John Bengel Commentary - Matthew 4:16 - 4:16

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

John Bengel Commentary - Matthew 4:16 - 4:16


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Mat 4:16. Ὁ πορευόμενος, that walketh) There is here a threefold ascending climax.[153]

[153] i.e. The three experssions used in the latter clause of this sentence are respectively stronger than those used in the former clause.-(I. B)

First Clause.

Second Clause.



The people that Walketh And on those sitting



In Darkness In the Region and Shadow of Death,



Hath seen a Great Light. A Light hath arisen.

It is worse to sit, detained, in darkness, than to walk in it.[154]-εἶδε, hath seen-φῶς, a Light[155]) No one is saved except he be illuminated [by that Light]. See Act 13:47.-καὶ τοῖς κυθημένοις, κ.τ.λ., and to those sitting, etc.) The LXX. in Psalms 107(106):10, have καθημένους ἐν σκότει καὶ σκιᾷ θανάτου, sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. The verb to sit aptly denotes a sluggish solitude.-χώρᾳ καὶ σκιᾷ, region and shadow) one thing expressed by two words.[156] The natural situation of the country was low, and such was also its spiritual condition.-ἈΝΈΤΕΙΛΕΝ ΑὐΤΟῖς, hath risen upon them) In the original Hebrew it is נגה, shines, upon them. This increased force of expression corresponds with the epithet μέγα, great, in the preceding clause.

[154] Unfortunately for this remark, there is no very ancient authority for πορευόμενος. All the oldest MSS. and versions, Vulg., etc., read καθήμενος. Lachm. and Tischend. do not even notice the former reading.-ED.

[155] “Which illumines the whole world.”-B. G. V.

[156] In the original, ἕν διὰ δυοῖν. See Explanation of Technical Terms.-(I. B.)