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Mat_21:14 ff. The insertion of Mat_21:14-16 from the apostolic tradition is peculiar to Matthew.
τὰ θαυμάσια ] the only instance of this usage in the New Testament, though very common in classical Greek and the Sept.: the wonderful things, viz. the cleansing of the temple and the miraculous cures. This combination has suggested the use of the more comprehensive term.
Mat_21:16. ἀκούεις κ . τ . λ .] in a tone of rebuke, implying that He was the occasion of such impropriety, and was tolerating it.
ὅτι ] recitative. The reply of Jesus, so profoundly conversant with the true sense of Scripture, is as much as to say that this shouting of the children is altogether befitting, as being the praise which, according to Psa_8:3, God has perfected.
νηπίων κ . θηλαζόντων ] In explaining the words of the psalm, there is no need to have recourse to the fact that children usually received suck for two and three years (Grimm’s note on 2Ma_7:27), nor even to the idea of the children being transformed into adult instruments in effecting the triumph of God’s cause (Hofmann, Weiss, u. Erf. II. p. 118), but only to bear in mind that, as a genuine poet, the psalmist seemed to hear, in the noise and prattle of the babes and sucklings, a celebration of their Maker’s praise. But, inasmuch as those children who shouted in the temple were not νήπιοι (i.e. in connection with θηλάζ . infantes, Isa_11:8; 1Co_3:1), the scriptural warrant by which Jesus here justifies their hosannas may be said to be based upon an inference a minore ad majus. That is to say, if, according to Psa_8:3, God had already ordained praise from the mouths of sucklings, how much more has He done so from the mouths of those little ones who now shouted hosanna! The former, though unable to speak, and still at the mother’s breast, are found praising God; how much more the latter, with their hosanna cries! These last are shouted in honour of the Messiah, who, however, is God’s Son and Representative, so that in His δόξα God is glorified (Joh_13:31; Joh_14:13; Php_2:11), nay, God glorifies Himself (Joh_12:28).
κ . ηὐλίσθη ἐκεῖ ] Consequently He did not pass the night in the open air (in answer to Grotius), for neither in classical Greek do we always find αὐλίζεσθαι used in the sense of bivouacking (Apollonid. 14; Diod. Sic. xiii. 6). Comp. Tob_4:14; Tob_6:10; Tob_9:5; Jdg_19:9 f.
On Bethany, some 15 stadia from Jerusalem (Joh_11:18), see Tobler, Topogr. v. Jerus. II. p. 432 ff.; Robinson, Pal. II. p. 309 ff.; Sepp, Jerus. u. d. heil. Land, I. p. 583 ff. At present it is only a miserable village, known by the Arabic name of el-Aziriyeh (from el-Azir, i.e. Lazarus). For the name, see note on Joh_1:28.