Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Matthew 7:13 - 7:13
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
By the narrow gate (dia tēs stenēs pulēs). The Authorized Version “at the strait gate” misled those who did not distinguish between “strait” and “straight.” The figure of the Two Ways had a wide circulation in Jewish and Christian writings (cf. Deu 30:19; Jer 21:8; Psa 1:1-6). See the Didache i-vi; Barnabas xviii-xx. “The narrow gate” is repeated in Mat 7:14 and
straitened the way (tethlimmenē hē hodos) added. The way is “compressed,” narrowed as in a defile between high rocks, a tight place like stenochōria in Rom 8:35. “The way that leads to life involves straits and afflictions” (McNeile). Vincent quotes the Pinax or Tablet of Cebes, a contemporary of Socrates: “Seest thou not, then, a little door, and a way before the door, which is not much crowded, but very few travel it? This is the way that leadeth unto true culture.” “The broad way” (euruchōros) is in every city, town, village, with the glaring white lights that lure to destruction.