Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Matthew 20:26 - 20:26
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat 20:26. Οὐχ οὕτως δὲ ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν, but it shall not be so among you) “It appears to me not at all natural to suppose that all use and exercise of civil authority is in this passage utterly forbidden to those to whom these words apply, and much less so that our Lord meant to forbid, by these words, all precedence and inequality amongst His followers, since He Himself both expressly recognises degrees amongst them, by which some are preferred to others, as greater to less (see Luk 22:26), and also proposes Himself to them as an example (ὑπόδειγμα); see ibid. 27; Mat 20:28. Christ therefore, by this prohibition, did not derogate more from the authority of His followers over each other, than He did from His own over them.”-GATAKER: hierarchically enough.-ἐν ὑμῖν, amongst you) These words “seem to apply to all Christians, whether princes or plebeians.”-Ibid. “Christ teaches that His kingdom is carried on upon different principles from those of this world; for that in those there were external dignities, princedoms, and satrapies, which the respective kings were in the habit of conferring, according to their caprice, upon those whom they wished to honour; but that in His kingdom nothing of this sort was to be found; not because those things were not to be met with, or might not be lawfully exercised in the Church of Christ or amongst the professors of the Christian name, but because they do not pertain to, or arise from, the spiritual kingdom of Christ, to which He invites His followers. Moreover, that there was no reason why any one, in following Him, should promise himself the possession of such dignities, since He neither promised such things to any one, nor took or exercised them Himself: that He professed Himself, by practice as well as precept, to be, not the dispenser of secular dignities, but the author and teacher of humility and spiritual modesty. He exhorts all His followers, therefore, that (utterly laying aside all ambition) they should conform themselves to these virtues, of which they have an example in Himself.”-Ibid.-μέγας, great) the minister of a great king is him self great.