to another.1 — ou vsciTrai, shall not fall) To fall on the ground is to die. The use of the future tense implies a condition : if it falls, it does not fall without your Father's permission. — aviv rou StXrifAaros rou TLarpbs vftui/, without the will of your Father) This is the reading of Irenseus, Tertullian, Novation, Cyprian, Hilary, Augustine, Cassiodorius ; also of the Italic, Coptic, Arabic, Gothic, and Persic versions. It is therefore an ancient reading, and one too widely received to be accounted for on the hypo thesis of its being a paraphrase, especially since the sense would be complete without the contested words " rou ^s^^arog" (the will of), as the LXX. in Isa. xxxvi. 10 2 write avtu Kuptov, icithout the Lord, and the Hebrews say, toot? HJWS^ without heaven. The later Greeks omitted these words, rou ^s^^aros, from the recurrence of the article rou. The numbered hairs of the faithful, mentioned in the parallel passage of Luke xii. 7, correspond to this " ivill."3 — i/awv, your) not their Father.
30. 'T[>wv, your) used antithetically. — a/ rpiyj^ the hairs) which you yourselves care little about. Who cares about the hairs once pulled out by the comb 1 A proverbial saying con cerning a very small matter.
31. noXXwi/, many} opposed to one in ver. 29. — u/j,f?s, you) even each of you individually.
32. 'EI>, in, on) i.e., when the question is raised concerning Me. This « sv 'E,uo/'," « on Me," differs from " ME," " Me," and " aurbv," " him" in the next verse ; cf. Luke xii. 8, 9. — avSpunuv, men) Our Lord is speaking especially of persecutors.
33. ' ApvqaofAui Kayia aurbv,4 I also will deny him) This order of the words, sc. " I-will-deny even-I-also him," which expresses more exactly the law of retribution, jus talionis (as in ver. 32), is supported by the Latin and Gothic versions,5 by the Codex
1 Bengel means, that this is a proof of God's individual providence even in matters relating to the brute creation. — (I. B.)
2 In the Hebrew also, " without Jehovah." — (I. B.)
3 BD Orig. (omitting vfAuv) Vulg. and Rec. Text, have oiviv TOV warpo; vpuv. But "sine voluntate" is added by abc Hil. 657, 831 Iren. Cypr. 82, 121 (omitting 'vestri' before ' patris'). — ED.
4 E. M. oipvqaopKi CX.VTOV x.xyu. — (I. B.)
5 The Gothic version of the Bible was made from the Greek, both in the Old and in the New Testament, by Ulphilas, a celebrated bishop of the Mirso-Goths, who assisted at the Council of Constantinople in 350, and was