Matthew 11:17

Mat 11:17. Ηὐλήσαμεν, we have piped) i.e., played on the pipe. See Mat 11:19.—ἐθρηνήσαμεν, we have mourned) See Mat 11:18. An instance of Chiasmus.[530]

[530] See Explanation of Technical Terms in Appendix.—(I. B.)

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

Verse 17. We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced] We have begun the music, which should have been followed by the dance, but ye have not attended to it.

We have mourned - and ye have not lamented.] Ye have not smote the breast: ουκ εκοψασθε, from κοπτομαι, to strike, or beat the breasts with the hands, particularly in lamentation. So used, Na 2:7; Lu 18:13; Lu 23:48, and by the best Greek and Roman writers. There is an allusion here to those funeral lamentations explained Mt 9:23.

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

For John came neither eating nor drinking,.... This and the following verse are an explanation of the foregoing "parable"; and this shows, that John and his disciples are the persons that mourned, of which his austere life was a proof: for when he "came", being sent of God, and appeared as a public preacher, he was "neither eating nor drinking"; not that he did not eat or drink at all, otherwise he could not have lived, and discharged his office: but he ate sparingly, very little; and what he did eat and drink, was not the common food and drink of men; he neither ate bread nor drank wine, but lived upon locusts and wild honey; he excused all invitations to people's houses, and shunned all feasts and entertainments; he abstained from all free and sociable conversation with men, in eating and drinking: and though the Scribes and Pharisees pretended to much abstinence and frequent fastings, yet they did not care to follow his very severe way of living, and lament, in answer to his mournful ditty; but in a calumniating way,

they say he hath a devil; is a demoniac, a madman, one that is unsociable and melancholy; under a delusion of Satan, and influenced by him to abstain from proper food and company of men, under a pretence of religion.

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

17 And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.

Ver. 17. We have piped unto you, &c.] It is probable that children in those days were wont to solace themselves with songs in this sort: and thence our Saviour seeks to repress the pride and set forth the sin of his untoward hearers. Fit similes do excellently illustrate: and he is the best preacher, saith Luther, that delivereth himself vernacularly, plainly, trivially: not speaking in a Roman, English, or other lofty language, that the hearers are nothing the wiser for; nor yet puzzling them with scholastic craggy disquisitions, that breed wind, and not nourishment. But so attempering their discourses to the hearers’ capacities, that their desires and endeavours may answer his: as it was between St Paul and the elders of Ephesus, Act 20:31-37. He tells them of his tears, and they answer him with tears: O happy compliance! But most of our hearers are like these in the text, which whether piped to or mourned to, are nothing at all affected.

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.

We have piped. Christ, says, St. Jerome on this place, was represented by the children that piped, or played on pipes, and St. John by those that mourned; because Christ refused not upon occasions, to eat and converse with sinners. (Witham) --- Jesus shews the Jews by this simile, that he had endeavoured to induce them, by the common life he led, to an imitation of his virtues; and they had not complied with his desire. --- We have lamented. This part is to be understood of St. John, who led a most austere life, and notwithstanding was despised by the Jews. (St. Jerome in St. Thomas Aquinas) --- Similar to this is the complaint of the Almighty, by the mouth of the prophet Isaias: What is there that I should have done to my vineyard, and have not done? Our Redeemer and the Baptist imitated the skilful huntsmen, who made use of various and opposite stratagems, that if the nimble animal escape one, he may fall into another. As men are commonly more engaged by fasting and austerities, therefore did the Baptist practise them in the highest degree, that they thus might be prevailed upon to believe his words. Christ, condescending more to their weakness, did not embrace this rigid manner of life, though at the same time he sanctified and approved it by his fast of forty days, and extreme poverty, not having where to recline his head. It was better that our Saviour’s doctrine should be approved of by one who practiced austerity, than that he himself should fast and live rigidly. If the Jews admired fasting and penance, whose words should have led them to the Son of God? If fasting appeared sorrowful and forbidding, why did they not join themselves to Jesus, who came eating and drinking, and compassionating their infirmities? which way soever they chose they might have arrived at salvation? (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxviii.)

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).

17. We have piped unto you — We, that is, the multitudes who heard the preaching of John. Ours, say they, is the cheerful and the merry mood. We look for a prophet and preacher who can respond to our cheerful temper. But you are an austere denouncer of sin, not sparing the cheerfulness of life. We have piped, but you have refused to dance to our tune. We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented — We, that is, the hearers of Jesus, are pensive in character. We love the weeping and denouncing preacher. But you are genial and joyous. We have mourned and you have not lamented.

18. For — Our Lord now applies his figure of the piping and mourning children to himself and John. John came neither eating nor drinking — That is, as our note on Mat_3:4, has said, John ceremonially exhibited a perpetual fast. He came not accepting any festal invitations or joining any banquets, but adopting a religious diet indicative of pure abstinence, He hath a devil — Instead of being a prophet, inspired of God, he is, say they, a demoniac, dwelling, like other demoniacs, in the desert, and howling forth his denunciations.

19. Eating and drinking — Not living, like John, in the desert, on a diet that indicated fast; but joining in the social enjoyments of life, blessing the wedding and banquet with his presence, and preaching the Gospel of deliverance and joy. Man gluttonous — The sanctimonious hypocrites made even the gladness of the Saviour’s Gospel a charge against him. There is no form of virtue or excellence which wicked men cannot malign, and charge with being a vice which bears some analogy to that virtue. Wisdom is justified of her children — Besides these sets of captious children who capriciously assail the Gospel in its ministry and preaching, there is a choice body of other children — the children of wisdom. This wisdom is the wisdom of God. 1Co_2:7. It is the wisdom of the just — the blessed Gospel. This wisdom, however cavilled at by the children of perversity and captiousness, is justified, that is, vindicated and maintained against cavils, by her children.

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

17. We piped unto you. One set of children is represented as having invited another set to play, first in a mock wedding, then in a mock funeral, but the dissatisfied children were pleased with neither, and would neither dance nor lament.

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.

(L) 17. We piped to you, and ye did not dance; we wailed, and you did not lament.] Lk. has ἐκλαύσατε for ἐκόψασθε. The idea is that the children could get no response from their playmates, whom they could attract to no games, whether cheerful or mournful.

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

Mourn [εκοψασθε] . Lit., beat or strike (the beast), as in oriental funeral lamentations.

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