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Mat 11:19. Ἄνθρωπος φάγος, κ.τ.λ., a gluttonous man, etc.) They distinguish Him, as one out of many, by a distinction opposed to that mentioned in the preceding verse.-τῶν τέκνων, children) we have shown, in the Apparatus,[532] that τῶν ἔργων-works-was anciently a widely received reading. Ambrose, on Luk 7:35, says:-“Therefore wisdom is justified of all her children.[533] It is well said ‘of all,’ because justice is observed towards all [i.e. in God’s dealings with all], so that the faithful may be accepted, the unfaithful rejected. Very many of the Greeks adopt the reading, ‘Wisdom is justified of all her works,’ because it is the work of justice to observe the due measure towards the merit of every single individual.” He, however, appears to mean the codices of St Matthew, not those of St Luke, for he is in the habit of recurring to them from time to time, although he is commenting on St Luke.[534]-ΑὐΤῆς[535]) Valla[536] thinks that this refers to γενεᾶς; but see Luk 7:35, where there are more remarks on the present passage. Cf. Luk 11:31. [No doubt Christ is the Wisdom meant. The children of Wisdom are those who suffer themselves to be gathered by her into her company. It is for this reason that Wisdom is blamed on the ground of too simple and ready indulgence towards such persons, and she is therefore thus compelled at last to justify herself. Luk 15:1-2, etc.-V. g.]
[532] In the Apparatus, p. 117, he says-
[533] The first sentence is not quoted by Bengel, but, on referring to the original. I considered the meaning so much plainer with it than without it, that I took the liberty of inserting it. The passage in Ambrose stands thus:-
[534] Luke, Luk 7:35, adds πάντων. B corrected later, reads, as the MSS. alluded to by Ambrose, τῶν ἔργων: so MSS. in Jerome, both Syriac and Memph. Versions. But Dac Vulg., Orig., Hil. and Rec. Text, read τέκνων.-ED.
[535] Gen. fem. sing, of αὐτὸς. E. V. renders it her, sc. Wisdom’s. Valla would render it of it, sc. of this generation.-(I. B.)
[536] LAURENTIUS VALLA, one of the most distinguished Latin scholars of the fifteenth century. Born in Rome about 1406; became Professor of Eloquence, first at Pavia, and afterwards at Milan; went to Rome in 1443, and became canon of St John the Lateran. Died 1457. He published, besides many other works, annotations on the N. T.-(I. B.)
“Justificata est ergo Sapientia ab omnibus filiis suis. Bene ab omnibus, quia circa omnes justitia servatur; ut susceptio fiat fidelium rejectio perfidorum. Undeplerique Græci sic habent: Justificata est Sapientia ab omnibus operibus suis; quod opus justitiæ sit, circa unius cujuscunque meritum servare mensuram.”-(I. B.)
“19) τέκνων) operibus notat Hieronymus in Evangeliis quibusdam legi, in Comm. ad h. l. sic vero etiam Æth. Copt. Pers. Syr. Videtur Græcus librarius antiquissimus pro τῶν τέκνων in maxima literarum similitudine, legisse τῶν ἔργων. Quæ strictura docere nos possit, ex Græco Matthæi Evangelio deductum esse Evangelium Nazarenorum [an apocryphal gospel so called], quippe quod hoc loco sine dubio respexit Hieronymus. Eundem varietatem, ex Hieronymo, ut apparet, notavit Hafenrefferus in edit. suâ N. T.”-(I. B.)