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Mat_23:34. Διὰ τοῦτο ] must be of substantially the same import as Ὅπως ἔλθῃ ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς in Mat_23:35. Therefore, in order that ye may not escape the condemnation of hell (Mat_23:33), behold, I send to you … and ye will, etc.; καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν is likewise dependent on διὰ τοῦτο . Awful unveiling of the divine decree. Others have interpreted as follows: διότι μέλλετε πληρῶσαι τὸ μέτρον τῆς κακίας τῶν πατέρων ὑμῶν (Euthymius Zigabenus, Fritzsche), thus arbitrarily disregarding what immediately precedes (Mat_23:33). Moreover, without any hint whatever in the text of Matthew, ἰδού , ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω , κ . τ . λ ., has sometimes been taken for a quotation from some lost apocryphal prophecy, ἔφη ὁ θεός , or some such expression, being understood (van Hengel, Annotatio, p. 1 ff., and Paulus, Strauss, Ewald, Weizsäcker),—a view borne out, least of all, by Luk_11:49, which passage accounts for the unwarrantable interpretation into which Olshausen has been betrayed.[12] The corresponding passage in Luke has the appearance of belonging to a later date (in answer to Holtzmann and others). Comp. on Luk_11:49.
ἐγώ ] is uttered not by God (Ewald, Scholten), but by Jesus, and that under a powerful sense of His Messianic dignity, and with a boldness still more emphatically manifested by the use of ἰδού . Through this ἘΓῺ ἈΠΟΣΤΈΛΛΩ , Κ . Τ . Λ ., Jesus gives it to be understood that it is Himself who, in the future also, is still to be the object of hatred and persecution on the part of the Pharisees (comp. Act_9:5).
προφήτας κ . σοφοὺς κ . γραμμ .] by whom He means His apostles and other teachers (Eph_4:11), who, in respect of the Messianic theocracy, would be what the Old Testament prophets were, and the Rabbins ( çÂáÈîÄéí ) and scribes of a later time ought to have been, in the Jewish theocracy. For the last-mentioned order, comp. Mat_13:52. Olshausen is of opinion that the Old Testament prophets themselves must also have been intended to be included, and that ἀποστέλλω (which represents the near and certain future as already present) must indicate “God’s pure and eternal present.” The subsequent futures ought to have prevented any such construction being put upon the passage. For ΓΡΑΜΜ ., comp. Mat_13:52.
ΚΑῚ ἘΞ ΑὐΤῶΝ ] Οὐ ΠΆΝΤΕς (Euthymius Zigabenus), but more emphatic than if we had had ΤΙΝΆς besides: and from their ranks ye will murder, etc., so that the actions are conceived of absolutely (Winer, p. 552 [E. T. 743]). The same words are solemnly repeated immediately after.
ΚΑῚ ΣΤΑΥΡΏΣΕΤΕ ] and among other ways of putting them to death, will crucify them, i.e. through the Romans, for crucifixion was a Roman punishment. As a historical case in point, one might quote (besides that of Peter) the crucifixion of Simeon, a brother of Jesus, recorded by Eusebius, H. E. iii. 32. The meagreness, however, of the history of the apostolic age must be taken into account, though it must not be asserted that in ΣΤΑΥΡΏΣΕΤΕ Jesus was referring to His own case (Grotius, Fritzsche, Olshausen, Lange). He certainly speaks with reference to the third class of divine messengers, the class whom He is now sending (Calov.), but not from the standpoint of His eternal, ideal existence (Olshausen), nor in the name of God (Grotius), and then, again, from the standpoint of His personal manifestation in time (Olshausen), fancies for which there is no foundation either in Luk_11:49 or in the text itself. Jesus does not contemplate His own execution in what is said at Mat_23:32.
ἘΝ ΤΑῖς ΣΥΝΑΓΩΓ .] Mat_10:17.
ἈΠῸ ΠΌΛΕΩς ΕἸς ΠΌΛΙΝ ] Mat_10:23. Comp. Xen. Anab. v. 4. 31: εἰς τὴν ἑτέραν ἐκ τῆς ἑτέρας πόλεως .
[12] “Jesus,” he says, “is here speaking as the very impersonation of wisdom; Matthew has omitted the quotation formula, because his object was to represent Jesus as the one from whom the words originally and directly emanate; but the original form of the passage is that in which it is found in Luke.” Strauss, in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschr. 1863, p. 84 ff., also has recourse to the hypothesis of a lost book, belonging, as he thinks, to a date subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem, and written by a Christian, and in which the messengers in question are understood to be those whom God has been sending from the very earliest times. In this Strauss, following in the wake of Baur, is influenced by anti-Johannine leanings. According to Ewald, a volume, written shortly after the death of the prophet Zechariah in the fifth century before Christ, but which is now lost, was entitled ἡ σοφία τοῦ θεοῦ . The σταυρώσετε , he thinks, was inserted by Matthew himself. Bleek, in the Stud. u. Krit. 1853, p. 334, and in his commentary, agrees in the main with Ewald.