k. The Duty of Righteousness. —Mt 7°" =Lk 68-8 (cf. Lk 13% 2’). The discourse which has set forth the Divine ideal of life, closes with strong exhorta- tion for its attainment. Jesus solemnly enjoins the duty of righteousness. It is a strenuous under- taking, in which men must follow only trustworthy guides. And this righteousness does not consy’ ei”, mere profession, but in actually being and got » what God wills. ~ and !
It must remain a matter of doubt whetlcomie two verses, Mt 7! 4, belonged originally ©. he Sermon. The thought presented by them Naty 10 topical connexion with 7}2, but, on the view t! at 73-27 ig a concluding hortatory section, sucl a relation could not be required ; while this thor zht is entirely suitable to a portion of the disco :rse setting forth the duty of righteousness. The mly serious argument against the Matthzean positi’ n of the verses is that Luke seems to have the 1 in another and an original setting, 13”-*4; perhaps it can be maintained in reply that these passages are not parallel, but belong to different occasions and are rightly placed in each of the Gospels.* Chat the gospel demands are lofty, severe, and exclu- sive, so that to become a member of the Kingdom requires complete self-commitment and an) un- ceasing struggle to attain the ideal, is what J -us teaches in these verses. The ‘small gate’ and’ 4e ‘narrow way’ forcibly express this idea. ‘The figure is perhaps drawn from the Oriental city} \ » which the Kingdom of God is sometimes likeneé (cf. He 11! 12”, Rev 217). The ‘gate’ signifies ¢ one’s entrance into the Kingdom as present, and ‘ the ‘way’ signifies his earnest life thereafter.}, Jesus’ statement that ‘few will find their way into ~ the kingdom’ is perhaps best explained out of the circumstances of His ministry, instead of being taken eschatologically as in Luke.- It would then refer to the small number of real followers whom Jesus had secured as a result of His work—a fact which must have impressed the disciples, and for which they may well have sought an explanation from Him. His reply was thus along the line of His teaching about the growth of the Kingdom (Mt 13), that time was required to achieve numbers and maturity.t The parallel saying in Lk 13"4, which is made by its context (vv.”°) to refer to the number of persons ultimately to be saved, states— not that the whole number will be small, which
‘Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris’; and in Confucius we read, ‘Do not to others what you would not wish done to your- self? (Legge, Chinese Classics, i. 191f.). Other parallels have been collected by Wtinsche and Wetstein. See literature cited in Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers? (1897), p. 142.
* This is the view of Neander, Tholuck, Achelis, and all who defend the unity of Matthew’s discourse ; while Mt 718.14 is regarded as material extraneous to the Sermon by Feine, Godet, B. Weiss, and others. A comparison of the Matthean and Lukan passages shows that Matthew as usual has the longer and more literary form, while Luke gives much the same idea in briefer form and different words. In the former the figures are the ‘vate’ and the ‘way,’ in the latter it is the ‘door.’ The final clause of each passage is strikingly varied: Matthew reads, za? crivos eiocly of eipicxovres wdray, While Luke reads, or: roAAo/, Azyw dui, Surhcovew cicsadery xa obz ioytovcry. According to Luke, the statement was made by Jesus in reply to a specific request from some one, ‘Lord, are they few that be saved?’ and after the close of the Galilzan ministry when Jesus was journeying to Jerusalem. Then what follows in the Lukan account (1325-30) makes this question refer to the Final Judgment. But in Matthew the saying does not appear to be eschatological ; nor does the statement that ‘there are few who find the narrow way’ appear suitable to the Sermon, since at this time Jesus’ ministry was meeting with large success—much more suitable would it have been after the disappointed withdrawal of the Galilean multitude, when in sorrowful isolation and rejection Jesus was going up to Jerusalem for the cross. Luke’s position of the saying may therefore be better than that of the First Gospel, while the original form and intent of the saying may have been better preserved by Matthew.
+ ov is read at the beginning of v.14 by nearly all modern editors and commentators, on the authority of NB and other important witnesses. 7/, which is preferred by Lachmann, Tregelles, Meyer, and Achelis, has strong secondary attestation,
t Similarly Tholuck, Achelis, and others.
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
could not be true on any possible view of Jesus’ teaching or of the world—but that ‘ many will fail.’ If the saying is authentic in this form (it may have become modified when an eschatological meaning was read into it), Jesus is more likely to have intended it as a practical admonition than as an omniscient disclosure of the outcome of the Final Judgment. It is worthy of note that we find in Mt 7** the significant term ¢w% to denote the full, blessed existence which comes to him who does God’s will. This word, so common in the Gospel of John qe 3st. 36 574. 26, 29 627: 33, 35. 51 101 et al.) occurs but rarely in this sense in the Synoptic Gospels (cf. Mt 191°),