16. Children (adéous). Diminutive, little children. The Rey. Donald Fraser gives the picture simply and vividly: “ He pictured a group of little children playing at make-believe mar- riages and funerals. First they acted a marriage procession ; some of them piping as on instruments of music, while the rest were expected to leap and dance. In a perverse mood, however, these last did not respond, but stood still and looked discontented. So the little pipers changed their game and proposed a funeral. They began to imitate the loud wailing of eastern mourners. But again they were thwarted, for their companions refused to chime in with the mournful cry and to beat their breasts.
So the disappointed children complained: ‘We piped unto you and ye did not dance; we wailed, and ye did not mourn. Nothing pleases you. If you don’t want to dance, why don’t you mourn? . . . It is plain that you are in bad humor, and determined not to be pleased ’” (“ Metaphors in the Gospels”). The issue is between the Jews (this generation) and the children of wisdom, v. 9.
Market-places (dyopais). From ayelpa, to assemble. Wyc., renders cheepynge; compare cheapside, the place for buying and selling ; for the word cheap had originally no reference to smali price, but meant simply barter or price. The primary concep-
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66 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XI.
tion in the Greek word has nothing to do with buying and sell- ing. ’Ayopd is an assembly; then the place of assembly. The idea of a place of trade comes in afterward, and naturally, since trade plants itself where people habitually gather. Hence the Roman Forum was devoted, not only to popular and judi- cial assemblies, but to commercial purposes, especially of bank- ers. The idea of trade gradually becomes the dominant one in the word. In Eastern cities the markets are held in bazaars and streets, rather than in squares. In these public places the chil- dren would be found playing. Compare Zech. viii. 5.
17. Mourn (éxéwacd9e). Lit., beat or strike (the breast), as in oriental funeral Jamentations.
20. Mighty works (dvvdyes). The supernatural works of Christ and his apostles are denoted by six different words in the New Testament, exhibiting these works under different aspects and from different points of view. These will be con- sidered in detail as they occur. Generally, a miracle may be regarded: 1. As a portent or prodigy (tépas) ; as Acts vil. 36, of the wonders shown by Moses in Egypt. 2. As a sign (onpetov), pointing to something beyond itself, a mark of the power or grace of the doer or of his connection with the super- natural world. So Matt. xii. 88. 3. As an exhibition of God’s glory (€véo€ov), Luke xiii. 17; glorious things. 4. As a strange thing (sapddo£ov), Luke v.26. 5. Asa wonderful thing (Savpd- ovov), Matt. xxi. 15. 6. As a power (Svvapis); so here: a mighty work.
22. But (wAnv). Better Rev., howbedt, or as Wyc., neverthe- less. Chorazin and Bethsaida did no¢ repent; therefore a woe lies against them; nevertheless they shall be more excusable than you who have seen the mighty works which were not done among them.
25. Answered. In reply to something which is not stated.
I thank (€£ouoro0yodmar). Compare Matt. ili. 6, of confessing sins. Lit., Z confess. I recognize the justice and wisdom of
Cu. XI] MATTHEW. 67
thy doings. But with the dative, as here (cou, ¢o thee), it means to praise, with an undercurrent of acknowledgment ; to confess only in later Greek, and with an accusative of the object. Rev. gives praise in the margin here, and at Rom. xiv. 11. Tynd., LT praise.
Prudent (cvverdv). Rev., understanding; Wyc., wary. From the verb cuvinus, to bring together, and denoting that peculiarity of mind which brings the simple features of an ob- ject into a whole. Hence comprehension, insight. Compare on Mark xii. 33, wnderstanding (cvvécews). Wise (copav) and understanding are often joined, as here. The general distinc- tion is between productive and reflective wisdom, but the dis- tinction is not always recognized by the writer.