The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 128

from heRven. Ye &Ry, It will be fair who will not see tho truth. Of his death weather (,v~la). rrobably an exclamation, and r.:;surrcotion, whereof Jonah we.a e. type, Ye tay, Fair weather 1 Rabbinice.l schools they knew e.nd un<lel'stood nothing, Per mndc a point of teaching weather-lore; haps the:y thought of Jonah only as a,pro- prognostications on this subject were greatly phet agamst the heathen city Nineveh, cmd in Togue, nnd the rains of the coming year e. preacher of repentance, and were disposed were annually foretold. On such meteoro- to resent the alh1sion e.s e.n effront to· their logicnl obser"l'ations, we may refer to Virgil, vaunted righteousness. Re left them. Took 'Geori;t.' i.425,ete.; and Pliny, 'Nat.Hist.,' ship for Mngedan, and orossed tile lake to xviii. 35 nnd 78. the north-east shore, in the noi<>hbouxhood Yer. &-It will be fonl weather to-day; of Betlisaido. Julias. He, as it were, de more tersely in the Greek, To-day a storm! spaired of their improvement, and left them Buch prognostications are found among all in righteous anger at their obduracy. "A peoples. l\Iony examples are colkcted by man that is heretioal after a first and Wctskin. Lowring (u.,-v-y,,&(wv); a word seoond admonition refuse; knowing that applied to the expression of the connte- such e. one is perverted aud sinne'th, being nnn::e (" his countenance fell," l\Iark x. 22), self-condemned" (Titus iii. 10, 11). Jesus and therefore applicable, by prosopopmie., never taught publicly or worked miracles to the look of the sky. Fillion quotes again on this spot. Aulns Gellins, xiii. 29, "Non sol um in hominum corporibus, sed etiam in rerum Vers. 5-12.-Warning against the leaven cnjnsqnemodi alinrnm facies dicitur. Nam of the Pharisees and Saddu,cees. (Mark viii. mantis et cceli et maria fe.cies, si tempestive 14-21.) dic.ilur, probe d.icitur." 0 ye hypocrites Ver. 5.-They had forgotten (~,r,>..d9ono, ( v,ro1<prral). Tlie word is omitted by some not pluperfect); came to the other side, and uncial manuscripts, the Vnlgnte, etc., nnd forgot; obliti sunt (Vulgate); i.e. they per- many modem editors. If it is genuine, ceived tbut they had forgotten to take we must consider that Christ thus calls sufficient breud for the journey before them. them, because their pretence of being satis- The district which they were about to fied with sufficient proof of Christ's claims traverse we.s but sparsely inhabited, and was a mere fiction, e.s they were obstinately offered no hope of supplying this want. It determined never to acknowledge him. It is doubted whether the ensuing conversa- would be casting pearls before swine to give tion took place duxiug the voyage or after fuxtl.Jer external proofs to people without they had landed. The . language of St. l!ympathy and not open to conviction. The Mark inclines one to believe that the de- signs of the times ( TWV l«UpWJI). Critical ficiency was discovered during the transit, times, the age foretold for the appearance and the remarks now narrated were made of the Messiah. These signs, which all then. A.s it would take some hours to cross, who were candid and unbie.saed might read, there was ample time to feel and expatiate were such as the following: the sceptre upon t.he need; and if Christ had told them had departed from Judah, and the lawgiver of his future movements, they would natu- from between his feet; the fourth great rally feel regret for their carelessness and empire we.s established ; the prophetic want of forethought. Or it might be that weeks of De.nit! were at their close ; the Christ's observation concerning the leaven Baptist he.d come in the spirit and power was made in the boat, and his reproof of of Elias; all the world was expecting the their thoughts was given on landing. e.dvent of some great personage; the best Ver. 6.-The leaven. Christ's thoughts iw.d holiest J ewe were looking for the Re- were still fixed on the late disputants, whose deemer; Christ's own miracles and teaching powerful influence on popular opinion called proved his Divinity and the fulfilment of for forcible warning, By "leaven" he does nany obscure prophecies; these and such not here refer specially to the hypocrisy of hke signs were set for all to seo and ponder, the Pharisees e.nd Sadducees, as in Luke and the Lord, o.s he marked t.he obstinate xii 1, but to the evil influence which they unbelief of his countrymen, might well be exercised, which was diffused far and wide, grieved, and "sigh deeply in his spirit" and penetrated to all ranks and classes. (Mark viii 12). Their unsound opinions, their inability or Ver. 4.-A wicked and adnlterou gene- disinclination to enter into the spiritual ration . . . 1 one.a. These words oux Lord sense of Scriptuxe, vitiated their whole he.cl e.lready uttered on a former occasion system, and made them_ dangeI"Ous teachers (eh. xii. 39), but he does not here exple.in directly they attempted to exple.in or am- I.hem, as he did before (see Introduction, § plify the letter of Holy Writ. It wua ihis '1). Under similar circumstances he re- same pervel'BO blindness that led them to peats him.self, but he wastes not time iu refuse to accept Jesus as Messiah in spite 1111eless discUS11io11.11 witli perverse opponents of all the proofs which ho.d been brought cu. xvt. 1-28.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 131