Matthew 15:39

Mat_15:32; Mat_15:39

And Jesus said unto them, How many loaves have ye?

The miracle of the loaves and fishes; or, continuity and economy

Want in men moves Christs whole nature. His help leaves no injury. Here generosity and frugality meet. Observe in this miracle two principles.

I. Continuity. That which is comes out of that which has been.

II. Frugality. There is no waste.

1. These two principles are exhibited in nature. Mere spontaneity nature disowns. The field says, Give me seed, and I will give you back harvest. Nature disowns waste, all things are utilized.

2. These principles are found in history. God does not fling loaves from the sky; they are growths. Not one life is lost.

3. These principles are seen in the moral world. There is no dropping of truths than of great men from heaven. Hence out of the few loaves grow the feast. He who holds in sincerity a little truth has the promise of all.

In applying the truth of the text we learn-

1. To hope. The less will become more.

2. The effect of this law upon character. Your future must come out of your past.

3. A lesson in helping others. We help by bringing the better out of some good in men. How many loaves have you? One has a feeble resolution; that, with the blessing of God, may be sufficient. (P. Brooks, D. D.)

The miraculous feeding of four thousand

I. The features by which this miracle was distinguished.

1. It was a miracle of mercy.

2. Its publicity is another feature worthy of notice.

3. The scale on which it was wrought was most extensive.

4. It was the result of no previous arrangement, but was done in order to meet a pressing emergency.

5. The consciousness He evinced that His resources were adequate to the occasion.

II. The lessons which this miracle enforces.

1. Reliance.

2. Gratitude.

3. Charity.

4. Economy. (Expository Outlines.)

The necessities of man and the all-sufficiency of Christ

I. That circumstances are continually reminding man of his necessitous condition. Man can go but a short way into lifes wilderness without feeling that his is a craving nature. Life-long dependence should teach life-long humility.

II. That mans necessitous condition is fully met by Christs sufficiency. Christ knows the necessities of our human constitution. In Christ dwells all fulness. Man needs pardon, purity, freedom, peace.

III. That if man will not avail himself of Christs sufficiency he will be chargeable with the ruin of his own soul. These men did not refuse to eat because they could not understand the mystery by which the bread was multiplied, Refuse to eat and they die. (J. Parker.)

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

D. CHRIST MINIFESTS HIMSELF AS THE HIGH PRIEST IN HIS SUFFERINGS;—BEING REJECTED BY THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES, OR BY THE COMBINED THEOCRATICAL AUTHORITIES OF GALILEE

Mat_15:39 to Mat_16:12

Contents:—Although the Lord landed privately on the western shore near Magdala, He was immediately met by His enemies. The combined authorities of the country now demand of Him to prove His claims to the Messianic title by showing that sign from heaven, which in their carnal expectations they connected with the appearance of the promised Deliverer. Their object evidently was to represent His probable refusal of their request as an acknowledgment of His being a false Messiah. Jesus dismisses them with a rebuke, In which He again points them to the sign of Jonah, i.e., to His death and resurrection. Thus rejected in Galilee, He immediately returns across the sea to the eastern shore, there to prepare in retirement for His last journey to Jerusalem. The warning addressed to the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and scribes was intended to teach them that they were now to forsake Galilee, which had practically surrendered itself to heathenism, just as Hoses and his people had left the land of Egypt.

1. The Sign from Heaven. Mat_15:39 to Mat_16:4

Mat_15:39 And he sent away the multitude [multitudes, ὄχλους], and took ship [entered into the ship],15 and came into the coasts of Magdala [Magadan].16

Mat_16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came,17 and tempting, desired him 2that he would shew [to show] them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be18 fair weather: for the sky is red. 3And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites,19 ye can [ye know how to]20 discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? 4A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign [and no sign shall] be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet21 Jonas [Jonah]. And he left them, and departed.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat_15:39.—Into the coasts of Magdala [Magdalan, Magadan].—The circumstance that Jesus secretly lands in an obscure and unknown place, throws considerable light on the degree of hostility and persecution which He had to encounter during His last journey in Galilee. The watchfulness of the Jewish leaders appears from this, that despite the precautions used by the Lord, they are seemingly ready immediately to meet Him, this time with a categorical demand.—Magdalan lay on the western shore of the lake. Probably it is the modern small Village of el Mejdel, about an hour and a half to the north of Tiberias, and protected toward the sea by high cliffs (Robinson, ii. 897; Schubert, iii. 250). Robinson enumerates the various arguments against placing it on the eastern shore of the lake. In all likelihood the name of Mary Magdalene was derived from this place, which also gave birth to several of the Rabbins mentioned in the Talmud. According to Mar_8:10, the landing took place in the district of Dalmanutha, probably a village not far from Magdalan. We conjecture that the Lord touched the shore somewhere between these two villages, and nearer to Dalmanutha than to Magdalan—the account in Mark being the more accurate, while Matthew only speaks of Magdalan, as being the place more generally known. Winer suggests that Magdalan was the מִגְרַּל אֵל of the Old Testament; Ewald, that it was Megiddo, which, however, according to Robinson, 2:329, lay farther inland. The view of Ewald is based on the reading Μαγεδάν, in Codd. B., D., the Syriac version, etc. (which has been adopted by Lachmann and Tischendorf), and with which the reading Μαγεδάν (Vulg., Ital.) may be compared. But Codd. C., M., the Coptic translation, etc., read Μαγδαλάν. Now it is quite possible, either that this difference of reading may have originated from a desire to assimilate this name to that of a better known place, or else that Magada, the name of an obscure village on the lake, may have been converted into that of the well-known birthplace of Mary Magdalene.

Mat_16:1. And the Pharisees and (the) Sadducees.—According to Strauss and de Wette, this is the same event as that recorded in Mat_12:38. The remark is true, but only so far as the spirit, the tendency, and some of the external features, not so far as the peculiar characteristics, of the narrative are concerned. Evidently, it occurred at a later period of history; the place where the Saviour landed, the demand made upon Him, and His reply, are all different. Strauss and de Wette regard it as improbable that the Pharisees and Sadducees should have combined. And yet these two parties must have united in the Sanhedrin which condemned Jesus to death! Instead of such idle conjectures, it would have been well if critics had rather inquired how it came that the two parties even at this early period united in their hostility to the Saviour. That both the Pharisees and the Sadducees are introduced with the article,1 implies that in this case they represented the hierarchical authorities of the country generally. In the former contest, the Synagogue alone had been represented, while now in all probability the Sanhedrin itself, in its official capacity, deals with Jesus. Hence also the express demand of a sign from heaven, which may be considered as the logical inference from the last interview between the Pharisees and Jesus. On that occasion, the Saviour had not only discarded the authority of traditionalism, but His statements might even be interpreted as implying superiority to the law itself. This they knew was equivalent to asserting His claims as the Messiah. Accordingly, they now gave full utterance to the idea which the Pharisees of Galilee had previously urged, though in a less distinct manner ( Matthew 12), by demanding a sign from heaven. Withal, as Theophylact remarks, their request still implies the supposition that the miraculous cures performed by Him had been effected by the power of Beelzebul.

Tempting (πειράζοντες), or in order to tempt Him.—This does not necessarily imply the presupposition that He was really a false Messiah, and hence unable to show the sign from heaven. For, if He had acceded to their request, they would have been well satisfied with Him, and He would have been a Messiah according to their own mind, pledged to fulfil all their carnal hopes (see Matthew 4) Repeatedly afterward did they utter their secret desire that it might even be so; nor does this hope seem to be wholly extinct even in the derisive taunt, “If He be the Son of God let Him come down from the cross.” But these carnal hopes were already in great measure eclipsed by their unbelief and their hostility. Hence the primary object of this twofold temptation was to represent Jesus to the people as a spurious Messiah, who was unable to substantiate His claims.

A sign from heaven.—The same request had already been proffered by the Jews after He had driven from the temple those that bought and sold (Joh_2:18); and His reply “Destroy this temple,” etc., substantially conveyed the same meaning as the answer given on the occasion recorded in the text. A second demand to the same effect was made, according to Joh_6:30, immediately after the first miraculous feeding of the multitude, or about the same time as the request mentioned in Mat_12:38; a proof that the artifice of entrapping Him by such a proposal was at the time further carried out. In the text, this demand is brought forward a third time, and now in most explicit language. This sign from heaven was popularly expected to be outwardly visible; such passages as Dan_7:13 being interpreted in a sensuous manner, and probably referred to some visible manifestation of the Shechinah. From the answer of Christ, in which the appearance of the clouds as a sign of the weather is subordinated to the signs of the spiritual world, we infer that the Pharisees and Sadducees shared the popular notions. The sign which they expected was, therefore, something purely external, belonging to a totally different sphere from the miraculous cures performed by Jesus. That the term ἐπερωτᾷν implies not merely questioning (as Fritzsche and Meyer suppose), but a formal demand, appears from die reply of Jesus: γενεά, κ.τ.λ., σημεῖον ἐπιζητεῖ, and from the meaning of ἠρώτων in Mat_15:23. The reply of Jesus is entirely adapted to the character of the deputation. If on a former occasion He had convinced the deputation from the synagogue that they were wretched teachers of the law, He now shows that these rulers were equally indifferent politicians, i.e., very superficial observers of the signs of the times. They knew how to prophesy the weather for the ensuing day, but not how to interpret the signs of the times.

Mat_16:2-3. When it is evening.—Curiosi erant admodum Judæi in observandis tempestatibus cæli et temperamento aëris. Lightfoot. We would suggest that the Lord attached a symbolical meaning to what He said about the signs of the weather. The red at even of the Old Testament betokened fair weather at hand. Similarly, the red sky at the commencement of the New Testament indicated the storm about to descend upon Israel. But they were incapable of understanding either one or other of these signs.

Mat_16:3. The signs of the times.—The plural τὰ σημεί͂α τῶν καιρῶν is here used on account of the contrast of these two times. Beza, Kuinoel, and others, apply the expression to the miracles of Jesus; Grotius, to the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies; Meyer and de Wette, to the Messianic hopes and views entertained by the people in connection with Jesus. But undoubtedly these signs of the times depended mainly on their own relationship and conduct toward the Lord, which really constituted the contrast between this evening and morning, or the contrast of these καιρῶν. Accordingly, we might apply the redness of the sky at evening to the activity of Christ, and the red and lowering sky in the morning to His sufferings on the cross. This would strictly accord with His sign of the prophet Jonah. Besides, the reply of Jesus also involved the rebuke, that their views of the sign from heaven were entirely carnal and sensuous, applying only to the clouds and the outward sky; while the true sign from heaven consisted in the spiritual indications of the times. The circumstance that Jesus thus addressed the Pharisees and Sadducees before the people, seems to have been the reason why Luke records the event in a different connection (Luk_12:54). Compare also the μὴ μετεωρίζεσθε of Luk_12:29.

Mat_16:4. The sign of Jonah.—This time without any further explanation; implying that their present demand was connected with the former request of the Pharisees (Luke 12), and hence that they were already acquainted with His explanation of the sign of Jonah. As if He would say, I refer you to My former statement on this subject as sufficient and final.

And He left them.—This abrupt termination indicates that He judicially gave them up. Bengel: Justa severitas. Comp. Mat_15:10; Mat_21:17; Mat_22:46; Mat_24:1. But the strongest evidence of this judicial surrender lies in the fact that Jesus at once passed to the eastern shore, and in His warning of the disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Manifestly Jesus now immediately returned with His disciples to the other side. (Comp. here Meyer against Fritzsche.)

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The demand of the Pharisees for a sign from heaven was certainly in itself no absurdity. But it depended upon an entire confusion of the first and the second advent of Christ. It is quite true that the prophecies on which they founded their views contained references to vast transformations in the world which would result from the completion of Christ’s mission. But as the death and resurrection of Christ are related to the end of the world as the principle to the full development, or as the seed-corn to the ripe fruit, so also is the sign of Jonah (or Christ’s death and resurrection) most definitely connected with those signs from heaven which shall usher in the final catastrophe. Indeed, strictly speaking, it is the sign from heaven in principle which by and by will also appear in the clouds of heaven (Mat_24:30).

2. Ye know how to discern the face of the sky, but.—Of course this statement does not imply that it was easier to interpret the signs of the spiritual world than those of the sky. But the former, and not the latter, was the calling and business of the Sanhedrin, while in reality they were better prophets of the weather than interpreters of those prophecies which it was their duty to expound. Besides, the statement also indicates that the signs of the sky are uncertain, and may deceive us; while moral signs, if properly understood, never mislead.

3. Mark relates that the Saviour sighed deeply in spirit when His enemies again met Him with this demand. He fully comprehended the decisive importance of that hour. Henceforth He could no longer tarry in Galilee—Galilee rejected Him. This holds even more true of Judea, whence these persecutions issued. The Master felt that now only a brief time of respite was left Him on the other side of Jordan, to prepare Himself and His intimate disciples for the decease at Jerusalem.

4. This was the third occasion on which Jesus was driven from Galilee, and passed over the lake into the mountains. The first time it was to avoid the court of Herod; the second time He retreated before the traditionalism of the schools; the third time before the hardened hierarchy of the whole country.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The demand of a sign from heaven; or, the old temptation under a new form. 1. The old temptation: (a) The proposal itself, to be a worldly Messiah, a Jewish conqueror, not a Saviour of nations; to overthrow the old world, not to renew the spiritual world by regeneration, and thereby to transform the external world. (b) Why a temptation? Because it was based upon elements of truth which were perverted into error. 2. The new form of this temptation, (a) It was under the guise of a sign from heaven; (b) partly an allurement and partly a threat, forming a transition from the temptations from the pleasures of the world (Matthew 4) to those from its sufferings (Matthew 26); (c) it was urged with the evident intention to represent the Lord to the people as a false Messiah, and thus to destroy His influence, even if He escaped their hands.—How the Jewish politicians, in their knowledge of the weather, overlooked the signs of the spiritual weather: (a) They lost the brightest day; (b) they encountered the severest storm.—The successors of the prophets sunk to the level of weather-prophets,—a warning example.—How even their superficial knowledge of nature would rise in testimony against their theology.—Why the Lord here calls them hypocrites? (a) Because they neglected and misunderstood those spiritual signs which it was their calling to interpret, while, on the other hand, they gave themselves to the interpretation of outward signs with which they had no business; (b) because in general they perverted their spiritual into a secular calling.—Outward calculations of things always end in this, that a man at last becomes slavishly dependent upon wind and weather.—How most men allow themselves to be so engrossed by the signs of the visible sky as to overlook what is going on in the spiritual sky.—The true signs of the time.—Signs at evening and in the morning in the kingdom of God.—Let us not be dependent on wind and weather, but look up to the Sun of righteousness.—Why no other sign than that of Jonah could be given to this evil and adulterous generation.—He left them and departed; or, the decisive hour: 1. His death was now decided upon; 2. their fall and judgment were now decided; 3. the grand course of events during the long-suffering of Christ, from His resurrection to His second advent, was now decided; 4. the future condition of the Church as sharing the fate of her banished and persecuted Lord was now decided; 5. the termination of the old things of this world by the final judgment was now decided.—And He left them; or, the silent commencement of a new era.—He departed; but they are still standing and waiting for the sign from heaven.

Starke:—The Pharisees and the Sadducees.—Hedinger: In any undertaking against Christ or His people, Pilate and Herod will always be ready to join hands, Luk_23:12.—The enemies of Christ always repeat objections which have already been thoroughly answered and refuted.—Unbelief trusts God no further than it can see with its eyes and feel with its hands; while true faith simply relies on the word of God, even though it sees neither signs nor miracles.—Canstein: Let us give heed to those times which God has marked by certain signs.—Woe to those from whom Jesus departs; who is to be their Saviour and Helper?

Gerlach:—If your vision were not at fault, you could descry miracles enough to satisfy you!

Heubner:—How fruitful is human wisdom in expedients for our earthly concerns, and how inexperienced and unskilful in divine things!—There are “signs of the times” in the kingdom of heaven.—These signs only a devout mind can read; the Spirit of God discloses the purposes of God.—A Christian and a spiritual policy.—Christ does not beg for applause.

Footnotes:

[1][The article before Σαδδουκαῖοι is omitted by Tischendorf, Lachmann, and Alford on the best authorities, which Dr. Lange must have overlooked.—P. S.]

[15]Ch. 15, Mat_15:39.—[Ἀνὲβη εἶς τὸ πλοῖον.]

[16] Mat_15:39.—[The authorities are divided between Μαγδαλάν, Μαγαδά ν, and Μαγδαλά. The Vatican and the Sinaitic MSS. read Μαγαδάν, and so do Tischendorf, Lachmann, and Alford. Lange prefers Μαγδαλάν. See his Exeg. and Crit Notes in loc.—P. S.]

[17] Mat_16:1.—[Better: And the Pharisees and (the) Sadducees came, Καὶ προσελθόντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι καὶ (οί) Σαδδουκαῖοι.—P. S.]

[18] Mat_16:2.—[The interpolation here and in Mat_16:3 is unnecessary. Fair weather! is more lively. So Ewald, Lange: Sehön Wetter! Meyer: Heiteres Wetter! The Greek has only one word in each case, εὐδία (from εῦ̓ and Διός, gen. of Ζεύς), clear sky, fine weather, and χειμών, storm, rainy, foul weather.—P. S.]

[19] Mat_16:3.— γποκριταί, hypocrites, is wanting in Codd., C., D., L., etc., and thrown out by Lachmann and Tischendorf [Cod. Sinait. omits all the words from ὀψίας γενομένης, to δύνασθε Mat_16:2-3, probably by an oversight of the transcriber.—P. S.]

[20] Mat_16:3.—[ Γινώσκετε. So also Lange: ihr versteht’s. The second discern (διακρίνελν) of the E. Vers, is an interpolation, but makes the sense clearer. The lit. rendering is: Ye know (γινώσκετε) how to discern the face of the sky; but can ye not (οὐ δύναδθε) the signs of the times? Lange gives τῶν καιρῶν an emphatic sense and translates: die Zeichen der Enttcheidungszeiten, the decisive epochs, such as the one of Christ’s ministry on earth.—P. S.]

[21] Mat_16:4.— Τοῦ προφήτου is wanting in B., D., L., and erased by Lachmann and Tischendorf. [It is also omitted in the Codex from Mt. Sinai, and in the editions of Tregelles, and Alford. Lange retains it in his version, but in smaller type and in parenthesis.—P. S.]

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.

CHAPTER 35

SIGNS OF HIS COMING

Mat 15:39. “Having sent away the multitudes, He entered into a ship, and came to the coasts of Magdala.” Mar 8:10 : “Immediately embarking on a ship, with His disciples, He came into the parts of Dalmanutha.” In these records, chronicling the peregrinations and defining the whereabouts of our Savior, Matthew and Mark precisely agree, both certifying His embarkation, crossing the sea, and His landing — the latter in Dalmanutha, which is the name of the country; and the former, in Magdala, which is the name of the city into which He came on landing. This is the nativity of Mary Magdalene, the latter cognomen being taken from her city, Magdala. Though evidently saved out of the slums, by the ejectment of seven demons, she became one of the brightest saints and truest disciples on whom the sun ever looked down, being last at the cross, first at the sepulcher, and first to receive the full-orbed gospel commission, “Run and preach the risen Christ.” Among the mighty works of Jesus, only a small fraction do we have on record. We have no account of Mary Magdalene’s conversion; but a mere reference to the ejectment of the seven demons, and her subsequent incessant concomitancy of our Lord to the end of His earthly ministry. I trow, she was converted during the present or some other visit of Jesus to her city, Magdala. I feel it pertinent thus to write about her, as she stood at the head of the female department of our Savior’s ministry.

Mat 16:1-4 : “The Pharisees and Sadducees, coming to Him, tempting, asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. He, responding, said to them, It being evening, you say, It will be fair, for the sky is red; in the morning, It will be stormy today, for the sky is red, lowering. O ye hypocrites, you truly know how to discern the face of the sky, and are you not able to discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous nation seeketh after a sign; and no sign shall be given unto it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” He had fed the multitudes this second time over in Decapolis, not very far out in the country, off the southeast coast of the Galilean Sea; after which, coming with His disciples and embarking on a ship, He crosses the sea from southeast to northwest, landing at Magdala, which is on the coast between Bethsaida and Tiberias, but nearer the former. I was in it, and as I sailed all around the sea, landing at many places, I saw all of these localities, and this as well as other routes pursued by our Lord and on record for our edification.

“Jesus now preaches to the multitudes assembled at Magdala, in the land of Dalmanutha.” Here we have, by Matthew and Mark, the subtle attack made on Him by the Pharisees and Sadducees. These, and the Essenes, were the great denominations of the Jewish Church. The Pharisees were the orthodox, with plenty of good and true doctrine, but spiritually dead; the Sadducees were rich and worldly, skeptical in doctrine, regarded as the heterodox wing of the popular Church; while the Essenes, very poor and generally living in the desert, were the holiness people of that day. As in all ages and countries there has been an exterminating war between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, so it was in that age. The Pharisees and Sadducees, however, bury the hatchet, and unite their forces against Jesus, as we see on this occasion, and may see all over this country, if you will open your eyes. Let a holiness evangelist come to a wicked town, and pour out the lightning — truth of full salvation, and the warring sects will all make peace, like Pilate and Herod, and unite their forces, to criticize, oppose, and if possible defeat the revival. Though Jesus had flooded the whole country with His stupendous miracles, always exercising His power for the relief of suffering humanity, doing good to soul or body; dissatisfied with these wonderful benefactions, which they could neither criticize nor call in question, they allege that these works are all confined to this world, and as Moses, the great leader, lawgiver, and mediator of Israel, whose disciples they boastingly claim to be, had fed them with manna from heaven, incessantly, forty years in the wilderness, therefore they demanded of Him a similar miracle, coming down from heaven. He now, responsively to their impudent and arrogant demands, called them hypocrites; not by way of insult, but because it behooved the Author of all truth to call everything by its right name; and if these preachers had enjoyed the true light of God, instead of antagonizing Jesus, they would have been His faithful and loving disciples. Hence, the reason why, with all their meteorological sagacity, which enabled them to prognosticate the weather, and still they could not discern the spiritual signs of the time, was demonstrative proof that they were not the true ministers of God as they claimed to be, as in that case, the light of the Holy Ghost on the prophecies would enable them so to decipher the signs of the times as to know that He was truly the Christ. That it was not the want of natural intelligence was abundantly evinced by their accurate discriminations of the weather. But it was simply the want of spiritual illumination, which the Holy Ghost sheds on the Word, clear and unmistakable to the spiritually-minded. Hence, the very fact that those preachers were utterly blind to the signs of the times was demonstrative proof that they were hypocrites. What were those signs of His coming? The seventy weeks of Daniel — i.e., four hundred and ninety prophetic years — were just about expired. The scepter, which was not to depart from Judah till Shiloh (Christ) came, had actually departed about the time of His birth, as, on the death of Herod, Augustus Caesar, the Roman emperor, instead of transmitting to Archelaus, took it away altogether, turning Judea into a Roman province, and sending Coponius to serve as proconsul. Besides, all the prophets had just poured out torrents of Messianic predictions, which were wonderfully fulfilled on all sides; John the Baptist, the last of all, and the greatest of the prophets, not only having preached Him with all His might, but actually introduced Him publicly to all the people, assuring them of His Messiahship. If these preachers had not been bigoted and blinded hypocrites, they would most assuredly have seen in Jesus the Christ of prophecy.

Let us beware lest we plunge into the same awful dilemma. The present age is flooded with prophetic signs of the Lord’s near coming, as we are now in the last century of the demiurgic week; the six thousand years, according to some chronologies, already out; while all of them expire the period in the present century. The Gentile times, according to Daniel and John, are actually running out on us, the lunar chronology having them already expired, the Calendar due in twenty-four years, and the solar in seventy, all conspiring to illustrate the obvious fact that we are living in the time of the end of the Gentile age. Besides, the prophetical fulfillments among the Mohammedans, Romanists, heathens, and Protestants, and especially the Jews, literally girdle the globe with signs of His near coming; e.g., the rapid gathering of the Jews to Palestine, the revival of the old cities in that country, the great and rapid apostasy of the Church in the home lands, and the wonderful and unprecedented progress of missions among all heathen nations, are all literal fulfillments of the latter-day prophecies, ominous of the Lord’s near coming. And yet preachers by thousands see nothing of it, but comfort their carnal members by ridiculing the awful and momentous truths which God’s awakened people are preaching in all the earth, arousing the spiritually-minded to wash, and dress, and be ready for their coming King. We should not be surprised at the blindness of the pulpit and pew with reference to our Lord’s second coming, when we see how literally this state of things was verified in His first advent; as intellectual and educational culture has no power to open spiritual eyes, and reveal the electric light of God’s truth, so we may expect to find humanity uniform in all ages, and the same paradoxical blindness on Israel this day which, in the visitation of her Lord, disqualified her learned preachers to see Him.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15:39 Magadan is an unknown site, perhaps Magdala (as in some Greek manuscripts; see also Mark 8:10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 15:39. [705]Ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ πλοῖν, He again went on board the vessel)[706] sc. that mentioned a little before in ch. Mat 14:33. The word ἀνέβη occurs with the same force in Mar 6:51.

[705] Mat 15:38. Τετρακισχίλιοι, four thousand) They were in truth mighty miracles, whereby five thousand (ch Mat 14:21) and four thousand men were fully satisfied with food; and it was then that the abundance of Jesus’ miracles had reached its highest point. How widely His glory ought to have been spread abroad by so many thousands of witnesses!—Harm., p. 344.

[706] E. V. “took ship.” Bengel would give another force to the preposition ἀνὰ, and renders ἀνέβη, iterum conscendit.—(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.

Mat_15:39. The village of Magdala (Jos_19:38?) is not to be regarded as situated on the east (Lightfoot, Wetstein, Cellarius), but on the west side of the lake, where now stands the Mohammedan village of Mejdel. See Gesenius on Burckhardt, II. p. 559; Buckingham, I. p. 404; Robinson, Pal. III. p. 530. This situation likewise corresponds with Mar_7:21. Comp. note on Mat_15:29. It is well, however, to take note of the reading Μαγαδάν (B D א Syrcur Syr. in this instance; similarly Lachmann, Tischendorf; comp. Erasmus and Grotius), or Μαγεδάν (Vulgate, It., Jerome, Augustine), which unknown name might readily enough have been supplanted by one rendered more familiar on account of its connection with Mary Magdalene. In C M, Curss. the final syllable is still retained (Μαγδαλάν). According to Ewald, Magadan, or Magedan, refers to the well-known town of Megiddo. But this latter was too far inland (Robinson, III. p. 413 f.; Furer in Schenkels Bibellex.), for it would seem, from what is stated in the text (ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ πλ. καὶ ᾖλθεν), that the place meant must have been somewhere on the shore, and one admitting of being approached by a boat. Mar_8:10 calls it Dalmanutha.

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 15:39 . Μαγαδάν : the true reading, place wholly unknown, whence probably the variants.

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

Verse 39. He sent away the multitude] But not before he had instructed their souls, and fed and healed their bodies.

The coasts of Magdala.] In the parallel place, Mr 8:10, this place is called Dalmanutha. Either Magdala was formed by a transposition of letters from Dalman, to which the Syriac termination atha had been added, or the one of these names refers to the country, and the other to a town in that neighbourhood. Jesus went into the country, and proceeded till he came to the chief town or village in that district. Whitby says, "Magdala was a city and territory beyond Jordan, on the banks of Gadara. It readied to the bridge above Jordan, which joined it to the other side of Galilee, and contained within its precincts Dalmanutha." The MSS. and VV. read the name variously - Magada, Madega, Magdala; and the Syriac has Magdu. In Mark, Dalmanutha is read by many MSS. Melagada, Madegada, Magada, Magidan, and Magedam. Magdala, variously pronounced, seems to have been the place or country; Dalmanutha, the chief town or capital.

In this chapter a number of interesting and instructive particulars are contained.

1. We see the extreme superstition, envy, and incurable ill nature of the Jews. While totally lost to a proper sense of the spirituality of God's law, they are ceremonious in the extreme. They will not eat without washing their hands, because this would be a transgression of one of the traditions of their elders; but they can harbour the worst temper and passions, and thus break the law of God! The word of man weighs more with them than the testimony of Jehovah; and yet they pretend the highest respect for their God and sacred things, and will let their parents perish for lack of the necessaries of life, that they may have goods to vow to the service of the sanctuary! Pride and envy blind the hearts of men, and cause them often to act not only the most wicked, but the most ridiculous, parts. He who takes the book of God for the rule of his faith and practice can never go astray: but to the mazes and perplexities produced by the traditions of elders, human creeds, and confessions of faith, there is no end. These evils existed in the Christian as well as in the Jewish Church; but the Reformation, thank God! has liberated us from this endless system of uncertainty and absurdity, and the Sun of righteousness shines now unclouded! The plantation, which God did not plant, in the course of his judgments, he has now swept nearly away from the face of the earth! Babylon is fallen!

2. We wonder at the dulness of the disciples, when we find that they did not fully understand our Lord's meaning, in the very obvious parable about the blind leading the blind. But should we not be equally struck with their prying, inquisitive temper? They did not understand, but they could not rest till they did. They knew that their Lord could say nothing that had not the most important meaning in it: this meaning, in the preceding parable, they had not apprehended, and therefore they wished to have it farther explained by himself. Do we imitate their docility and eagerness to comprehend the truth of God? Christ presses every occurrence into a means of instruction. The dulness of the disciples in the present case, has been the means of affording us the fullest instruction on a point of the utmost importance-the state of a sinful heart, and how the thoughts and passions conceived in it defile and pollute it; and how necessary it is to have the fountain purified, that it may cease to send forth those streams of death.

3. The case of the Canaanitish woman is, in itself, a thousand sermons. Her faith - her prayers - her perseverance - her success - the honour she received from her Lord, &c., &c. How instructively - how powerfully do these speak and plead! What a profusion of light does this single case throw upon the manner in which Christ sometimes exercises the faith and patience of his followers! They that seek shall find, is the great lesson inculcated in this short history: God is ever the same. Reader, follow on after God-cry, pray, plead-all in Him is for thee! - Thou canst not perish, if thou continuest to believe and pray. The Lord will help THEE.

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

(39) Into the coasts of Magdala.—The better MSS. give the reading Magadan. The narrative implies that it was on the western shore of the lake, and it is probably to be identified with the modern village of El Mejdel, about three miles above Tabarieh (Tiberias). The name would seem to be an altered form of the Hebrew Migdol, a tower. On the assumption that “Mary, called Magdalene,” derived her name from a town of that name, we may think of our Lord’s visit as having been in some way connected with her presence. It is clear that the company of devout women who ministered to Him could hardly have followed Him in the more distant journey to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and it was natural, if they did not, that they should have returned for a time to their homes. St. Mark gives Dalmanutha as the place where our Lord disembarked. This has been identified with the modern Ain-el-Bârideh, the “cold fountain,” a glen which opens upon the lake about a mile from Magdala.

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

39 And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.

Ver. 39. And he sent away the multitude] Not without a blessing, and a great deal of good counsel. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth," &c. Amend your lives, for the kingdom of heaven is come home to you. Now that you have eaten and are full, beware that you forget not the Lord your God, &c., Deu 8:10-11. Be not as children, with whom eaten bread is soon forgotten. This was wholesome counsel, and far better than their good cheer; for this would stick by them. Deal we so by our guests.

And came into the coasts of Magdala] This is held to be Mary Magdalene’s country, better known by her than she was by it, as the island of Co was by Hippocrates, and Hippo by Austin.

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.

Magedan. Some copies read Greek: Magdalan, others Greek: Magadan, or Magedan: this last is found in the Vulgate, and in the best manuscript copies. (Mat. Polus, T. iv, p. 409.)

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).

39. Magdala — At present a poor village on the western side of the lake, a little north of Tiberias. Tracing his own course northward along the lake shore, Dr. Olin says: “We left Tiberias a few minutes before twelve o’clock. After one hour and twenty minutes a plain opened before us, extending several miles to the north and west. A miserable looking village of thirty or forty huts stands in the entrance; and we stopped to make some inquiries of the pale, sickly-looking inhabitants. This poor village, however, possesses a special historical interest. The people of whom we inquired its name called it Mejdal; and it is evident from the name, as well as from its position here, that it is the Magdala of the New Testament, and the Migdol of the Old.”

It was the place from which Mary Magdalene received her appellation.

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

Sent away the multitude. Having supplied their spiritual and material wants. He wished to avoid all disturbance or collision with constituted authorities; and the people dispersed quietly, being less excitable than the inhabitants of Bethsaida, and not so well acquainted with the Messianic claims. The number thus dismissed was less than on the previous occasion, though the provision was greater a difference which distinguishes one incident from the other, and which no forger would have introduced, it being much more natural to make the second wonder transcend, instead of falling short of, the previous one. We mention this here, because some critics have assumed that the present is only an imperfectly remembered account of the feeding of the five thousand already narrated. There are, of course, many points of similarity in the two incidents. Being of identical character, they must naturally present the same general features. But careful survey of the two narratives discloses many differences, which quite preclude the notion that the latter is a traditional reproduction of the former. To one who believes in the honesty and good faith of the evangelists, the allusion which Christ makes to the two miracles is a sufficient argument for their separation. Our Lord pointedly calls to mind the two occasions when he multiplied food, and rebukes the apostles for their lack of apprehension in the face of these marvels. "Do ye not yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets (kofinouv) ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets (spuridav) ye took up?". (Mat_16:9, 10 Mar_8:19-21) Many of the essential points of difference between the two accounts are noticed in the Exposition, and they will be seen to disport wherever divergence was possible, in time, scene, and detail. Magdala. The right reading is most probably Magadan, or Magedan (Vulgate), the better known Magdala having at an early date been substituted for it. Conder identifies one of the two with a mud and stone village called El Mejdel, a little north of Tiberius, a poor place without any gardens, situated in a plain of partially arable soil.

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

39. Came into the coasts of Magdala. He took the boat to escape the multitude. Magdala was on the western shore of the lake, three miles north of Tiberias. The Revision says Magadan, supposed to have been a village near Magdala. Mark says Dalmanutha. The meaning is that he came into the vicinity of all three of these places, which were near each other.

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.

39. Μαγαδὰν for Μαγδαλὰ with the chief MSS. (א B D) and versions; some ancient authorities have Μαγεδάν. Most of the later uncials read Μαγδαλά.

39–16:4. JESUS AT MAGDALA, OR MAGADAN, IS TEMPTED TO GIVE A SIGN

Mar 8:10-12; Luk 12:54-57

39. Μαγαδάν. For the reading see critical note. It is probable that the familiar Magdala supplanted in the text the more obscure Magadan. Magdala or Migdol (a watch tower) is identified with the modern Mejdel, a collection of ruins and squalid huts at the S.E. corner of the plain of Gennesaret, opposite to K’hersa or Gergesa. This is the point where the lake is broadest. Prof. Rawlinson thinks that this Magdala may be the Magdolus of Herodotus, II. 159; unless indeed by a confusion curiously similar to that in the text, Herodotus has mistaken Migdol for Megiddo. Magdala was probably the home of Mary Magdalene.

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.] Of Magadan nothing is known.

Lightfoot (Centurio Chorograph. Marco præmissa, p. 413) shews Magdala to have been only a sabbathday’s journey from Chamnath Gadara on the Jordan, and on the east side of the lake: but probably he is mistaken, for most travellers (see Winer, Realwörterbuch, in v.) place it about three miles from Tiberias, on the west side of the lake, where is now a village named Madschel. Dalmanutha, mentioned by Mark (8:10), seems to have been a village in the neighbourhood.

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

39. And He sent away the multitudes, and embarked into the boat, and came to the boundaries of Magadan.] Mk. has: “And He sent them away; and straightway having embarked into the boat with His disciples, He came to the regions of Dalmanutha.” Mk.’s Dalmanutha is certainly corrupt. The editor of Mt. has tried to emend by substituting Magadan. If Cheyne (EncycBib 1635) is right in suggesting that the real name of the place was Migdal-nunia, a suburb of Tiberias, Mt. has got from oral tradition or from some earlier copy of Mk. a form which is not very far from the original.

39. Μαγαδάν] א B D; Magedon, S2; Magedan, S1; Magedan, latt; Μαγδαλά; E F al.

M the Second Gospel.

LXX. The Septuagint Version.

1 Cf. Josephus, Against Apion, 1: τὸν καλούμενον ὅρκον κορβὰν— — δηλοἵ δὲ—δῶρον θεοῦ.

Dion. H. Dionysius Halicarnassus.

Ditt. Dittenberger Sylloge.

1 Ox. Pap. iii. 491. 3 (a.d. 126), 494. 4 (a.d. 156), 495. 3 (a.d. 181-189). In these three cases it means “to revoke” of a will. It occurs also in 1 Es 6:32, Est 6:6 times in 4 Mac, and 6 times in Aquila.

S Syriac version: Sinaitic MS.

S Syriac version: Curetonian.

E editorial passages.

al i.e. with other uncial MSS.

B. Babylonian Talmud.

1 The addition of the last clause in Mt. is significant. In Mk. the section vv. 14-23 might seem to be directed against the Mosaic regulations with regard to clean and unclean meats. Mt., by omitting Mk 19 end and by inserting the last clause, seems to have wished to make it clear that the whole paragraph was directed not against the Mosaic law, but against the ceremonial rules of the Pharisees.

O quotations from the Old Testament borrowed from a collection of Messianic prophecies. See pp.61 f.

Deissm. Deissmann.

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