(Stdferat is, however, usually taken as Passive in Mt 1112 ('suffereth violence,' AV and RV ; 'is gotten by force,' AVm ; vim patitur, Vulg. ; /Staiojy KpareiTai, Hesychius). The image may be taken from the storming of a city or from forcing an entrance through an opposing army : the word is used in Thucyd. Hist. vii. 70, 72, oHhe Athenian fleet forcing its Avay out of Syracuse (/Sidfeo-^at rbv ^KTr\ovv), and in Xen. Hell. V. ii. 23, of cities forced into a union (7r6Xets ras ^e^iaa/iii^as).
The further question now arises, From Avhom does the violence proceed ? and three answers are ))ossible : (1) from true disciples, (2) from other aspirants, (3) from enemies, e.g. the scribes and
S04
VIOLENCE
VIRGIN BIRTH
Pharisees. If the last be adopted, the meaning will then be, ' the kingdom of heaven is violently resisted, is crushed, and violent men tear it to pieces.' So Dalman explains the passage (see below), and similarly Hilgenfeld in Mt. ('is violently crushetl '), but he would render in Lk. ' every man is constrained by the gospel,' taking ^id^erai as Pass- ive). This,ho\vever,is partly an anachronism, for the imprisonment of John hardly justifies such strong language, and is partly forbidden by the connexion with v.^^ and with what goes before (see Meyer's note). ' Non est h. 1. querela de vi mala, nam querela incipit versu 16' (Bengel). 'The subject is not the resistance made to the kingdom of heaven, but the di..erence between a prophesied and a present kingdom of heaven ' (Afford). The second answer is based on the supposition that Jesus here meant to rebuke a wrong method, not to commend a right one, and expressed disapproval of the violence of those who, misled by the free invitations of the gospel, were inclined to force an entrance, disregarding the requirements of the Law. In its favour it may be urged that this explanation admirably suits the difficult context of Lk 16^* and the use of :ras, ' every man entereth violently into it. ' Jesus shows in v.^''*- that ' the same orderly methods were to obtain in the Kingdom as under the Law ; so much so that the Law itself might be said to be maintained in every detail. The Gospel was not a release from, but a deepening and widening and spiritualizing of the Law's requirements' (Canon Bindley, who advocates this view in a paper entitled ' The Method of the Christ,' Expos. Times, Feb. 1905).
The hrst answer, however, is preferred by most commentators, viz. that the /Siaorat are the dis- ciples who seek a share in the Heavenly Kingdom with ardent zeal and intensest exertions, 'who strive to obtain its privileges with the utmost eagerness and effort' (Grimm - Thayer), 'men of violence' (RV; there is no art. in the Greek), violent men' (Wycl.), 'they that go to it with violence' (Tind.), 'the violent' (AV, Cran., Gen., Rhem.), Trdi/res ol fiera cnrovdTJs wpoaiovTes (Chrys. ). Like the publicans and sinners, like Zacchseus, they take the Kingdom by force, they drag it to them- selves {apwd^ovcrL, cf. Jn 6^^), they clutch at it like spoils and make it their own, 'ut raptim, celerrima vi, perruptis obstaculis, ad se redigant bonum in medio positum ' (Bengel). This explanation agrees best w^ith Pindar's use of the similar word ^mtcls, which has always a good sense (Meyer), ^ mighty, strong,' and closely corresponds to Luke's ttSs els airriv pid^erai., 'entereth violently into it' (RV), ' vi ingruitpia' (Bengel) ; ' presseth into it' (AV) is too weak. The hindrances are like a hostile army round a city which must be broken through with force ; the same strenuous effort is required which is commanded in such passages as 'strive (dyiiii'i- ^eade) to enter in by the narrow door' (Lk 13^^), 'ask, seek, and knock' (Mt 7^), 'fight the good fight of the faith ' {dyoovi^ov, 1 Ti &\ ' so run that ye may attain' (1 Co G^**), 'contend earnestly for the faith' [iTraywi^eadai, Jude^'). 'Every man' (ttcis) is perhaps emphatic, showing that the Phari- sees and the scribes nuist no longer look on the Kingdom as the exclusive jjossession of their nation or class ; it was open to all nations, and inight be entered by even the lowest men, though it Avould appear from tlie warning of the following verses that not all would seek it in the right spirit. ' Jesus uses this strong figurative expression _ of violence and seizure, -svhich in their peculiar meaning were applied to the unjust, forcible appropriation of others' goods, not because He finds the point of analogy in the injustice and violence, as if men could appropriate a share in the Kingdom of God in opposition to the Divine will, but because He
sought to lay stress upon the necessity of urgent energetic laying hold of a good to which they can make no claim. It is of no avail in regard to the Kingdom of God to wait idly, as in other cases men may take a waiting attitude in regard to a gift ; nor does it avail to seek laboriously to earn it : but it does avail energetically to lay hold of and to retain it. It is ready as a gift of God for men, but men must direct their desire and will towards it ' (Wendt, The Teaching of Jesus, ii. 49, Eng. tr. ). It is possible, however, to take the M'ords as a description rather than as a commenda- tion of the disciples, and to find in them a reference to those earthly ideas of the Messianic Kingdom which even the Apostles held until the day of the Ascension (cf. Ac 1").