《The Pulpit Commentaries–Matthew (Vol. 1)》(Joseph S. Exell)

Contents and the Editors

One of the largest and best-selling homiletical commentary sets of its kind. Directed by editors Joseph Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones, The Pulpit Commentary drew from over 100 authors over a 30 year span to assemble this conservative and trustworthy homiletical commentary set. A favorite of pastors for nearly 100 years, The Pulpit Commentary offers you ideas and insight on "How to Preach It" throughout the entire Bible.

This in-depth commentary brings together three key elements for better preaching:

  • Exposition-with thorough verse-by-verse commentary of every verse in the Bible.
  • Homiletics-with the "framework" or the "big picture" of the text.
  • Homilies-with four to six sermons sample sermons from various authors.

In addition, this set also adds detailed information on biblical customs as well as historical and geographical information, and translations of key Hebrew and Greek words to help you add spice to your sermon.

All in all, The Pulpit Commentary has over 22,000 pages and 95,000 entries from a total of 23 volumes. The go-to commentary for any preacher or teacher of God's Word.
About the Editors

Rev. Joseph S. Exell, M.A., served as the Editor of Clerical World, The Homiletical Quarterly and the Monthly Interpreter. Exell was also the editor for several large commentary sets like The Men of the Bible, The Pulpit Commentary, Preacher's Homiletic Library and The Biblical Illustrator.

Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones was born in London on January 14, 1836. He was educated at Corpus Christi, Cambridge where he received his B.A. in 1864. He was ordered deacon in 1865 and ordained as a priest is the following year. He was professor of English literature and lecturer in Hebrew at St. David's College, Lampeter, Wales from 1865-1870. He was rector of St. Mary-de-Crypt with All Saints and St. Owen, Gloucester from 1870-1877 and principal of Gloucester Theological College 1875-1877. He became vicar and rural dean of St. Pancras, London 1877-1886, and honorary canon since 1875. He was select preacher at Cambridge in 1883,1887,1901, and 1905, and at Oxford in 1892 and 1903. In 1906 he was elected professor of ancient history in the Royal Academy. In theology he is a moderate evangelical. He also edited The Pulpit Commentary (48 vols., London, 1880-97) in collaboration with Rev. J. S. Exell, to which he himself contributed the section on Luke, 2 vols., 1889, and edited and translated the Didache 1885. He passed away in 1917 after authoring numerous individual titles.

00 Introduction

Introduction.

SUMMARY OF INTRODUCTION.

§§ 1.-3. The constituent parts of the First Gospel.
§ 1. The Framework.
§ 2. The Discourses.
§ 3. Matter peculiar to the First Gospel.

§§ 4-9. These represent different sources.
§ 4. The Framework: to whom it may be traced.
§§ 5-7. The Discourses.
§ 5. External evidence fails us.
§§ 6, 7. Internal evidence.
§ 6. Negative: the First Gospel considered in itself. the First Gospel considered in relation to the Third.
§ 7. Positive, especially in re doublets.
§ 8. Matter peculiar to the First Gospel.
§ 9. These sources were probably oral.

§§ 10-15. The authorship of the present Gospel.
§§10, 11. Preliminary inquiry apart from the question of its original language.
§ 10. Internal evidence is purely negative.
§ 11. External evidence.
§§ 12-15. What was the original language of this Gospel?
§ 12. Internal evidence points to a Greek original.
§§ 13, 14. External evidence.
§ 13. A. Probability of the existence of an Aramaic Gospel confirmed by recent investigations.
§ 14. B. Direct external evidence.
§ 15. Solutions.

§ 16. Canonicity.
§ 17. To whom was the Gospel addressed?
§ 18. Place of writing.
§ 19. Time of writing.
§ 20. Life of St. Matthew.
§ 21. The meaning of the phrase, "the kingdom of heaven."
§ 22. Plan of the Gospel.

1. THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF THE FIRST GOSPEL.

THE constituent parts of the First Gospel, as it lies before us, are

(1) the Historical Framework;
(2) the Discourses;
(3) the matter peculiar to this Gospel.

It will be necessary to say a few words about each of these.

§ 1. (1) The Historical Framework. Upon comparing the First with the other two synoptic Gospels it will be seen that there is running through them all a certain outline of common matter, beginning with the baptism of our Lord, and tracing the more important events of his public life until his death and resurrection, omitting, therefore, what preceded the baptism and what followed the resurrection. In character this Framework consists of brief narratives, the connexion between which is not always apparent, and which have for their central point some utterance of the Lord, remark; able for its importance and often also for its brevity. So far as this Framework is recorded in words or parts of words common to the three synoptists, it has been called by the name of "the Triple Tradition;" but it must be noticed that this title is by its originator, Dr. E. A. Abbott, expressly limited to identity of language, and therefore fails to indicate fully the practical identity that often exists even when verbal identity is wanting. (cf. § 4).

§ 2. (2) The Discourses. These are

(a) the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:3-7:27);
(b) the commission to the disciples (Matthew 10:5-42);
(c) respecting John the Baptist (Matthew 11:7-19);
(d) against the Pharisees (Matthew 12:25-45);
(e) parables of the kingdom (Matthew 13:1-52);
(f) discipleship —especially humility, sympathy, and responsibility (Matthew 18.);
(g) parables (Matthew 21:28-22:14);
(h) woes on the Pharisees (Matthew 23.);
(i) the coming of the end (Matthew 24, 25.).

Observe: First, that five of these, viz. a, b, e, f, i, are followed by the formula, "And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words" Of the remaining four, c, d, g are shorter and of less importance than these five, while h is followed so immediately by i that we should hardly expect to find the customary concluding formula.

Secondly, that of these only the following are found in the other Gospels in at all the form of connected discourses, viz. a (vide Luke 6.); b (hardly, but for the first part cf. Luke 10:2-16); e (vide Luke 7:24, sqq.); h (partly in Luke 11.); i.

Thirdly, that although many parts of them are found also in Luke, and slightly in Mark, yet frequently these are recorded in quite a different context, and sometimes the connexion as recorded in Luke seems much more likely to be the original than that recorded in Matthew. Of this the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13; parallel, Luke 11:2-4) is a crucial instance (vide notes, in loc.), and others, almost equally certain, occur in parts of the Great Commission (see notes on Matthew 10:17, 39, 40-42).

§ 3. (3) Matter other than Discourses peculiar to the First Gospel. Of this there are three kinds.

(a) Matter of the same general character as that contained in the Framework (e.g. Matthew 14:28-33; 16:17-19; 17:24-27; 19:10-12; 27:3-10, 62-66; 28:9-20). In close connexion with this may be considered passages of the same character, which are not indeed peculiar to this Gospel, but are found also in either the second (especially Matthew 14:6-12; 14:22-27 [cf. John 6:15-21], 34-36; Matthew 15:1-39; 17:11, 12, 19, 20; 19:1-6; 20:20-23; 21:18, 19; 26:6-13 [cf. John 12:1-11]; 27:27-31) or the third (especially Matthew 4:3-11; 8:5-13, 19-22; 9:32-34 [cf. 12:22-24]).

(b) The opening sections, viz. the genealogy (Matthew 1:1-17) and the narrative of the birth and infancy (Matthew 1:18-2:23).

(c) Other details of our Lord's words and actions, which cannot be classed under a, or remarks which bring out his relation to the Old Testament and Jewish institutions (e.g. Matthew 4:12-16; 21:4, 5, 10, 11).

2. THESE REPRESENT DIFFERENT SOURCES.

§ 4. How it came about that the First Gospel presents these constituent parts — how, that is to say, we must account for the formation of this Gospel, is a question of the greatest possible difficulty. We have so little external information about the origines of the evangelical records that we must form our impressions from internal evidence alone, Hence, not unnaturally, many answers have been given which differ greatly and often contradict each other. I shall content myself with giving that one which seems least exposed to objections.

It is that the three constituent parts represent three sources, the firs& two being entirely external to the author, existing, that is to say, before he composed our Gospel, and the third being partly of the same kind, aria partly due, as it would seem, to him alone.

(1) The Historical Framework. If the Triple Tradition be followed as it is marked in Rushbrooke's 'Synopticon', it will be seen to begin with the message delivered by John the Baptist in the wilderness, then to mention the baptism and the temptation, and after that to go on to the call of Simon and another, and of James and John the sons of Zebedee, by Jesus as he passed along by the flea of Galilee. Then, after speaking of the astonishment caused by the teaching of Jesus, it relates his entrance into the house and his healing the mother-in-law [of Simon]; and then it speaks of others also coming to him and being healed, Jesus afterwards preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. We need not trace the narrative further, but it is pertinent to ask in whose recollection these events would stand out most prominently, and to answer that the original narrator was probably one of those four to whom the call to follow Jesus made no great a difference. But not only so; the choice is limited from another consideration, for such signs of an eye-witness as exist in the Triple Tradition point still more definitely in the same direction. What, indeed, are signs of an eye-witness it is often not easy to decide, but among theme may be placed (still following, for convenience, the order in the 'Synopticon') Mark 1:41, "stretched forth his hand;" Mark 2:3, "bringing... a paralytic;" Mark 2:14, "[Levi] arose and followed him;" Mark 2:23, "going through the corn-fields;" Mark 4:39, "he arose and rebuked the wind..; and there was a calm;" Mark 5:40, "and they laughed him to scorn;" Mark 5:41, "he took the hand; ' Mark 9:7, "a cloud overshadowed them... a voice out of the cloud;" Mark 10:22, the grief of the young man; Mark 10:46, "a blind man sat by the wayside;" Mark 10:52, "he received his night, and followed him;" Mark 14:45, 47, the kiss of Judas, and the cutting off the ear of the high priest's servant with a sword; Mark 15:30, 31, the jeer, "Save thyself," and the high priest's mockery; Mark 15:37, Jesus crying with a loud voice at the moment of death.

Most of these marks of an eye-witness give us no further help towards discovering the original narrator than by showing us that he must have been among the twelve, but according to two of them he must have been among those three, viz. Peter, James, and John, who were with our Lord both in Jairus' house (Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51) and at the Transfiguration. But of these three apostles there is no reason for preferring fit. James (though the fact of his early death is not a great difficulty), and the style and character of St. John's writing is so well known to us from the Fourth Gospel, his Epistles, and the Apocalypse, that it is impossible to attribute the Triple Tradition to him. But fit. Peter suits the phenomena in every way. He was present on all the occasions, including perhaps (John 1:41) that of the testimony of the Baptist; and no one is more likely to have recorded his words at the Transfiguration, or the words addressed to him at his denial of his Master, than himself. Fully in accordance with this is the fact that that Gospel (Mark)which keeps most exclusively to the Triple Tradition, and which most often supplements it by further undoubted signs of an eye-witness, is the one which has from the time of Papias onward been attributed specially to the influence of St. Peter. Although, therefore, it is not a matter that admits of absolute demonstration, yet it may be concluded with comparative certainty that the first and chief basis of the First Gospel, what I have called the Historical Framework, is derived ultimately from this apostle.

(2) The Discourses. This second source is much more the subject of present controversy than the first, it being very hard to determine whether the existing discourses represent a distinct source used by the composer of the First Gospel, or are merely his own arrangement of certain sayings of the Lord found by him in various connexions.

§ 5. It must be frankly confessed that we get no assistance upon this subject from external evidence. It has been supposed, indeed, that Papias alludes to such a collection of the Lord's utterances both in the very name of his work ( λογιì<sup>ων Κυριακῶν ̓Εξη</sup>ì<sup>γησις</sup>) and in his statement that "Matthew composed ταÌ <sup>λο</sup>ì<sup>γνα</sup> in the Hebrew tongue" (Eusebius, 'Ch. Hist.,' 3:39) ; but Bishop Lightfoot has demonstrated that λοì<sup>για</sup> is equivalent to "Divine oracles," and that these are not to be limited to sayings only, but include just such narratives as we have in the Gospel generally. Thus the word is used of the Old Testament Scriptures in Romans 3:2, without any hint of limitation to sayings, and again in the same way in Hebrews 5:12, where such a limitation is excluded by the author of that epistle eliciting the Divine teaching quite as much from the history as from the direct precepts of the Old Testament. So again it is found in Philo and in Clement of Rome with the same wide reference, narratives being treated as part of the Divine oracles as well as sayings. When, therefore, we find Polycarp speaking of "the oracles of the Lord" ( ταÌ <sup>λο</sup>ì<sup>για τοῦ Κυρι</sup>ì<sup>ου</sup>), or Irenaeus, immediately after having used a similar term ( ταÌ <sup>Κυριακα</sup>Ì <sup>λο</sup>ì<sup>για</sup>), referring to the healing of the daughter of Jairus, it is natural to consider that neither of them intended (as some have supposed them to have done) to limit the application of the word to our Lord's sayings in contrast to his works. From the consideration of these and other arguments brought forward by Bishop Lightfoot, it seems clear that Papias used the term in the same way as we might use the word "oracles" at the present day, viz. as equivalent to the Scriptures. His book may well have been composed with reference to our present Gospels, and the volume which he says St. Matthew wrote may have been (so far as this one word is concerned) that which we now know by the apostle's name.

§ 6. Compelled, then, as we are, to reject all fictitious aid from external evidence, since this has been misunderstood, it is the more necessary to inquire into the internal evidence afforded by the First Gospel itself and into the evidence afforded by its relation to the Third Gospel.

In some respects, indeed, the evidence continues to be unfavourable to the view put forward above, that the Discourses existed as a separate work before the writing of our First Gospel. For, first, it might fairly be expected that, if the Discourses were already distinct, they would show traces of this original distinction in their difference of language and style. So no doubt they do to some extent, but not to a greater degree than can be accounted for by the fact that they are discourses, and, as such, deal with matters different from those contained in the Framework, and treat them, naturally, in a different way. Indeed, the wonder is, if they represent real speeches by the Lord — if, that is to say, they are reproductions of sustained argument by him — that they do not show more divergence from the type of the short, pointed remarks common in the Framework. Observe, also, that the quotations in the Discourses from the Old Testament generally agree with those of the Framework in Being taken from the LXX. (contrast infra, § 12). This points to both Discourses and Framework being formed at much the same time and among congregations of similar culture and acquirements.

Secondly, a similar negative result is obtained by comparing the discourses found in the First Gospel with those that are found in the Third. It has been already pointed out (§ 2) that some are found in the latter, but not in their entirety, and that detached portions are also found sometimes in a context that gives the impression of more originality than that in which St. Matthew embeds them. Do we see that St. Luke knew of a collection of Discourses such as has been supposed above? The answer is purely negative. We see separate discourses, and these so far varying in language from those in Matthew as to make it clear that they had had a history before being recorded by either St. Luke or St. Matthew, but there is no sign of these discourses being collected together. Certainly, if they were, St. Luke did not regard their arrangement. Dr. Salmon, indeed, goes as far as to say that a comparison of St. Luke's order in narrating our Lord's sayings "gives the deathblow" to the theory of a collection of Discourses. St. Luke, however, may have had many reasons for not adopting a particular order. If, for instance, he was acquainted both with such a collection and also with narratives containing the utterances in more historical connexion, there seems no reason why he should have preferred the former to the latter. His aim was not that of the author of the First Gospel, to present clearly Before his readers the Lord Jesus as a Teacher, to bring out his relation to the religion of the day, but much more to exhibit him as the Saviour of the world; and for this purpose narratives of his actions and records of his other teaching bringing out the universality of his love would be more effective. St. Luke's object, so far as we are in a position to argue on a priori grounds from the nature of his second treatise (and apart from the actual state of his first), was to show how fitted the gospel of Christ was to Become the religion of the whole world. The idea of universality running through the Acts and the Third Gospel is a reason of no little weight why we should suppose that the author should have deliberately rejected the arrangement of the collection of Discourses, even if this lay before him. For in the form in which they are found in the First Gospel they would not have suited his purpose. It is true that St. Luke did not refuse to follow the general order of the Framework, but this was probably in the main chronological, and even if it had not Been so this would not affect him, but the Discourses must have Been (ex hypothesi) summaries of our Lord's teaching upon different subjects, made from the Judaeo-Christian standpoint. St. Luke's use, therefore, of the Framework in such a way as to keep the order of it weighs little as an argument for the conclusion that he would have observed the order of the collection of Discourses if he had known of such a collection.