00600
 \\Refuse to hear\\ (\\parakousi\\). Like
 # Isa 65:12
 Many papyri examples for ignoring, disregarding, hearing without
 heeding, hearing aside (\\para-\\), hearing amiss, overhearing
 # Mr 5:36
 \\The church\\ (\\ti ekklsii\\). The local body, not the general as in
 # Mt 16:18
 which see for discussion. The problem here is whether Jesus has
 in mind an actual body of believers already in existence or is
 speaking prophetically of the local churches that would be
 organized later (as in Acts). There are some who think that the
 Twelve Apostles constituted a local \\ekklsia\\, a sort of moving
 church of preachers. That could only be true in essence as they
 were a band of ministers and not located in any one place. Bruce
 holds that they were "the nucleus" of a local church at any rate.

00601
 \\Shall be bound in heaven\\ (\\estai dedemena en ourani\\). Future
 passive periphrastic perfect indicative as in "shall be loosed"
 (\\estai lelumena\\). In
 # 16:19
 this same unusual form occurs. The binding and the loosing is
 there addressed to Peter, but it is here repeated for the church
 or for the disciples as the case may be.

00602
 \\Shall agree\\ (\\sumphnssin\\). Our word "symphony" is this very
 root. It is no longer looked at as a concord of voices, a chorus
 in harmony, though that would be very appropriate in a church
 meeting rather than the rasping discord sometimes heard even
 between two brethren or sisters. \\Of my Father\\ (\\para tou patros\\
 \\mou\\). From the side of, "by my Father."

00603
 \\There am I\\ (\\ekei eimi\\). This blessed promise implies that those
 gathered together are really disciples with the spirit of Christ
 as well as "in his name" (\\eis to emon onoma\\). One of the
 Oxyrhynchus _Sayings of Our Lord_ is: "Wherever there are (two)
 they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone I say I
 am with him." Also this: "Raise the stone and there thou shalt
 find me, cleave the wood and there am I." See
 # Mal 3:16

00604
 \\Until seven times?\\ (\\hes heptakis?\\) Peter thought that he was
 generous as the Jewish rule was three times
 # Am 1:6
 His question goes back to verse
 # 15
 "Against me" is genuine here. "The man who asks such a question
 does not really know what forgiveness means" (Plummer).

00605
 \\Until seventy times seven\\ (\\hes hebdomkontakis hepta\\). It is not
 clear whether this idiom means seventy-seven or as the Revised
 Version has it (490 times). If \\heptakis\\ were written it would
 clearly be 490 times. The same ambiguity is seen in
 # Ge 4:24
 the LXX text by omitting \\kai\\. In the _Test. of the Twelve
 Patriarchs, Benj._ vii. 4, it is used in the sense of seventy
 times seven. But it really makes little difference because Jesus
 clearly means unlimited forgiveness in either case. "The
 unlimited revenge of primitive man has given place to the
 unlimited forgiveness of Christians" (McNeile).

00606
 \\Make a reckoning\\ (\\sunrai logon\\). Seen also in
 # 25:19
 Perhaps a Latinism, _rationes conferre_. First aorist active
 infinitive of \\sunair\\, to cast up accounts, to settle, to compare
 accounts with. Not in ancient Greek writers, but in two papyri of
 the second century A.D. in the very sense here and the
 substantive appears in an ostracon from Nubia of the early third
 century (Deissmann, _Light from the Ancient East_, p. 117).

00607
 \\Ten thousand talents\\ (\\murin talantn\\). A talent was 6,000
 denarii or about a thousand dollars or 240 pounds. Ten thousand
 times this is about ten or twelve million dollars, an enormous
 sum for that period. We live today in the age of national debts
 of billions of dollars or even of pounds sterling. The imperial
 taxes of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria for one year were only 600
 talents while Galilee and Perea paid 200 (Josephus, _Ant_. xi.
 4). But oriental kings were free in the use of money and in
 making debts like the native kings of India today.

00608
 \\Had not wherewith to pay\\ (\\m echontos autou apodounai\\). There is
 no "wherewith" in the Greek. This idiom is seen in
 # Lu 7:42; 14:14; Heb 6:13
 Genitive absolute though \\auton\\ in the same clause as often in the
 N.T. \\To be sold\\ (\\prathnai\\). First aorist passive infinitive of
 \\piprask\\. This was according to the law
 # Ex 22:3; Le 25:39,47
 Wife and children were treated as property in those primitive
 times.

00609
00610
 \\The debt\\ (\\to danion\\). The loan. Common in the papyri for a loan.
 The interest had increased the debt enormously. "This heavy
 oriental usury is of the scenery of the parable" (McNeile).

00611
 \\A hundred pence\\ (\\hekaton dnaria\\). A denarius was worth about
 eight and a half pence. The hundred denarii here were equal to
 some "fifty shillings" (Bruce), "about 4 pounds" (McNeile),
 "twenty pounds" (Moffatt), "twenty dollars" (Goodspeed), "100
 shillings" (Weymouth) . These are various efforts to represent in
 modern language the small amount of this debt compared with the
 big one. \\Took him by the throat\\ (\\epnigen\\). "Held him by the
 throat" (Allen). It is imperfect, probably inchoative, "began to
 choke or throttle him." The Roman law allowed this indignity.
 Vincent quotes Livy (iv. 53) who tells how the necks were twisted
 (_collum torsisset_) and how Cicero (_Pro Cluentio_, xxi.) says:
 "Lead him to the judgment seat with twisted neck (_collo
 obtorto_)." \\What thou owest\\ (\\ei ti opheileis\\). Literally, "if
 thou owest anything," however little. He did not even know how
 much it was, only that he owed him something. "The 'if' is simply
 the expression of a pitiless logic" (Meyer).

00612
00613
 \\And he would not\\ (\\ho de ouk thelen\\). Imperfect tense of
 persistent refusal. \\Till he should pay\\ (\\hes apodi\\). This
 futuristic aorist subjunctive is the rule with \\hes\\ for a future
 goal. He was to stay in prison till he should pay. "He acts on
 the instinct of a base nature, and also doubtless in accordance
 with long habits of harsh tyrannical behaviour towards men in his
 power" (Bruce). On imprisonment for debt among the Greeks and
 Romans see Deissmann, _Light from the Ancient East_, pp. 270,330.

00614
 \\Told\\ (\\diesaphsan\\). Made wholly clear to their own lord. That is
 the usual result in the long run. There is a limit to what people
 will put up with.

00615
00616
 \\Shouldst thou not?\\ (\\ouk edei se?\\) "Was it not necessary?" The
 king fits the cap on this wicked slave that he put on the poor
 debtor.

00617
 \\The tormentors\\ (\\tois basanistais\\). Not to prison simply, but to
 terrible punishment. The papyri give various instances of the
 verb \\basaniz\\, to torture, used of slaves and others. "Livy (ii.
 23) pictures an old centurion complaining that he was taken by
 his creditor, not into servitude, but to a workhouse and torture,
 and showing his back scarred with fresh wounds" (Vincent). \\Till\\
 \\he should pay all\\ (\\hes [hou] apodi pan\\). Just as in verse
 # 30
 his very words. But this is not purgatorial, but punitive, for he
 could never pay back that vast debt.

00618
 \\From your hearts\\ (\\apo tn kardin hmn\\). No sham or lip pardon,
 and as often as needed. This is Christ's full reply to Peter's
 question in
 # 18:21
 This parable of the unmerciful servant is surely needed today.

00619
 \\He departed\\ (\\metren\\). Literally, to lift up, change something to
 another place. Transitive in the LXX and in a Cilician rock
 inscription. Intransitive in
 # 13:53
 and here, the only N.T. instances. Absence of \\hoti\\ or \\kai\\ after
 \\kai egeneto\\, one of the clear Hebraisms in the N.T. (Robertson,
 _Grammar_, pp. 1042f.). This verse is a sort of formula in
 Matthew at the close of important groups of \\logia\\ as in
 # 7:28; 11:1; 13:53
 \\The borders of Judea beyond Jordan\\ (\\eis ta horia ts Ioudaias\\
 \\peran tou Iordanou\\). This is a curious expression. It apparently
 means that Jesus left Galilee to go to Judea by way of Perea as
 the Galileans often did to avoid Samaria. Luke
 # Lu 17:11
 expressly says that he passed through Samaria and Galilee when he
 left Ephraim in Northern Judea
 # Joh 11:54
 He was not afraid to pass through the edge of Galilee and down
 the Jordan Valley in Perea on this last journey to Jerusalem.
 McNeile is needlessly opposed to the trans-Jordanic or Perean
 aspect of this phase of Christ's work.

00620
00621
 \\Pharisees tempting him\\ (\\Pharisaioi peirazontes auton\\). They
 "could not ask a question of Jesus without sinister motives"
 (Bruce). See
 # 4:1
 for the word (\\peiraz\\). \\For every cause\\ (\\kata pasan aitian\\). This
 clause is an allusion to the dispute between the two theological
 schools over the meaning of
 # De 24:1
 The school of Shammai took the strict and unpopular view of
 divorce for unchastity alone while the school of Hillel took the
 liberal and popular view of easy divorce for any passing whim if
 the husband saw a prettier woman (modern enough surely) or burnt
 his biscuits for breakfast. It was a pretty dilemma and meant to
 do Jesus harm with the people. There is no real trouble about the
 use of \\kata\\ here in the sense of \\propter\\ or because of
 (Robertson, _Grammar_, p. 509).

00622
00623
 \\Shall cleave\\ (\\kollthsetai\\). First future passive, "shall be
 glued to," the verb means. \\The twain shall become one flesh\\
 (\\esontai hoi duo eis sarka mian\\). This use of \\eis\\ after \\eimi\\
 is an imitation of the Hebrew, though a few examples occur in the
 older Greek and in the papyri. The frequency of it is due to the
 Hebrew and here the LXX is a direct translation of the Hebrew
 idiom.

00624
 \\What therefore God hath joined together\\ (\\ho oun ho theos\\
 \\sunezeuxen\\). Note "what," not "whom." The marriage relation God
 has made. "The creation of sex, and the high doctrine as to the
 cohesion it produces between man and woman, laid down in Gen.,
 interdict separation" (Bruce). The word for "joined together"
 means "yoked together," a common verb for marriage in ancient
 Greek. It is the timeless aorist indicative (\\sunezeuxen\\), true
 always. \\Bill\\ (\\biblion\\). A little \\biblos\\ (
 See note on "Mt 1:1"
 ), a scroll or document (papyrus or parchment). This was some
 protection to the divorced wife and a restriction on laxity.

00625
00626
 \\For your hardness of heart\\ (\\pros tn sklrokardian hmn\\). The
 word is apparently one of the few Biblical words (LXX and the
 N.T.). It is a heart dried up (\\sklros\\), hard and tough. \\But from\\
 \\the beginning it hath not been so\\ (\\ap' archs de ouk gegonen\\
 \\houts\\). The present perfect active of \\ginomai\\ to emphasize the
 permanence of the divine ideal. "The original ordinance has never
 been abrogated nor superseded, but continues in force" (Vincent).
 "How small the Pharisaic disputants must have felt in presence of
 such holy teaching, which soars above the partisan view of
 controversialists into the serene region of ideal, universal,
 eternal truth" (Bruce).

00627
 \\Except for fornication\\ (\\parektos logou porneias\\). This is the
 marginal reading in Westcott and Hort which also adds "maketh her
 an adulteress" (\\poiei autn moicheuthnai\\) and also these words:
 "and he that marrieth her when she is put away committeth
 adultery" (\\kai ho apolelumenn gamsas moichatai\\). There seems to
 be a certain amount of assimilation in various manuscripts
 between this verse and the words in
 # 5:32
 But, whatever reading is accepted here, even the short one in
 Westcott and Hort (\\m epi porneii\\, not for fornication), it is
 plain that Matthew represents Jesus in both places as allowing
 divorce for fornication as a general term (\\porneia\\) which is
 technically adultery (\\moicheia\\ from \\moicha or moicheu\\). Here,
 as in
 # 5:31
 a group of scholars deny the genuineness of the exception given
 by Matthew alone. McNeile holds that "the addition of the saving
 clause is, in fact, opposed to the spirit of the whole context,
 and must have been made at a time when the practice of divorce
 for adultery had already grown up." That in my opinion is
 gratuitous criticism which is unwilling to accept Matthew's
 report because it disagrees with one's views on the subject of
 divorce. He adds: "It cannot be supposed that Matthew wished to
 represent Jesus as siding with the school of Shammai." Why not,
 if Shammai on this point agreed with Jesus? Those who deny
 Matthew's report are those who are opposed to remarriage at all.
 Jesus by implication, as in
 # 5:31
 does allow remarriage of the innocent party, but not of the
 guilty one. Certainly Jesus has lifted the whole subject of
 marriage and divorce to a new level, far beyond the petty
 contentions of the schools of Hillel and Shammai.

00628
 \\The disciples say unto him\\ (\\legousin auti hoi mathtai\\).
 "Christ's doctrine on marriage not only separated Him \\toto caelo\\
 from Pharisaic opinions of all shades, but was too high even for
 the Twelve" (Bruce). \\The case\\ (\\h aitia\\). The word may refer to
 the use in verse
 # 3
 "for every cause." It may have a vague idea here = \\res\\,
 condition. But the point clearly is that "it is not expedient to
 marry" (\\ou sumpherei gamsai\\) if such a strict view is held. If
 the bond is so tight a man had best not commit matrimony. It is a
 bit unusual to have \\anthrpos\\ and \\gun\\ contrasted rather than
 \\anr\\ and \\gun\\.

00629
 \\But they to whom it is given\\ (\\all' hois dedotai\\). A neat Greek
 idiom, dative case of relation and perfect passive indicative.
 The same idea is repeated at the close of verse
 # 12
 It is a voluntary renunciation of marriage for the sake of the
 kingdom of heaven. "Jesus recognizes the severity of the demand
 as going beyond the capacity of all but a select number." It was
 a direct appeal to the spiritual intelligence of the disciples
 not to misconceive his meaning as certainly the monastic orders
 have done.

00630
00631
 \\Rebuked them\\ (\\epetimsen autois\\). No doubt people did often crowd
 around Jesus for a touch of his hand and his blessing. The
 disciples probably felt that they were doing Jesus a kindness.
 How little they understood children and Jesus. It is a tragedy to
 make children feel that they are in the way at home and at
 church. These men were the twelve apostles and yet had no vision
 of Christ's love for little children. The new child world of
 today is due directly to Jesus.

00632
 \\Suffer\\ (\\aphete\\). "Leave them alone." Second aorist active
 imperative. \\Forbid them not\\ (\\m kluete\\). "Stop hindering them."
 The idiom of \\m\\ with the present imperative means just that. \\Of\\
 \\such\\ (\\tn toioutn\\). The childlike as in
 # 18:3

00633
00634
 \\What good thing\\ (\\ti agathon\\). Mark
 # Mr 10:17
 has the adjective "good" with "Teacher." \\May have\\ (\\sch\\).
 Ingressive aorist subjunctive, "may get," "may acquire."

00635
 \\Concerning that which is good\\ (\\peri tou agathou\\). He had asked
 Jesus in verse
 # 16
 "what good thing" he should do. He evidently had a light idea of
 the meaning of \\agathos\\. "This was only a teacher's way of leading
 on a pupil" (Bruce). So Jesus explains that "One there is who is
 good," one alone who is really good in the absolute sense.

00636
00637
00638
 \\What lack I yet?\\ (\\ti eti huster?\\) Here is a psychological
 paradox. He claims to have kept all these commandments and yet he
 was not satisfied. He had an uneasy conscience and Jesus called
 him to something that he did not have. He thought of goodness as
 quantitative (a series of acts) and not qualitative (of the
 nature of God). Did his question reveal proud complacency or
 pathetic despair? A bit of both most likely.

00639
 \\If thou wouldest be perfect\\ (\\ei theleis teleios einai\\). Condition
 of the first class, determined as fulfilled. Jesus assumes that
 the young man really desires to be perfect (a big adjective that,
 perfect as God is the goal,
 # 5:48
 \\That thou hast\\ (\\sou ta huparchonta\\). "Thy belongings." The Greek
 neuter plural participle used like our English word "belongings."
 It was a huge demand, for he was rich.

00640
 \\Went away sorrowful\\ (\\aplthen lupoumenos\\). "Went away grieved."
 He felt that Jesus had asked too much of him. He worshipped money
 more than God when put to the test. Does Jesus demand this same
 test of every one? Not unless he is in the grip of money.
 Different persons are in the power of different sins. One sin is
 enough to keep one away from Christ.

00641
 \\It is hard\\ (\\duskols\\). With difficulty. Adverb from \\duskolos\\,
 hard to find food, fastidious, faultfinding, then difficult.

00642
 \\It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye\\
 (\\eukopteron estin kamlon dia trmatos rhaphidos eiselthein\\).
 Jesus, of course, means by this comparison, whether an eastern
 proverb or not, to express the impossible. The efforts to explain
 it away are jejune like a ship's cable, \\kamilon\\ or \\rhaphis\\ as a
 narrow gorge or gate of entrance for camels which recognized
 stooping, etc. All these are hopeless, for Jesus pointedly calls
 the thing "impossible" (verse
 # 26
 The Jews in the Babylonian Talmud did have a proverb that a man
 even in his dreams did not see an elephant pass through the eye
 of a needle (Vincent). The Koran speaks of the wicked finding the
 gates of heaven shut "till a camel shall pass through the eye of
 a needle." But the Koran may have got this figure from the New
 Testament. The word for an ordinary needle is \\rhaphis\\, but, Luke
 # Lu 18:25
 employs \\belon\\, the medical term for the surgical needle not
 elsewhere in the N.T.

00643
 \\Were astonished\\ (\\exeplssonto\\). Imperfect descriptive of their
 blank amazement. They were literally "struck out."

00644
 \\Looking on them\\ (\\emblepsas\\). Jesus saw their amazement.

00645
 \\What then shall we have?\\ (\\ti ara estai hmin?\\) A pathetic
 question of hopeless lack of comprehension.

00646
 \\In the regeneration\\ (\\en ti palingenesii\\). The new birth of the
 world is to be fulfilled when Jesus sits on his throne of glory.
 This word was used by the Stoics and the Pythagoreans. It is
 common also in the mystery religions (Angus, _Mystery Religions
 and Christianity_, pp. 95ff.). It is in the papyri also. We must
 put no fantastic ideas into the mouth of Jesus. But he did look
 for the final consummation of his kingdom. What is meant by the
 disciples also sitting on twelve thrones is not clear.

00647
 \\A hundredfold\\ (\\hekatonplasiona\\). But Westcott and Hort read
 \\pollaplasiona\\, manifold. Eternal life is the real reward.

00648
 \\The last first and the first last\\ (\\hoi eschatoi prtoi kai hoi\\
 \\prtoi eschatoi\\). This paradoxical enigma is probably in the
 nature of a rebuke to Peter and refers to ranks in the kingdom.
 There are many other possible applications. The following parable
 illustrates it.

00649
 \\For\\ (\\gar\\). The parable of the house illustrates the aphorism in
 # 19:30
 \\A man that is a householder\\ (\\anthrpi oikodespoti\\). Just like
 \\anthrpi basilei\\
 # 18:23
 Not necessary to translate \\anthrpi\\, just "a householder."

 \\Early in the morning\\ (\\hama pri\\). A classic idiom. \\Hama\\ as an
 "improper" preposition is common in the papyri. \\Pri\\ is just an
 adverb in the locative. At the same time with early dawn, break
 of day, country fashion for starting to work. \\To hire\\
 (\\misthsasthai\\). The middle voice aorist tense, to hire for
 oneself.
