A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S. MATTHEW BY WILLOUGHBY C. ALLEN, M.A. CHAPLAIN-FELLOW AND LECTURER IN THEOLOGY and Hebrew, exeter COLLEGE, OXFORD NEW YORK XXXV 10. Changes for the sake of accuracy Mk. by Mt. and Lk. xxxviii-xxxix Mt. and Lk. had no second source containing matter PREFACE PERHAPS no one, especially during the last thirty years, has undertaken to write a Commentary on one of the Canonical Gospels, without experiencing again and again, during the process of production, that he had undertaken a task which was beyond both his strength and his equipment. That has certainly been my own experience in writing this Commentary on the First Gospel. For a commentator upon this book, who is to do his work efficiently, should have many qualifications. He should be a competent Greek scholar, versed in the Hellenistic Greek literature, and acquainted with the bearing of modern archæological discovery upon the history of the language. He should be acquainted also with the Hebrew of the Old Testament, with the various Aramaic dialects, and with the later dialects of the Talmuds and Midrashim. If the writings of Deissmann on the one hand, and of Wellhausen and Dalman on the other, have shown what new light can be thrown upon the New Testament by experts in their own department, they have also illustrated the defective character of a one-sided knowledge, and have given indications of the sort of work that may be done by a scholar of the future, who shall be at the same time a Grecian and an Orientalist. The commentator should further be a master of the material for the textual criticism of the Gospel, which is in itself the study of a lifetime. a thorough knowledge of the literature He should have dealing with the so-called Synoptic Problem, and should have formed a |