Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them: O generation of vipers, who hath

7. The Pharisees and Sadducees. These were the two leading philosophical and religious sects among the Jews. The Essenes were a third one, resembling monks in their mode of life, but no mention is made of them in the New Testament. From Josephus and the Talmuds, as well as from scattered notices in the New Testament, we gather information respecting the other two.

The Pharisees. The Separatists. They were so called from a Hebrew word, meaning to separate, or to set apart, because they professed to set themselves apart from the rest of the people, and live purer lives. They plumed themselves upon their scrupulous adherence to all religious ceremonies and observances, washings, fastings, tithes, and long, ostentatious devotions, but in their lives were notorious for their ambition, corruption, hypocrisy, and haughtiness. Such was the prevailing character of the sect, though there were doubtless among them, as in every body of men, some true and noble spirits. Acts v. 34. They received all the Old Testament as of divine authority, and adhered closely to the letter of the Mosaic law. But in addition to these writings, they had the traditions of the elders or early teachers of the nation, to which they gave equal credence as to the Pentateuch itself. Some of their doctrines were the government of the world by Fate, or a fixed decree of God; the existence of spirits and angels; the resurrection from the dead; the immortality of the soul; and the future state of rewards and punish

ments.

The Sadducees derived their name from Sadoc, the founder of their sect. They were less numerous and had less influence among the

people than the Pharisees, but were more wealthy. They rejected the traditions, and, as is supposed, received only the law of Moses, or the Pentateuch, as of divine authority. They believed not in the existence of spirits, in immortality, or a future retribution. In fact, they were the skeptics of their day and nation. They however joined in the worship of the temple, and assisted at all religious assemblies. Several of them held the office of high priest. Caiaphas, who condemned our Saviour, was a Sadducee. No account is given in the Gospels of a single conversion to Christianity from this sect.

Both Pharisees and Sadducees, in common with the rest of the nation, expected a Messiah. They came to the baptism of John, incited by this expectation; and supposing John to be either the Messiah or his Forerunner, they were desirous of early securing his favor, and gaining posts of profit and honor in his kingdom. John saw through their motives, and uttered a powerful, though deserved, rebuke. O generation of vipers. Offspring of vipers, or broods of vipers. This phrase is descriptive of the two aforementioned classes. He did not spare the rich and lordly, but launched at them his burning remonstrances in the bold tone of one of the ancient prophets. Vipers are a kind of snakes, whose bite is immediately fatal. This reptile has been used from the remotest antiquity as an emblem of what is destructive. Applied to the Pharisees and Sadducees, it signifies that they were subtile, malignant, deadly. The poison of vipers rankled in their hearts, under the fair seeming and smooth disguise of religious professions. Who hath

warned you to flee from the wrath to come Bring forth 8 therefore fruits meet for repentance, and think not to say with- 9 in yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children

warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Rather a strong exclamation of surprise than an interrogation. John expresses wonder, that men so hardened and hypocritical should be induced to come to a baptism of repentance. "The wrath to come" was the impending destruction soon to fall on the Jewish nation, unless they repented and reformed, and which did descend forty years after, overthrowing the Temple, destroying millions of men, and annihilating the_national_existence of the Jews. Those who embraced Christianity escaped these judgments of heaven, because they behieved in the prophecies foretelling their approach, and fled from the country. The same sins, also, which brought down these temporal calamities upon the heads of men, would meet with a becoming punishment in the future world.

8. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. Or, consistent with amendment of life. Fruits stand for good works, righteous, holy deeds. Here is an allusion to their noted hypocrisy. Show by your lives that your repentance is sincere. Manifest a character and conduct appropriate, belonging to, genuine penitence. Show forth, if you really repent, not merely the leaves and flowers of profession, but the fruits of performance. Matt. vii. 20. The proof of goodness is in the life. Let not repentance be a dead form with us, but a living act. Let it produce corresponding works.

9. They deemed their salvation insured because they were the descendants of so righteous and faithful a man as Abraham. John viii.

33, 39, 53. John understands their state of mind, and therefore addresses himself, as every teacher ought, to that which, unless corrected, would nullify all his instructions and warnings. Thus he taught with adaptedness. The same characteristic, in a greater degree, appears in the teachings of the Saviour. It has been a weak point in all nations, to put their salvation in their ancestors, not in their posterity; to look back to the good old days, not to look forward to better ones; to locate the Golden Age in the Past, not in an improved Future. The couplet of the poet has been forgotten:

[ocr errors]

"They, that on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt instead of their discharge."

God is able, &c. Think not of saying to yourselves, We are Abraham's children, and are therefore fully assured of the favor of God, and the benefits of the Messiah's kingdom. With God all things are possible. He is not dependent on the Jews, or any other nation, for the success of his purposes; he

can find other servants and instruments. Yea, out of the very stones of the Jordan he can through his omnipotence raise up worthy children of Abraham; an allusion, perhaps, to God's power in giving a child to Abraham. Gal. iii. 29. Perhaps in the expression "these stones," there is also an allusion to the Gentiles, towards whom the Jews entertained the greatest contempt. Some deem it a proverbial phrase. It is to be feared, that, as some of old trusted in the merits of Abraham, so now many rely upon Christ, a much greater than Abraham, as a substitute for their

10 unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good 11 fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water, unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear;

own goodness, instead of forming him within them, reproducing his spirit in their hearts. But it will not do. Personal piety is the inextinguishable need of every child of God.

10. The axe is laid unto the root of the trees, &c. i. e. the axe is lying, ready to be used, at the very root of the trees. The approaching calamities are no trivial evils, but rather like cutting up the tree by the roots. This was a Jewish proverb. A searching, powerful influence is going abroad. A new standard is to be erected, by which the hearts of men, and the institutions of society, are to be tried. Principles and conduct are to be tested. Nothing will stand the trial but genuine repentance, true goodness. The excuses and subterfuges and lies of men will be swept away. Antiquated ceremonies and systems will be superseded. The realities of the spiritual life will stand forth in their just prominence, when the rubbish and the corruptions and the commandments of men have been consumed. Is hewn down. Will be, is to be, hewn or cut down. The present tense, according to Winer, is not unfrequently used in the sense of the future. See Luke iii. 10, 14.

11. Unto repentance. As a sign of repentance and reformation. Baptism was a sign that the obligation to repent was felt and acknowledged, and that the penitential sentiments would be cherished. - He that cometh after me. A circumlocution for Jesus, the Messiah, the head of the kingdom of heaven,

[ocr errors]

that is at hand. - Mightier than I. Of higher dignity and authority. Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. Not the article we call shoes, but the sandals of the east; which were soles for the bottoms of the feet, bound about the feet and ankles with leathern thongs or straps. These sandals were put off when a person entered a house, and put on when he left it. As stockings were then unknown, the feet soon became soiled, being only protected on the bottom, and not at the sides, and hence they had to be frequently washed. To put on and off the sandals, upon these various occasions, was the office of the lowest servants. The strong expression of John is, therefore, that he was unworthy to perform the most menial service for the glorious Being who was soon to appear in the character and with the credentials of the long desired Redeemer. What a touching humility in one, who was himself the subject of prophecy, at whose birth miracles had been wrought, whose heart was fired with a spirit more than mortal, and whose privilege it was, after the long lapse of four hundred years, to renew the old prophetic office, and introduce the mighty Deliverer of the world to his ministry!

What a beautiful resignation, too, adorned his character! He grasped at no honors; living till the orb of the sun of righteousness was above the horizon, he yet did not witness the perfect day. He could say, "This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled; He must increase, but I must decrease." Great as he

he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his 12 floor; and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

was, he had that humbleness of mind, that is indeed the noblest of all traits. He was ready at once to resign his own honors before the Son of God. Imprisoned for an honest rebuke of wickedness, his single anxiety seemed to be, to ascertain whether the Messiah had actually come. Matt. xi. 2, 3. He died a martyr to his own integrity, and the victim of the evil passions which he sought in vain to bring under the control of conscience and the laws of God. Is it strange that his memory has been canonized in the Christian church? He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Or, with a holy spirit, or breath, and with fire. It is impossible to convey," says Furness, "the full force of this word spirit in a translation. The original word is much more comprehensive than the word 'spirit.' It signifies also air,' 'wind,' and the meaning of the Baptist is, Water is the symbol of my office, but the power of him who is coming after me may be signified by far subtler and more searching elements, wind and fire.' This appears from the connexion. He instantly likens his successor to a husbandman, prepared with his fan to blow the chaff out of the wheat, and with fire to consume it." Such was the ministry of Jesus, a powerful, searching, purifying influence. Such were the energies of the Spirit of God by which he was empowered and strengthened to perform his mission.

6

12. Whose fan is in his hand. Not fan, according to the original word, but winnowing shovel, with which the grain when threshed

was tossed up in the wind, and the chaff and kernels thus separated. Is. xxx. 24. The fan or van was more complex. It was designed, by means of sails, to raise an artificial wind, and was not an implement which could be carried in the hand. Thoroughly purge his floor, &c.

Here reference is made to the mode of threshing grain in the east.

The floor was not made as ours are with planks and boards, but consisted of an elevated circular area, formed in the field by smoothing and hardening the soil with a cylinder. A high location was more free from wet, and more accessible to the wind. There was frequently no covering, nor walls. Different methods were employed to get out the grain. It was beaten with flails, trodden by oxen, or bruised by a heavy kind of sledge, drawn by cattle. Is. xli. 15. The next operation was winnowing. This was to purge or clear up the threshing floor. The grain and straw were then separated, and the grain thrown up into the wind with a shovel, and the chaff thus blown out from it. The wheat was deposited in the garner, or granary. There was danger, that, after they had been separated, the chaff and broken straw would by a change of the wind be driven back again amongst the grain. To prevent it, fire was put to what is called chaff, but which also included the broken pieces of straw, and commencing on the windward side, it crept on and consumed all, before it went

out.

This made it an unquenchable fire; it burnt until it had done its office. Jesus came among the Jews and their institutions like the

13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be 14 baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying: I have need 15 to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him: Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

husbandman among his grain. By the searching power and purity of his religion, the good and bad would be divided. The former would be preserved in all calamities. The latter would be visited by the most terrible judgments, represented in figurative language by inextinguishable fire. Mal. iv. 1. A less probable explanation of the verse is, that the antiquated institutions and burdensome ceremonies of the Jews would be consumed like chaff in the fire, but the sound parts and wholesome laws would be preserved like wheat put into the granary. The Saviour described a part of his office, when he said, "For judgment I am come into this world."

13-17. Parallel passages, Mark i. 9-11; Luke iii. 21, 22; John i. 29-34.

13. Galilee. Nazareth, where Jesus had been living with his parents, Luke ii. 51, was a village of that province. Mark i. 9. John was at this time at Bethabara, a place on the eastern bank of the river, not far from its mouth. John i. 28. He afterwards baptized at Enon, on the western bank. John

iii. 23.

14. John forbade him. The reason is given; because he felt himself to be inferior to Jesus. That is, morally, not officially, inferior. John was already acquainted with the pure and exalted character of Jesus, and felt the deepest veneration for him as a private individual, for their parents were relatives. Luke i. 36. But he did not yet know that he was the Messiah to

come. John i. 31. He knew him not in an official character as Christ, but he knew him simply as Jesus. His ground of unwillingness to baptize him was, accordingly, that he was conscious of possessing less goodness and greatness than his kinsman. He says, therefore, that the baptism should be the other way, and that he himself ought to be the subject and not the administrator of the rite, in the present case, to one too pure to need reformation.

15. To fulfil all righteousness. Or, every righteous ordinance. As has been said, Jesus was baptized, not that the water might sanctify him, but that he might sanctify the water. That is, he did not need it as a sign of repentance and purification, but conformed to it, because it was an ordinance of God, and was to be a ceremony of his religion through all time. He claimed no immunity on account of superior holiness. In these cases the master is as the disciple, and the disciple as the master. His words to John have been thus paraphrased : "If my character be excellent as you have represented it, it is peculiarly becoming and natural in me to fulfil every duty, and do whatever is right and proper to be done, on all occasions. As the ordinance which you administer is of divine appointment, I wish to show my respect for every institution of God, by submitting to it; as you announce the approach of the Messiah's kingdom, I wish to bear a public testimony of my faith in your prophetic character, and to declare

« НазадПродовжити »