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(ch. xiil.): “ Likewise a true teacher, he also is worthy like the workman, of his support... Every first-fruit, then, of the products of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and sheep, thou shalt take and give to the prophets, for they are your high-priests.
If thou makest a baking of bread, take the first of it and give according to the commandment. In like manner, when thou openest a jar of wine or oil, take the first of it and , give to the prophets ; and of money and clothing, and every possession, take the first, as may seem right to thee, and give according to the commandment.”
12, When ye come into (cicepyopevor). The Greek indi- cates more distinctly the simultaneousness of the entrance and the salutation: as ye are entering. Rev., as ye enter. So of the departure, as ye are going forth (é€epydpevor, ver. 14).
14. Shake off (éxrwd£ate). “The very dust of a heathen country was unclean, and it defiled by contact. It was re- garded like a grave, or like the putrescence of death. If a spot of heathen dust had touched an offering, it must at once be burnt. More than that, if by mischance any heathen dust had been brought into Palestine, it did not and could not mingle with that of ‘the land,’ but remained to the end what it had been—unclean, defiled and defiling everything to which it ad- hered.” The apostles, therefore, were not only to leave the house or city which should refuse to receive them, “ but it was to be considered and treated as if it were heathen, just as in the similar case mentioned in Matt. xviii. 17. All contact with such must be avoided, all trace of it shaken off” (Edersheim, “ Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ”). The symbolic act indicated that the apostles and their Lord regarded them not only as unclean, but as entirely responsible for their unclean- ness. See Acts xviii. 6.
16. | send you forth (éy» dmoctérdw). Cognate to the word améatonos (apostle). The J is emphatic: “It is Z that send you forth.”
60 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. X.
Wise (fpdvipor). So A. V. and Rev. Denoting prudence with regard to their own safety. Wye. wary.
Harmless (axépavor). Lit., unmixed, unadulterated. Used of wine without water, and of metal without alloy. Hence guileless. So Luther, without falsity. Compare Rom. xvi. 19; Philip. ii. 15. They were to imitate the serpent’s wariness, but not his wéliness. “The presence of the wolves demands that ye be wary; the fact that ye are my apostles (compare “send you”) demands that ye be guileless” (Dr. Morison on Matthew).
17. Of men (réav dvIporwv). Lit., “the men,” already al- Iuded to under the term wolves.
19. Take no thought (u Mepiuvnonte). Rev., Be not anxious. See on vi. 25.
In that hour (év éxeivy rij pa). Very precise. “In that selfsame hour.” Bengel remarks: “Even though not before. Many feel most strongly their spiritual power when the hour comes to impart it to others.”
_ 25, Beelzebub (BeenfeBovr, Beelzebul). There is a coarse witticism in the application of the word to Christ. Jesus calls himself “the Master of the house,” and the Jews apply to him the corresponding title of the Devil, Heb., Beelzebul, Master of the dwelling. (The phrase reappears in German, where the Devil is sometimes called Herr vom Haus. See Goethe, “Faust,” sce. xxi.). Dr. Edersheim’s explanation, though in- genious, seems far-fetched. He says that szebuhl, in Rabbinic language, means, not any ordinary dwelling, but specifically the temple ; so that Beelzebul would be Master of the Temple, an expression having reference to the claims of Jesus on his first purification of the temple. He then conceives a play between this word and Beelzibbul, meaning Lord of idolatrous Sacrefice, and says: “ The Lord of the temple was to them the chief of idolatrous worship; the representative of God, that of the