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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Matthew 3:9 - 3:9
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Mat 3:9. Μὴ δόξητε, think not) The verb δοκῶ, to appear or imagine (in the same manner as φάσκω, to allege or suppose, the particle ὡς, as; and the Latin expressions, præ mefero, to profess; ostendo, to declare; puto, to suppose; videor, to seem; apparet, it appears; species, appearance), sometimes denotes a thing which is true, and at the same apparent; sometimes an empty appearance, which any one presents to himself or others. And thus the meaning in this passage is, “You may indeed say this, in some degree, with truth, but you must not plume yourselves upon it.”[125]-λέγειν, to say) i.e. with safety.-τὸν Ἀβραὰμ, Abraham) as there is no lack of his posterity.-λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν, for I say unto you) A most solemn formula, employed by a great man, on an occasion of the highest importance.-Cf. Gnomon on ch. Mat 5:18.-δύναται, is able) The Jews supposed that they could not fall utterly away.-ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων, from these stones) and from any other material, as He produced Adam from the clod. God is not tied to the law of succession in the Church.-τούτων, these) The stones to which John pointed were perhaps those which had been placed there in the time of Joshua, that they might be for a testimony that the people of Israel had crossed the river Jordan, and entered the Land of Promise, and that they owed the land, not to themselves, but to God. The words sound like a proverbial expression, as well as those in Luk 19:40.-τέκνα, children) i.e. according to the spirit. They were indeed children according to the flesh, who are called nevertheless broods of vipers.
[125] There is nothing that men will not rake together, especially self-justiciaries, in order to claim God as their own, even after they have rejected repentance toward God.-Vers. Germ.