miracles. — o Tibs ro\j avdpuvov, the Son of man) See Gnomon on ch. xvi. 13. — OVK £*/e/, K.T.X, hath not, etc.) O admirable poverty and endurance, combined with perpetual pilgrimage.1
21. MatfjjrSy, of the disciples) of those, namely, who were not always present.
22. TO-J$ vexpo-jg, the dead) An expression urgently command ing the man to follow Him, and therefore embracing many things. Both the dead iclio are to be buried, and the dead icho
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are to bury them, must come under consideration. The dead who are to be buried, are without doubt those literally dead, whether the father of this disciple was already then dead or old, and near to death, and with only this one son. Cf. Tobit xiv. 12. The dead who bury, or those to whom the burial of the dead should be left, are partly those who are also about to die, mortals bound to the law of death (cf. Rom. viii. 10), as distinguished from the hope of a better life — that hope, however, being not altogether taken away. The appellation is to be limited by the context : as in Luke xx. 34, they, who never theless are capable of being saved, are called the children of this world ; so they are called dead, who are more fit for burying than for announcing the kingdom of God. As in ch. ix. 24, the girl is called not dead, who soon shall live (cf. John xi. 4), so they are called dead, who soon shall die.2 In the time of pesti lence, the dead are buried by those who soon themselves die. Nor is the case very different with successive generations of mortals in the course of ages. Partly, they are already dead ; and with regard to them the expression is hypothetical, with this meaning — Do thou follow Me, and leave the burial of the dead to the dead themselves ; i.e. Let the dead, as far as you are con cerned, remain unburied. A similar mode of expression occurs in Exod. xxi. 14, Let the murderer be taken from the altar: i.e. let him be slain, even if he has fled to the altar. The appellation, therefore, of the dead ivho bury, is abrupt, and suitable to a com-
1 Neither had He a house of His own, nor a fixed dwelling anywhere, Mark i. 45. The Scribe regarded it as an easier matter than it really was, to follow Him whithersoever He was going. — Harm., p. 269.
2 The dead are in their lasting home, and the mourners are not far off from the same, but continue wandering all around it, until they themselves also enter it. — See Eecles. xii. 5. — V. g.