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Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 15:1-20

4. The opposition of the Pharisees and scribes 15:1-20 (cf. Mark 7:1-23; John 7:1)Matthew recorded another round of opposition, withdrawal and disciple training, and public ministry (ch. 15). This is his last substantial group of events in Jesus’ Galilean ministry. The writer’s repetition of this pattern highlights the chief features of this stage of Jesus’ ministry. This second round also reveals growth in each area of ministry. There is greater opposition, greater faith, and greater help for... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 15:7-9

Chronologically this is the first time Jesus called the Pharisees and teachers of the law hypocrites. Their hypocrisy consisted of making a show of commitment to God while at the same time giving human tradition precedence over God’s Word.Isaiah addressed the words that Jesus quoted to Jerusalem Jews who sometimes allowed external acts of worship to vitiate principle. Rather than continuing God’s will, the Jews’ traditions perpetuated the spirit of the hypocrites in Isaiah’s day. The context of... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 15:1-39

The Traditions of the Elders. The Canaanitish Woman. Feeding the Four Thousand1-20. Unwashed hands and the traditions of the elders (Mark 7:1). In this important controversy Jesus defined His position, (1) towards rabbinical traditions about the Law; (2) towards the Law itself. The first part of our Lord’s discourse (Matthew 15:3-9) is addressed to the Pharisees. In it He admits (or at least does not dispute) the binding character of the Law itself, but denies the authority of rabbinical... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 15:8

(8) This people draweth nigh unto me.—The quotation is given substantially from the Greek version of Isaiah. We have already seen in Matthew 13:14 how the Pharisees were taught to see their own likeness in the language of the prophet. Now the mirror is held up once more, and they are seen to have been anticipated in that very substitution of human for divine ordinances for which our Lord reproves them. read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Matthew 15:1-39

Matthew 15:13 If I had not had a hope fixed in me that this Cause and Business was of God, I would many years ago have run from it If it be of God, He will bear it up. If it be of man, it will tumble; as everything that hath been of man since the world began hath done. And what are all our Histories, and other Tradition of Actions in former times, but God manifesting Himself, that He hath shaken, and tumbled down, and trampled upon, everything that He had not planted? Cromwell to the... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Matthew 15:1-39

Chapter 12The Crisis in Galilee Matthew 14:1-36 - Matthew 15:1-39 - Matthew 16:1-12.THE lives of John and of Jesus, lived so far apart, and with so little intercommunication, have yet been interwoven in a remarkable way, the connection only appearing at the most critical times in the life of our Lord. This interweaving, strikingly anticipated in the incidents of the nativity as recorded by St. Luke, appears, not only at the time of our Saviour’s baptism and first introduction to His Messianic... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Matthew 15:1-39

3. The Corruption of the Scribes and Pharisees; the Canaanitish Woman and Her Faith; the Multitudes Healed. CHAPTER 15 1. The Question of the Scribes and Pharisees.(Matthew 15:1-2 .) 2. His Answer. (Matthew 15:3-9 .) 3. The Multitude Called.( Matthew 15:10-11 .) 4. The Disciples Instructed.( Matthew 15:12-20 .) 5. The Canaanitish Woman. (Matthew 15:21-28 .) 6. The Multitudes Healed. (Matthew 15:29-31 .) This chapter introduces us more fully into the events which follow the rejection of... read more

L.M. Grant

L. M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 15:1-39

After the power and grace of the Lord Jesus has wrought so great, refreshing blessing, the cold, barren criticism of scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem is an example of how the deadening principle of legality is always active in strongly opposing the pure work of the grace of God. They challenge the Lord Himself directly, not simply disciples, but being incensed against Him because He did not require His disciples to conform to Jewish tradition by the washing of their hands before eating. This... read more

James Gray

James Gray's Concise Bible Commentary - Matthew 15:1-39

FIRST MINISTRY TO THE GENTILES Jesus has come. He has proclaimed the nearness of the Kingdom, revealed its code or principles, presented His credentials, and sent forth His heralds. But He has been antagonized and practically rejected by the nation. Then comes the turning point, when He ceases to proclaim the nearness of the Kingdom, and discourses of it in mystery. In seven parables he outlines how it will fare among the nations in the absence of the King. One might suppose that the... read more

Joseph Parker

The People's Bible by Joseph Parker - Matthew 15:1-20

Chapter 63 Defilement Spiritual Not Ceremonial Mat 15:1-20 Not often did Jesus Christ lose his patience, but when that circumstance did occur, it was marked by the utterance of very memorable words. We are sometimes warned not to provoke quiet men. Nor was this loss of patience in the case of Jesus Christ in any sense one of mere irritation or peevishness it was rather a sense of moral indignation. The answer which he made to the Scribes and Pharisees who came from the metropolis was an... read more

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