Matthew 15

Matthew 15:1

1. ἀπὸἹεροσολύμωνΦαρισαῖοικαὶγραμματεῖς. Probably a deputation from the Sanhedrin, such as was commissioned to question John the Baptist. Cp. John 1:19.

Matthew 15:2

2. τὴνπαράδοσιντῶνπρεσβυτέρων. The elders, or presbyters, were the Jewish teachers, or scribes, such as Hillel and Shammai. The traditions were the rules or observances of the unwritten law, which they enjoined on their disciples. Many of these were frivolous; some actually subversive of God’s law; yet such was the estimation in which these ‘traditions’ were held that, according to one Rabbinical saying, ‘the words of the scribes are lovely, above the words of the law; for the words of the law are weighty and light but the words of the scribes are all weighty.’

Matthew 15:3

3. διὰτὴνπαράδοσιν. ‘For the sake of your tradition;’ i.e. in order that ye may establish it: ἵνατὴνπαράδοσινὑμῶντηρήσητε, Mark 7:9.

Matthew 15:4

4. ὁγὰρθεὸςἐνετείλατο, answering to τὴνἐντολὴντοῦθεοῦ, as in Matthew 15:5, ὑμεῖςλέγετε refers back to διὰτὴνπαράδοσινὑμῶν. St Mark has Μωϋσῆςγὰρεἶπεν (Matthew 7:10), an instructive variation.

ὁκακολογῶν. As a classical word κακολογεῖν or κακῶςλέγειν—the preferable form (Lob. Phryn. 200), means to ‘abuse,’ ‘revile;’ so in LXX. θεοὺςοὐκακολογήσεις, Exodus 22:28. In many passages the Hebrew word represented here by κακολογεῖν is translated by ἀτιμάζειν and means ‘to treat with disrespect,’ ‘to despise.’ In one form, however, of the Hebr. verb the meaning is ‘to curse,’ but the first sense is to be preferred here: ‘whoever makes light of their claims to support,’ &c. See Guillemard, Hebraisms in N.T., ad loc.

Matthew 15:5

5. δῶρονὃἐὰνκ.τ.λ. ‘Let that by whatsoever thou mayest be profited by me (i.e. the sum which might have gone to your support) be a ‘gift’ (κορβᾶν, Mark), or devoted to sacred purposes.’

The scribes held that these words, even when pronounced in spite and anger against parents who needed succour, excused the son from his natural duty, indeed bound him not to perform it; and, on the other hand, did not oblige him really to devote the sum to the service of God or of the temple.

οὐμὴτιμήσει. The omission of καὶ before these words (see critical notes) obviates the need of the awkward ellipse supplied in A.V. by the words ‘he shall be free,’ and throws out with far more force and clearness the contrast between the ἐντολὴτοῦθεοῦ and the παράδοσιςτῶνπρεσβυτέρων. God’s command was, ‘honour thy father and thy mother;’ ye say (in certain cases), ‘a man shall not honour his father and mother.’

οὐμὴ with future indicative or with subjunctive, is an emphatic denial. See note, ch. Matthew 10:42.

Matthew 15:6

6. τὸνλόγον for τὴνἐντολὴν of textus receptus; τὸννόμον the reading of Tischendorf has the authority of א and C and some cursives, and would explain τὴνἐντολήν. τὸνλόγον may have been introduced from Mark.

Matthew 15:7

7. καλῶςἐπροφήτευσεν. A common Jewish formula in quoting a saying of the prophets.

Matthew 15:8

8. The words ἐγγίζειμοι … τῷστόματιαὐτῶνκαὶ, which fill up the quotation from the LXX., are omitted on the highest MS. authority.

Matthew 15:9

9. ἐντάλματαἀνθρώπων. ‘Collections of ritual laws which were current in the times of the pre-exile prophets.’ (Cheyne, Isa. ad loc.) Thus Pharisaism had its counterpart in the old dispensation.

Matthew 15:10

10. προσκαλεσάμενοςτὸνὄχλον. The moment our Lord turns to the people, His teaching is by parables.

This appeal to the multitude as worthier than the Pharisees to receive the divine truths is significant of the popular character of the Kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 15:11

11. κοινοῖ. Literally, maketh common; cp. ‘common or unclean,’ Acts 10:14. ‘The Pharisees esteemed “defiled men” for “common and vulgar” men; on the contrary, a religious man among men is “a singular man.” ’ Lightfoot ad loc.

Matthew 15:12

12. οἱΦαρισαῖοιἐσκανδαλίσθησαν. A proof of the influence of the Pharisees. The disciples believed that Christ would be concerned to have offended those who stood so high in popular favour.

Matthew 15:13

13. πᾶσαφυτεία. Not a wild flower, but a cultivated plant or tree; the word occurs here only in N.T.; in LXX. version of O.T. it is used of the vine, the most carefully cultivated of all plants; 2 Kings 19:29; Ezekiel 17:7; Micah 1:6; Aq. and Symm. have δένδρωνφυτείαν in Genesis 21:33, of the tamarisk. Here the plant cultivated by human hands—the vine that is not the true vine of Israel—is the doctrine of the Pharisees.

Matthew 15:14

14. ὁδηγοίεἰσιντυφλοὶτυφλῶν. The proverb which follows is quoted in a different connection, Luke 6:39; cp. also ch. Matthew 23:16.

εἰςβόθυνονπεσοῦνται. Palestine abounded in dangers of this kind, from unguarded wells, quarries, and pitfalls; it abounded also in persons afflicted with blindness. See note ch. Matthew 9:27.

Matthew 15:16

16. ἀκμήν. Here only in N.T. Strictly, ‘at the point of time,’ in late authors, ‘even now,’ ‘still.’ Latin, adhuc. In the modern Greek versions ἔτι is used for ἀκμήν.

καὶὑμεῖς, as well as the crowds to whom the parables are spoken.

ἀσύνετοίἐστε. Cp. συνέσειπνευματικῇ, Colossians 1:9, and τὴνσύνεσινμουἐντῷμυστηρίῳτοῦΧριστοῦ, Ephesians 3:4.

Matthew 15:19

19. ἐκγὰρτῆςκαρδίαςκ.τ.λ. The enumeration follows the order of the Commandments. Evil thoughts—(διαλογισμοὶπονηροί) ‘harmful reasonings’—form a class under which the rest fall, indicating, too, that the transgression of the commandments is often in thought, by Christ’s law, not in deed only.

The plurals ‘murders, adulteries,’ &c., as Meyer points out, denote the different instances and kinds of murder and adultery. Murder includes far more than the act of bloodshed.

Matthew 15:21

21. ἀνεχώρησεν. Perhaps to avoid the hostility which this attack upon the Pharisees would arouse. St Mark preserves the connection ἀναστὰςἀπῆλθεν as if He had been teaching (καθίσας).

εἰςτὰμέρηΤύρουκαὶΣιδῶνος. The reading adopted by the leading editors, Mark 7:31, ἦλθενδιὰΣιδῶνοςεἰςτὴνθάλασσαντῆςΓαλιλαίας, makes it certain that Jesus crossed the borders of Palestine and passed through a Gentile land.

Matthew 15:22

22. γυνὴΧαναναία. In Mark ἡδὲγυνὴἦνἙλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα (Matthew 7:26). The two expressions are in Hellenistic Greek identical. In Joshua 5:12, ‘The land of Canaan’ (Hebr.) appears in the LXX. version as τὴνχώραντῶνΦοινίκων. Hecatæus (Tr. 254) states: Χνᾶ. [Canaan] οὕτωπρότερονἡΦοινίκηἐκαλεῖτο. The term land of Canaan, literally the low lands or netherlands, at first applied to the whole of Palestine, was confined in later times to the maritime plain of Phœnicia.

Still, according to Prof. Rawlinson, the Canaanites and Phœnicians were distinct races, possessing marked peculiarities. The former were the original occupants of the country, the latter ‘immigrants at a comparatively recent date.’ (Herod. Vol. IV. p. 199.) The relations between Phœnicia and Palestine had been with scarcely an exception peaceful and friendly. The importance of the narrative lies in the fact that this woman was a foreigner and a heathen—a descendant of the worshippers of Baal.

She may have heard and seen Jesus in earlier days. Cp. Mark 3:8, ‘they about Tyre and Sidon … came unto him.’ This instance of mercy extended to a Gentile points to the future diffusion of the Gospel beyond the Jewish race.

ἐλέησόνμε. Identifying herself with her daughter. Cp. the prayer of the father of the lunatic child: ‘Have compassion on us and help us,’ Mark 9:22.

υἱὸςΔαυείδ. A title that proves the expectation that the Messiah should spring from the house of David. It is the particular Messianic prophecy which would be most likely to reach foreign countries. The Tyrian woman’s appeal to the descendant of Hiram’s friend and ally has a special significance.

Matthew 15:23

23. οὐκἀπεκρίθηαὐτῇλόγον. Jesus, by this refusal, tries the woman’s faith, that He may purify and deepen it. Her request must be won by earnest prayer, ‘lest the light winning should make light the prize.’

Observe that Christ first refuses by silence, then by express words.

ἠρώτουν. For the form cp. νικοῦντι, Revelation 2:7. the reading of Lachmann and Tischendorf (ed. 7); and see Winer, p. 104, note 3.

ἀπόλυσοναὐτήν. By granting what she asks, by yielding, like the unjust judge, to her importunity.

Matthew 15:24

24. εἰςτὰπρόβατατὰἀπολωλότακ.τ.λ. Jesus came to save all, but his personal ministry was confined, with few exceptions, to the Jews.

The thought of Israel as a flock of sheep lost upon the mountain is beautifully drawn out, Ezekiel 34; ‘My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them’ (Matthew 15:6). Read the whole chapter.

Matthew 15:25

25. προσεκύνει is probably right, though the evidence is evenly balanced between aor. and imperf.

Matthew 15:26

26. τὸνἄρτοντῶντέκνωνκ.τ.λ. The τέκνα are the Jews; the κυνάρια are the Gentiles. This was the name applied by the Jews to all outside the chosen race, the dog being in the East a symbol of impurity. St Paul, regarding the Christian Church as the true Israel, terms the Judaizing teachers τοὺςκύνας, Philippians 3:2. The same religious hostility, and the same names of scorn, still exist in the East between Mussulman and Christian populations. Christ’s words, as reported by St Mark (Mark 7:27), contain a gleam of hope, ἄφεςπρῶτονχορτασθῆναιτὰτέκνα.

Matthew 15:27

27. καὶγάρ. ‘For even’ (‘yet’ of the A.V. is misleading). The woman takes Jesus at His word, admits the truth of what He says, accepts the name of reproach, and claims the little that falls even to the dogs. ‘True, it is not good to cast the children’s bread to the dogs, for even the dogs have their share,—the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’

τὰκυνάριαἐσθίει. St Mark has ἐσθίειν of the dogs and χορτασθῆναι of the children, so completely is the strict use of the two words reversed.

τῆςτραπέζηςτῶνκυρίων. The ‘Masters’ must be interpreted to mean God, not, as by some, the Jewish people. Note the turn given by the introduction of the κύριοι. κυνάρια that have κύριοι are not the wretched outcasts of the streets—they have some one to care for them. Even the Gentiles may expect a blessing from the God of Israel.

Matthew 15:28

28. St Mark has εὖρεντὸπαιδίονβεβλημένονἐπὶτὴνκλίνηνκαὶτὸδαιμόνιονἐξεληλυθός.

Matthew 15:29

29. εἰςτὸὄρος. The mountain country; the high land, as distinguished from the low land, which He had left.

Matthew 15:32

32. ἡμέραιτρεῖς. For this parenthetical introduction of the nominative see Winer, p. 704, § 2 and note 3.

Matthew 15:35-36

35, 36. The omission of καὶ before εὐχαριστήσας makes the structure very harsh. It is the reading necessitated by the rules adopted for forming the present text. Tregelles omits the καὶ against Lachmann and Tischendorf. If the former had seen א it can scarcely be doubted that he would have inserted the conjunction so necessary to the flow of the sentence.

Matthew 15:36

36. εὐχαριστήσας. εὐχαριστεῖν does not occur before Polybius in the sense of gratias agere. The decree in Demosth. de Cor. p. 257, where the word is found, (see Lob. Phryn. 18) is probably spurious. The classical expression is χάρινεἰδέναι.

τὸπερισσεῦοντῶνκλασμάτων. See ch. Matthew 14:20. One side of the lesson is the lavishness of Providence. God gives even more than we require or ask for. But the leading thought is a protest against waste.

Matthew 15:37

37. ἑπτὰσπυρίδας. See note ch. Matthew 14:20, and Acts 9:25, where St Paul is said to have been let down from the wall of Damascus in a σπυρίς, probably a large basket made of rope-net, possibly a fisherman’s basket; in 2 Corinthians 11:33, where the same incident is related, the word σαργάνη is used. Why the people brought different kinds of baskets on the two occasions we cannot determine. The facts seem to point to a difference in nationality or in occupation. σπυρὶς connected with σπείρω, ‘to twist,’ is the Lat. sporta, or sportula. σαργάνη in Æsch. Suppl. 769 = ‘the mesh of a net’.

Matthew 15:39

39. Μαγαδάν. For the reading see critical note. It is probable that the familiar Magdala supplanted in the text the more obscure Magadan. Magdala or Migdol (a watch tower) is identified with the modern Mejdel, a collection of ruins and squalid huts at the S.E. corner of the plain of Gennesaret, opposite to K’hersa or Gergesa. This is the point where the lake is broadest. Prof. Rawlinson thinks that this Magdala may be the Magdolus of Herodotus, II. 159; unless indeed by a confusion curiously similar to that in the text, Herodotus has mistaken Migdol for Megiddo. Magdala was probably the home of Mary Magdalene.