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Mat_18:20. Confirmation of this promise, and that not on account of any special preference for them in their official capacity, but generally (hence the absence of ὑμῶν in connection with the δύο ἢ τρεῖς ) owing to the fact of His gracious presence in the midst of His people when met together: for where two or three are gathered together with reference to my name, there am I (my presence being represented by the Holy Spirit, comp. Rom_8:9 f.; 2Co_13:5; 1Co_5:4; Gal_2:20; Eph_3:16 f.; also in general, Mat_28:20) in the midst of them; so that you need therefore have no doubt as to the γενήσεται just promised to you, which I, as associated with my Father (Mat_18:19), will bring about. The statement is put in the form of an axiom; hence, although referring to the future, its terms are present. The higher, spiritual object of the meeting together of the two or three lies not in συνηγμένοι , which expresses nothing more than the simple fact of being met (in answer to Grotius, de Wette), but in εἰς τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα , which indicates that the name of Jesus Christ (i.e. the confession, the honouring of it, etc.) is that which in the συνηγμένον εἶναι is contemplated as its specific motive ( μὴ διʼ ἑτέραν αἰτίαν , Euthymius Zigabenus). “Simile dicunt Rabbini de duobus aut tribus considentibus in judicio, quod ùëðéä sit in medio eorum,” Lightfoot.