Matthew 11:19 - Exposition

The Son of man ( Matthew 8:20 , note) came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold ( ἰδού , simply demonstrative, as in the LXX . of 1 Samuel 24:12 ; 2 Samuel 24:22 ) a man gluttonous ( a gluttonous man , Revised Version, for the Greek, ἄνθρωπος φάγος , merely reproduced the original Semitic order), and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners ( Matthew 9:10 , note). A f riend. The idea of affection, which through common use of the words has fallen so much into the background both in the Greek φίλος and our English "friend," is brought out clearly in the Syriac roh ' mo , which is, perhaps, the very word that our Lord spoke. But ; and (Revised Version); καί : i.e. and yet, whatever you may say. Wisdom ; i.e. the Divine wisdom, by which all creation was made ( Proverbs 8:22-31 ; Wis. 7:22), and which is the source of all true understanding ( Proverbs 8:12-16 ), particularly of the will of God (Wis. 7:27, 28; comp. Luke 11:49 , "The Wisdom of God" speaking in Scripture). Is justified ( ἐδικαιώθη ) . The aorist is used either as expressing what is wont to happen, or perhaps as expressing the completeness of the justi fication, (cf. ἐβλήθη , John 15:6 ). Nosgen, contrary to New Testament usage, under stands ἐδικαιώθη as meaning "is condemned because of her works" ("So haben sie die Weisheit... um ihrer Werke willen ve rurtheilt"), but the ordinary interpreta tion holds good that she is acquitted of any error or wrong. Of her children ; works (Revised Version); ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῆς , with the Sinaitic manuscript and the original hand of the Vatican, besides some of the versions. The common reading, τέκνων , has come from Luke. In these words lie the chief difficulty of this difficult sentence. Of ( ἀπό ) may be used of agents (comp. James 1:13 ; James 5:4 : Luke 6:18 , almost as though it were ὑπό ), but it is more natural to understand it here of the causes or reasons for the verdict. And ἀπό thus gives au excellent sense. Our Lord says that the Divine Wisdom is justified in the minds of men from the results she brings about. Of what is he thinking? Doubtless moral results, and probably those found in the change that might be seen in the publicans and sinners of which he has just been speaking. The Divine Wisdom, which appeared to the careless and unsympathetic so strange and changeable in her methods, is, notwithstanding, pronounced to be in the right, because of the results of her activity, the men and the women brought under her influence. These κανιναὶ κτίσεις ( 2 Corinthians 5:17 ; Galatians 6:15 ) are always the best justification of misunderstood plans. While, however, this seems the best interpretation of the sentence as recorded in Matthew, it must be confessed that in Luke it appears more natural to understand "her children" as those who justify her; and further, this was probably St. Luke's own interpretation. For he seems to purposely give an explanation of the apothegm in the verses ( Luke 7:29 , Luke 7:30 ) by which he joins the equivalent of our verses 16-19 to the equivalent of our verse 11. He there tells us that all the people and the publicans "justified God," having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's plan towards them, not having been baptized by him. Wisdom's children justified her; others did not. Anyhow, ἔργων would appear to be the more original of the two terms, for with the explanation preferred above, τέκνων would be very easily derived from it. It may, indeed, be due to a more primitive confusion between אהָדָבָעֹ ("her works," cf. Ecclesiastes 9:1 ) and אהָדָּבְעַ ("her servants," Hebrew דבֶעֶ ), this last word being commonly rendered δοῦλοι , and, perhaps through παῖδες , even υἱοί and τέκνα , but even then it is unlikely that the former and harder reading should be only due to a mistake for the latter. That the harder and metaphorical should be changed into the easier and more literal, even as early as St. Luke's time, appears much more probable.