1. Time (xaip@). Rev., season. The word implies a par- ticular time ; as related to some event, a convenient, appropriate time ; absolutely, a particular point of time, or a particular sea- son, like spring or winter.
Corn (cropipwv). From ozelpa, to sow. Properly, as Rey.,
cornfields.
2. What is not lawful. “On any ordinary day this would have been lawful; but on the Sabbath it involved, according to the Rabbinic statutes, at least two sins, viz., plucking the ears, which was reaping, and rubbing them in their hands (Luke vi. 1), which was sifting, grinding, or fanning. The Talmud says: ‘In case a woman rolls wheat to remove the husks, it is con- sidered as sifting; if she rubs the heads of wheat, it is regarded as threshing; if she cleans off the side-adherencies, it is sifting out fruit ; if she bruises the ears, it is grinding; if she throws them up in her hand, it is winnowing’” (Edersheim, “ Life and Times of Jesus ”).
Cu. XILJ MATTHEW. 1
6. One greater (ueifwv). The correct reading makes the adjective neuter, so that the right rendering is something greater (Rev., in margin). The reference is, of course, to Christ him- self (compare vv. 41, 42, where the neuter wActov, more (so Rey., in margin), is used in the same way). Compare, also, John ii. 19, where Christ speaks of his own body as a temple. The indefiniteness of the neuter gives a more solemn and impres- sive sense. . .
10. Is it lawful ? (e7 &eorw). The ed can hardly be rendered into English. It gives an indeterminate, hesitating character to the question: Z would like to know 7, ete.
13. Stretch forth thy hand. The arm was not withered.
20. Flax. The Hebrew is, literally, a dimly burning wick he shall not quench (Isa. xlii. 3). The quotation stops at the end of the third verse in the prophecy; but the succeeding verse is beautifully suggestive as describing the Servant of Je- hovah by the same figures in which he pictures his suffering ones—a wick and a reed. “He shall not burn dimly, neither shall his spirit be crushed.” He himself, partaking of the na- ture of our frail humanity, is both a lamp and a reed, humble, but not to be broken, and the “light of the world.” Compare the beautiful passage in Dante, where Cato directs Virgil to wash away the stains of the nether world from Daute’s face, and to prepare him for the ascent of the purgatorial mount by girding him with a rush, the emblem of humility :
‘Go, then, and see thou gird this one about With a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face, So that thou cleanse away all stain therefrom. For ‘twere not fitting that the eye o’ercast By any mist should go before the first Angel, who is of those of Paradise.
This little island, round about its base,
Below there, yonder, where the billow beats it, Doth rushes bear upon its washy ooze.
No other plant that putteth forth the leaf,
Or that doth indurate, can there have life, Because it yieldeth not unto the shocks.
72 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. XII.
There he begirt me as the other pleased ; O marvellous! for even as he culled The humble plant, such it sprang up again Suddenly there where he uprooted it.” Purg., i., 94-105, 133-137.
26. He is divided (éwepicSn. Lit., “he was divided.” TE he is casting Admself out, there must have been a previous division.
28. Is come unto you (é9acev éf’ iuds). The verb is used in the simple sense to arrive at (2 Cor. x. 14; Philip. iii. 16), and sometimes to anticipate (1 Thess. iv. 15). Here with a suggestion of the latter sense, which is also conveyed by the Rev., “come upon.” It has come upon you before you ex- pected it.