idiom which uses 3\5t2) = πάλιν (Ausser-
canonische Paralleltexte su Mt. and Mk., Ρ. 213).—@s τὰ παιδία, like the children, in unpretentiousness, A _ king’s child has no more thought of greatness than a beggar’s.—od μὴ εἰσέλθητε, ye shall not enter the kingdom, not to speak of being great there. Just what He said to the Pharisees (vide on chap. v. 17-20).— Ver. 4. ταπεινώσει ἑαυτὸν: the most difficult thing in the world for saint as for sinner. Raphel (Amnot.in S.S.) dis- tinguishes three forms ef self-humiliation: in mind (Phil. ii. 3), by words, and by acts, giving classical examples of the latter two. It is easy to humble oneself by self-disparaging words, or by symbolic acts, as when the Egyptian monks wore hoods, like children’s caps (Elsner), but to be humble in sfirit, and so child-like !— 6 µείζων. The really humble man is as great in the moral world as he is rare.
τα.
ο
6. ὃς & ἂν σκανδαλίσῃ ἕνα τῶν "μικρῶν τούτων τῶν πιστευόντων ο Cf. ἑλαχί-
στων in
eis ἐμέ, Ἰσυμφέρει αὐτῷ, ἵνα κρεµασθῇ μύλος ὀνικὸς ἐπὶ] τὸν Ch. xxv. ~ a Αα n ο.
τράχηλον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἕ καταποντισθῇ ἐν τῷ ™ πελάγει τῆς θαλάσσης. { Ch. ν. 29, > na > A > a ο.
7, Οὐαὶ τῷ κόσµῳω ἀπὸ τῶν σκανδάλων: ἀνάγκη Ὑάρ ἐστιν } ἐλθεῖν ᾳ here and
τὰ σκάνδσλα.
πλὴν οὐαὶ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ,ὸ δι οὗ τὸ σκάνδαλον το,
in Ch. xiv,
h here and
+ For επι SBLZ have περι.
2 Omitted in BL (W.H.); found in ΝΤ (Tisch.).
δεκεινω wanting in S§DLZ:;
found in B but not adopted by W.H.
It looks
like an echo of xxvi. 24, yet it answers well to the solemn tone of our Lord’s
utterance on this occasion.
Vv. 5-7.—Ver. 5. δέξηται: the dis- course passes at this point from being child-like to gracious treatment of a child and what it represents. —év παιδίον τοιοῦτο: the real child present in the room passes into an ideal child, repre- senting all that the spirit of ambition in its struggle for place and power is apt to trample under foot. So in effect the majority of commentators; a few, in- cluding Bengel, De Wette, Bleek, Weiss, hold that the reference is still to a real child. In favour of this view is Luke’s version: ‘* Whoso receiveth this child,” etc. (ix. 48). But the clause ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί µου raises the child into the ideal sphere. The reception required does not mean natural kindness to children (though that also Christ valued), but esteeming them as fellow-disciples in spite of their insignificance. A child may be such a disciple, but it may also represent such disciples, and it is its representative function that is to be em- phasised.—Ver. 6. σκανδαλίσῃ: the opposite of receiving; treating harshly and contemptuously, so as to tempt to unbelief and apostasy. The pride and selfish ambition of those who pass for eminent Christians make many infidels. —éva tT. µ. τ.: one of the large class of little ones; not merely child believers surely, but all of whom a child is the emblem, as regards social or ecclesias- tical importance. Those who are caused to stumble are always little ones: ‘* majores enim scandala non recipiunt,”’ Jerome. One of them: “ frequens unius in hoc capite mentio,” Bengel. This is the one text in which Jesus speaks of Himself as the object of faith (vide The Kingdom of God, p. 263).--συµφέρει .. . ἵνα: vide on v. 29. Fritzsche finds here an instance of attraction similar to that in x. 2---καὶ 6 δοῦλος, ds 6 κ. a. Instead of saying συμφέρει a. κρεµα-
σθῆναι . .. ἵνα καταποντισθῃ, the writer puts both verbs in the subjunctive after ἵνα.- μύλος dvixds. The Greeks called the upper millstone ὄνος the ass (6 ἀνῶτερος λίθος, Hesychius), but they did not use the adjective ὀνικὸς. The meaning therefore is a millstone driven by an ass, i.e.,a large one, as distinct from smaller-sized ones driven by the hand, commonly used in Hebrew houses in ancient times. ‘Let such a large stone be hung about the neck of the offender to make sure that he sink to the bottom to rise no more’’—such is the thought of Jesus; strong in con- ception and expression, revealing intense abhorrence.—év τῷ πελάγει τ. θ.: in the deep part of the sea. So Kypke, who gives examples; another signifi- cantly strong phrase. Both these ex- pressions have been toned down by ΏυΚε.--καταποντισθῇ: drowning was not a form of capital punishment in use among the Jews. The idea may have been suggested by the word denoting the offence, σκανδαλίσῃ. Bengel τε- marks : ‘‘ apposita locutio in sermone de scandalo, nam ad lapidem offensio est” = “let the man who puts a stone in the path of a brother have a stone hung about his neck,” etc. Lightfoot suggests as the place of drowning the Dead Sea, in whose waters nothing would sink without a weight attached to it, and in which to be drowned was a mark of execration.—Ver. 7. oval τῷ κόσµω, woe to the world, an exclamation of pity at thought of the miseries that come upon mankind through ambitious passions. Some (Bleek, Weiss, etc.) take κόσμος in the sense of the ungodly world, as in later apostolic usage, and therefore as causing, not suffering from, the offences deplored. This interpreta- tion is legitimate but not inevitable, and it seems better to take the word in the