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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Matthew 6:16 - 6:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Ye fast (νηστεύητε)
Observe the force of the present tense as indicating action in progress: Whenever ye may be fasting.
Of a sad countenance (σκυθρωποί)
An uncommon word in the New Testament, occurring only here and at Luk 24:17. Trench (“Studies in the Gospels”) explains it by the older sense of the English dreary, as expressing the downcast look of settled grief, pain, or displeasure. In classical Greek it also signifies sullenness and affected gravity. Luther renders, Look not sour.
Disfigure (ἀφανίζουσιν)
The idea is rather conceal than disfigure. There is a play upon this word and φανῶσιν (they may appear) which is untranslatable into English: they conceal or mask their true visage that they may appear unto men. The allusion is to the outward signs of humiliation which often accompanied fasting, such as being unwashed and unshaven and unanointed. “Avoid,” says Christ, “the squalor of the unwashed face and of the unkempt hair and beard, and the rather anoint thy head and wash thy face, so as to appear (αφνῇς) not unto men, but unto God as fasting.” Wycliffe's rendering is peculiar: They put their faces out of kindly terms.