Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 5:18 - 5:18
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
18. ἀμήν. Strictly a verbal adjective, ‘firm,’ ‘true,’ from Hebr. aman to ‘support,’ ‘confirm’; thus used, Rev 3:14, ὁ ἀμὴν ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς καὶ ἀληθινός. (2) An adverb of affirmation preceding or concluding a statement or prayer. The familiar use of the word in the Christian liturgy is derived from the service of the synagogue.
ἰῶτα. ‘yod’ (י) the smallest of the Hebr. characters, generally a silent letter, rather the adjunct of a letter than an independent letter. Still a critical interpretation might turn on the presence or absence of in a word. The controversy as to the meaning of Shiloh, Gen 49:10, is an instance of this. The letter makes the difference between Sarai and Sarah. It is the first letter in Jehovah and in the Hebrew form of Jesus or Joshua.
κεραία, lit. ‘a horn.’ Here the extremity of a letter, a little point or a turn, in which one letter differs from another, as e.g. כ [ or c] differs from ב [ or b], or as ד [ or d] differs from ר [ or r]. The Rabbinical writers point out that a confusion between the first two would change the sense of ‘none holy as the Lord’ (1Sa 2:2) to ‘nought is holy in the Lord’; and a confusion between the second pair of letters would change ‘one Lord’ (Deu 6:4) to ‘false Lord.’ Schöttgen loc. The Greek grammarians used the word for ‘a mark over a letter,’ as ᾱ.