Vv. 25, 26. There is much more reason for regarding this passage as an interpolation. It is connected only ex- ternally (by the references to courts Οἱ
108
w ver 33. Ch. xviii.
παραδῷ 1] τῷ ὑπηρέτῃ, καὶ εἰς φυλακὴν βληθήσῃ.
γ.
26. ἀμὴν λέγω
151 xxii, σοι, οὐ μὴ ἐξέλθῃς ἐκεῖθεν, ἕως ἂν "' ἀποδῶς τὸν ἔσχατον * κοδράντην.
. 27. Ἡκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη τοῖς dpxatots,? OF μοιχεύσεις: 28. ἐγὼ 42. δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, ὅτι was ὁ βλέπων γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτῆς *
1 This second σε παρ. is omitted in ΝΕΒ. Luke's text may have suggested the
addition.
2 ros αρχαιοις is wanting in MSS. except LMA. S emOupnoat without pronoun, $%* (Tisch.); with αντην, BDL al, (W.H.
brackets). MZ have αντης. law) with what goes before, and it is out of keeping with the general drift of the teaching on the hill. It occurs in a different connection in Luke xii. 58, there as a solemn warning to the Jewish people, on its way to judgment, to re- pent. Meyer pleads that the logion might be repeated. It might, but only on suitable occasions, and the teachin on the hill does not seem to offer su anoccasion. Kuinoel, Bleek, Holtzmann, Weiss and others regard the words as foreign to the connection. Referring to the exposition in Luke, I offer here only a few verbal notes mainly on points in which Matthew differs from Luke.—tot «ὐνοῶν, be in a conciliatory mood, ready to come to terms with your opponent in a legal process (ἀντίδικος). It is a case of debt, and the two, creditor and debtor, are on the way to the court where they must appear together (Deut. xxi. 18, xxv. 1). Matthew's expression implies will- ingness to come to terms amicably on the creditor's part, and the debtor is exhorted,to meet him half way. Luke's δὸς ἐ ν throws the willingness on the other side, or at least implies that the debtor will need to make an effort to brin the creditor to terms.— ®, a mu milder word than Luke's xaracvpp, which points to rough, rude handling, dragging an unwilling debtor along whither he would rather not ρο.--ὑπηρέτῃ, the officer of the court whose business it was to collect the debt and generally to carry out the decision of the judge; in Luke π ρ. ράντην = quadrans, less than a farthing. Luke has λεπτὸν, half the value of a κοδ., thereby strengthening the statement that the imprisoned debtor will not escape till he has paid all he owes.
Vv. 27-30. Second illustration, taken from the seventh commandment. A grand moral law, in brief lapidary style guarding the married relation and the sanctity of home, Of course the Hebrew ‘egislator condemned lust after another
αντην is probably the true reading.
man's wife; it is expressly prohibited in the tenth commandment. But in practical working as a public law the statute laid main stress on the outward act, and it was the tendency of the scribes to give exclusive prominence to this. Therefore Christ brings to the front what both Moses and the scribes left in the back- ground, the inward desire of which adultery is the fruit—Ver. 28.—é βλέπων: the looker is supposed to be a husband who by his look wrongs his own wife.— Ίκα: married or unmarried.—wpds τὸ ιθνµῆσαι. The look is supposed to be not casual but persistent, the desire not involuntary or momentary, but cherished with longing. Augustine, a severe judge in such matters, defines the offence thus : ‘‘ Qui hoc fine et hoc animo attenderit ut eam concupiscat; quod jam non est titillari delectatione carnis sed plene consentire libidini” (De ser. Domini). Chrysostom, the merciless scourge of the vices of Antioch, says: ὁ ἑαντῷ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν σνλλέγων, ὁ ιόν ἀναγκάζοντος τὸ θηρίον ἐπεισ- μοῦντι τῷ λογισμφ. Hom.
μάς τς er Rabbis also condemned unchaste looks, but in how coarse a style compared with Jesus let this quotation given by Fritzsche show: “Intuens vel in minimum digitum feminae est ac si intueretur in locum pudendum”. In better taste are these oy ay quoted by Winsche (Beitrage) : “The eye and the heart are the two brokers of sin"; “ Passions lodge only in him who sees "".—atrhy (brack as doubtful by W. ‘ge the accusative after ἐπιθ. is rare and late.—We cannot but think of the personal relations to woman of One who understood so well the subtle sources of sexual sin. Shall we say that He was tempted in all points as we are, but desire was expelled by the mighty power of a pure love to which every woman was as a daughter, a sister, or a betrothed: a sacred object of tender