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THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
MATTHEW
Commentary by DAVID BROWN
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CHAPTER 10
@Mt
10:1-5. MISSION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. ( = @Mr
6:7-13 Lu 9:1-6).
The last three verses of the ninth chapter form the proper
introduction to the Mission of the Twelve, as is evident
from the remarkable fact that the Mission of the Seventy
was prefaced by the very same words. (See on Lu
10:2).
1. And when he had called unto him his twelve
disciples, he gave them power--The word signifies both
"power," and "authority" or
"right." Even if it were not evident that here
both ideas are included, we find both words expressly used
in the parallel passage of Luke (@Lu
9:1)--"He gave them power and authority"--in
other words, He both qualified and authorized them.
against--or
"over."
2. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these--The
other Evangelists enumerate the twelve in immediate
connection with their appointment (@Mr
3:13-19 Lu 6:13-16). But our Evangelist, not intending
to record the appointment, but only the Mission of the
Twelve, gives their names here. And as in the Acts (@Ac
1:13) we have a list of the Eleven who met daily in
the upper room with the other disciples after their
Master's ascension until the day of Pentecost, we have
four catalogues in all for comparison.
The first, Simon, who is
called Peter--(See on Joh
1:42).
and Andrew his brother;
James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother--named
after James, as the younger of the two.
3. Philip and Bartholomew--That this person is the
same with "Nathanael of Cana in Galilee" is
justly concluded for the three following reasons: First,
because Bartholomew is not so properly an individual's
name as a family surname; next, because not only in this
list, but in Mark's and Luke's (@Mr
3:18 Lu 6:14), he follows the name of
"Philip," who was the instrument of bringing
Nathanael first to Jesus (@Joh
1:45); and again, when our Lord, after His
resurrection, appeared at the Sea of Tiberias, "Nathanael
of Cana in Galilee" is mentioned along with six
others, all of them apostles, as being present (@Joh
21:2).
Matthew the publican--In
none of the four lists of the Twelve is this apostle so
branded but in his own, as if he would have all to know
how deep a debtor he had been to his Lord. (See on Mt
1:3; Mt
9:9).
James the son of
Alphaeus--the same person apparently who is called
Cleopas or Clopas (@Lu
24:18 Joh 19:25); and, as he was the husband of Mary,
sister to the Virgin, James the Less must have been our
Lord's cousin.
and Lebbaeus, whose
surname was Thaddaeus--the same, without doubt, as
"Judas the brother of James," mentioned in both
the lists of Luke (@Lu
6:16 Ac 1:13), while no one of the name of Lebbaeus or
Thaddaeus is so. It is he who in John (@Joh
14:22) is sweetly called "Judas, not
Iscariot." That he was the author of the Catholic
Epistle of "Jude," and not "the Lord's
brother" (@Mt
13:55), unless these be the same, is most likely.
4. Simon the Canaanite--rather "Kananite,"
but better still, "the Zealot," as he is called
in @Lu
6:15, where the original term should not have been
retained as in our version ("Simon, called Zelotes"),
but rendered "Simon, called the Zealot." The
word "Kananite" is just the Aramaic, or
Syro-Chaldaic, term for "Zealot." Probably
before his acquaintance with Jesus, he belonged to the
sect of the Zealots, who bound themselves, as a sort of
voluntary ecclesiastical police, to see that the law was
not broken with impunity.
and Judas Iscariot--that
is, Judas of Kerioth, a town of Judah (@Jos
15:25); so called to distinguish him from "Judas
the brother of James" (@Lu
6:16).
who also betrayed him--a
note of infamy attached to his name in all the catalogues
of the Twelve.
@Mt
10:5-42. THE TWELVE RECEIVE THEIR INSTRUCTIONS.
This directory divides itself into three distinct parts.
The first part (@Mt
10:5-15) contains directions for the brief and
temporary mission on which they were now going forth, with
respect to the places they were to go to, the works they
were to do, the message they were to bear, and the manner
in which they were to conduct themselves. The second part
(@Mt
10:16-23) contains directions of no such limited and
temporary nature, but opens out into the permanent
exercise of the Gospel ministry. The third part (@Mt
10:24-42) is of wider application still, reaching not
only to the ministry of the Gospel in every age, but to
the service of Christ in the widest sense. It is a strong
confirmation of this threefold division, that each part
closes with the words, "VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU"
(@Mt
10:15,23,42).
Directions for the Present Mission (@Mt
10:5-15).
5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them,
saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any
city of the Samaritans enter ye not--The Samaritans
were Gentiles by blood; but being the descendants of those
whom the king of Assyria had transported from the East to
supply the place of the ten tribes carried captive, they
had adopted the religion of the Jews, though with
admixtures of their own: and, as the nearest neighbors of
the Jews, they occupied a place intermediate between them
and the Gentiles. Accordingly, when this prohibition was
to be taken off, on the effusion of the Spirit at
Pentecost, the apostles were told that they should be
Christ's witnesses first "in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea," then "in Samaria," and lastly,
"unto the uttermost part of the earth" (@Ac
1:8).
6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel--Until Christ's death, which broke down the
middle wall of Partition (@Eph
2:14), the Gospel commission was to the Jews only,
who, though the visible people of God, were "lost
sheep," not merely in the sense which all sinners are
(@Isa
53:6 1Pe 2:25; compare with @Lu
19:10), but as abandoned and left to wander from the
right way by faithless shepherds (@Jer
50:6,17 Eze 34:2-6, &c.).
7. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is at hand--(See on Mt
3:2).
8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead,
cast out devils--(The italicizedd clause--"raise
the dead"--is wanting in many manuscripts). Here we
have the first communication of supernatural power by
Christ Himself to His followers--thus anticipating the
gifts of Pentecost. And right royally does He dispense it.
freely ye have received,
freely give--Divine saying, divinely said! (Compare @De
15:10,11 Ac 3:6)--an apple of gold in a setting of
silver (@Pr
25:11). It reminds us of that other golden saying of
our Lord, rescued from oblivion by Paul, "It is more
blessed to give than to receive" (@Ac
20:35). Who can estimate what the world owes to such
sayings, and with what beautiful foliage and rich fruit
such seeds have covered, and will yet cover, this earth!
9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your
purses--"for" your purses; literally,
"your belts," in which they kept their money.
10. Nor scrip for your journey--the bag used by
travellers for holding provisions.
neither two coats--or
tunics, worn next the skin. The meaning is, Take no change
of dress, no additional articles.
neither shoes--that
is change of them.
nor yet staves--The
received text here has "a staff," but our
version follows another reading, "staves," which
is found in the received text of Luke (@Lu
9:3). The true reading, however, evidently is "a
staff"--meaning, that they were not to procure even
that much. expressly for this missionary journey, but to
go with what they had. No doubt it was the
misunderstanding of this that gave rise to the reading
"staves" in so many manuscripts Even if this
reading were genuine, it could not mean "more than
one"; for who, as ALFORD well asks, would think of
taking a spare staff?
for the workman is
worthy of his meat--his "food" or
"maintenance"; a principle which, being
universally recognized in secular affairs, is here
authoritatively applied to the services of the Lord's
workmen, and by Paul repeatedly and touchingly employed in
his appeals to the churches (@Ro
15:27 1Co 9:11 Ga 6:6), and once as
"scripture" (@1Ti
5:18).
11. And into whatsoever city or town--town or
village.
ye shall enter inquire--carefully.
who in it is worthy--or
"meet" to entertain such messengers; not in
point of rank, of course, but of congenial disposition.
and there abide till ye
go thence--not shifting about, as if discontented, but
returning the welcome given with a courteous, contented,
accommodating disposition.
12. And when ye come into an house--or "the
house," but it means not the worthy house, but the
house ye first enter, to try if it be worthy.
salute it--show it
the usual civilities.
13. And if the house be worthy--showing this by
giving you a welcome.
let your peace come upon
it--This is best explained by the injunction to the
Seventy, "And into whatsoever house ye enter, first
say, Peace be to this house" (@Lu
10:5). This was the ancient salutation of the East,
and it prevails to this day. But from the lips of Christ
and His messengers, it means something far higher, both in
the gift and the giving of it, than in the current
salutation. (See on Joh
14:27).
but if it be not worthy,
let your peace return to you--If your peace finds a
shut, instead of an open, door in the heart of any
household, take it back to yourselves, who know how to
value it; and it will taste the sweeter to you for having
been offered, even though rejected.
14. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your
words, when ye depart out of that house or city--for
possibly a whole town might not furnish one
"worthy."
shake off the dust of
your feet--"for a testimony against them,"
as Mark and Luke add (@Mr
6:11 Lu 10:11). By this symbolical action they vividly
shook themselves from all connection with such, and all
responsibility for the guilt of rejecting them and their
message. Such symbolical actions were common in ancient
times, even among others than the Jews, as strikingly
appears in Pilate (@Mt
27:24). And even to this day it prevails in the East.
15. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable--more
bearable.
for Sodom and Gomorrah
in the day of judgment, than for that city--Those
Cities of the Plain, which were given to the flames for
their loathsome impurities, shall be treated as less
criminal, we are here taught, than those places which,
though morally respectable, reject the Gospel message and
affront those that bear it.
Directions for the Future and Permanent Exercise of the
Christian Ministry (@Mt
10:16-23).
16. Behold, I send you forth--The "I"
here is emphatic, holding up Himself as the Fountain of
the Gospel ministry, as He is also the Great Burden of it.
as sheep--defenseless.
in the midst of wolves--ready
to make a prey of you (@Joh
10:12). To be left exposed, as sheep to wolves, would
have been startling enough; but that the sheep should be
sent among the wolves would sound strange indeed. No
wonder this announcement begins with the exclamation,
"Behold."
be ye therefore wise as
serpents, and harmless as doves--Wonderful combination
this! Alone, the wisdom of the serpent is mere cunning,
and the harmlessness of the dove little better than
weakness: but in combination, the wisdom of the serpent
would save them from unnecessary exposure to danger; the
harmlessness of the dove, from sinful expedients to escape
it. In the apostolic age of Christianity, how harmoniously
were these qualities displayed! Instead of the fanatical
thirst for martyrdom, to which a later age gave birth,
there was a manly combination of unflinching zeal and calm
discretion, before which nothing was able to stand.
17. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to
the councils--the local courts, used here for civil
magistrates in general.
and they will scourge
you in their synagogues--By this is meant persecution
at the hands of the ecclesiastics.
18. And ye shall be brought before governors--provincial
rulers.
and kings--the
highest tribunals.
for my sake, for a
testimony against them--rather, "to them,"
in order to bear testimony to the truth and its glorious
effects.
and the Gentiles--"to
the Gentiles"; a hint that their message would not
long be confined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
The Acts of the Apostles are the best commentary on these
warnings.
19. But when they deliver you up, take no thought--be
not solicitous or anxious. (See on Mt
6:25).
how or what ye shall
speak--that is, either in what manner ye shall make
your defense, or of what matter it shall consist.
for it shall be given
you in that same hour what ye shall speak--(See @Ex
4:12 Jer 1:7).
20. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your
Father which speaketh in you--How remarkably this has
been verified, the whole history of persecution
thrillingly proclaims--from the Acts of the Apostles to
the latest martyrology.
21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to
death, and the father the child: and the children shall
rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to
death--for example, by lodging information against
them with the authorities. The deep and virulent hostility
of the old nature and life to the new--as of Belial to
Christ--was to issue in awful wrenches of the dearest
ties; and the disciples, in the prospect of their cause
and themselves being launched upon society, are here
prepared for the worst.
22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake--The
universality of this hatred would make it evident to them,
that since it would not be owing to any temporary
excitement, local virulence, or personal prejudice, on the
part of their enemies, so no amount of discretion on their
part, consistent with entire fidelity to the truth, would
avail to stifle that enmity--though it might soften its
violence, and in some cases avert the outward
manifestations of it.
but he that endureth to
the end shall be saved--a great saying, repeated, in
connection with similar warnings, in the prophecy of the
destruction of Jerusalem (@Mt
24:13); and often reiterated by the apostle as a
warning against "drawing back unto perdition" (@Heb
3:6,13 6:4-6 10:23,26-29,38,39, &c.). As
"drawing back unto perdition" is merely the
palpable evidence of the want of "root" from the
first in the Christian profession (@Lu
8:13), so "enduring to the end" is just the
proper evidence of its reality and solidity.
23. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye
into another--"into the other." This, though
applicable to all time, and exemplified by our Lord
Himself once and again, had special reference to the brief
opportunities which Israel was to have of "knowing
the time of His visitations."
for verily I say unto
you--what will startle you, but at the same time show
you the solemnity of your mission, and the need of
economizing the time for it.
Ye shall not have gone
over--Ye shall in nowise have completed.
the cities of Israel,
till the Son of man be come--To understand this--as
LANGE and others do--in the first instance, of Christ's
own peregrinations, as if He had said, "Waste not
your time upon hostile places, for I Myself will be after
you ere your work be over"--seems almost trifling.
"The coming of the Son of man" has a fixed
doctrinal sense, here referring immediately to the crisis
of Israel's history as the visible kingdom of God, when
Christ was to come and judge it; when "the wrath
would come upon it to the uttermost"; and when, on
the ruins of Jerusalem and the old economy, He would
establish His own kingdom. This, in the uniform language
of Scripture, is more immediately "the coming of the
Son of man," "the day of vengeance of our
God" (@Mt
16:28 24:27,34; compare with @Heb
10:25 Jas 5:7-9)--but only as being such a lively
anticipation of His second coming for vengeance and
deliverance. So understood, it is parallel with @Mt
24:14 (on which see).
Directions for the Service of Christ in Its Widest Sense
(@Mt
10:24-42).
24. The disciple is not above his master--teacher.
nor the servant above
his lord--another maxim which our Lord repeats in
various connections (@Lu
6:40 Joh 13:16 15:20).
25. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his
master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called
the master of the house Beelzebub--All the Greek
manuscripts, write "Beelzebul," which
undoubtedly is the right form of this word. The other
reading came in no doubt from the Old Testament "Baalzebub,"
the god of Ekron (@2Ki
1:2), which it was designed to express. As all
idolatry was regarded as devil worship (@Le
17:7 De 32:17 Ps 106:37 1Co 10:20), so there seems to
have been something peculiarly satanic about the worship
of this hateful god, which caused his name to be a synonym
of Satan. Though we nowhere read that our Lord was
actually called "Beelzebul," He was charged with
being in league with Satan under that hateful name (@Mt
12:24,26), and more than once Himself was charged with
"having a devil" or "demon" (@Mr
3:30 Joh 7:20 8:48). Here it is used to denote the
most opprobrious language which could be applied by one to
another.
how much more shall they
call them of his household--"the inmates."
Three relations in which Christ stands to His people are
here mentioned: He is their Teacher--they His disciples;
He is their Lord--they His servants; He is the Master of
the household--they its inmates. In all these relations,
He says here, He and they are so bound up together that
they cannot look to fare better than He, and should think
it enough if they fare no worse.
26. Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing
covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall
not be known--that is, There is no use, and no need,
of concealing anything; right and wrong, truth and error,
are about to come into open and deadly collision; and the
day is coming when all hidden things shall be disclosed,
everything seen as it is, and every one have his due (@1Co
4:5).
27. What I tell you in darkness--in the privacy of
a teaching for which men are not yet ripe.
that speak ye in the
light--for when ye go forth all will be ready.
and what ye hear in the
ear, that preach ye upon the housetops--Give free and
fearless utterance to all that I have taught you while yet
with you. Objection: But this may cost us our life?
Answer: It may, but there their power ends:
28. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul--In @Lu
12:4, "and after that have no more that they can
do."
but rather fear him--In
Luke (@Lu
12:5) this is peculiarly solemn, "I will forewarn
you whom ye shall fear," even Him
which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell--A decisive proof this that
there is a hell for the body as well as the soul in the
eternal world; in other words, that the torment that
awaits the lost will have elements of suffering adapted to
the material as well as the spiritual part of our nature,
both of which, we are assured, will exist for ever. In the
corresponding warning contained in Luke (@Lu
12:4), Jesus calls His disciples "My
friends," as if He had felt that such sufferings
constituted a bond of peculiar tenderness between Him and
them.
29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?--In
Luke (@Lu
12:6) it is "five sparrows for two
farthings"; so that, if the purchaser took two
farthings' worth, he got one in addition--of such small
value were they.
and one of them shall
not fall on the ground--exhausted or killed
without your Father--"Not
one of them is forgotten before God," as it is in
Luke (@Lu
12:6).
30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered--See
@Lu
21:18 (and compare for the language @1Sa
14:45 Ac 27:34).
31. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than
many sparrows--Was ever language of such simplicity
felt to carry such weight as this does? But here lies much
of the charm and power of our Lord's teaching.
32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men--despising
the shame.
him will I confess also
before my Father which is in heaven--I will not be
ashamed of him, but will own him before the most august of
all assemblies.
33. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I
also deny before my Father which is in heaven--before
that same assembly: "He shall have from Me his own
treatment of Me on the earth." (But see on Mt
16:27).
34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I
came not to send peace, but a sword--strife, discord,
conflict; deadly opposition between eternally hostile
principles, penetrating into and rending asunder the
dearest ties.
35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--(See on Lu
12:51).
36. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household--This
saying, which is quoted, as is the whole verse, from @Mic
7:6, is but an extension of the Psalmist's complaint
(@Ps
41:9 55:12-14), which had its most affecting
illustration in the treason of Judas against our Lord
Himself (@Joh
13:18 Mt 26:48-50). Hence would arise the necessity of
a choice between Christ and the nearest relations, which
would put them to the severest test.
37. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is
not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more
than me, is not worthy of me--(Compare @De
33:9). As the preference of the one would, in the case
supposed, necessitate the abandonment of the other, our
Lord here, with a sublime, yet awful self-respect, asserts
His own claims to supreme affection.
38. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth
after me, is not worthy of me--a saying which our Lord
once and again emphatically reiterates (@Mt
16:24 Lu 9:23 14:27). We have become so accustomed to
this expression--"taking up one's cross"--in the
sense of "being prepared for trials in general for
Christ's sake," that we are apt to lose sight of its
primary and proper sense here--"a preparedness to go
forth even to crucifixion," as when our Lord had to
bear His own cross on His way to Calvary--a saying the
more remarkable as our Lord had not as yet given a hint
that He would die this death, nor was crucifixion a Jewish
mode of capital punishment.
39. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that
loseth his life for my sake shall find it--another of
those pregnant sayings which our Lord so often reiterates
(@Mt
16:25 Lu 17:33 Joh 12:25). The pith of such
paradoxical maxims depends on the double sense attached to
the word "life"--a lower and a higher, the
natural and the spiritual, the temporal and eternal. An
entire sacrifice of the lower, with all its relationships
and interests--or, a willingness to make it which is the
same thing--is indispensable to the preservation of the
higher life; and he who cannot bring himself to surrender
the one for the sake of the other shall eventually lose
both.
40. He that receiveth you--entertaineth you,
receiveth me; and he
that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me--As the
treatment which an ambassador receives is understood and
regarded as expressing the light in which he that sends
him is viewed, so, says our Lord here, "Your
authority is Mine, as Mine is My Father's."
41. He that receiveth a prophet--one divinely
commissioned to deliver a message from heaven. Predicting
future events was no necessary part of a prophet's office,
especially as the word is used in the New Testament.
in the name of a prophet--for
his office's sake and love to his master. (See @2Ki
4:9 and see on 2Ki
4:10).
shall receive a
prophet's reward--What an encouragement to those who
are not prophets! (See @Joh
3:5-8).
and he that receiveth a
righteous man in the name of a righteous man--from
sympathy with his character and esteem for himself as such
shall receive a
righteous man's reward--for he must himself have the
seed of righteousness who has any real sympathy with it
and complacency in him who possesses it.
42. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these
little ones--Beautiful epithet! Originally taken from
@Zec
13:7. The reference is to their lowliness in spirit,
their littleness in the eyes of an undiscerning world,
while high in Heaven's esteem.
a cup of cold water only--meaning,
the smallest service.
in the name of a
disciple--or, as it is in Mark (@Mr
9:41), because ye are Christ's: from love to Me, and
to him from his connection with Me.
verily I say unto you,
he shall in no wise lose his reward--There is here a
descending climax--"a prophet," "a
righteous man," "a little one"; signifying
that however low we come down in our services to those
that are Christ's, all that is done for His sake, and that
bears the stamp of love to His blessed name, shall be
divinely appreciated and owned and rewarded.
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