17—22.
γενήσεται αὐτοῖς παρὰ τοῦ πατρός µου τοῦ ἐν obpavois. γάρ εἶσι δύο ἢ τρεῖς συνηγµένοι "εἰς τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα, ἐκεῖ εἰμὶ ἐν
A ” µέσῳ αὐτῶν. 1
21. Τότε προσελθὼν αὐτῷ ὁ Πέτρος εἶπειλ “Κύριε, "ποσάκις ἁμαρτήσει εἰς ἐμὲ ὁ ἀδελφός µου, καὶ ἀφήσω αὐτῷ; ἕως ὶἑπτάκις ; a a > 8
22. Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, ‘ Οὐ λέγω σοι ἕως ἑπτάκις, GAN ἕως
241
20. οὗ r Ch, xxviii 190. Acts Vili. 16; xix. 5. 1 Cor, i. 13 (all of bap- tism into —eis—a name}. αμ. yey ak, xiii. 34. t Lk. xvii. 4.
1 This verse in Codex Bezae runs “for there are not (ουκ εισιν yap), etc., with
whom (παρ᾽ ots) I am πο’ in the midst of them”’. 2 αντω after ειπε in BD (Tisch., W.H., bracketed).
fraternal concord. In this verse we have a case of attraction, of the main subject into the conditional clause. Resolved, the sentence would run: πᾶν πρᾶγμα, ὃ ἐὰν αἰτήσωσιν, ἐὰν συµφω- νήσουσιν περὶ αὐτοῦ, γεγήσεται αὐτοῖς.--- Ver. 20. δύο ἢ τρεῖς. Jesus deals in small numbers, not from modesty in His anticipations, but because they suit the present condition, and in jealousy for the moral quality of the new society.— συνηγµένοι eis, etc., not gathered to con. fess or worship my name, but gathered as believers in me. It is a synonym for the new society. The ecclesia is a body of men gathered together by a common relation to the name of the Christ: a Christian synagogue as yet consisting of the Twelve, or as many of them as were really one in heart.—éxet εἰμὶ ἐν, etc. : there am I, now, with as many of you, my disciples, as are one in faith and brotherly love ; not with any more even of you: far away from the man of am- bitious, not to say traitorous, mind, There am I in reference to the future. His presence axiomatically certain, therefore expressed as a present fact, even with reference to a future time—a promise natural from One looking forward to an early death. Similar in import to Mt. xxviii. 20. For similar sayings of the Rabbis concerning the presence of the Divine Majesty, or the Shechinah, among two or three sitting in judgment or studying the law, vide Lightfoot and Schottgen.
Vv. 21, 22. Peter’s question about for- giving.—The second of two interpella- tions in the course of Christ’s discourse (vide Mk. ix. 38-41; Lk. ix. 49, 50). Such words touch sensitive consciences, and the interruptions would be wel- comed by Jesus as proof that He had not spoken in vain.—Ver. 21. ποσάκις, etc. : the question naturally arose out of the directions for dealing with an offend-
Syr. Sin. has a similar reading. $$ omits αυτων
ing brother, which could only be carried out by one of placable disposition. ‘Their presupposition is that a fault confessed is to be forgiven. But how far is this to go? In Lk. xvii. 3 the case is put of seven offences in a day, each in turn re- pented of and confessed. Is there not reason for doubting the sincerity of repentance in such a case? Or is this not at least the extreme limit? Such is Peter’s feeling.—épaprice, ἀφήσω: two futures instead of woo. ἁμαρτόντι ἀφήσω: Hebrew idiom instead of Greek. --ἕως ἑπτάκις: Peter meant to be generous, and he went considerably beyond the Rabbinicak measure, which was three times (Amos i. 6) : “‘ quicunque remissionem petit a proximo, ne ultra quam ter petat,” Schdttgen.—Ver. 22. ov: emphatic “no” to be connected with ἕως ἑπτάκις. Its force may be brought out by translating: ‘no, I tell you, not till, etc.—aAAa é. é. €.: Christ’s reply lifts the subject out of the legal sphere, where even Peter’s suggestion left it (seven times and no more—a hard tule), into the evangelic, and means: times without number, infinite placability. This alone decides between the two renderings of ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά : seventy-seven times and seventy times seven, in favour of the latter as giving a number (490) practically equal to infini- tude. Bengel leans to the former, taking the termination -κις as covering the whole number seventy-seven, and τε- ferring to Gen. iv. 24 as the probable source of the expression. Similarly some of the Fathers (Orig., Aug.), De Wette and Meyer. The majority adopt the opposite view, among whom may be named Grotius and Fritzsche, who cite the Syriac version in support. On either view there is inexactness in the expression. Seventy times seven re- quires the termination -κις at both words. Seventy-seven times requires the -κις at