00150
 \\Our debts\\ (\\ta opheilmata hmn\\). Luke
 # Lu 11:4
 has "sins" (\\hamartias\\). In the ancient Greek \\opheilma\\ is common
 for actual legal debts as in
 # Ro 4:4
 but here it is used of moral and spiritual debts to God.
 "Trespasses" is a mistranslation made common by the Church of
 England Prayer Book. It is correct in verse
 # 14
 in Christ's argument about prayer, but it is not in the Model
 Prayer itself. See
 # Mt 18:28,30
 for sin pictured again by Christ "as debt and the sinner as a
 debtor" (Vincent). We are thus described as having wronged God.
 The word \\opheil\\ for moral obligation was once supposed to be
 peculiar to the New Testament. But it is common in that sense in
 the papyri (Deismann, _Bible Studies_, p. 221; _Light from the
 Ancient East,_ New ed., p. 331). We ask forgiveness "in
 proportion as" (\\hs\\) we _also_ have forgiven those in debt to us,
 a most solemn reflection. \\Aphkamen\\ is one of the three k aorists
 (\\ethka, edka, hka\\). It means to send away, to dismiss, to wipe
 off.

00151
 \\And bring us not into temptation\\ (\\kai m eisenegkis eis\\
 \\peirasmon\\). "Bring" or "lead" bothers many people. It seems to
 present God as an active agent in subjecting us to temptation, a
 thing specifically denied in
 # Jas 1:13
 The word here translated "temptation" (\\peirasmon\\) means
 originally "trial" or "test" as in
 # Jas 1:2
 and Vincent so takes it here. _Braid Scots_ has it: "And lat us
 no be siftit." But God does test or sift us, though he does not
 tempt us to evil. No one understood temptation so well as Jesus
 for the devil tempted him by every avenue of approach to all
 kinds of sin, but without success. In the Garden of Gethsemane
 Jesus will say to Peter, James, and John: "Pray that ye enter not
 into temptation"
 # Lu 22:40
 That is the idea here. Here we have a "Permissive imperative" as
 grammarians term it. The idea is then: "Do not allow us to be led
 into temptation." There is a way out
 # 1Co 10:13
 but it is a terrible risk.

 \\From the evil one\\ (\\apo tou ponrou\\). The ablative case in the
 Greek obscures the gender. We have no way of knowing whether it
 is \\ho ponros\\ (the evil one) or \\to ponron\\ (the evil thing). And
 if it is masculine and so \\ho ponros\\, it can either refer to the
 devil as the Evil One _par excellence_ or the evil man whoever he
 may be who seeks to do us ill. The word \\ponros\\ has a curious
 history coming from \\ponos\\ (toil) and \\pone\\ (to work). It reflects
 the idea either that work is bad or that this particular work is
 bad and so the bad idea drives out the good in work or toil, an
 example of human depravity surely.

 The Doxology is placed in the margin of the Revised Version. It
 is wanting in the oldest and best Greek manuscripts. The earliest
 forms vary very much, some shorter, some longer than the one in
 the Authorized Version. The use of a doxology arose when this
 prayer began to be used as a liturgy to be recited or to be
 chanted in public worship. It was not an original part of the
 Model Prayer as given by Jesus.

00152
 \\Trespasses\\ (\\paraptmata\\). This is no part of the Model Prayer.
 The word "trespass" is literally "falling to one side," a lapse
 or deviation from truth or uprightness. The ancients sometimes
 used it of intentional falling or attack upon one's enemy, but
 "slip" or "fault"
 # Ga 6:1
 is the common New Testament idea. \\Parabasis\\
 # Ro 5:14
 is a positive violation, a transgression, conscious stepping
 aside or across.

00153
00154
 \\Of a sad countenance\\ (\\skuthrpoi\\). Only here and
 # Lu 24:17
 in the N.T. It is a compound of \\skuthros\\ (sullen) and \\ops\\
 (countenance). These actors or hypocrites "put on a gloomy look"
 (Goodspeed) and, if necessary, even "disfigure their faces"
 (\\aphanizousin ta prospa autn\\), that they may look like they are
 fasting. It is this pretence of piety that Jesus so sharply
 ridicules. There is a play on the Greek words \\aphanizousi\\
 (disfigure) and \\phansin\\ (figure). They conceal their real looks
 that they may seem to be fasting, conscious and pretentious
 hypocrisy.

00155
00156
 \\In secret\\ (\\en ti kruphaii\\). Here as in
 # 6:4,6
 the Textus Receptus adds \\en ti phaneri\\ (openly), but it is not
 genuine. The word \\kruphaios\\ is here alone in the New Testament,
 but occurs four times in the Septuagint.

00157
 \\Lay not up for yourselves treasures\\ (\\m thsaurizete humin\\
 \\thsaurous\\). Do not have this habit (\\m\\ and the present
 imperative).
 See note on "Mt 2:11"
  for the word "treasure." Here there is a play on the word,
 "treasure not for yourselves treasures." Same play in verse
 # 20
 with the cognate accusative. In both verses \\humin\\ is dative of
 personal interest and is not reflexive, but the ordinary personal
 pronoun. Wycliff has it: "Do not treasure to you treasures."

 \\Break through\\ (\\diorussousin\\). Literally "dig through." Easy to do
 through the mud walls or sun-dried bricks. Today they can pierce
 steel safes that are no longer safe even if a foot thick. The
 Greeks called a burglar a "mud-digger" (\\toichoruchos\\).

00158
 \\Rust\\ (\\brsis\\). Something that "eats" (\\bibrsk\\) or "gnaws" or
 "corrodes."

00159
00160
 \\Single\\ (\\haplous\\). Used of a marriage contract when the husband is
 to repay the dowry "pure and simple" (\\tn phernn hapln\\), if she
 is set free; but in case he does not do so promptly, he is to add
 interest also (Moulton and Milligan's _Vocabulary_, etc.). There
 are various other instances of such usage. Here and in
 # Lu 11:34
 the eye is called "single" in a moral sense. The word means
 "without folds" like a piece of cloth unfolded, _simplex_ in
 Latin. Bruce considers this parable of the eye difficult. "The
 figure and the ethical meaning seem to be mixed up, moral
 attributes ascribed to the physical eye which with them still
 gives light to the body. This confusion may be due to the fact
 that the eye, besides being the organ of vision, is the seat of
 expression, revealing inward dispositions." The "evil" eye
 (\\ponros\\) may be diseased and is used of stinginess in the LXX
 and so \\haplous\\ may refer to liberality as Hatch argues (_Essays
 in Biblical Greek_, p. 80). The passage may be elliptical with
 something to be supplied. If our eyes are healthy we see clearly
 and with a single focus (without astigmatism). If the eyes are
 diseased (bad, evil), they may even be cross-eyed or cock-eyed.
 We see double and confuse our vision. We keep one eye on the
 hoarded treasures of earth and roll the other proudly up to
 heaven. Seeing double is double-mindedness as is shown in verse
 # 24

00161
00162
 \\No man can serve two masters\\ (\\oudeis dunatai dusi kuriois\\
 \\douleuein\\). Many try it, but failure awaits them all. Men even
 try "to be slaves to God and mammon" (\\Thei douleuein kai\\
 \\mamni\\). Mammon is a Chaldee, Syriac, and Punic word like
 _Plutus_ for the money-god (or devil). The slave of mammon will
 obey mammon while pretending to obey God. The United States has
 had a terrible revelation of the power of the money-god in public
 life in the Sinclair-Fall-Teapot-Air-Dome-Oil case. When the
 guide is blind and leads the blind, both fall into the ditch. The
 man who cannot tell road from ditch sees falsely as Ruskin shows
 in _Modern Painters_. He will hold to one (\\henos anthexetai\\). The
 word means to line up face to face (\\anti\\) with one man and so
 against the other.

00163
 \\Be not anxious for your life\\ (\\m merimnate ti psuchi hmn\\).
 This is as good a translation as the Authorized Version was poor;
 "Take no thought for your life." The old English word "thought"
 meant anxiety or worry as Shakespeare says:

 "The native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast
 of thought."

 Vincent quotes Bacon (Henry VII): "Harris, an alderman of London,
 was put in trouble and died with thought and anguish." But words
 change with time and now this passage is actually quoted
 (Lightfoot) "as an objection to the moral teaching of the Sermon
 on the Mount, on the ground that it encouraged, nay, commanded, a
 reckless neglect of the future." We have narrowed the word to
 mere planning without any notion of anxiety which is in the Greek
 word. The verb \\merimna\\ is from \\meris, meriz\\, because care or
 anxiety distracts and divides. It occurs in Christ's rebuke to
 Martha for her excessive solicitude about something to eat
 # Lu 10:41
 The notion of proper care and forethought appears in
 # 1Co 7:32; 12:25; Php 2:20
 It is here the present imperative with the negative, a command
 not to have the habit of petulant worry about food and clothing,
 a source of anxiety to many housewives, a word for women
 especially as the command not to worship mammon may be called a
 word for men. The command can mean that they must stop such worry
 if already indulging in it. In verse
 # 31
 Jesus repeats the prohibition with the ingressive aorist
 subjunctive: "Do not become anxious," "Do not grow anxious." Here
 the direct question with the deliberative subjunctive occurs with
 each verb (\\phagmen, pimen, peribalmetha\\). This deliberative
 subjunctive of the direct question is retained in the indirect
 question employed in verse
 # 25
 A different verb for clothing occurs, both in the indirect middle
 (\\peribalmetha\\, fling round ourselves in
 # 31
 \\endussthe\\, put on yourselves in
 # 25

 \\For your life\\ (\\ti psuchi\\). "Here \\psuchi\\ stands for the life
 principle common to man and beast, which is embodied in the \\sma\\:
 the former needs food, the latter clothing" (McNeile). \\Psuch\\ in
 the Synoptic Gospels occurs in three senses (McNeile): either the
 life principle in the body as here and which man may kill
 # Mr 3:4
 or the seat of the thoughts and emotions on a par with \\kardia\\ and
 \\dianoia\\
 # Mt 22:37
 and \\pneuma\\
 # Lu 1:46
 cf.
 # Joh 12:27; 13:21
 or something higher that makes up the real self
 # Mt 10:28; 16:26
 In
 # Mt 16:25
 # Lu 9:25
 \\psuch\\ appears in two senses paradoxical use, saving life and
 losing it.

00164
00165
 \\Unto his stature\\ (\\epi tn hlikian autou\\). The word \\hlikian\\ is
 used either of height (stature) or length of life (age). Either
 makes good sense here, though probably "stature" suits the
 context best. Certainly anxiety will not help either kind of
 growth, but rather hinder by auto-intoxication if nothing more.
 This is no plea for idleness, for even the birds are diligent and
 the flowers grow.

00166
 \\The lilies of the field\\ (\\ta krina tou agrou\\). The word may
 include other wild flowers besides lilies, blossoms like
 anemones, poppies, gladioli, irises (McNeile).

00167
 \\Was not arrayed\\ (\\oude periebaleto\\). Middle voice and so "did not
 clothe himself," "did not put around himself."

00168
 \\The grass of the field\\ (\\ton chorton tou agrou\\). The common grass
 of the field. This heightens the comparison.

00169
00170
00171
 \\First his kingdom\\ (\\prton tn basileian\\). This in answer to those
 who see in the Sermon on the Mount only ethical comments. Jesus
 in the Beatitudes drew the picture of the man with the new heart.
 Here he places the Kingdom of God and his righteousness before
 temporal blessings (food and clothing).

00172
 \\For the morrow\\ (\\eis ten aurion\\). The last resort of the anxious
 soul when all other fears are allayed. The ghost of tomorrow
 stalks out with all its hobgoblins of doubt and distrust.

00173
 \\Judge not\\ (\\m krinete\\). The habit of censoriousness, sharp,
 unjust criticism. Our word critic is from this very word. It
 means to separate, distinguish, discriminate. That is necessary,
 but pre-judice (prejudgment) is unfair, captious criticism.

00174
00175
 \\The mote\\ (\\to karphos\\). Not dust, but a piece of dried wood or
 chaff, splinter (Weymouth, Moffatt), speck (Goodspeed), a very
 small particle that may irritate. \\The beam\\ (\\tn dokon\\). A log on
 which planks in the house rest (so papyri), joist, rafter, plank
 (Moffatt), pole sticking out grotesquely. Probably a current
 proverb quoted by Jesus like our people in glass houses throwing
 stones. Tholuck quotes an Arabic proverb: "How seest thou the
 splinter in thy brother's eye, and seest not the cross-beam in
 thine eye?"

00176
00177
 \\Shalt thou see clearly\\ (\\diablepseis\\). Only here and
 # Lu 6:42
 and
 # Mr 8:25
 in the New Testament. Look through, penetrate in contrast to
 \\blepeis\\, to gaze at, in verse
 # 3
 Get the log out of your eye and you will see clearly how to help
 the brother get the splinter out (\\ekbalein\\) of his eye.

00178
 \\That which is holy unto the dogs\\ (\\to hagion tois kusin\\). It is
 not clear to what "the holy" refers, to ear-rings or to amulets,
 but that would not appeal to dogs. Trench (_Sermon on the Mount_,
 p. 136) says that the reference is to meat offered in sacrifice
 that must not be flung to dogs: "It is not that the dogs would
 not eat it, for it would be welcome to them; but that it would be
 a profanation to give it to them, thus to make it a _skubalon_,
 # Ex 22:31
 " The yelping dogs would jump at it. Dogs are kin to wolves and
 infest the streets of oriental cities. \\Your pearls before the\\
 \\swine\\ (\\tous margaritas hmn emprosthen tn choirn\\). The word
 pearl we have in the name Margarita (Margaret). Pearls look a bit
 like peas or acorns and would deceive the hogs until they
 discovered the deception. The wild boars haunt the Jordan Valley
 still and are not far removed from bears as they trample with
 their feet and rend with their tusks those who have angered them.

00179
00180
00181
 \\Loaf--stone\\ (\\arton--lithon\\). Some stones look like loaves of
 bread. So the devil suggested that Jesus make loaves out of
 stones
 # Mt 4:3

00182
 \\Fish--serpent\\ (\\ichthun--ophin\\). Fish, common article of food, and
 water-snakes could easily be substituted. Anacoluthon in this
 sentence in the Greek.

00183
 \\How much more\\ (\\posi mallon\\). Jesus is fond of the _a fortiori_
 argument.

00184
 \\That men should do unto you\\ (\\hina poisin hmn hoi anthrpoi\\).
 Luke
 # Lu 6:31
 puts the Golden Rule parallel with
 # Mt 5:42
 The negative form is in Tobit 4:15. It was used by Hillel, Philo,
 Isocrates, Confucius. "The Golden Rule is the distilled essence
 of that 'fulfilment'
 # 5:17
 which is taught in the sermon" (McNeile). Jesus puts it in
 positive form.

00185
 \\By the narrow gate\\ (\\dia ts stens puls\\). The Authorized Version
 "at the strait gate" misled those who did not distinguish between
 "strait" and "straight." The figure of the Two Ways had a wide
 circulation in Jewish and Christian writings (cf.
 # De 30:19; Jer 21:8; Ps 1
 See the _Didache_ i-vi; Barnabas xviii-xx. "The narrow gate" is
 repeated in verse
 # 14
 and \\straitened the way\\ (\\tethlimmen h hodos\\) added. The way is
 "compressed," narrowed as in a defile between high rocks, a tight
 place like \\stenochria\\ in
 # Ro 8:35
 "The way that leads to life involves straits and afflictions"
 (McNeile). Vincent quotes the _Pinax_ or _Tablet_ of Cebes, a
 contemporary of Socrates: "Seest thou not, then, a little door,
 and a way before the door, which is not much crowded, but very
 few travel it? This is the way that leadeth unto true culture."
 "The broad way" (\\euruchros\\) is in every city, town, village,
 with the glaring white lights that lure to destruction.

00186
00187
 \\False prophets\\ (\\tn pseudoprophtn\\). There were false prophets
 in the time of the Old Testament prophets. Jesus will predict
 "false Messiahs and false prophets"
 # Mt 24:24
 who will lead many astray. They came in due time posing as angels
 of light like Satan, Judaizers
 # 2Co 11:13
 ) and Gnostics
 # 1Jo 4:1; 1Ti 4:1
 Already false prophets were on hand when Jesus spoke on this
 occasion (cf.
 # Ac 13:6; 2Pe 2:1
 In outward appearance they look like sheep in the sheep's
 clothing which they wear, but within they are "ravening wolves"
 (\\lukoi harpages\\), greedy for power, gain, self. It is a tragedy
 that such men and women reappear through the ages and always find
 victims. Wolves are more dangerous than dogs and hogs.

00188
 \\By their fruits ye shall know them\\ (\\apo tn karpn autn\\
 \\epignsesthe\\). From their fruits you will recognize them." The
 verb "know " (\\ginsk\\) has \\epi\\ added, fully know. The
 illustrations from the trees and vines have many parallels in
 ancient writers.

00189
00190
00191
00192
 See note on "Mt 7:16"

00193
 \\Not--but\\ (\\ou--all'\\). Sharp contrast between the mere talker and
 the doer of God's will.

00194
 \\Did we not prophesy in thy name?\\ (\\ou ti si onomati\\
 \\eprophteusamen;\\). The use of \\ou\\ in the question expects the
 affirmative answer. They claim to have prophesied (preached) in
 Christ's name and to have done many miracles. But Jesus will tear
 off the sheepskin and lay bare the ravening wolf. "I never knew
 you" (\\oudepote egnn hms\\). "I was never acquainted with you"
 (experimental knowledge). Success, as the world counts it, is not
 a criterion of one's knowledge of Christ and relation to him. "I
 will profess unto them" (\\homologs autois\\), the very word used
 of profession of Christ before men
 # Mt 10:32
 This word Jesus will use for public and open announcement of
 their doom.

00195
00196
 \\And doeth them\\ (\\kai poiei autous\\). That is the point in the
 parable of the wise builder, "who digged and went deep, and laid
 a foundation upon the rock"
 # Lu 6:48

00197
 \\Was founded\\ (\\tethemelito\\). Past perfect indicative passive state
 of completion in the past. It had been built upon the rock and it
 stood. No augment.

00198
 \\And doeth them not\\ (\\kai m poin autous\\). The foolish builder put
 his house on the sands that could not hold in the storm. One is
 reminded of the words of Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon in
 # 5:19
 about the one "who does and teaches." Hearing sermons is a
 dangerous business if one does not put them into practice.

