Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 21:44 - 21:44

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 21:44 - 21:44


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44. ὁ πεσὼν ἐπὶ τὸν λίθον κ.τ.λ. Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr., sees here a reference to the custom of stoning: ‘the place of stoning was twice as high as a man. From the top of this one of the witnesses, striking him on his loins, fells him to the ground: if he died of this, well; if not, another witness threw a stone upon his heart.’ The second process was inevitably fatal.

But it is perhaps better to refer the image to an earthenware vessel (1) falling to the ground when it would be shattered, or (2) crushed by a stone when it would be bruised into atoms.

συνθλασθήσεται. A late classical word, in N.T. here and Luk 20:18 (the parallel passage). The simple verb θλάω is Epic (Homer and Hesiod) and Alexandrine (Theocritus).

λικμήσει· λικμᾶν. (1) ‘to winnow,’ Hom. Il. 21:499, ὡς δʼ ἄνεμος ἄχνας φορέει ἱερὰς κατʼ ἀλωάς, | ἀνδρῶν λικμώντων. (2) ‘To cause to disappear’ like chaff, so ‘to destroy utterly,’ ἀναλήψεται δὲ αὐτὸν καύσων καὶ ἀπελεύσεται καὶ λικμήσει αὐτὸν ἐκ τοῦ τόπου αὐτοῦ, Job 27:21. Cp. Dan 2:44, where the rendering in Theodotion’s version is λεπτυνεῖ καὶ λικμήσει πάσας τὰς βασιλείας, in the LXX. πατάξει καὶ ἀφανίσει τὰς βασιλείας ταύτας. λικμήσει therefore = ἀφανίσει. The translation of the A.V., ‘grind to powder,’ which probably is due to conteret of the Vulgate, cannot be justified. The Vulgate rendering may be due to a confusion between the nearly simultaneous processes of threshing and winnowing. ‘Conterere’ is very applicable to the former process. See a good description in ‘Conder’s Tent Work in Palestine, II. 259.

The meaning as applied to Christ appears to be: Those to whom Jesus is a ‘rock of offence’ (1Pe 2:8; Isa 8:14) in the days of his humiliation shall have great sorrow: but to incur his wrath when He comes to judge the earth will be utter destruction.