Matthew 10:27

Mat_10:27

What I tell you in darkness.

Gods message and its proclamation

I. Here is A preparatory privilege for all Christians. What I tell you in darkness, and what ye hear in the ear.

1. It is the great privilege of Christians to realize that Christ is still living with and conversing with them; this consciousness fits for service.

2. Feeling the gospel spoken by Christ directly and distinctly to our own soul.

II. How this privilege really does become a preparatory process.

1. If you get your message directly from Christ there will be a personality about it.

2. It will also give us the truth of God in proportion and purity.

3. If you go to Christ for all you preach you will preach with unction.

4. It will enable you to be certain about the truth.

III. Close by trying to fulfil the command To publish upon the housetops what the master has spoken to us in secret.

1. That there is pardon for the greatest guilt.

2. That by faith the ruling power of sin is broken.

3. That faith in Christ can save a man from every sort of fear in life and death. These things have been whispered in my ear. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Proclamations from Housetops

On the occurrence of a death in the dwelling, mourners, especially priests, are stationed upon the housetops, and attract public attention by their lamentations. And a proclamation is often made, as well as an address to the people, from the flat roof of a government-house which looks down upon the median, or public square. Even the call to prayer is proclaimed from the housetop, where there is no minaret or church-bell. (Van Lennep.)

Illuminating words

You sometimes see a man in the community who is always a source of light to his fellow-citizens. His words cast their illumination round every subject. When a great crisis comes men stand and listen until they hear him speak, and when he has spoken the city knows its duty. But do we think that every conviction leaped in a moment into his consciousness? that he has never struggled into the certainties which he gave to other men so clearly? that it is not by some transmission through his experience, often clouded by doubt and bewilderment, that the abstract truth has passed into the clear, sharp, tangible statement of duty which his fellow citizens catch from him? But nowhere was this more evident than in the history of Christs disciples. Two books stand next to one another in the New Testament-The Gospel of St. John and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. What are the pictures in the two books? In the one the disciples are hearing Christ speak, and always missing His real meaning. Again and again, on page after page, we seem to see that wistful, disappointed look upon the Preachers face. They will not understand Him. He is speaking to them in darkness. In the other book those same apostles are preaching clear, strong, definite truth from Jerusalem to Rome; that which was vague and dim has passed into them and come out from them sharp and bright; the light has been focussed in their natures and characters, and the hearts of men are springing up under its influence as it comes to them. What Jesus had told them in darkness they are now speaking in light. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)

There is a higher motive than fear, viz., trust in the Father who cares even for the sparrows. (Benham.)

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

Mat 10:27-28. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light — The doctrines of the gospel which I deliver to you in private, and in obscure parables, preach plainly and openly, without the fear of man, in the audience of all. And what ye hear, as it were whispered, in the ear, preach ye — Proclaim publicly, as though you addressed multitudes, from the house-tops. Two customs of the Jews seem to be alluded to here. Their doctors used to whisper in the ear of their disciples what they were to pronounce aloud to others. And as their houses were low and flat-roofed, they sometimes preached to the people from thence. And, according to Hegesippus, they carried James the Just to the top of the temple to preach to the people at the passover. And fear not them that kill the body — Be not afraid of any thing which ye may suffer for proclaiming it, even though the boldness of your testimony should at length cost you your lives: for they who kill the body, are not able to kill, or hurt, the soul — The spiritual and immaterial part of you: this “will still survive in all its vigour, while its tabernacle lies in ruins.” So Dr. Doddridge, who justly observes, “These words contain a certain argument to prove the existence of the soul in a separate state, and its perception of that existence; else the soul would be as properly killed as the body.” On this argument Dr. Whitby enlarges as follows: “These words contain a certain evidence that the soul dies not with the body, but continued afterward in a state of sensibility: for that which, it is allowed, men can do to the body, it is denied that they can do to the soul. But, if by killing the body men could make the soul also to perish till the reunion and reviviscence both of body and soul; or, if by killing the body they could render the soul insensible, or deprive it of all power of thinking or perceiving any thing, they would kill the soul; for it is not easy to conceive how an intelligent, thinking, and perceiving being can be more killed than by depriving it of all sensation, thought, and perception; the body itself being killed by a total privation of sense and motion. It remains, that the soul doth not perish with the body, nor is it reduced into an insensible state by the death thereof.” Add to this, our Lord may well be supposed to speak here as the Jews would certainly understand his words; now they would certainly thus understand him, it being their received opinion, [namely, that of the Pharisees,] that the soul, after the death of the body, is in bliss or misery, and therefore continues in a state of sensibility. But, fear him, &c. — Fear lest, being unfaithful in so important a trust, you should incur the displeasure of Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell — Who has power to fill the separate spirit with unspeakable anguish, and at the final judgment to reunite it to the body, and to condemn both to everlasting misery in that infernal prison. It must be observed, that instead of αποκτειναι, to kill, the word απολεσαι, to destroy, is used in this second clause, which also often signifies to torment. “What an awful verse is this before us! How fit is it that this eternal and almighty God should be the object of our humble fear! and that in comparison of him we should fear nothing else! All the terrors and all the flatteries of the world are disarmed by this! an idea which, in every state of life, should engage us to be faithful to God; so shall we be most truly faithful to ourselves.”

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

Mat 10:27. Οὖς, ear) sc. one, secretly.—ἐπὶ τῶν δωμάτον, on the housetops) A flat place, where men might converse, or even assemble as an audience: cf. 2Sa 16:22.[489]

[489] He desires them to banish all fear from their minds.—V. g.

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

Mat 10:27 . σκοτίᾳ , the darkness of the initial stage; the beginnings of great epoch-making movements always obscure. φωτί , the light of publicity, when causes begin to make a noise in the wide world. εἰς τὸ οὖς : a phrase current among Greeks for confidential communications. For such communications to disciples the Rabbis used the term לָחַשׁ , to whisper. λαληθέν may be understood = what ye hear spoken into the ear. δωμάτων , on the roofs; not a likely platform from our western point of view, but the flat -roofed houses of the East are in view. δῶμα in classics means house; in Sept [67] and N. T., the flat roof of a house; in modern Greek, terrace. Vide Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek , p. 121. κηρύξατε , proclaim with loud voice, suitable to your commanding position, wide audience, and great theme.

[67] Septuagint.

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

Openly, and in the highest places. For the tops of their houses were so made, that they might walk upon them, Acts 10:9.

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

What I tell you in darkness--in the privacy of a teaching for which men are not yet ripe.

that speak ye in the light--for when ye go forth all will be ready.

and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops--Give free and fearless utterance to all that I have taught you while yet with you. Objection: But this may cost us our life? Answer: It may, but there their power ends:

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 27. What I tell you in darkness] A man ought to preach that only which he has learned from God's Spirit, and his testimonies; but let him not pretend to bring forth any thing new, or mysterious. There is nothing that concerns our salvation that is newer than the new covenant; and in that there are, properly speaking, no mysteries: what was secret before is now made manifest in the Gospel of the ever-blessed God. See Eph 3:1-12.

What ye hear in the ear] The doctor who explained the law in Hebrew had an interpreter always by him, in whose ears he softly whispered what he said; this interpreter spoke aloud what had been thus whispered to him. Lightfoot has clearly proved this in his Horae Talmudicae, and to this custom our Lord here evidently alludes. The spirit of our Lord's direction appears to be this: whatever I speak to you is for the benefit of mankind,-keep nothing from them, declare explicitly the whole counsel of God; preach ye, (κηρυξατε proclaim), on the house-tops. The houses in Judea were flat-roofed, with a ballustrade round about, which were used for the purpose of taking the air, prayer, meditation, and it seems, from this place, for announcing things in the most public manner. As there are no bells among the Turks, a crier proclaims all times of public worship from the house-tops. Whoever will give himself the trouble to consult the following scriptures will find a variety of uses to which these housetops were assigned. De 22:8; Jos 2:6; Jdg 9:51; Ne 8:16; 2Sa 11:2; 2Kg 23:12; Isa 15:3; Jer 32:29, and Ac 10:9.

Lightfoot thinks that this may be an allusion to that custom, when the minister of the synagogue, on the Sabbath eve, sounded with a trumpet six times, upon the roof of a very high house, that from thence all might have notice of the coming in of the Sabbath. The first blast signified that they should heave off their work in the field: the second that they should cease from theirs in the city: the third that they should light the Sabbath candle, &c.

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

(27) What I tell you in darkness.—The words point to our Lord’s method of teaching, as well as to the fact of its being esoteric, and disclosed only to the chosen few, and to them only as they were “able to bear it” (Joh_16:12). Parables, and dark sayings, and whispered hints, and many-sided proverbs, were among the forms by which He led them on to truth. They, in their work as teachers, were not to shrink through any fear of man from giving publicity to what they had thus learnt. To “proclaim on the housetops”—the flat roofs of which were often actually used by criers and heralds for their announcements—is, of course, a natural figure for the fullest boldness and freedom in their preaching.

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

27. what ye hear in the ear] Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.) refers this to a custom in the “Divinity School” of the synagogue (see ch. Mat_4:23), where the master whispered into the ear of the interpreter, who repeated in a loud voice what he had heard.

upon the housetops] Travellers relate that in the village districts of Syria proclamations are frequently made from the housetops at the present day.

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.

And fear not them which kill the body,.... This is a "periphrasis" of bloody persecutors, who, not content to revile, scourge, and imprison, put the faithful ministers of Christ to death, in the most cruel and torturing manner; and yet are not so to be feared and dreaded by them, as to discourage and divert them from the performance of their important work and office; for, as Luke says, Luk 12:4 "after" that they "have no more than they can do". This is all they are capable of doing, even by divine permission, when they are suffered to run the greatest lengths in violence against the saints; this is the utmost of their efforts, which Satan, and their own wicked hearts, can put them upon, or is in the power of their hands to perform: and the taking away of the lives of good men is of no disadvantage to them; but sends them the sooner out of this troublesome world to their father's house, to partake of those joys that will never end; so that they have nothing to fear from their most implacable enemies; but should boldly and bravely go on in their master's service, openly, freely, faithfully, and fully discharging the work they were called unto: for, the loss of a corporal life is no loss to them, their souls live after death, in eternal happiness; and in a little time God will raise up their bodies, and reunite them to their souls, and be for ever happy together. A noble argument this, which our Lord makes use of, to engage his disciples to a public and diligent ministration of the Gospel, in spite of all opposers; who, when they have vented all their malice, can only take away a poor, frail, mortal life; and which, if they did not, in a little time would cease in course:

but are not able to kill the soul; which is immortal, and cannot be touched by the sword, by fire and faggot, or any instruments of violence: it is immortal, it survives the body, and lives in a separate state, enjoying happiness and bliss, whilst the body is in a state of death:

but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. This is a description of God, and of his power, who is able to do that which men are not: all that they can do, by divine permission, is to kill the body; but he is able to "destroy", that is, to torment and punish both body and soul "in hell", in everlasting burnings; for neither soul nor body will be annihilated; though this he is able to do. As the former clause expresses the immortality of the soul, this supposes the resurrection of the body; for how otherwise should it be destroyed, or punished with the soul in hell? Now this awful being which is able to hurl, and will hurl all wicked and slothful, unfaithful and unprofitable, cowardly and temporising servants and ministers, soul and body, into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, is to be feared and dreaded; yea, indeed, he only is to be feared, and to be obeyed: cruel and persecuting men are not to be feared at all; God alone should be our fear and dread; though the argument seems to be formed from the lesser to the greater; yet this, is the sense of the word "rather", that God is to be feared, not chiefly and principally only, but solely; and in some versions that word is left out, as in the Arabic, and Ethiopic, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel.

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

27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

Ver. 27. What I tell you in darkness, &c.] q.d. See that ye be valiant and violent for the truth: declare unto the world all the counsel of God, which you have therefore learned in private, that ye may teach in public, not fearing any colours, much less stealing from your colours, Heb 10:38. {a} Quas non oportet mortes praeeligere, quod non supplicium potius ferre, immo in quam profundam inferni abyssum non intrare, quam contra conscientiam attestari? saith Zwinglius (Epist. tertia). A man had better endure any misery than an enraged conscience.

{a} υποστειληται’ Steal from his captain.

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.

What I say to you in darkness ... - That is, in “secret,” in “private,” in “confidence. The private instructions which I give you while with me do you proclaim publicly, on the “house-top.” The “house-top,” the flat roof, was a public, conspicuous place. See 2Sa 16:22. See also the notes at Mat 9:1-8.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

That which I tell you, &c. We must not suppose that our Saviour was accustomed to deliver his instructions to his apostles in the secret of the night, or teach them in private by whispers. But here he uses a figure of speech, to convey to the minds of his apostles the insignificancy of Judea, where he was speaking in comparison of the whole world, which they were to instruct; and the low whisper of his voice, compared to the sound which they shall send forth to the ends of the earth. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxv.) --- Upon the house-tops. the tops of the houses in Palestine were flat, and the inhabitants were accustomed to assemble on them and discourse together in great numbers. To preach, therefore, on the top of a house, is the same as to preach where there is a great concourse of people. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The candle of the gospel, which God hath by John the Baptist and me lighted up, is not to be hid; though therefore you have it from me in private, yet do you publish it. I do as it were whisper it in your ear by private discourses, and in a private converse, but it shall be made as public as if it were published to the greatest advantage; and do you contribute what you can unto it, do you publish my gospel as it were upon the house tops.

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

27. What I tell you in darkness — My words uttered in privacy, or enveloped in parables, shall also come forth. As their deeds are to come to the light of condemnation, so my Gospel shall come forth to publication, to vindication, and to victory. That speak ye — Be ye its publishers. In light — In publicity. So far from allowing persecution to suppress the word, carry it forth from this preparatory retirement and proclaim it to the world. Hear in the ear — The pupil of the rabbi held his ear intent to receive the utterances of his master. Upon the housetops — It is still a custom in the East to make public proclamation to the city from a housetop. Dr. Thomson says: “At the present day local governors in country districts cause their commands thus to be published. Their proclamations are generally made in the evening, after the people have returned from their labours in the field. The public crier ascends the highest roof at hand, and lifts up his voice in a long-drawn call.”

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

The parallel passage, Luk_12:3, is verbally similar, but of reverse meaning. In Matthew it is a charge to the disciples to proclaim publicly what Christ tells them privately; in Luke it is a statement that what they say privately shall be proclaimed publicly. St. Luke gives only another side of the preceding verse; St. Matthew, a fresh point. The connexion with ver. 26 is Do not cover up your relation to me, but say out bravely the message that I give you. What I tell you . There is no limitation to the time. Those who believe in the present life of Christ and in the reality of present communications from him cannot fail to see here both the true source of their messages as preachers and the necessity of faithfulness to those messages. Observe that the stress is not upon the personality of the Speaker, but upon the communication (legw , not egw legw). In (the, Revised Version) darkness... in (the, Revised Version) light. Both are pictured to the mind. And what ye hear in the ear (eiv to ouv). Possibly a reference to the habit of Jewish rabbis sometimes whispering their teaching in the ear of an interpreter," who repeated it aloud for all to hear (cf. Lightfoot, "Hor. Hebr."), but more probably only the common figure of speech for secret instruction; cf. Talm. Bab., "Berach.," 22 a, "Nahum of Gamzo, whispered it to. R. Akiba, and R. Akiba whispered it to Ben Azai, and Ben Azai went out and taught it to his disciples in the street." Compare also the Old Testament phrase, "uncover the ear". (1Sa_9:15, used of God; 1Sa_20:2, 1Sa_20:12, 1Sa_20:13, used of man) That preach ye; proclaim (Revised Version); khruxatE . upon the house-tops. Lightfoot ("Hor. Hebr.") thinks that this is an allusion to the minister of a synagogue blowing a trumpet on the roof of a high house to announce the sabbath; but that was a mere signal of a fact (salpizw), not the articulate expression of a communication (khrussw). The phrase much more probably alludes to the fact that the roofs in Eastern cities are the common place for conversation, and to the rapidity with which an announcement there made spreads throughout the town.

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

Even what I now tell you secretly is not to be kept secret long, but declared publicly. Therefore, What ye hear in the ear, publish on the house-top - Two customs of the Jews seem to be alluded to here. Their doctors used to whisper in the ear of their disciples what they were to pronounce aloud to others. And as their houses were low and flat roofed, they sometimes preached to the people from thence. Luke xii, 3.

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

27. What I tell you in darkness. In privacy. The Lord had to teach them in private before he could send them forth. On the house tops. The flat roofs of eastern houses made a conspicuous pulpit. The Lord directs them to speak in the most public manner. In Syria proclamations are still often made from the house tops.

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.

27. ὃ εἰς τὸ οὖς ἀκούετε. Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.) refers this to a custom in the ‘Divinity School’ of the synagogue (see ch. Mat 4:23), where the master whispered into the ear of the interpreter, who repeated in a loud voice what he had heard.

ἐπὶ τῶν δωμάτων. Travellers relate that in the village districts of Syria proclamations are frequently made from the housetops at the present day. The announcement of the approaching Sabbath was made by the minister of the Synagogue from the roof of an exceeding high house (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb.) just as the Turkish ‘Muezzin’ proclaims the hour of prayer from the top of the mosque.

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.

27.] An expansion of the duty of freeness and boldness of speech implied in the last verse. The words may bear two meanings: either (1) that which Chrysostom gives, taking the expressions relatively, ἐπειδὴ μόνοις αὐτοῖς διελέγετο καὶ ἐν μικρᾷ γωνίᾳ τῆς Παλαιστίνης, διὰ τοῦτο εἶπεν “ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ,” καὶ “εἰς τὸ οὖς,” πρὸς τὴν μετὰ ταῦτα παῤῥησίαν ἐσομένην, Hom. xxxiv. 2, p. 390; or (2) as this part of the discourse relates to the future principally, the secret speaking may mean the communication which our Lord would hold with them hereafter by His Spirit, which they were to preach and proclaim. See Act 4:20. These senses do not exclude one another, and are possibly both implied.

There is no need, with Lightfoot and others, to suppose any allusion to a custom in the synagogue, in the words εἰς τὸ οὖς ἀκούετε. They are a common expression derived from common life: we have it in a wider sense Act 11:22, and Gen 50:4.

ἐπὶ τῶν δ.] On the flat roofs of the houses. Thus we have in Josephus, ἀναβὰς ἐπὶ τὸ τέγος καὶ τῇ δεξιᾷ καταστείλας τὸν θόρυβον αὐτῶν.… ἔφη … B. J. ii. 21. 5.

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

(L) 27. What I say to you in the darkness, speak ye in the light; and what you hear at the ear (in whispers), proclaim upon the housetops.] Lk. has: “Wherefore (ἀνθʼ ὧν), whatever things you say in the darkness shall be heard in the light, and what you speak to the ear (i.e. privately) in the chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” In Mt. the meaning seems to be: “I give you My teaching in privacy and obscurity. But I wish you to be the agents in making it everywhere public.” In Lk. the idea rather is: “Hypocrisy is essentially futile, inasmuch as all things hidden ultimately come to light, and your secret words and whispers will one day be known.”

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

Preach [κηρυξατε] . Better Rev., proclaim. See on Mt 4:17.

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