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(Mar_14:43-52; Luk_22:47-53; Joh_18:1-11)
One of the twelve.—The significance of this expression here rests upon this, that Judas no longer comes in the train of the disciples as a follower of Jesus, but at the head of the hostile multitude.
With him a great multitude.—The swords indicate that the Roman cohort (Joh_18:3) was the centre of this multitude: while the clubs, and so forth, indicate that the Jewish temple-watch, and other miscellaneous fanatics, were there also. According to Luk_22:52, there were also fanatical priests and elders who mingled in the procession,—a circumstance which Meyer refers to a later and incorrect enlargement of the tradition. But Luke appears to regard representatives of the Sanhedrin as requisite for such a religious capture as this was (see Act_4:1); and Meyer under-estimates the fanatical impulses of Jewish fanaticism.
With swords and olubs, from the high-priests.—Here we see the mingled religious and political relations. The Sanhedrin had the decision in all matters of spiritual jurisdiction. Thus it was for them to settle the question whether any one was a false prophet, and therefore worthy of stoning,—the appointed punishment of that crime. That question they had already settled in the affirmative some time before, having determined to put Jesus to death (Joh_11:47); although they found themselves wanting in grounds of action, which therefore they endeavored by cunning to obtain from Himself, but failed. The right of putting offenders to death had been taken from them by the Roman government (Joh_18:31); hence the Roman crucifixion was afterward substituted for the Jewish stoning. Thus their undertaking was, on the whole, a daring experiment of wickedness. They were as yet without false witnesses and without grounds of accusation; they had not the thorough consent of Pilate; and they must silence and win over, by some sudden stimulant, the common people. On this account they aimed to give the capture, in which the Roman soldiers were at their disposal, a spurious character of importance; their excessive preparation would have the effect of creating the presumption that Jesus must be a very great criminal.
Mat_26:48. Gave them a sign.—Meyer: “The ἔäùêåí is commonly, but improperly, regarded as having a pluperfect sense. The Vulgate has it right, dedit. As he came he gave them a sign.” [So also Alford].—Whom I shall kiss.—The kiss was among the ancients a sign of affectionate and cordial intimacy, and particularly a token of fidelity, Gen_29:11. More commonly, the teachers kissed their pupils; but examples of the converse are not wanting. Lightfoot, Horœ, p. 484. It is doubtful whether the kiss of reverent submission (Psa_2:12) was impressed on the lips: probably on the hands or the feet.
Hold Him fast, seize Him.—We take the êñáôÞóáô åáὐ ôüí as emphatic. Possibly there was a touch of irony in the language of the archtraitor, who expected that Jesus might in a magical manner elude them after all. For the darkened mind of Judas had now come to regard Him as a magician.
Mat_26:49. And forthwith he came.—Excited, but also dissembling. He pretended that he did not belong to the procession of enemies, that he would precede them, point out the danger, and separate from his Master with sorrow.—Kissed Him.—The êáôåößëçóåí must be understood in all its emphasis, to kiss very tenderly, to caress. Comp. Xenoph Mem. 2:6, 33; Luk_7:38; Luk_7:45; Act_20:37. Meyer: “The sign was the simple kissing; but the performance was more emphatic, a caressing, corresponding with the purpose of Judas to make sure, and with the excitement of his feelings.” The kiss of Joab, 2Sa_20:9 (comp. 2Sa_3:27). “The early Christians, who kissed each other at the Lord’s Supper, did it as appropriate to the time when the sufferings of Christ were remembered; they did not thereby intend to express their abhorrence of Judas’ kiss.” Heubner.
Mat_26:50. Friend, ἑôáῖñå .—Comp. Mat_20:13 [and Crit. Note No. 4, p. 352.]
[Why did the Lord call Judas friend—a term of civility, though not necessarily of friendship—and not a villain, or a traitor, and why did He not turn away, in holy indignation, from this Judas-kiss, the vilest, the most abominable piece of hypocrisy known in history, which the infernal inspirer of treason alone could invent? To give us an example of the utmost meekness and gentleness under the greatest provocation, surpassing even the standard which He holds up for His disciples, Mat_5:39. If the face of the Saviour was not disgraced by the traitor’s kiss, no amount of injury and insult heaped upon His followers by the enemies of religion can really dishonor the former, but falls back with double effect upon the latter. At the same time the words ἐö ̓ ὄ ðÜñåé , whether they be taken as a question, or as an exclamation, or as an elliptical assertion or command—together with the question recorded by Luke: “Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” conveyed a most stinging rebuke to Judas, whose force was doubled by the use of the word friend, and the deep emotion and holy sadness with which they were uttered. The effect appears from the subsequent despair of Judas.—P. S.]
Do that for which thou art here! [Authorized Version: Wherefore art thou come?—Meyer: “Since the relative ὅò ( ἐö ̓ ὅ ðÜñåé ) is never used in direct question, but only in indirect, the common acceptation of this as a question is not correct; and it is quite groundless (Winer, 192) to assume a corruption in the declining Greek in relation to ὅò . Fritzsche explains it as an appeal ad qualem rem perpetrandam ades! But the Greek would require this also to take the form of a question. The words are broken off with an aposiopesis: Friend, that for which thou art here come—do! Jesus thereby denounces the traitorous kiss.”—Ewald: “I need not thy kiss; I know that thou meanest it in hypocrisy; do rather that which is thy business.” Similarly Euthym. Zigab. This would certainly accord with the declining of the kiss in Luke: Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss? But, in this case, it is better to assume that it is a concise form only: ôïῦôï ðñᾶôôå , ἐö ̓ ä ̀ ðÜñåé . Or: ðáñÝóôù , ἐö ̓ ὅ ðÜñåé . By the Lord’s going out to meet the watch, the hypocritical play of Judas was interrupted. John alone relates the falling to the ground on the part of the multitude. But Jesus hastened to meet the multitude, in order to protect, not only the three, but also the other disciples on the outside of the garden.
Mat_26:51. And, behold, one of them.—When the evangelical tradition first assumed shape and form, prudence required that the name of Peter should not be publicly mentioned. Hence the indefinite expression in the Synoptists. But this necessity did not exist when John wrote his Gospel: therefore he gives the name. The same remark applies to the omission of the raising of Lazarus in Bethany, which the Synoptists may have had good reasons for ignoring, but not John who wrote so much later.
Drew his sword.—When he saw that they laid sands on the Lord. According to Luke, the question was first asked from among the disciples, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? (On the two swords, compare Luke.) Immediately thereupon followed the blow of Peter’s sword; and it struck the servant of the high-priest, called Malchus, according to John. He had cut off his right ear: Matthew and Mark, ôὸ ὠôßïí ; but Luke, ôὸ ïὖò , the ear itself, and not merely the lobe. It seemed that he would have split his head. The separation of the ear must have been not quite perfect; and Jesus healed the servant, according to the narrative of Luke the physician. Meyer, following Strauss, attributes this healing to a later tradition. The other Evangelists, however, appear to have regarded this healing as self-understood; as, otherwise, Peter would have remained a criminal, and the mutilation of Malchus would have furnished good ground of an accusation, which, however, was not preferred.
Mat_26:52. Put up again thy sword into its place.—The sheath, Joh_18:11. Peter, therefore, still stood there with his drawn and brandished sword in his hand.—For all they that take the sword.—This is a judicial sentence, but also a threatening warning. In the former light, it rests upon an absolutely universal principle. The sword is visited by the sword in war; the sword of retribution opposes the arbitrary sword of rebellious sedition; and the sword taken up unspiritually in a spiritual cause, is avenged by the certain, though perhaps long-delayed, sword of historical vengeance. Peter was, in all these three aspects, in a bad position, and the representative of wrong. The warrior exposed himself to the superior force of the legions of Rome, the rebel to the order of the magistrate, and the abuse of the sword in the service of religion provoked, and seemed to justify, the same abuse on the part of the world. Peter had really forfeited his life to the sword; but the Lord rectified his wounded position by the correcting word which He spoke, by the miraculous healing of the ear, and by the voluntary surrender of Himself to the authorities. But Peter had not only with wilful folly entered on the domain of this world, he had also brought his Master’s cause into suspicion. Indeed, he sought to bring his fellow-disciples, and his Lord Himself, into this wrong position, and to make his own Christ a Mohammed. Therefore the Lord so solemnly denounced his act, pronounced an ideal sentence of death upon his head, which, however, was graciously repealed. The Lord’s word from that hour became a maxim of Christianity (comp. Rev_13:10); and it was probably spoken to Peter with a typical significance. Even the Church of Rome says: ecclesia non sitit sanguinem, but only to have recourse to the stake and faggot, of which certainly the letter of this passage says nothing.
[Shall perish.—Alford: “ ἐí ìá÷áßñῃ ἀðïëῦôáé is a command; not merely a future, but an imperative future; a repetition by the Lord in this solemn moment of Gen_9:6. See the parallel in Rev_13:10 : äåῖ áὐôὸí ἐí ìá÷ . ἀðïêôáíèῆíáé . This should be thought of by those well-meaning but shallow per sons, who seek to abolish the punishment of death in Christian states.” Comp. also Rom_13:4. Thus the passage justifies capital punishment as a measure of just retribution for murder in the hands of the civil magistrate, but condemns at the same time the resort to all carnal and violent measures on the part of the Church, which is a spiritual body, and should only use spiritual weapons. Comp. 2Co_10:3-4. Rome agrees in theory (Ecclesia non sitit sanguinem), but violates it in practice by handing the heretics, wherever she has the power, to the state for execution, and thus using the civil magistrate as an instrument. Quod quis per alium facit, id ipse fecisse dicitur.—P. S.]
Mat_26:53. Or thinkest thou?—If Christ had refused to take the way of the passion, He might have adopted quite another way than that of wilful and violent opposition to the world: the way, namely, of coming to judgment upon it. Thinkest thou not that, if I did not desire to be a long-suffering Redeemer, I might at once appear to the whole world as its supreme Judge, rather than enter upon thy hypocritical way of half-spirituality and half-worldliness, half-patience and half-violence, of civilization with a sword in its hand? For, the twelve legions of angels which He might have prayed for, doubtless signified that multitude of angels which will actually attend Him when He returns to judgment (Mat_25:31). If the Church of the Middle Ages had not the courage to achieve the evangelization of the world in the way of Christ’s passion, she should have had faith to supplicate for the last day to come; but she did wrong to make Christ another Mohammed, and to continue His work by a hypocritical mixture of religious preaching and carnal violence. Meyer: “The number twelve corresponds to the number of the Apostles, because it was one of those who had just endeavored to defend Him.” But it is also and always the number of the developed perfection of life. The legion is the symbol of a great fighting host. Schaaf, Alterthumskunde: “By legio (a legendo) was originally understood the aggregate of the Roman military collected for war. When that force increased, it became a great division of the host, which contained, at various times, from 2400 to beyond 6000 infantry, and from 300 to 400 horsemen. Since the time of Marius, the legion had reached more than 6000.”—It is well worthy of notice that Christ here numbers the angels by legions, as the counterpart of the Roman power, now leagued against Him with His enemies.
Mat_26:54. How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled? for, etc.—Meyer: “We must not supply ëÝãïõóáé before ὅôé (Beza, Maldonatus, and others); but there must be a question after ãñáöáß , and ὅôé is for. For thus (in no other way) must it (that which now befalls Me) be.” Thus there are two reasons: 1. The fulfilment of the Scripture concerning the suffering Messiah: Psalms 22; Isaiah 53; Dan_9:26 Zec_13:7. 2. The counsel of God Himself for the salvation of a sinful world, which is the foundation of all the prophetical Scriptures.
Mat_26:55. In that hour said Jesus to the multitudes.—According to Luke, especially to the rulers and the guard of the temple, which Meyer vainly seeks to set aside.—Starke: “Jesus did not say this before he had been seized and bound. He would give no indication that He was not willing to be taken; and therefore not till after they had done their will did He rebuke their injustice.”—In the temple;—that is, in the forecourt of the temple. In this space the Rabbins placed a synagogue (comp. Luk_2:46). Here also was to be sought Solomon’s porch (Joh_10:23; Act_3:11), with other halls—the region of teaching and preaching.—And ye laid no hold on Me.—Certainly, because they durst not; but that exhibits their surprise by night as the work of evil conscience and malignity.
Mat_26:56. But all this is done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.—Luke: “But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” The one supplements the other. Of this hour of darkness, and of the seeming triumph of evil, all the prophets prophesied: Isaiah 53; Dan_9:26, etc. The supposition of Erasmus, de Wette, and others, that this last word in Matthew was a remark of the Evangelist, takes off the point of our Lord’s address, as Meyer rightly observes. It was this last word which indicated His settled purpose to take the path of death. Hence it also gave occasion for the flight of the disciples. Their courage now failed them, and they fled. The flight, however, was not absolute, as appears from the narrative of the young man in Mar_14:51, and the conduct of Peter and John, according to Joh_18:15. They followed Him, but afar off. In reality, the scattering and flight was complete. [But while the eleven forsook the Lord, other disciples, as Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, took a more decided stand for Him. The Church can never fail; new Christians always take the place of the old ones. Comp. Lange’s notes on Mar_14:51-52.—P. S.]
2. This wild combination of enemies—soldiers, temple-servants, and priests—for the accomplishment of an act of hypocritical violence against Christ, is also a typical world-historical scene. Not less so is the surprise and capture of the Holy One in His Holiest of All, under the pretext of serving the sanctuary.
3. Peter showed by his first stroke that he was no soldier; happily he had missed his blow. That it was the ear of Malchus which he struck, is very significant. It has always been the ear, the spiritual hearing, and willing susceptibility, which carnal defenders of Christ’s cause have taken away from their opponents, when they have had recourse to the sword of violence.
4. They who take the Sword shall perish by the Sword.—That this was said to Peter, had its typical historical meaning. “The early Christians, amidst all the slanders heaped upon them, were never charged with having risen in insurrection against their Gentile oppressors. Comp. Tertull. Apol. cap. 37. Luther (in the peasant insurrection) quoted this passage against the peasants. Duels also are by this sentence absolutely forbidden. The punishment of death for certain offences is clearly enjoined. See Rothe’s Ethik, iii. 877.” Heubner. How far a Christian state may be justified in giving this punishment another form, may be matter of reasonable question. In its essential significance the death penalty is an inalienable legal ordinance, but the form of social death and its execution has been in many ways subject to modification.
5. Thinkest thou that I cannot.—Christ rejects once for all that unholy and disturbing mixture of judgment and salvation into which carnal zeal is so much disposed to turn His cause. What He here says applies to every moment in the history of Christianity. If it were God’s will that at any time (before the end) the economy of grace, effectual through the sacred cross, should be suspended, at that moment the infinite preponderance of heavenly forces over the violence of the enemy of earth would at once be exhibited. But then the work of salvation would be broken off before its consummation. This no man should ever think of. Whenever men act on this principle, they tempt God, and summon such powers against the cause of evil as prove themselves to be, not angels of light, but disguised powers of darkness; and the enmity which these exhibit against the cause of evil is only apparent. Of such carnal violence against conscience we must distinguish educational legal discipline within the Church, as we must distinguish also between theocracy and hierarchy.
6. The assurance of Christ to those who came against Him with weapons in the night,—that He had been ready to give them an account in broad day,—has also a symbolical meaning for all ages. The persecutions of the faithful are always stamped with the mark of calumny.
7. The last word of Christ is the expression of His consummate preparation for His passion. Therefore it is the crisis when the disciples, not yet mature in faith, forsook Him. Old Testament martyrdom had in it some affinity with the self-sacrifice of a hero in battle: they hoped for the speedy triumph of the theocracy. The New Testament martyr must, in the patience of the saints (Rev_13:10; Rev_14:12), tarry for the manifestation of victory until the last day. For this the disciples were not ripe: they had not the joyful testimony of victory within their own spirits. This New Testament martyrdom could flourish only after the blood of Christ was shed.
Starke:—Wickedness is often stupid and shameless. The wicked* are bold, Mat_7:22.—Zeisius: The Lord abhors the bloody and deceitful man, Psa_5:6.—Psa_2:12, the kiss of genuine homage and love.—Quesnel: The world is full of deceitful courtesies and flatteries.—Everywhere we should be able to answer the question: Wherefore art thou come?—Osiander: When Christians are bound and put in prison without any guilt of their own, they should reckon it no disgrace, but rather the highest honor.—Even among the saints is much lust of revenge, Rom_12:19.—Provocation to anger and vengeance the most deadly temptations of Satan in the time of external tribulation.—Young and rash preachers are too apt to brandish Peter’s sword, before they have learned to use the sword of the Spirit.—But when our carnal zeal smites wrongly, the injury is done to the ear, which should hear the word of God.—Canstein: God rules the sins and infirmities of His people in such a way, that they cannot do more evil than He has decreed to permit, Rom_13:4.—Luther: They take the sword who use it without orderly authority. They have fallen under the judgment of the sword, although repentance may prevent the execution of the decree. Thus Christ approves a right use of the sword.—Rambach: Peter says (1 Eph_4:15): “Let no man suffer as a murderer or as an evildoer,” probably with allusion to this very event. If he had cut off the servant’s head, he would have fallen under the condemnation of the law as a murderer, and then could never have died as a martyr.—1Pe_2:13 : No man must oppose lawful authority.—Hedinger: Christ’s kingdom needs no sword; suffering and praying are the best weapons.—Cramer: The seditious go never unpunished, 2Ki_9:31; 2Sa_18:14.—The angels of Dan_7:10; Heb_1:14.—That all the angels of God serve the Saviour, a great consolation for God’s children.—Canstein: When God suffers His people to be overcome in external trouble, that is no sign of His weakness, but that these sufferings are decreed for His own glory and His people’s good.—Nova Bibl. Tub.: The weapons of the false Church are swords and staves, external violence.—True Christians never shun the light: their words and deeds are manifest.—The heart, Jer_17:9-10, with reference to Peter.
Braune:—Jesus’ suffering His greatest deed.—Gerlach: The sword out of its sheath is not in its place, except when it is subserving the wrath of God.
Lisco:—The sad fall of Judas should be a warning to every one not to indulge a vain reliance in the mere external fellowship of Christ.
Heubner:—The frightful transformation of Judas.—Judas at their head.—A studied dishonor to the Lord,—that they should come with so great a multitude.—Jesus, taken and suffering in the night, atones for the sins which are done in the night.—There is always a Judas-kiss among us (insincerity of profession, in office, in sacramental pledges, in the holy communion).—Jesus endures still the kiss of many false members of His Church.—Jesus, according to Luk_22:48, names his name: Judah! Thou art named confessor, and art become a traitor.—This Bound One is the Captain of God’s host, the Leader of all mankind.—Jesus is free even in His bonds.—Peter not yet free from revenge and ambition.—How often must the Lord repair what the rashness and folly of His disciples have done amiss!—He who has full faith in God, his Father, sees himself without amazement surrounded by enemies; invisible defenders are around him, and the Almighty is his help.—Look on all sufferings as the Lord’s good pleasure; so will all their bitterness be gone.—Wrong for ever shuns the light.—Goodness can always appeal to its open, frank, and known behavior before the world.—The forsaken Jesus is the atonement of our unfaith-fulness.—He knows what the forsaken feel.
Kapff:—What we may learn from Jesus when taken captive: 1. Courage and strength; 2. humility and submission to the will of God; 3. meekness and love for our enemies.—Brandt: Because Adam would not be bound by God’s commandment and his own obedience, Christ must be bound by human bonds.—Grammlich: Christ’s fettered hands tear away the bonds of our death.
[Burkitt:—None sin with so much impudence and obstinacy, as apostates.—There is so much hypocrisy in many, and so much corruption in all, that we must not be too confident. Peter’s heart was sincere, but his head rash in drawing the sword.—God’s intentions are no warrant for irregular actions.—Christ will thank no man to fight for Him without a warrant and commission from Him.—Christ was more concerned for our salvation than for His own temporal preservation.—Had He been rescued by the power of angels, we would have fallen into the paw of devils. Matthew Henry:—Many betray Christ with a kiss, and Hail, Master, who, under pretence of doing Him honor, betray and undermine the interests of His kingdom.—Mel in ore, fel in corde—Honey in the mouth, gall in the heart.— Êáôáöéëåῖí ïὐê ἐóôéöéëåῖí —To embrace is one thing, to love another.—Jacob’s kiss and Judas’s kiss were much alike.—Religio cogi non potest, et defendenda non occidendo, sed moriendo. [From Lactantius: Institutiones div. Similar remarks might be quoted from Tertullian’s Apologeticus, and other ante-Nicene writers, who opposed religious persecution and claimed toleration as an inalienable right of conscience.—P. S.] Men hasten and increase their own troubles by blustering, bloody methods of self-defence.—Persecutors are paid in their own coin, Rev_13:10.—God has no need of us, of our services, much less of our sins, to bring about His purposes; and it argues our distrust and disbelief of the power of Christ, when we go out of the way of our duty to serve His interests.—There is an innumerable company of angels, Heb_12:22. (Twelve legions=above seventy-two thousand, and yet a mere detachment which would not be missed in heaven.)—Let God’s word be fulfilled and His will be done, whatever may become of us.—The Scriptures are fulfilling every day.—What folly, to flee, for fear of death, from Him who is the fountain of life! Lord, what is man!—Christ, as the Saviour of souls, stood alone; as He needed not, so He had not the assistance of any other. He trod the wine-press alone, and when there was none to uphold, then His own arm wrought salvation, Isa_63:3; Isa_63:5.—P. S.]
Footnotes:
All these significant headings are omitted in the Edinb. trsl.—P. S.]
Mat_26:47.—[The Vulgate translates ìåôὰ ìá÷áéñῶí êáὶ îýëùí : cum gladiis et fustibus; Lange: mit Schwertern und mit Keulen; other German Versions: Stangen, or Knitteln, or Prügeln; staves was introduced by Tyndale, and retained in the subsequent English Version, except that of Rheims, which renders îýëá : clubs. Staff is the proper translation for ῥÜâäïõò in Mat_10:10; Mar_6:8; but the Authorized Version renders îýëá and ῥÜâäïõò alike. Comp. Mat_26:55; Luk_22:52. John mentions also lantern and torches, to search perhaps in the secret parts of the garden and the dark caverns of the valley of the Kedron.—P. S.]
Mat_26:49.—[The colder and more formal Rabbi ought be retained here and in Mat_26:25 in the translation, as Matthew retained it from the Hebrew for äéäÜóêáëå , and as the English Version itself did in Mat_23:7-8.—P. S.]
Mat_26:50.—[The words: ἐö ̓ ὅ ðÜñåé , are generally understood as a question and so punctuated in most editions; but Fritzsche takes them as an exclamation: For what (dreadful deed) art thou here! Meyer, Ewald, Lange, as an elliptical command, as to say: Away with your hypocritical kiss; do rather that for which thou art here! See the Exeg. Notes. But the ellipsis might also be supplied by an ïἶäá : I know for what thou art here.—P. S.]
Mat_26:51.—[ Ôὸí äïῦëïí , the well known servant, viz., Malchus, Joh_18:10. Comp. Mar_14:47, where the English Version likewise substitute’s the indefinite article.—P. S.]
Mat_26:52.—Some uncial Codd. read Üðïèáíïῦíôáé [for ἀðïëïῦíôáé ].
Mat_26:53.—[Presently should be omitted, as it arose from confounding two readings in the text, some authorities placing ἅñôé , now, after ðáñáóôÞóåé , others after äýíáìáé , but none repeating it. Cranmer’s Bible first put now (over now) after both verbs, while Tyndale, the Genevan Bible, and the Bishops’ Bible have it only after cannot, and the Rheims N. T. (following the Vulgate) after give me. King James revisers substituted presently for the second now.— P. S.]
Mat_26:53.—[Or: cause to stand by, as the Bishops’ Bible literally renders ðáñáóôÞóåé , and Scrivener commends Conant prefers “send” with Coverdale. Campbell: “send to my relief.”—P. S.]
Mat_26:54.—[But is an insertion to make the connection plainer, or it was supposed to be implied in ïῦ ̓ í . But the meaning is: Considering then that God could place such a mighty force at My disposal, how is it possible, etc.—P. S.]
Mat_26:55.—[Not: êëÝðôçò , which is expressly distinguished from ëῃóôÞò in Joh_10:1; Joh_10:8. Comp. Mat_21:13, and note. Scrivener; “All these precautions would be futile against a petty thief, though very proper against a bandit, such as Barnabas for example.”—P. S.]
Mat_26:55.—[For before the infinitive is obsolete and should be omitted in a revised translation—P. S.]
Mat_26:56.—[This is the emphatic form of the Greek: ïἱ ìáèçôáὶ ðÜíôåò , and so rendered by Conant and others.— P. S.]
[Not: these words, as the Edinb. edition reads.—P. S.]
So Lange: “Freund! (nur das) wozu du da bist! Similarly Ewald: “Freund, das wozu du da bist! But Luther, de Wette, and other German Versions, agree with the English in taking the phrase as a question.—P. S.]
[Not: symbolical, as the Edinb. trsl. reads. In German: ein tupisches weltnistorisches Bild, i.e., an event of typical significance which is frequently repeated and fulfill ed in history.—P. S.]
[Dr. Lange alludes, of course, to the famous hymn of Luther: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (based upon Psalms 46 and composed 1529), which may be called the spiritual [illegible]r-song of the Reformation, and which has been very often translated into English, by Thomas Carlyle, Mills, Cath. Winkworth. Bunting, and others. It is omitted in the Edinb. edition, together with a number of homiletical hints in this section.—P. S.]
[Comp. note 4 on p. 352.—P. S.]
[The Edinb. edition has godly,—no doubt typograpical error for godless.—P. S.]