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Mat_21:42. The enemies of Jesus have answered correctly, but they are not aware that they have thus pronounced their own condemnation, since those who thrust out the Son that was sent to them are no other than themselves. To bring this fully home to them (Mat_21:45), is the purpose of the concluding words added by our Lord. The quotation is from the Septuagint version of Psa_118:22 f., which was composed after the captivity, and in which the stone, according to the historical sense of the psalm, represents the people of Israel, who, though rejected by the Gentiles, were chosen by God to form the foundation-stone of His house (the theocracy); while, according to the typical reference of the passage (which the Rabbinical teachers also recognised, see Schoettgen), it denotes the ideal head of the theocracy, viz. the Messiah.
λίθον ὅν ] a stone which, attraction of very frequent occurrence.
ἀπεδοκίμ .] as not fit for being used in the building.
οὗτος ] this, and no other.
κεφαλὴν γωνίας ] øÉàùÑ ôÌÄðÌÈä , head of the corner, i.e. corner-stone (in Hesychius we find κεφαλίτης in the sense of corner-stone; see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 700), is the metaphorical designation of Him on whom the stability and development of the theocracy depend, without whom it would fall to pieces, and in this respect He resembles that stone in a building which is indispensably necessary to the support and durability of the whole structure. The antitype here referred to is not the Gentiles (Fritzsche), but, as must be inferred from the connection of our passage with what is said about the Son being thrust out and put to death, from the further statement in Mat_21:44, and from the common usage throughout the New Testament (Act_4:11; Eph_2:20; 1Pe_2:7), the Messiah.
ἐγένετο αὕτη ] did he become so (viz. the corner-stone, κεφαλὴ γωνίας ). Here the feminine is not a Hebraism for the neuter (as little is it so in 1Sa_4:7; Psa_27:4), as Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 108 [E. T. 123], would have us suppose, but strictly grammatical, inasmuch as it refers to κεφ . γων .; and accordingly we find that in the Septuagint also æàú is rendered according to its contextual reference. To refer to γωνίας merely (Wetstein) is inadmissible, for this reason, that, in what precedes, κεφαλὴ γων . was the prominent idea.
καὶ ἔστι θαυμαστὴ , κ . τ . λ .] viz. this κεφαλὴ γων . “Our eyes,” as referring to believers.