39. J ' Anfiri tig rb ^Xo/of, Pie again went on board the vessel)3 sc. that mentioned a little before in ch. xiv. 33. The word d«/3jj occurs with the same force in Mark vi. 51.
1. O'/ QapiffotToi xai Xa&evxaftf, the Pharisees and Sadducees) The common people were mostly addicted to the Pharisees, men of rank to the Sadducees (see Acts v. 17, xxiii. 6) ; as at present the crowd is more inclined to superstition, the educated to atheism, the two opposite extremes. The Evangelists de scribe only tAvo attempts of the Sadducees against our Lord (the first of which occurs in the present passage), for they cared less than the Pharisees about religion. — ex TOI> oupavov, from heaven) Miracles had been performed from heaven in the times of Moses, Joshua, and Elijah. The reason why the Pharisees were unwilling to accept as Divine the miracles hitherto per formed by our Lord, seems to have been this : that since He had not yet produced any sign from heaven, they thought that the others might proceed even from Satan (cf. ch. xii. 24, 38) ; and that they considered that a sign from heaven affecting the whole creation, would be greater than any signs performed on the microcosm of man. [Perhaps, also, they were relying on the prophecy of Joel; see Acts ii. 19. — V. g.] The Sadducees, who disbelie\Ted the existence of any Spirit, and therefore of Satan himself, Avere of opinion that our Lord's pOAver extended only to hunger, and the diseases of the body, not to all greater matters. Both were influenced also by
1 Ver. 38. TfTpamiff^io^four thousand) They were in truth mighty mir acles, whereby five thousand (ch xiv. 21) and four thousand men were fully satisfied with food ; and it was then that the abundance of Jesus' miracles had reached its highest point. How widely His glory ought to have been spread abroad by so many thousands of witnesses ! — Harm., p. 344.
3 " Signa in microcosmo," signs performed in the little world, the limited horizon, of which man is the centre. — ED.
8 E. V. " took ship." Bengel would give another force to the preposition tivet, and renders dvffiv, iterum conscendit. — (I. B.)