Then came Peter to him, and said: Lord, how oft shall my 21 brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him: I say not unto thee, until seven times, 22 but until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of 23 heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was 24 brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But 25 illustrated by the Rabbinical writers, who say: "If two men sit down with the law between them, the Shechinah or Divine Presence is with them." Wherever you are gathered together as my Apostles, though it be but two or three, i. e. a small number, yet it shall be as though I were personally present and praying with you, and blessed your devotions and meeting. My truth, my authority, my spirit shall be with you. 1 Cor. v. 3, 4. The wholly unwarranted conclusion has been drawn from this text, that Jesus was the omnipresent God, else his promise would have no significance. But even if he were personally present in every Christian assembly in the world, it would be far from proving his infinite presence in all worlds and all space. But if he were God, and known to be God by his disciples, it would have been superfluous for him to have said that he should be present with them under certain circumstances; for they would have known that he would necessarily be ever and everywhere present. It may be remarked here, that Jesus is an Intercessor with the Father for his disciples on earth. 1 John ii. 1. 21. How oft shall my brother sin, c. Peter may have been prompted to this inquiry, by the remarks upon treating one who had injured us, in verses 15-17, or perhaps by some indignity which he himself may have suffered in the dispute between the Apostles, verse 1. The expression, brother, is to be under stood as meaning one of a common faith, or one of the common human brotherhood. · Till seven times? Seven was called the full or complete number. Peter might have been led to specify the particular number, because that was a matter in discussion among the Jews, who, according to Lightfoot, pardoned the third, but not the fourth offence. So that Peter had doubled the number, as if to go to the greatest length of mercy. 22. But Jesus would inculcate a far nobler spirit than that of the Jewish schools. I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Forgive as long and as often as there is need or opportunity of doing it, and the of fender sincerely repents. There is no limit to the exercise of a merciful disposition; for so the number seventy times seven indicates. Luke xvii. 4. forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and pay26 ment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying: Lord, have patience with me, and I will 27 pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with 28 compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, which owed him an hundred pence; and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying: Pay me that thou owest. 29 And his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, 30 saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not; but went and cast him into prison, till he should 31 pay the debt. So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were very sorry; and came and told unto their lord all 32 that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him: O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that 33 debt, because thou desiredst me; shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on 34 thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor talent, about fifteen times as much. The sense is, an immense sum, and hence a large round number is used to express it. 25. Commanded him to be sold, &c. This was in accordance with the Jewish practices, if not law. The servitude thus produced could, however, last but six years. Lev. xxv. 39-46; 2 Kings iv. 1; Amos viii. 6. The same custom also prevailed among the Greeks and Romans, and debtors were often subject to great cruelties by whippings and imprisonments from their creditors. ·And payment to be made. So far as practicable out of the proceeds of the sale. 26. Worshipped him. Did him obesiance. Have patience with me. Tyndale translates, Give me respite." 27. Forgave him the debt, i. e. granted his request, and remitted the debt for the present. mentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So like- 35 wise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. CHAPTER XIX. Conversations of Jesus. AND it came to pass, that, when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of prisonment, in the east, is a great punishment; since offenders, particularly state criminals, are scantily fed, treated with great severity, loaded with clogs and chains, and subjected to scourgings and rackings, which speedily end their lives. The Great Teacher would thus graphically paint the miserable consequences of a hard and unforgiving temper. 35. From your hearts. Sincerely and honestly. Their. His. This verse expresses the moral or application of the parable; "He shall have judgment without mercy, who hath showed no mercy." Revenge is the part of a beast, but forgiveness is the part of a man, the part of God. God will treat his children as they treat one another; such is his law. An unforgiving disposition draws upon itself a dreadful punishment, not by any arbitrary enactment, but by the natural arrangement of things. It fills the heart with bitterness and ashes. We learn from this parable, 1st, That forgiveness of our sins by God, great though they be, depends upon the condition that we forgive others, though their offences are comparatively small; according to the petition of the Lord's prayer. Penitence is another condition, though not stated here, as the object of this parable did not require it. 2d, That God forgives freely. There was no interposition on the part of any person to stand surety, or make payment for the debtor; CHAP. XIX. 1-9. Parallel to Mark x. 1-12. 1. He departed from Galilee. He did not visit Galilee again, till after his resurrection. We are told by Luke, that he now "steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem," as if 2 Judea, beyond Jordan. And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. 3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for 4 every cause? And he answered and said unto them: Have ye not read, that he, which made them at the beginning, made 5 them male and female; and said: "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and 6 they twain shall be one flesh"? Wherefore they are no more he summoned up courage for his approaching fate. Coasts of Judea, beyond Jordan. An obscurity rests upon this sentence, which has long perplexed the learned. For Judea proper did not extend east of the Jordan, or include the Peræa, or that region beyond the Jordan. It has been suggested, that "beyond Jordan,' or the Jordan, properly speaking, should be rendered upon or by the side of the Jordan. John i. 28. But the more probable explanation is, that he came into Judea, from Galilee, not by the direct and customary route through Samaria, which he had been prevented from taking by the inhospitality of the inhabitants, Luke ix. 52, 53, but by the more circuitous route through the Perea so called, according to Mark, "the farther side of Jordan," and, as Matthew has it, "beyond Jordan." 3. To put away his wife for every cause. For any cause or fault whatever. It is probable, that this, like other questions proposed by the Pharisees, was asked, not for the sake of information, but to involve Jesus in difficulty. Two celebrated schools existed at this time among the Jews, called by the names of two great teachers, Hillel and Shammai, which held different views upon the dissolution of the marriage relation; that of Shammai contending that divorce was unlawful, except in the single case of infidelity in the connexion, whilst that of Hillel, more lax, permitted the union to be severed on any trivial ground, as that of dislike or discontent. Deut. xxiv. 1. The answer of Jesus they supposed could not be framed without exposing him to the odium of one or the other of these parties. From verse 10, we infer that these questioners belonged to the school of Hillel. 4. But the usual wisdom of Jesus did not desert him. He refers them, beyond the quibbling and jargon of the schools, to the authority of the Great Lawgiver, and the purpose of God, who made the sexes, and instituted marriage as a connexion not to be dissolved for any slight cause. Gen. i. 27, ii. 21, 22. "God created at first no more than a single pair, one of each sex, whom he united in the bond of marriage, and in so doing exhibited a standard of that union to all generations.' Male and female. Rather, a male and a female. 5. And said. The nominative to this verb is doubtful. It may be God, or Moses, or the Scripture, or the verb may be impersonal. - For this cause. On account of the divine purpose, in making them of different sexes.-Twain. Two. The binding tenure of the relation is illustrated by the two facts, that the most intimate and early connexions, as the filial and fraternal ones, are given up for this new one; and that twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. They say unto him: Why 7 did Moses, then, command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? He saith unto them: Moses, because 8 of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto 9 you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His 10 disciples say unto him: If the case of the man be so with his two persons thus joined become as one flesh, one person, one soul, having like privileges and rights. The inference is, then, that no trivial cause should sunder such a riveted union. 6. Hath joined together. The verb in the original signifies yoked together, by a metaphor taken from the yoking of oxen. Indeed, in some countries, a yoke or chains are put upon the newly married couple, as emblems of their close connexion. Jesus declares that the marriage bond is sanctioned by God, and not to be lightly sundered by human caprice or folly. 7. They objected to this reasoning, that Moses, in his law, permitted divorces. Deut. xxiv. 1-4. Command to give a writing, &c. The command of Moses related not to the putting away, which he permitted for the reason stated in the next verse, but to the giving of a bill of divorce. 8. Because of the hardness of your hearts. On account of your intractable disposition, referring to the Jewish people in general. We here have an explicit admission, that some laws and customs among the chosen people were in themselves imperfect, but were necessary, that peculiar and semi-barbarous period. Had the Jews not been permitted to put away their wives in many cases, they might have treated in them with great cruelty, and even put them to death. Thus civil laws, in all periods, present no perfect standard of right, but are necessarily mixed with imperfections, in their accommodation to the age and the people. The civil regulations of the great Hebrew legislator, in this respect, shared the common fate of all political institutions. They were, for the time, best suited to the wants of the Jewish nation, but destined to be outgrown and superseded, by a jurisprudence more nearly in accordance with immutable right. In saying that "from the beginning it was not so," Jesus asserts that the original purpose, in the Divine establishment of the relation, was, that it should be perpetual. The influence of his religion has given, wherever it has gone, new sanctity to marriage, and thus elevated woman and home. 9. I say unto you. There is in these words a lofty tone of unborrowed and original authority, as if he were speaking from heaven, and not of himself. See note on Matt. v. 32; Luke xvi. 18. According to Mark, these words were uttered in private, to the disciples, after they had retired from the crowd. A divorce is permitted by Christ in the single case of conjugal unfaithfulness. 10. If the case of the man be so with his wife, &c. If such be the condi |
