4, Let us make (roujowpev). But the best texts read, tomaow, L will make, which is more characteristic of Peter. He would erect the booths himself.
Three tabernacles (cxnvds). Tents or booths, out of the brushwood lying near. Peter realized that it was night, and was for preparing shelters into which the heavenly visitants might retire after their interview.
Cu. XVIL] MATTHEW. 101
9. Vision (Spaua). The spectacle.
11. Cometh. Elijah cometh first. An abstract statement expressing the fact that Elijah’s coming precedes in time the com- ing of the Messiah. It is a point of Jewish chronology ; just as a teacher of history might say to his pupils, “The Saxons and Danes precede the Normans in England.” Elijah had al- ready come in the person of John the Baptist.
15. Is lunatic (cernvidferar). Rev., epileptic. The A. VY. preserves the etymology of the word (cedjvn, the moon), but lunatic conveys to us the idea of demented ; while the Rev. epileptic gives the true character of the disease, yet does not tell us the fact contained in the Greek word, that epilepsy was supposed to be affected by the changes of the moon. See on
Matt. iv. 24.
17. Perverse (Suvectpappévn). Wye., wayward. Tynd., crooked ; 61a, throughout ; otpépa, to twist. Warped.
20, Unbelief (amucrlav). But the better reading is dduyo- mottav, littleness of faith. Hence Rev., Because of your little fuith.
24. They that received tributesmoney (ot ta didpaypa AapBdvovtes). Rev., They that received the half-shekel. Kvery male Israelite of age, including proselytes and manumitted Jews, was expected to pay annually for the temple-service a half-shekel or didrachm, about thirty-five cents. This must be paid in the ancient money of Israel, the regular half-shekel of the treasury; and the money-changers, therefore, were in de- | mand to change the current into the temple coin, which they did at a rate of discount fixed by law, between four and five cents on every half-shekel. The annual revenue to the money- changers from this source has been estimated at nearly forty- five thousand dollars; a very large sum in a country where a laborer received less than twenty cents for a day’s work, and where the good Samaritan left about thirty-three cents at the
102 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. XVII.
inn for the keeping of the wounded man. Jesus attacked a very powerful interest when he overthrew the tables of the money-changers.
25. Ves (vai). Indicating that Jesus had paid the tax on former occasions.
Prevented (mpoepIacev). Rev., rather awkwardly, but fol- lowing Tynd., Spake first to him. Prevent, in its older sense, to anticipate, get before, was a correct translation. Compare Shakspeare ;
‘So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery.” Hamlet, ii., 1.
Out of this grew the secondary meaning, to hinder. By getting before another, one hinders him from accomplishing his pur- pose. This meaning has supplanted the other. Wye. renders came before him. The meaning is that Jesus did not wait for Peter to tell him of the demand of the collectors. He antici- puted him in speaking about it.
Custom or tribute (ré&im 4 Kivoov). Rev. gives toll for custom. Toll is duty upon goods; tribute, tax upon individ- uals. Kivoos, tribute, is merely a transcription of the Latin census, which means, first, a registration with a view to taxa- tion, and then the tax itself.
Strangers (a\Xotpiwv). Not Joreigners, but others than those of their own families; their subjects. In other words, Does a king tax his own children or his subjects ?
27. Hook (dyxiorpor). The only mention in the New Testa- ment of fishing with a hook. A single fish is wanted.
A piece of money (crarfpa). The A. V. is very inade- quate, because Christ names a definite sum, the stater, which is a literal transcription of the Greek word, and represents two didrachinas, or a shekel. Hence Rey., a shekel.
Cu. XVIII.) MATTHEW. 103