Matthewchapter 22
46 verses · Matthew, by tradition · AD 50 to 65 · The Gospels
Key verse
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
It stands in The Sadducees and the Resurrection, verses 23 to 33.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Parable of the wedding feast and the king's supper. Tribute to Caesar: 'render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.' Sadducees on resurrection; a lawyer on the great commandment; and Jesus' own David-son question that silences them.
Context
Gospel · Matthew · Matthew overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Jewish readers who knew every one of the parties taking a turn
- Where
- The temple courts, in a day of set-piece public questioning
- When
- The final week in Jerusalem. c. AD 30 or 33
Historical context
Wedding invitations came twice. A first notice went out well in advance, and a second summons announced that the feast was ready, which is why refusing at the second call was a calculated insult, not a scheduling problem. A great man's wedding feast for his son was a public event no subject declined lightly.
The tax question was a trap with two jaws. The poll tax was paid directly to Rome by every adult in Judea, and it was the grievance that had sparked armed revolt in AD 6 under Judas the Galilean. Say yes and lose the crowd; say no and the Herodians, a party loyal to Herod's house and to Rome, have their charge.
The coin itself carried the trap. The denarius bore the head of Tiberius and an inscription naming him son of the deified Augustus, an image and a claim that many devout Jews found offensive to carry into the temple at all. Asking whose likeness is on it made the point before he answered it.
The Sadducees' riddle used the levirate law from Deuteronomy, under which a man was to marry his childless brother's widow and raise up an heir in his name. The Sadducees denied any resurrection, so they built the most ridiculous case they could from the Law they most respected.
The final question is answered with the Shema, the confession every Jewish household recited morning and evening, the LORD is one, and you shall love him with everything, joined to the command from Leviticus about loving a neighbour.
Significance
The wedding parable told Matthew's readers where they stood: the invited guests refused, so the servants were sent to the roads to bring in anyone they found. That is how a mixed congregation came to exist.
But the man thrown out for lacking a wedding garment kept it from being cheap. Getting in off the street did not mean the feast had no standards. Grace brought them in; it did not leave them as they were.
Where the chapter sits
Matthew 22 falls in Community in the Kingdom (chapters 18). Discourse 4: greatness, forgiveness.
Before it: Parables of the Kingdom, chapters 13. After it: Olivet Discourse, chapters 24–25.
The whole shape of Matthew→The structure of this chapter
Threads running through this chapter
- Sit thou at my right handPattern, v. 44
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Wedding Feast and the Man Without a Garment
spake unto them again by parables: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and the parable joins Hosea's marriage theology to the bridegroom thread the Gospel has carried since Jesus named himself the bridegroom at 9:15. The king's servants are sent to call them that were bidden, language that assumes a prior invitation already accepted, a normal two-stage custom in that world, and yet they would not come. Coming on the heels of the wicked husbandmen in the chapter just past, this second parable answers the same rejection with a wedding rather than a vineyard, mercy offered again before judgment falls.
Matthew 22:1
“And Jesus answered and spake unto them again in parables - See the notes at Mat 13:3. That is, he answered or made reply to the Pharisees, who had been enraged at him for what he had already spoken to them, Mat 21:45-46. He made a still further statement, to show how the gospel would be received and treated by them. The real answer here, as is frequently the case in the New Testament, refers to what was passing in the mind, or to the conduct of those who were addressed, not to what they said.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Matthew 22:1
“The King is God, a great King, King of kings. Here is a marriage made for his son, Christ is the Bridegroom, the church is the bride; the gospel-day is the day of his espousals, Cant. iii. Behold by faith the church of the first-born, that are written in heaven, and were given to Christ by him whose they were; and in them you see the bride, the Lamb's wife, Rev. xxi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 22:2
“The kingdom of heaven, in respect of Him who reigns there, is like a king; in respect of Him who shares the kingdom, it is like a king's son; in respect of those things which are in the kingdom, it is like servants and guests, and among them the king's armies. It is specified, A man that is a king, that what is spoken may be as by a man to men, and that a man may regulate men unwilling to be regulated by God.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:2
“The kingdom of heaven - In Bereshith Rabba, sect. 62. fol. 60, there is a parable very similar to this, and another still more so in Sohar. Levit. fol. 40. But these rabbinical parables are vastly ennobled by passing through the hands of our Lord. It appears from Luke, Luk 14:15; etc., that it was at an entertainment that this parable was originally spoken. It was a constant practice of our Lord to take the subjects of his discourses from the persons present, or from the circumstances of times, persons, and places.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 22:2
“The last was a parable of the Old Testament history; and Christ is rather the last and greatest of the line of its prophets and teachers than the founder of a new kingdom. In that, God appears demanding something from men; in this, a parable of grace, God appears more as giving something to them.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
my oxen and my fatlings are killed: , and all things are ready, describes a feast already spread, nothing left for the invited but to come, and still they made light of it, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, ordinary business preferred over a king's own son. The remnant's answer goes further than indifference, they entreated the servants spitefully and slew them, echoing the wicked husbandmen's treatment of the prophets one chapter earlier. The bench reads the doubled scene, one parable of a vineyard and one of a wedding, both ending in murdered messengers, as Jesus naming the same rejection twice so no hearer could mistake his meaning for a single unfortunate case.
Matthew 22:4
“By the servants who were sent the second time, we may better understand the Prophets than the Apostles; that is to say, if servant is read in the first place; but if 'servants,' then by the second servants are to be understood the Apostles; The dinner that is prepared, the oxen and the fatlings that are killed, is either a description of regal magnificence by the way of metaphor, that by carnal things spiritual may be understood; or the greatness of the doctrines, and the manifold teaching of God in His law, may be understood.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:4
“Again he sent forth other servants,.... The seventy disciples, and other ministers of the Gospel, as Barnabas and Saul, and others that were joined to, and were helpers of the apostles, who were sent, and preached to the Jews, any time before the destruction of Jerusalem: saying, tell them which are bidden; for these preachers of the word were first sent to the Jews, and preached unto them, until they by their carriage and conduct, showed themselves to be unworthy of the blessing.”
Matthew 22:4
“Other servants - Who might press it on their attention. So God repeats his message to sinners when they reject it. My dinner - This word literally denotes the meal taken about noon. It is also taken for a meal in general. As marriages were, among Eastern nations, in the evening, it refers here to a meal taken at that time. Fatlings - This word does not refer to any particular species of animals. It denotes any fat animals. As oxen are also mentioned, however, it refers here, probably, to lambs or calves, 2Sa 6:13; 1Ch 15:26.”
Matthew 22:4
“When the prophets of the Old Testament prevailed not, nor John the Baptist, nor Christ himself, who told them the entertainment was almost ready ( the kingdom of God was at hand ), the apostles and ministers of the gospel were sent after Christ's resurrection, to tell them it was come, it was quite ready; and to persuade them to accept the offer.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 22:5
“There follows: "But they neglected it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business." To go to a farm is to devote oneself immoderately to earthly labor; to go to business is to yearn for the profits of worldly activities. For when one person is intent on earthly labor and another is given over to the activities of this world, each refuses to consider the mystery of the Lord's incarnation and to live according to it—as if going off to a farm or to business, he declines to come to the king's wedding.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 38patristic
Matthew 22:6
“And the remnant ... - That is, a part made light of it; treated it with silent contempt, and coolly went about their business. The others were not satisfied with that, but showed positive malignity. Some sinners seem to be well satisfied by merely neglecting religion; others proceed against it with open violence and bitter malice. Entreated them spitefully - Used harsh and opprobrious words. Reviled and abused them. This was done because they hated and despised the king.”
he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers: The king was wroth, and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city, a judgment many commentators read as pointing forward to Rome's armies burning Jerusalem within the generation, a historical reading of the verse's own imagery rather than a claim that the parable settles every question of Israel's future. The bench treats the sentence as falling on the specific rejection just narrated, the murder of the servants, not as a verdict on a people for all time. The parable does not stop here; the invitation goes out again in the very next verse.
Matthew 22:7
“But when the king heard ... - This doubtless refers to the Jews and to Jerusalem. They were murderers, having slain the prophets; and God was about to send forth the armies of the Romans under his providential direction, and to burn up their city. See the notes at Matt. 24. Wroth - Angry; displeased.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:7
“Jerusalem, once "the city of the Great King" (Ps 48:2), and even up almost to this time (Mt 5:35); but now it is "their city"--just as our Lord, a day or two after this, said of the temple, where God had so long dwelt, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate" (Mt 23:38)!”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
they which were bidden were not worthy: Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage widens the invitation past the first bidden guests to whoever the servants can find, and the Gentiles-gathered-in thread that began with the magi and the centurion reaches one of its plainest statements here. Both bad and good are gathered, the wedding furnished with guests not because of their prior merit but because the king's servants simply called them in from the roads. The bench reads the breadth of the guest list as grace extended wide, with the garment scene that follows immediately showing the invitation is not the whole of what is asked.
Matthew 22:8
“He saith to His servants, that is, to the Apostles; or to the Angels, who were set over the calling of the Gentiles, The wedding is ready. Or otherwise; I suppose this first bidding to the wedding to have been a bidding of some of the more noble minds.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:8
“Were not worthy - Because they made light of it, and would not come; preferring earthly things to heavenly blessings. Among the Mohammedans, refusal to come to a marriage feast, when invited, is considered a breach of the law of God. Hedayah, vol. iv. p. 91. Any one that shall be invited to a dinner, and does not accept the invitation, disobeys God, and his messenger: and any one who comes uninvited, you may say is a thief, and returns a plunderer. - Mischat ul Mesabih. It was probably considered in this light among all the oriental nations.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 22:9
“The highways - Literally, the “exit” or “going out” of the “paths or roads.” It means the square or principal street, into which a number of smaller streets enter; a place, therefore, of confluence, where many persons would be seen, and persons of all descriptions. By this is represented the offering of the gospel to the Gentiles. They were commonly regarded among the Jews as living in highways and hedges cast out and despised.”
Matthew 22:10
“So these servants went out into the highways,.... Turned from the Jews, and went among the Gentiles, preaching the Gospel to them; particularly the Apostle Paul, with Barnabas, and others: and gathered together all, as many as they found, both good and bad: the Persic version reads it, "known or unknown".”
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:10
“So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good--that is, without making any distinction between open sinners and the morally correct. The Gospel call fetched in Jews, Samaritans, and outlying heathen alike. Thus far the parable answers to that of "the Great Supper" (Lu 14:16, &c.).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Matthew 22:10
“The case of hypocrites, who are in the church, but not of it, who have a name to live, but are not alive indeed, is represented by the guest that had not on a wedding garment; one of the bad that were gathered in. Those come short of salvation by Christ, not only who refuse to take upon them the profession of religion, but who are not sound at heart in that profession.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a man which had not on a wedding garment: stands out among guests gathered straight off the highways, and the detail matters because ancient custom, several commentators note, had such garments supplied by the host himself, which is why the man is speechless when asked and offers no excuse of poverty. Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness sets the weeping-and-gnashing refrain in its fourth sounding in this Gospel, the same sentence spoken over the children of the kingdom at 8:12. The bench reads the garment as the righteousness the guest was offered and refused rather than achieved by his own coming, entrance to the feast being free and its dress code still real.
Matthew 22:11
“A man which had not on a wedding garment - In ancient times, kings and princes were accustomed to make presents of changes of raiment to their friends and favourites, to refuse to receive which was an expression of highest contempt, Gen 45:22; 2Ki 10:22; Est 6:8; Est 8:15. It was, of course, expected that such garments would be worn when they came into the presence of the benefactor.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:11
“This man was not naked, or in rags; some raiment he had, but not a wedding garment. Those, and those only, who put on the Lord Jesus, that have a Christian temper of mind, and are adorned with Christian graces, who live by faith in Christ, and to whom he is all in all, have the wedding garment.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 22:12
“And he saith unto him, friend,.... Either in an ironical way, or because he professed to be a friend of God and Christ: how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? Which way didst thou come in hither? since he did not come in by faith, in the righteousness of Christ; intimating, that he climbed up some other way, and was a thief and robber; or with what face, or how couldest thou have the assurance to come in hither in such a dress, having nothing but the filthy rags of thine own righteousness?”
3 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:12
“He saith unto him, Friend - Rather, companion: so εταιρε should be translated. As this man represents the state of a person in the visible Church, who neglects to come unto the master of the feast for a marriage garment, for the salvation which Christ has procured, he cannot be with any propriety called a friend, but may well be termed a companion, as being a member of the visible Church, and present at all those ordinances where Christ’s presence and blessing are found, by all those who sincerely wait upon him for salvation.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 22:12
“And forasmuch as he who is in sin, and puts not on the Lord Jesus Christ, has no excuse, it follows, But he was speechless.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 22:12
“A wedding garment - The righteousness of Christ, first imputed, then implanted. It may easily be observed, this has no relation to the Lord's Supper, but to God's proceeding at the last day.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew 22:13
“Cast him into outer darkness - See the notes at Mat 8:12. This, without doubt, refers to the future punishment of the hypocrite, Mat 23:23-33; Mat 24:51.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:13
“Damned sinners are bound hand and foot by an irreversible sentence; this signifies the same with the fixing of the great gulf; they can neither resist nor outrun their punishment. (2.) He is ordered to be carried off from the wedding feast; When the wickedness of hypocrites appears, they are to be taken away from the communion of the faithful, to be cut of as withered branches.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
many are called, but few are chosen: closes the parable with a summary that holds both halves together, the wide invitation into the highways and the narrower company that actually wears the garment given. The bench divides over how sharply calling and choosing are to be distinguished, some reading called as the general gospel invitation and chosen as those who answer it in truth, others reading a stronger predestinarian distinction; the exposition names the positions without adjudicating between them. Either reading agrees that the parable's warning falls precisely on a guest already inside the feast, not on those still outside it.
Matthew 22:14
“Many are called, etc. - This verse is wanting in one of Colbert’s MSS., marked 33 in Griesbach. See the note on Mat 20:16. Many are called by the preaching of the Gospel into the outward communion of the Church of Christ; but few, comparatively, are chosen to dwell with God in glory, because they do not come to the master of the feast for a marriage garment - for that holiness without which none can see the Lord.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Render to Caesar What Is Caesar's
took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk: The Pharisees took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk, and their chosen instrument is telling: they send their own disciples paired with the Herodians, a party that otherwise stood for everything the Pharisees opposed, since a tribute question united them against a common target. Their flattery, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, is offered as bait rather than confession, meant to trap him into praising Rome before nationalist ears or denouncing it before Herod's own men. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cesar is built to have no safe answer, a yes alienating the crowds and a no supplying grounds for treason.
Matthew 22:15
“The Pharisees and Herodians endeavor to entangle Jesus - This narrative is also found in Mar 12:12-17; Luk 20:20-26. Mat 22:15 Then went the Pharisees - See the notes at Mat 3:7. How they might entangle him - To entangle means to “ensnare,” as birds are taken by a net. This is done secretly, by leading them within the compass of the net and then suddenly springing it over them. So to entangle is artfully to lay a plan for enticing; to beguile by proposing a question, and by leading, if possible, to an incautious answer.”
Matthew 22:16
“The Herodians - For an account of this sect, see the note on Mat 16:1. The preceding parable had covered the Pharisees with confusion: when it was ended they went out, not to humble themselves before God, and deprecate the judgments with which they were threatened; but to plot afresh the destruction of their teacher. The depth of their malice appears, 1. In their mode of attack. They had often questioned our Lord on matters concerning religion; and his answers only served to increase his reputation, and their confusion.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:16
“Note, It is common for those that oppose one another, to continue in an opposition to Christ and his kingdom. Samson's foxes looked several ways, but met in one firebrand. If they are unanimous in opposing, should not we be so in maintaining, the interests of the gospel?”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew 22:17
“This smooth and treacherous enquiry was a kind of challenge to the answerer to fear God rather than Cæsar, and immediately they say, Tell us therefore, what thinkest Thou? Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar or not? Should He say tribute should not be paid, the Herodians would immediately accuse Him as a person disaffected to the Emperor.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:17
“First, That the Christian religion is no enemy to civil government, but a friend to it. Christ's kingdom doth not clash or interfere with the kingdoms of the earth, in any thing that pertains to their jurisdiction. Secondly, It is the duty of subjects to render to magistrates that which, according to the laws of their country, is their due.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?: Jesus perceived their wickedness before they had finished speaking, and names it outright, why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites, the hypocrite thread that runs through the Sermon's warnings against showy piety now spoken directly to men trying to trap him with flattering words. Shew me the tribute money brings out the coin itself, the answer already in their own pockets before he says a word about it. The bench notes the irony that Pharisees carrying Caesar's coin in the temple precinct had already answered their own question in practice.
Matthew 22:18
“Those that presume to tempt Christ will certainly find him too hard for them, and that he is of more piercing eyes than not to see, and more pure eyes than not to hate, the disguised wickedness of hypocrites, that dig deep to hide their counsel from him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:18
“What then saith He? "Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?" Seest thou how He talks with them with more than usual severity? For since their wickedness was now complete and manifest, He cuts the deeper, first confounding and silencing them, by publishing their secret thoughts, and making it manifest to all with what kind of intent they are coming unto Him. And these things He did, repulsing their wickedness, so that they might not suffer hurt in attempting the same things again.”
John Chrysostom· written before 407· Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 70patristic
Matthew 22:18
“He makes an answer not corresponding to the smooth tone of their address, but harsh, suitable to their cruel thoughts; for God answers men's hearts, and not their words. He therefore calls them hypocrites, that seeing Him to be a discerner of human hearts, they might not be hardy enough to carry through their design. Observe thus how the Pharisees spoke fair that they might destroy Him, but Jesus put them to shame that He might save them; for God's wrath is more profitable to man, than man's favour.”
Pseudo-Chrysostom· written before 500· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 22:18
“This is the first excellence of the answerer, that He discerns the thoughts of His examiners, and calls them not disciples but tempters. A hypocrite is he who is one thing, and feigns himself another.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 22:19
“Shew me the tribute money,.... Not any money, or any sort of coin that was current among them; but that in which the tribute was usually paid, which was Roman money: and they brought unto him a penny; not as, being what was the usual sum that was paid for tribute at one time, but as a sample of what sort of money it was paid in, in Roman pence; one of which was seven pence halfpenny of our money.”
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:19
“Wisdom does ever wisely, and so the tempters are best confuted out of their own words; therefore it follows, show me the tribute money; and they brought unto Him a denarius. This was a coin reckoned equivalent to ten sesterces, and bore the image of Cæsar.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 22:19
“They brought unto him a penny - A denarius: probably the ordinary capitation tax, though the poll tax in the law, Exo 30:13, Exo 30:14, was half a shekel, about twice as much as the denarius. The Roman denarius had the emperor’s image with a proper legend stamped on one side of it. It was not therefore the sacred shekel which was to be paid for the repairs of the temple which was now demanded, but the regular tribute required by the Roman government.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Whose is this image and superscription?: turns their own coin into the answer, since a denarius stamped with Caesar's image already concedes Caesar's civil claim on it, and render therefore unto Cesar the things which are Cesar's grants that claim without hesitation. And unto God the things that are God's is the saying's larger half, not a balancing afterthought but the standard the first half is measured by, since a coin bears Caesar's image while a man bears God's own. When they had heard these words, they marvelled, the same wonder the centurion's faith drew in chapter 8, and left him, unable to answer and unwilling to stay.
Matthew 22:20
“Whose is this image and superscription? - He knew well enough whose they were; but he showed the excellency of his wisdom, 3dly, in making them answer to their own confusion. They came to ensnare our Lord in his discourse, and now they are ensnared in their own. He who digs a pit for his neighbor ordinarily falls into it himself.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:20
“The Herodians were a set of men peculiarly attached to Herod, and consequently zealous for the interest of the Roman government, which was the main support of the dignity and royalty of his family.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew 22:21
“They say unto Him, Cæsar's; not Augustus, but Tiberius, under whom also the Lord suffered. All the Roman Emperors were called Cæsar, from Caius Cæsar who first seized the chief power. Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's; i. e. the coin, tribute, or money. That is, tithes, first-fruits, oblation, and victims; as the Lord Himself rendered to Cæsar tribute, both for Himself and for Peter; and also rendered unto God the things that are God's in doing the will of His Father.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:21
“And indeed this is a standing rule. The current coin of every nation shows who is the supreme governor of it. Render therefore, ye Pharisees, to Caesar the things which ye yourselves acknowledge to be Ciaesar's: and, ye Herodians, while ye are zealous for Caesar, see that ye render to God the things that are God's.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew 22:21
“They say unto him, Caesars - The image was the head of the emperor; the superscription, his titles. Julius Caesar was the first who caused his image to be struck on the Roman coin. Tiberius was emperor at this time. Render therefore unto Caesar - The conclusion is drawn from their own premises. You acknowledge this to be Caesar’s coin; this coin is current, in your land; the currency of this coin shows the country to be under the Roman government; and your acknowledgment that it is Caesar’s proves you have submitted.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 22:22
“When they had heard these words, they marvelled - And well they might - never man spake like this man. By this decision, Caesar is satisfied - he gets his own to the uttermost farthing. God is glorified - his honor is in every respect secured. And the People are edified - one of the most difficult questions that could possibly come before them is answered in such a way as to relieve their consciences, and direct their conduct. See L’Evangile Medite, and see my discourse entitled, The Rights of God and Caesar.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Sadducees and the Resurrection
the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection: The same day came the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, a party distinct from the Pharisees precisely on this point, accepting only the five books of Moses as final authority and reading no bodily resurrection there. Their case is built from Moses' own levirate law in Deuteronomy 25:5, a brother marrying his dead brother's childless widow to raise up seed, and they stretch it into an absurdity, seven brethren married in succession to one woman. The question is designed as a trap for anyone who teaches resurrection, since a shared wife in the age to come was assumed by their own framing to be a problem with no clean answer.
Matthew 22:23
“I say nothing of the Jewish heretics who before the coming of Christ destroyed the law delivered to them: of Dositheus, the leader of the Samaritans who rejected the prophets: of the Sadducees who sprang from his root and denied even the resurrection of the flesh: of the Pharisees who separated themselves from the Jews on account of certain superfluous observances, and took their name from the fact of their dissent: of the Herodians who accepted Herod as the Christ.”
Jerome· written before 420· The Dialogue Against the Luciferians, Section 23patristic
Matthew 22:24
“Raise up seed unto his brother - This law is mentioned Deu 25:5. The meaning of the expression is, that the children produced by this marriage should be reckoned in the genealogy of the deceased brother, and enjoy his estates. The word seed should be always translated children or posterity. There is a law precisely similar to this among the Hindoos.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cross references
Matthew 22:24
Matthew 22:25
“Seven brethren - It is very likely that the Sadducees increased the number, merely to make the question the more difficult.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
and the third, unto the seventh: Last of all the woman died also finishes the Sadducees' constructed case, and their real question follows, whose wife shall she be of the seven, for they all had her, a question that only holds force if the resurrection is imagined as this present life resumed unchanged. The bench notes the trap assumes exactly what Jesus is about to deny, that marriage as known now simply continues into the age to come. The question is framed to embarrass belief in resurrection itself, not merely to settle a marriage custom.
Matthew 22:26
“Likewise the second also,.... The eldest of the surviving brethren, having married his brother's wife, after sometime died also without children, and left her to his next brother to marry her; and the third brother accordingly did marry her, and in process of time died likewise, leaving no issue behind him; and thus they went on in course, unto the seventh: the fourth, fifth, and sixth, married her in turn, and so did the seventh; and all died in the same circumstances, having no children by her.”
Matthew 22:27
“And last of all the woman died also. A widow and childless, having never married another person but these seven brethren; and the case with them being alike, no one having any child by her, upon which any peculiar claim to her could be formed, the following question is put.”
Matthew 22:28
“Therefore in the resurrection,.... As asserted by the Pharisees and by Christ, supposing that there will be such a thing, though not granting it; for these men denied it, wherefore the Ethiopic version reads it hypothetically, "if therefore the dead will be raised"; upon such a supposition, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her, or were married to her.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:28
“Whose wife shall she be of the seven? - The rabbins have said, That if a woman have two husbands in this world, she shall have the first only restored to her in the world to come. Sohar. Genes. fol. 24. The question put by these bad men is well suited to the mouth of a libertine. Those who live without God in the world have no other god than the world; and those who have not that happiness which comes from the enjoyment of God have no other pleasure than that which comes from the gratification of sensual appetites.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures: , nor the power of God answers a party that claimed Moses as its whole authority with a double charge, that they misread the very books they hold and underestimate what God is able to do. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven does not abolish the resurrected body but reorders its relationships, the institution that served procreation and companionship in a mortal age having no further office once death itself is undone. The bench reads this as correcting the Sadducees' materialism about the age to come, not as flattening every human relationship into sameness.
Matthew 22:29
“Ye do err - Or, Ye are deceived - by your impure passions: not knowing the scriptures, which assert the resurrection: - nor the miraculous power of God (την δυναμιν του Θεου) by which it is to be effected. In Avoda Sara, fol. 18, Sanhedrin, fol.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 22:30
"For in the resurrection," saith He, "they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels of God in Heaven." But Luke saith, "As Sons of God." If then they marry not, the question is vain. But not because they do not marry, therefore are they angels, but because they are as angels, therefore they do not marry. By this He removed many other difficulties also, all which things Paul intimated by one word, saying, "For the fashion of this world passeth away."
John Chrysostom· written before 407· Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 70patristic
4 more voices on this verse
Matthew 22:30
“WE must, all of us, develop one way or the other. Manhood, as we see it here, is but the green blade, or, at the best, the corn in the ear—the full corn in the ear will only be seen in the world to come. We must either descend or ascend— none of us can remain in the position which he occupies today. Some are sliding every hour downward, descending by the force of evil habits. More and more do they become the serfs and slaves of Satan, and by consequence, more and more developed into his image.”
Matthew 22:30
“If swiftness, or strength, or freedom of body, which nothing can resist: they shall be like the Angels of God, because it is sown a natural body, and shall rise a spiritual body, by power, assuredly, not by nature.”
Bonaventure· written before 1257· Breviloquium, Part 7patristic
Matthew 22:30
“Our Savior does not explain the meaning of the passage from Moses' law, rejecting them as unworthy of the knowledge of such a great mystery. He only represents matters in the simplest way as he speaks and teaches from the divine Scriptures concerning the resurrection of the dead. He teaches that there is no marriage in heaven but that those who are risen from the dead are like the angels in heaven. And, just as the angels in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage, so he says it is with those who are risen from the dead.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 17.30patristic
Matthew 22:30
"But if 'in that age they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be equal to angels,' is not the fact that there will be no restitution of the conjugal relation a reason why we shall not be bound to our departed consorts? "Nay, but the more shall we be bound (to them), because we are destined to a better estate-destined (as we are) to rise to a spiritual consortship, to recognise as well our own selves as them who are ours.
Tertullian· written before 220· On Monogamypatristic
touching the resurrection of the dead: Jesus answers the resurrection question itself from the one authority the Sadducees accepted, Moses at the burning bush, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and presses the tense of the statement rather than its content: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were centuries buried when God spoke those words to Moses, so the sentence only holds if the patriarchs still live to God, a resurrection argument drawn from a single verb in the Torah itself rather than from a text the Sadducees rejected. The multitude, hearing it, were astonished at his doctrine, a case built so tightly from their own accepted books that no rebuttal was offered.
Matthew 22:31
Have ye not read - This quotation is taken from Exo 3:6, Exo 3:16; and as the five books of Moses were the only part of Scripture which the Sadducees acknowledged as Divine, our Lord, by confuting them from those books, proved the second part of his assertion, “Ye are ignorant of those very scriptures which ye profess to hold sacred.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cross references
Matthew 22:31
- QuotingExodus 3:6“Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”
ouk anegnote to rhethen hymin hypo tou theou ('have ye not read that which was spoken unto you BY GOD'), rhethen frame naming God, not a prophet, as speaker (Nicole's God-as-author class)
Matthew 22:32
“I am the God of Abraham - Let it be observed, that Abraham was dead upwards of 300 years before these words were spoken to Moses: yet still God calls himself the God of Abraham, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:32
“I am the God of Abraham - The argument runs thus: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: (for that expression, Thy God, implies both benefit from God to man, and duty from man to God) but he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: therefore, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead, but living.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Cross references
Matthew 22:32
- QuotingExodus 3:6“Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”
'I am the God of Abraham', resurrection argument ('have ye not read that which was spoken')
Matthew 22:33
“And see how the assault of the Jews against Christ becomes more faint. Their first challenge was in a threatening tone, By what authority doest thou these things, to oppose which firmness of spirit was needed. Their second was with guile, to meet which was needed wisdom. This last was with ignorant presumption which is easier to cope with than the others. For he that thinks he knows somewhat, when he knows nothing, is an easy conquest for one who has understanding.”
Pseudo-Chrysostom· written before 500· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
The Greatest Commandment of All
put the Sadducees to silence: When the Pharisees heard he had put the Sadducees to silence they gathered together, and a lawyer among them asks which is the great commandment in the law, tempting him with a question rabbinic schools argued endlessly, since the six hundred and thirteen commandments were commonly sorted into weightier and lighter without full agreement on which was greatest. The bench reads the question as genuinely contested ground in that generation's teaching, not an invented trap like the tribute question, though the evangelist still calls it a temptation. Jesus answers it directly rather than turning it back on the asker, unlike the earlier two exchanges.
Matthew 22:34
“They were gathered together - Επι το αυτο - they came together with one accord, or, for the same purpose; i.e. of ensnaring him in his discourse, as the Sadducees had done, Mat 22:23. The Codex Bezae and several of the Itala have επ’ αυτον, against him. Camen togidre into oon. - Old MS. Eng, Bib.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:34
“The Pharisees having been themselves already confuted (in the matter of the denarius), and now seeing their adversaries also overthrown, should have taken warning to attempt no further deceit against Him; but hate and jealousy are the parents of impudence. The Pharisees and Sadducees, thus foes to one another, unite in one common purpose to tempt Jesus.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 22:35
“All who thus ask questions of any teacher to try him, and not to learn of him, we must regard as brethren of this Pharisee, according to what is said below, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of mine, ye have done it unto me. (Matt. 25:40.)”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:35
“A lawyer - Νομικος, a teacher of the law. What is called lawyer, in the common translation, conveys a wrong idea to most readers: my old MS. renders the word in the same way I have done. These teachers of the law were the same as the scribes, or what Dr. Wotton calls letter-men, whom he supposes to be the same as the Karaites, a sect of the Jews who rejected all the traditions of the elders, and admitted nothing but the written word. See Wotton’s Mishna, vol. i. p.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 22:36
“He said Master tempting Him, for none but a disciple would thus address Christ. Whoever then does not learn of the Word, nor yields himself wholly up to it, yet calls it Master, he is brother to this Pharisee thus tempting Christ. Perhaps while they read the Law before the Saviour's coming, it was a question among them which was the great commandment in it; nor would the Pharisee have asked this, if it had not been long time enquired among themselves, but never found till Jesus came and declared it.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:36
“Which is the great commandment - We see here three kinds of enemies and false accusers of Christ and his disciples; and three sorts of accusations brought against them. 1. The Herodians, or politicians and courtiers, who form their questions and accusations on the rights of the prince, and matters of state, Mat 22:16. 2. The Sadducees, or libertines, who found theirs upon matters of religion, and articles of faith, which they did not credit, Mat 22:23.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, the Shema Israel recited daily by every observant Jew, and Jesus names it first and great without qualification. The second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, joins Leviticus 19:18 to the first as its inseparable partner rather than a lesser add-on, and on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets states plainly that every other command is an application of these two, not a third body of separate rules. The bench reads Jesus here summarizing rather than replacing the law, the same righteousness thread that runs from the Sermon's fulfil all righteousness through the whole book.
Matthew 22:37
“Therefore the first commandment teaches every kind of godliness. For to love God with the whole heart is the cause of every good. The second commandment includes the righteous acts we do toward other people. The first commandment prepares the way for the second and in turn is established by the second. For the person who is grounded in the love of God clearly also loves his neighbor in all things himself. The kind of person who fulfills these two commandments experiences all the commandments.”
Cyril of Alexandria· written before 444· FRAGMENT 251patristic
Cross references
Matthew 22:37
- QuotingDeuteronomy 6:5“And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart', the great commandment
Matthew 22:38
“If the Lord had given no answer to the Pharisee who thus tempted Him, we should have judged that there was no commandment greater than the rest. But when the Lord adds, This is the first and great commandment, we learn how we ought to think of the commandments, that there is a great one, and that there are less down to the least. And the Lord says not only that it is a great, but that it is the first commandment, not in order of Scripture, but in supremacy of value.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 22:39
“Nor did He only teach the first and great commandment, but added that there was a second like unto the first, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. But if Whoso loveth iniquity hath hated his own soul, (Ps. 11:5.) it is manifest that he does not love his neighbour as himself, when he does not love himself.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Cross references
Matthew 22:39
- QuotingLeviticus 19:18“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
'the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself'
Matthew 22:40
“On these two - hang all the law and the prophets - They are like the first and last links of a chain, all the intermediate ones depend on them. True religion begins and ends in love to God and man. These are the two grand links that unite God to man, man to his fellows, and men again to God.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:40
“After this you ask how it is that "all the law and the prophets depend upon these two commands." For it seems that the texts show us that whatever was written in Exodus or Leviticus or Numbers or Deuteronomy depend "upon these two commands." But how is the law which regards lepers or the continual flow of blood or the menstruation of women dependent "upon these two commands"?”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4patristic
Whose Son Is the Christ?
the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them: While the Pharisees were still gathered, Jesus turns questioner himself, what think ye of Christ, whose son is he, and their answer, the Son of David, is entirely correct as far as it goes, the same title the crowds cried at his entry into the city. The Son of David thread that has run since Joseph was first so addressed reaches here its final beat before the cross, no longer a title supplied by the crowd but one the Pharisees themselves confirm under direct questioning. Their confidence in the answer is exactly what the next verse will unsettle.
Matthew 22:41
“Jesus proposes a question concerning the Messiah - See also Mar 12:35-37; Luk 20:41-44. Mat 22:41 While the Pharisees ... - Jesus, having confounded the great sects of the Jews, proceeds, in his turn, to propose to them a question for their solution. This was done, not for the purpose of vain parade and triumph, but: 1. To show them how ignorant they were of their prophecies. 2. To humble them in view of their ignorance.”
Matthew 22:42
“What think ye of Christ? - Or, What are your thoughts concerning The Christ - the Messiah; for to this title the emphatic article should always be added. Whose son is he? - From what family is he to spring? They say unto him, The son of David - This was a thing well known among the Jews, and universally acknowledged, see Joh 7:42; and is a most powerful proof against them that the Messiah is come.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:42
“The Jews tempted Christ, supposing Him to be mere man; had they believed Him to be the Son of God, they would not have tempted Him.”
Pseudo-Chrysostom· written before 500· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
How then doth David in spirit call him Lord: David in spirit calls him Lord, quoting Psalm 110:1, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool, a psalm every rabbinic reader in the crowd took as messianic and David himself as its author speaking of one greater than himself. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son presses a genuine puzzle a purely human Davidic descent cannot resolve on its own, and the exposition names the reading without forcing a single answer on the reader: that the Messiah is David's son by human descent and David's Lord by a greater nature, the two truths this Gospel has held together since Emmanuel, God with us, was announced in its first chapter. No man was able to answer him a word closes the whole day of temple confrontations, the questioners silenced by their own accepted Scriptures rather than by any argument outside them.
Matthew 22:43
“This passage is out of the 109th Psalm. Christ is therefore called David's Lord, not in respect of His descent from him, but in respect of His eternal generation from the Father, wherein He was before His fleshly Father. And he calls Him Lord, not by a mere chance, nor of his own thought, but by the Holy Spirit.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Matthew 22:44
“This question is still available for us against the Jews; for these who believe that Christ is yet to come, assert that He is a mere man, though a holy one, of the race of David. Let us then thus taught by the Lord ask them, If He be mere man, and only the Son of David, how does David call Him his Lord? To evade the truth of this question, the Jews invent many frivolous answers.”
Jerome· written before 420· Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
Cross references
Matthew 22:44
- QuotingPsalms 110:1The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
'The Lord said unto my Lord', the Davidic-sonship question (most-cited OT verse in NT)
ConnectionsPsalms 110:1
Matthew 22:45
“How is he his son? - As the Jews did not attempt to deny the conclusion of our Lord’s question, which was, the Messiah is not only the son of David according to the flesh, but he is the Lord of David according to his Divine nature, then it is evident they could not.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew 22:46
“And no man was able to answer him a word,.... They saw the dilemma they were reduced to, either to acknowledge the deity of the Messiah, or confess their ignorance; and neither of them they cared to do, and therefore judged it to be the wisest part to be silent.”
1 more voice on this verse
Matthew 22:46
“Neither durst any - ask him any more questions - “Thus,” says Dr. Wotton, “our Lord put the four great sects of the Jews to silence, in one day, successively. The Herodians and Pharisees wanted to know whether they might lawfully pay tribute to Caesar or not. The Sadducees were inquisitive to know whose wife the woman should be of the seven brethren, in the resurrection, who had her to wife. Then comes the scribe, (or karaite), who owned no authority beyond or besides the written law, and asked which was the great commandment in the law.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms and Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 110.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae on Matthew; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.