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We have to think of the journey up the narrow valley that leads from Jericho to Jerusalem. Our Lord, as before, was followed by the disciples, and they in their turn were followed by the crowds of pilgrims who were drawn to the Holy City either by the coming Passover or by wonder and curiosity to see what part the Prophet of Nazareth would take. Throughout the multitude, including the disciples, there was a feverish expectation that He would at last announce Himself as the Christ, and claim His kingdom (<a href="/luke/19-11.htm" title="And as they heard these things, he added and spoke a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.">Luke 19:11</a>). They reach Bethany “six days before the Passover,” probably, <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> on the Friday afternoon (<a href="/john/12-1.htm" title="Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.">John 12:1</a>). They remain there for the Sabbath, probably in the house of Lazarus or Simon the leper (<a href="/matthew/26-6.htm" title="Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,">Matthew 26:6</a>; <a href="/john/12-2.htm" title="There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.">John 12:2</a>; and in that of the latter we have the history of the anointing, which St. Matthew relates, out of its chronological order, in <a href="/context/matthew/26-6.htm" title="Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,">Matthew 26:6-13</a>). The point of time with which the narrative, which now becomes more continuous, opens, may be fixed at the dawn of the first day of the week, the daybreak of Palm Sunday.<p><span class= "bld">Bethphage.</span>—The village is named in <a href="/luke/19-29.htm" title="And it came to pass, when he was come near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,">Luke 19:29</a>, and in many MSS. of <a href="/mark/11-1.htm" title="And when they came near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sends forth two of his disciples,">Mark 11:1</a>, in conjunction with Bethany, and before it, and from this it would seem probable that it lay on the road from Jericho, and was therefore to the east of Bethany. The traditional site, however, followed in most maps, makes it to the west of Bethany, and nearer the summit of the hill. The name signified “the house of unripe figs,” as Bethany did “the house of dates,” and Gethsemane “the oil-press,” the three obviously indicating local features giving distinctness to the three sites. All three were on the Mount of Olives. Bethany is identified with the modern <span class= "ital">El-’Azariyeh,</span> or <span class= "ital">Lazarieh</span> (the name attaching to its connection with the history of Lazarus), which lies about a mile below the summit on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, in a woody hollow planted with olives, almonds, pomegranates, and figs. The palms implied in the name of Bethany and in the history of the entry into Jerusalem (<a href="/john/12-13.htm" title="Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord.">John 12:13</a>) have disappeared.<p><span class= "bld">Two disciples.</span>—The messengers are not named in any of the Gospels. The fact that Peter and John were sent on a like errand in <a href="/luke/22-8.htm" title="And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat.">Luke 22:8</a> makes it, perhaps, probable that they were employed in this instance.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-2.htm">Matthew 21:2</a></div><div class="verse">Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose <i>them</i>, and bring <i>them</i> unto me.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Go into the village over against you.</span>—This may have been either Bethany or, on the assumption that it was nearer Jerusalem, Bethphage itself.<p><span class= "bld">An ass tied, and a colt with her.</span>—St. Mark and St. Luke name the “colt” only. St. John speaks of a “young” or “small” ass, using the diminutive of the usual name (<span class= "greekheb">ἀνάριον</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span> The colt was one on which “man had never sat” (<a href="/mark/11-2.htm" title="And said to them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as you be entered into it, you shall find a colt tied, where on never man sat; loose him, and bring him.">Mark 11:2</a>; <a href="/luke/19-30.htm" title="Saying, Go you into the village over against you; in the which at your entering you shall find a colt tied, where on yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him here.">Luke 19:30</a>). The command clearly implies a deliberate fulfilment of the prophecy cited in <a href="/context/matthew/21-4.htm" title="All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,">Matthew 21:4-5</a>. They were to claim the right to use the beasts as for the service of a King, not to hire or ask permission.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-3.htm">Matthew 21:3</a></div><div class="verse">And if any <i>man</i> say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">The Lord hath need of them.</span>—Simple as the words are, they admit of three very different interpretations. “The Lord” may be used either (1) in the highest sense as equivalent to Jehovah, as though the ass and the colt were claimed for His service; or (2) as referring to Christ in the special sense in which He was spoken of as “the Lord” by His disciples; or (3) as pointing to Him, but only in the language which all men would acknowledge, and without any special claim beyond that of being the Master whom the disciples owned as in a lower sense their Lord. Of these (3) is all but excluded by the facts of the case. The words involve a claim to more than common authority, and the claim is recognised at once. In favour of (2) we have the numerous instances in which the disciples and the evangelists not only address their Master as “Lord,” but speak of Him as “the Lord” (<a href="/matthew/28-6.htm" title="He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.">Matthew 28:6</a>; <a href="/mark/16-19.htm" title="So then after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.">Mark 16:19</a>; <a href="/luke/10-1.htm" title="After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, where he himself would come.">Luke 10:1</a>; <a href="/luke/17-6.htm" title="And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, Be you plucked up by the root, and be you planted in the sea; and it should obey you.">Luke 17:6</a>; <a href="/luke/18-6.htm" title="And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said.">Luke 18:6</a>; <a href="/john/11-2.htm" title="(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)">John 11:2</a>; <a href="/john/13-13.htm" title="You call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am.">John 13:13</a>; <a href="/john/20-2.htm" title="Then she runs, and comes to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the LORD out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him.">John 20:2</a>; <a href="/john/20-13.htm" title="And they say to her, Woman, why weep you? She said to them, Because they have taken away my LORD, and I know not where they have laid him.">John 20:13</a>; <a href="/john/20-18.htm" title="Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that he had spoken these things to her.">John 20:18</a>; <a href="/john/20-20.htm" title="And when he had so said, he showed to them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the LORD.">John 20:20</a>; <a href="/john/20-25.htm" title="The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the LORD. But he said to them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.">John 20:25</a>; <a href="/john/21-7.htm" title="Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat to him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.">John 21:7</a>; <a href="/john/21-12.htm" title="Jesus said to them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? knowing that it was the Lord.">John 21:12</a>). For (1), lastly, we have our Lord’s use of the word as a synonym for God (<a href="/mark/5-19.htm" title="However, Jesus suffered him not, but said to him, Go home to your friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and has had compassion on you.">Mark 5:19</a>; <a href="/mark/13-20.htm" title="And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he has chosen, he has shortened the days.">Mark 13:20</a>). On the whole (2) appears to commend itself as most in accordance with the customary language of the disciples. On the very probable assumption that the owners of the colt were, in some sense, themselves disciples, they would recognise the full import of the words thus addressed to them, and obey without hesitation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-4.htm">Matthew 21:4</a></div><div class="verse">All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,</div>(4) <span class= "bld">All</span> <span class= "bld">this was done.</span>—The Evangelist returns to the formula of <a href="/matthew/1-22.htm" title="Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,">Matthew 1:22</a>. Literally, <span class= "ital">all this has come to pass.</span> The words are his comment on the act. At the time (as we find from <a href="/john/12-16.htm" title="These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things to him.">John 12:16</a>) the disciples did not understand its significance as connected with the prophecy that follows. The purpose lay in the mind of their Master, not in theirs. It is significant of what St. John records that neither St. Mark nor St. Luke alludes to the prophecy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-5.htm">Matthew 21:5</a></div><div class="verse">Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Tell ye the daughter of Sion.</span>—The words seem to have been cited from memory, the Hebrew text of <a href="/zechariah/9-9.htm" title="Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes to you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on an ass, and on a colt the foal of an ass.">Zechariah 9:9</a> beginning, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; shout O daughter of Jerusalem,” and inserting “just, and having salvation” in the description of the King. As the words stand in Zechariah (we need not here discuss the question as to the authorship or composition of that book) they paint the ideal King coming, not with “chariot” and “horse” and “battle bow,” like the conquerors of earthly kingdoms, but as a prince of peace, reviving the lowlier pageantry of the days of the Judges (<a href="/judges/5-10.htm" title="Speak, you that ride on white asses, you that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.">Judges 5:10</a>; <a href="/judges/10-4.htm" title="And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havothjair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.">Judges 10:4</a>; <a href="/judges/12-14.htm" title="And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on three score and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years.">Judges 12:14</a>), and yet exercising a wider dominion than David or Solomon had done, “from sea to sea, and from the river (Euphrates) to the ends of the earth” (<a href="/zechariah/9-10.htm" title="And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace to the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.">Zechariah 9:10</a>). That ideal our Lord claimed to fulfil. Thus interpreted, His act was in part an apparent concession to the fevered expectations of His disciples and the multitude; in part also a protest, the meaning of which they would afterwards understand, against the character of those expectations and the self-seeking spirit which mingled with them. Here, as before, we trace the grave, sad accommodation to thoughts other than His own to which the Teacher of new truths must often have recourse when He finds Himself misinterpreted by those who stand altogether on a lower level. They wished Him to claim the kingdom, that they might sit on His right hand and on His left. Well, He would do so, but it would be a kingdom “not of this world” (<a href="/john/18-36.htm" title="Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.">John 18:36</a>), utterly unlike all that they were looking for.<p><span class= "bld">A colt the foal of an ass.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">of a beast of burden,</span> the word not being the same as that previously used. In the Hebrew of Zechariah the word reproduces the old poetic phraseology of <a href="/genesis/49-11.htm" title="Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:">Genesis 49:11</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-6.htm">Matthew 21:6</a></div><div class="verse">And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And the disciples went.</span>—St. Mark and St. Luke give more graphically an account of their finding the colt, of the question asked by the owner and the by-standers why they did it, and of their answering in the words they had been told to use, “The Lord hath need of them.” They returned with the ass and the colt, and then the procession began.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-7.htm">Matthew 21:7</a></div><div class="verse">And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set <i>him</i> thereon.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">They set him thereon</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> on the garments which served as a saddle. Our Lord rode on the colt, and the ass followed, or went along by His side. St. Mark and St. Luke mention the colt only.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-8.htm">Matthew 21:8</a></div><div class="verse">And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed <i>them</i> in the way.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">And a very great multitude.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the</span> <span class= "ital">greater part of the multitude.</span> Part of the crowd had come with Him from Galilee, part streamed from Bethany, excited by the recent resurrection of Lazarus (<a href="/john/12-17.htm" title="The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bore record.">John 12:17</a>). Some went before Him, some followed. As they advanced they were met by a fresh crowd pouring forth from Jerusalem. Of the latter, St. John records that they came out with palm-branches in their hands, as if to salute a king with the symbols of his triumph. (Comp. <a href="/revelation/7-9.htm" title="After this I beheld, and, see, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;">Revelation 7:9</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Spread their garments in the way.</span>—This, again, was a recognised act of homage to a king. So Jehu, when the officers of the army of Israel chose him as their ruler, walked upon the garments which they spread beneath his feet (<a href="/2_kings/9-13.htm" title="Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king.">2Kings 9:13</a>). So Agamemnon, tempted to an act of barbaric pomp, after the manner of Eastern kings, entered his palace at Mycenæ, walking upon costly carpets (Æschylus, <span class= "ital">Agam.</span> 891).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-9.htm">Matthew 21:9</a></div><div class="verse">And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed <i>is</i> he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Hosanna.</span>—We gather, by comparing the four Gospels, the full nature of the mingled cries that burst from the multitude. (1.) As here, “Hosanna.” The word was a Hebrew imperative, “Save us, we beseech thee,” and had come into liturgical use from Psalms 118. That Psalm belonged specially to the Feast of Tabernacles (see Perowne on Psalms 118), and as such, was naturally associated with the palm-branches; the verses from it now chanted by the people are said to have been those with which the inhabitants of Jerusalem were wont to welcome the pilgrims who came up to keep the feast. The addition of “Hosanna to the Son of David” made it a direct recognition of the claims of Jesus to be the Christ; that of “Hosanna in the highest” (comp. <a href="/luke/2-14.htm" title="Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.">Luke 2:14</a>) claimed heaven as in accord with earth in this recognition. (2.) “Blessed be” (“the King” in St. Luke) “He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” These words, too, received a special personal application. The welcome was now given, not to the crowd of pilgrims, but to the King. (3.) As in St. Luke, one of the cries was an echo of the angels’ hymn at the Nativity, “Peace on earth, and glory in the highest” (<a href="/luke/2-14.htm" title="Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.">Luke 2:14</a>). (4.) As in St. Mark, “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David.” We have to think of these shouts as filling the air as He rides slowly on in silence. He will not check them at the bidding of the Pharisees (<a href="/luke/19-39.htm" title="And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said to him, Master, rebuke your disciples.">Luke 19:39</a>), but His own spirit is filled with quite other thoughts than theirs. And those who watched Him saw the tears streaming down His cheeks as He looked on the walls and towers of the city, and heard, what the crowds manifestly did not hear, His lamentation over its coming fall (<a href="/luke/19-41.htm" title="And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,">Luke 19:41</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-10.htm">Matthew 21:10</a></div><div class="verse">And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?</div>(10) <span class= "bld">All the city was moved.</span>—It was the beginning of the Paschal week, and the city was therefore filled with pilgrims of many lands. To them this was a strange prelude to the usual order of the feast, and they asked what it meant. The answer fell short of the full meaning of the shouts of the people, but it expressed that aspect of the character of Jesus which was most intelligible to strangers. He was “the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-12.htm">Matthew 21:12</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,</div>(12) <span class= "bld">And Jesus went into the temple.</span>—Here, again, there is a gap to be filled up from another Gospel. St. Mark (<a href="/mark/11-11.htm" title="And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about on all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.">Mark 11:11</a>) says definitely that on the day of His solemn entry He went into the Temple, “looked round about on all things there,”—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> on the scene of traffic and disorder described in this verse—and then, “the evening-tide being come” (or, “the hour being now late”), went back to Bethany, and did what is here narrated on the following day. So, with a like difference of order, St. Mark places the sentence on the barren fig-tree on the next morning, and before the cleansing of the Temple. (Comp. Note on <a href="/matthew/21-17.htm" title="And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.">Matthew 21:17</a>.) St. John (<a href="/context/john/2-13.htm" title="And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.">John 2:13-25</a>) records an act of like nature as occurring at the commencement of our Lord’s ministry, on the first visit to Jerusalem after His baptism. Critics who have started with the assumption that the repetition of such an act was impossible, have inferred accordingly that the narrative has been misplaced either by the Three or by St. John, some holding with the latter and some with the former, on grounds more or less arbitrary. From the purest human historical point of view, we may, I believe, accept both narratives as true. If Jesus of Nazareth had been only a patriot Jew, filled with an intense enthusiasm for the holiness of the Temple, what more likely than that He should commence His work with a protest against its desecration? If the evils against which He thus protested, after being suppressed for a time, reappeared in all their enormity, what more probable than that He should renew the protest at this stage of His work, backed as He now was by the equal enthusiasm of the people? What more natural, again, than that the second cleansing should revive the memory of the first, and call up with it the words which are recorded by St. John, and not by the Three, and which served as the basis of the charge that He had threatened to destroy the Temple (<a href="/context/john/2-20.htm" title="Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will you raise it up in three days?">John 2:20-21</a>; <a href="/matthew/26-61.htm" title="And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.">Matthew 26:61</a>; <a href="/mark/14-58.htm" title="We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.">Mark 14:58</a>). There is—it cannot be concealed—a real difficulty in the omission of the earlier cleansing by the Three, and in the absence of any reference to the later cleansing by the Fourth; but the fact in either case is only one of many like facts incident to the structure of the Gospels. The Three knew nothing—or rather, they record nothing—as to our Lord’s ministry in Jerusalem prior to this last entry. The Fourth, writing a Gospel supplementary either to the Three or to the current oral teaching which they embodied, systematically passes over, with one or two notable exceptions, what they had recorded, and confines his work to reporting, with marvellous vividness and fulness, specially selected incidents.<p><span class= "bld">Cast out them that sold and bought in the temple.</span>—The apparent strangeness of the permission of what seems to us so manifest a desecration, was obviously not felt by the Jews as we feel it. Pilgrims came from all parts of the world to keep the Passover, to offer their sacrifices, sin-offerings, or thank-offerings, according to the circumstances of each case. They did not bring the victims with them. What plan, it might seem, could be more convenient than that they should find a market where they could buy them as near as possible to the place where the sacrifice was to be offered? One of the courts of the Temple was therefore assigned for the purpose, and probably the priests found their profit in the arrangement by charging a fee or rent of some kind for the privilege of holding stalls. There is no trace of the practice prior to the Captivity, but the dispersion of the Jews afterwards naturally led men to feel the want of such accommodation more keenly. But this permission brought with it another as its inevitable sequel. The pilgrims brought with them the coinage of their own country—Syrian, Egyptian, Greek, as the case might be—and their money was either not current in Palestine, or, as being stamped with the symbols of heathen worship, could not be received into the Corban, or treasury of the Temple. For their convenience, therefore, money-changers were wanted, who, of course, made the usual <span class= "ital">agio,</span> or profit, on each transaction. We must picture to ourselves, in addition to all the stir and bustle inseparable from such traffic, the wrangling and bitter words and reckless oaths which necessarily grew out of it with such a people as the Jews. The history of Christian churches has not been altogether without parallels that may help us to understand how such a desecration came to be permitted. Those who remember the state of the great cathedral of London, as painted in the literature of Elizabeth and James, when mules and horses laden with market produce, were led through St. Paul’s as a matter of every-day occurrence, and bargains were struck there, and burglaries planned, and servants hired, and profligate assignations made and kept, will feel that even Christian and Protestant England has hardly the right to cast a stone at the priests and people of Jerusalem.<p><span class= "bld">And the seats of them that sold doves.</span>—The Greek has the article—“<span class= "ital">the</span> doves,” that were so familiar an object in the Temple courts. There is a characteristic feature in this incident as compared with the earlier cleansing. Then, as taking into account, apparently, the less glaringly offensive nature of the traffic, our Lord had simply bidden the dealers in doves to depart, with their stalls and bird-cages (<a href="/john/2-16.htm" title="And said to them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.">John 2:16</a>). Now, as if indignant at their return to the desecrating work which He had then forbidden, He places them also in the same condemnation as the others.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-13.htm">Matthew 21:13</a></div><div class="verse">And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">It is written.</span>—The words which our Lord quotes are a free combination of two prophetic utterances: one from Isaiah’s vision of the future glory of the Temple, as visited both by Jew and Gentile (<a href="/isaiah/56-7.htm" title="Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.">Isaiah 56:7</a>); one from Jeremiah’s condemnation of evils like in nature, if not in form, to those against which our Lord protested (<a href="/jeremiah/7-11.htm" title="Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, said the LORD.">Jeremiah 7:11</a>).<p><span class= "bld">A den of thieves.</span>—The pictorial vividness of the words must not be passed over. Palestine was then swarming with bands of outlaw brigands, who, as David of old in Adullam (<a href="/1_samuel/22-1.htm" title="David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.">1Samuel 22:1</a>), haunted the lime-stone caverns of Judæa. The wranglings of such a company over the booty they had carried off were reproduced in the Temple, and mingled with the Hallelujahs of the Levites and the Hosannas of the crowds. We ask, as we read the narrative, how it was that the work of expulsion was done so effectively, and with so little resistance. The answer is found (1) in the personal greatness and intensity of will that showed itself in our Lord’s look and word and tone; (2) in the presence of the crowd that had followed Him from the Mount of Olives, and had probably filled the courts of the Temple; and (3) in the secret consciousness of the offenders that they were desecrating the Temple, and that the Prophet of Nazareth, in His zeal for His Father’s house, was the witness of a divine truth.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-14.htm">Matthew 21:14</a></div><div class="verse">And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">The blind and the lame.</span>—These, as we see from <a href="/acts/3-2.htm" title="And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;">Acts 3:2</a>, and probably from <a href="/john/9-1.htm" title="And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.">John 9:1</a>, thronged the approaches to the Temple, and asked alms of the worshippers. They now followed the great Healer into the Temple itself, and sought at His hands relief from their infirmities. If we were to accept the LXX. reading of the strange proverbial saying of <a href="/2_samuel/5-8.htm" title="And David said on that day, Whoever gets up to the gutter, and smites the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Why they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.">2Samuel 5:8</a>, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house <span class= "ital">of the Lord,”</span> it would seem as if this were a departure from the usual regulations of the Temple; but the words in italics are not in the Hebrew. Most commentators give an entirely different meaning to the proverb, and there is no evidence from Jewish writers that the blind and the lame were ever, as a matter of fact, excluded from the Temple. All that we can legitimately infer from the two passages is the contrast between the hasty, passionate words of the conquering king, and the tender compassion of the Son of David, to whom the blind and the lame were objects, not of antipathy, but pity.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-15.htm">Matthew 21:15</a></div><div class="verse">And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The chief priests.</span>—These, as commonly in the Gospels, were the heads of the twenty-four courses of the priesthood, as well as Annas and Caiaphas, who were designated by the title in its higher sense, the one as actually high priest, the other as president of the Sanhedrin. (See Note on <a href="/luke/3-2.htm" title="Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.">Luke 3:2</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">The children.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">the boys,</span> the noun being masculine. Taking the Jewish classification of ages, they would probably be from seven to fourteen years old, but in such a narrative as this the general phrase does not exclude younger children.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-16.htm">Matthew 21:16</a></div><div class="verse">And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Hearest thou what these say?</span>—The priests and scribes had probably remained in the Temple, and had not heard the Hosannas which were raised on the Mount of Olives. The shouts of the children were therefore a surprise to them, and they turned to the Teacher and asked whether He accepted them in the sense in which they were addressed to Him. Had He really entered the Temple claiming to be the expected Christ? Did He approve this interruption of the order and quiet of its courts?<p><span class= "bld">Have ye never read?</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">did ye never read?</span> The question was one which our Lord frequently asked in reasoning with the scribes who opposed Him (<a href="/matthew/12-3.htm" title="But he said to them, Have you not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him;">Matthew 12:3</a>; <a href="/matthew/12-5.htm" title="Or have you not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?">Matthew 12:5</a>; <a href="/matthew/19-4.htm" title="And he answered and said to them, Have you not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,">Matthew 19:4</a>; <a href="/matthew/21-42.htm" title="Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?">Matthew 21:42</a>; <a href="/matthew/22-31.htm" title="But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,">Matthew 22:31</a>). It expressed very forcibly the estimate which He formed of their character as interpreters. They spent their lives in the study of the Law, and yet they perverted its meaning, and could not see its bearing on the events that passed around them. In this instance He cites the words of <a href="/psalms/8-2.htm" title="Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you ordained strength because of your enemies, that you might still the enemy and the avenger.">Psalm 8:2</a>, the primary meaning of which appears to be that the child’s wonder at the marvels of Creation is the truest worship. As applied by our Lord their lesson was the same. The cries of the children were the utterance of a truth which the priests and scribes rejected. To Him, to whom the innocent brightness of childhood was a delight, they were more acceptable than the half-hearted, self-seeking homage of older worshippers. The words are quoted from the LXX. translation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-17.htm">Matthew 21:17</a></div><div class="verse">And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">And went out of the city into Bethany.</span>—St. Mark, as already noticed, places the incident that follows on the morning that followed the triumphal entry, and before the cleansing. We have to choose, there being an obvious error of arrangement in one or other of the narratives, between the two, and the probability seems on the whole in favour of the more precise and more vivid record of St. Mark. The lodging at Bethany is explained partly by what we read in <a href="/context/matthew/26-6.htm" title="Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,">Matthew 26:6-13</a>, yet more by <a href="/context/john/11-1.htm" title="Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.">John 11:1-2</a>; <a href="/john/12-1.htm" title="Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.">John 12:1</a>. There He found in the house of the friends who were dear to Him the rest and peace which He could not find in the crowded city. The suppression of the name of those friends in the first three Gospels is every way significant, as suggesting that there were reasons which for a time (probably till the death of Lazarus) led all writers of the records which served as the basis of the Gospel history to abstain from the mention of any facts that might attract attention to them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-18.htm">Matthew 21:18</a></div><div class="verse">Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">In the morning.</span>—The word implies “daybreak,” probably about 5 A.M. This was the usual Jewish time for the first food of the day. If we may infer from <a href="/luke/21-37.htm" title="And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and stayed in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.">Luke 21:37</a>, <a href="/john/18-1.htm" title="When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.">John 18:1</a>, that the greater part of the night had been spent either in solitary prayer or in converse with the disciples, we have an explanation of the exhaustion which sought food wherever there might seem even a chance of finding it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-19.htm">Matthew 21:19</a></div><div class="verse">And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">In the way.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">on the road.</span> Fig-trees were often planted by the road-side under the notion that dust suited them.<p><span class= "bld">He came to it.</span>—St. Mark adds, what St. Matthew indeed implies, that He came, if “haply He might find anything thereon.” The fig-tree in Palestine bears two or three crops a year. Josephus, indeed, says that fruit might be found on the trees in Judæa for ten months out of the twelve. Commonly at the beginning of April the trees that still grow out of the rocks between Bethany and Jerusalem are bare both of leaves and fruit, and so probably it was now with all but the single tree which attracted our Lord’s notice. It was in full foliage, and being so far in advance of its fellows it might not unnaturally have been expected to have had, in the first week of April, the “first ripe fruit” (<a href="/hosea/9-10.htm" title="I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves to that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.">Hosea 9:10</a>), which usually was gathered in May. So, in Song <a href="/songs/2-13.htm" title="The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.">Song of Solomon 2:13</a>, the appearance of the “green figs” coincides with that of the flowers of spring, and the time of the singing of birds. The illustrations from the branches and leaves of the fig-tree in <a href="/context/luke/21-29.htm" title="And he spoke to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;">Luke 21:29-30</a>, suggest that the season was a somewhat forward one. On the special difficulty connected with St. Mark’s statement, “the time of figs was not yet,” see Note on <a href="/mark/11-13.htm" title="And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.">Mark 11:13</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.</span>—From the lips of one of like passions with ourselves, the words might seem the utterance of impatient disappointment. Here they assume the character of a solemn judgment passed not so much on the tree as on that of which it became the representative. The Jews, in their show of the “leaves” of outward devotion, in the absence of the “fruits” of righteousness, were as that barren tree. But a few weeks before (<a href="/luke/13-6.htm" title="He spoke also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.">Luke 13:6</a>) He had taken the fig-tree to which “a man came seeking fruit and finding none,” as a parable of the state of Israel. Then the sentence, “Cut it down,” had been delayed, as in the hope of a possible amendment. Now, what He saw flashed upon Him in a moment (if we may so speak) as the parable embodied. The disappointment of the expectations which He had formed in His human craving for food was like the disappointment of the owner of the fig-tree in the parable. The sentence which He now passed on the tree, and its immediate fulfilment, were symbols of the sentence and the doom which were about to fall on the unrepentant and unbelieving people.<p><span class= "bld">Presently.</span>—The word is used in its older sense of “immediately.” As with nearly all such words—“anon,” “by and by,” and the like—man’s tendency to delay has lowered its meaning, and it now suggests the thought.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-20.htm">Matthew 21:20</a></div><div class="verse">And when the disciples saw <i>it</i>, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!</div>(20) <span class= "bld">And when the disciples saw it.</span>—Here again St. Mark’s narrative (<a href="/context/mark/11-20.htm" title="And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.">Mark 11:20-21</a>) seems at once the fullest and the most precise. As he relates the facts, the disciples did not perceive that the fig-tree was withered away till they passed by on the following morning. Peter then remembered what had been said the day before, and, as the spokesman of the rest, drew his Master’s attention to the fact. The immediate withering may have been inferred from its completeness when seen, or its beginning may have been noticed by some at the time.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-21.htm">Matthew 21:21</a></div><div class="verse">Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this <i>which is done</i> to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">If ye have faith, and doubt not.</span>—The promise, in its very form, excludes a literal fulfilment. The phrase to “remove mountains” (as 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>) was a natural hyperbole for overcoming difficulties, and our Lord in pointing to “this mountain”—as He had done before to Hermon (<a href="/matthew/17-20.htm" title="And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief: for truly I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.">Matthew 17:20</a>)—did but give greater vividness to an illustration which the disciples would readily understand. A mere physical miracle, such as the removal of the mountain, could never be in itself the object of the prayer of a faith such as our Lord described. The hyperbole is used here, as elsewhere, to impress on men’s mind the truth which lies beneath it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-22.htm">Matthew 21:22</a></div><div class="verse">And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer.</span>—Here again there is the implied condition (as in <a href="/matthew/7-7.htm" title="Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you:">Matthew 7:7</a>) that what is asked is in harmony with the laws and will of God. If it were not so it would not be asked in faith, and every true prayer involves the submission of what it asks to the divine judgment. The words suggest the thought, of which we have the full expression in <a href="/john/11-42.htm" title="And I knew that you hear me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me.">John 11:42</a>, that our Lord’s miracles were less frequently wrought by an inherent supernatural “virtue”—though this, also, distinctly appears, <span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> in the history of the woman with the issue of blood (<a href="/luke/8-46.htm" title="And Jesus said, Somebody has touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.">Luke 8:46</a>)—than by power received from the Father, and in answer to His own prayers.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-23.htm">Matthew 21:23</a></div><div class="verse">And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?</div>(23) <span class= "bld">The chief priests and the elders.</span>—St. Matthew and St. Luke add “the scribes,” thus including representatives of the three constituent elements of the Sanhedrin. The character of the teaching is further specified by St. Luke, “as He was preaching the gospel”—proclaiming, <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the good news of the kingdom, the forgiveness of sins, and the law of righteousness.<span class= "bld"><p>By what authority</span> . . .?—The right to take the place of an instructor was, as a rule, conferred by the scribes, or their chief representative, on one who had studied “at the feet” of some great teacher, and been solemnly admitted (the delivery of a key, as the symbol of the right to interpret, being the outward token) to that office. The question implied that those who asked it knew that the Prophet of Nazareth had not been so admitted. The second question gave point to the first. Could He name the Rabbi who had trained Him, or authorised Him to teach?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-24.htm">Matthew 21:24</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">I also will ask you one thing.</span>—The question is met by another question. As One who taught as “having authority, and not as the scribes” (<a href="/matthew/7-29.htm" title="For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.">Matthew 7:29</a>), He challenges their right to interrogate Him on the ground of precedent. Had they exercised that right in the case of the Baptist, and if so, with what result? If they had left his claim unquestioned, or if they had shrunk from confessing the result of their inquiry, they had virtually abdicated their office, and had no right, in logical consistency, to exercise it, as by fits and starts, in the case of another teacher.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-25.htm">Matthew 21:25</a></div><div class="verse">The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?</div>(25) <span class= "bld">They reasoned with themselves.</span>—The self-communing was eminently characteristic. The priests and scribes had, in dealing with the mission of John, halted between two opinions. At one time they came to his baptism (<a href="/matthew/3-7.htm" title="But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?">Matthew 3:7</a>); at another they said, “He hath a devil” (<a href="/matthew/11-18.htm" title="For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a devil.">Matthew 11:18</a>). They watched the ebb and flow of a public reverence which the death of John had deepened, and dared not repudiate his character as a prophet. They were reluctant to admit that character, for this would have involved the necessity of accepting the testimony which he had borne to the work and office of Jesus.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-27.htm">Matthew 21:27</a></div><div class="verse">And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">We cannot tell.</span>—The confession of impotence to which the priests and scribes were thus brought was, as has been said, a virtual abdication. Before such a tribunal the Prophet whom they called in question might well refuse to plead. There was, indeed, no need to answer. For those who were not wilfully blind and deaf, the words that He had spoken, the works which He had done, the sinless life which He had led, were proofs of an authority from God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-28.htm">Matthew 21:28</a></div><div class="verse">But what think ye? A <i>certain</i> man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">But what think ye?</span>—The question serves to connect the parable with the foregoing incident, and so gives point to its special primary application. In many MSS. the answers of the two sons are inverted, and it is accordingly the “second,” and not the first, who is said, in <a href="/matthew/21-31.htm" title="Whether of them two did the will of his father? They say to him, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.">Matthew 21:31</a>, to have done the will of his Father.<p><span class= "bld">Go work to day in my vineyard.</span>—The parable rests on the same imagery as that of the Labourers, with some special variations. Both of those who are called to work are “sons,” and not hired labourers—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, there is a recognition of both Pharisees and publicans, the outwardly religious and the conspicuously irreligious, as being alike, in a sense, children of God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-29.htm">Matthew 21:29</a></div><div class="verse">He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">I will not.</span>—The bold defiance of the answer answers to the rough recklessness of the classes (publicans and harlots) who were represented by the “first” of the two sons. Their whole life, up to the time of their conversion, had been an open refusal to keep God’s laws, and so to work in His vineyard.<p><span class= "bld">He repented.</span>—The Greek word is not the same as that of <a href="/matthew/3-2.htm" title="And saying, Repent you: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.">Matthew 3:2</a>, and expresses rather the regretful change of purpose than entire transformation of character. It is the first stage of repentance, and may, as in this instance, pass on into the higher, or, as in the case of Judas (<a href="/matthew/27-3.htm" title="Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,">Matthew 27:3</a>, where the same word is used), end only in remorse and despair.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-30.htm">Matthew 21:30</a></div><div class="verse">And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I <i>go</i>, sir: and went not.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">I go, sir.</span>—The tone of outward respect, as contrasted with the rude refusal of the elder son, is eminently characteristic as representing the surface religion of the Pharisees.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-31.htm">Matthew 21:31</a></div><div class="verse">Whether of them twain did the will of <i>his</i> father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">They say unto him, The first.</span>—The answer came apparently from the lips of the very persons who were self-condemned by it, and so implied something like an unconsciousness that they were described in the person of the second son. They who gave God thanks that they were not like other men, could not imagine for an instant that the “went not” represented their spiritual life in relation to God’s kingdom.<p><span class= "bld">The publicans and the harlots.</span>—The words are purposely general, as describing the action of classes; but we cannot help associating them with the personal instances of the publican who became an Apostle (9:9), and of Zacchæus (<a href="/context/luke/19-2.htm" title="And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.">Luke 19:2-10</a>), and of the woman that was a sinner (<a href="/context/luke/7-37.htm" title="And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,">Luke 7:37-50</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Go into the kingdom of God before you.</span>—Which literally means, <span class= "ital">lead the way into.</span> What follows shows that our Lord is stating not so much a law of God’s government as a simple fact. The choice of the word is significant as implying that there was still time for scribes and Pharisees to follow in the rear. The door was not yet closed against them, though those whom they despised had taken the place of honour and preceded them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-32.htm">Matthew 21:32</a></div><div class="verse">For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen <i>it</i>, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">In the way of righteousness.</span>—The term seems used in a half-technical sense, as expressing the aspect of righteousness which the Pharisees themselves recognised (<a href="/matthew/6-1.htm" title="Take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.">Matthew 6:1</a>), and which included, as its three great elements, the almsgiving, fasting, and prayer, that were so conspicuous both in the life and in the teaching of the Baptist.<p><span class= "bld">The publicans and the harlots believed him.</span>—The former class appear among the hearers of John in <a href="/luke/3-12.htm" title="Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said to him, Master, what shall we do?">Luke 3:12</a>. The latter are not mentioned there, but it was natural they also should feel the impulse of the strong popular movement.<p><span class= "bld">Repented not afterwards.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">did not even repent afterwards.</span> The words are repeated from the parable (<a href="/matthew/21-29.htm" title="He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.">Matthew 21:29</a>), and sharpen its application. In relation to the preaching of the Baptist, the scribes and Pharisees were like the first of the two sons in his defiant refusal; they were not like him in his subsequent repentance.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-33.htm">Matthew 21:33</a></div><div class="verse">Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:</div>(33) <span class= "bld">Which planted a vineyard.</span>—The frequent recurrence of this imagery at this period of our Lord’s ministry is significant. (Comp. <a href="/matthew/20-1.htm" title="For the kingdom of heaven is like to a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.">Matthew 20:1</a>; <a href="/matthew/21-28.htm" title="But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.">Matthew 21:28</a>; <a href="/luke/13-6.htm" title="He spoke also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.">Luke 13:6</a>.) The parable that now meets us points in the very form of its opening to the great example of the use of that image in <a href="/isaiah/5-1.htm" title="Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:">Isaiah 5:1</a>. Taking the thought there suggested as the key to the parable, the vineyard is “the house of Israel;” the “fence” finds its counterpart in the institutions which made Israel a separate and peculiar people; the “wine-press” (better, <span class= "ital">wine-vat</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the reservoir underneath the press), in the Temple, as that into which the “wine” of devotion, and thanksgiving, and charity was to flow; the “tower” (used in vineyards as a place of observation and defence against the attacks of plunderers; comp. <a href="/isaiah/1-8.htm" title="And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.">Isaiah 1:8</a>), in Jerusalem and the outward polity connected with it. So, in like manner, the letting out to husbandmen and the going “into a far country” answers historically to the conquest by which the Israelites became possessors of Canaan, and were left, as it were, to themselves to make what use they chose of their opportunities.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-34.htm">Matthew 21:34</a></div><div class="verse">And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.</div>(34) <span class= "bld">When the time of the fruit drew near.</span>—We must be content here with following the general drift of the parable, and cannot find any exact parallel in the history of Israel to the successive sendings of the servants of the householder. It is enough to see in them the general expectation (comp. the language of <a href="/isaiah/5-4.htm" title="What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? why, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?">Isaiah 5:4</a>, “I looked that it should bring forth grapes”) that the developed life of Israel should be worthy of its calling, and the mission of the prophets who. as the servants of Jehovah, were sent from time to time to call the people to bring forth the fruits of righteousness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-35.htm">Matthew 21:35</a></div><div class="verse">And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">Beat one, and killed another.</span>—The language paints the general treatment of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, being the most conspicuous instances. The language of our Lord in <a href="/matthew/23-30.htm" title="And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.">Matthew 23:30</a>; <a href="/matthew/23-34.htm" title="Why, behold, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you whip in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:">Matthew 23:34</a>, not less than that of <a href="/hebrews/11-37.htm" title="They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;">Hebrews 11:37</a>, implies that the prophets, as a class, had no light or easy task, and were called upon, one by one, to suffer persecution for the faithful exercise of their office.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-36.htm">Matthew 21:36</a></div><div class="verse">Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.</div>(36) Other servants more than the first.—There is, perhaps, a reference here to the greater power and fulness of the work of the later prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, stretching onward to that of the Baptist, as closing the whole line.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-37.htm">Matthew 21:37</a></div><div class="verse">But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.</div>(37) <span class= "bld">Last of all.</span>—The variations in the other Gospels are noticeable as more vivid and dramatic. “He had yet one son, his beloved” (<a href="/mark/12-6.htm" title="Having yet therefore one son, his well beloved, he sent him also last to them, saying, They will reverence my son.">Mark 12:6</a>). “He said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son, it may be they will reverence him” (<a href="/luke/20-13.htm" title="Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him.">Luke 20:13</a>). The language of deliberation and doubt is evidently inapplicable, except by a bold anthropomorphism, to divine acts, but it sets forth (1) the gradually ascending scale of those who were sent, culminating in a difference not of degree only, but of kind, like the contrast between the prophets and the Son in <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 (2) the employment by God, in His long-suffering pity, of all possible means to lead His people to repentance.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-38.htm">Matthew 21:38</a></div><div class="verse">But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">This is the heir.</span>—What we learn elsewhere enables us to understand the feelings with which the priests and scribes must have heard these words. Already had Caiaphas given the counsel that one man should die for the people (<a href="/john/11-49.htm" title="And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said to them, You know nothing at all,">John 11:49</a>), while among those who knew it, and did not protest, were many who believed on Him, and yet, through fear of the Pharisees, were not confessed disciples (<a href="/john/12-42.htm" title="Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:">John 12:42</a>). The words of the parable showed that they stood face to face with One who knew the secrets of their hearts, and had not deceived Himself as to the issue of the conflict in which He was now engaged.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-39.htm">Matthew 21:39</a></div><div class="verse">And they caught him, and cast <i>him</i> out of the vineyard, and slew <i>him</i>.</div>(39) <span class= "bld">Cast him out of the vineyard.</span>—The minor touches of a parable are not always to be pressed in our interpretation of it; but we can hardly help seeing here a latent reference to the facts (1) that our Lord was delivered over to the judgment of the Gentiles; and (2) that He was crucified outside the Holy City, (<a href="/john/19-20.htm" title="This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.">John 19:20</a>; <a href="/hebrews/13-12.htm" title="Why Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.">Hebrews 13:12</a>), which was, in a special sense, as the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-41.htm">Matthew 21:41</a></div><div class="verse">They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out <i>his</i> vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">They say unto him</span> <span class= "bld">. . .</span>—The fact that the answer to the question came, not from the speaker, but from the hearers of the parable, is peculiar to St. Matthew. On the assumption that those who gave the answer were the scribes and Pharisees, we may see in it either a real unconsciousness that they were as the men on whom the punishment was to fall (see Note on <a href="/matthew/21-31.htm" title="Whether of them two did the will of his father? They say to him, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.">Matthew 21:31</a>), or, more probably, an affected horror, by which they sought to disguise the conviction that the parable was meant for them. They would not admit, in the presence of the multitude, that they winced at this intimation that their designs were known.<p><span class= "bld">Those wicked men.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">those miserable men,</span> the adjective being the same as the preceding adverb. Their answer, like the speech of Caiaphas in <a href="/context/john/11-49.htm" title="And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said to them, You know nothing at all,">John 11:49-51</a>, was an unconscious prophecy, in which were wrapt up at once the destruction of the Holy City, and the transfer of the privileges that had belonged to Israel to the Gentile Church, which was to grow into Catholic Christendom. The Lord of the vineyard would not be robbed of its fruits, and sooner or later would find faithful and true labourers.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-42.htm">Matthew 21:42</a></div><div class="verse">Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?</div>(42) <span class= "bld">Did ye never read. . . .?</span>—The quotation is remarkable as being found (<a href="/psalms/118-22.htm" title="The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.">Psalm 118:22</a>) in the immediate context of the verse which had supplied the “hosanna” shouts of the multitude on the preceding day. In the primary meaning of the Psalm, the illustration seems to have been drawn from one of the stones, quarried, hewn, and marked, away from the site of the Temple, which the builders, ignorant of the head architect’s plans, had put on one side, as having no place in the building, but which was found afterwards to be that on which the completeness of the structure depended, that on which, as the chief corner-stone, the two walls met and were bonded together. The Psalmist saw in this a parable of the choice of David to be king over Israel; perhaps, also, of the choice of Israel itself out of the nations of the world. Elsewhere, as in <a href="/ephesians/2-20.htm" title="And are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;">Ephesians 2:20</a>, and in the language of later ages, Christ Himself is the chief corner-stone. Here the context gives a somewhat different application, and “the stone which the builders rejected” is found in the future converts from among the Gentiles, the nation bringing forth the fruits which Israel had not brought forth—the “corner-stone” of the great edifice of the Catholic Church of Christ. This meaning was obviously not incompatible with the other. As the mind of the Psalmist included both David and Israel under the same symbolism, so here the Christ identifies Himself, more or less completely, with the Church which is His body. (Comp. <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>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-44.htm">Matthew 21:44</a></div><div class="verse">And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">Whosoever shall fall on this stone.</span>—There is a manifest reference to the “stumbling and falling and being broken” of <a href="/context/isaiah/8-14.htm" title="And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.">Isaiah 8:14-15</a>. In the immediate application of the words, those who “fell” were those who were “offended” at the outward lowliness of Him who came as the carpenter’s son, and died a malefactor’s death. That “fall” brought with it pain and humiliation. High hopes had to be given up, the proud heart to be bruised and broken. But there the fall was not irretrievable. The bruise might be healed; it was the work of the Christ to heal it. But when it fell on him who was thus offended (here there is a rapid transition to the imagery and the thoughts, even to the very words, of <a href="/daniel/2-35.htm" title="Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.">Daniel 2:35</a>; <a href="/daniel/2-44.htm" title="And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.">Daniel 2:44</a>), when Christ, or that Church which He identifies with Himself, shall come into collision with the powers that oppose Him, then it shall “grind them to powder.” The primary meaning of the word so rendered is that of winnowing by threshing the grain, and so separating it from the chaff, and its use was probably suggested by the imagery of <a href="/daniel/2-35.htm" title="Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.">Daniel 2:35</a>, where the gold and silver and baser materials that made up the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision were “broken in pieces together, and became as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor.” In its wider meaning it includes the destruction of all that resists Christ’s kingdom, and so represents the positive side of the truth which has its negative expression in the promise that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against His Church (<a href="/matthew/16-18.htm" title="And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.">Matthew 16:18</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-45.htm">Matthew 21:45</a></div><div class="verse">And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">They perceived that he spake of them.</span>—The real or affected unconsciousness of the drift of our Lord’s teaching was at last broken through. The last words had been too clear and pointed to leave any room for doubt, and they were roused to a passionate desire for revenge.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/21-46.htm">Matthew 21:46</a></div><div class="verse">But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.</div>(46) <span class= "bld">When they sought to lay hands.</span>—We must remember that they had once before made a like attempt, and had been baffled (<a href="/context/john/7-44.htm" title="And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.">John 7:44-46</a>). Now circumstances were even more against them. The Prophet was surrounded by His own disciples, and by an admiring crowd. Open violence they did not dare to venture on, and they had to fall back upon the more crooked paths of stratagem and treachery.<p><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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