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Mark ix. 20.

Luke ix. 42.

And they brought him unto him:
And as he was yet a coming,

Galilee.

Mark ix. 20. when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare

him;

Luke ix. 42. the devil threw him down,

Mark ix. 20. and he fell on the ground, and wallowed, foaming.

Mark ix. 21.

Mark ix. 22.

Mark ix. 23.

Mark ix. 24.

Mark ix. 25.

Mark ix, 26.

Mark ix. 27.

Matt. xvii. 18.
Luke ix. 42.

Luke ix. 43.

Mark ix. 28.

Matt. xvii. 19.

And he asked his father, since this came unto him? child.

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And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help

us.

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.

But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him
up; and he arose.

and the child was cured from that very hour:
and he delivered him again to his father.

And they were all amazed at the mighty power
of God..

And when he was come into the house, the disciples

Then came-to Jesus apart,

Mark ix. 28. and asked him privately, "Why could not we cast him out?

Matt. xvii. 20.

Mark ix, 29.

And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, & If ye have gLukexvii. 6. faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

Galilee.

h Mark ix. 14.

Luke ix. 37.

MATT. xvii. part of ver. 14. 16. ver. 17. part of ver. 18, 19. and ver. 21.

14 h And when they were come to the multitude-and saying,

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17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to

me.

18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him—

19 the disciples-and said, Why could not we cast him out?

21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting.

LUKE ix. part of ver. 38. 40, 41, 42.

38 And a man-cried out, saying

40 and they could not.

41 And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation! how long shall I be with you, and suffer you ?—

42

child

and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the

SECTION XIX.

Christ again foretells his Death and Resurrection 24.

MATT. xvii. 22, 23. MARK ix. 30—part of 33.
LUKE ix. 43-47.

And they departed thence, and passed through Mark ix. 30.
Galilee ; and he would not that

know it.

any man should

24 The three apostles had now beheld their God, companion, and friend, the Messiah, in his glorified state; in that form and manner in which he had appeared to the patriarchs and prophets of the ancient time, and in which he will again appear when he shall come again to judge the living and the dead. After this sublime disclosure of his celestial dignity, he continually reminded his disciples, and by that means prepared their minds for the approach of his degrading, cruel, and painful death. The saying was hid from them—it was incomprehensible they understood it not. For the doctrine of the atonement, although prefigured by the types, and taught in the institutions of the law, and still more clearly revealed by the prophets, was not thoroughly understood, till life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel. This doctrine was to the apostles, as well as to their countrymen, a stumbling block. It was, and it will ever be, foolishness to the Greek, and to all who assimilate to the same speculative, presumptuous, and philosophising character. Human reason must here be submitted to the Gospel. There must be a prostration of the pride of human intellect at the foot of the cross, before men with proper humility can believe in the salvation purchased for them through the atonement of a Divine Being for the sins of man. He who rejects this doctrine, counts the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and violently separates the bond of love, which unites a fallen man to the mercy of his Creator.

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Luke ix. 43.

Mark ix. 31.

Luke ix. 44.

Matt. xvii. 22.
Mark ix. 31.

while they wondered every one at all things which
Jesus did,

he taught his disciples, and said unto them,

Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be

betrayed, and

The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men,
and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed,
he shall rise

Matt. xvii. 23. be raised again,

Mark ix. 31.

Mark ix, 32.

Luke ix. 45.

Matt. xvii. 23.

Mark ix. 32.

Luke ix. 45.

Luke ix. 46.

the third day.

But they understood not that saying,

and it was hid from them, that they perceived it

not.

And they were exceeding sorry;

and were afraid to ask him

of that saying.

Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be the greatest.

Mark ix. 33. And he came to Capernaum.

MATT. xvii. part of ver. 22, 23.

22 And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man

shall be into the hands of men:

23 And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall

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45 But they understood not this saying-and they feared to ask him—

Galilee.

SECTION XX.

Christ works a Miracle, to pay the Half Shekel for the Temple

Matt. xvii. 24.

Service 25.

MATT. Xvii. 24, to the end.

And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your Master pay tribute?

Capernaum.

* Called in the original, didrachma, being in value fifteen pence:

13. & xxxviii.

25 It is uncertain whether the tribute demanded of our Lord was the half see Ex. xxx. shekel for the service of the temple, or the common taxes required by the rulers 26. of the country. Both Lightfoot (a) and Whitby (b) have adopted the former

(a) Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 212.

(b) Whitby in loc.

VOL. I.

X

Capernaum.

He saith, Yes. And when he was come into Matt. xvii. 25. the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?

Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

Matt. xvii. 26.

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, Matt. xvii. 27. go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast *Or, a stater. opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of ounce of sil. money: that take, and give unto them for me and ver, in value

It is half an

2s. 6d. after 5s. the ounce.

thee.

opinion, which seems to be more consistent with our Lord's reasoning, that he was the son of that King for whose use the tribute was demanded. The conduct of our Lord in this instance affords a striking example to all mankind, quietly to submit to all the laws and customs of their country, which are not hostile to Christianity.

Jones (c) considers this as another significant action, and remarks on it—" I have a notion of my own, for which I can produce no authority of any commentator, that the three orders of animals, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the sea, represent three states of being; the fowls of the air, the angelic or spiritual nature, both bad and good; the land animals, the present state of man's life; the fish of the sea, the state of the dead, who are silent and invisible. This may appear strange and visionary to those who have not considered it; but if the distinction is founded on the Scripture, then the fish that first cometh up, is he that first cometh up from the dead, as Christ did, the first fruits of them that slept: and as he rose for our justification, he brought with him our ransom, to be paid for those who have no tribute money of their own to give. With this sense the case was worthy of the divine interposition." I insert this as a curious specimen of Jones' interpretation of Scripture; it is fanciful, but ingenious.

Dr. Owen (apud Bowyer, p. 103) has justly observed, that the omission of our translators to mark the difference between the didrachma, (ver. 24), and the stater, (ver. 27), has obscured and enervated the whole account. The stater was equal in value to the didrachma, which was equivalent to the half shekel demanded (d) (Exod. xxx. 11-16, and xxxviii. 25-28) for the service of the temple.

(c) Jones's Figurative Language of Scripture. (d) See on this subject Elsley in loc., Lightfoot ut supra, and Schoetgen's Remarks on Lightfoot, Hora Hebraicæ, vol. i. p. 151.

SECTION XXI.

The Disciples contend for Superiority.

MATT. Xviii. 1, to the end. MARK ix. part of ver. 33, to
LUKE IX. 47-51.

the end.
At the same time,
Mark ix. 33. being in the house,

Matt. xviii. 1.

28 The ambitious dispute of the disciples concerning their precedency in the kingdom of heaven, proves that not even the repeated predictions of our Saviour's sufferings and death could banish from the minds of his followers their preconceived ideas respecting the Messiah's kingdom. To correct this prevailing error, our Saviour now resorts to a different mode of undeceiving them. He places a little child before them, assuring them, that unless they were converted, that is, unless they became as unambitious and as humble, as mild, as meek, and as regardless of all temporal power and distinctions, as a little child, they could not even be admitted into the kingdom of heaven. Humility is the characteristic virtue of Christianity; and the highest rewards of heaven are promised to the most humble and meek: "for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great."

The reason, Michaelis observes on this conversation, why apparent contradictions are unavoidable in the deposition of several eye witnesses to the same transaction, is easy to be assigned. They do not all observe every minute circumstance of the transaction, but some pay particular attention to one circumstance, others, to another; this occasions a variation in their accounts, which it is sometimes difficult to reconcile. This happened likewise to the Evangelists, as I will illustrate by the following instance: St. Matthew, ch. xviii. 1—14, and St. Mark, ch. ix. 33-50, relate the same transaction, but in different points of view, and for that reason appear, at first sight, to contradict each other.

St. Matthew says, "At that time came the disciples to Jesus, and said, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ?" St. Mark, on the contrary, "He came to Capernaum, and having entered into an house, he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace; for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest." According to St. Matthew, the disciples themselves lay the subject of their dispute before Jesus, for his decision: but, according to St. Mark, they even refuse to relate the subject of their dispute, though Jesus requested it, because they were conscious to themselves that it would occasion a reproof. The question is, how these accounts are to be reconciled?

Without entering into the various solutions which have been given by the commentators, I shall only observe, that, as this transaction relates to a matter of dispute among the disciples, it has of course two different sides, and is therefore capable of two different representations. Some of the disciples laid claim to the title of the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, among whom we may probably reckon Peter, with the two sons of Zebedee, James and John. These could hardly expect to escape a reproof, and were undoubtedly ashamed, when questioned as to the subject of their dispute. Other disciples, on the contrary, may be considered as the party attacked, who, without claiming the first rank for

Capernaum.

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