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Mat_18:22. Οὐ λέγω σοι ] are to be taken together (in answer to Fritzsche), and to be rendered thus: I do not say to thee, I do not give thee the prescription; comp. Joh_16:26.
ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά ] not: till seventy times seven, i.e. till the four hundred and ninetieth time (Jerome, Theophylact, Erasmus, Luther, Grotius, de Wette, Bleek); but, seeing that we have ἑπτά , and not ἑπτάκις again, the rendering should simply be: till seventy-seven times. No doubt, according to the classical usage of adverbial numerals, this would have been expressed by ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑβδομηκοντάκις or ἑβδομήκοντα ἑπτάκις ; but the expression in the text is according to the LXX. Gen_4:24.[1] So, and that correctly, Origen, Augustine, Bengel, Ewald, Hilgenfeld, Keim; comp. “the Gospel of the Hebrews” in Hilgenfeld’s N. T. extra can. IV. p. 24.
For the sense, comp. Theophylact: οὐχ ἵνα ἀριθμῷ περικλείσῃ τὴν συγχώρησιν , ἀλλὰ τὸ ἄπειρον ἐνταῦθα σημαίνει · ὡς ἂν εἰ ἔλεγεν · ὁσάκις ἂν πταίσας μετανοῇ συγχώρει αὐτῷ .
[1] 1 Where, indeed, ùÑÄáÀòÄéí åÀùÑÄáÀòÈä cannot possibly mean anything else than seventy-seven, as is clear from the åÀ , not seventy times seven; comp. Jdg_8:14. This in answer to Kamphausen in the Stud. u. Krit. 1861, p. 121 f. The (substantive) feminine form ùáòä cannot be considered strange (seventy and a seven). See Ewald, Lehrb. d. Hebr. Spr. § 267 c., and his Jahrb. XI. p. 198.