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Mat 7:16. Ἀπὸ[326] τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν, κ.τ.λ., from their fruits, etc.) This declaration is solemnly repeated at Mat 7:20.-καρπῶν, fruits) The fruit is that, which a man like a tree puts forth, from the good or evil disposition which pervades the whole of his inward being. Learning, compiled from every quarter, and combined with language, does not constitute fruit; which consists of all that which the teacher puts forth from his heart, in his language and conduct, as something flowing from his inner being, like milk, which the mother gives from her own breast: see ch. Mat 12:33-35. This is the true force of ποιεῖ, produces, in Mat 7:17-19 : cf. Mat 7:21; Mat 7:23-24; Mat 7:26. It is not his speech alone which constitutes the true or the false prophet, but his whole method of leading[327] himself, and others with him, by the one or the other road or gate to life or death (see ch. Mat 15:14; Mat 15:13); whence it arises that doing and saying are closely connected in ch. Mat 5:10. The fruits indeed are the tokens (Gnorismata) or evidence of the truth or falsehood of the prophet, and therefore also of the doctrine set forth by the prophet. The doctrine, therefore, is not the fruit by which the prophet is known; but it is the form of the true or false prophet which constitutes him the one or the other, and is itself known from its fruit. The goodness of the tree itself is truth and inward light, etc; the goodness of the fruit is holiness of life. If the fruit consisted in doctrine, no orthodox teacher could be damned or be the cause of another’s destruction.-See Schomer,[328] Theol. Moral. p. 252.-ἀπὸ ἀκανθῶν, of thorns) although their berries resemble grapes, as the heads of thistles do figs. In Luk 6:44 the same comparison is differently turned, for ἄκανθα, the thorn, and βάτος, the bramble, are very closely allied. The grape therefore (σταφυλὴ) is denied to each of them. Certain thorns (ἄκανθαι) also have large shoots:[329] figs therefore can be denied to them as well as to thistles.
[326] However the margin of Ed. ii. of N. Test, more readily allows the omission of this particle than the larger edition.-E. B.
[327] See Mat 7:14, “leadeth.”-ED.
[328] JUSTUS CHRISTOPHER SCHOMER, a celebrated Lutheran divine, was born at Lubeck in 1648, and died in 1693, professor of Theology at Rostock. In 1690 he published his celebrated work, Theologia Moralis sibi constans, quoted in the text.-(I. B.)
[329] i.e.-resembling figs in some measure.-(I. B.)
Bab Hil. 1245 read ἀπό: but c Lucif. ‘ex,’ Vulg. ‘a.’-ED.