The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 586

tion of Btophcn (Aots vi. 13, 14). Savo thy- Ha om111S1on ie more concinnous to the self. 'l'hou who boastest of thy power to other taunts, e.g. "He saved other& ; " "He destroy and rebuild this magnificent and trusteJ in God." His claim to be Mossiah solid tomplo, employ that power in delivering would involve the Kingship of Israel (eh. thyself from thy well-deserved death. Little ii. 6), which the title over his head asserted. they knew that Christ wae then fulfllling We will believe him (1run,6<1oµev aJ-r,p). hie own prediction, ,vhich would ere long We will believe (not subj., "let ue believe") be fully accomplished. As little did they what he says. The Sinaitic, Vatican, a.nd understand that by hie worcls (" I a.m able other good manuscripts read 1-.' a!n6v, "on to destroy," iustead of, "Destroy ye") they him." So Westcott anrl Hort, Tischendorf, were bearing witness to the truth that he eto. This form of expression woulrl imply wa.e voluntarily laying down his life, and that they would put their trust in him, that but for this surrender they could hnve become his followers. A. confident boa.at I ha.d no power over him. If thou be the for they were eo fully pereuacled of the final Son of God, eto. Some manuscripts and triumph of their malice, that they deemed versions read the passage thus : " Save thy- they might safely make euch a. promise. self, if thou be the Son of God, a.nd come And yet Christ did a. greater thing than down from the cross." But the Received come down alive from the cross ; he rose Text ia most probably correct. These revilers from the delil.d; but they believed not in a.re doing the devil's work, a.nd are quoting him. And if the eign which they aske,l hia words (eh. iv. 6), in thus taunting had been vouchsafed, they would have ex- Jesus. They 1·efer to our Lord's own state- plained it a.way, or evaded its meaning, aurl ment before Pilate (eh. xxvi. 64), thinking have been no nearer to sal va.tion than it expedient to keep this chiim before the now. people's mind. He might, indeed, have Ver. 49.-B:e trusted in (hi, cm) God. answered the jibe by coming down from the These scoffers cite a, passage from Ps. xxii. cross; but then, as Bishop Pearson says, in 8, "He trusted unto the Lord that he saving himself he would not have saved us. woukl deliver him; let him deliver him, Ver. 41.-Likewise also. All classes seeing he delighteth in him" (Hebrew); or, that composed the Sanhedrin were present o.ccoriling to the Septuagint, "He hoped o.t the execution, and took part in the in the Lord; let him deliver him, let him reviling ; but, unlike the soldiers (Luke save him, because he desires (8b1.«) him." xxiii. :16) o.nrl the mob, they did not address Let him deliver him now, if he will ha.va him personally, either from supreme con- him (,l 8b,.,. a&rdv). ebt. w is used in the tempt, or because they stood aloof from the Septuagint in the sense of " I love," " I wish herd, and spo.ke among themselves. Some for" (see Deut. xxi. 14; Ps. xvii. 19; xl. few authorities of no great weight, after 11). But the Vulga.te, by omitting the first "elders" add "a.nd Pharisees ; " but the aoTdv, possibly takes the verb in the usual words are o.n interpolation, though they a.re eenee, Liberet nunc, Bi wlt, eum. The without doub( true in fa.et. That these Sina.iticend Vaticen meuuecript.s and other■ leaders should presume thus to revile One support this reading, which is followed now whom· they knew to be inn.,cent is un- by Tischendorf, end Westcott a.nd Hort, so speakably iniquitous. that the clause will run, Let him no,r, if he Ver. 42.-He ee.ved others. They knew will, deliver him. But the Becei ved Text end something of his many miracles of healing; the Authorized Version a.re in closer agree- many among them had witnessed the cure ment with the original le.ngua.ge of the of the man blind from his birth (John ix.); psalm. For he so.id, I am the Son of God. most must have heard of the raising of Insultingly they allude to hia own assertions Lozo.rue ;-they mode these very works of concerning his Divine na.tnre, implying tl1a.t, mercy a. reproach against him. He had were he such as he pretended to be, he would proved himself e.' beneficent Saviour; he not now be dying on the shameful croes. ha.d shown superhuman power, and yet they There are wonderful coincidences in thought sa.y, Himself he oo.nnot save. There was and language between this passage eud one indeed a. eenee, not their sense, in whir.h in the Book of Wisdom (ii. 13-20), which this was true. 011rist willed to die; it was speaks of the oppression of the rigbteo11s, hie purpose thus to redeem mankind ; in e.g." He professeth to he.ve the knowlnlge adhering to this steadfast determination he of God; nnd be calleth himself the child of conlrl not deliver himself from suffering the Loni. . . . Let us seo if his words be a.nd death. Some read the clause interroga- true; nnd let us prove what shall happen tively, "Cannot he save himself?" It is in the eud of him. For if the just man be then parallel to the expression used at the the Son of God, he will help him, and grave of La.zm·us (John xi. 37). If he be deliver him from the himd of his enemies." the King of Israel. "If" ( ,I) is omitted by The similarity of expression is to be attri- N, B, D, L, eto., nnd muny modern editors. buted to the typical nature of the treatment  m2 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [ou. xxvu.1-66.