Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 21:24 - 21:24
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_21:24 f. Jesus prudently frustrates their design by proposing in reply a puzzling question, which, in the circumstances, they did not know how to answer.
λόγον ἕνα ] a single word, a single question; not more. The subject of the question itself is admirably chosen, seeing that the work of reform in which Jesus was engaged had a necessary connection with that of John; both would stand and fall together.
πόθεν ἦν ] whence did it proceed? The following alternative is explanatory: was it from God, who had commissioned John, or from men, so that he baptized simply on his own authority or that of his fellow-mortals? The latter was out of the question, if John was a prophet (Mat_21:26). Comp., further, Act_5:39.
διελογ . παρʼ ἑαυτοῖς ] they deliberated by themselves, privately κατʼ ἰδίαν , i.e. with each other, during a brief pause for private consultation, before giving their decision, which was intimated in the subsequent ἀποκριθέντες τῷ Ἰησοῦ . διαλογίζεσθαι in this instance also denotes reflection combined with mutual consultation. Comp. Mat_16:7; Mar_8:16; Luk_20:14.
ἐπιστεύσατε αὐτῷ ] λέγοντι πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα περὶ ἐμοῦ , Euthymius Zigabenus.