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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - Matthew 22:42 - 22:42
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
What think ye of Christ? - Or, What are your thoughts concerning The Christ - the Messiah; for to this title the emphatic article should always be added.
Whose son is he? - From what family is he to spring?
They say unto him, The son of David - This was a thing well known among the Jews, and universally acknowledged, see Joh 7:42; and is a most powerful proof against them that the Messiah is come. Their families are now so perfectly confounded that they cannot trace back any of their genealogies with any degree of certainty: nor have they been capable of ascertaining the different families of their tribes for more than sixteen hundred years. Why, then, should the spirit of prophecy assert so often, and in such express terms, that Jesus was to come from the family of David; if he should only make his appearance when the public registers were all demolished, and it would be impossible to ascertain the family? Is it not evident that God designed that the Messiah should come at a time when the public genealogies might be inspected, to prove that it was he who was prophesied of, and that no other was to be expected? The evangelists, Matthew and Luke, were so fully convinced of the conclusiveness of this proof that they had recourse to the public registers; and thus proved to the Jews, from their own records, that Jesus was born of the family mentioned by the prophets. Nor do we find that a scribe, Pharisee, or any other, ever attempted to invalidate this proof, though it would have essentially subserved their cause, could they have done it. But as this has not been done, we may fairly conclude it was impossible to do it.