9
Moral criticism
130
ε Ch. ix. 1. καταπατήσωσιν] αὐτοὺς ἐν .1χ. 1 Lk. ix. 42. ® ῥήξωσιν ὑμᾶς. Gal. iv. 2 (to break εὑρήσετε * out into
h si. 9,
Ἀ κρούετε, καὶ ἀνοιγήσεται ὑμῖν. λαμβάνει, καὶ ὁ ἵητῶν εὑρίσκει, καὶ τῷ κρούοντι ἀνοιγήσεται.:
τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν, καὶ στραφέντες
7. Αἰτεῖτε, καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν: {ητεῖτε, καὶ
8. was γὰρ ὁ αἰτῶν
10; xii-36.9- ἢ τίς ἐστιν ἐξ ὑμῶν ἄνθρωπος, ὃν ἐὰν αἰτήσῃ ὁ vids αὐτοῦ is Rev. ἄρτον, μὴ λίθον ‘émBdca αὐτῷ; 10. καὶ ἐὰν ἰχθὺν airjoy,® μὴ
iii. 20. i Lk. xi. 11; xxiv. 30, 44. Acts xv. 30; xxvii. 15.
) xaTama
tion of the fut. ind. with the subj. (ρηξωσι ov to a confusion of ov with w. Vide belo
in BCLX%. Weiss against most critics thinks this combina- v) impossible. He ascribes the reading iW.
3 ανοιγεται in B Cop. Syr. Cur. W.H.in margin. Weiss decides for this reading. 3 BL omit εστιν, and among modern editors Treg. and W.H.
* For εαν αιτησῃ NWECLA have αιτησει.
Tisch. and W.H. adopt this.
> For και εαν αιτηση WBC have η και αιτησει, which modern critics generally
adopt.
unclean animals. There are such people, unhappily, even in the judgment of charity, and the shrewd know them and po shy of them ; for no good can come of comradeship with them, Discussions as to whether the dogs and the swine represent two classes of men, or only one, are pedantic. If not the same they are at least similar; one in this, that they are to be avoided. And it is gratu- itous to limit the scope of the gnome to the apostles and their work in preaching the gospel. It applies to all citizens of the kingdom, to all who have a treasure to guard, a holy of holies to protect from profane intrusion.—prjmwore, lest per- chance. What is to be feared ἕ--κατα- πατήσονσιν͵, ῥήξωσιν: treading under foot (ἐν τ. π., instrumental, with, de Wette ; , Weiss) ur pearls (αὐτονς), πο vourdiiven: Here again there is trouble for the com- mentators as to the distribution of the trampling and rending between dogs and swine. Do both do , or the swine both, or the swine the trampling and the dogs the rending? The latter is the view of Theophylact, and it has been followed by some moderns, including Achelis. On this view the structure of the sentence presents an example of ἐπάνοδος or ὑστέρησις, the first verb referring to the second subject and the second verb to the first subject. The dogs—street dogs, without master, living on offal—rend, because what you have thrown to them, perhaps to propitiate them, being of uncertain temper at the best, is not to their liking; the swine trample under foot what looked like
or acorns, but turns out to be uneatable.
two curious opinions may be noted. (1 That ἅγιον represents an Aramaic wor meaning ear-ornaments, answering to pearls. This view, once νο by Michaelis, Bolten, Kuinoel, etc., and thereafter discredited, has been revived by Holtzmann (H. C.). Bal ὀφθαλ- pos (vv. 3, 5) means, not the eye, but a village well. So Furrer. Strange, he says, that a man should need to be told by a neighbour that he has a mote in his eye, or that it should be a fault to propose to take it out! And what sense in the idea of abeamintheeye? But translate the Aramaic word used by Jesus, well, and all is clear and natural. A neighbour given to fault-finding sees a small im- purity in a villager’s well and tauntingly offers to remove it. Meantime his own boys, in his absence, throw a beam into his own well (Zeitsch. fir M. und R. Vide also W. ngen, Pp. 222).
Vv. 7-11. Admonition to prayer: pre- supposes deferred answer to prayer, tempting to doubt as to its utility, and consequent discontinuance of the practice. A lesson more natural at a later stage, when the disciples had a more devel religious experience. The whole subject more adequately handled in Luke xi. 1-13.—Ver. 7. Αἰτεῖτε, ζητεῖτε, κρούετε, threefold exhortation with a view to impressiveness ; first literally, then twice in figurative κ. seck as for an object lost, kn as at a barred door, ok pe arr after the parable of the neighbour in bed (Lk. xi. 5-8). The promise of answer is stated in corre- sponding terms.—So@jeerat, εὑρήσετε, ἀνοιγήσεται.- Ὑετ. 8, iteration in form