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النشر الإلكتروني

CHAPTER IX.

9. Receipt of custom (Teλáviov). Rev., place of toll. Wyc., tolbooth, toll-booth, or toll-cabin, which is an excellent word, though obsolete. Sitting at, is, literally, sitting on: the elevated platform or bench which was the principal feature of the toll-office, as in modern custom-bazaars, being put for the whole establishment. This customs-office was at Capernaum, the landing-place for the many ships which traversed the lake or coasted from town to town; and this not only for those who had business. in Capernaum, but for those who would there strike the great road of eastern commerce from Damascus to the harbors of the West. Cicero, in his oration on the Consular Provinces, accuses Gabinius, the pro-consul of Syria, of relieving the Syrians and Jews of some of their legitimate taxes, and of ordering the small buildings to be taken down, which the publicans had erected at the approaches to bridges, or at the termination of roads, or in the harbors, for the convenience of their slaves and collectors.

16. New (ȧyváþov). From ả, not, and yváπτw, to card or comb wool; hence to dress or full cloth. Therefore Rev. renders more correctly undressed cloth, which would shrink when wet, and tear loose from the old piece. Wyc. renders rude. Jesus thus pictures the combination of the old forms of piety peculiar to John and his disciples with the new religious life emanating from himself, as the patching of an old garment with a piece of unfulled cloth, which would stretch and tear loose from the old fabric and make a worse rent than before.

17. Bottles (ȧoκòvs). Rev., rightly, wine-skins, though our word bottle originally carried the true meaning, being a bottle of leather. In Spanish, bota means a leather bottle, a boot, and a butt. In Spain wine is still brought to market in pig-skins. In the East, goat-skins are commonly used, with the rough side inward. When old, they break under the fermentation of the wine.

18. Is even now dead (ǎρti èteλeútnσev). The literal force of the aorist tense is more graphic. Just now died.

20. Hem (xрaσTédov). Rev., border. The fringe worn on the border of the outer garment, according to the command in Num. xv. 38. Dr. Edersheim ("Life and Times of Jesus") says that, according to tradition, each of the white fringes was to consist of eight threads, one of them wound round the others; first seven times, with a double knot; then eight times with a double knot; then eleven times with a double knot; and, lastly, thirteen times. The Hebrew characters representing these numbers formed the words Jehovah One.

23. Minstrels (avλnτàs). More correctly, as Rev., fluteplayers, hired or volunteering as mourners.

Making a noise (Jopvßoúμevov). Rev., tumult. Representing the loud screaming and wailing by the women. It is the word used in Acts xvii. 5: "Set the city in an uproar."

32. Dumb (xwpòv). The word is also used of deafness (Matt. xi. 5; Mark vii. 32; Luke vii. 22). It means dull or blunted. Thus Homer applies it to the earth; the dull, senseless earth ("Iliad,” xxiv., 25). Also to a blunted dart (“Iliad,” xi., 390). The classical writers use it of speech, hearing, sight, and mental perception. In the New Testament, only of hearing and speech, the meaning in each case being determined by the context.

36. Fainted (oav éσкvλμévoi). Rev., better, were distressed. Note the verb with the participle, denoting their habitual condition. The word orginally means to flay, rend, or mangle. Eschylus uses it of the tearing of dead bodies by fish ("Persae," 577). As appropriate to the figure of sheep, it might be rendered here fleeced. Wyc., they were travailed.

Scattered (éppiμμévoi). So A. V. and Rev. The word is the perfect participle passive of pinтw, to throw or cast, and means thrown down, prostrated. So Wyc., lying. It is not the

dispersion one from another, but their prostration in themselves that is meant. They have cast themselves down for very weariness.

38. Send forth (èxßáλŋ). So A. V. and Rev. But the word is stronger: thrust out, force them out, as from urgent necessity.

CHAPTER X.

1. The disciples (TOùs μadηtàs). The or his, referring to them as already chosen, though he nowhere relates their choosing. See Mark iii. 14; Luke vi. 13.

2. Apostles (άπоσтóλшv). Compare disciples, ver. i. Apostles is the official term, used here for the first time. They were merely learners (disciples, pantai) until Christ gave them. authority. From ȧTоσтéλλw, to send away. An apostle is one sent forth. Compare John xiii. 16 and Rev., one that is sent. Cremer ("Biblico-Theological Lexicon ") suggests that it was the rare occurrence of the word in profane Greek that made it all the more appropriate as the distinctive appellation of the twelve. Compare Luke vi. 13; Acts i. 2. Also, John xvii. 18, I have sent. The word is once used of Christ (Heb. iii. 1), and in a very general sense to denote any one sent (2 Cor. viii. 23; Philip. ii. 25).

Rev., Cananaean. The
In Luke vi. 15; Acts i.
Both terms indicate his

4. The Canaanite (ó Kavavaîos). word has nothing to do with Canaan. 13, the same apostle is called Zelotes. connection with the Galilaean Zealot party, a sect which stood for the recovery of Jewish freedom and the maintenance of distinctive Jewish institutions. From the Hebrew kanná, zeal. ous; compare the Chaldee kanán, by which this sect was de noted.

5. Judas Iscariot (ó Iokaρióтns). The article distinguishes him from others of the name of Judas (compare John xiv. 22).

Iscariot is usually explained as a compound, meaning the man of Kerioth, with reference to his native town, which is given in Joshua (xv. 25) as one of the uttermost cities of Judah toward the coast of Edom southward.

In the four catalogues of the apostles (here; Mark iii. 16; Luke vi. 14; Acts i. 13) Simon Peter always stands first. Here expressly; "first Simon." Notice that Matthew names them in pairs, and compare Mark vi. 7, "sent them forth two and two." The arrangement of the different lists varies; but throughout, Peter is the leader of the first four, Philip of the second, and James, son of Alphaeus, of the third.

6. The lost sheер (тà πρоßата тà àπоλwλóтα). The Greek order throws the emphasis on lost; the sheep, the lost ones. Bengel observes that Jesus says lost oftener than led astray. Compare xviii. 12, 44.

9. Brass (xaλkov). Properly copper. A decending climax. Copper would be as unnecessary as gold.

10. Staves (páßdovs). But the proper reading is staff, (ῥάβδον.)

The workman is worthy, etc. Ver. 11, There abide, etc. "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," a tract discovered in 1873 in the library of the monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre at Constantinople, by Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, is assigned to the date of 120 A.D., and by some scholars is placed as early as 100 A.D. It is addressed to Gentile Christians, and is designed to give them practical instruction in the Christian life, according to the teachings of the twelve apostles and of the Lord himself. In the eleventh chapter we read as follows: "And every apostle who cometh to you, let him be received as the Lord; but he shall not remain except for one day; if, however, there be need, then the next day; but if he remain three days, he is a false prophet. But when the apostle departeth, let him take nothing except bread enough till he lodge again, but if he ask money, he is a false prophet." And again

(ch. xiii.): "Likewise a true teacher, he also is worthy like the workman, of his support. Every first-fruit, then, of the products of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and sheep, thou shalt take and give to the prophets, for they are your high-priests. If thou makest a baking of bread, take the first of it and give according to the commandment. In like manner, when thou openest a jar of wine or oil, take the first of it and give to the prophets; and of money and clothing, and every possession, take the first, as may seem right to thee, and give according to the commandment."

12. When ye come into (eioepxóμevoi). The Greek indicates more distinctly the simultaneousness of the entrance and the salutation as ye are entering. Rev., as ye enter. So of the departure, as ye are going forth (¿§epxóμevoi, ver. 14).

14. Shake off (exтivážaтe). “The very dust of a heathen country was unclean, and it defiled by contact. It was regarded like a grave, or like the putrescence of death. If a spot of heathen dust had touched an offering, it must at once be burnt. More than that, if by mischance any heathen dust had been brought into Palestine, it did not and could not mingle with that of the land,' but remained to the end what it had been-unclean, defiled and defiling everything to which it adhered." The apostles, therefore, were not only to leave the house or city which should refuse to receive them, "but it was to be considered and treated as if it were heathen, just as in the similar case mentioned in Matt. xviii. 17. All contact with such must be avoided, all trace of it shaken off" (Edersheim, "Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ"). The symbolic act indicated that the apostles and their Lord regarded them not only as unclean, but as entirely responsible for their uncleanSee Acts xviii. 6.

ness.

16. I send you forth (èyà ảπOOTÉλλ). Cognate to the word ȧπóσTodos (apostle). The I is emphatic: "It is I that send you forth."

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