NOTES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW. FOR the first two chapters ascribed to Matthew, see Appendix, Note A. III. 1. “In the days of Herod appeared John the Baptist, preaching in the Desert of Judæa.” With this chapter and the parallel passages compare John i. 19-34, and on the office of John the Baptist see the note on Matthew xi. 2-6. See also the account of John the Baptist given by Josephus, Antiq. Jud. Lib. XVIII. c. 5. § 2. The Desert of Judæa lay on the west of the Dead Sea and of the Jordan. 2. "Reform; for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” 'Reform,'-it is thus that the word in the original, Meravoeîte, should be rendered, and not 'Repent,' as it is in the Common Version. The primary idea expressed by repentance is merely sorrow for one's past conduct; the primary idea expressed by reformation is a change from a bad moral state to a good one.* It was the necessity of the latter, and not of the former, except so far as the former is connected with the latter, that John meant to inculcate. For further remarks, see Ap pendix, Note C, p. 503, seq. On the meaning of the phrase "the kingdom of Heaven" see the note on ch. iv. 17. 3. "A voice is crying in the desert, Prepare the way of the LORD, make his road straight." Compare Mark i. 2, 3; Luke i. 17, 76; iii. 4-6; John i. 23. See also Matthew xi. 10; Luke vii. 27. In these passages John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ, is represented as a messenger going before Jehovah to prepare his way and announce his coming. But this admits of an easy explanation. "In conformity to the rude apprehensions of the Jews, we often find in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, strong, and, in themselves considered, harsh figures applied to God, which are borrowed from the properties, passions, and actions of man, and even of the inferior animals. Among them is the common figure by which God, in giving any pecu *"Reformation (μeTávola)," says Philo, "holds the second place after perfectness, as recovery from sickness is the next best thing to uninterrupted health."- De Abrahamo. Opp. II. 5, ed. Mang. This passage is copied by Clement of Alexandria. Pædagog. Lib. I. c. 9. Opp. p. 146, ed. Potter. Tertullian, remarking on the difference between the repentance of God spoken of in the Scriptures, and the repentance of man, observes:- "Nam et in Græco sono, pœnitentiæ nomen non ex delicti confessione, sed ex animi demutatione comparatum est.”. – Adv. Marcion. Lib. II. c. 24. - |