The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 162

awkwe.rd to introduce the figure of a city disciples, as is explained further by the between those of the sun and the lamp, illustrntion or a lamp. .A candle; Revised both these he.ving to do with light. The Version, a lamp (,\Jxvov) ; i.e. the flat, saucer- reason is the.t the city is not considered e.s like Eastern lamp, in which sometimes the such, but only as e.n object which can be wick merely floats on the oil. A bushel ... seen, e.nd which ce.nnct (ob 66vri.-a1,emphati.i) a eandlestiok; Revised Version, the bushel from its physical conditions a.void being .. , the stand (.-bv µ&aiov . . . .-+w ,\uxvlav). seen. There is a true gre.dation in the Probably rightly, for if the article had been thought of influence. The sun must be generic (cf. Mishna, 'Sabb.,' iv. 2, "One seen by all; the city, by the whole neigh- may fill a pitcher [literally, • the pitcher,' bourhood; the lamp, by the family. Our pn•pn nN), e.nd put ii under e. [literally, Lord comes from the general to the par- 'the') pillow, or under a [literally, 'tbe ') ticular; from what is almost theory, at bolster [on the sabbe.th in order to take the beet a matter of hope and faith, to hard chill off it),'' W. H. Lowe, 'Fragment of fact e.nd practice. The influence you are to Pesuchim,' 1879, p. 95 ; er. also Driver on have-if it is to be for the whole world, as 1 Sam. xix. 13) it would have been found indeed it is, must be felt in the neighbour- also before ,\,!xvov. "The description np- hood in which you live, and a.farliori in the plies to the common houses of the people. immediate circle of your own home. Con- In each there was one principal room, in jectures he.ve been made whether any one which they ate and slept ; the le.mpstand, city can reasonably be mentioned ae being with its single light, the flour-bin, and in sight, and so he.ving suggested this image the bed, with a few seats, were o.ll its to our Lord. If the exe.ct spot where he furniture" (Cook, in ' Speaker' ■ Commen- wae then sitting were itseU certe.iu, such tary,' on Mark iv. 21). .A bushel (.-hv µ&6,ov). oonjecturesmight be worth considering. But, This is probably equivalent to the aeah (so in fact, so many "cities" in Palestine were Peshito), which was "the ordinary measure set on hills the.t the inquiry seems vain. for domestic purposes," and, as stated in Bafed, some twelve miles north-west of the margins of the Authorized and the Caperne.um, the view from which extends Revised Versions on eh. xiii. 33, held "nearly to Tiberies (Neube.ur, 'Geogr.,' p. 228), a peck and a half" dry measure. The hes been accepted by many, but evidence is Latin modius, here used to render seah, lacking for it having been a city at that itseU held nearly a peck. In Luke viii. 16 time. Tabor, e.t the south-west of the lake, the vaguer term cr1teiio• is used. " Ilushel " hu e:lso been thought of, and at all events is retained in the Revised Version probably seems to he.ve been then a fortified town. because it co.n be used of the vessel apart The view from it is even more extensive from all thought of measure; cf. '' The than from Bafed ('oide especinlly Socin's Sense represents the Sun no bigger than a Bmdeker, p. 365). Bushel" (Hale [1677), in Murray's 'Oxford Ver. 15.-Neither do men light a oandle, Dictionary'). But on a candle.1tick; Revised eto. The same illnstration oomes in Luke Version, but on the atand (,1rl ,.~., ,\vxvfav); viii 16 (Mark iv. 21), immediately after the Vulgate, from Old Latin, Neque accendunt parable of the sower, and again in Luke xi. lucernam et possunt eam sub modio sed auper 83, immedie.tely after the reference to the candelabrum. Candelabrum ( cf. " chande- repentance of the men of Nineveh nt the lier ") meant a stand for either candles or preaching of Jonah. All four peasages have lamps; henoe Wickliffe, translating from too muoh verbo.1 similarity to admit of nny of the Vulgate, could say, "Ne me(n) teen- them being absolutely independent. Mnrk dith not a lnnterne & puttith it vndir a iv. 21 has the greatest number of pecu- buyschel: but on a cnndilstik." We still liarities. The two passages in Luke agree use "candlestick" in the rarer sense when very closely with each other, but of the two, we spank of the seven-branched "cnndle- Luke xi. 33 most resembles Matthew. The etick" of the te.bernacle, which was ligh led olose agreement here with the context seems by lamps, not cnndles (of. Humphry, on Re- to point to this being cm original position of vised Version, in loo.). It giveth light; the utterance. Of the other two contexts Revised Version, it sltineth (ll.dµ,rE1). The Luke xi. 33, if we must choose, seems the Rheims alone of the older English versions more natural. Godet, however, says, "This renders "shine,'' thus showing tl.Jat the so.me pasee.ge has been placed in the sermon on Greek word is used as in the next verse. the mount, like so many others, rather 'l'he Vulgate (followed by Wickliffe nnd because of the aesociation of idens than Rheims) renders it in the subjunctive, ut from historical reminiscence" (similnrly luceat, possibly originally a copyist's error Weiss). Neither. Tho inherent position, from the luceat oC ver. 16. lf so, it wus so to speak, of Christ's disoiples, ns of a apparently made before the time of Tertul- city set on a mountain, is not occidental. linn (' De Prescript.,' § 26). The thought It auswore to the purpose of their being is still primarily of the light itseU being 154 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MAT'l'HEW. [on. v.1-48.