8. 'AXXa, but) The conjunction is employed to show that the preceding hypothesis has been dismissed. — sv ,aaXaxo/? i^ariotg fifAtpitsftsvov, clothed in soft raiment) They would have wished the forerunner, and the Messiah Himself, to have been such. — ra, the} The article refers to the preceding /xaXaxo/fc.1 — popovvrtg, who wear) John, if he had wished it, might have been a courtier. — o/V.o/j, houses) Not in the desert or the prison. — ruv (3aaiXe!uv,2 of palaces) See Esth. iv. 2. The LXX. have ra /3«<r/Xg/a in Esth. i. 9, ii. 13. — oTzoi TUV f3a0/Xsiuv ~ the halls of the palace.
9. TLpopfiTviv, a prophet) For a long time they had had no pro phets.3 — i/a/', yea) A prophet, I say unto you, and something greater than a prophet. — Ksptofforepov, more) Neuter, as in r/, what: sc. when ye went out ye saw something more, etc., although ye did not know it. — vpoprirou, than a prophet) For a prophet announces only distant events.
10. Ouro; yap Ian, x.r.X., for this is he, etc.) This makes John much greater than that what is spoken of4 in ver. 7, 8, could. — /So;) syti «•— oarsXXw rbv ayys^.ov Moo crpo vpoG'Jjfou Sou, oc xa.raGKsudGii rqv odov Sou s/AKpoffdiv Sou, behold I send my messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee) In the S. V. of Mai. iii. 1, we read, loov i%airo<m\£> rbv ayys\6v Mou, xai £T//3x=4/£- rai odov trpb ffpoffuKov Mou, Kai s^a/^w)f %&') x.r.X-, behold I will send forth My messenger, and he shall survey the road before My face, and suddenly shall arrive, etc. — 'Eya>, /) The Father addressing the Son. — rbv ayyiXov Mou, My messenger) John was sent by God as a messenger, after whom came the Messenger of the Covenant Himself. — xpb Kpoffuvov Sou, before Thy face) Immedi-
1 Thus identifying f^x^xad with (««A«xo?? i/xenrioi;, and showing that the ftxhxx.a,, "soft things," now spoken of are, as in E. V., "soft clothing." — (I.E.)
2 E. M. has "roif oi'x.oii TMV fiotai'h.iuy" which E. V. renders " Kings' Palaces."— (I. B.)
The reading ruy fZcKri^iiuv is regarded as equal to the other in the margin of the larger Ed. : but the margin of Ed. 2, as well as the Germ. Vers., pre fer fia.ai'Ktuv. — E. B. All the primary authorities read fictoihfav. But Griesb. and Scholz, with some inferior Uncial MSS., read fiouHteiau or fioe.<Ti'Auav. — ED.
3 He cannot be accounted as such, unless he were one far removed from (reed-like) fickleness and (courtier-like) effeminacy. — V. g.
4 viz. His being " a reed shaken by the wind," or " a man clothed in soft raiment.'' — See Gnomon in loc. — (I. B.)