Matthew Chapter 10 verse 29 Holy Bible

Matthew 10 : 29 Bible Verse Songs

• Omnipotent Yet Intimate by Ben Potter

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 29. - Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? The form of the saying in Luke 12:6 is practically equivalent ("Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?"); for sparrows are so common and cheap that if a man buys two farthings' worth he gets one thrown in. "At the present day the markets of Jerusalem and Jaffa are attended by many 'f owlets,' who offer for sale long strings of little birds of various species, chiefly sparrows, wagtails, and larks. These are also frequently sold ready plucked, trussed in rows of about a dozen on slender wooden skewers, and are cooked and eaten like kabobs" (Tristram, in Smith's 'Dict. of Bible,' 3:1366, where is added an into-resting account of the various methods of catching them). A farthing (ἀσσαρίου). This might either be one of the coins of the Herods (ver. 9, note), or, as it seems, a "second brass" Antiochene as (cf. Madden, 'Coins of the Jews,' p. 301, etc.). And one of them shall not fall - and not one of them shall fall (Revised Version, more idiomatically) - on the ground. Dead. In the parallel passage in Luke, more generally, "Not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God," even in life. Origen and Chrysostom read, "fall into the snare" (cf. Ames 3:5). Without (ἄνευ). Ξωρίς would deny merely physical connexion (cf. John 15:5), and the sentence would then imply that God causes their death; ἄνευ is only negative, and the sentence implies that their death is not outside of his knowledge and care. In Amos 3:5 the thought is that for every event there is a cause; here that every event is taken notice of by God. Sennacherib's boast (Isaiah 36:10) contained a truth other than he intended. Your Father. For this and nothing less is God's relation to you. There is a Talmudic tale told in various forms, of which the earliest seems to be that R. Simon ben Jochai, after hiding thirteen years in a cave, saw from the entrance of it a fowler snaring birds, but that these could not be taken if the Divine voice (Bath Qol) said, "Released" (dimus,' dimissus). "A bird," said the rabbi, "perishes not without God, much less a man," and he returned to the city (Talm. Jeremiah, 'Shebiith,' 9:1).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(29) Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?--The coin mentioned here is not the same as the "farthing" of Mark 12:42. The word there is kodrant?s, the quadrans, or fourth part, of the Roman as; here it is assarion, the diminutive of the as, and equal to the tenth part of the denarius. The fact that the denarius was the average day's wages of a soldier or a labourer, gives a fair approximation to its value. The homeliness of the illustration was adapted to the past experience of the apostles. It appears in a yet more homely form, in the "five sparrows sold for two farthings" of Luke 12:6, the cheapness that thus tempted the purchaser witnessing to the small account men took of the birds so bargained for.Without your Father.--The primary thought is obviously that the providence of God extends to the very meanest of His creatures. The thoughts with which we in these later days are more familiar may lead us to think of that Providence as more commonly working under the form of fixed and general laws; but, however this may be, the truth remains unaltered, for law itself is but the expression of the will of God, and faith may accept the law as working out a divine purpose of good for the universe and for every free agent who consciously accepts it.