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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Matthew 6:2 - 6:2
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Sound not a trumpet (mē salpisēis). Is this literal or metaphorical? No actual instance of such conduct has been found in the Jewish writings. McNeile suggests that it may refer to the blowing of trumpets in the streets on the occasion of public fasts. Vincent suggests the thirteen trumpet-shaped chests of the temple treasury to receive contributions (Luk 21:2). But at Winona Lake one summer a missionary from India named Levering stated to me that he had seen Hindu priests do precisely this very thing to get a crowd to see their beneficences. So it looks as if the rabbis could do it also. Certainly it was in keeping with their love of praise. And Jesus expressly says that “the hypocrites” (hoi hupokritai) do this very thing. This is an old word for actor, interpreter, one who personates another, from hupokrinomai to answer in reply like the Attic apokrinomai. Then to pretend, to feign, to dissemble, to act the hypocrite, to wear a mask. This is the hardest word that Jesus has for any class of people and he employs it for these pious pretenders who pose as perfect.
They have received their reward (apechousin ton misthon autōn). This verb is common in the papyri for receiving a receipt, “they have their receipt in full,” all the reward that they will get, this public notoriety. “They can sign the receipt of their reward” (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 229). So Light from the Ancient East, pp. 110f. Apochē means “receipt.” So also in Mat 6:5.