ment:

22 But I say unto you, That

the offences named should be punished literally by the methods to which he referred; but that the punishments should be proportionate if not precisely equal to these, in severity, and graduated according to the degree of guilt.

21. Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time. Some read, to them of old time. The general idea is, ye know that the rule has long existed. ¶ Thou shalt not kill. The sixth commandment. Exod. xx. 13. The precept was divine. The crime forbidden was inurder. Whosoever shall kill, &c. This is supposed to be the interpretation or gloss of the Pharisees; importing that the actual commission of murder was to be punished, but that nothing short of it was subject to any penalty. In danger of. Deserving of, or obnoxious to. The judgment. Reference is here made to what may be styled the lower court of the Jews, which was composed of twenty-three judges, or, as others say, of seven, whose jurisdiction extended to many offences of importance, as is manifest from the text itself; it is said they had power to punish by strangling or beheading.

22. But I say unto you. Our Lord now gives his own exposition of the law, and applies its principles to the heart. His manner is not haughty, but dignified; denoting a consciousness of authority to teach, and a claim to respectful attention. Brother. Any man. Jesus taught that God is the Father of all men, and that all they are brethren. Without a cause. That is, without a sufficient cause,-a cause adequate to the effect produced. Our Lord himself is said to have felt the emotion of anger. Mark iii. 5. Yet he was not angry without cause, nor did he allow his anger to abide in his heart. It did not produce any rash action. He seems here to refer to that species of anger which induces any one to desire or meditate the injury of another. This passion is murderous. 1 John iii. 15. As such, it is declared to be worthy of the same condemnation which the Pharisees represented as justly due to actual murder. The

21.

Raca. A term of contempt; equivalent to empty-headed, shallow-brained, or blockhead. Council. Probably the Sanhedrim is here referred to. This was the highest court of the Jews, and its jurisdiction was very extensive. It had the power of life and death, until it was taken away by the Romans. It was composed of about seventy persons, (writers differ as to the exact number,) who were selected from the civil and ecclesiastical rulers principally, though private persons were not entirely excluded. It is said, they held their sessions in a circular apartment, one half of which was within, and one half without, the walls of the temple. The judges sat in the portion next the temple; the criminals, witnesses, and others, occupied the outer portion of the hall, or council-chamber. This was the court which condemned our Saviour, and delivered him to the Romans for execution; and before which the apostles were more than once arraigned.

Thou fool. Commentators generally agree that a more correct translation would be, thou apostate, or thou rebel, or thou miscreant. It was a term of the most bitter reproach, and one which would not be used unless the angry passions were very strongly excited.

It

Hell-fire. Or, a hell of fire. The word here translated hell is Gehenna, (yéerva.) It is in fact a Hebrew word or combination of words, transplanted into the Greek, with only a trifling variation in form, as all writers agree; it is composed of the two Hebrew words, Gee or Gai, a valley, and Hinnom, the proper name of a man. originally indicated a valley on the southerly side of Jerusalem, which is still called, on the maps, the Valley of Hinnom. In this place, the Jews at one period practised the most impious idolatry. They had here an image dedicated to Moloch, Jer. xxxii. 35, to which they offered human sacrifices, even their own children, who were placed in the arms of the image, previously heated by fires within, and were speedily consumed. When king Josiah purged the land of idolatry, he defiled

said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery :

28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

who make the adversary, God; the judge, Christ; the officer, death; and the prison, hell; abuse the passage, and highly dishonor God."-Clarke.

27-32. In these verses, Jesus refers to another law, and the practices in relation to it, which had been misinterpreted by the scribes and Pharisees, and rendered comparatively ineffectual. In contrast, he gives his own interpretation, according to the principles of his government, showing that the law is designed to regulate the internal desires and feelings, as well as the external conduct; in other words, that his religion addresses itself directly to the heart, and is designed to cleanse that, and make it pure.

27. By them of old time. Or, to them. These words are rejected by Griesbach, as not genuine. The idea is the same, however, whether they be retained or omitted. Thou shalt not commit adultery. The seventh commandment. Exod. xx. 14. The gloss is omitted ; according to which, we may presume from what follows, the Pharisees taught that only the actual crime was forbidden and punishable. But Jesus applies the command to the heart; to the desires and intentions.

23. To lust after her. Or, as the original seems to imply, for the purpose of cherishing impure thoughts and desires. As, in the former case, anger is represented as forbidden by the sixth commandment, because it is a murderous passion, and, if unchecked, leads directly to the commission of murder; so here, for a like reason, wanton and impure desires are represented as forbidden by the seventh commandment. It is of the utmost importance, that the beginnings of evil, the first temptations to transgression, be steadfastly and resolutely resisted. It is madness, to nurse in our own bosoms a serpent which will inflict a deadly sting.

29. Thy right eye. The Hebrews, as well as others, often used the members of the body as emblems of the

29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

30 And if thy right hand offend

moral or intellectual qualities. Thus the arm denoted strength; the heart, love or affection; the bowels, compassion; &c. An evil eye sometimes indicates envy; Matt. xx. 15; sometimes, an evil passion, or sin, without specifying the peculiar characteristic of it. Mark vii. 21, 22. In this place, its application is manifest from the connexion in which it is used. Moreover, it is to be observed, that the right eye is a cherished member. And this, and the right hand, in the succeeding verse, would seem to have been selected for the purpose of making a strong impression on the minds of the hearers, that however dear a passion might be, it must be crushed, if its existence be unsafe or dangerous to one's peace of mind. Offend thee. Or, cause thee to offend. This word, two hundred years ago, expressed this idea precisely, though it now signifies, generally, to displease, to affront, or to make angry. The original signifies to make to stumble or fall; and in a moral sense, to cause the commission of sin; to be the occasion of falling by transgression.

Pluck it out. Destroy it. The same figure is preserved. It is profitable. It is useful. It is better. Better lose one member than the whole body. Men willingly suffer amputation, to preserve life. Better exercise the most rigid, even the most painful, self-denial, than endure the more bitter consequences of transgression. ¶ Cast into hell. Gehenna, (yéerva.) See note on ver. 22. The same figure is still preserved. As it would be better to lose a limb, than to have the whole body become diseased and putrefied, and finally cast out into the valley of Hinnom, the place of abomination,-the deepest disgrace of which a Jew could conceive, so it would also be better to crush and destroy any passion, however painful the struggle, than to have the whole moral system become infected, and to incur the disgrace and punishment which might well be called the worm

thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement :

and the fire of gehenna. As Livermore judiciously observes, "The main idea here conveyed is that of severe punishment, extreme suffering, and no intimation is given as to its place or its duration, whatever may be said in other texts in relation to these points. Wickedness is its own hell. A wronged conscience, awakened to remorse, is more terrible than fire or worm."

30. Under slightly different imagery, the same idea is repeated in this verse, as in the preceding; a practice not uncommon among good writers now. For a more full investigation of the word gehenna, here translated hell, and the punishment indicated by it, see Selections, sect. x.; Whittemore's Notes on the Parables, p. 55; Univ. Guide, P. 135; Balfour's First Inquiry, p. 91; Univ. Expos., ii., 351.

31. It hath been said, &c. Deut. xxiv. 1. It had long been permitted to the Jews, to repudiate their wives, by giving a certificate of the fact, either with or without the reasons; and thenceforth, either party, except perhaps in a single case, was considered at liberty to contract another marriage. See note on Matt. i. 19. Even when this law was given, it was only designed to meet and partially correct an existing evil, and was never designed as a permanent rule of righteousness. Mark x. 2-11; Matt. xix. 3-9. In regard to the subject of divorcement, much difference of opinion existed among the Jews. One school of Rabbins held that a man might divorce his wife for the most trivial cause; and this was probably the general practice. Another school held that it was unlawful for a man to repudiate his wife, except for unfaithfulness in the conjugal relation; and this Jesus declared to be the only righteous rule. Such, he said, was the ordinance of God in the beginning; and such should be the law of his kingdom. For the sake of each other, the husband and wife should forsake all relatives, if

32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery.

33 Again, ye have heard that

necessary, and cleave together until death. They are joined together by God, and become one flesh; and they may not lawfully be put asunder, except for the single cause named by Jesus, to wit, infidelity. This is such a heinous infringement of the covenant, that it justifies its dissolution; though even then, the forms of law must be observed, so that discreet and proper provision be made for the children who may be so unfortunate as to have a father or mother thus lost to all sense of decency and righteousness.

32. As no cause, except infidelity in the conjugal relation, can justly dissolve the tie by which the husband and wife become one flesh, Matt. xix. 9, or annul the moral obligation binding on them; it follows that, if this tie be sundered for any other cause, and either party form a subsequent matrimonial connexion with another, such connexion is adulterous. By casting away his wife, therefore, a man exposes her to the danger of committing this crime, and is holden responsible for the consequences. And he who marries such a one also commits adultery; for the moral obligation to be faithful until death still binds the original parties to each other. Such appears to be the meaning of Christ. Whether human legislation may render the laws of Christ inoperative, and justify that which he forbids, or make that right which he pronounces wrong, is a question deserving the most serious consideration of all who propose to avail themselves of legal means to dissolve existing ties, or to form new ones.

33. Our Lord proceeds to notice the ninth commandment, and the provisions generally of the Mosaic law concerning oaths; and to correct some of the false doctrines, cn this subject, taught by the Pharisees. It seems they had distinguished oaths into different classes, and held that, while all those in which the name of God occurred must be per