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Mat_5:37. Let your manner of asseveration be affirmation or negation, without an oath. The repetition of the ναί and οὔ is intended to make prominent the earnest and decisive nature of the assurance.[417] Similar examples of çÀï çÀï and ìÉà ìÉà in the Rabbins, in Lightfoot, and Schoettgen, p. 41. Comp. the ΝΑῚ ΚΑῚ Οὒ ΠΥΘΑΓΟΡΙΚΌΝ in Ausonius, Idyll. 17 : “Si consentitur, mora nulla intervenit est est; Si controversum, dissensio subjiciet non.” As a matter of course, by this representation other asseverations—made, however, without an oath—are not excluded.
τὸ δὲ περισς . τουτ .] whatever is more than yea and nay ( τούτων ), that is swearing.
ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΠΟΝΗΡΟῦ ] Euth. Zigabenus: ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΔΙΑΒΌΛΟΥ : auctorem habet diabolum. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Beza, Zwingli, Castalio, Piscator, Wetstein, and others; also Fritzsche, Keim. Comp. Joh_8:44; 1Jn_3:8; 1Jn_3:12. Others (Luther, Calovius, Bengel, Rosenmüller, Kuinoel, Paulus, Tholuck, de Wette, Baumgarten Crusius, Ewald, Bleek, and others) take ΤΟῦ ΠΟΝΗΡΟῦ as neuter, so that it would have to be explained: is in the category of evil, is sinful. Comp. the use of ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ἘΜΦΑΝΟῦς , ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΕὐΠΡΕΠΟῦς , etc., Matthiae, p. 1334. But how insipid and devoid of meaning is the closing thought if this be the meaning! how energetic if Ὁ ΠΟΝΗΡΌς , Mat_13:19; Mat_13:38, is intended! And by this energetic rejection of the oath amongst the ideal people of God, to whom the completed law applies, there is no opposition to the Old Testament sacredness of an oath. But if under the completed law the mere yea and nay are to have the weight and reliability of an oath, then this highest moral standard and ordinance of truthfulness would be again taken away and perverted by him who nevertheless should swear; while the yea and nay would again be deprived of the guarantee of truthfulness, which, like all opposition to the truth, would be diabolical (Joh_8:44). The oath by God could not be rejected by Jesus, in and by itself, as ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΠΟΝΗΡΟῦ , for it certainly rests upon the divine law; but (in answer to Keim) it has, upon the standpoint of the ΠΛΉΡΩΣΙς of the law, given way to the yea and nay, therefore its re-establishment would only be a desertion of these higher stages, a falling away from the moral ΤΕΛΕΙΌΤΗς , up to which Christ means to fulfil the law. This could not proceed from God, but only from the enemy of His will and kingdom. In a similar way, as Theophylact rightly saw, circumcision in the O. T. is ordained of God, and is worthy of honour; but to uphold its validity in Christianity to the injury of faith, and of righteousness by faith, is sinful, devilish; 2Co_11:3; 2Co_11:14. So also with sacrifices, festival days, prohibition of meats, and so on.
[417] In answer to Beza’s erroneous explanation, “let your affirmative discourse be yea, and your negative, nay;” and, in answer to Grotius (comp. also Erasmus), who takes the second ναί and οὔ to refer to the act which corresponds to the assurance, so that the meaning would be: “fidem a nobis praestari debere in promissis etiam injuratis,” see Fritzsche on the passage. According to Hilgenfeld, the original text is said to have been, in accordance with the quotations in Justin (Apol. i. 16, p. 63) and the Clementines (Rom. 3:55, 19:2): ἔστω δὲ ὑμῶν τὸ ναὶ ναὶ , καὶ τὸ οὒ οὔ . Comp. Jam_5:12; 2Co_1:17. Matthew would appear again to introduce an assurance like an oath. Keim also deems the form of statement as given by Matthew to be less correct.