Matthew12chapter 12

Matthew 12:9-10

Jesus entered their synagogue: Jesus “entered their synagogue”, where a man with a withered hand met him, and they asked “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” The hand was wasted by disuse, so no emergency forced the timing. The Pharisees staged the test themselves, and Jesus took it up in the open.

Jerome lays out the trap in the question. If Jesus refused, they could charge him with cruelty or weakness, and if he healed, with breaking the Law. Adam Clarke suggests a partial paralysis, and notes that the man still used his feet to come to worship.

Matthew 12:11-13

The sheep in the pit argues from the Pharisees’ own practice. Jesus reasons from that lesser mercy to a greater one, “How much more valuable is a man than a sheep”. The command “Stretch out your hand” asks the man to do what his withered hand could not.

How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cite Proverbs 12:10, where a righteous man cares for the life of his animal. They draw the stronger claim for a fellow man. Adam Clarke calls the reply an argument on the hearers' own ground; Theophylact says they would set aside the Sabbath for money.

Thomas Aquinas reads the healing as Jesus answering the question with a deed, a cure he would only perform if it were lawful. Theophylact applies the withered hand to the tightfisted, who open their hands to give once the gospel sounds within them. The deed settled the debate.

the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus: After a healing they could not deny, “the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus”. Mark 3:6 names the Herodians joining them, an alliance of religious and political enemies who agreed on nothing else. Within a single chapter the Sabbath question has become a capital matter.

Matthew 12:15-16

Jesus withdrew from that place: Aware of the plot, Jesus “withdrew from that place”, and he healed the crowds that followed, “warning them not to make Him known”. The charge to silence fits the Gospel’s pattern, which keeps popular acclaim from forcing an early crisis. Matthew then explains the withdrawal itself as prophecy fulfilled.

warning them not to make Him known: Matthew Henry reads the warning as prudence, since the public talk about the miracles enraged the Pharisees more than the miracles did. Thomas Aquinas sees an example of shunning human glory. Remigius of Rheims says it kept the Pharisees from sinning worse by persecuting him.

Matthew 12:17-18

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: The words “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah” introduce the longest Old Testament quotation in Matthew, Isaiah 42:1-4. It names the Servant “My beloved, in whom My soul delights”. The Servant will “proclaim justice to the nations”, which anticipates the chapter’s turn to Nineveh.

Matthew quotes Isaiah 42, as Jerome notes. Remigius of Rheims explains that Christ is called a servant in respect of the flesh he took. John Wesley notes that the Hebrew word for justice can also mean mercy, so the merciful gospel is published to the nations.

Matthew 12:19-21

He will not quarrel or cry out: The line “He will not quarrel or cry out” describes the withdrawal. The words “A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish” picture a ministry that spares the weak. The citation closes with “In His name the nations will put their hope”.

A bruised reed He will not break: John Wesley reads the bruised reed as a sinner crushed by the weight of sin, and the smoldering wick as the faintest spark of grace. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that where Matthew has victory, the Hebrew and the Septuagint read truth. Theophylact reads it as restraint toward his opponents.

John Gill notes that Matthew leaves out a line of Isaiah 42:4 and closes on the hope of the Gentiles. John Chrysostom reads the verse as a promise that Christ will win the whole world. Augustine saw that promise fulfilled in his own day.

Matthew 12:22-23

a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute: Jesus healed “a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute”. The crowd asked “Could this be the Son of David?”, taking up the title first raised at 9:27. The double affliction left no room to credit natural skill, which drives the Pharisees to the darker explanation that follows.

Son of David was a title for the Messiah, as John Wesley and Adam Clarke explain. Clarke points to Isaiah 35:5, where the eyes of the blind are opened. Hilary of Poitiers observes that the crowd's wonder made the Pharisees more jealous; verse 24 gives their answer.

The Pharisees answer a miracle with the charge, “Only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, does this man drive out demons”. They credit the plain work of the Spirit to the ruler of demons. That is the edge of the unforgivable sin Jesus names at verses 31 and 32.

Matthew 12:25-26

Knowing their thoughts: “Knowing their thoughts”, Jesus answers the charge, since “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste”. If Satan drives out Satan, “How then can his kingdom stand?”, for no ruler pays for the ruin of his own house. The logic exposes the accusation as self-defeating on its own premise.

divided against himself: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set out the reasoning: any society at war with itself falls, and the works of Jesus tear down Satan's kingdom. A league with Satan would be suicide for Satan. Matthew Henry adds that the devil guards his kingdom with all his power.

Matthew 12:27-28

by whom do your sons drive them out?: Jesus turns the charge by asking “by whom do your sons drive them out?”, since Jewish exorcists worked in this period. So “they will be your judges”. The positive claim follows, “if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”.

by the Spirit of God: Jerome notes that Luke gives the saying as the finger of God. Adam Clarke sets the Spirit of God against the fumigations and magical washings by which Jewish exorcists claimed to cast out demons. For Theophylact, it marks the Son of God come among them.

how can anyone enter a strong man’s house: Entering “a strong man’s house” to plunder it pictures Satan as a householder disarmed. The plunderer cannot act “unless he first ties up the strong man”. The binding points back to the temptation of chapter 4, and every deliverance since plunders a house whose master no longer holds it unopposed.

He who is not with Me is against Me: The saying closes the argument with no room left for neutrality. Whoever will not confess the Spirit’s work has taken the scattering side by that refusal. The verse is the hinge into the warning that follows, since the crowd has just watched the Spirit’s work called Satan’s.

Matthew 12:31-32

the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven: The saying has drawn more than one reading. Some hold it names the act committed, calling the Spirit’s work Satan’s, and others read it of hardened unbelief kept until death. A word against the Son of Man, which may come from ignorance of who stands before them, “will be forgiven”.

whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit: The warning answers the Beelzebul charge of verse 24. Augustine identifies blasphemy against the Spirit as unrepentance, the impenitent heart that keeps murmuring against God's free grace. Adam Clarke reads the two ages as the Jewish dispensation and the one that was to follow.

Make a tree good and its fruit will be good: The saying returns to the tree and its fruit at 7:17-20, now aimed at the men who just called good fruit evil. The verse bridges from the unforgivable sin back to ordinary accountability. The Pharisees’ own words in this chapter are about to be weighed on that same scale.

Matthew 12:34-35

You brood of vipers: “You brood of vipers” repeats John the Baptist’s charge at 3:7, now from the greater one he announced. The question presses the tree and its fruit onto speech. The words “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks” make the heart the source.

good store of treasure: Cyril of Alexandria takes the treasure as the store of motives in the soul, and says people become good or bad by their own choice. Thomas Aquinas compares a word to a gift drawn from that store. Jerome applies the saying to the blasphemy of verse 24.

Matthew 12:36-37

men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word: Jesus extends the account to speech that seems weightless. The word rendered “careless”, idle in the King James, means unemployed or unprofitable, words that do no work and bear no fruit. Verse 37 makes speech evidence at the judgment, the fruit by which the tree of verse 33 is read.

by your words you will be acquitted: John Chrysostom notes the fairness of this court, since each person answers for the words he himself has spoken. John Wesley adds that words stand in evidence beside tempers and works. Adam Clarke warns that many count words as nothing.

Matthew 12:38-39

Scribes and Pharisees say, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You”, asking for a further sign after refusing the one given. Jesus names the demand itself as the symptom, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign”. The only sign granted is “the sign of the prophet Jonah”.

Jerome and Origen explain adulterous in the prophets' sense: Israel had left her true husband for other lovers, as Ezekiel 16 describes. John Wesley notes that they asked for a sign after signs enough to convince them. The sign of Jonah follows in verse 40.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish: The sign is named directly, since “the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. Most count by Jewish practice. A minority place the crucifixion on a Wednesday, and on either count the sign given is death and resurrection.

Matthew 12:41-42

The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation: The men of Nineveh were Gentiles who “repented at the preaching of Jonah”, a foreign prophet’s single sermon. Both are Gentile witnesses against a generation with “One greater than Jonah” and “One greater than Solomon” before it, completing the chain of greater claims.

The Queen of the South: Theophylact contrasts her long road to hear about trees and the things of nature with a generation that had One greater speaking to them. Origen sees the church of the Gentiles in her, bringing faith in place of silver and spices. Augustine notes that foreigners listened where his people refused.

Matthew 12:43-45

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man: The unclean spirit passes through “arid places seeking rest”. It finds the house “vacant, swept clean, and put in order”, a life reformed and left unfilled. The nation had reformed under John’s preaching, yet it stood empty of the greater presence now offered it and faced a worse ruin.

swept clean, and put in order: Rabanus Maurus reads the house as swept of its old vices by baptism, empty of good works, and put in order with feigned virtues. John Wesley has it empty of God, of Christ and of his Spirit. John Gill applies it to the Pharisees' outward reform.

seven other spirits more wicked than itself: John Wesley takes seven as a round number for a great many, and notes that the spirits differ in wickedness. Cyril of Alexandria explains that a person freed from evil who loses self-control falls further than before. Augustine says a cleansed house needs the Spirit to dwell there.

Matthew 12:46-47

His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him: While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, “His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him”. The visit carried ordinary family concern, and Mark 3:21 records that his kin went out to restrain him. The interruption sets up the sharpest family saying in the Gospel so far.

Your mother and brothers are standing outside: Luke 8:19 explains the scene, as Thomas Aquinas notes: the crowd was too dense for the family to reach him. Jerome suspects the messenger meant to test whether Jesus would put flesh and blood ahead of his work. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call it an untimely interruption.

Matthew 12:48-50

Jesus redraws the boundary of his family by pointing to his disciples, “Here are My mother and My brothers”. Entry into his household comes by obedience. The saying answers the Son of David question of verse 23 by widening sonship into a family of the will.

Pointing to His disciples: John Gill counts among the disciples all present who truly believed, women as well as men. Ambrose of Milan adds that Jesus keeps the command to honour father and mother, while owing more to the mysteries of his Father. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear an eyewitness in the gesture.

does the will of My Father in heaven: Theodore of Mopsuestia says Jesus values closeness of soul above any tie of blood. Adam Clarke calls those united to him by his Spirit his best acknowledged relatives. Gregory the Dialogist says faith makes a person the Lord's brother.