea was suggested by the religious

inconveniences to which the captives had been subjected. In our Lord's

time, the rule was to have one 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 five hundred. In point

of officers and mode of worship, the Christian congregations are

modelled after the synagogue.

and preaching the gospel of the kingdom--proclaiming the glad tidings

of the kingdom,

and healing all manner of sickness--every disease.

and all manner of disease among the people--every complaint. The word

means any incipient malady causing "softness."

24. And his fame went throughout all Syria--reaching first to the part

of it adjacent to Galilee, called Syro-Phœnicia

(Mr 7:26),

and thence extending far and wide.

and they brought unto him all sick people--all that were ailing or

unwell. Those

that were taken--for this is a distinct class, not an explanation of

the "unwell" class, as our translators understood it.

with divers diseases and torments--that is, acute disorders.

and those which were possessed with devils--that were demonized or

possessed with demons.

and those which were lunatic--moon-struck.

and those that had the palsy--paralytics, a word not naturalized when

our version was made.

and he healed them--These healings were at once 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--a region lying to the east of the Jordan, so called as

containing ten cities, founded and chiefly inhabited by Greek settlers.

and from Jerusalem, and from beyond Jordan--meaning from Perea.

Thus not only was all Palestine upheaved, 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 addressed. On the

importance which our Lord Himself attached to this first preaching

circuit, and the preparation which He made for it, see on

Mr 1:35-39.

CHAPTERS 5-8

SERMON ON THE

MOUNT.

That this is the same Discourse as that in

Lu 6:17-49

--only reported more fully by Matthew, and less fully, as well as with

considerable variation, by Luke--is the opinion of many very able

critics (of the Greek commentators; of CALVIN,

GROTIUS, MALDONATUS--Who

stands almost alone among Romish commentators; and of most moderns, as

THOLUCK, MEYER, DE WETTE, TISCHENDORF, STIER, WIESELER, ROBINSON). The prevailing

opinion of these critics is that Luke's is the original form of the

discourse, to which Matthew has added a number of sayings, uttered on

other occasions, in order to give at one view the great outlines of our

Lord's ethical teaching. But that they are two distinct

discourses--the one delivered about the close of His first

missionary tour, and the other after a second such tour and the solemn

choice of the Twelve--is the judgment of others who have given much

attention to such matters (of most Romish commentators, including

ERASMUS; and among the moderns, of LANGE, GRESWELL, BIRKS, WEBSTER and WILKINSON. The question is left undecided by ALFORD). AUGUSTINE'S opinion--that

they were both delivered on one occasion, Matthew's on the mountain,

and to the disciples; Luke's in the plain, and to the promiscuous

multitude--is so clumsy and artificial as hardly to deserve notice. To

us the weight of argument appears to lie with those who think them two

separate discourses. It seems hard to conceive that Matthew should have

put this discourse before his own calling, if it was not uttered till

long after, and was spoken in his own hearing as one of the newly

chosen Twelve. Add to this, that Matthew introduces his discourse

amidst very definite markings of time, which fix it to our Lord's first

preaching tour; while that of Luke, which is expressly said to have

been delivered immediately after the choice of the Twelve, could not

have been spoken till long after the time noted by Matthew. It is hard,

too, to see how either discourse can well be regarded as the expansion

or contraction of the other. And as it is beyond dispute that our Lord

repeated some of His weightier sayings in different forms, and with

varied applications, it ought not to surprise us that, after the lapse

of perhaps a year--when, having spent a whole night on the hill in

prayer to God, and set the Twelve apart, He found Himself surrounded by

crowds of people, few of whom probably had heard the Sermon on the

Mount, and fewer still remembered much of it--He should go over its

principal points again, with just as much sameness as to show their

enduring gravity, but at the same time with that difference which shows

His exhaustless fertility as the great Prophet of the Church.