Vv. 15-20. Warning against pseudo- prophets. Again, without connecting particle and possibly not a part of the Sermon on the Mount. But the more important question here is: Does this section belong to Christ's teaching at all, or hasit been introduced by the Evangelist that false teachers of after days appear- ing in the Church might be condemned under the authority of the Master? (Holtz., H.C.). What occasion had
ver. καὶ
αὐτήν.
ἔρχονται πρὸς Spas ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων, ἔσωθεν δέ εἶσι "λύκοι
ἅρπαγες.
οκ
’ 15. "Προσέχετε S€! ἀπὸ τῶν "ψευδοπροφητῶν, oltiwesr Ch. x. 17;
xvi. 6, 11. Lk. xx. 46 (all with
16. ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν " ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς: µήτι ἀπότινος).
s Ch. xxiv.
Youdhéyouow ἀπὸ ἀκανθῶν σταφυλήν,; amd τριβόλων σύκα; 17. 11, 24 al.
οὕτω wav δένδρον ἀγαθὸν καρποὺς καλοὺς moret®- τὸ δὲ ” σαπρὸν 18. οὗ δύναται δένδρον ἀγαθὸν
δένδρον καρποὺς πονηροὺς ποιεῖ.
t Acts xx. 29 trop.,so in Sept. Jer. v. 6 al.
u Ch. xi. 27.
ν . ~ 4 Se Syd x η λοὺ 1. καρποὺς πονηροὺς ποιειν,' οὖδε ὀ9ένδρον σαπρὸν καρποὺς καλοὺς ν Ch. xiii.
ποιεῖν. 19. wav δένδρον μὴ ποιούν καρπὸν καλὸν ἐκκόπτεται καὶ
1 S8B omit δε (so W.H.). 2 SSBC have σταφυλας. 8 B has ποιει καλονς (W.H. margin).
28, 41 (with ἐκ). a: w Ch. xii. 33; xiii. 48. Eph. iv. ag.
The sing. comes from Lk. (vi. 44).
* For ποιειν δὴ has ενεγκειν (Tisch. both places, W.H. rst place).
Christ to speak of false prophets? The reference can hardly be to the Pharisees or the Rabbis. They were men of tradi- tion, not prophetic, either in the true or in the false sense. But, apart from them, there might be another class of men in evidence in our Lord’s day, who might be so characterised. It was a time of religious excitement; the force of custom broken, the deep fountains of the soul bursting forth; witness the crowds who followed John and Jesus, and the significant saying about the kingdom of heaven suffering violence (Matt. xi. 12). Such times call forth true prophets and also spurious ones, so far in religious sympathy with prevalent enthusiasms, but bent on utilising them for their own advantage in gain or influence, men of the Judas type. If such men, as is likely, existed, Jesus would have some- thing to say about them, as about all contemporary religious phenomena.
Ver. 15. Προσέχετε ἀπὸ, take heed to and beware of.—oitwves, I mean, such as.—év ἐνδύμασι προβάτων. Grotius, Rosenm, and Holtz. (H.C.) take this as referring to the dress worn (ἐν μηλωταῖς, Heb. xi. 37) as the usual badge of a prophet, but not without reference to the plausible manner of the wearer; deceptive and meant to deceive (Zechar. xiii. 4); gentle, innocent as_ sheep; speaking with “unction,”’ and all but deceiving ‘‘ the very elect ”. The manner more than the dress is doubtless in- tended. ἔσωθεν δὲ: manner and nature utterly different ; within, λύκοι dpwayes ; greedy, sometimes for power, ambitious to be first ; often for gain, money. The Didache speaks of a type of prophet whom it pithily names a χριστέµπορος (chap. xii.), a Christ-merchant. There
have always been prophets of this type, “each one to his gain” (Is. lvi. 11), Evangel-merchants, traders in religious revival.— Ver. 16. ἀπὸ 7. καρπῶν. By the nature of the case difficult to detect, but discernible from their fruit. ---ἐπιγνώσεσθε. Ye shall know them through and through (ἐπί) if ye study carefully the outcome of their whole way of life.
Vv. 16-20, An enlargement in parabolic fashion on the principle of testing by γή. Ver. 16. µήτι, do they perhaps, τι suggesting doubt where there is none = men never do collect, or think of collecting, grapes from thorns or figs from thistles. And yet the idea is not absurd. There were thorns with grape- like fruit, and thistles with heads like figs (Holtz., H.C.). But in the natural sphere these resemblances never de- ceived; men saw at a glance how the matter stood.—Ver. 17. Another illus- tration from good and bad trees of the same kind. ἀγαθὸν, sound, healthy; σαπρὸν, degenerate, through age or bad soil. According to Phryn., σαπρός was popularly used instead of αἰσχρός in a moral sense (σαπράν ot πολλοὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ αἰσχράν, p. 377). Each tree brings forth fruit answering to its condition.—Ver. 18. οὐ δύναται, etc. Nothing else is possible or looked for in nature.—Ver. 1g. Men look on this as so certain that they do not hesitate to cut down and burn a degenerate tree, as if it were possible it might bring forth good fruit next γεατ.---μὴ ποιοῖν, if it do not, that once ascertained. Weiss thinks this verse is imported from iii. 10, and foreign to the connection.—Ver. 20. ἄραγε: final inference, a very lively and forcible com- posite particle; again with similar effcct