judgement by the presence or absence of kind deeds. No contradiction, for words are viewed as the index of a good or bad heart: bad positively, like that of the Pharisees, who spoke wickedly; bad negatively, like that of the thoughtless, who speak senselessly. On the teaching of this passage cf. James iil.
93-41.
τοί
38. Τότε ἀπεκρίθησάν 1 τινες τῶν Ὑραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων,
λέγοντες, “Διδάσκαλε, θέλοµεν ἀπὸ σοῦ σημεῖον ἰδεῖν.'
39. Ὁ δὲ
ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, “Teved πονηρὰ καὶ "μοιχαλὶς σημεῖονε Ch. xvi. 4,
k. viii.
Σἐπιζητεῖ : καὶ σημεῖον of δοθήσεται αὐτῇ, εἶ μὴ τὸ σημεῖον ‘lava 38. Jas. ~ a a“ 1ν 74 τοῦ προφήτου. 40. ὥσπερ γὰρ Fv ἸΙωνᾶς ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους { videat Ch, η ~ ε i ~ νι. 32. τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας, οὕτως ἔσται 6 υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν
τῇ καρδίᾳ τῆς γῆς τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας.
41. Άνδρες
ο ~ , ~ ~ λ
Δινευῖται ἀναστήσονται ἐν τῇ κρίσει μετὰ τῆς γενεᾶς ταύτης, καὶ A > ~
κατακρινοῦσιν αὐτήν": ὅτι µετενόησαν εἲς τὸ κήρυγμα ‘IwvG: καὶ
1 ΜΝΒΟΡΤΣ insert avtw before τινες.
Vv. 38-45. A sign asked and refused, with relative discourse (Lk. xi. 16, 29-36). Both Matt.’s and Luke’s re- ports convey the impression that the demand for a sign, and the enunciation of the Satanic theory as to Christ’s cures of demoniacs, were synchronous. If they were, the demand was impudent, hypocritical, insulting. Think of the men who could so speak of Christ’s heal- ing ministry wanting a sign that would satisfy them as to His Messianic claims! —Ver. 38. σημεῖον: what kind of a sign? They thought the cure of de- moniacs a sign from fell. Elsewhere we read of their asking a sign from heaven (xvi. 1). From what quarter was the sign now asked to come from? Perhaps those who made the demand had no idea; neither knew nor cared. Their question really meant: these signs won’t do; if you want us to believe in you you must do something else than cast out devils. The apparent respect and earnestness of the request are feigned: ‘teacher, we desire from you (emphatic position) to see a sign”. It reminds one of the mock homage of the soldiers at the Passion (xxvii. 27-31).— Ver. 30. γενεὰ, as in xi. 16, a moral class, ‘‘quae in omni malitia et improbitate vivit,” Suicer, 6. v. yeved.—porxadts, un- faithful to God as a wife to a husband, apt description of men professing godli- ness but ungodly in heart.—émf{yret, hankers after, as in vi. 32 ; characteristic ; men that have no light within crave ex- ‘ternal evidence, which given would be of no service to them. Therefore: od δοθήσεται: it will not be given either by Jesus or by any one else. He declines, knowing it to be vain. No sign will convince them; why give one ?—éei μὴ, etc.: except the sign of Jonah the prophet, which was no sign in their ‘sense. What is referred to? But for
what follows we should have said: the preaching of repentance by Jonah to the Ninevites. So Lk. xi. 30 seems to take it. Jonah preached repentance to the men of Nineveh as the only way of escape from judgment. Jesus points to that historic instance and says: Beware! Jonah was not the only prophetic preacher of repentance ; but, as Nineveh is held up as a reproach to the persons addressed, to single him out was fitting. —Ver. 40 gives an entirely different turn to the reference. The verse cannot be challenged on critical grounds. If it is an interpolation, it must have become
‘an accepted part of the text before the
date of our earliest copies. If it be genuine, then Jesus points to His re- surrection as the appropriate sign for an unbelieving generation, saying in effect: you will continue to disbelieve in spite of all I can say or do, and at last you will put me to death. But I will rise again, a sign for your confusion if not for your conversion. For opposite views on this interpretation of the sign of Jonah, vide Meyer ad loc. and Holtzmann in H.C.—Ver. 41. Application of the reference in ver. 39. The men of Nineveh are cited in condemnation of the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus. Cf. similar use of historic parallels in xi. 20-24.---πλεῖον *lwva, more than Jonah, of. ver. 6; refers either to Jesus per- sonally as compared with Jonah, or to His ministry as compared with Jonah’s. In the latter case the meaning is: there is far more in what is now going on around you to shut you up to repentance than in anything Jonah said to the men of Nineveh (so Grotius).—Ver. 42. βασίλισσα νότου is next pressed into the service of putting unbelievers to shame. The form βασίλισσα was con- demned by Phryn., but Elsner cites in- stances from Demosthenes and οἶιας