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Mat_7:14-15. Τί ] quam (Vulg.): how strait is the gate! as conforming to the Sept., which renders îÈç in this sense by τί (2Sa_6:20; Son_7:6; Luk_12:49), though not good Greek. The rendering why, as though there were something sorrowful in the question (Fritzsche), is unsuited to the whole tone of the discourse.
εὑρίσκοντες ] The strait gate requires to be sought, so far is it from being readily seen, or from obtruding itself upon the attention.
By most, the gate is erroneously conceived to be at the end of the way; with Bengel, Schegg, and Lange, it is to be understood as at the beginning of it, as opening into it, for which reason, in Mat_7:13-14, the gate is mentioned before the way. The entering by the strait gate is therefore the entering into life (into the Messiah’s kingdom), but still brought about through following the narrow way, which is reached by means of the strait gate.
προσέχετε δέ ] But in order to find it, beware, and so on.
The ψευδοπροφῆται are not the Pharisees (Tholuck), nor Jews, pretending to be divine messengers (Bleek), nor people like Judas the Galilean (Act_5:37, de Wette), but false Christian teachers without a divine call (Mat_24:11; Mat_24:24), as is evident from Mat_7:21-23. Comp. Chrysostom, Calvin, Grotius, Calovius. A warning in view of coming events, and such as Jesus knew His followers would soon be needing.
ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτ .] dressed in sheep’s clothing. Here we are not to think of literal sheep skins (Grotius, Kuinoel), seeing that these were worn by others, and were not specially the prophets’ dress (comp. Mat_3:4), but as emblematic of the outward appearance of innocence and gentleness, not of the external profession of a member of the Christian church (“nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies,” Tertullian, de praescr. 4), which would have been admissible only if the context had spoken of the church in the light of a flock, in which case the false prophets would have been far more appropriately represented as in shepherds’ clothing. Bengel well remarks: “Vestibus ut si essent oves.”
ἔσωθεν ] i.e., according to the figure; under the sheep’s clothing; in reality; in their true inner nature, which is disguised by hypocrisy. With λύκοι ἅρπαγες , as representing soul-destroying agency, comp. Act_20:29; Joh_10:12.