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Mat_7:16-18. Ἐπιγνώς .] Ye will know them, not ye should (Luther).
The καρποί are the results of principles, as seen in the whole behaviour, the works (Mat_7:21; Mat_7:23; Mat_12:33), not the doctrines (Jerome, Calvin, Calovius).
ἄκανθαι κ . τρίβολοι ] Thorns and thistles occur together in a corresponding figurative sense in Heb_6:8.
οὕτω ] application of those images to the false prophets, in such a way, however, that the latter, in keeping with ἀπὸ τ . καρπ . αὐτ . (comp. Mat_7:20), just before, appear again as trees.
A δένδρον ἀγαθόν is, as contrasted with the σαπρόν , a sound, healthy tree; for a σαπρόν is not some tree of an inferior species, but one whose organism is decaying with age, etc., rotten, the σαπρότης of which (Plat. Rep. p. 609 E; Diosc. i. 113), owing to a defective and corrupted state of the sap, admits of nothing in the way of fruit but what is bad, small, and useless. Comp. ξύλον σαπρόν , Job_41:19. σαπροὶ στέφανοι , Dem. 615. 11. “Bonitas arboris ipsius est veritas et lux interna, etc.; bonitas fructuum est sanctitas vitae. Si fructus essent in doctrina positi, nullus orthodoxus damnari posset,” Bengel. With the οὐ δύναται of the corrupt tree, comp. Rom_8:7 f. In this emphatic οὐ δύναται lies the progressive force of the simile.