Lange Commentary - Matthew 10:26 - 10:31

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Lange Commentary - Matthew 10:26 - 10:31


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9. Holy boldness and candor the duty of the disciples, based on holy watchfulness, and on confidence in their safety, under the sovereign protection of God.

Third and fourth warning and comfort. Mat_10:26-31.

26Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered [concealed, verhüllt], that shall not be revealed [enthüllt]; and hid [versteckt], that shall not be known [entdeckt]. 27What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in [the, ôῷ ] light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. 28And fear not [Be not afraid of, ìὴ öïâåῖóèå ἀðü ] them which [that] kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:

But rather fear him [ öïâåῖóèå ôüí ] which [who] is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing [penny]? and one of them shall not [not one of them shall] fall on the ground without your Father. 30But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat_10:26. Fear them not therefore.—Because every calumny of their faith was in the first place directed against their Master, who will set everything in its true light Confidence in His ðáñïõóßá is to form the ground of their perfect ðáñ ̀ ῥçóßá . All the wicked secrets of their opponents shall be brought to light; it would, therefore, be most unbecoming if they were to spread their faith, the most precious of all secrets, with timidity and by stealth, as if it were some dangerous mystery.

For there is nothing covered, etc.—These two proverbial sayings or principles are apparently intended to supplement each other. The first of them refers probably to the dealings of God: He conceals and He reveals. The second refers to the conduct of man in connection with the dealings of God: men hide and conceal the truth, but it will be discovered, known, and acknowledged. The appearing of Christ will place everything in its proper light, Mat_25:31; Eph_5:13; 1Co_4:5.

Mat_10:27. What I tell you.—This means to imply that the Lord recommended to His disciples to proceed more openly in their teaching than He had done. But this was the fundamental principle of the development of His revelation. His work was to be established in His disciples before it could be established in the world. Revelation had to receive its final completion in secret, among the despised community of the cross, before it could be presented in its fulness to the world.—Upon the house-tops.—The roofs were flat, so that it was possible to converse, in a loud voice, from one house-top to another, or into the street. A figurative expression for the most public declaration.

Mat_10:28. Fear not them that kill the body.—This ðáῤῥçóßá may indeed occasion their death. But they should neither fear death nor those who kill. They kill only the body. In other words, the hope of the great appearing of Christ, which shall make everything manifest, must raise them also above the grave.

Both soul and body.—In my Life of Jesus (Mat_2:2, p. 721), I have with Stier applied this to Satan, while most commentators refer it to God. The former interpretation I supported on the following grounds: 1. Because the same kind of fear which is felt toward those who kill the body cannot be cherished in reference to God. But here I overlooked that the expression used in the one case is öïâåῖóèå ἀðὁ , [comp. the Hebr. éָøֵà îִéï ], and in the other, öïâÞèçôå [ öïâåῖóèå ] ôüí . The word öïâåῖí may also be used in reference to proper fear, and the use of the Aorist (implying the continuation of a fear already cherished), as also the accusative instead of ἀðü , are in favor of this view. 2. Because the idea of destruction of body and soul seems rather to apply to Satan. But the great enemy does not destroy soul and body in hell ( ἐí ãåÝííῃ ), where he and condemned souls are punished (Mat_25:41; Rev_20:10), but before that time, and for the purpose of having them consigned to hell. The judgment of Gehenna is not administered by Satan. 3. Because of the expression ἀðüëëõìé , which in other places refers to noxious destruction, or to laying waste, and the name of ̓ Áðïëëýùí , “who dwells in the place of destruction.” However, the text does not bear, “Fear the destroyer,” but, “Fear Him who is able to destroy,” which could only refer to God. Finally, from the parallel passage in Luk_12:5, “Fear Him who hath power to cast into hell,” we at once conclude that this fear can only apply to the Almighty. Satan works that sinful fear of death which is the bondage from which we can only be delivered by a higher and holier fear—that of God (Heb_2:14).

[This change of Dr. Lange, which supersedes the protest of Meyer in loc. (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 239), is decidedly for the better. The Scripture nowhere uses the phrase öïâåῖóèáé ôὸí äéÜâïëïí , nor does it ever ascribe to Satan such power of destruction; while, on the contrary, öïâåῖóèáé is usually followed by ô ò í èåüí , and God is represented throughout as the Almighty dispenser of life and death, both temporal and eternal. Bengel aptly quotes Jam_4:12, which is decisive against Stier: “There is one lawgiver who is able ( ὁäõíÜìåíïò ) to save and to destroy” ( ἀðïëÝóáé , the same words as in our passage). Christ sets God before us here as the sole object both of our godly, child-like fear, and (in Mat_10:29-31) of our child-like trust. We should fear Him alone because of His power to destroy, and should trust Him alone because of His power to save and His ever-watchful care of His children. See Dr. Alford’s remarks against Stier, and also the note of Dr. Owen in loc.: “Fear Him (i. e., God), not as before, fear from Him, because reverence and awe, such as is due from man to his Maker, is intended, and not the fear or terror which human cruelty can inspire.”—P. S.]

Mat_10:29. Two sparrows.—The word óôñïõèßá properly signifies little birds generally [aviculi]; here, in the more definite sense, little sparrows [passerculi].—Farthing, penny, ἀóóÜñéïí , the tenth part of a drachm, or a Roman denar, afterward valued still lower; indicating the smallest coin.—Not one of them shall fall to the ground.—To portray sudden death, the bird falling to the ground, struck by a stone or an arrow. Irenæus and Chrysostom refer it to the snare of the bird-catcher; but this would scarcely be so applicable.

Mat_10:30. But the very hairs.—Indicating the most special providence (providentia specialissima), and the most absolute preservation. The hair as the natural ornament of the head. No part of our life, of what characterizes or adorns it, shall be lost.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The disciples must bear in mind that the gospel of Jesus is destined to become a revelation for all nations. They are to form a Church, and not a secret society, or party, or school, or political fraternity. The contrast between the secrecy which the Lord employed in teaching them, and the publicity with which they were to come forward, indicates the law according to which revelation was ever to develop and break forth more clearly and openly, and points far beyond the mission then entrusted to them.

2. They which kill the body.—(1) Psychology: body and soul; (2) doctrine of immortality; (3) eschatology: the kingdom of Christ belongs pre-eminently to the other world, beyond death and the grave. Mark also the contrast between killing the body and destroying body and soul. The soul cannot be annihilated. Lastly, it also implies the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. The bodies of the lost shall suffer with their souls in hell.

3. Not a hair of your head shall perish without your Father, far less your head itself.—An expression implying their complete safety.—“Of more value than many sparrows.” This depends upon the äéáöÝñåéí , and is intended to indicate the infinite superiority of the disciples over irrational creatures. The climax is as follows:—The humblest of God’s creatures have their value in His sight: how much more human beings! Especially Christians: but, above all, the witnesses of Jesus. The value of the life of Jesus is the height of the climax, but does not appear here.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The address of the Lord to His people: Fear not. 1. The fear from which we are delivered (of revilers and of murderers, of the loss of honor and of life); 2. the fear by which we are delivered (Fear Him who is able, etc.); 3. the spiritual grounds for being fearless (confidence in the great revelation of Christ, consciousness of our immortality and of our complete safety in the hands of God); the blessed effect of such fearlessness—perfect joy in bearing witness for Jesus (or in particular cases, triumph of life over death, entrance into glory).—With the manifestation of Christ’s righteousness, everything else must become manifest.—When God makes known what is hid, men can no longer succeed in concealing it.—The impending great revelation in its twofold effects: 1. As giving perfect comfort to the disciples: 2. as the greatest terror to an evil conscience.—Holy and spiritual fear will set us free from all carnal fear.—A right sense of our immortality consists in the feeling that we are perfectly safe in the keeping of our Father.—The price of articles in the market an emblem of the high price which God attaches to life.—Money, or the price which men attach, a symbol of the value which God sets.—“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?” or, the birds of the air a sermon to us, both in death and in life.—God cares for all living, after its own kind: 1. According to its life (the Living One cares for the living, the God of providence for every individual, the sympathizing Saviour pities every one); 2. according to its peculiar mode of life (for His creatures in His goodness, for persons in His love, for believers in His grace); 3. according to the object of their lives (Christ, for His own sake and for that of His people; Christians, for Christ’s and their own sakes; and all creatures, for the sake of Christians and of the kingdom of God).—“The very hairs of your head are all numbered;” or, the complete safety of Christians in the keeping of their Father: 1. Their whole life, with all that characterizes and adorns it, is safe; 2. they lose their earthly life, only to gain a higher; 3. their life, with all its gain, is bestowed on them by their Father in heaven.

Starke:—Those who fear to proclaim the whole truth are false teachers, and neither cold nor hot.—Quesnel: It is sinful to withhold the word of God from the common people. [Quesnel adds on Mat_10:27 : “The Church has no more hidden mysteries, nor secret truths; and it is now the time to reveal all the knowledge and grace which Christ has committed to her. It is to injure religion, to imagine that it contains some truths or mysteries which ought to be concealed.”—P. S.]—Cramer: Human fear must be overcome by the fear of God.—Eternal death is the only evil which really deserves to be feared.—Quesnel: It is a sign of great blindness to allow our souls to be destroyed.—The contemplation of the providence of God a powerful means for overcoming the fear of man.—What infinite value attaches to a soul for which Jesus has shed his blood! [We add from Quesnel on Mat_10:28 : “It is prudence to deliver up the body in order to save the soul. This is to cast the lading of the vessel into the sea, to preserve the men from destruction. A man loses nothing when he loses that only which must perish.”—P. S.]

Heubner:—Nothing in the life of His people is of small importance before God.—Infinite value of an immortal soul.

Footnotes:

Mat_10:28.—̓ Áðïêôåííüíôùí [double í , also in Cod. Sinait.] is the Æolian-Alexandrian form [for ἀðïêôåéíüíôùí .] Lachmann, [Tischendorf, Alford]. See the note of Meyer [Com. i., p. 227].

Mat_10:29.—[Luther and Lange render ἀóóÜñéïí (diminut from the Lat. as): Pfennig, de Wette: Heller. The E. V. uses farthing in Mat_5:26 for the Greek êïñäÜíôçò . But this is only the third or fourth part in value of an ἀóóÜñéïí which is equal to a cent and a half of Am. money. Hence penny is more accurate. Conant: “The Saviour means by it the most trifling pecuniary value, or next to nothing; and to change the Common Version, merely for more minute exactness in such a case, would be mere pedantry. But as different words are used in the Greek and as farthing and penny represent their exact relation and nearly their actual value, there is no harm in making the distinction.”—P. S.]

Mat_10:30.—[The Greek and the German have here the advantage over the English in being able to place your, is marked contrast to the sparrows, at the beginning of the sentence. ̔ Ô ìῶí äὲ êáὶ áἱ ôñß÷åéò ôῆò êåöáëῆò , Lange (deviating from Luther): “An each aber sind auch die Haare des Hauptes,” etc. Perhaps we might render: “But as to you, the very hairs of your head,” etc.—P. S.]

[In German: mit ängstlicher Heimlichthuerei.—]

[These were the dying words of Ulrich Zwingli on the settle field of Cappel in Switzerland, Oct., 1531.—P. S.]

[Luther wrongly translates: in die Hölle, for in der, mistaking ἐí for åὶò . The E. V. here, as elsewhere, is more accurate.—P. S.]

[We add the remark of Dr. Brown: “both soul and body in hell. A decisive proof this that there is a hell for the body as well as the soul in the eternal world; in other words, that the torment that awaits the lost will have elements of suffering adapted to the material as well as the spiritual part of our nature, both of which, we are assured, will exist for ever.”—P. S.]