The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 119

hand, Sepp supposes that the name of the the Four Gospels,' p. 104). Zabnlon and , . , llfi11im (Jewish Christians), who are known Nephthalim, equivalent to the later Upper t,, have been numerous nt Capernaum down and Lower Galilee. By the way of the sea ; to the time of Constantine, has beon pre- toward the sea (Revised Version); cf. Jer. ii. served in the Kh&.n Minyeh" (Socin's • Bm- 18 ; "i.e. the district on the W. of the See. deker,' p. 3,3). Which is upon the sea of Galilee, as opposed to 'the olher side of coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Neph- Jordan,' and • the circle of tho n11tions,' thalim. The details are mentioned to show i.e. the frontier districts nearest to Phce- the e.ccordanoe with the following prophecy. nicia, including • the land of Cabul ' (1 Neubauer ('Geogr. du Talm.,' p. 222, edit. Kings ix, 11-IS), which formed part of 1868) points out that, according to Josh. the later Upper Galilee. Via Maris, ll'L xix. 33, 34, and the notices in the Talmud, Renan observes, was the name of the high the whole western side of the lake was in road from Acre to Damnscus, es late as the Naphtali, and that hence Capernaum could Crusades. • Way,' however, here meana not, strictly speaking, be "in the borders of 'region' (cf. Isa. lviii. 12; Job xxiv. 4)'' Ze.bulon and Nephthe.lim." He himself ex- (Cheyne, on Isa. ix. 1). Yet hardly so; 61i&11 plains the discrepancy by saying that St. is adverbie.l, 1 Kings viii. 48 (equivalent Matthew imitates the Hagga.distio methods to 2 Chron. vi. 38), and designates the in e.ccommorlating the geography to the stretching of the distlicts of Zebulun and text he quotes. But it is clear that the Naphtali towards the sea. The see. is the expression is satisfied by the fact that Sea of Galilee. The close union of this Zebnlun was really near Capemaum, and clause in the Authorized Version with the that numbers of those who frequented the following words," beyond Jordan," misses its town must have come from Zebulun. The true meaning as explane.tory of the position position of Capemaum thW! formed qnite a of Zebulun and Naphtali, and rather takes sufficient reason for quoting the prophecy it as describing some special locality east in Isaiah. Our evangelist, who (eh. ii.) of Jordan. Beyond Jordan; i.e. the eastern h11d noticed 1.he coming of distant heathen side, mentioned in 2 Kings xv. 29 e.s having to worship Messiah, though he was per- suffered with Naphtali under the Assyrian secuted by the then mler of the nation, inmsion; see further ver. 25. Galilee of found it ~ery significant that his public the Gentiles (1'ide ,upra, "by the way of activity should begin at a distance from the the sea"). home of the hierarchy, and in a district Ver. 16.-The people whioh sat; "who which had been the first to suffer from walk" (Hebrew). Saw great light; saw a heathen attacks in the past, and had at the great light (Revised Version) ; . uunecesso.rily present momrnt e. population in which there except as a matter of English, for it can was a great mixture of the heathen element hardly mean e. definite light, Messiah. (of. Weiss,' Mattbli.W!-Evang. '). foe.is both here and in the next clause menus Ver.15.-The land of Zabulon, etc. From light as such. And to them which sat. So Isa. ix. 1, 2, spoiled in the Authorized Ver- the Hebrew, but the LXX. generally al sion, but rendered correctly in the Revised 1<a.To1,cov11Tu. In the region and shadow of Version. Isaiah says that those parts of death. The region where death abides, and the land which had borne the first brunt where it casts iis thickest shade. The of the Assyrian inve.sions under Tiglath- Hebrew is simply "in the lo.nd of tha Pileser (2 Kinge xv. 29; cf. Zech. x. 10), shadow of death " (n1cC,:11 f'11t:l, 11ccording shall be proportionately glorified by the advent of Mesijiah. Wetstein gives e. tradi- to the traditional interpretation), which the tion from the 'Pesikt. Zut.,' of Messiah ben present LXX. (Vatica.n) p1·obably represents Joseph first appearing in GaliJee; hut the (i11 XWP'f """f 8a111frov), the • of u,c,iir whole pe.ssage (quoted in Dalm.an's 'Der having been misread before 9. But copyists, Leidende und der Sterbende Messias,' pp. not understanding this, inserted ,cal between 10-13} clearly points to e. knowledge of x,1,pq. and ""'If (as in A), and this reading the New Testament. As to the forrn of the became popularly known, and was used by quotation, observe: (I) Matthew disregards the eve.ngelist. That the reading of A was the Hebrew construction, and gives merely derived from the evaugelist is unlikely, for the 11eneral sense. (2) He takes it from the reading ""'If must, at all events, have the Rtbrew, not the LXX. (3) This last been bcforu his time. Light is sprung up j point is doubtless to be connected with the to them did light Bpring up (Revised Ver- fact that the quotation does not occur in the sion); l,,,,h.,,._,.,_ 'l'he tense emphasizes not other Gospels, i.e. that it did not belong to the abiding effect (e.g. iu the fact thnt so the Petrina cycle of teaching, and if it did many of the disciples were Galilreans), but belong to the "Matthean" cycle, not to that the moment of his appenrnnce. The father forrn which was current among Gentile of the Baptist also remembered this passage Christia.us (cf. A. Wright, • Composition of of Isaie.h (Luke i. 7S. 79, where of. Godet), en, IV, 1-25,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 109