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(Comp. also <a href="/matthew/26-37.htm" title="And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.">Matthew 26:37</a>; <a href="/mark/13-3.htm" title="And as he sat on the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,">Mark 13:3</a>.) Looking to the grouping of the Apostles it might have seemed natural that Andrew also should have been there, but his character seems to have been always retiring, and, it may be, was wanting in the intensity of faith which belonged to his brother, the Rock-Apostle, and to the two Sons of Thunder.<p><span class= "bld">Into an high mountain.</span>—A tradition of uncertain date fixes on Tabor as the scene of the Transfiguration, but this was probably due to the conspicuous position of that mountain, as it rises abruptly from the plain of Esdraelon. The Gospel narratives leave the locality altogether uncertain, but as Cæsarea Philippi was the last place mentioned, and a journey through Galilee follows (<a href="/mark/9-30.htm" title="And they departed there, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.">Mark 9:30</a>), it is more probable that the scene is to be found on one of the heights of Hermon. Tabor, it may be added, was crowned with a fortress, which at this time was likely to be occupied, and this is obviously inconsistent with the solitude which the narrative implies.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-2.htm">Matthew 17:2</a></div><div class="verse">And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">And was transfigured before them.</span>—Elsewhere in the New Testament (with the exception of the parallel, <a href="/mark/9-2.htm" title="And after six days Jesus takes with him Peter, and James, and John, and leads them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.">Mark 9:2</a>) the word is used only in its spiritual sense, and is there rendered “transformed.” St. Luke does not use the word, but describes the change which it implies, “the fashion of His countenance became other than it had been” (<a href="/luke/9-29.htm" title="And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.">Luke 9:29</a>). He adds the profoundly significant fact that this was while He was in the act of prayer. It was in that act of communion with His Father that the divine glory flowed out into visible brightness. Transcendent as the manifestation was, it has its lower analogies in the radiance which made the face of Stephen “as the face of an angel” (<a href="/acts/6-15.htm" title="And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.">Acts 6:15</a>); yet more in the glory which shone on the face of Moses when he came down from the mount (<a href="/exodus/34-29.htm" title="And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses knew not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.">Exodus 34:29</a>); in some faint measure, in what may be called the metamorphic power of prayer which invests features that have no form or comeliness with the rapture of devout ecstacy. And it is no over-bold speculation to see in the fact thus noted that which gives its meaning to the Transfiguration as a stage in the training of the disciples. Prayers like those which were offered for Peter that his “faith might not fail” (<a href="/context/luke/22-31.htm" title="And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:">Luke 22:31-32</a>) at least suggest something as to the intercession of the Master for His disciples, and this, we must remember, was a crisis in their spiritual history. They had risen to the highest faith; they had been offended by the announcement of His rejection, His sufferings, His death. Something was needed which might sustain their faith, on which they might look back in after years as the earnest of a future glory. It was well for them that they should, at least once in His life of lowliness, gaze on the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father (<a href="/john/1-14.htm" title="And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.">John 1:14</a>), and feel that they were not “following cunningly-devised fables,” but had been “eye-witnesses of His majesty” (<a href="/2_peter/1-16.htm" title="For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.">2Peter 1:16</a>). To those who believe that our Lord’s human nature was in very deed, sin only excepted, like unto ours, it will not seem over-bold to suggest that for Him too this might have been a time of conflict and of trial, a renewal of the Temptation in the wilderness (<a href="/matthew/16-23.htm" title="But he turned, and said to Peter, Get you behind me, Satan: you are an offense to me: for you mind not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.">Matthew 16:23</a>), an anticipation of that of the agony of Gethsemane, and that even for Him, in his humanity, there might be in the excellent glory and in the voice from heaven the help and comfort which strengthened Him for the cross and passion. Following the narrative in its details, we may trace its several stages in some such sequence as follows:—After six days, spent apparently with their Lord in the mountain district near Cæsarea Philippi, but not in the work of preaching or working miracles, the rest of the disciples are left at the foot of the mountain, and the three follow Him, as the evening closes, to its summit. There, as afterwards in Gethsemane, He withdraws from them “about a stone’s throw” (<a href="/luke/22-41.htm" title="And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,">Luke 22:41</a>), and they “watch with Him.” and gaze on Him, as He, standing or kneeling (the first was, we must remember, the more common attitude of prayer, <a href="/luke/18-11.htm" title="The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.">Luke 18:11</a>), intercedes for them and for Israel, and, we may add, for mankind. And then, as they gaze, form and features shine with a new glory, bright as the sun, as though the Shechinah cloud had wrapt Him round. Even His garments are “white as the light,” “white as snow” (the reading in St. Mark is doubtful, but if genuine the snows of Hermon may have suggested the comparison), as St. Mark adds with his usual descriptive vividness, “so as no fuller on earth can whiten them.” Nothing, however, it may be added, suggests the vision of three forms floating in the air with which Raffaelle’s glorious picture has made us familiar.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-3.htm">Matthew 17:3</a></div><div class="verse">And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Moses and Elias.</span>—The identification of the forms which the disciples saw was, we may well believe, intuitive. If we accept the narrative as a whole, it is legitimate to assume that, in the state of consciousness to which they had been raised, they were capable of a spiritual illumination which would reveal to them who they were who were thus recognising their Master’s work and doing homage to His majesty. There was, it is obvious, a singular fitness in each case. One was the great representative of the Law, which was a “school master” or “servant-tutor” (see Note on <a href="/galatians/3-24.htm" title="Why the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.">Galatians 3:24</a>) leading men to Christ, the other of the whole goodly fellowship of the prophets. Of one it had been said that a “Prophet like unto him” should come in the latter days (<a href="/deuteronomy/18-18.htm" title="I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brothers, like to you, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.">Deuteronomy 18:18</a>), to whom men should hearken; of the other, that he should come again to “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children” (<a href="/malachi/4-5.htm" title="Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:">Malachi 4:5</a>). The close of the ministry of each was not after the “common death of all men.” No man knew of the sepulchre of Moses (<a href="/deuteronomy/34-6.htm" title="And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knows of his sepulcher to this day.">Deuteronomy 34:6</a>), and Elijah had passed away in the chariots and horses of fire (<a href="/2_kings/2-11.htm" title="And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.">2Kings 2:11</a>). Both were associated in men’s minds with the glory of the kingdom of the Christ. The Jerusalem Targum on Exodus 12 connects the coming of Moses with that of the Messiah. Another Jewish tradition predicts his appearance with that of Elijah. Their presence now was an attestation that their work was over, and that the Christ had come.<p><span class= "bld">Talking with him.</span>—St. Luke (<a href="/luke/9-31.htm" title="Who appeared in glory, and spoke of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.">Luke 9:31</a>) adds the subject of their communing: “They spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” So far as the disciples then entered into the meaning of what they heard, or afterwards recalled it, it was a witness that the spirits of the lawgiver and the prophet accepted the sufferings and the death which had shaken the faith of the disciples as the necessary conditions of the Messianic kingdom. It is significant that the word for “decease” (<span class= "ital">exodos</span>) reappears in this sense once only in the New Testament, and then in close connection with a reference to the Transfiguration (<a href="/2_peter/1-15.htm" title="Moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.">2Peter 1:15</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-4.htm">Matthew 17:4</a></div><div class="verse">Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Lord, it is good for us to be here.</span>—For “Lord” St. Luke has “Master;” St. Mark (giving. probably, as elsewhere, the very word uttered) “Rabbi.” It is not easy to trace the thoughts that passed rapidly through the soul of the disciple in that moment of amazement. Afterwards—if we may judge from St. Mark’s account (<a href="/mark/9-6.htm" title="For he knew not what to say; for they were sore afraid.">Mark 9:6</a>), “he knew not what to answer, for they were sore afraid,” or St. Luke’s (<a href="/luke/9-33.htm" title="And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.">Luke 9:33</a>) “not knowing what he said”—he could hardly explain them himself. We may venture to see in the very <span class= "ital">naïveté </span>of the words a touch of originality and unexpectedness which, as far as it goes, attests the truthfulness of the narrative. What the words seem to imply is:—(1) An abounding joy at being thus brought into a glory which fulfilled the Apostle’s brightest hopes. It was, indeed, good to be thus carried, as it were, into Paradise, or the third heaven, and to hear there words which human lips might not reproduce. (2) His thoughts travelled back to the records of the Exodus, when the Lord talked with Moses in the tabernacle (<a href="/context/exodus/33-7.htm" title="And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out to the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.">Exodus 33:7-10</a>). What if like tabernacles could now be made for those three glorious forms, that all Israel might come and gaze, and hear and worship? Would not this be a better consummation than the shame and death at Jerusalem? Would it not meet the belief of the scribes and of the people that “Elias must first come”?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-5.htm">Matthew 17:5</a></div><div class="verse">While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">A bright cloud overshadowed them</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, our Lord, Moses, and Elias. To the disciples this would, we cannot doubt, recall the “cloudy pillar” which had descended on the first tabernacle (<a href="/exodus/33-9.htm" title="And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.">Exodus 33:9</a>), the “cloud that filled the house of the Lord on the dedication of the Temple” (<a href="/1_kings/8-10.htm" title="And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,">1Kings 8:10</a>). It was, in later Jewish language, the Shechinah, or abiding presence of Jehovah—the very form of the word connects it with both the Hebrew (<span class= "ital">mishkan</span>) and the Greek (<span class= "ital">skené</span>) words for tabernacle—which was the symbol that He was with His people. The Targums, or Paraphrases, of the Law and Prophets which were then current, had used the word as a synonym for the divine name. Where the Hebrew text had had “I will dwell in thee,” the Targum of Jonathan had “I will make my Shechinah to dwell” (<a href="/zechariah/2-10.htm" title="Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, see, I come, and I will dwell in the middle of you, said the LORD.">Zechariah 2:10</a>; <a href="/zechariah/8-3.htm" title="Thus said the LORD; I am returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.">Zechariah 8:3</a>). Its appearance at this moment, followed by the voice out or the cloud, was a witness that no tabernacle made with hands was now needed, that the humanity of Christ was the true tabernacle of God (comp. Note on <a href="/john/1-14.htm" title="And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.">John 1:14</a>), and that it was in this sense true that “the tabernacle of God was with men” (<a href="/revelation/21-3.htm" title="And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.">Revelation 21:3</a>), and that He would dwell with them.<p><span class= "bld">This is my beloved Son.</span>—The words were in substance the same as those heard at the baptism of our Lord (see Note on <a href="/matthew/3-17.htm" title="And see a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.">Matthew 3:17</a>), but the difference in their form is suggestive. Then they were addressed to the human consciousness of the Son of Man, as declaring to Him the greatness of His being. Now they come addressed as to the disciples, and in close connection with the “decease” which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem. It was, if we may so speak, because the Son of Man became obedient unto death that He was showing Himself worthy of the Father’s love. In the hour of darkness and seeming failure, and agony and death, He was “satisfying” His Father’s “good pleasure,” and accepted by Him as the one perfect sacrifice. And so the command, “Hear ye Him,” gained a new significance. Not the traditions of the elders, or the doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees, not even the teaching of Moses and Elias, of the Law and of the Prophets, but the words of the Son of Man, were henceforth to command their allegiance, and to be the guide of their faith and of their lives, for of them only it was true that the Father was revealed fully in them (<a href="/context/hebrews/1-1.htm" title="God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,">Hebrews 1:1-2</a>), and that they should never pass away (<a href="/matthew/24-35.htm" title="Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.">Matthew 24:35</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-6.htm">Matthew 17:6</a></div><div class="verse">And when the disciples heard <i>it</i>, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">When the disciples heard it.</span>—At this point St. Matthew’s narrative is the fullest. The three disciples shrink in fear, like that of the Israelites at the brightness of Moses’ face (<a href="/exodus/34-30.htm" title="And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.">Exodus 34:30</a>), like that of the priests in the Temple who could not stand to minister because of the cloud (<a href="/1_kings/8-11.htm" title="So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.">1Kings 8:11</a>), and lie prostrate on the ground in speechless terror. They have seen the glory of the Lord: can they hear His voice and live?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-7.htm">Matthew 17:7</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Jesus came and touched them.</span>—Act and words were both expressive of an almost brotherly tenderness. The touch of the hand they had so often grasped—as, <span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> in <a href="/matthew/14-31.htm" title="And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?">Matthew 14:31</a>—the familiar words that had brought courage to their fainting hearts in. the hour of danger (<a href="/matthew/14-27.htm" title="But straightway Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.">Matthew 14:27</a>), these recall them again to the realities of life. They need not fear the glory of the divine Presence, for He is with them still as its most perfect manifestation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-8.htm">Matthew 17:8</a></div><div class="verse">And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">They saw no man, save Jesus only.</span>—The words, following as they do upon the “Be not afraid,” imply a marked contrast to Peter’s rash utterance. It was <span class= "ital">not</span> “good” for frail men such as they were to tarry long in the immediate glory of the Presence. It was a relief to see “Jesus only” with them, as they had been wont to see Him. So in our own lives, moments of spiritual ecstasy are few and far between, and it is good for us that it should be so, and that we should be left to carry the fragrance and power of their memory into the work of our common life, and the light of our common day.<p>It may not be amiss to say a few words as to the credibility of a narrative which is in itself so wonderful, and has been exposed so often to the attacks of a hostile criticism. And (1) it is obvious that what is commonly known as the rationalistic method of interpretation is altogether inapplicable here. The narrative of the Evangelists cannot by any artifice be reduced to a highly-coloured version of some natural phenomenon falling under known laws. If accepted at all, it must be accepted as belonging to the region of the super natural. (2) The so-called mythical theory, which sees in such narratives the purely legendary after-growth of the dreaming fancies of a later age, is of course possible here, as it is possible wherever the arbitrary criticism which postulates the incredibility of the supernatural chooses to apply it; but it may, at least, be urged against its application in this instance that there was nothing in the Jewish expectations of the Messiah likely to suggest such a legend, and that the circumstances connected with it are such (<span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> its association with our Lord’s sufferings, and the strange, abrupt utterance of Peter) as were hardly likely to suggest themselves either to the popular imagination or to that of an individual mind. (3) The position which it occupies both in our Lord’s ministry and the spiritual training of the disciples, while, on the one hand, it raises the Transfiguration above the region of a mere marvel, is, it may be urged again, such as was not likely to occur to a simple lover of the marvellous. (4) Lastly, the language of <a href="/john/1-14.htm" title="And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.">John 1:14</a> and (though with less certainty, owing to the doubt which hangs over the genuineness of that Epistle) of <a href="/2_peter/1-16.htm" title="For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.">2Peter 1:16</a>, may surely be allowed some evidential weight, as being of the nature of allusive reference to a fact which the writers take for granted as generally known. Over and above St. Peter’s direct reference, we note the recurrence of the words “decease,” “tabernacle,” as suggested by it (<a href="/2_peter/1-13.htm" title="Yes, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;">2Peter 1:13</a>; <a href="/2_peter/1-15.htm" title="Moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.">2Peter 1:15</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-9.htm">Matthew 17:9</a></div><div class="verse">And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Tell</span> <span class= "bld">the vision to no man.</span>—The command obviously included even the rest of the Apostles within the range of its prohibition. For them in their lower stage of spiritual growth, the report of the vision at second hand would either have led them to distrust it or to pervert its meaning. Whatever reasons excluded them from being spectators were of still greater weight for the time against their hearing of what had been seen from others. The Greek word for “vision,” it may be noted, means simply “what they had seen,” and does not suggest, as the English word does, the thought of a dream-state in the beholders.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-10.htm">Matthew 17:10</a></div><div class="verse">And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?</div>(10) <span class= "bld">His disciples asked him.</span>—The context clearly implies that the question came not from the disciples at large, but from the three who had seen the vision, and were brooding over the appearance, and yet more, perhaps, the disappearance, of Elijah, as connected with the tradition of the scribes. If Elijah was to come and prepare the way, why had he thus come from the unseen world for a moment only?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-11.htm">Matthew 17:11</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Elias truly shall first come.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">cometh</span> Our Lord’s words are obviously enigmatic in their form, and, as such, admit of two very different interpretations. Taken literally, as they have been by very many both in earlier and later times, they seem to say that Elijah shall come in person before the yet future day of the Lord, the great second Advent of the Christ. So it has been argued the prophecy of <a href="/malachi/4-5.htm" title="Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:">Malachi 4:5</a> shall yet have a literal fulfilment, and John the Baptist when he confessed that he was not Elijah (<a href="/john/1-21.htm" title="And they asked him, What then? Are you Elias? And he said, I am not. Are you that prophet? And he answered, No.">John 1:21</a>) was rightly expecting his appearance. It would hardly be right to reject this interpretation merely on the ground of its literalism, or its improbability, or the resemblance which it has to the fantastic belief and practices, which have kept their ground even in modern Judaism, in connection with the expected appearance of the Tishbite, though these, so far as they go, must be thrown into the adverse scale. The words that follow in the next verse are, however, more decisive.<p><span class= "bld">And restore all things.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and shall restore.</span> Leaving for the present the question who was to do the work, we turn to the nature of the work itself. Our Lord’s language generalises the description given by Malachi. That work of “turning the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children,” was but part of a wider restoration of things and persons. Old truths were to be reproclaimed, and cleared from the after-growths of traditions. Men, as a race, were to be brought into their right relation to their God and Father. The words seem—at least as interpreted by <a href="/acts/3-21.htm" title="Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.">Acts 3:21</a> (where see Note); <a href="/romans/8-21.htm" title="Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.">Romans 8:21</a>; <a href="/context/ephesians/1-22.htm" title="And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,">Ephesians 1:22-23</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/15-28.htm" title="And when all things shall be subdued to him, then shall the Son also himself be subject to him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.">1Corinthians 15:28</a>, and other like passages—to point forward to a “restitution of all things,” the bringing in of order where now there is disorder and confusion, which shall embrace not Israel only, or even mankind, but the whole universe of God, visible and invisible.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-12.htm">Matthew 17:12</a></div><div class="verse">But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Elias is come already.</span>—These words, the emphatic repetition of what had been said before in <a href="/matthew/11-14.htm" title="And if you will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.">Matthew 11:14</a> (see Note there), ought, it is believed, to be decisive as to the issue raised in the preceding verse. So far as the prophecy of Malachi required the coming of Elijah, that prophecy had been fulfilled in the Baptist, all unconscious of it as he was, as coming in the spirit and power of Elijah (<a href="/luke/1-17.htm" title="And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.">Luke 1:17</a>). The disciples need not look for any other personal appearance. The use of the present and future tenses in <a href="/matthew/17-11.htm" title="And Jesus answered and said to them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.">Matthew 17:11</a> point to a deeper truth, which they were to learn afterwards. The Elijah ministry, the work of the preacher of repentance, is not a transient phenomenon belonging to one stage only of the Church’s history, but was to be, throughout the ages, on to the end of all things, the indispensable preparation for the coming of the Lord. Only through it could all things be restored, and the path made ready for the heralds of forgiveness and of peace.<p><span class= "bld">They knew him not.</span>—The Greek word implies full and accurate knowledge. Better, perhaps, <span class= "ital">they recognised him not.</span> Must we not say that those who, after these words, still look forward to the personal advent of Elijah are unconsciously placing themselves on a level with those whose dimness of perception our Lord thus condemns?<p><span class= "bld">But have done unto him whatsoever they listed.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">they did in him</span> (in him, i.e., as the region in which their will wrought) <span class= "ital">whatsoever they would.</span> To “list,” now practically archaic, was the same as “lust,” without the special evil sense which has attached to the latter word. It is significant that our Lord charges the guilt of the rejection and death of John upon the scribes and the people at large, with no special reference to the Tetrarch Antipas. The passions and intrigues of the palace were but instruments working out the intent of the Pharisees and Sadducees.<p><span class= "bld">Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.</span>—Another instance of what may be called the new colour which from the time of the Transfiguration spreads over our Lord’s teaching. All is, in one aspect, darker, sadder, more sombre. He is drawing nearer to the cross, and He brings the thought of the cross closer to the minds of the disciples.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-13.htm">Matthew 17:13</a></div><div class="verse">Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Then the disciples understood.</span>—The words are suggestive both as indicating the conclusion in which they ultimately rested, and the frankness with which they owned how slowly they had passed from the literalism of the scribes to a true apprehension of the spiritual meaning of the prophecy in question.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-14.htm">Matthew 17:14</a></div><div class="verse">And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a <i>certain</i> man, kneeling down to him, and saying,</div>(14) <span class= "bld">And when they were come to the multitude.</span>—St. Luke states that it was on the next day, the night having apparently been spent on the Mount of Transfiguration. The magic power of the art of Raffaelle has brought into vivid juxtaposition the contrast between the scene of glory above and that of trouble and unrest below, but we must not allow the impression made by the picture to distort our thoughts of the history. The two scenes did not synchronise. The vision was at night, and the descent from the mountain would have carried those who made the journey some way at least into the day that followed.<p><span class= "bld">There came to him a certain man.</span>—St. Mark (<a href="/context/mark/9-14.htm" title="And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.">Mark 9:14-16</a>) narrates more fully that as our Lord and the three were coming to the disciples, they saw a crowd, and scribes disputing with them; that when the multitude saw this they were astonished, and running to Him, saluted Him; that He then asked, “Why dispute ye with them?” and that this drew forth the answer and the prayer which in St. Matthew’s record stands without any prelude.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-15.htm">Matthew 17:15</a></div><div class="verse">Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Lunatick.</span>—See Note on <a href="/matthew/4-24.htm" title="And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought to him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.">Matthew 4:24</a>. The other Gospels add some further touches. The boy had a “dumb spirit.” When the spirit seized him it “tore him,” and he foamed at the mouth, and gnashed with his teeth. Slowly, and as with difficulty, the paroxysm passed off, and the sufferer was wasting away under the violence of the attacks. The phenomena described are, it need hardly be said, those of epilepsy complicated with insanity, a combination common in all countries, and likely to be aggravated where the “seizure,” which the very word epilepsy implies, was the work of a supernatural power. A prolonged melancholy, an indescribable look of sadness, a sudden falling, and loss of consciousness, with or without convulsions, or passing into a tetanic stiffness, a periodical recurrence coinciding often with the new or full moon (hence probably the description of the boy as “lunatick”), grinding the teeth, foaming at the mouth, are all noted by medical writers as symptoms of the disease. The names by which it was known in the earlier stages of medical science were all indicative of the awe with which men looked on it. It was the “divine,” the “sacred” disease, as being a direct supernatural infliction. The Latin synonym, <span class= "ital">morbus comitialis,</span> came from the fact that if a seizure of this kind occurred during the <span class= "ital">comitia,</span> or assemblies of the Roman Republic, it was looked upon as of such evil omen that the meeting was at once broken up, and all business adjourned. Whether there was in this case something more than disease, viz., a distinct possession by a supernatural force, is a question which belongs to the general subject of the “demoniacs” of the Gospel records. (See Note on 8:28.) Here, at any rate, our Lord’s words (<a href="/matthew/17-21.htm" title="However, this kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting.">Matthew 17:21</a>) assume, even more emphatically than elsewhere, the reality of the possession. (See <a href="/mark/9-25.htm" title="When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying to him, You dumb and deaf spirit, I charge you, come out of him, and enter no more into him.">Mark 9:25</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-16.htm">Matthew 17:16</a></div><div class="verse">And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">They could not cure him.</span>—This, then, would seem to have been the subject-matter of debate. The scribes were taunting the disciples, who had probably trusted to their use of the wonted formula of their Master’s name, and were now wrangling in their own defence. Neither scribes nor disciples had thought of gaining the spiritual power which might avail by the means which they both recognised as effective.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-17.htm">Matthew 17:17</a></div><div class="verse">Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">O faithless and perverse generation.</span>—The words were obviously addressed both to the scribes and the disciples. Both had shown their want of the faith which utters itself in prayer to the Father; both were alike “perverse,” in finding in the misery brought before them only an occasion of wrangling and debate. This was not the way to obtain the power to heal, and the formulae of exorcism were but as an idle charm, without the faith of which they were meant to be the expression.<p><span class= "bld">How long shall I suffer you</span>?—The words are significant as suggesting the thought that our Lord’s whole life was one long tolerance of the waywardness and perversity of men.<p><span class= "bld">Bring him hither to me.</span>—St. Mark, whose record is here by far the fullest, relates that at this moment “the spirit tare him,” and that he “wallowed foaming,” in the paroxysm of a fresh convulsion; that our Lord then asked, “How long is it ago since this came unto him?” and was told that he had suffered from his childhood; that the father appealed, half-despairing, to our Lord’s pity, “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us;” and was told that it depended on his own faith, “If thou canst believe; all things are possible to him that believeth;” and then burst out into the cry of a faith struggling with his despair, “Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief;” and that that faith, weak as it was, was accepted as sufficient.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-18.htm">Matthew 17:18</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Jesus rebuked the devil.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">demon,</span> as elsewhere in these cases of possession.<p><span class= "bld">The child was cured.</span>—Better, the <span class= "ital">boy.</span> <a href="/mark/9-21.htm" title="And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came to him? And he said, Of a child.">Mark 9:21</a> implies, as indeed the Greek does here, that the sufferer had passed beyond the age of childhood. St. Mark gives the words of the rebuke, “Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out from him, and enter no more into him.” This was followed by a great cry and another convulsion; then he fell down, “as it were, dead,” and many cried out, “He is dead.” Then Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up, and the work of healing was accomplished. Calmness, and peace, and self-possession were seen instead of the convulsive agony. The spiritual power of the Healer had overcome the force, whether morbid or demoniac, which was the cause of his sufferings. Our Lord’s words, it need hardly be said, assume it to have been the latter; and those who deny the reality of the possession must, in their turn, assume either that He shared the belief of the people, or accepted it because they were not able to receive any other explanation of the mysterious sufferings which they had witnessed. Each hypothesis presents difficulties of its own, and we may well be content to confess our inability to solve them. (See Note on <a href="/matthew/8-28.htm" title="And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.">Matthew 8:28</a>.) Speaking generally, the language of the New Testament seems to recognise, if not in all diseases, yet at least in all that disturb the moral equilibrium of man’s nature, an infraction of the divine order, and therefore rightly sees in them the work, directly or indirectly, of the great antagonist of that order. All our Lord’s works of mercy are summed up by St. Peter in the words that “He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil” (<a href="/acts/10-38.htm" title="How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.">Acts 10:38</a>), and on this supposition the particular phenomena of each case were logically ascribed to demoniac forces.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-19.htm">Matthew 17:19</a></div><div class="verse">Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Why could not we cast him out?</span>—The question came obviously from the disciples who had been left below when our Lord went apart with Peter, James, and John, to the Mount of the Transfiguration. They did not even now see the reason of their failure. They had dealt with this case as they had dealt with others. Why had they not met with a like issue? They did not as yet perceive that they came under our Lord’s language of rebuke, and did not look on themselves as belonging to the “faithless generation.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-20.htm">Matthew 17:20</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Because of your unbelief.</span>—The various reading, “Because of your little faith,” found in many, but not the most authoritative MSS., is interesting as an example of a tendency to tone down the apparent severity of our Lord’s words. They show conclusively that the disciples themselves came under the range of His rebuke to the “faithless and perverse generation.”<p><span class= "bld">If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed.</span>—The hyperbolical form of our Lord’s words, repeated afterwards in <a href="/matthew/21-21.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; it shall be done.">Matthew 21:21</a>, excluded from the thoughts of the disciples, as from our own, the possibility of a literal interpretation. The “grain of mustard seed” was, as in <a href="/matthew/13-31.htm" title="Another parable put he forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:">Matthew 13:31</a>, the proverbial type of the infinitely little. To “remove mountains” was, as we see in <a href="/1_corinthians/13-2.htm" title="And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.">1Corinthians 13:2</a> (this may, however, have been an echo of our Lord’s teaching), the proverbial type of overcoming difficulties that seemed insurmountable. The words were, we may believe, dramatised by a gesture pointing to the mountain from which our Lord and the three disciples had descended, as afterwards by a like act in reference to the Mount of Olives (<a href="/matthew/21-21.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; it shall be done.">Matthew 21:21</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Nothing shall be impossible unto you.</span>—The words, absolute as they sound, are yet, <span class= "ital">ipso facto,</span> conditional. Nothing that comes within the range of faith in the wisdom and love of God, and therefore of submission to His will, is beyond the range of prayer.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-21.htm">Matthew 17:21</a></div><div class="verse">Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.</span>—The words imply degrees in the intensity of the forms of evil ascribed to demons amounting to a generic difference. Some might yield before the energy of a human will, and the power of the divine Name, and the prayers even of a weak faith. Some, like that which comes before us here, required a greater intensity of the spiritual life, to be gained by the “prayer and fasting” of which our Lord speaks. The circumstances of the case render it probable that our Lord himself had vouchsafed to fulfil both the conditions. The disciples, we know, did not as yet fast (<a href="/context/matthew/9-14.htm" title="Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but your disciples fast not?">Matthew 9:14-15</a>), and the facts imply that they had been weak and remiss in prayer. The words are noticeable as testifying to the real ground and motive for “fasting,” and to the gain for the higher life to be obtained, when it was accompanied by true prayer, by this act of conquest over the lower nature. So St. Peter’s vision (<a href="/context/acts/10-9.htm" title="On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew near to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:">Acts 10:9-10</a>), and the appointment of Paul and Barnabas by the direct guidance of the Spirit (<a href="/acts/13-2.htm" title="As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.">Acts 13:2</a>), are both connected with fasting. And St. Paul, besides the “hunger and thirst” that came upon him as the incidents of his mission-work, speaks of himself as “in fastings often” (<a href="/2_corinthians/11-27.htm" title="In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.">2Corinthians 11:27</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-22.htm">Matthew 17:22</a></div><div class="verse">And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men:</div>(22) <span class= "bld">While they abode in Galilee.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">as they went to and fro.</span> The journeyings were apparently, like that to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon (<a href="/matthew/15-21.htm" title="Then Jesus went there, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.">Matthew 15:21</a>), unconnected with the work of His ministry. Our Lord was still, as before, taking His disciples apart by themselves, and training them by fuller disclosures of His coming passion. “He would not that any man should know” of their presence (<a href="/mark/9-30.htm" title="And they departed there, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.">Mark 9:30</a>), for at that crisis, as was shown only too plainly by what followed, their minds were in a state of feverish excitement, which needed to be controlled and calmed. St. Luke adds (<a href="/luke/9-44.htm" title="Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.">Luke 9:44</a>) the solemn words with which this second announcement of His death was impressed on their thoughts, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears” (literally, <span class= "ital">place these things</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span> The substance of what they heard was the same as before, but its repetition gave it a new force, as showing that it was not a mere foreboding of disaster, passing away with the mood of sadness in which it might have seemed to originate.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-23.htm">Matthew 17:23</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">They were exceeding sorry.</span>—St. Mark (<a href="/mark/9-32.htm" title="But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.">Mark 9:32</a>) and St. Luke (<a href="/luke/9-45.htm" title="But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.">Luke 9:45</a>) add that “they understood not the saying; it was hid from them, that they should not perceive it;” and that “they were afraid to ask Him.” Their sorrow was vague and dim, and they shrank from that which might make it more definite.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-24.htm">Matthew 17:24</a></div><div class="verse">And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute <i>money</i> came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?</div>(24) <span class= "bld">They that received tribute money.</span>—The word for tribute here is <span class= "ital">didrachma,</span> and differs from that of <a href="/matthew/17-25.htm" title="He said, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What think you, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?">Matthew 17:25</a>; <a href="/matthew/22-17.htm" title="Tell us therefore, What think you? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?">Matthew 22:17</a>. The latter is the <span class= "ital">census,</span> or Roman poll-tax; the former was the Temple-rate, paid by every male Israelite above the age of twenty (<a href="/context/exodus/30-13.htm" title="This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD.">Exodus 30:13-16</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/24-9.htm" title="And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the LORD the collection that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.">2Chronicles 24:9</a>). It was fixed at a half-shekel a head, and the shekel being reckoned as equal to four Attic <span class= "ital">drachmæ,</span> was known technically as the <span class= "ital">didrachma</span> (Jos. <span class= "ital">Ant.</span> iii. 8, § 2). It was collected even from the Jews in foreign countries, was paid into the <span class= "ital">Corban,</span> or treasury of the Temple, and was used to defray the expenses of its services. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Vespasian ordered that it should still be collected as before, and, as if adding insult to injury, be paid to the fund for rebuilding the Temple of the Capitoline Jupiter (Jos. <span class= "ital">Wars,</span> vii. 6, § 6). The three great festivals of the Jewish year were recognised as proper times for payment; and the relation of this narrative to John 7 makes it probable that the collectors were now calling in for the Feast of Tabernacles the payments that had not been made at the Passover or Pentecost previous. Their question implies that they half-thought that the Prophet of Nazareth had evaded or would disclaim payment. They were looking out for another transgression of the law, and as soon as He entered Capernaum (though He still held aloof from any public ministry), they tracked Him, probably to Peter’s house, and put the question to His disciple. The narrative is remarkable both in itself and as found only in St. Matthew.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-25.htm">Matthew 17:25</a></div><div class="verse">He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?</div>(25) <span class= "bld">He saith, Yes.</span>—Peter’s answer was ready enough. There was no need for him to inquire further. His Master would pay it now as He had paid it before (this is clearly implied), as every devout Israelite would pay. Both the application and the answer suggest the thought that our Lord was looked upon as domiciled in the house of Peter. The answer, however, was given without thought of the altered conditions of the case. He had not yet learnt to grasp the full meaning of the truth which he had himself so recently confessed.<p><span class= "bld">Jesus prevented him.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">anticipated,</span> The word is nowhere else used of our Lord’s teaching. Its significance is explained by what follows. Peter and the other disciples were about to come to Him with a question of a very different kind (<a href="/matthew/18-1.htm" title="At the same time came the disciples to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?">Matthew 18:1</a>), rising out of their mutual rivalries, and therefore, before that question could be asked, He anticipated the eager disciple that He might lead him on one step further into the mysteries of the kingdom.<p><span class= "bld">Take custom or tribute.</span>—The first word points to the duties on the export or import of goods, the <span class= "ital">octroi,</span> in modern language, levied on provisions as they were brought in or out of towns; the second, as stated above, to the poll-tax paid into the Roman treasury, which followed on the taxing or registration of <a href="/luke/2-2.htm" title="(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)">Luke 2:2</a>; <a href="/acts/5-37.htm" title="After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.">Acts 5:37</a>. Both were probably farmed by the capitalist <span class= "ital">publicani,</span> and collected by the “publicans” of the Gospels, or other inferior officers.<p><span class= "bld">Of their own children, or of strangers?</span>—The first word can hardly be taken of merely natural relationship. The “children of the kingdom” (<a href="/matthew/13-38.htm" title="The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;">Matthew 13:38</a>) are not the king’s sons, but his home-born, free subjects. The “strangers” were the aliens, the men of another race, who owned his sovereignty.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-26.htm">Matthew 17:26</a></div><div class="verse">Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Of strangers.</span>—The answer must be looked at from the Eastern rather than the European theory of taxation. To the Jews, as to other Eastern nations, direct taxation was hateful as a sign of subjugation. It had roused them to revolt under Rehoboam (<a href="/1_kings/12-4.htm" title="Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.">1Kings 12:4</a>), and they had stoned the officer who was over the tribute. They had groaned under it when imposed by the Syrian kings (<a href="//apocrypha.org/1_maccabees/10-29.htm" title="And now do I free you, and for your sake I release all the Jews, from tributes, and from the customs of salt, and from crown taxes,">1 Maccabees 10:29-30</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/1_maccabees/11-35.htm" title="And as for other things that belong unto us, of the tithes and customs pertaining unto us, as also the saltpits, and the crown taxes, which are due unto us, we discharge them of them all for their relief.">1 Maccabees 11:35</a>). It was one of their grievances under Herod and his sons (Jos. <span class= "ital">Ant.</span> xvii. 8, § 4). Judas of Galilee and his followers had headed an insurrection against it as imposed by the Romans (<a href="/acts/5-37.htm" title="After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.">Acts 5:37</a>). It was still (as we see in <a href="/matthew/22-17.htm" title="Tell us therefore, What think you? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?">Matthew 22:17</a>) a moot point between the Pharisees and Herodians whether any Jew might lawfully pay it. Peter naturally answered our Lord’s question at once from the popular Galilean view.<p><span class= "bld">Then</span> <span class= "bld">are the children free.</span>—The words are commonly interpreted as simply reminding Peter of his confession, and pressing home its logical consequence that He, the Christ, as the Son of God. was not liable to the “tribute” which was the acknowledgment of His Father’s sovereignty. This was doubtless prominent in the answer, but its range is, it is believed, wider. (1.) If this is the only meaning, then the Israelites who paid the rate are spoken of as “aliens,” or “foreigners,” in direct opposition to the uniform language of Scripture as to their filial relation to Jehovah. (2.) The plural used not only in this verse but in that which follows, the “lest <span class= "ital">we</span> should offend them,” the payment for Peter as well as for Himself, all indicate that we are dealing with a general truth of wide application. Some light is thrown upon the matter by a fact of contemporary history. The very point which our Lord decides had been debated between the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Temple-rate question was to them what the Church-rate question has been in modern politics. After a struggle of seven days in the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees carried their point, made it (what it had not been before) a compulsory payment, and kept an annual festival in commemoration of their victory. Our Lord, placing the question on its true ground, pronounces judgment against the Pharisees on this as on other points. They were placing the Israelite on the level of a “stranger,” not of a “son.” The true law for “the children of the kingdom” was that which St. Paul afterwards proclaimed: “not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (<a href="/2_corinthians/9-7.htm" title="Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver.">2Corinthians 9:7</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/17-27.htm">Matthew 17:27</a></div><div class="verse">Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">Lest we should offend them.</span>—Those who note the finer shades of language, can scarcely fail to trace in these words the tone of what we should describe in a human teacher as a half-playful, half-serious irony. When they were last at Capernaum, the disciples, Peter probably their spokesman (<a href="/matthew/15-12.htm" title="Then came his disciples, and said to him, Know you that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?">Matthew 15:12</a>; <a href="/matthew/15-15.htm" title="Then answered Peter and said to him, Declare to us this parable.">Matthew 15:15</a>), had remonstrated with their Master for proclaiming a bold, broad principle of spiritual morality against the traditions of the Schools: “Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended when they heard that saying?” Now He proclaims another principle, equally bold and far-reaching, and as certain to offend. He reminds the disciple of his former fear, sees that some such feeling is already rising up in his mind, and recognises that within certain limits it is legitimate. To have refused to pay the <span class= "ital">didrachma</span> on purely personal grounds would have been to claim prematurely that title of the Christ, the “Son of God,” which He had told His disciples at this crisis not to claim for Him (<a href="/matthew/16-20.htm" title="Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.">Matthew 16:20</a>). To have done so on general grounds, common to Himself and others, would have been to utter a truth for which men were not prepared, and which they were certain to pervert. Those who had not learnt the higher law of the free gift of love would be tempted to make their freedom an excuse for giving nothing. Devout and generous minds would be shocked at what would seem to them to cut off the chief support of the outward glory of the House of God. The spirit in which our Lord spoke and acted was one with that which was the guide of St. Paul’s life: “It is good” to surrender even the freedom which we might well claim, if by it “thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” (<a href="/romans/14-21.htm" title="It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.">Romans 14:21</a>).<p><span class= "bld">A piece of money</span>.—The Greek gives the name of the coin, the <span class= "ital">stater.</span> It was reckoned as equal to four <span class= "ital">drachmæ,</span> and would therefore pay the <span class= "ital">didrachma</span> both for Peter and his Master. Incidentally, we may note the light which this throws on the poverty of our Lord and His disciples. They had returned from their wanderings in the north of Palestine, occupying some three or four weeks, and they were now absolutely penniless, not so much as a <span class= "ital">stater</span> between them. The money was to be given for both, and so far, as has been said, our Lord includes Peter in the list of those who, as “children of the kingdom,” might have claimed exemption. No payment is made for the other disciples: most probably they had homes of their own, where the <span class= "ital">didrachma</span> would be applied for, and were not living with Peter.<p>We cannot ignore the many points of contrast which difference this narrative from that of our Lord’s miracles in general. (1.) There is no actual record that a miracle was wrought at all. We expect the narrative to end with the words, “and he went and found as it had been said unto him,” but we do not find them. The story is told for the sake of the teaching, not of the wonder. Men have inferred that a miracle must have been wrought from a literal interpretation of the promise. (2.) On this assumption the wonder stands alone by itself in its nature and surroundings. It does not originate in our Lord’s compassion, nor depend upon faith in the receiver, as in the miracles of healing, nor set forth a spiritual truth, like that of the withered fig-tree. It is so far distinct and peculiar. This would not in itself, perhaps, be of much, if any, weight against a direct statement of a fact, but it may be allowed to be of some significance in the exceptional and therefore conspicuous absence of such a statement. On these grounds some have been led to explain our Lord’s words as meaning, in figurative language which the disciple would understand, that Peter was to catch the fish, and sell it for a <span class= "ital">stater.</span> Most interpreters, however, have been content to take our Lord’s words in their literal sense, and to believe that they were literally fulfilled. If we accept this view the narrative has its parallel in the well-known story of the ring of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos (Herod. iii. 39-41).<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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