wliatsoever ye would, etc., and he who performs this, performs all the rest more easily : see ch. xix. 19.
13. E!ee\6iri, enter ye in) Make it the object of your constant and earnest endeavours (Id agite) really to enter.1 This pre supposes that they are attempting to walk on the narrow way. Observe the antithetical relation between " fiff&dirt" " enter ye in" [in the first], and " o/ iiaip^6fj,ivoi" — " they which go in" [in the last clause of this verse]. — srsv^e, strait) sc. of righteous ness. — TvX»j, the gate) This is put before the way; the gate therefore in this verse signifies that, by which a man begins in any manner to seek for the salvation of his soul ; as in the next verse the gate is that, by which true Christianity is received. — aTayouffa, which leadeth away] from this short life. So also in the next verse. — ™XXo/, many) See 2 Esdras ix. 15, 17. — 01 slffsp^ofisvoi, they tvhich go in) There is no need that they should find it, for they spontaneously fall into destruction. Cf. v. 14. — di avTijg, through it) sc. the gate.
14. "On ffrevrt, x.r.X., because straight, etc.) Many read ri envy, x.r.X.,2 now straight, etc., as in the S.V. of 2 Sam. vi. 20, where no3 is rendered by ri — sc. ri dsdo^affTai 0?i,u.spov 6 jSotfrXf <>c 'l«ptit))X — HOW glorious was the king of Israel to-day I But there the expres sion is ironical. — The true reading is undoubtedly,4 on vXanTa — on envy, x.r.X. — BECAUSE broad — BECAUSE straight. Thus in 1 Kings xxi. 15, 1|35 (rendered on by the LXX.) occurs twice. — on oux 'ian NafSoudai £WY, on rtdvqKi : For, Naboth is not alive, but dead.6 The last ""3 has the force of but ; and is thus rendered
1 Into life, into the kingdom of heaven. — V. g.
2 Lachm. reads ri anvii, with B corrected by a second hand, CLA be Vulg. Syr. Cypr. But Tischend. 6V/, with B corrected by the first hand, X, Orig. 3, 5275, and Memph. TV for a; is a Hellenistic idiom, Ps. viii. 1, where for the LXX. u; 6/x.vpx.aroy other versions have ri f<.syot. The ri may be a gloss on ori taken with the positive, as it is often with superlatives, intensively (or i vhtiaro;, etc.) : so in Plato on rd^v;, valde celeriter. However Bengel makes or/, as before TX«T£;«, so to be repeated before anvtj in the sense sed, 'but.'— ED.
* What, or how.— (I. B.)
* Thus also E. M._ (I. B.)
8 For a full account of this word and its meanings, see Gesenius's Lexicon in voce. — (I. B.)
6 Literally — " Because Naboth is not living, because he has died. — (I. B.)