Matthew 5:27

Ye have heard that it was said,.... These forms of speech, as well as what follows, by them of old time, have been explained, in ver. 21.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: Ye have heard that it was said.

See Poole on "".

27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: Ver. 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery] This they corruptly restrained to the gross act, and made nothing of contemplative filthiness, hearts full of harlotry, hot as an oven with scalding lusts, Hosea 7:6, very stews and brothel houses, cages of unclean birds; besides eyes full of adultery, hands defiled with dalliance, tongues taught to talk obscenities and ribaldries. Spurcitias Veneris eliminantes. But Seneca could say, Incesta est, et sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit: she is a whore that would be so had she but opportunity; and the Romans put to death a vestal virgin for singing this verse only. " Faelices nuptae! moriar ni nubere dulce est." St Paul’ s virgin is holy, not in body only, but in spirit also, 1 Corinthians 7:34. Quae quia non licuit non facit, illa facit. And for the avoiding of fornications, διαταςπορνειας, 1 Corinthians 7:2; (in the plural number, inward burnings as well as outward pollutions), let every man have his own wife, &c. Fecit quisque quantam voluit, saith Seneca. Every one doeth as he desireth to do. And Polybius attributeth the death of Antiochus to sacrilege only in his purpose and will. Josephus indeed derideth Polybius for so saying; but with as little reason, as his countryman Kimchi (soured with the leaven of the Pharisees) sets this strange sense upon Psalms 66:18 : If I regard iniquity only in my heart, so that it break not forth into outward act, the Lord will not hear me, that is (saith he) so as to impute it, or account it a sin. Has patitur poenas peccandi sola voluntas. Juv. Sat. 13.

(27) By them of old time.—Omitted in the best MSS. If retained, translate as before, to them of old time. It was probably inserted for the sake of conformity with Matthew 5:21. Here the words are simply those of the divine commandment, but it is given as it was taught in the Rabbinic schools, simply in the narrowness of the letter, without any perception that here too the commandment was “exceeding broad.” It is with that teaching, as before, that our Lord contrasts His own.

Verse 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old] By the ancients, τοιςαρχαιοις, is omitted by nearly a hundred MSS., and some of them of the very greatest antiquity and authority; also by the Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Gothic, and Sclavonian versions; by four copies of the old Itala; and by Origen, Cyril, Theophylact, Euthymius, and Hilary. On this authority Wetstein and Griesbach have left it out of the text.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery - See the notes at Matthew 5:21. Our Saviour in these verses explains the seventh commandment.

(2.) Christian law of sexual purity. 27. Not commit adultery — The same principles are applied to the seventh commandment as are used in the preceding paragraph to elucidate and disencumber the sixth.