Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 12:46 - 12:50
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_12:46-50. The same incident is given in Luk_8:19 ff. in a different but extremely loose connection, and, as there recorded, compares unfavourably with Matthew’s version (in answer to Schleiermacher, Keim). The occasion of the incident as given in Mar_3:20 ff. is altogether peculiar and no doubt historical.
οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ ] even if nothing more were said, these words would naturally be understood to refer to the brothers according to the flesh, sons of Joseph and Mary, born after Jesus; but this reference is placed beyond all doubt by the fact that the mother is mentioned at the same time (Mar_3:31; Luk_8:19; Joh_2:12; Act_1:14), just as in Mat_13:55 the father and the sisters are likewise mentioned along with him. The expressions in Mat_1:25, Luk_2:7, find their explanation in the fact of the existence of those literal brothers of Jesus. Comp. note on Mat_1:25; 1Co_9:4. The interpretations which make them sons of Mary’s sister, or half brothers, sons of Joseph by a previous marriage, were wrung from the words even at a very early period (the latter already to be found as a legend in Origen; the former, especially in Jerome, since whose time it has come to be generally adopted in the West), in consequence of the dogmatic assumption of Mary’s perpetual virginity (nay, even of a corresponding state of things on the part of her husband as well), and owing to the extravagant notions which were entertained regarding the superhuman holiness that attached to her person as called to be the mother of Jesus. The same line of interpretation is, for similar reasons, still adopted in the present day by Olshausen, Arnoldi, Friedlieb, L. J. § 36; Lange, apost. Zeitalt. p. 189 ff.; and in Herzog’s Encykl. VI. p. 415 ff.; Lichtenstein, L. J. p. 100 ff.; Hengstenberg on Joh_2:12; Schegg, and others; also Döllinger, Christenth. u. Kirche, p. 103 f., who take the brothers and sisters for sons and daughters of Alphaeus; while Hofmann, on the other hand, has abandoned this view, which he had previously maintained (Erlang. Zeitschr. 1851, Aug., p. 117), in favour of the correct interpretation (Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 405 f.). See, besides, Clemen in Winer’s Zeitschr. 1829, 3, p. 329 ff.; Blom, de τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς κυρίου , 1839; Wieseler in the Stud. u. Krit. 1842, p. 71 ff., and note on Gal_1:19; Schaf, ueber d. Verh. des Jak. Bruders des Herrn zu Jakob. Alphäi, 1842; Neander, Gesch. d. Pflanzung u. s. w. p. 554 ff.; Hilgenfeld on Gal. p. 138 ff.; Wijbelingh, Diss. quis sit epistolae Jacobi scriptor, 1854, p. 1 ff.; Riggenbach, Vorles. üb. d. Leb. d. Herrn, p. 286 ff.; Huther on Jas. Einl. § 1; Kahnis, Dogm. I. p. 426 f.; Wiesinger, z. Br. Judä Einl.; Laurent, neut. Stud. p. 153 ff.; Keim, I. p. 422 ff. For the various interpretations of the Fathers, see Thilo, Cod. Apocr. I. p. 262 ff.
ἔξω ] The former incident (Mat_12:22 ff.) must therefore have occurred in some house. Mar_3:20; Luk_8:20.
ἐπὶ τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ ] not his hearers generally ( τοὺς ὄχλους ), and yet not merely the Twelve (Mat_12:50), but those who followed Him in the character of disciples; these He indicated by pointing to them with the finger.
ἰδοὺ ἡ μήτηρ μου , κ . τ . λ .] my nearest relations in the true ideal sense of the word. Comp. Hom. Il. vi. 429; Dem. 237. 11; Xen. Anab. i. 3. 6, and Kühner’s note; Eur. Hec. 280 f., and Pflugk’s note. True kinship with Jesus is established not by physical, but by spiritual relationship; Joh_1:12 f., Mat_3:3; Rom_8:29. In reference to the seeming harshness of the reply, Bengel appropriately observes: “Non spernit matrem, sed anteponit Patrem; Mat_12:50, et nunc non agnoscit matrem et fratres sub hoc formali.” Comp. Jesus’ own requirement in Mat_10:37. He is not to be understood as avowing a sharp determination to break off His connection with them (Weizsäcker, p. 400),—a view, again, which the account in Mark is equally inadequate to support. Besides, it is evident from our passage, compared with Mar_3:20 f., Joh_7:3, that the mother of Jesus, who is placed by the latter in the same category with the brothers, and ranked below the μαθηταί , cannot as yet be fairly classed among the number of His believers, strange as this may seem when viewed in the light of the early gospel narrative (Olshausen has recourse to the fiction of a brief struggle to believe). Again, judging from the whole repelling tendency of His answer, it would appear to be more probable that He declined the interview with His relations altogether, than that He afterwards still afforded them an opportunity of speaking with Him, as is supposed by Ebrard and Schegg. Be this as it may, there is nothing to justify Chrysostom and Theophylact in charging the mother and the brothers with ostentation, inasmuch as they had requested Jesus to come out to them, instead of their going in to Him.
ὅστις γὰρ , κ . τ . λ .] spoken in the full consciousness of His being the Son of God, who has duties incumbent upon Him in virtue of His mission.
αὐτός ] He, no other.