Mat 3:7, 16:1 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 7. Pharisees ] A very numerous sect among the Jews, who, in their origin , were, very probably, a pure and holy people. It is likely that they got the name of Pharisees, i.e. Separatists , (from pharash , to separate ,) from their separating themselves from the pollution of the Jewish national worship; and hence, the word in the Anglo-saxon version is [Anglo-Saxon], holy persons who stand apart , or by themselves: but, in process of time, like all religious sects and parties , they degenerated : they lost the spirit of their institution , they ceased to recur to first principles, and had only the form of godliness, when Jesus Christ preached in Judea; for he bore witness, that they did make the outside of the cup and platter clean-they observed the rules of their institution, but the spirit was gone. Sadducees ] A sect who denied the existence of angels and spirits, consequently all Divine influence and inspiration , and also the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees of that time were the Materialists and Deists of the Jewish nation. When the sect of the Pharisees arose cannot be distinctly ascertained; but it is supposed to have been some time after the Babylonish captivity. The sect of the Sadducees were the followers of one Sadok, a disciple of Antigonus Sochaeus, who flourished about three centuries before Christ. There was a third sect among the Jews, called the Essenes or Essenians , of whom I shall have occasion to speak on . Come to his baptism ] The AEthiopic version adds the word privately here, the translator probably having read λαθρα in his copy, which gives a very remarkable turn to the passage. The multitudes, who had no worldly interest to support, no character to maintain by living in their usual way, came publicly , and openly acknowledged that they were SINNERS; and stood in need of mercy. The others , who endeavoured to secure their worldly interests by making a fair show in the flesh, are supposed to have come privately , that they might not be exposed to reproach; and that they might not lose their reputation for wisdom and sanctity , which their consciences, under the preaching of the Baptist, told them they had no right to. See below. O generation of vipers ] γεννηματαεχιδνων. A terribly expressive speech. A serpentine brood, from a serpentine stock . As their fathers were , so were they, children of the wicked one. This is God's estimate of a SINNER, whether he wade in wealth, or soar in fame . The Jews were the seed of the serpent, who should bruise the heel of the woman's seed, and whose head should be bruised by him. Who hath warned you ] Or, privately shown you . τις επεδιξεν-from υπο, under , and δεικνυμαι, to show . Does not this seem to allude to the reading of the AEthiopic noticed above? They came privately : and John may be supposed to address them thus: "Did any person give you a private warning? No, you received your convictions under the public ministry of the word. The multitudes of the poor and wretched, who have been convinced of sin, have publicly acknowledged their crimes, and sought mercy-God will unmask you-you have deceived the people-you have deceived yourselves-you must appear just what you are; and, if you expect mercy from God, act like the penitent multitude, and bring forth FRUIT worthy of repentance. Do not begin to trifle with your convictions, by thinking, that because you are descendants of Abraham, therefore you are entitled to God's favour; God can, out of these stones (pointing probably to those scattered about in the desert, which he appears to have considered as an emblem of the Gentiles) raise up a faithful seed, who, though not natural descendants of your excellent patriarch, yet shall be his worthy children, as being partakers of his faith, and friends of his God." It should be added, that the Greek word also signifies plain or ample information . See on . The wrath to come? ] The desolation which was about to fall on the Jewish nation for their wickedness, and threatened in the last words of their own Scriptures. See . Lest I come and smite the earth ( et ha-arets, this very land ) with a curse . This wrath or curse was coming: they did not prevent it by turning to God, and receiving the Messiah, and therefore the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost. Let him that readeth understand.

‏ Matthew 3:7

Verse 7. Pharisees] A very numerous sect among the Jews, who, in their origin, were, very probably, a pure and holy people. It is likely that they got the name of Pharisees, i.e. Separatists, (from pharash, to separate,) from their separating themselves from the pollution of the Jewish national worship; and hence, the word in the Anglo-saxon version is [Anglo-Saxon], holy persons who stand apart, or by themselves: but, in process of time, like all religious sects and parties, they degenerated: they lost the spirit of their institution, they ceased to recur to first principles, and had only the form of godliness, when Jesus Christ preached in Judea; for he bore witness, that they did make the outside of the cup and platter clean-they observed the rules of their institution, but the spirit was gone.

Sadducees] A sect who denied the existence of angels and spirits, consequently all Divine influence and inspiration, and also the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees of that time were the Materialists and Deists of the Jewish nation. When the sect of the Pharisees arose cannot be distinctly ascertained; but it is supposed to have been some time after the Babylonish captivity. The sect of the Sadducees were the followers of one Sadok, a disciple of Antigonus Sochaeus, who flourished about three centuries before Christ. There was a third sect among the Jews, called the Essenes or Essenians, of whom I shall have occasion to speak on Mt 19:12.

Come to his baptism] The AEthiopic version adds the word privately here, the translator probably having read λαθρα in his copy, which gives a very remarkable turn to the passage. The multitudes, who had no worldly interest to support, no character to maintain by living in their usual way, came publicly, and openly acknowledged that they were SINNERS; and stood in need of mercy. The others, who endeavoured to secure their worldly interests by making a fair show in the flesh, are supposed to have come privately, that they might not be exposed to reproach; and that they might not lose their reputation for wisdom and sanctity, which their consciences, under the preaching of the Baptist, told them they had no right to. See below.

O generation of vipers] γεννηματαεχιδνων. A terribly expressive speech. A serpentine brood, from a serpentine stock. As their fathers were, so were they, children of the wicked one. This is God's estimate of a SINNER, whether he wade in wealth, or soar in fame. The Jews were the seed of the serpent, who should bruise the heel of the woman's seed, and whose head should be bruised by him.

Who hath warned you] Or, privately shown you. τις επεδιξεν-from υπο, under, and δεικνυμαι, to show. Does not this seem to allude to the reading of the AEthiopic noticed above? They came privately: and John may be supposed to address them thus: "Did any person give you a private warning? No, you received your convictions under the public ministry of the word. The multitudes of the poor and wretched, who have been convinced of sin, have publicly acknowledged their crimes, and sought mercy-God will unmask you-you have deceived the people-you have deceived yourselves-you must appear just what you are; and, if you expect mercy from God, act like the penitent multitude, and bring forth FRUIT worthy of repentance. Do not begin to trifle with your convictions, by thinking, that because you are descendants of Abraham, therefore you are entitled to God's favour; God can, out of these stones (pointing probably to those scattered about in the desert, which he appears to have considered as an emblem of the Gentiles) raise up a faithful seed, who, though not natural descendants of your excellent patriarch, yet shall be his worthy children, as being partakers of his faith, and friends of his God." It should be added, that the Greek word also signifies plain or ample information. See on Lu 6:47.

The wrath to come?] The desolation which was about to fall on the Jewish nation for their wickedness, and threatened in the last words of their own Scriptures. See Mal 4:6. Lest I come and smite the earth (et ha-arets, this very land) with a curse. This wrath or curse was coming: they did not prevent it by turning to God, and receiving the Messiah, and therefore the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost. Let him that readeth understand.

‏ Matthew 16:1

CHAPTER XVI.

The Pharisees insidiously require our Lord to give them a sign,

They are severely rebuked for their hypocrisy and wickedness,

2-5.

The disciples are cautioned to beware of them and their destructive doctrine, 6-12.

The different opinions formed by the people of Christ, 13, 14.

Peter's confession, and our Lord's discourse on it, 15-20.

He foretells his sufferings, and reproves Peter, 21-23.

Teaches the necessity of self-denial, and shows the reasons on which it is founded, 24-26.

Speaks of a future judgment, 27.

And promises the speedy opening of the glory of his own kingdom on earth, 28.

NOTES ON CHAP. XVI.

Verse 1. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees] Though a short account of these has been already given in a note on Mt 3:7, yet, as one more detailed may be judged necessary, I think it proper to introduce it in this place.

The PHARISEES were the most considerable sect among the Jews, for they had not only the scribes, and all the learned men of the law of their party, but they also drew after them the bulk of the people. When this sect arose is uncertain. Josephus, Antiq. lib. v. c. xiii. s. 9, speaks of them as existing about 144 years before the Christian era. They had their appellation of Pharisees, from parash, to separate, and were probably, in their rise, the most holy people among the Jews, having separated themselves from the national corruption, with a design to restore and practice the pure worship of the most High. That they were greatly degenerated in our Lord's time is sufficiently evident; but still we may learn, from their external purity and exactness, that their principles in the beginning were holy. Our Lord testifies that they had cleansed the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they were full of abomination. They still kept up the outward regulations of the institution, but they had utterly lost its spirit; and hypocrisy was the only substitute now in their power for that spirit of piety which I suppose, and not unreasonably, characterized the origin of this sect.

As to their religious opinions, they still continued to credit the being of a God; they received the five books of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the hagiographa. The hagiographa or holy writings, from αγιος holy, and γραφω I write, included the twelve following books-Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. These, among the Jews, occupied a middle place between the law and the prophets, as divinely inspired. The Pharisees believed, in a confused way, in the resurrection, though they received the Pythagorean doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls. Those, however, who were notoriously wicked, they consigned, on their death, immediately to hell, without the benefit of transmigration, or the hope of future redemption. They held also the predestinarian doctrine of necessity, and the government of the world by fate; and yet, inconsistently, allowed some degree of liberty to the human will. See Prideaux.

The SADDUCEES had their origin and name from one Sadoc, a disciple of Antigonus of Socho, president of the Sanhedrin, and teacher of the law in one of the great divinity schools in Jerusalem, about 264 years before the incarnation.

This Antigonus having often in his lectures informed his scholars, that they should not serve God through expectation of a reward, but through love and filial reverence only, Sadoc inferred from this teaching that there were neither rewards nor punishments after this life, and, by consequence, that there was no resurrection of the dead, nor angel, nor spirit, in the invisible world; and that man is to be rewarded or punished here for the good or evil he does.

They received only the five books of Moses, and rejected all unwritten traditions. From every account we have of this sect, it plainly appears they were a kind of mongrel deists, and professed materialists. See Prideaux, and the authors he quotes, Connex. vol. iii. p. 95, and 471, &c., and See Clarke on Mt 3:7.

In Mt 22:16, we shall meet with a third sect, called HERODIANS, of whom a few words may be spoken here, It is allowed on all hands that these did not exist before the time of Herod the Great, who died only three years after the incarnation of our Lord. What the opinions of these were is not agreed among the learned. Many of the primitive fathers believed that their distinguishing doctrine was, that they held Herod to be the Messiah; but it is not likely that such an opinion could prevail in our Saviour's time, thirty years after Herod's death, when not one characteristic of Messiahship had appeared in him during his life. Others suppose that they were Herod's courtiers, who flattered the passions of their master, and, being endowed with a convenient conscience, changed with the times; but, as Herod was now dead upwards of thirty years, such a sect could not exist in reference to him; and yet all allow that they derived their origin from Herod the Great.

Our Lord says, Mr 8:15, that they had the leaven of Herod, i.e. a bad doctrine, which they received from him. What this was may be easily discovered: 1. Herod subjected himself and his people to the dominion of the Romans, in opposition to that law, De 17:15, Thou shalt not set a king over thee-which is not thy brother, i.e. one out of the twelve tribes. 2. He built temples, sat up images, and joined in heathenish worship, though he professed the Jewish religion; and this was in opposition to all the law and the prophets. From this we may learn that the Herodians were such as, first, held it lawful to transfer the Divine government to a heathen ruler; and, secondly, to conform occasionally to heathenish rites in their religious worship. In short, they appear to have been persons who trimmed between God and the world-who endeavoured to reconcile his service with that of mammon-and who were religious just as far as it tended to secure their secular interests. It is probable that this sect was at last so blended with, that it became lost in, the sect of the Sadducees; for the persons who art called Herodians, Mr 8:15, are styled Sadducees in Mt 16:6. See Prideaux, Con. vol. iii. p. 516, &c., and Josephus, Antiq. b. xv. c. viii. s. i. and x. s. iii. But it is very likely that the Herodians, mentioned c. xxii. 10, were courtiers or servants of Herod king of Galilee. See the note there.

Show them a sign] These sects, however opposed among themselves, most cordially unite in their opposition to Christ and his truth. That the kingdom of Satan may not fall, all his subjects must fight against the doctrine and maxims of the kingdom of Christ.

Tempting-him] Feigning a desire to have his doctrine fully proved to them, that they might credit it, and become his disciples; but having no other design than to betray and ruin him.