Matthew Chapter 11 verse 25 Holy Bible

Matthew 11 : 25 Bible Verse Songs

• Oh Lord We Praise Your Name by Ntokozo Mbambo

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 25-27. - Parallel passage: Luke 10:21, 22, where the verses are recorded immediately after the return of the seventy. We know no other occasion which would be so likely to evoke this utterance. Although it is just possible that the seventy returned when our Lord was addressing the people in the manner related in the preceding verses of this chapter, it seems much more likely that a sense of a moral and not of a temporal connexion guided St. Matthew in his arrangement. What is true in a time of success (Luke 10:17, 18) is equally true in a time of failure (vers. 20-24). Observe the difference in the style of ver. 27 (Luke 10:22) from that of vers. 25, 26, suggesting the use of another, apparently Johannine, source. But this must have been added before either St. Matthew or St. Luke incorporated the passage. Observe that the comparatively early date thus indicated for Johannine phraseology suggests that the language and form of the Fourth Gospel underwent a long process of development before St. John completed his work. Verse 25. - At that time; season (Revised Version); ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ. St. Luke's phrase ("in that very hour," ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ) is more precise, definitely connecting the utterance with the return of the seventy. St. Matthew's refers rather to that stage or period in his ministry (cf. Matthew 12:1; Matthew 14:1). Jesus answered. Only in Matthew. If we could suppose this to be the original context of the passage, the" answer" would probably refer to some expression of astonishment or complaint at his solemn statement in vers. 20-24. Professor Marshall's derivation of both "answered" and "rejoiced" (Luke) from a common Aramaic original (Expositor, April, 1891) appears very strained. And said, I thank thee; better, as the Revised Version margin, praise (ἐξομολογοῦμαί σοι). There is no thought of gratitude, but of publicity in assent (Luke 22:6), in confession (Matthew 3:6) and in acknowledgment (Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:11), and thus of praise (Joshua 7:19; Ezra 10:11 (Lucian); 2 Chronicles 30:22; Romans 15:9). It implies a profession of personal acceptance by Christ of God's methods. "I profess to thee my entire and joyful acquiescence in what thou doest." Hence St. Luke introduces the utterance by ἠγαλλάσατο, adding τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ, thus giving us a glimpse of the unity of purpose and feeling inherent in the Trinity, even during the time that the Word "tabernacled among us." O Father. Father occurs in Matthew 6:9; Matthew 26:39; Luke 23:34, 46; John 11:41; John 12:27; John 17:1; in fact, in all the recorded prayers of our Lord except Matthew 27:46, which is a quotation, and where the phrase, "My God, my God," emphasizes his sense of desolation. The word expresses perfect relationship and intimate communion. It points to the trust, the love, and the obedience of Christ, and to the depth of natural affection and confidence (if we may say so) between him and the First Person of the Trinity. It suggests mercies in the past, care in the present, and provision for the future. Lord of heaven and earth. Acts 17:24, by St. Paul, who may have derived it from these words of our Lord (Resch, ' Agmpha,' p. 150), or perhaps from Psalm 146:6 or Isaiah 42:5. As "Father" was the note of personal relationship, so is this of sovereign majesty. Christ unites the thought of God's love to himself with that of his ownership of all creation, thus paving the way for the main subject of the prayer - his Father's method of dealing with men of various kinds and tempers. Because; that (Revised Version), perhaps as more idiomatic with "thank." But ὅτι here gives, not the contents of the "thanksgiving," but the reason for it. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. The laws by which religious impressions are received, whether ultimately for good or for evil (2 Corinthians 2:15, 16; John 9:39), are here attributed to God. Observe that the sentence is not a kind of hendiadys, but that Christ accepts his Father's action in both directions. The one is the subject of his entire acquiescence as much as the other. Hast hid... hast revealed. The aorists (cf. ver. 19, note) may be understood here as either (1) describing what took place in each case, or (2) regarding God's action as a whole from the standpoint of the hereafter (cf. Romans 8:29, 30). These things. The truths respecting Christ's teaching and work. In this context the reference would be to the general contents of vers. 2-24. From the wise and prudent; i.e. as such (there is no article). For mental excellence and intelligence (vide infra)in themselves cannot grasp spiritual truths, but are, on the contrary, often means by which the veil between man and God is made thicker. On the difference between "wise" (σοφοί) and "prudent" (συνετοί, understanding, Revised Version), see Bishop Lightfoot, on Colossians 1:9. (For the general truth, cf. Job 37:24; 1 Corinthians 1:19-27.) And hast revealed them (Matthew 13:11, note); for even the most guileless heart has no power to see spiritual truths unless God draws back the veil. Unto babes (νηπίοις). The thought is of their helplessness and dependence. In comparison with the Pharisees and scribes, all our Lord's disciples were little more (cf. Matthew 11:16). Matthew 11:26 Verse 26. - Even so; yea (Revised Version); ναί. A renewed acceptance of the immediately preceding facts. Father. In ver. 25, Πάτερ: here, ὁ Πατήρ. There the term referred more directly to God as his own Father; here to him as Father of all, notwithstanding the methods he used. For. Giving the reason of Christ's acceptance. That (Revised Version margin) would make this clause closely dependent on the preceding. But this seems unnatural. So; i.e. in this double method. It seemed good (it was well-pleasing, Revised Version) in thy sight (εὐδοκία ἐγένετο); literally, it was good pleasure before thee - an Aramaism equivalent to "it was thy will" (compare the Targum of Judges 13:23; 1 Samuel 12:22 [רעוא קדם יו]; see also Matthew 18:14). The phrase implies, not merely that it seemed good to God, but that, in a sense, it was his pleasure. For the workings out of the laws of truth must give pleasure to the God of truth. (On the aorist ἐγένετο, see ver. 25, note.) . . .

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(25) Answered and said.--The phrase is more or less a Hebraism, implying that the words rose out of some unrecorded occasion. St. Luke connects them (Luke 10:17-24) with the return of the Seventy; but as their mission is not recorded by St. Matthew, it seems reasonable to connect them, as here recorded, with the return of the Twelve, and their report of their work (Mark 6:30; Luke 9:10). Their presence, it may be noted, is implied in the narrative with which the next chapter opens. The words, however, were probably repeated as analogous occasions called for them.I thank thee.--Literally, I confess unto Thee--i.e., "acknowledge with praise and thanksgiving." The abruptness with which the words come in points to the fragmentary character of the record which St. Matthew incorporates with his Gospel. The context in St. Luke implies a reference to the truths of the kingdom which the disciples had proclaimed, and makes special mention of the joy which thus expressed itself. The two grounds of that joy are inseparably linked together. The "wise and prudent" (comp. the union of the same words in 1Corinthians 1:19) were the scribes and Pharisees, wise in their conceit, seeking men's praise rather than truth as truth, and therefore shut out from the knowledge that requires above all things sincerity of purpose. The "babes" were the disciples who had received the kingdom in the spirit of a little child, child-like, and sometimes even childish, in their thoughts of it, but who, being in earnest and simple-hearted, were brought under the training which was to make them as true scribes for the kingdom of heaven. He, their Lord, taught them as they were able to bear it, giving (to use St. Paul's familiar image) the milk that belonged to babes (1Corinthians 3:2); but beyond His personal teaching there were the flashes of intuition by which (as, conspicuously, in the case of Peter's confession, Matthew 16:17) new truths were suddenly disclosed to them, or old truths seen with increasing clearness. . . .