Luke 6:39

Luk_6:39

Can the blind lead the blind?

Shall they not both fall into the ditch?

The suggestive supposition is made by Dr. Reid (Inquiry into the human mind) that it had been as uncommon to be born with the power of sight as it is now to be born incapable of it, in which case the few who had this rare gift would appear as prophets or inspired teachers to the many.

Blind-led blind

Many a paraphrase of the proverb, and of a perishing people where there is no vision, might be cited from the histories and miscellanies of Mr. Carlyle. It is a trite theme with him--the need of what he calls men with an eye, to lead those who need guidance. We might apply what Shakesperes Gloster, in King Lear, says, after his eyes have been barbarously put out, and he seeks a guide in Mad Tom, and is warned, Alack, sir, hes mad! Tis the times plague, when madmen lead the blind. Ill fare the people that take up with blind guides. Like Elymas, when there fell upon him a mist and a darkness, they go about seeking some one to lead them by the hand. Some one, any one. Who will show us any good--who will deliver us from this hour and power of darkness? And sometimes he that is struck blind takes for guide him that is born blind. And straightway they make for the ditch. St. Gregory the Great, in his treatise on the pastoral care, vigorously censures those who, without proper qualifications, undertake the care of souls, which he calls the art of all arts. Who does not know, he says, that the wounds of the mind are more difficult to be understood than those of the body! And yet men unacquainted with the spiritual precepts will profess themselves physicians of the heart, while those who are ignorant of the effects of drugs would blush to set up for physicians of the body. And anon he quotes the proverb of the blind-led blind. In no such connection, and in no such spirit, Shelley quotes it, when describing priests and princes pale with terror, whose faith fell, like a shaft loosed by the bowmans error, on their own hearts.

They sought and they could find O refuge--twas the blind who led the blind.

But, after all, there may be something worse than even a blind guide; for, as South observes in his sermon on the fatal imposture of words, A blind guide is certainly a great mischief: but a guide that blinds those whom he should lead, is certainly a greater. The proverb was full in Souths eye when, in another sermon, discussing the case of a man who exerts all the faculties of his soul, and plies all means and opportunities in the search of truth which God has vouchsafed him, the preacher concludes that such a man may rest upon the judgment of his conscience so informed, as a warrantable guide of those actions which he must account to God for: and if by following such a guide he fall into the ditch, the ditch shall never drown him. But the same vigorous divine elsewhere deprecates a blind watchman as equally a nuisance and an impertinence--and such a paradox, both in reason and in practice, he contends, is a deluded conscience, namely a counsellor who cannot advise, and a guide not able to direct. The will and the affections are made to follow and obey, not to lead and direct; and therefore, he goes on to say, if error has perverted the order, and disturbed the original economy of our faculties, and a blind will thereupon comes to be led by a blind understanding, there is no remedy, but it must trip and stumble, and sometimes fall into the noisome ditch of the foulest enormities and immoralities. (F. Jacox.)

Blind leaders

I. THE CASE PROPOSED--Can the blind lead the blind? Upon this we found the following remarks:

1. All men by nature are in a state of spiritual blindness. The proofs of this moral and spiritual blindness press upon our attention on every hand.

(1) Consider, in the first place, the erroneous and mistaken apprehensions which men generally entertain of the character of God.

(2) The unconsciousness of men to the moral and spiritual dangers by which they are threatened is another proof that darkness hath covered the human mind.

(3) The intense love and ardent pursuit of the things of the present world form another striking manifestation of the blindness of the human heart with regard to spiritual things.

2. I remark that to the blind some sort of guidance is absolutely necessary. We all feel this with respect to the calamity of natural blindness.

3. It is obvious to remark that those who proffer themselves to be the guides of the blind should themselves possess the visual faculty. What supplemental aid can the blind derive from those who are themselves in the same unhappy condition?

II. THE CATASTROPHE PREDICTED. If the blind lead the blind, shall they not both fall into the ditch? Upon this I would remark:

1. That ignorant and unfaithful teachers are to be considered as the heaviest imaginable curse wherever they exist.

2. The text reminds us that the consequence of this state o! things is that both shall fall into the ditch. The blind who are led, and the blind leaders by whom they are led, it is much to be feared will share one common doom. They will fall into sentimental errors--they will fall into practical immoralities-they will fall into final perdition--unless the grace and mercy of the Most High prevent.

(1) The ruin into which they lead others, and which they prepare for themselves, is, first, inexcusable.

(2) As this ruin will be found to be inexcusable, so will it be found to be inevitable. There is nothing that can hinder; but from the erroneous system which I have described as certain, inevitable ruin must follow.

(3) And the ruin will be found to be irretrievable.

(4) This ruin which is inexcusable, inevitable, and irretrievable, will be found to be eternal.

III. Let me apply the principles which have been thus briefly developed in favour of the institution for which I am about to plead. You are aware I am to ask your benevolent aid on behalf of the Home Missionary Society.

1. Let me remind you of the necessity which there exists for the interposition of such efforts as those which this society exerts.

2. Consider the erroneous guidance under which a vast proportion of this population is actually placed. (G. Clayton, M. A.)

The choice o/ a leader

Two extremes exist in reference to the pilgrimage and scholarship of life. Some assert that man needs no guide whatever. Is he not a noble creature, gifted with high intelligence? Can he not reason and judge, and understand and discern? He can surely find his own way, without direction from without. As a learner, why needs he a teacher? He can instruct himself. Such self-sufficient boasters will not, therefore, condescend to sit at the feet of a master, or follow the track of a guide, and consequently they frequently become erratic, singular, lawless, and unreasonable in their modes of thought, and even of act. Into the mazes of infidelity and atheism such pilgrims wander; into foolishness and strong delusion such teachers of themselves conduct their own minds. This scheme is dangerous, but its opposite pole is not less so. Deliver a man from rationalism, and he often swings into superstition, and says, I see that I need a guide, I will take the one nearest to hand. Between these two extremes there is a narrow path of right, and happy is he who finds it, viz., the honestly and sincerely judging who the leader and teacher should be, the discovery that a leader has been appointed in the person of the Lord Jesus, and a teacher in the Divine Spirit, and then a complete, willing, and believing submission of the whole man to this infallible guidance.

I. The text announces to us A GREAT, GENERAL PRINCIPLE AS A WARNING, viz., that a disciple does not get above his master, but becomes like him.

1. It is evident that the disciple is generally drawn to the master who is most like himself. There is about us all a natural tendency to admire our own image, and to be willing to submit to any who are superior to us, and yet are of our type. If the blind man only could see he would not choose a blind man to be his guide; but as he cannot see he meets with one who talks as blind men talk; who judges things as they are in the dark, and who does not know what sighted men know, and therefore never reminds the blind man of his infirmity; and at once he says, This is my ideal of a man, he is exactly the leader I require, and I will commit myself to him. So the blind man takes the blind man to be his guide, and this is the reason why error has been so popular. No error would live if it did not chime in with some evil propensity of human nature, if it did not gratify some error in man to which it is congruous. Mind, then, whom you choose for a guide.

2. Having chosen his tutor, the student gradually becomes more and more like his master; or, having taken his guide, the tendency is to tread more closely in his footsteps, and obey his rules more fully every day. We imitate those whom we admire.

3. The pupil does not go beyond the tutor, nor does the man who submits to be led go beyond his guide. Such a case is very rarely found--indeed, I may say, never; for when the one who is led goes beyond his leader, he is not in truth led any longer; rarely enough does it ever come to that. Men, if they outstrip their leaders, generally do so in a wrong direction. They seldom exaggerate their virtues, those they frequently omit, but they usually exaggerate peculiarities, follies, failings, and faults. It is said that in the court of Richard III., because the king was round-shouldered, the courtiers gradually became hump-backed; and we have seen a whole country idiotic enough, not in the last century, but in this century, to have almost all its women limping, because a popular princess was afflicted with a temporary lameness.

4. When a man chooses a bad leader for his soul, at the end of all bad leadership there is a ditch. A small turn of the switch on the railway is the means of taking the train to the far east or to the far west: the first turn is very little indeed, but the points arrived at are remote. Let us not take any man whatever as our leader, for if we trust to any mere man, though he may be right in ninety-nine of the hundred, be is wrong somewhere, and our tendency will be to be more influenced by his one wrong point, than by any one of his righteous. There is One whom you may follow implicitly, and one only--the Man Christ Jesus, the Son of God.

II. SPECIAL APPLICATION OF THIS GREAT GENERAL PRINCIPLE TO JESUS CHRIST FOR OUR ENCOURAGEMENT. If we have Him for our leader we certainly cannot go beyond our leader, but we shall be privileged to grow more and more like Him, and we shall be perfected according to our text, as our leader is.

1. This is what we might have expected. He is the Creator; can He not create in us His image! From such an one as He is, we confidently expect it.

(1) For, observe, the teaching itself is such that it must have power over hearts that yield to it. Almighty love. Divine teaching brought down to human capacity.

(2) But it is not in His teaching alone that His influence lies; the most potent charm is Himself. Never man spake like this Man; because never man lived like this Man. His character gives Him a right to speak.

(3) We feel quite sure that the disciples will grow like their Master in the case of Jesus, because He inspires them with an intense love to Himself, which flames forth in enthusiasm for Him. Get a teacher whom all the scholars love and admire, and they will soon learn. Make them enthusiastic for him, and no lesson will be too hard.

(4) Best of all, our Great Teacher has a spirit with Him, a mighty Spirit, God Himself, the Holy Ghost, and when He teaches, He teaches not with words alone, but with a power which goes beyond the ear into the heart itself,

2. This was virtually promised.

(1) It is promised in the great doctrine of predestination (Rom_8:29-30).

(2) It is promised in the very name of Jesus-- He shall save His people from their sins, i.e., bring them back into a condition of purity and holiness.

3. What we might have expected, and what God has virtually promised, has been actually seen; for the disciples have been like their Lord.

(1) In character. Some reflect this feature, others that.

(2) In life-story. Melchizedec. Isaac. Joseph. Stephen. Paul.

(3) In struggles and temptations.

(4) In their victories. Christs disciples overcome sin; by their Masters help they rise above doubt, they vanquish the world, and they stand in purity and faith.

(5) By and by they shall be like Him in their reward (Rev_3:21).

III. WE MAY PUT ALL THIS TO THE TEST IF WE WILL. If you are not already Christs disciple, you may be. He will receive you though you have been to other masters, and learned a great deal under them, all of which you will have to unlearn. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The blind and the ditch

An awful warning to all teachers, especially preachers, followed as it is by the warning of the beam that is before ones own eye, when one sees a small thing before anothers. We know of whom it was first intended--men who were not doubted; men who did not doubt themselves; men who led confidently into the ditch; men who killed the Lord of Glory, to saw their place and nation, and then destroyed them both. They stand before us as a warning, how awful it is to undertake to lead, only to lead astray or into ruin. Blindness (say some) is no sin, are we blind also? If ye had been blind, ye had not had sin, but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. There is none so bad as that which is blind to itself. There are many blindnesses--as defect of thought, or learning--which drive the hearers into what the speakers never dreamt of; defect of practical knowledge of life and circumstances, making advice untenable or pernicious; such as on the clashing of submission to parents and zeal for God; want of spirituality--how can any teach what he has never learnt, and therefore never understood? A dwelling upon some parts of truth to the exclusion of all the rest, as the Pharisees did on the letter of purification, or as some on self-denial, till all religion is swallowed up in it, or some on spirituality and faith, till plain moral laws are broken. It is possible to dwell on sacraments till conversion is ignored; or to make conversion a sole object, till Christian life and edification are despised, and only strong excitement satisfies. It is far easier to preach a party, or a church, or a sect, than to preach Christ. All these are blindnesses, and, so far as they go, injure both guide and followers. But how hard it is to see: to trace out all our thoughts to their consequences, to know how to speak to or of all men, to be thoughtful and not cold, to know the life of the Spirit without pride. In fact, there are none who see all things, no one perfect guide, none to whom we can blindly trust. It is a case of those who see but little, and have more need to advise together than to lead and follow confidently. The work of preaching and advice is not to supersede thought, but to make men think; it is not what you hear, but what you make of what you hear. The best part of a sermon is the application, and that is made by the heart at home. But remember that blind leaders are made by blind followers. People crowd to a preacher as others to a theatre for a new excitement; and when they are moved, they long for a guide. Thinking is a labour, following is easy, a confident leader never lacks followers. This is the attraction in our days of the Church of Rome, and blind followers push her to greater extremes, while blind horror sends some into infidelity, for horror and foolhardiness go hand in hand. But it is not only in religion that these principles hold; in politics, in local business, in fashions and customs, there are the same blind leaders and blind followers. There is the same love of being first, the same desire to stick to ones party, and be saved the trouble of thinking. Let it warn us in all these things to try to know where we are going, not to take other mens fall on our own shoulders and help a whole crowd to destruction. Pause to think. Is it wise to follow? Am I sure I know my own way, when I long so to lead, and am so vexed when others do not follow? For in truth, though all are blind in something, in something all can see. Our first anxiety must be to see our own way, and then not to make others follow us, but to make them see. There are ditches enough. We see men every day falling into them, and there are enough before ourselves. If we think, and speak, and hear thus--as one family--for mutual help--we shall find that though the blind cannot lead the blind, they can help one another very much. (Bishop E. Steere.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 6:39-40. And he spake a parable, &c. — Our Lord sometimes used parables, when he know plain and open declarations would too much inflame the passions of his hearers. It is for this reason that he uses this parable. Can the blind lead the blind — Can the scribes teach this way, which they know not themselves? Will not they and their scholars perish together? The disciple is not above his master — Can they make their disciples any better than themselves? If the master be ignorant, foolish, and wicked, will not the scholar, or disciple, be so likewise? But every one that is perfect — Or, perfected, as κατηρτισμενος means: that is, perfectly instructed by Christ’s doctrine, and perfectly renewed by his grace: whose mind is fully enlightened, and his heart entirely changed: made wise unto salvation by God’s word, and endued with all the graces of his Spirit; shall be as his Master — Shall come to the measure of the stature of his Master’s fulness, shall be conformed to the image of God’s Son, and as he was, shall be in this world, 1Jn 4:17.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Third Section: The Importunity of Love

(Luk_6:39-49)

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_6:39. And He spake.—From transitions of this sort we see how loose the thread is which connects the different elements of the Sermon on the Mount in Luke. Respecting the understanding of the παραβολή, see Lange, on Matthew 13, and below on Luke 8. The here cited parabolic saying appears according to the more exact report of Matthew, Luk_10:24; Luk_15:14, to have been spoken on another occasion, and not to belong to the original Sermon on the Mount, although in and of itself it is quite possible that the Saviour frequently used such gnome-like dicta.

Can the blind.—If one is inclined to insist upon some connection between the four parables here following and what precedes, it would be best to settle it as follows: “The disciples might, after these words of the Lord, think in their hearts: It is not easy to be a Christian! They were called to show to the world by their preaching and by their walk the way which the Lord showed them: therefore this above all was needful, that they themselves should allow the light to penetrate themselves, and should establish themselves upon the right and only ground. To this now does the Lord admonish them.” (Besser.)

Τυφλός.—Whoever himself is blind for the light of truth cannot possibly serve another as leader, but draws him with him into destruction which reaches its fearful culmination in Gehenna. This was plainly manifest by the example of the Pharisees, comp. Mat_15:14, from which the disciples could see what leaders they should not be. Although all men by nature are spiritually blind, the judgment here pronounced is perfectly righteous, since the blindness of the leaders of the blind to the light of the Lord is a self-caused one.

Luk_6:40. Οὐκ ἔστιν μαθητής.—If the Sermon on the Mount in Luke consists in part of a collection of different sayings of the Saviour apart from their original historical connection, it is then indeed superfluous to inquire after the connection of the preceding saying with this. Yet Luk_6:40 may serve to illustrate the naturalness and justness of the judgment pronounced in Luk_6:39. In this way, namely: only if a disciple surpassed his master could he hope to be preserved from the ditch into which he sees his blind leader fall. Since, however, the disciple does not commonly surpass the master, he has also the same danger to fear. As a rule every one is constituted like his master.—We must not over-look the fact that here at the same time an indirect intimation is given to the Twelve to fashion themselves in all things after the character of their new Master.

Luk_6:41. And why beholdest thou.—Comp. Mat_7:3. Not merely “a climax upon the preceding” (Gerlach), but a pointing out of the way to be kept from the character and fate of the blind leader of the blind. Self-knowledge and amendment is required of the disciples of the Lord before they judge the failings of others and offer themselves to them as leaders.

Κάρφος.—“That He may warn us the more diligently He finds a palpable comparison and paints it before our eyes,—gives such a sentence as this, that every one who judges his neighbor has a great beam in his eye, while he who is judged has only a little splinter, so that he is ten times more worthy of judgment and condemnation even in this, that he condemns others.” (Luther.) As to the rest, moral defects, as well as those of knowledge, appear to be spoken of here, such as the Saviour relatively likens to a little splinter. The δοκός can then be nothing else than just that foolish imagination of a greater excellence compared with our faulty brother: therefore the man with the δοκός is immediately called ὑποκριτά because he demeans himself as if free of faults.

Διαβλέψεις.—The composite, perhaps chosen (“intenta acie spectabis.” Meyer) in order to place in a strong light the difficulty and delicacy of the work, in which the greatest carefulness is necessary. How surely every one has first to look to himself appears particularly from the following parable.

Luk_6:43. Οὐ γάρ.—First of all this parabolic saying is connected with what immediately precedes, “If thou dost not see the beam in thine own eye thou wouldst be like the corrupt tree, which cannot possibly bring forth good fruit.” So Bengel: qui sua trabe laborans alienam festucam petit est similis arbori malœ bonum fructum affectanti. Yet, since the Sermon on the Mount is hastening to its end, we may at the same time refer this word back to all the preceding requirements, the fulfilment of which is specially dependent on the condition of the heart.

A good tree.—Comp. Mat_7:15-20, and Lange on the passage. The fruits can here be nothing else than works. That the Saviour is here particularly thinking of misleading spirits in the Christian Church we do not believe, although we willingly concede that His saying may also be applied to these: as the sign of such it is not the walk, but the doctrine, that is given. In a striking way did the misleaders of the people who shortly after His appearance stirred up the unhappy Jews show the truth of this His utterance. They knew how with brilliant promises to allure great throngs to their side, but their behavior was so entirely in conflict with the essential principles of religion and of the state, that by this alone they could not but forfeit all confidence. The credulous multitude who gave credence to their words learned too late what evil fruits these trees of abundant promise brought forth.

Luk_6:45. The good man.—Comp. Mat_12:35. Probably no part of the original Sermon on the Mount, but communicated out of its historical connection by Luke. The Saviour regards no man as naturally good in the Pelagian sense of the word, but speaks of the sinner who has become good through grace. Both the good and the evil man He sets forth as they commonly reveal themselves outwardly, without however denying that even the good has his weak and the evil man his better side. The heart of the one and of the other is the magazine (θησαυρός), out of which perpetually proceeds what therein was in no small measure hidden.—For out of the abundance, comp. Psa_36:2.

Luk_6:46. And why call ye Me.—This same dictum is communicated in a complete form, Mat_7:21, with reference to the Pharisaic pretended holiness. Yet it is also applicable to the disciples of the Lord so far as in their disposition remnants of the old leaven are still found. It is only possible for the greatest misunderstanding, the most perverted apprehension of the οὐ πᾶς ὁ λέγ. in Matthew to find here a ground for declaring the external confession of the Saviour to be wholly indifferent. (Kant.) Comp. Mat_10:32-33. In the connection in which Luke reports this saying of the Saviour, it constitutes of itself the transition to the concluding parable, which he has in common with Matthew. Before any one comprehends the requirements of the ποιεῖνin an anti-evangelical sense, let him consider what the Saviour himself demands as the essence of the ἔργον τοῦ θεοῦ, Joh_6:29.

Luk_6:47. Πᾶς ὁ ἐρχόμενος, κ.τ.λ.—A commencement of the concluding parable peculiar to Luke, in a more lively form than in Matthew. The whole conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount shows sharply, from word to word, a striking climax. Very vivid is the representation of the man who not only begins to build but also incessantly digs deeper (ἐβάθυνε), and does not rest before he reaches the firm rock (ἐπὶ τὴν πέτραν). That this is done in Palestine even now by solid builders is stated by Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. iii. The rock can here hardly be primarily the person of Christ, as in 1Co_10:4, but is primarily the word, wherein however He Himself is. Who builds thereupon the house of his hope builds secure; whoever out of Him seeks firmness and security proceeds towards certain destruction. The work of both builders becomes plain by the test. Comp. 1Co_3:11-15.

Luk_6:48. A flood.—De Wette: “an inundation.” Comp. Job_40:23, LXX.—Symbol of all possible tests which the edifice of faith and hope can have to undergo in hours of doubt, of temptation, and of danger of death. Then is true for the disciple of the Lord the word—Pro_12:7. The antithesis is so much the more striking as He does not here oppose the morally good to the morally bad, but simply the careful to the heedless.

For it was well built.—“For it was founded upon a rock.”—The steadfastness of the building does not lie in what is built, but in the foundation on which it is built.—Comp. Eze_13:11.

Luk_6:49. Without a foundation.—ἐπὶ τὴν ἄμμον, Matthew. All that is not πέτρα remains ἄμμος, even if it were outwardly like a rock.—The breach, in Matthew the fall, the one is consequence of the other. In both redactions the Sermon on the Mount ends as it were in a storm of wind, earthquake, and fire, 1Ki_19:11-12. The supposition that a rising tempest or rain hastened the end of the discourse and placed on the lips of the Saviour this last word is ingeniose magis quam vere. Now and then without doubt the Saviour has found occasion from the nature surrounding Him to the choice of His figurative language, e.g., Joh_3:8; Joh_15:1. But did He also in Mat_15:14, or in Joh_16:21?—Credat Judœus Apella.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The four parables with which the Sermon on the Mount in Luke concludes contain the most admirable proofs of the Saviour’s wisdom as a Teacher. They were all taken from daily life, and also from historically given circumstances. One had not far to go to seek blind leaders of the blind, or to see beautifully appearing trees with evil fruit. So far as such manifestations continually repeat themselves in the church of the Lord, an eternal significance may be ascribed to them. The example of the Saviour moreover shows plainly how far those are from the ideal of Christian eloquence who condemn a great richness of noble imagery. Here there is no abstract development of ideas, but all alike pictorial and intuitive. The presentation of the subjects becomes plain in that these are made visible in persons acting very variously. Alternately we hear the voice of the deepest love, and that of the earnestness which menaces with judgment. The discourse unfolds itself regularly; is as rich in surprises as in gradual climax, and ends with an utterance which must leave the deepest impression in the conscience. “Non opus est, omnes homilias desinere in usum paracleticum,” remarks Bengel, with great truth, on Mat_7:29. After the reading of the Sermon on the Mount we repeat the declaration, Joh_7:46.

2. Without the word μετάνοια being mentioned, the last part of the Sermon on the Mount also contains a most obvious intimation of the indispensable necessity of the new birth. The blind who leads the blind into destruction; the hypocrite who overlooks his own faults compared with those of his brother; the corrupt tree which in its present condition cannot possibly bring forth good fruit; the fool who builds his house upon the sand—all give us to recognize in various forms the image of the natural man in his delusion and pride, in his ruinous fall and destruction. In vain is it to will to do good so long as one has not become good, and good can no one make himself without Christ. Comp. Jer_13:23. Thus does the Lord repeat here in a practical popular form essentially the same thoughts which He in John 3 has expressed before Nicodemus. On the other hand He states the one infallible sign of the genuineness of the great change which takes place in the heart of His true disciples: the joyful doing of His will.

3. When we observe how the Saviour in this part of the Sermon on the Mount also insists especially upon an active Christianity, it is almost incomprehensible how, in the course of the centuries, and even to-day, so much Antinomism could show itself in the Church. For, according to His intimations also, His disciple can and will be blessed alone ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ. Comp. Jam_1:25. Never can the vindicator of a lax and shallow morality appeal to His words so long as He has not rent the Sermon on the Mount out of the Gospel. Yet, alas, to many an antinomistic theory is the profound saying of Gregory of Nazianzen applicable: πρᾶξις ἐπίβασις θεωρίας.

4. If we apply the saying: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” to the Saviour Himself, how deep a look do we then obtain through the clear current of His preaching on the Mount into the golden recesses of his Divinely human heart! The less He says unequivocally in the Sermon on the Mount, who He is, the more clearly does it show itself.

5. Not unjustly has the conclusion been drawn from this part of the Sermon on the Mount, how much easier it is to take note of others than of ourselves; how much more convenient to show a brother the way than to walk therein ourselves; how great the danger of ourselves being found reprobates while we work for the salvation of others. Comp. 1Co_9:27. Perhaps it was similar considerations which in the end of the last century gave occasion to the singular question, “Whether it is a miracle when a clergyman is saved?” (Bretschneider, † 1792.)

6. The concluding parable of the Sermon on the Mount unites in itself allegory and prophecy in the most beautiful manner. In three verses there is here compressed the primeval, and yet ever fresh, history of all that which has been built, is building, and until the end of all days shall be built; on the one hand without, on the other hand in and upon, the word and the Spirit of the Lord. The μεγάλη πτῶσις of the house built upon the sand, was, among other instances, heard at the fall of unbelieving Judaism, as well as at that of all unbelieving philosophical systems which have overlived themselves, and at that of every state, of every church which is not built upon the only true foundation; and all this will repeat itself in continually greater measure, the nearer the last crisis of the future approaches, until the word is wholly fulfilled: 1Jn_2:17.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

He who allures to love, threatens also with the terrors of judgment.—The blind and his leader: 1. The way of both; 2. the fate of both, a. mournful, b. inevitable.—The disciple must be as his master, 1Jn_2:6.—Whoever will be to others not a mischief, but a blessing, must begin to know himself aright.—Unloving judgment a fruit of blindness in the judge.—Humility before God leads to love towards man.—A serviceable hand not seldom coupled with a loveless heart.—A brother’s name and a brother’s service without true brother’s love, an abomination before God.—Only the absolutely Holy One is able and entitled to judge completely.—A hypocritical judge of his brother a corrupt tree in the garden of God.—The connection between tree and fruit: 1. In the realm of nature; 2. in the realm of grace.—Christian diagnosis.—What is to be expected of men whose hearts are like thorns and brambles.—The heart a treasure-chamber for very different treasures.—A full heart and a closed mouth agree ill together.—The Christian cannot be silent concerning Jesus. Act_4:20.—First to become, than to be, last to do.—The spiritual vintage: 1. Here on earth; 2. in the future.—A fourfold relation to the Lord; there are men who 1. Neither say Lord! Lord! nor do His will; 2. say, indeed, Lord! Lord! but without doing His will; 3. do His will, indeed, but without saying Lord! Lord! (upright but anxious souls); 4. as well do His will, as also say Lord! Lord! The last, the concurrence of deed with word, is in every respect the best.—Nominal Christianity: 1. In its guise of great promise: 2. in its wretched reality.—The different builders: 1. One plan of building, but two manner of foundations; 2. one crucial test, but two manner of results.—How the genuineness of faith is tested: 1. In the tempest of doubt; 2. in the tempest of affliction; 3. in the tempest of death.—The magnificent Plan; the swelling Flood; the deep Fall; the heavy Ruin.

Starke:—In the choice of a leader, whether temporal or spiritual, all foresight and prudence is to be used; the danger is great, the mischief often irreparable, of hasty choice.—From the ignorance of pastors rises adulteration of the true service of God, superstitious sermons, abuses, and numerous disorders. 2Ti_3:13.—The least splinter can destroy the whole eye; slight seeming sins also are ruinous and damnable. Son_2:15; 2Sa_6:6-7.—Quesnel:—Whoever diligently proves himself, will not easily chastise others. Sir_23:2.—True self-knowledge the beginning of our own amendment, and the way to edify our neighbor.—The wisdom from above makes humble and compassionate, but earthly wisdom presumptuous and unmerciful men.—Self-complacence corrupts all good.—Osiander:—He is no pious man, out of whose mouth poisonous calumnies are heard. Psa_15:2-3.—Quesnel:—The fruits of a carnal or of a spiritual heart are the works of the flesh or of the Spirit. Gal_5:16 seq.—Bibl. Wirt.:—The evil heart of man becomes then good when Christ the fruitful olive tree is, by faith, planted in the same. Act_15:9.—He is only a mocker that calls God his Lord, yet obeys not His commandments. Mal_1:6.—To know and do the Lord’s will, manifests a faithful servant. Luk_12:47-48.—Osiander:—Believers are in all storms of temptation preserved to eternal life. Isa_32:2; Isa_33:16.—Ye teachers, ye hearers, ye parents, ye children, think on a right laying of foundations in religion, that in the hour of temptation and distress ye may not find yourselves deceived.

Heubner:—The disposition to give a verdict against others, the fruit of a false eagerness to quiet one’s self.—The Christian must be severe against himself, mild-judging towards others.—The culture of grace first fashions a man into something noble.—The inward disposition in man, what the sap is in a tree.—What a destruction shall come upon apostate teachers!—Couard (on Luk_6:46):—The confessing of Jesus Christ in Christendom. It comes to pass that 1. With many the confessing of Christ is wholly wanting (they deny the Lord); 2. with many this confession is the thoughtless language of custom (they are Christian in name); 3. with some only an assumed pretence of godliness (hypocrites); 4. with others a matter of the heart and expression of living faith (true Christians).—Jaspis:—Hypocrisy in religion: 1. How easily it creeps over us; 2. how quickly it grows; 3. how slowly it cures; 4. how deep it casts us down.—Hopfner:—Four things of principal concern in Christianity: 1. Faith makes the Christian; 2. the life shows the Christian; 3. suffering proves the Christian; 4. dying crowns the Christian.—Krummacher:—Who shall enter into the kingdom of heaven? (on Luk_6:46. Comp. Mat_7:21-23.) From this saying appears the threefold necessity: 1. Of saying “Lord! Lord!” 2. of the new birth through the Holy Spirit; 3. of incorporation into the despised ecclesiola in ecclesia.—Claus Harms (on the Pericope Mat_7:15-22):—Deeper Christian truths in the text read. They respect: 1. The teachers, especially the false; 2. the conditions of our salvation, the rule and the exception; 3. the future decision, when and by whom, and according to what it is made.

“Let not him who is established and built upon the rock, imagine that he can now be no more overtaken by all manner of affliction or danger. Rather is he like a house that is situated on the shore of the sea, upon which the waves beat heavier than is known to houses inland. This house must be the target and mark of all the beating storms of the world. But because it is founded on the rock, it may indeed be shaken to the centre, and its rafters creak, yet fall shall it never, for its foundation stands fast and unmovable.” Chemnitz.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 6:39. Αὐτοῖς, to them) viz. to the disciples, Luk 6:20. For that which we have in Luk 6:27 [“to you which hear”], where see the note, is not given in Matthew: nor is it the language of the Evangelist’s narrative, but that of Jesus. Therefore it is with good reason thought that the discourse is constructed in the manner of a division into two parts, so as that the first part is addressed partly to the disciples, in the hearing of the rest, Luk 6:20, partly to the crowd of hearers, Luk 6:27; whereas the latter part is addressed, from Luk 6:39, to the disciples. The material or subject-matter which the discourse rests upon, is itself in accordance with this view.—τυφλὸς, blind) Suffering under the pressure of “his own beam,” Luk 6:42; viz. destitute of compassion and love, 1Jn 2:9, etc.; 2Pe 1:9; Phm 1:9.—τυφλὸν ὁδηγεῖν, to lead the blind) An act which is a benefit if it be done by one possessing sight and experience. The benefits which are mentioned, Luk 6:39; Luk 6:41, are more specious ones than those which are mentioned, Luk 6:37: and so blind hypocrisy more readily hides itself under the former; but in real fact the latter in a greater degree depress self-love.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_6:39 has no connection with what precedes; but, as; Luke himself indicates by εἶπε κ.τ.λ., begins a new, independent portion of the discourse.

The meaning of the parable: He to whom on his part the knowledge of the divine truth is wanting cannot lead others who have it not to the Messianic salvation; they will both fall into the Gehenna of moral error and confusion on the way. Comp. Mat_15:14, where is the original place of the saying.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 6:39-45 . Proverbial lore .

Luk 6:39 . εἶπε δὲ : the Speaker is represented here as making a new beginning, the connection of thought not being apparent. Grotius says plainly that there is no connection, and that Lk. has deemed it fitting to introduce here a logion that must have been spoken at another time. Mt. has a similar thought to that in Luk 6:39 , not in the sermon but in Luk 15:14 . τυφλὸς τυφλὸν : viewing the sermon as an ideal address to a church, this adage may apply to Christians trying to guide brethren in the true way (Jas 5:19 ), and mean that they themselves must know the truth.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 39 and 40. “And He spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch? 40. The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.”

Meyer, Bleek, and Holtzmann can see no natural connection between this little parable and the preceding precept. The form, He said to them also, seems of itself to indicate an interruption, and to betray the interpolation of a passage foreign to the original context. Is not, however, the figure of a blind man leading another man (Luk 6:39) evidently connected with that of the man who, while he has a beam in his own eye, wants to take a straw out of his brother’s eye (Luk 6:41)? And who can fail to perceive the connection between the idea contained in this last illustration and the precept which precedes (Luk 6:37-38) respecting judgments? A man’s presuming to correct his neighbour, without correcting himself,—is not this altogether characteristic of that mania for judging others which Jesus has just forbidden? The whole passage (Luk 6:37-42) is just, therefore, a piece of consecutive instruction respecting judgments. Jesus continues the contrast between that normal and salutary judgment which He expects from His disciples, in regard to the world, based partly on the love of one’s neighbour, and partly on unsparing judgment of oneself, and that injurious judgment which the Pharisees, severe towards others, and altogether infatuated with themselves, were exercising in the midst of Jewish society. The sole result of the ministry of the Pharisees was to fit their disciples for the same perdition as themselves! Jesus prays His disciples not to repeat such achievements in the order of things which He is about to establish. In Mat 15:14; Mat 23:15-16 we have some precisely similar words addressed to the Pharisees. We are not mistaken, therefore, in our application of this figure.

As to the phrase, And He saith to them also (Luk 6:39), comp. Luk 6:5. This break in the discourse represents a moment’s pause to collect His thoughts. Jesus seeks for an illustration that will impress His hearers with the deplorable consequences of passing judgment on others, when it is done after the fashion of the Pharisees.—῾Οδηγεῖν, to point out the way, combines the two notions of correction and instruction. The disciple, in so far as he is a disciple, not being able to excel his master (Luk 6:40), it follows that the disciple of a Pharisee will not be able at best to do more than equal his master, that is to say, fall into the same ditch with him.

Ver. 40 justifies this idea. Here we see what will happen to the whole people, if they remain under the direction of the Pharisees. The further they advance in the school of such masters, the nearer they will come...to perdition. The proverbial saying, Luk 6:40 a, is used in Mat 10:24-25 and Joh 15:20 in this sense: The servants of Jesus must not expect to be treated better than their Master. In Luk 22:27 and Joh 13:16 it is applied to the humility which befits the servant of such a Master. It is obvious that Jesus made various applications of these general maxims.

Whatever, then, modern criticism may think, the context of Luke is unexceptionable. How can Weizsäcker so disregard this connection, as actually to make Luk 6:39 the commencement of a new part, “the second section of the discourse”! (p. 153).

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Unskillful reprehenders hurt both themselves and others: for such as the master is, such is the scholar.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Can the blind, &c.--not in the Sermon on the Mount, but recorded by Matthew in another and very striking connection (Mat 15:14).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 39. Can the blind lead the blind?] This appears to have been a general proverb, and to signify that a man cannot teach what he does not understand. This is strictly true in spiritual matters. A man who is not illuminated from above is utterly incapable of judging concerning spiritual things, and wholly unfit to be a guide to others. Is it possible that a person who is enveloped with the thickest darkness should dare either to judge of the state of others, or attempt to lead them in that path of which he is totally ignorant! If he do, must not his judgment be rashness, and his teaching folly? - and does he not endanger his own soul, and run the risk of falling into the ditch of perdition himself, together with the unhappy objects of his religious instruction?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(39) And he spake a parable unto them.—The verse is noticeable (1) as causing a break in the discourse which has no parallel in the Sermon on the Mount; (2) as giving an example of the wider sense of the word “parable,” as applicable to any proverbial saying that involved a similitude. On the proverb itself, quoted in a very different context, see Note on Mat_15:14. Here its application is clear enough. The man who judges and condemns another is as the blind leader of the blind. Assuming St. Paul to have known the Sermon on the Plain, we may trace an echo of the words in the “guide of the blind” of Rom_2:19.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

39-45. Sincerity. Four Comparisons.

39. Can the blind lead the blind?] Mat_15:14. Pro_19:27, “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err.” St Paul taunts the Jew with professing to be “a guide of the blind,” Rom_2:19. St Luke calls this “a parable” in the broader sense (see on Luk_4:23); and in this Gospel the Sermon thus ends with four vivid ‘parables’ or similes taken from the sights of daily life—blind leaders of blind; the mote and the beam; good and bad fruit; the two houses.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The disciple is not above his master,.... Or "more excellent", as the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions render it; that is, in learning and knowledge; if the master is ignorant, the scholar will be so too; and thus it is with teachers, and their people under their care; if the leaders are blind and ignorant, those under their instructions will remain so likewise. These words are an illustration of the preceding parable, and are used to another purpose here than in Mat 10:24. See Gill on Mat 10:24.

but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. The Vulgate Latin reads it, "every one shall be perfect if he is as his master"; that is, if his master is a man of general learning, and a complete scholar, if he is like him, he will be so too: the Persic version renders it, "every disciple that desires perfection shall be as his master": whoever is ambitious of being a thorough scholar, and is diligent and industrious, by all ways and means, to obtain such a character, shall be even as good an one as his master, under whom he learns, and better he cannot well expect to be; and this is sufficient; and so the Ethiopic version renders it, "is it not enough that every one be as his master?" agreeably to Mat 10:25

Maimonides (i) has an expression much like this:

"he that learns, shall not be greater than he of whom he learns, but shall be, "as he".''

Christ, in this last clause, seems to design his own disciples, who, when perfect in knowledge, which is not to be expected in this state, unless in a comparative sense, will be like himself.

(i) Misn. Bava Kama, c. 2. sect. 5.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

39 And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?

Ver. 39. See Mat 15:14.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By a parable here is to be understood a proverbial saying, which hath some darkness in it, as being brought to express or signify more than the words naturally do express. Proverbial speeches are applicable to more things, and in more cases, than one. Nor is it to be expected, that in all that the evangelists give us an account of, as to the sayings of Christ, we should be able to find out an evident connexion. They, questionless, wrote much at least from their memories, and set down many sayings without respect to the time when our Saviour spake them, or the matter of his discourse immediately preceding them. We need not therefore be careful to make out the connexion of these words of his with what was before set down. In the parallel text, Mat 15:14, our Saviour plainly applies these words with reference to the scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, their doctors and teachers at that time, who themselves being ignorant of the true sense of the Divine law, were not like very well to guide others, but with them to

fall into the ditch, that is, into ruin and destruction: from whence a very probable connexion of them here with what went before may be observed; for, as appears from Mat 5:1-48, he had in the preceding verses given an interpretation of that law of God, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, much different from what the Pharisees had given of it, who had expounded it, Mat 5:43, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy; making a great many branches of love to men more than they made. Now, (saith he), this is the will, this is the law, of my heavenly Father. The scribes and Pharisees, your present doctors and teachers, go much below this; but listen not to them, if you mind to please God; themselves are blind, and know not the will of God, and if you follow them what can you expect more than such an event as where one blind man leads another?

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

39. Parable—Mat_15:14. This passage, like many others, our Lord may be supposed to have uttered on more than one occasion. It seems in the sermon on the mount to have come in after Mat_7:20.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he spake a parable unto them. St. Luke closes his report of the great sermon with four little parables taken from everyday life. With these pictures drawn from common life, the Master purposed to bring home to the hearts of the men and women listening to him the solemn warnings he had just been enunciating. They if they would be his followers must indeed refrain from ever setting up themselves as judges of others. "See," he went on to say, "I will show you what ruin this wicked, ungenerous practice will result in: listen to me." Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? It is not improbable that some of the links in the Master"s argument here have been omitted by St. Luke; still, the connection of this saying and what follows, with the preceding grave warning against the bitter censorious spirit which had exercised so fatal an influence on religious teaching in Israel, is clear. The figure of the blind man setting himself up as a guide was evidently in the Lord"s mind as a fair representation of the present thought-leaders of the people (the Pharisees). This is evident from the imagery of the beam and mote which follows (vers. 41, 42). Can these blind guides lead others more ignorant and blind too? What is the natural result? he asks; will not destruction naturally overtake the blind leader and the blind led? Both will, of course, end by falling into the ditch.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He spake a parable - Our Lord sometimes used parables when he knew plain and open declarations would too much inflame the passions of his hearers. It is for this reason he uses this parable, Can the blind lead the blind? - Can the scribes teach this way, which they know not themselves? Will not they and their scholars perish together? Can they make their disciples any better than themselves? But as for those who will be my disciples, they shall be all taught of God; who will enable them to come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of their Master. Be not ye like their disciples, censuring others, and not amending yourselves. Matt. xv, 14.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Parabolic sayings:

v. 39. And He spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?

v. 40. The disciple is not above his master; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.

v. 41. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

v. 42. Either, how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.

The proverbial saying concerning the blind people that attempt to lead others that are afflicted in the same way is here applied to such as have neither the proper understanding of mercy and goodness nor of their application in their relation toward their neighbor. Whosoever wants to show another person the way and teach him how to walk properly must first have the proper knowledge himself. He that wants to correct the sins and weaknesses of others must have gained, the right knowledge concerning his own sinful condition. For the disciple is not above his teacher; he cannot learn more than his master knows and practices. He that presumes to teach others should not demand more of them than he himself is able to perform. The master is the pupil’s pattern; if the latter has attained to that perfection, he is satisfied. Therefore guard against uncharitable judging and condemning. He that is always ready with blame, censure, and condemnation is as one that readily sees the mote, the tiny speck of dust, in his brother’s eye, and feels the greatest concern for his brother and his brother’s welfare until he has removed the insignificant dust, while he himself, during the whole process, has a beam in his own eye, which actually prevents his seeing clearly. A hypocrite, an actor of the worst kind, the Lord calls such a person, since his own infirmity and condition makes him unfit to be a fair judge. The proverbs in use today: Let each one sweep his own stoop first; and, They that live in glass houses must not cast stones, fitly give the sense of the Lord’s injunction. See Mat 7:3. "Therefore a Christian should train himself differently. When he sees the mote in his neighbor’s eye, he should first, before he judges, step to the mirror and examine himself closely. There he will find such great beams that one could make pig-troughs out of them, so that he would be obliged to say: What shall this be? My neighbor grieves me once in a quarter, a half, a whole year; and I have grown so old and have never kept my God’s commandments, yea. I transgress them every hour and moment: how can I be such a desperate scoundrel? My sins are all immense oak-trees, and that poor splinter, the dust in my brother’s eye, I suffer to excite me more than my great beam? But it must not be; I must first see how I may become rid of my sin; there I shall have so much to do that I may well forget the tiny splinter. For I am disobedient to God, to my government, to my father and mother, to my master, and I continue herein and do not stop sinning; and yet I want to be unmerciful against my neighbor and not overlook a single word? O no: Christians must not act thus."

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our Saviour doubtless applied these words to the scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, doctors, and teachers, who being ignorant of the spiritual sense of the law, (interpreting it only to the restraining of the outward man,) were very unfit to instruct and lead others; for where one blind man leads another, both are in danger of the ditch; that is to run into ruin and destruction.

Learn, 1. That ignorant, erroneous, or unfaithful ministers, are the greatest plague, and sorest punishment, that can befall a people.

2. That Christ having forewarned us of such guides, to follow them will be an inexcusable sin and folly, and never free us from the danger of destruction, but rather be an aggravation of our condemnation: If the blind follow the blind, both will, inevitably yet inexcusably, fall into the ditch.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

39. Can the blind lead the blind? See notes on Matt. 15:14.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus includes some examples to make his point. (See: Parables)

Can a blind person guide another blind person?

Jesus used this question to get the people to think about something that they already know. This can be written as a statement. AT: "We all know that a blind person cannot guide another blind person." (See: Rhetorical Question)

blind person

The person who is "blind" is a metaphor for a person who has not been taught as a disciple. (See: Metaphor)

If he did

Some languages might prefer, "if one did." This is an absurd situation that is not likely to actually happen. (See: Hypothetical Situations)

they would both fall into a pit, would they not?

This can be written as a statement. AT: "both of them would fall into a hole." (See: Rhetorical Question)

A disciple is not greater than his teacher

"A disciple does not surpass his teacher." Possible meanings are 1) "A disciple does not have more knowledge than his teacher" or 2) "A disciple does not have more authority than his teacher."

everyone when he is fully trained

"every disciple who has been trained well" or "every disciple whose teacher has fully taught him"

translationWords

parable

pit

disciple

teacher

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

39–45. SINCERITY. FOUR COMPARISONS

39. μήτι δύναται τυφλὸς τυφλὸν ὁδηγεῖν; Mat 15:14. Pro 19:27, “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err.” St Paul taunts the Jew with professing to be “a guide of the blind,” Rom 2:19. St Luke calls this “a parable” in the broader sense (see on Luk 4:23); and in this Gospel the Sermon thus ends with four vivid ‘parables’ or similes taken from the sights of daily life—blind leaders of blind; the mote and the beam; good and bad fruit; the two houses. The emphasis is increased by the sharp opposition of the contiguous nominative and accusative.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

39.] From this verse to the end is in the closest connexion, and it is impossible that it should consist of sayings thrown together and uttered at different times.

The connexion with what went before is not so evident, indeed the εἶπεν δὲ π. αὐτ. seems to shew a break. The parabolic saying, implying the unfitness of an uncharitable and unjustly condemning leader (the Lord was speaking primarily to His Apostles) to perform his office, leads to the assertion (ver. 40) that no Christian ought to assume in this respect an office of judging which his Master never assumed; but rather will every well-instructed Christian strive to be humble as his Master was. Then follows the reproof of vv. 41-43; and vv. 44, 45 and 46-49 shew us, expanded in different images, what the beam in the eye is, to which our first efforts must be directed.

τυφλ. τ. ὁδ.] See this in quite another connexion, Mat 15:14, where Peter answers, φράσον ἡμῖν τὴν παραβολὴν [ταύτην]—meaning apparently the last uttered words, which the Lord however explains not specifically, but by entering into the whole matter. I believe this παραβολή to have been one of the usual and familiar sayings of our Lord.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

39. The second half of the discourse begins here, and this is marked by a repetition of the introductory εἶπεν. The connexion with what precedes perhaps is, that, before judging others, we must judge ourselves; otherwise we shall be blind leaders of the blind. This saying occurs in quite another connexion Mat 15:14. It may easily have been uttered several times, and it is a common place in literature. We are thus shown the manifold application of Christ’s sayings, and the versatility of truth. See Wetst. on Mat 15:14. With the exception of Mar 12:12, the phrase εἶπεν παραβολήν is peculiar to Lk. (12:16, 15:3, 18:9, 19:11, 20:19. 21:29).

εἰς βόθῡνον. “Into a pit” rather than “into the ditch,” which all English Versions prior to RV. have both here and Mat 15:14. In Mat 12:11 nearly all have “a pit.” The word is a doublet of βόθρος, puteus, and is perhaps connected with βαθύς. Palestine is full of such things, open wells without walls, unfenced quarries, and the like. For ὁδηγεῖν comp. Act 8:31; Joh 16:13; Psa 24:5, 85:11, 118:35; Wisd. 9:11, 10:17.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Can the blind [μητι δυναται τυφλος] ? The interrogative particle expects a negative reply. Surely the blind cannot, etc.

Lead [οδηγειν] . Better, guide, as Rev., since the word combines the ideas of leading and instructing.

Shall they not [ουχι] ? Another interrogative paricle, this time expecting an affirmative answer.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.