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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Matthew 21:29 - 21:29
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I will not (ou thelō). So many old manuscripts, though the Vatican manuscript (B) has the order of the two sons reversed. Logically the “I, sir” (egō, kurie) suits better for the second son (Mat 21:30) with a reference to the blunt refusal of the first. So also the manuscripts differ in Mat 21:31 between the first (ho prōtos) and the last (ho husteros or eschatos). But the one who actually did the will of the father is the one who repented and went (metamelētheis apēlthen). This word really means “repent,” to be sorry afterwards, and must be sharply distinguished from the word metanoeō used 34 times in the N.T. as in Mat 3:2 and metanoia used 24 times as in Mat 3:8. The verb metamelomai occurs in the N.T. only five times (Mat 21:29, Mat 21:32; Mat 27:3; 2Co 7:8; Heb 7:21 from Psa 109:4). Paul distinguishes sharply between mere sorrow and the act “repentance” which he calls metanoian (2Co 7:9). In the case of Judas (Mat 27:3) it was mere remorse. Here the boy got sorry for his stubborn refusal to obey his father and went and obeyed. Godly sorrow leads to repentance (metanoian), but mere sorrow is not repentance.