Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 17:20 - 17:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_17:20. The disciples ought to have applied to themselves the general exclamation in Mat_17:17. This they failed to do, hence their question. But the ἀπιστία with which Jesus now charges them is to be understood in a relative sense, while the πίστις , of which it is the negation, means simply faith in Jesus Christ, the depositary of supernatural power, so that, in virtue of their fellowship with His life, the disciples, as His servants and the organs of His power, were enabled to operate with greater effect in proportion to the depth and energy of the faith with which they could confide in Him.
ἐὰν ἔχητε ] if you have (not: had).
ὡς κόκκον σιν .] found likewise in Rabbinical writers as a figurative expression for a very small quantity of anything. Lightfoot on Mat_13:32. The point of the comparison does not lie in the stimulative quality of the mustard (Augustine; on the other hand, Maldonatus).
To remove mountains, a figurative expression for: to accomplish extraordinary results, 1Co_13:2. Lightfoot on Mat_21:21; Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 1653. For legends in regard to the actual removing of mountains, see Calovius.
οὐδέν ] the hyperbole of popular speech. For ἀδυνατ ., comp. Job_42:2.