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Mat_25:31 ff. It is unnecessary to suppose that this utterance about the judgment—an utterance taken, like the preceding, from the collection of our Lord’s sayings ( λόγια )—should be immediately connected with Mat_24:30 f. (Fritzsche, de Wette) or with Mat_24:51 (Ewald). The coming of the Messiah and His judicial dealing with His servants had been portrayed immediately before, and now the prophetic glance extends and takes in the judgment of all nations,—a judgment which is to be presided over by the Lord when He returns in His glory. This is the grand closing scene in which the eschatological predictions are all to be realized, and depicted too with a simplicity and beauty so original that there is but the less reason for imagining that this discourse about the judgment is the product of the apostolic period (Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Scholten, Wittichen, Keim).
It is usual to understand those who are being judged as representing men generally, Christians and non-Christians alike (see, among modern expositors, Kuinoel, Fritzsche, de Wette, Lange, Weizel, as above, p. 603; Kaeuffer, de ζωῆς αἰων . not. p. 44; Hofmann, Schriftbew. p. 645), Bleek arbitrarily assuming that the evangelists have extended the application of what originally referred only to Christians. On the other hand, Keil (in the Opusc., ed. Goldh. p. 136 ff., and Anal. 1813, III. 177 ff.) and Olshausen, as well as Baumgarten-Crusius, Georgii in Zeller’s Jahrb. 1845, p. 18 f.; Hilgenfeld, Weizsäcker, Volkmar, Keim, Wittichen, Auberlen, Cremer, understand all who are not Christians to be referred to, some of them, however, expressly excluding the Jews. But non-Christians could not have been intended, because it would be improper to say that the Messianic kingdom has been prepared for such, to say nothing of the ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου , Mat_25:34, in which the idea of the ἐκλεκτοί is exclusively involved; further, because it would be no less improper to suppose, without more ado, that non-Christians are intended by the οἱ δίκαιοι of Mat_25:37, which latter we are not at liberty to understand in a generalized sense, but only as equivalent to the elect; again, because those things which Jesus represents (Mat_25:35-36; Mat_25:40) as manifestations of love toward Himself cannot possibly be conceived of as done by those who, nevertheless, continued to remain outside the Christian community; finally, because both sides of the assemblage use such language (Mat_25:37 ff., Mat_25:44) as compels us to acknowledge their belief in the Judge before whom they now stand. Their language is the expression of a consciousness of their faith in the Messiah, towards whom, however, they have had no opportunity of displaying their love. If the Messianic felicity were here adjudged to pure heathens according to the way in which they may have acted toward Christians (Hilgenfeld), this would be to suppose a “remarkable toleration” (Keim) altogether at variance with the whole tenor of the New Testament, and such as even Rev_21:24 (see Düsterdieck on that passage) does not countenance,—a humanity which does not need faith, because it compensates for the want of it by its love (Volkmar, p. 546). If, after all this, we cannot suppose that a judgment of non-Christians is here meant, we may even go still further, and say that non-Christians are not included at all, and so we must also reject the view usually adopted, since Chrysostom and Augustine, that what is here exhibited is a judgment of all men, believers and unbelievers alike. For, so far from the mention of the divine ἐκλογή , Mat_25:34, or the idea of the δίκαιοι , Mat_25:37, or what Jesus says at Mat_25:35, or the answer of those assembled before the Judge, Mat_25:37; Mat_25:44, or the entire omission generally of any distinction between belief and unbelief, harmonizing with the notion of a mixed body consisting of Christians and non-Christians, they entirely exclude the latter. We should therefore return to the very old view (Lactantius, Instit. vii. 20; Jerome, Euthymius Zigabenus), which, though it had been neglected in consequence of the prevalent eschatology, was preserved by Grotius, the view, namely, that what Jesus is here depicting is the judgment of Christians: περὶ τῶν Χριστιανῶν δὲ μόνων ὁ λόγος ἐνταῦθα , Euthymius Zigabenus, who proves this, above all, from Mat_25:35-36. All the points previously adduced as arguments against the other explanations combine to favour this view. It is confirmed by the whole fundamental idea on which the Judge’s sentence turns (the determining principle being the love manifested toward Jesus), by the figure of the shepherd and his sheep, and finally, and at the same time somewhat more definitely, by the fact that those who are being judged are called πάντα τὰ ἔθνη . For the latter words are not intended to limit the reference expressly to the Gentiles, but they are to be taken as assuming the realization of the universality of Christianity. by the time of the advent when all the nations of the earth ( ἔθνη , as expressing the idea of nation, does not exclude the Jews; comp. Mat_28:19, Mat_24:9, and see on Joh_11:50) will have heard the gospel and (to a proportionable degree) received Christ (Mat_24:14; Rom_11:25). Jesus, then, is here describing the universal judgment of those who have believed in Him, in whom, as they will be gathered around His throne, His prophetic glance beholds all the nations of the world (Mat_28:19). Comp., for the judgment of Christians, 2Co_5:10; Rom_14:10. The judgment of unbelievers (1Co_15:23; 1Co_6:2; comp. on Mat_19:28), who are not in question at present, forms a distinct scene in the universal assize; and hence in the preceding parable also the reference is to His servants, therefore to believers. Neither here nor in the passages from Paul do those different judgment scenes presuppose anything in the shape of chiliastic ideas. The Messianic judgment is one act consisting of two scenes, not two acts with a chiliastic interval coming in between. See, on the other hand, Mat_13:37 ff.
πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι ] “omnes angeli, omnes nationes; quanta celebritas!” Bengel.
τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρίφων ] sheep and goats (Sir_47:3; Gen_38:17) are here represented as having been pastured together (comp. Gen_30:33 ff.). The wicked are conceived of under the figure of the ἔριφοι , not on account of the wantonness and stench of the latter (Grotius), or in consequence of their stubbornness (Lange), but generally because those animals were considered to be comparatively worthless (Luk_15:29); and hence, in Mat_25:33, we have the diminutive τὰ ἐρίφια for the purpose of expressing contempt.
For the significance attached to the right and left side (Ecc_10:2), see Schoettgen and Wetstein on our passage. Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § xxxviii. 9 f. Comp. Plat. Rep. p. 614 C; Virg. Aen. vi. 542 f.