Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 6:19 - 6:19

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 6:19 - 6:19


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

19. θησαυροὺς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Cp. ἐκ γῆς γὰρ τάδε πάντα καὶ ἐς γῆν πάντα τελευτᾷ (Xenophanes). Love of amassing wealth has been characteristic of the Jews in all ages.

Oriental wealth consisted to a great extent in stores of linen, embroidered garments, &c., which were handed down and left as heirlooms.

σής. The English word ‘moth’ = ‘the devourer’.

βρῶσις. Money was frequently buried in the ground in those unsettled times, and so would be more liable to rust. Banks in the modern sense were unknown. Cp. ὁ πλοῦτος ὑμῶν σέσηπεν καὶ τὰ ἱμάτια ὑμῶν σητόβρωτα γέγονεν, Jam 5:2-3. One of the many references to the Sermon on the Mount in that epistle. Elsewhere in N.T. βρῶσις means ‘eating,’ as Joh 4:32, ἐγὼ βρῶσιν ἔχω φαγεῖν ἣν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε, and Rom 14:17, οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ βρῶσις καὶ πόσις, with this cp. Hom. Od. x. 167 ὄφρʼ ἐν νηὶ θοῇ βρῶσίς τε πόσις τε. This force remains in late Greek. Here either (1) of metals ‘rust,’ or (2) ‘eating away’ with special reference to σής, with which it would form a kind of hendiadys (cp. σητόβρωτα in the citation from St James above), or (3) decay in general. On the whole the second (2) is probably the kind of spoiling or decay chiefly thought of, but the other meanings need not be excluded. The word βρῶσις is doubtless influenced by the Hebr. achal as used Mal 3:11.

διορύσσουσιν. An expression applicable to the mud walls of Oriental huts. Cp. Job 24:16, διώρυξεν ἐν σκότει οἰκίας, and Thuc. II. 3, διορύσσοντες τοὺς κοινοὺς τοίχους. τοιχώρυχος = ‘a housebreaker.’