Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent, [1886], at sacred-texts.com
Matthew Chapter 26
Is betrayed (παραδίδοται)
The present tense expresses here something which, though future, is as good as present, because already determined, or because it must ensue in virtue of an unalterable law. Thus the passover is (γίνεται): it must come round at the fixed season. The Son of Man is betrayed according to the divine decree. Compare Mat 26:24.
Palace (αὐλὴν)
But the word never means palace in the New Testament. It is the court, the open court or hall, forming the centre of an oriental building, and often used as a meeting-place. Rev., court. Wyc., hall.
An alabaster box (ἀλάβαστρον)
Rev., cruse; flask in margin. Lit., an alabaster, just as we call a drinking-vessel made of glass a glass. Luther renders glass. It was a kind of cruet, having a cylindrical form at the top. Pliny compares these vessels to a closed rosebud, and says that ointments are best preserved in them.
To what purpose is this waste?
Wyc., Whereto this loss? Tynd., What needed this waste? See on Joh 12:3.
When Jesus understood it (γνοὺς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς)
The A. V. implies that some time elapsed before Jesus was aware of the disciples' complaint. But the statement is that Jesus perceived it at once. Rev., rightly, Jesus perceiving it.
Good work (καλὸν)
Lit., beautiful, but in a moral sense: an excellent, morally beautiful deed.
What will ye give? (τί θέλετέ μοι δοῦναι?)
Rather, What are ye willing to give me? It brings out the chaffering aspect of the transaction. So Rev.
They covenanted with him for (ἔστησαν αὐτῷ)
But the meaning is, they weighed unto him; or, very literally, they placed for him (in the balance). Although coined shekels were in circulation, weighing appears to have been practised, especially when considerable sums were paid out of the temple-treasury.
Thirty pieces of silver (τριάκοντα ἀργύρια)
Matthew refers to Zac 11:12. These pieces were shekels of the sanctuary, of standard weight, and therefore heavier than the ordinary shekel. See on Mat 17:24. Reckoning the Jerusalem shekel at seventy-two cents, the sum would be twenty-one dollars and sixty cents. This was the price which, by the Mosaic law, a man was condemned to pay if his ox should gore a servant (Exo 21:32). Our Lord, the sacrifice for men, was paid for out of the temple-money, destined for the purchase of sacrifices. He who "took on him the form of a servant" was sold at the legal price of a slave.
Such a man (τὸν δεῖνα)
The indefiniteness is the Evangelist's, not our Lord's. He, doubtless, described the per- son and where to find him.
He sat down (ἀνέκειτο)
But this rendering misses the force of the imperfect tense, which denotes something in progress. The Evangelist says he was sitting or reclining, introducing us to something which has been going on for some time.
Began to say (ἤρξεντο)
Denoting the commencement of a series of questions; one after the other (every one) saying, Is it I?
Is it I? (μήτι ἐγώ εἰμι)
The form of the negative expects a negative answer. "Surely I am not the one."
The dish (τρυβλίῳ)
Wyc., platter. A dish containing a broth made with nuts, raisins, dates, figs, etc., into which' pieces of bread were dipped.
Which betrayed (ὁ παραδιδοὺς)
The article with the participle has the force of an epithet: The betrayer.
Testament (διαθήκης)
From διατίθημι, to distribute; dispose of. Hence of the disposition of one's property. On the idea of disposing or arranging is based that of settlement or agreement, and thence of a covenant. The Hebrew word of which this is a translation is primarily covenant, from a verb meaning to cut. Hence the phrase, to make a covenant, in connection with dividing the victims slain in ratification of covenants (Gen 15:9-18). Covenant is the general Old Testament sense of the word (Kg1 20:34; Isa 28:15; Sa1 18:3); and so in the New Testament. Compare Mar 14:24; Luk 1:72; Luk 22:20; Act 3:25; Act 7:8. Bishop Lightfoot, on Gal 3:15, observes that the word is never found in the New Testament in any other sense than that of covenant, with the exception of Heb 9:15-17, where it is testament. We cannot admit this exception, since we regard that passage as one of the best illustrations of the sense of covenant. See on Heb 9:15-17. Render here as Rev., covenant.
Is shed (ἐκχυννόμενον)
The present participle, is being shed. Christ's thought goes forward to the consummation.
New (καινὸν)
Another adjective, νεόν, is employed to denote new wine in the sense of freshly-made (Mat 9:17; Mar 2:22; Luk 5:37, Luk 5:38, Luk 5:39). The difference is between newness regarded in point of time or of quality. The young, for instance, who have lately sprung up, are νείοι, or νεώτεροι (Luk 15:12, Luk 15:13). The new garment (Luk 5:36) is contrasted as to quality with a worn and threadbare one. Hence καινοῦ. So a new heaven (Pe2 3:13) is καινὸς, contrasted with that which shows signs of dissolution. The tomb in which the body of Jesus was laid was καινὸν (Mat 27:60); in which no other body had lain, making it ceremonially unclean; not recently hewn. Trench ("Synonyms") cites a passage from Polybius, relating a stratagem by which a town was nearly taken, and saying "we are still new (καινοί) and young (νέοι) in regard of such deceits." Here καινοί expresses the inexperience of the men; νέοι, their youth. Still, the distinction cannot be pressed in all cases. Thus, Co1 5:7, "Purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new (νέον) lump;" and Col 3:10, "Put on the new (νέον) man," plainly carry the sense of quality. In our Lord's expression, "drink it new," the idea of quality is dominant. All the elements of festivity in the heavenly kingdom will be of a new and higher quality. In the New Testament, besides the two cases just cited, νέος is applied to wine, to the young, and once to a covenant.
Sung a hymn
Very probably the second part of the Jewish Hallel or Hallelujah, embracing Psalms 115, 116, Psa 117:1-2, 118.
They went out
In the original institution of the Passover it was enjoined that no one should go out of his house until morning (Exo 12:22). Evidently this had ceased to be regarded as obligatory.
I will go before you
The thought links itself with what Christ had just said about the shepherd and the sheep. Compare Joh 10:4. I will go before you, as a shepherd before his flock.
Before the cock crow
A little more graphic if the article is omitted, as in the Greek. Before a single cock shall be heard, early in the night, thou shalt deny me. Dr. Thomson ("Land and Book") says that the barn-door fowls "swarm round every door, share in the food of their possessors, are at home among the children in every room, roost overhead at night, and with their ceaseless crowing are the town-clock and the morning-bell to call up sleepers at early dawn."
Though I should die (κἂν δέῃ με ἀποθανεῖν)
The A. V. misses the force of δέῃ: "Though it should be necessary for me to die." Wyc., "If it shall behove me to die." Rev., excellently, "Even if I must die."
Gethsemane
Meaning oil-press. Beyond the brook Kedron, and distant about three-quarters of a mile from the walls of Jerusalem. Dean Stanley says of the olive-trees there: "In spite of all the doubts that can be raised against their antiquity, the eight aged olive-trees, if only by their manifest difference from all others on the mountain, have always struck the most indifferent observers. They will remain, so long as their already protracted life is spared, the most venerable of their race on the surface of the earth. Their gnarled trunks and scanty foliage will always be regarded as the most affecting of the sacred memorials in or about Jerusalem; the most nearly approaching to the everlasting hills themselves in the force with which they carry us back to the events of the gospel history" ("Sinai and Palestine").
What!
It is hardly possible to convey the exact force of the Greek οὕτως, thus or so. The idea is, "are ye thus unable, or so utterly unable to watch?"
The hour is at hand
He probably heard the tramp and saw the lanterns of Judas and his band.
One of the twelve
Repeated in all three evangelists, in the narratives both of the betrayal and of the arrest. By the time Matthew's Gospel was written, the phrase had become a stereotyped designation of the traitor, like he that betrayed him.
A great multitude
The Sanhedrin had neither soldiery nor a regularly-armed band at command. In Joh 18:3, Judas receives a cohort of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. Part of the band would consist of this regularly-armed cohort, and the rest of a crowd armed with cudgels, and embracing some of the servants of conspicuous men in the Sanhedrin.
Kissed him (κατεφίλησεν)
The compound verb has the force of an emphatic, ostentatious salute. Meyer says embraced and kissed. The same word is used of the tender caressing of the Lord's feet by the woman in the Pharisee's house (Luk 7:38), of the father's embrace of the returned prodigal (Luk 15:20), and of the farewell of the Ephesian elders to Paul (Act 20:37).
Wherefore art thou come ? (ἐφ' o pa/rei)
The interrogation of the A. V. is wrong. The expression is elliptical and condensed. Literally it is, that for which thou art here; and the mind is to supply do or be about. The Lord spurns the traitor's embrace, and says, in effect, "Enough of this hypocritical fawning. Do what you are here to do." So Rev., Do that for which thou art come.
The servant (τὸν δοῦλον)
The article marks the special servant; the body-servant.
Ear (ὠτίον)
A diminutive in form but not in sense; according to a Greek popular usage which expressed parts of the body by diminutives; as ῥίνια, the nostrils; ὀμμάτιον, the eye; σαρκίον, the body. Peter aimed his blow at the servant's head, but missed.
Put up again
Peter was still brandishing his sword.
Twelve legions of angels
Compare the story of Elisha at Dothan (Kg2 6:17).
A thief (λῃστὴν)
Better Rev., a robber. See Joh 10:1, Joh 10:8; and Luk 23:39-43. It is more than a petty stealer; rather one with associates, who would require an armed band to apprehend him. Hence the propriety of the reference to swords and staves.
I sat (ἐκαθεζόμην)
The imperfect tense, denoting something habitual. I was accustomed to sit.
I adjure thee
I call upon thee to swear. The high-priest put Christ upon oath.
That (ἵνα)
In order that; signifying the design with which he adjured the Lord.
Thou hast said
An affirmation. You have spoken the truth. What thou hast asked me is the fact. Compare Mat 26:25.
Nevertheless (πλὴν)
However. Apart from my affirmation, you shall see for yourself.
Guilty of death (ἔνοχος θανάτου)
Rev., worthy of death. See on Mat 23:18. ἐν, in, ἔχω, to hold. The idea is, literally, holden of death; in bonds to death.
Buffet (ἐκολάφισαν)
With the fist.
Smote with the palms of their hands
All expressed by one word, ἐράπισαν, from ῥαπίς, a rod, and meaning to smite with rods, not with the palms. The same word is employed in Mat 5:39. It came to mean generally to strike.
A damsel (μία παιδίσκη)
Lit., one damsel, because the writer has in mind a second one (Mat 26:71).
Gone out
Through fear of being further questioned.
The man
As if he did not know Jesus' name.
To curse (καταθεματίζειν)
A new development of profanity. Hitherto he had merely sworn. Now he adds imprecation; invoking curses on himself if the case be not as he says.