Matthew 11:8

Mat 11:8. Ἀλλὰ, but) The conjunction is employed to show that the preceding hypothesis has been dismissed.—ἐν μαλακοῖς ἱματίοις ἠμφιεσμένον, clothed in soft raiment) They would have wished the forerunner, and the Messiah Himself, to have been such.—τὰ, the) The article refers to the preceding μαλακοῖς.[515]—φοροῦντες, who wear) John, if he had wished it, might have been a courtier.—οἴκοις, houses) Not in the desert or the prison.—τῶν βασιλείων,[516] of palaces) See Est 4:2. The LXX. have τὰ βασιλεία in Est 1:9; Est 2:13.—ΟἾΚΟΙ ΤῶΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΊΩΝ = the halls of the palace.

[515] Thus identifying μαλακὰ with μαλακοῖς ἱματίοις, and showing that the μαλακα “soft things,” now spoken of are, as in E. V., “soft clothing.”—(I. B.)

[516] E. M. has “τοῖς οἴκοις τῶν βασιλέων” which E. V. renders “Kings’ Palaces.”—(I. B.)

The reading τῶν βασιλείων is regarded as equal to the other in the margin of the larger Ed.: but the margin of Ed. 2, as well as the Germ. Vers., prefer βασιλέων.—E. B. All the primary authorities read βασιλέων. But Griesb. and Scholz, with some inferior Uncial MSS., read βασιλείων or βασιλειῶν.—ED.

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

Mat_11:8-9. Ἀλλά] no, on the contrary; it is assumed that what has just been asked was not the intention; Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 38. Klotz, ad Devar. p. 13. It seems, from the fact of his sending those messengers, as if John were (1) a man of hesitating, unstable character, Mat_11:7; or (2) a voluptuary, whose sole concern was how to exchange his condition of hardship for one of luxurious ease, Mat_11:8. Jesus removes any impression of this sort by appealing to His hearers to consult their own hearts as to what they had expected, and what they had found in John. Certainly they had expected neither a man of fickle mind, nor a voluptuary; but what they had looked for, that they had found in him, namely a prophet (Mat_21:26), indeed more than a prophet! Accordingly, there is no apparent reason for regarding (Oppenrieder, Zeitschr. f. luth. Theologie, 1856) the clauses containing a statement of the intention as the rhetorical expression of the result (as if the words were τί ἐξελθόντες εἰς τὴν ἔρ. ἐθεάσασθε). But even to find in the negative questions an ironical allusion to the character of the Galileans (Keim), is foreign to the connection, especially as the real motive is given in the third of these questions.

Mat_11:9. ναί confirms the προφήτην ἰδεῖν which has just been asked (see the critical remarks), and that in accordance with its result: Certainly, I tell you (you saw a prophet), and more. περισσότερον is regarded by Erasmus and Fritzsche as masculine (Symmachus, Gen_49:3 : οὐκ ἔσῃ περισσότερος, excellentior). Nowhere, however, in the New Testament does the simple περισσότερος occur as masculine, and in this instance the interrogative τί tells in favour of its being taken as neuter. Comp. Mat_12:41 f. Therefore to be rendered: something more (Vulgate: plus) than a prophet,inasmuch, that is, as he is not only the last and greatest of the prophets, but also because he was sent by God to prepare the way of the Messiah through the preaching and baptism of repentance, Mat_11:10. In a different sense, viz. as the source, the aim, and the fulfiller of all prophecy, is Christ more than a prophet. Comp. Kleinschmidt, d. typolog. Citate d. vier Evang. p. 45.

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.

Mat 11:8 . ἀλλὰ assumes the negative answer to the previous question and elegantly connects with it the following = “No; well, then, did you, etc.?” ἐν μαλακοῖς , neuter, ἱματίοις not necessary: in precious garments of any material, silk, woollen, linen; the fine garments suggestive of refinement, luxury, effeminacy. ἰδοὺ οἱ τ . μ . φοροῦντες : ἰδοὺ points to a well-known truth, serving the same purpose as δή here; those accustomed to wear, φορ ., frequentative, as distinct from φέροντες , which would mean bearing without reference to habit. οἴκοις τ . βασ ., in palaces which courtiers frequent. Jesus knows their flexible, superfine ways well; how different from those of the rudely clad and rudely mannered, uncompromising Baptist!

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

Verse 8. A man clothed in soft raiment?] A second excellency in John was, his sober and mortified life. A preacher of the Gospel should have nothing about him which savours of effeminacy and worldly pomp: he is awfully mistaken who thinks to prevail on the world to hear him and receive the truth, by conforming himself to its fashions and manners. Excepting the mere colour of his clothes, we can scarcely now distinguish a preacher of the Gospel, whether in the establishment of the country, or out of it, from the merest worldly man. Ruffles, powder, and fribble seem universally to prevail. Thus the Church and the world begin to shake hands, the latter still retaining its enmity to God. How can those who profess to preach the doctrine of the cross act in this way? Is not a worldly-minded preacher, in the most peculiar sense, an abomination in the eyes of the Lord?

Are in kings' houses.] A third excellency in John was, he did not affect high things. He was contented to live in the desert, and to announce the solemn and severe truths of his doctrine to the simple inhabitants of the country. Let it be well observed, that the preacher who conforms to the world in his clothing, is never in his element but when he is frequenting the houses and tables of the rich and great.

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

(8) A man clothed in soft raiment?-Had they seen, then, one who shared in the luxury, and courted the favour of princes? No, not so, again. They that wear soft clothing, or, as in St. Luke’s report, “they that are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately,” are in kings’ houses. The words had a more pointed reference than at first sight appears. Jewish historians (Jost, Gesch. Jud. I. 259.) record how in the early days of Herod the Great a section of the scribes had attached themselves to his policy and party, and in doing so had laid aside the sombre garments of their order, and had appeared in the gorgeous raiment worn by Herod’s other courtiers. The Herodians of the Gospel history were obviously the successors of these men in policy, and probably also in habits and demeanour; and the reference to “kings’ houses” admits of no other application than to the palace of Antipas. We may trace, with very little hesitation, a vindictive retaliation for these very words in the “gorgeous robe” with which Herod arrayed Him in mockery when the Tetrarch and the Christ stood for one brief hour face to face with each other (Luk_23:11).

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

8. A man clothed in soft raiment] Mr Plumptre (Smith’s Bib. Dic. i. 1166) suggests that there may be a historical allusion in these words. A certain Menahem, who had been a colleague of the great teacher Hillel, “was tempted by the growing power of Herod, and with a large number of his followers entered the king’s service … they appeared publicly in gorgeous apparel, glittering with gold.” (See Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr., on Mat_22:16.)

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.

But what went ye out for to see?.... Since it was not any thing so mean as a shaking reed, or so grand as a man in gay clothing, pray what was it you went out to see?

A prophet? This was the truth of the matter, they expected to see a prophet, and they believed he was one; this was the common voice of the people; all held John to be a prophet. This made Herod afraid to put him to death, and the Pharisees to speak against his baptism: now, though this was giving him a great character, to believe and own him to be a prophet, yet it did not come up to his full character.

Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet; when they saw him, they saw not only a prophet, but one that was greater, and more excellent than any of the prophets that went before him: they prophesied of the Messiah at a distance, and in words not so clear, and easy to be understood; they spoke of him as to come, but he pointed him out with his finger, and declared that he was come; he saw him himself, and showed him to others; he saw the Spirit of God descending on him, and he himself baptized him; his office, as the harbinger of Christ, and the administrator of the ordinance of baptism to him, gave him a preference to all the prophets; and was such an one, as never any man was vested with but himself.

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

8 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.

Ver. 8. A man clothed in softs?] ειματα ανηρ Which most men gaze at, go after, fawn upon. Hunc homines decorant, quem vestimenta decorant. Herein they resemble those dogs that kept Vulcan’s temple; of which Hospinian tells us that if any came to the temple with brave clothes, they would fawn upon them; but if in ragged, they would tear them in pieces. Such a vanity as this was crept into the Church, Jas 2:2. Fulgent fere monilibus, sordent moribus. Cato could say, Cultus magnam curam, magnam virtutis esse incuriam. The Baptist was not a man of that make. His heart and his habit were equally plain, simple. Buchanan seldom cared for a better outside than a rug gown girt close about him.

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.

Clothed in soft raiment - The kind of raiment here denoted was the light, thin clothing worn by effeminate persons. It was made commonly of fine linen, and was worn chiefly for ornament. Christ asks them whether they were attracted by anything like that. He says that the desert was not the place to expect it. In the palaces of kings, in the court of Herod, it might be expected, but not in the place where John was. This kind of clothing was an emblem of riches, splendor, effeminacy, feebleness of character. He meant to say that John was a man of a different stamp - coarse in his exterior, hardy in his character, firm in his virtue, suited to endure trials and privations, and thus qualified to be the forerunner of the toiling and suffering Messiah.

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

Clothed in soft, &c. That the Baptist was not like the reeds, changeable by nature, the respect that the whole Jewish people paid him sufficiently evince. Our Redeemer, therefore, proceeds to shew that St. John was not changeable by his manner of life. Delicacies and effeminacy (the ordinary sources of fickleness of behaviour,) being found in the houses of kings, and the great ones of this earth, were far from being desired by the precursor. This he shewed to the world by his garments of camels’ hair, his habitation in the wilderness, his slender and insipid food of wild honey and locusts, and the prisons to which his constancy brought him. (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).

8. Man clothed in soft raiment — Were you attracted into the wilderness of Judea to see an effeminate courtier, who could not bear the severities of a desert or of a prison, as John now perhaps appears? Certainly not. The very direction you took shows the reverse. You would not have gone to the wilderness, but to the palace, perhaps of Herod, to find a soft dressed gentleman.

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

Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings" houses. Menahem the Essene was by the wish of Herod the Great made deputy to Hillel in the Sanhedrin, but afterwards left his office. "Whither did he go out? Abai said. He went out to destruction. Rabba said, He went out for the service of the king. There is also a Baraitha i.e. an "uncanonical" Mishna to this effect, that Menahem went out for the service of the king, and there went out with him eighty pairs of disciples clothed in Syrian robes" (Talm. Bab., "Chagigah," 16b, edit. Streane). It has been conjectured, though hardly on sufficient evidence, that our Lord was thinking of this ease; but the Talmudic passage at least illustrates the gorgeousness of the apparel of the courtiers, and suggests the luxury of living that St. Luke speaks of ("They which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings" courts"). It is, however, only fair to Menahem to say that Gratz ("Geschichte der Judaer," 3. p. 230, edit. 1877) is able to suppose that he merely went back again to his solitude.

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

A man clothed in soft, delicate raiment - An effeminate courtier, accustomed to fawning and flattery? You may expect to find persons of such a character in palaces; not in a wilderness.

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

8. A man clothed in soft raiment? Were you attracted into the wilderness of Judea to see an effeminate courtier? Had he been a pliant courtier he would have flattered Herod, and would not have been thrown into prison for his rebuke of sin in high places.

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.

8. ἐν μαλακοῖς ἠμφιεσμένον. Prof. Plumptre (Smith’s Bib. Dic. I. 1166) suggests that there may be a historical allusion in these words. A certain Menahem, who had been a colleague of the great teacher Hillel, ‘was tempted by the growing power of Herod, and with a large number of his followers entered the king’s service … they appeared publicly in gorgeous apparel, glittering with gold.’ (See Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr., on Mat 22:16.)

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.

8. ἀλλά] If it was not that, …; so in Demosth. Coron. p. 233, τί γὰρ καὶ βουλόμενοι μετεπέμπεσθʼ ἂν αὐτούς; ἐπὶ τὴν εἰρήνην; ἀλλʼ ὑπῆρχεν ἅπασιν. ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ τὸν πόλεμον: see Klotz, Devar. p. 5.

τί ἐξήλθατε] The repetition of this question, and the order of the suggestive answers, are remarkable. The first sets before them the scene of their desert pilgrimage—the banks of Jordan with its reeds (as Dr. Burton quotes from Lucian Hermotim., κάλαμος ἐπʼ ὄχθῃ παραποταμίῳ πεφυκὼς καὶ πρὸς πᾶν τὸ πνέον σαλευόμενος);—but no such trifles were the object of the journey: this suggestion is rejected without an answer. The second reminds them that it was a man—but not one in soft clothing, for such are not found in deserts. The third brings before them the real object of their pilgrimage in his holy office, and even amplifies that office itself. So that the great Forerunner is made to rise gradually and sublimely into his personality, and thus his preaching of repentance is revived in their minds.

ἐν μαλακοῖς] Contrast this with the garb of John as described ch. 3:4. Such an one, in soft raiment, might be the forerunner of a proud earthly prince, but not the preacher of repentance before a humble and suffering Saviour; might be found as the courtly flatterer in the palaces of kings, but not as the stern rebuker of tyrants, languishing in their fortress dungeons.

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

(L) 8. But what went ye out to see ? A man clothed in soft (raiment)? I Behold, they who wear soft (raiment) are in kings’ houses.] Lk. has ἐν μαλακοῖς ἱματίοις in the first clause, and for the second: ἱδοὺ οἱ ἑν ἱματισμῷ ἐνδόξῳ καὶ τρυφῇ ὑπάρχοντες ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις εἰσίν. The meaning is: “You did not go all that way into the wilderness to see a worldly sensualist.”

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