Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

378
Matthew IX. 7, 8.
representative of God upon earth. The idea of the Jews, that the
forgiveness of sins would be among the prerogatives of the Messiah
[Schottgen, "Jesus derwahre Messias," Leipzig, 1744, S. 307. Ber-
tlioldt Christol. Jud., p. 159, seqq.), evidently expressed the recogni-
tion of his higher nature ; hence Jesus desires to rouse to a convic-
tion of the true nature of the Son of Man. (FritzscJie removes the
difficulties in the construction of the clause, rore Xiyet rw rtapaXv-
tlkC) [Matth. ix. 6], by the ingenious conjecture rode ; but, as the
Codd. exhibit no various reading, he has properly refrained from introducing
it into the text. According to the common reading, wo
must take the words as parenthetical, and interposed by the Evan-
gelist.)
Ver. 8.—The narrative is silent as to the effect of the miracle on
the Pharisees, because there was nothing pleasing to report ; but it
is observed of the simple people who were open to divine influence,
that they proclaimed Grod's praise with wonder, entirely in accord-
ance with the Saviour's intention, blessing the author of all good for
the revelation of his glory in him. (See Matth. v. 16.) The con-
cluding clause in Matthew, rov dovra E^ovaiav TOLavrrjv rolg dvOgooTTOigj
lolio gave such autliority to men, is not to be interpreted as if (t^ovaia
being taken as the cause for the effect) it was in praise of the blessings
flowing from God to men through Jesus dvdpconoc, ; men =
yevog ru)v dvOpcjnuv^ human race, rather includes Jesus himself, in
whose gift of miracles the divine power was so gloriously manifested.
Without being able to define doctrinally the view held by the multitude
regarding the person of Jesus, we may say, that this thought
has its full eternal truth. For, as certainly as the Word of the
Father was revealed in the person of our Lord, so certainly was
and what of divine fulness was manifested in
Jesus also truly man ;
him had been imparted to the human race in general in his human-
ity. (Instead of davpid^eiv, wonder, used in Matthew, Mark has tftcr-
raodai, amazed, and Luke ucoTaoig ^Xafiev dnavrag, amazement seized
them all. The latter expression is the stronger ; it denotes being in
transports. [See Mark v. 42 ; Acts iii. 10.] In other places this
expression has a qualified signification [see note on Acts x. 10], and
is used, like heing in the Spirit {ev -nveviiaTt elvai), of a state of
prophetic rapture. In Luke v. 26, napddo^a = Oavfxaordj corre-
sponds to the Hebrew n-.K^Ej].