And so it must have seemed to Peter, in his ignorance, quite a stretch of charity to extend forgiveness to seven, instead of three offences. It did not occur to him, that the very act of numbering offences marked an externalism which had never entered into, nor comprehended the spirit of Christ. Until seven times? Nay, until seventy times seven! [3825] The evident purport of these words was to efface all such landmarks. Peter had yet to learn, what we, alas! too often forget: that as Christ's forgiveness, so that of the Christian, must not be computed by numbers. It is qualitative, not quantitative: Christ forgives sin, not sins - and he who has experienced it, follows in His footsteps. [3826] __________________________________________________________________
[3743] The expression in St. Matthew abode, but a temporary stay - a going to (xvii. 22) does not imply permanent abode, but a temporary stay - a going to and fro.
[3744] St. Mark.
[3745] According to Neh. x. 32, immediately after the return from Babylon the contribution was a third of a shekel - probably on account of the poverty of the people.
[3746] Comp. 2 Kings xii. 4; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6; Neh. x. 32.
[3747] But only one Alexandrian (comp. LXX. Gen. xxiii. 15; Josh. vii. 21).
[3748] Could there have been an intended, or - what would be still more striking - an unintended, but very real irony in this, when Judas afterwards cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple (St. Matt. xxvii. 5)?
[3749] Sheq. iii. 3.
[3750] Sheq. iii. 4.
[3751] Yoma 64 a.
[3752] Dean Plumptre is mistaken in comparing, as regarded the Sadducees, the Temple-rate with the Church-rate question. There is no analogy between them, nor did the Sadducees ever question its propriety. The Dean is also in error in supposing, that the Palestinians were wont to bring it at one of the other feasts.
[3753] The penalty of distraint had only been enacted less than a century before (about 78), during the reign of Queen Salome-Alexandra, who was entirely in the hands of the Pharisees.
[3754] Sheqal. vi. 5.
[3755] Yoma 55 b.
[3756] Ps. ii. 4.
[3757] Jos. War vii. 6. 6.
[3758] See Book III. ch. xxxi.
[3759] If it were not for the authority of Wieseler, who supports it, the suggestion would scarcely deserve serious notice, that the reference here is not to the Temple-tribute, but to the Roman polltax o census. Irrespective of the question whether a census was then levied in Galilee, the latter is designated both in St. Matt. xvii. 25, and in xxii. 17, as well as in St. Mark xii. 14, as knsos, while here the well-known expression didrachma is used.
[3760] The Revised Version renders it by: spake first.' But the word (prophthno) does not bear this meaning in any of the fifteen passages in the LXX., where it corresponds to the Hebrew Qiddem, and means to anticipate' or to prevent' in the archaic sense of that word.
[3761] In Succ. 30 a, we read a parable of a king who paid toll, and being asked the reason, replied that travellers were to learn by his example not to seek to withdraw themselves from paying all dues.
[3762] Shabb. 119 a, lines 20 &c. from top.
[3763] In the Midrash: On the eve of the great fast' (the Day of Atonement). But from the connection it is evidently intended to apply to the distinction to be put on the Sabbath-meal.
[3764] Ber. R. 11 on Gen. ii. 3.
[3765] St. Mark ix. 34.
[3766] St. Matt. xviii. 1.
[3767] St. Matt. xvii. 23; St. Mark ix. 31.
[3768] St. Mark ix. 42-50.
[3769] St. Matt. xviii. 15, 21.
[3770] St. Mark ix. 38.
[3771] St. Matt. xviii. 21.
[3772] Taan. iii. 8; comp. especially Jer. Taan. 67 a.
[3773] The almost blasphemous story of how Choni or Onias, the circle-drawer,' drew a circle around him, and refused to leave it till God had sent rain - and successively objected to too little and too much, stands by no means alone. Jer. Taan. 67 a gives some very painful details about this power of even altering the decrees of God.