Annotations Upon the New Testament, Matthew · Chapter 15
CHAP. XV.
Verse 2. WHy do thy Disciples transgresse the traditions] There is a manifest impiety in certaine humane traditions, because they appoint perverse worship, and that which directly opposeth the word of God. others when they involve the worship of God with prophane fopperies, they doe vitiate its purity. Others which have more colour, and are not infected with any notable vice,Calvin. yet for this very reason are condemned, because they are feigned to be necessary to the worship of God. So we depart from the meere obedience of God alone, and a snare is cast upon mens consciences. Of this last kind it is here treated. For the washing of hands which the Pharisees urged, could not of it selfe be reproved of wicked superstition, otherwise Christ would not have suffered water pots to bee brought at a wedding; unlesse it had beene a free ceremony.
They are much deceived who have compared the sprinkling of holy water used by the Papists with the Jewish washings.
Hoc est, Deo cui persolvenda sunt omnino vota, & cujus priores sunt partes, jam antea consecravi id omne quo alioqui posses à me ex meis bonis in hac egestate sublevari. Drus. Vide Cameronem & Capell. in loc. & Scultet. observat. in Matth. c. 41. & Selden. de Jure naturali & Gentium. l. 7. c. 2.Vers. 5. Whosoever shall say to his Father or Mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest bee profited by me] That is to say, that which thou askest for thy supply, is given to another use: and I have nothing for thee. Polyc. Lys.
It is an ellipticke speech, but may easily be supplied, so that the sence should be this, if any one shall say Corban, he doth well, and hath well executed the office of piety towards his Parents, and is not guilty of sin against the fifth Commandement; It is better and more holy to give Corban, or to bestow something toward the building of the Temple, than to relieve Parents.
Vers. 16. Made of none effect] The Greeke word signifies to deprive of all rule and authority, as much as in them lay they did so.
When the Commandements of men are appointed as parts of Gods worship, and as necessary to salvation. Eos errare Christus pronunciat qui loco doctrinae (1 Sam 15.23.) obtrudunt hominum mandata, vel qui inde regulam petunt colendi Dei. Calvin.Vers. 9. In vaine do they worship mee] Christ cannot endure when divine worship is feigned by mens wits. Christ by his quoting of Esay doth not a little illustrate the place, the Prophet by feare understands the worship of God, therefore Christ rightly interprets it by worship, that is, whatsoever out of the word of God by the advice of men is brought into holy dutyes. They are said to worship God in vaine, either because they do not obtaine the end and fruit of divine worship, or else because the worship it selfe of it selfe is vaine and frivolous. Christ reprehends three things in the Jewish traditions, that they obtruded outward cleannesse on God, instead of the puritie of the heart. 2. that by their humane traditions, they made voyd the worship of God. 3. that they preferred humane traditions, before the divine precepts;Chemnit. and were so taken with their traditions, that they neglected the divine precepts, yea made them altogether vaine, as the Papists do.
Vers. 17, 18. The things themselves did not defile a man, no nor hurt then when the Ceremoniall Law stood in force, as the doing of things …imply unlawfull doth, and as the conceite of the Pharisees was, therefore our Saviours meaning here is to shew the nature of the things themselves, without respect to the Ceremoniall Law; which the Pharisees not considering, thought that the very eating of the things themselves had been sinfull, and had polluted the Soule: for if a man had then eaten upon necessity, the thing it selfe had not defiled, but alone the breach of the Law, and the defilement had beene meerely Leviticall and ceremoniall, not true and spirituall.
Vers. 22. Behold a woman of Canaan] Her faith was such, that this Evangelist reporteth it with an ecce, behold a woman of Canaan. She is by Marke said to be a Grecian, and by nation a Syrophaenician. It was the common manner of the Jewes, to call all forreigne nations Graecians; and therefore that Antithesis betweene the Graecians and Jewes, is often found in Paul. Being borne in the coasts of Tyre and Sydon, she was called a Syrophaenician, when as the Region had the name of Syria, and Phaenicia was a part of Syria, and it is to be supposed that the most part of them came of the people of Canaan, who being banished out of their Country, tooke the next place of refuge in their banishment.
And cryed unto him] To shew her great affection.
Have mercy on me O Lord, thou Son of David] These words intimate Christs Office, Nature, and Person; have mercy] aMiserere mei, dicit, ut magis Christum moveat, quàm si diceret, filiae meae, Aut ut Chrysostomus, Theophylactus, & Euthymius putant, quia ejus filia sine sensu jacebat, ipsa vero utriusque, & suum, & filiae sentiebat dolorem. Maldonat. in loc.Shewes his Office, for he came to bind up the broken heart, to visite and redeeme his people; the word Lord] His divine Nature; Son of David] His humane; both together, one Christ. My daughter] not a servant, but a daughter; and she not onelyonly troubled, but vexed, and that not a little, but piteously, nor with a common evill, but even with the very Devill.
Vers. 23. First, Christ doth neglect her, answering not a word, then deny her. v. 24. reproach her. v. 26.
Vers. 23. Send her away] Some say they spake this out of commiseration, rather from impatience.
Vers. 24. I am not sent but to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel] Jesus Christ (saith a Father) speakes not like Jesus Christ in the eyes of a mortall man, he that was to redeeme mankind, to say he was not sent.
Object. Christ was a Saviour not onelyonly of the Jewes, but Gentiles. Esay 49.6.
Answ. Christ here speakes of his propheticall Office,The Jew was the elder brother, Mat. 10.5. in respect of which he was the Minister of Circumcision. Rom. 15.8. He was first sent to Israel, Jerome; while hee was in forma servi, untill he had consummated the worke of our Redemption, he was sent onelyonly to Israel, Iunius. He that knoweth himselfe not a wandring sheepe,Mat. 18.11. Luke 17.10. Perkins on Jude. but quite lost, even in the Lyons pawe, ready to be devoured, such doth Christ take upon his necke, and like a good Shepheard bring back to his fold.
Vers. 26. The reason is taken ab absurditate, the doctrine of salvation, is bread, and it is not meet, foreign fit, honest, decent, Maldonate. to dogges] Greek, whelpes, foreign Catellis, Neque Servator verbis illis concedit quae petebat Cananaea, sed fidem illius tentat vehementissimè, obliquè canem nominans, quod convitium apud veteres grave fuit. Sculter. Verum canes Hebraeis & Graecis veteribus dici solere eos quos contemnimus. Sed vox foreign ei significationi non convenit. Ita enim appelari vulgo canes qui in delitiis erant, quales Melitenses. Tantum ergo indicatum voluit Christus discrimen quod ad id tempus erat inter foreign & extraneos. Grotius.Beza. Our Lord used the diminutive that he might seem to speak the more contemptuously. Christ speakes after the manner of the Jewes, who called the Gentiles (as the Canaanitish-woman was) dogs.
V. 27. Yet the dogges eat of the crumbs, &c.] She answers by an ingenious inversion, saith a Father, with a witty retorting or turning back of our Saviours words upon himselfe. I am a dogge, true, but dogges &c. Reliquias canibus dari receptum ubique. Grotius. If I be a dog, I am thy dog. Origen. Crummes belong to dogges jure quodam. Luther. Give me the portion of dogges. She had one property of a dogge, for she held fast.
Observatione dignum est, nullius hominis fidem, nisi Gentilium, admiratum fuisse Christum, ut hujus muheris, & illius Centurionis. Matth. 8.10. Maldonatus in loc.Vers. 28. O woman great is thy faith] Exclamat tanquam victus. Brugensis. He cryes out as conquered. Exclamatio admirantis; it is an interjection of marvelling, non possum amplius repugnare precibus tuis. I can no longer withstand thy requests. Foure things are required to justifying faith, knowledge, assent, confidence, application. In all these foure the faith of this woman was great. 1. For knowledge, she lived amongst blind people, and those that were ig…orant of the true God, and yet she had exact knowledge of Christ, that he was the Lord and true God; that he was mercifull and bountifull, that he could drive away the Devill, and weaken his power. She knew these things so exactly as if she had spent all the dayes of her life in the midst of Gods people. 2. For assent, she gave assent to none but to them which related that Jesus of Nazareth is that great Prophet of the Lord, which can drive away all evills and adversities. 3. For confidence, she came with such confidence to the throne of grace, that neither by silence,Polycarpus Lyserus. nor by a harder answer given by the Disciples, nor by the reproach of a dogge, did she suffer her selfe to be deterred or driven away, untill she had obtained mercy. 4. For application, she firmely beleeved, if Christ at least would speake the word, or consent by his becke, that that should be so efficacious, that her daughter would forthwith be delivered out of the power of the Devill.
Vers. 32. And I will not send them away fasting] But the Apostles on the contrary allege, 1. The inequality of proportion, we have seven loaves, but 4000. men, one loafe then must be divided into 550. particles, whence the portion of some, will scarce arise to the bignesse of a Pea, to satisfie him. 2. The incommodity of the place, here we are in the Wildernesse, where nothing growes; where you shall find more stones than loaves. 3. The continuance of want, they have continued with thee three dayes, whence their hunger hath greatly increased, that peradventure a whole loafe will scarce suffice for one man if it were given him.Polycarpus. Lyserus. This is a plaine evidence of a great weaknesse and unbeliefe, in the heart of the Apostles, which do derogate from Christ, the honour of his divine omnipotence, and they seeme to themselves to be very wise, whilst by their infancie they go about to informe the divine wisedome.
Vers. 36. And gave to his Disciples] He would use the Ministrie of these, that they might be convinced by their own testimony, that the Lord did that thing, which they thought impossible to be done.
The principall scope of this, as also of the former Miracle is, that we may be admonished, that nothing will be wanting to them, who being inflamed with a holy desire of the kingdome of God, follow Christ, and faithfully worship him.
V. 37. And they tooke up of broken meat, &c.] Although that was chiefely to recommend the Miracle, yet our Saviour would have nothing lost.
Brugensis Comment. in 4. Evangelia.Seven baskets full] In a former Miracle there remained twelve baskets of fragments, now seven; then the number of the baskets answered to the number of Apostles, now to the number of the loaves.