The Sadducees Confuted.

(IN THE TEMPLE.)

(c. xxii. 23–33.)

"The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.” "Which say," &c.-They believed that the soul perished with the body.

"And raise," &c.-The children of a man by his deceased brother's widow were, by the Mosaic Law, regarded as being the offspring of the dead brother, and, accordingly, inherited his property.

"Ye do err."-Their error consisted in ignorantly assuming that, if there were a future state, mankind would enter upon it under the same form, conditions, and relations, that they had sustained on earth.

"In the resurrection,”—i.e., in the future state.

“As the angels,”—not incorporeal, like the angels; but free from the appetites and imperfections of the flesh.

"

"Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you? The words quoted were spoken to Moses, by Jehovah, out of the Burning Bush; but, the Old Testament being in

tended for the use and instruction of the Jews generally, this declaration of God's was made to them equally with Moses.

"I am the living."-The Sadducees professed the greatest veneration for the Pentateuch. They founded their question upon one of the laws found in Deuteronomy. Christ meets them on their own ground, and proves from Exodus that there is a future state.

He shows that God, long years after the patriarchs had been dead, spoke of them in the present tense. "I am," (not "I was,") &c., when revealing Himself to Moses, and that the patriarchs mentioned must, therefore, have been still in existence when the words were spoken.

A Lawyer, a Pharisee, asks, "Which is the great Commandment in the Law?"

(IN THE TEMPLE.)

(c. xxii. 34-40.)

"But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Matt. and Mark narrate this incident.

Mark calls the querist "one of the scribes," ("scribe" and "lawyer" being identical), and adds, after Christ's reply, "And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices. And

when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God."

"Tempting him,"-i.e., trying Him, with a view to entrap Him. The "lawyer," however, though coming with this intention, went away, (as is clear from Mark's account), well-disposed towards Christ.

"In the law,"-i.e., in the Pentateuch, which comprised the Moral Law, and the Ceremonial Law.

"Which is the great commandment?" - The Jewish doctors, generally, while setting the Ceremonial Law above the Moral, were divided in opinion as to which precept in the former was the most important, whether circumcision, sacrifices, the laws concerning meats, &c.

Christ's reply, while giving, by silent implication, the preference to the Moral Law, insists upon the necessity of observing all its precepts, (as summed up in two), with equal attention and zeal.

Had He singled out any particular precept from the Law, as His tempters wished, He would have afforded them an opening for a charge of blasphemy for contemning the rest of the Law.

"Thou shalt love," &c.-This is an epitome of the First Table of the Moral Law.

"This is the first," &c.-This commandment is "first" as to its object, the manner in which it must be observed, and as being the principle whence all our actions should flow.

"Like unto it,”-because founded on, flowing from, and being a proof that we keep, the command to love God supremely.

"Thou shalt love," &c.—An epitome of the Second Table of the Moral Law.

"On these," &c.-i.e., these two precepts embody the substance of all the moral and religious duties enjoined in the Law and the Prophets.

The expression "hang all the law," &c., is taken from the custom of hanging up laws in public places to be seen of all.

Christ confutes the Pharisees by asking whose son Christ was to be.

(IN THE TEMPLE.)

(c. xxii. 41-46.)

"While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions."

Matt., Mark, and Luke narrate this incident: only Matthew represents Christ's asking “What think ye," &c., and their answer, "The son of David."

"In spirit," or, "in the Spirit," ie., by inspiration.

66

Saying,"-in Ps. cx. 1. Christ quotes the passage ex

actly.

Christ's words in introducing this quotation are slightly differently given by the three Evangelists who record the incident.

Matthew has,-"How then doth David in spirit call
him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said,' &c."

Mark,—“David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The
Lord,' &c."

Luke,-"David himself saith, in the Book of Psalms,
"The Lord,' &c."

“ The Lord,”—i.e., the Father.

"My Lord," the Messiah.

"Till I make... footstool," The expression indicates the lowly penitence of Israel primarily, and of all humble penitents secondarily, before the throne of Christ.

"If David then," &c.—The passage quoted by Christ was regarded by the Jews as referring to the Messiah.

Christ, by this question, shews them that, according to the passage, Christ was to be God-man,—and, while thus proving the Messiah's Divinity, exposed their mean and ignorant views of Him.

(According to Mark, and Luke, Christ now warned His disciples to beware of the Scribes, and then happened the incident of the Widow's Mite.)

Christ denounces the Pharisean Scribes, and laments over Jerusalem.

(IN THE TEMPLE.)
(c. xxiii.)

"Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.