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Mat 5:2. Ἀνοίξας, κ.τ.λ., having opened, etc.) A beginning studiously made is great part of a great matter. In commencing narrations of great and deliberate affairs, Scripture uses the phrases, He turned his shoulders, He moved his feet, He raised his eyes, He opened His mouth. See Act 10:34. Here the fountain began to pour forth water. Cf. Mat 13:35.-ἐδίδασκεν, He taught) He instructed by doctrine, by consolation, by exhortation, by precept.-αὐτοὺς, them) the disciples. For He addresses these, in the hearing of the multitudes;[168] see Mat 7:28. The Evangelists have transcribed at full length two discourses of our Lord, as models of all the rest; the one delivered publicly at the commencement of His ministry, that namely which we are now considering; the other privately at its conclusion, recorded in John 13-16. Our Lord’s object in the present discourse is to teach true righteousness (see Isa 63:1): and He also declares at the same time, that He came to establish the Law and the Prophets, and exposes the spurious character of the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. In the exordium, there is firstly, Mat 5:3-4, a sweet invitation to the fellowship of true righteousness, and therein of blessedness; secondly, Mat 5:13-14, to the communication of it to others. From Mat 5:17 to Mat 7:12, there is a treatise, the end of which corresponds with the beginning, even to a word. The conclusion of this discourse, firstly, ch. Mat 7:13-14, points out the gate of righteousness; secondly, ch. Mat 7:15-16, warns against false prophets, who go themselves, and lead others, into all kinds of error;[169] and thirdly, Mat 7:24-25, exhorts us to fulfil these precepts of righteousnesss. The impression produced by the Heavenly Teacher’s discourse on those who heard Him, is described in the two last verses of the same chapter.
[168] [He, however, addressed the latter also at the same time; v. 17.-V. g.]
[169] In alia omnia ducentibus et euntibus-literally, “leading and going into all other things”-sc. other than the strait gate.-(I. B.)