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* So Neander, Meyer, Kuin6l, Feine, H. Weiss, H. Holtzman B, Weiss, and others. Tholuck and Achelis regard v.12 as € traneous material in the Sermon, holding that it was probak the closing epitome of some other discourse ; similarly Godd But in Luke also the verse is given in the Sermon, which together with the fact that logically it is entirely suitak thereto—makes a strong presumptive case that this was i historical connexion. The position in the Sermon which 4
verse has received in Luke (631, as though it stood at Mt instead of 712) is preferred by Bleek, Wendt, and Bacon, bz such a displacement in the Matthewan account is not likely.
t In Mt 71. 2a=Lk 637 we find a similar difference to that _ Mt 62=Lk 114, the Lukan form avoiding the measure f| measure idea which can be read into the Matthean word! although both accounts strikingly agree in reporting the stat ment, ‘ With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured un* you’ (Mt 72b=Lk 688b, cf, also Mk 424), a mode of treatme? which can be predicated of God only in a qualitative sense, n< quantitatively, Lk 637 is in an expanded form, containing thre clauses in synonymous parallelism, for the purpose of emphasis Mt 71-28 produces the emphasis, but in a somewhat differe way. But Lk 688 is surely an extraneous element in the Luka account, an authentic and valuable teaching of Jesus regardi generosity coming from some other occasion than the Sermo The figurative illustration of the particle in the eye, Mt 73-5 Lk 641f., is given in almost complete verbal agreement by tk two reports (see them quoted above, under i. 3). Foreign alg to the Sermon is Lk 69.40, The first verse has its parallel i Mt 1514, which is probably its true context, referring to th Pharisees ; the second verse has a partial parallel in Mt 10! (cf. Jn 1316), and seems logically related there, but the sayin may also have been spoken at some other time more in f) Lukan form. With this teaching of Jesus about judgment m: be compared Hillel’s saying, ‘Judge not thy neighbour un thou comest into his place.’
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7 treatment of himself by God.*
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SERMON ON THE MOUNT
messes, limitations, failures, and transgressions, } such as will keep a man humble, make him sym- s pathetic for others, ready to overlook their faults, (and to see their virtues. The duty of the Christian
is to measure himself against the standard which oChrist has set, and to judge himself severely with
peaiget to his shortcomings, instead of making his
Meudorreligious ideas and practices the criterion by sub; 714 he judges and condemns others. A man to lgsed\ypocrite’ (v.°) when, professing a desire to thirease goodness in the world, he assumes a cen- Lukious attitude towards the faults of others rather (6%-1n undertakes the improvement of himself first. (see the background of this teaching stands the not ]1d, self-righteous Pharisee, with his odious to thempt for all who were less punctilious than that self (cf. Mt 234 %f 27) Tk 199-14, Jn 747-9), of this does not mean, of course, that the character gardeconduct of men should never be matter of accowism by their fellows; this would be to remove betwef the most important aids to uprightness in be ducical experience. In the affairs of life it often digest 1e8 necessary for us to judge others, both teachitely and publicly. Jesus recognizes this fact germ:| He says also in this same discourse, ‘By the tij fruits ye shall know them’ (76, ef. Mt 184-27), from the teaching, ‘ Judge not that ye be not judged,’ anxivains to that unloving, critical attitude of mind diff’. heart which picks out and magnifies the faults, jn, «lures, and inconsistencies of others. This is not 4 oe spirit of human brotherhood, and the man who ¢has it cannot himself anticipate a loving, forgiving It is not that God deals with men on a guid pro quo basis—that is not to be understood here any more than in the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer (see above). But the man who does not come to love his fellow-men, and to treat them accordingly, can have no place in a heavenly Kingdom where love is supreme, and where ultimately it will be per- fectly realized.
Mt 7° presents a saying which is found only in this Gospel, and which stands in the Sermon only as a result of the compiling process.}+ It enjoins prudence and good judgment in the dissemination of the Gospel. Truth is sacred, and it must be carefully dealt with. There are wrong times as well as right times for trying to assist others re- ligiously. The Gospel is to be offered only to the receptive, under suitable circumstances, else it will receive rebuff and indignity at unappreciative hands. The dogs and the swine, in the East the most despised of animals (cf. Mt 156, Lk 15%", Ph 3?, 2 P 2"), are used here to typify those men, whether Gentiles or Jews, who are devoted wholly to material things, and are indifferent to the higher spiritual realm for which God created them. The parallelism in this verse is for no other purpose than to make the teaching im- pressive, a literary method of which the Sermon contains numerous instances.
*It was thought by Augustine, Fritzsche, Kuin6l, and de Wette, that the return judgment of which this passage speaks is rendered by men, 7.¢. other men will judge you and measure back to you exactly as you judge and measure. This, however, can hardly be the meaning: it rather refers to the judgment of God upon men, both in the future Day of Judgment and in His present treatment of them; so the modern commentators generally. : ;