THE TEXT.

4 And he answered and faid unto them, (f) Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female?

'5 (g) And faid, for this caufe (b) fhall a man leave father and mother, and fhall cleave to his wife and they twain fhall be one flesh.

6 (i) Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together let no man (k) put asunder.

7 They fay unto him, Why did Mofes then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

8 He faith unto them, Mofes, because of the hardness of your hearts, (7) fuffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

9 And I fay unto you, (m) Whofoever fhall put away his wife, except it be for (2) fornication, and fhall marry another, commiteeth adultery: and whofo marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery.

THE COMMENTARY.

4 (f) In Gen. i, 27.

5 (g) i, e. Adam, or rather Mofes faid; for the latter feems to be the fpeaker in Gen. ii. 24. See note (C).

Ib. (b) i. e. See Ephef. v. 31. and Pf. xiv. 10.

6 (i) Or, fo that.

Ib. (k) i. e. except in the cafe of· fornication (ver. 9.) for that in a wife, being adultery, is of itself a putting alunder.

1

8 (1) The law in Deut. xxiv. 1, 2. feems to have been a permiffion only to put away their wives, but with a command, joined to that permiffion, of giving them in that cafe a bill of divorcement.

9 (M) See com. on ch. v. 32*.

Ib. (n) See com. on ch. v. 32†.

(C) V. 5. And faid] The word is seems here, as that and the word Onor is oftentimes, to be ufed imperfonally for one faid, or it was faid, i.e by him, who was the author of the book, from whence the paffage is cited. See examples of this in 1 Cor. vi. 16. and xiv. 30. and xv. 27, 52. and 2 Cor. vi. 2. Eph. v. 14. Heb. i. 7. and fee alfo Macc. vii. 16.

I

* i. c. Adultery; for this is faid concerning a married woman, and in fuch an one fornication is adultery. See Ecclus 22, 23.

i. e. If the be married to another man in his life time fee Rom. vii. 3); fuch putting away not being a diffolution of the marriage: and therefore not only he who is married to her, but the husband who divorces her, if he be married again to another woman, committeth adultery likewise, as is faid in ch. xix. 9. Mark x. 11, 12. Luke xvi. 18.

"10 His

THE COMMENTRY.

11 (0) Or, All men do not receive this faying, i. e. about not marrying and being continent in that particular.

Ib. (p) Or, but they do to whom it is given, i. e, to whom the virtue of continency is given, called the gift of God by Paul in 1 Cor. vii. 7.

12 (q) The fense is, that, as there are eunuchs made fo by nature and by art, so there are others who for religion's fake abstain from women as much by choice, as others do by neceffity.

Ib. (r) See note (D).

Ib. (s) See com. on ver. 11.

13 (1) Whenever the Jews prayed for any man or blessed him, they laid their hands on him. See Gen. xlviii. 14, 15. This was only a circumstance, the prayer was the substance.

14 (u) Rather, the little children, as in Mark x. 14.

Ib. (x) i. e. it confifts of perfons like unto these. See ch. xviii. 3, 4, &c.

(D) V. 12. Have made themselves eunuchs] Jefus feems to use the word eunuchs here in a different fenfe from what it is used in the two cafes mentioned before. The word eunuch in its original fenfe means only a chamberlain, or one who has the care of the Prince's bed. So it is ufed by many Greek authors, and fometimes for any other great officer of the court (fee Xenophon's Cyrop. p. 543. Ed. Hutch), though it is too commonly by miftake underflood in the following fenfe, which is but a fecondary one. In the Eaft the Kings, jealous of their wives, allowed none to be their chamberlains, but fuch as were caftrated; and from thence the word eunuch took the fignification which it now most usually has.

18 He faith unto him, Which? Jefus faid, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adul-. tery, Thou shalt not fteal, Thou fhalt not bear falfe witness.

19 Honour thy father and thy mother: (d) and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

20 The young man faith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

21 Jefus faid unto him, If thou wilt be (e) perfect, go and (f) fell what thou haft, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

THE COMMENTARY.

15 (y) And (as in ver. 13.) prayed for them, or (as in Mark x. 16.) bleffed them.

16 (2) viz. a young man, as in ver. 20, 22.

Ib. (a) In Mark x. 17. and Luke xviii. 18. it is, what shall I do. See note (E).

17 (b) i. e. at the fame time that thou doft not acknowledge me to be God: for in the ftrict and proper fenfe of the word good, there is none good but God. But, with regard to the question, if thou wilt enter into life, &c.

Ib. (c) i. e. but God only, as in Mark ii. 7. or God alone, as in Luke v. 21.

19 (d) See note (F).

21 (e) i. e. fo perfect in all refpects, as to be fit for one of my difciples, and attendants upon my perfon.

Ib. (f) This feems not to have

(E) V. 16. What good thing, &c.] Mark and Luke do both leave out the word good in this question; and perhaps the word ayatov here is an interpolation,; for the words which follow, that I may attain eternal life, sufficiently fhew, that he meant a good thing.

(F) V. 19. And, Thou shalt love, &c.] Origen thought, that these words were an interpolation, because they are not found in Mark x. 19. or in Luke xviii. 2o. And yet they are met with in Lev. xix. 18. They therefore contain certainly one of Mofes's commandments, though they are no part of the ren, as each of the foregoing ones is. The word xal prefixed in the Greek in this commandment feems to imply, that this is not mentioned as one of the ten. See note on Maik x. 19.

been

(G) V. 23. Into the kingdom of heaven] Plato has a faying not much unlike to this in De Leg. lib. v. p. 849. C. Ed. Ficini, wλeríe, d' av opódex καὶ ἀγαθὸς ἀδύνατον· But it is impoffible, that they, who are very rich, fbould be good aljo.

(H) V. 24. For a camel to go through, &c.] Mention is made of only one rich man (Jofeph of Aremathea) as a difciple of Jefus, and he was one fecretly for fear of the Jews. See ch. xxvii. 57. and John xix. 38. And if Nicodemus was another of this fort, he is fo diftinguished by the character of his coming to Jefus by night (for fear, no doubt), that it is three times mentioned by John, viz. in ch. iii. 2. and vii. 5o. and xix. 39.

thee;

(I) V. 28. In the regeneration] What is here expreffed by regeneration, is exprefled by Mark x. 29. For my fake and the gospel's, and by Luke, For the kingdom of God's fake. So that by the word waniyaría feems to be meant the gospel of Christ, or the kingdom of heaven; for in that state (as Paul fays, 2 Cor. v. 17.) men are new creatures; old things are passed away, and all things are become new. 'The word is but once more used in the N. Teft. viz. in Titus iii. 5. where Paul fpeaks of men's being faved διὰ λύτρα παλιγγενεσίας, καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως το πνεύμαλος ἀγίε, by the wafbing (i. e. baptifm) of regeneration (i. e. of what is required in the new ftate under the gofpel), and by the renewal of the Holy Ghoft. Both of thefe conditions Jefus in John iii. 5. pronounced to be neceffary for every one, who would enter into the kingdom of God. Agrecably to this interpretation I find Jofephus in Antiq. xi. 3. 2 calling that wayfarería, which in the preceding fection he had called doxalásaris, a refloration.

(K) Ib. The twelve tribes of Ifrael] Though ten of the tribes were carried away into captivity by Salmanafar, and are not known by any hiftory to have returned as a body, yet many particular perfons of each tribe remained in the land, and inany more returned at different times: fo that in the days of Jefus, and before them, the twelve tribes are fpoken of as exifting. See Luke xxii. 30. Acts xxvi. 7. and James i, 1. Jofephus certainly was of this opinion, because in Antiq. xii. 2.5. he tells us, that fix perions out of each of the twelve tribes were fent to Ptolemy the King of Egypt, for the making a Greek verfion of the law of Mofes,

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