a rod
μισθὸν αὐτῶν.
117
3. god δὲ ποιοῦντος ἔλεημοσύνην, μὴ γνώτω ἡ
ἀριστερά σου τί ποιεῖ ἡ δεξιά σου, 4. ὅπως ᾖ σου ἡ ἐλεημοσύνη 1 ἐν
τῷ “κρυπτῷ: καὶ ὁ πατήρ σου ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, αὐτὸς ” f Rom. ii.ag
1 Tisch. has η σου ελεηµοσυνη η, following SD (η σ. ede η).
editors as in text.
2 %9BL omit αυτος, which is found in D.
Vv. 2-4. Almsgiving. Ver 2. ἐλεημο- σύνην, mercy in general, but specifically alms, as a common mode of showing mercy. Compare our word charity.— σαλπίσῃς: to be understood metaphori- cally, as there is no evidence of the literal practice. Furrer gives this from Consul Wetstein to illustrate the word. When a man (in Damascus) wants to do a good act which may bring a blessing by way of divine recompense on his own family, ¢.g., healing to a sick child, he goes to a water-carrier with a good voice, gives him a piece of money, and says ‘“Sebil,” i.e, give the thirsty a fresh drink of water. The water-carrier fills his skin, takes his stand in the market, and sings in varied tones: “ο thirsty, come to the drink-offering,” the giver standing by, to whom the carrier says, as the thirsty drink, ‘* God forgive thy sins, O giver of the drink” (Zscht. fur M.und R., 1890. Vide also his Wand- erungen d. d. Η. L., p. 437).--ὑποκριταὶ, stage-players in classics, used in N. Τ, in a moral and sinister sense, and for the Christian mind heavily burdened with evil connotation—hypocrites / What a deep- ening of the moral sense is implied in the new meaning! The abhorrence of acting for effect in religion is due to Christ’s teaching. It has not yet quite banished the thing. There are religious actors still, and they draw good houses. —ovvaywyats : where alms were col- lected, and apparently also distributed.— ῥύμαις, streets, in eastern cities narrow lanes, a late meaning; in earlier Greek = impetus—onset. Vide Rutherford’s New Phryn., 488. Cf. πλατειῶν, ver. 5. πλατεῖα, supp. 6865 = a broad street.— δοξασθῶσιν: in chap. v. 16 God is conceived as recipient of the glory; here the almsgiver, giving for that purpose.—aphy: introducing a solemn statement, and a vety serious one for the parties concerned.—aréyova, they have in full; they will get no more, nothing from God: so in Lk. vi. 24, Phil. iv. 18 (vide on Mk. xiv. 41). The hypocrite partly does not believe this, partly does not care, so long as he gets
(phrase).
Most modern
the applause of his public.—Ver. 43. μὴ γνώτω: in proverbial form a counsel to give with simplicity. Let not even thy left hand, if possible even thyself, know, still less other men; give without self- consciousness or self-complacency, the root of ostentation.—év τῷ κρυπτῷ: known to the recipient, of course, but to no other, so far as you are concerned, hardly even to yourself. ‘* Pii lucent, et tamen latent,’’ Beng.—é βλέπων ἐ. τ. κ., who seeth in the dark. ‘ Acquainted with all my ways.’’ Ps. cxxxix., a comfort to the sincerely good, not to the counterfeits.—amo8ece. σοι: a cer- tainty, and not merely of the future. The reward is present; not in the form of self-complacency, but in the form of spiritual health, like natural buoyancy, when all physical functions work well. A right-minded man is happy without reflecting why; it is the joy of living in summer sunshine and bracing moun- tain air. The ἐν τῷ φανερῷ here and in vv. 6 and 18, a gloss by some superficial copyist, ignores the inward present re- ward, and appeals in a new form to the spirit of ostentation.
Vv. 5-6. Prayer, ὡς ol ὑποκριταί, as the actors. We shrink from the harshness of the term “hypocrite ’’. Jesus is in the act of creating the new meaning by the use of an old word in a new connection.—d rote. stands in place of an adverb. They love to, are wont, do it with pleasure. This con- struction is common in classics, even in reference to inanimate objects, but here only and in Mt. xxiii. 6-7 in N. T.— ἑστῶτες, ordinary attitude in prayer. στῆναι and καθῆσθαι seem to be used sometimes without emphasis to denote simply presence in a place (so Pricaeus). —ovvaywyais, γωνίαις T. πλατ.: usual places of prayer, especially for the ‘‘actors,”’ where men do congregate, in the synagogue for worship, at the corners of the broad streets for talk οἱ business; plenty of observers in both cases. Prayer had been reduced to system among the Jews. Methodising, with stated hours and forms, began after