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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Matthew 25:32 - 25:32
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
All the nations (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη)
The whole human race; though the word is generally employed in the New Testament to denote Gentiles as distinguished from Jews.
Separate them (αὐτοὺς)
Masculine, while the word nations is neuter. Nations are regarded as gathered collectively; but in contemplating the act of separation the Lord regards the individuals.
The sheep from the goats (or kids, so Rev. in margin)
“The bald division of men into sheep and goats is, in one sense, so easy as not to be worth performing; and in another sense it is so hard as only to be possible for something with supernatural insight” (John Morley, “Voltaire”). Goats are an appropriate figure, because the goat was regarded as a comparatively worthless animal. Hence the point of the elder son's complaint in the parable of the Prodigal: Not so much as a kid (Luk 15:29). The diminutive (ἐρίφια) expresses contempt.