70. THE TWELVE SENT OUT TO PREACH. Mk. 6:7-11 = Mt. 10:1, 5-15=Lk. 9:1-5, 10:4-12.

Jesus is sending out his disciples to preach in the Galilean villages; they are to speak his Message and do his work. Samaria and the Gentile towns they are to avoid. They are to trust for support to the hospitality of those to whom they go. The whole section is close in thought and language to ancient Palestinian life. Note the picturesque phrase, "a son of peace," for one of peaceful nature.

The sending of the Seventy in Lk. 10 is an unhistorical parallel to the sending of the Twelve in Lk. 9. For the Jews the number 12 typified Israel; the number 70, the Gentile nations. Luke means to express a mission to the Gentiles alongside the mission to the Jews.

Here Lk. 10:1 is therefore omitted, and the text of Lk. 9 is used more closely than the parallel text of Lk. 10.

71. THE UNRESPONSIVE CITIES. Mt. 11:21-23=Lk. 10: 13-15.

Verse 20 of Matthew is the evangelist's introduction, and is here omitted. Verse 24, which repeats vss. 15 and 22, is also omitted.

This passage is parallel to the passage about the sign of Jonah, where it is said that the men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment and condemn this generation. They repented at the preaching of their prophet, whereas this generation fails to respond. So the Galilean towns, where Jesus has done his work, fail to respond, and this passage expresses his disappointment and condemnation. Nineveh, Sodom, Tyre and Sidon, are familiar Jewish types of cities which fell under the condemnation of God, and make a very effective contrast here. Especially is Capernaum, Jesus' headquarters, rebuked, in words borrowed from Isaiah 14:13-15.

72. THE MISSION OF THE DISCIPLES. Mt. 10:16 Lk. 10: 3; Mt. 10:24-25=Lk. 6:40; Mt. 10:27 Lk. 12:3; Mk. 6:12-13 = Lk. 9:6; Mt. 11:1.

The most of Mt. 10, from vs. 16 on, is either later than Jesus, or belongs in another connection. Matthew uses all this material as counsel for the Christian missionaries of his own time. The disciples' mission was apparently brief, though not unsuccessful. They are soon with Jesus again. No details of the mission are given.

73. THE DISCIPLES' RETURN. Mk. 6:30 Lk. 9:10a; Mt. 11:25-27=Lk. 10:21-22; Mt. 11:28-30.

The words of Jesus here express his sense of the fact that though the proud and learned Pharisees ignored or rejected his message, yet many of the common people, for whom he had such love and pity, showed themselves receptive to it. This he devoutly sees as the divine will, and thanks God for it. His message is God's; he sets forth God's will as a son, and only a son, can know and make known his father's mind. The statement of vs. 27 in Mt. (22 in Lk.) is here simplified, as it has been theologically expanded.

74. THE LOVE-FEAST IN THE DESERT. Mk. 6:31-42=Mt. 14:13-20aLk. 9:10b-17a.

This is given in the gospels as a wonder story. Old Testament suggestions, such as the miraculous feeding by manna in the wilderness, or the fine passage in Ps. 107:4-9, have worked upon the tradition of the original event to make it into the miracle-story we read. Especially has the parallel in II Kings 4:42-44 been of influence. The original event was a sort of love-feast, when Jesus and his followers ate together their evening meal in the desert, as one great family. The supply of food was meager, but love and fellowship made it sufficient, and the brotherhood which Jesus taught received a striking exemplification. After the love-feast, always connected with the memorial celebration of Jesus' last supper, had become a cherished element in the life of the churches, this first love-feast in the desert became important in the tradition, and was told with features of the later celebration, as well as with a

growing miraculous coloring. The miraculous element is given only by the numbers, and it is just in numbers that tradition is least accurate, as we know. It was simply that Jesus and his disciples gave freely of what limited food they had to the people gathered about them. This characteristic kindness, coupled with the sense of fellowship inevitably produced by the act of eating together, made the occasion significant and memorable.

75. JESUS THE GREAT HEALER. Mk. 6:45-46, 53–56=Mt. 14:22-23a, 34-36.

Into this notice of the return from the place of sharing the food, Mark and Matthew (not Luke) have inserted the story of Jesus walking on the sea, to which Matthew adds the story of Peter's attempt to do the same. This whole episode is only a legendary development of the story of Jesus' calmness in the storm, given earlier (section 52). It is here, therefore, omitted, but appears in the appendix. The account of the popular following of Jesus in the plain of Gennesaret is a vivid expression of the faith of the common people in his compassion and his power. It contrasts sharply with the following sections, which reveal the distrust and hatred of the Pharisees.

CHAPTER V

JESUS' WAY OF LIFE

76. JESUS' VIEW OF MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. Mk. 10:2-9, 11 Mt. 19:3-9.

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Divorce was common and easy among the Jews of Jesus' time. Some rabbis allowed it for very trivial causes, and the question was much discussed. Jesus does not believe in divorce at all, for any reason. He believes that the marriage relation is divinely ordained, inherent in the very creation of man as male and female. This divinely created unity no man may destroy. The law of Moses does not command divorce. It allows divorce as a concession to

human frailty, and commands only the legal document which protects the woman's honor. Jesus' insistence is that there should never be the occasion for such a document.

Matthew, finding Jesus' rule too rigorous, as have many ever since, put in a modification (5:32 and 19:9) "except for fornication." But this exception is from Matthew, not from Jesus. Against it is the whole context; against it is also Mk. 10:11-12, Lk. 16:18 and I. Cor. 7:10-11, where Paul quotes "a word of the Lord" to the effect that married couples may not separate and remarry. Jesus and Paul agree that the remarriage of such a separated man or woman is simple adultery; the tie of the original marriage is binding "until death do them part."

87.

Compare the similar statement of Jesus' view in section

77. How A MAN IS DEFILED. Mk. 7:1-15, 20-23=Mt. 15: 1-11, 18-20.

This passage well contrasts the law of God as given in the Old Testament (especially in the Pentateuch) with the later "tradition of the elders." To the latter belonged the ritual hand-washing here under discussion. It had no relation to cleanliness, but only to ceremonial purity. Jesus is always loyal to the Law, but opposed to this development of "tradition of the elders," because it seemed to him to divert attention from the real will of God, as expressed in the Scriptures. Its moral indifference condemned it in his eyes. He is here of course not discussing what foods a Jew may lawfully eat (that was set down in the law of Moses), but what constitutes true defilement. His interest is moral, not ritual, but he is not breaking with any precept of the Law.

The Old Testament quotation is from Is. 29:13,

78. THE PHARISEES OFFENDED. Mt. 15:12-14= Lk. 6:39; Mt. 13:51-52.

This section introduces the following discussion of the real practice of the Jewish religion, and the contrast between the ideals of Jesus and those of the Pharisees.

79. THE PHARISEES GOOD TEACHERS BUT BAD MODELS. Mt. 23:1-5aLk. 11:46.

Here Jesus distinctly declares his attitude of loyalty to the Law, along with his criticisms of its professional exponents.

80. SINCERE AND INSINCERE FASTING. Mt. 6:16-18.

This passage merely bids sincerity in fasting, instead of making it a formal piety, to gain the approval of men. The thought is the same as in section 16. The words "anoint thy head and wash thy face" do not counsel any special festive display, but only the usual toilet, the absence of which was noticeable to others.

Fasting, prayer and almsgiving were the three chief Pharisaic pieties, and are here commented on in turn, with closely parallel phraseology.

81. SINCERE AND INSINCERE PRAYER. Mt. 6:5-6.

The same note of sincerity in religious observance is here dominant. The going into the inner chamber is not primarily for seclusion and quiet, but to avoid the ostentation of being seen of men. Compare section 34.

82. SINCERE AND INSINCERE CHARITY. Mt. 6:1-4. The same insistence as in the preceding two sections. 83. THE OBLIGATIONS OF A SLAVE. Lk. 17:7-10.

This passage, which is really a parable, brings out very clearly the difference between the morality of law-keeping which is the morality of the slave, and the morality of the spirit, which is the morality of the personal relationship. So long as men's service of God is merely the keeping of a set of laws which are regarded as obligatory, men are slaves, whose service can claim no thanks, no personal recognition. It is only when human service forgets the command, and is the glad free expression of love and goodwill, that it becomes the filial service Jesus urges, and