Matthew 7:27

Mat 7:27. Καὶ ἦν ἡ πτῶσις αὐτῆς μεγάλη, and great was the fall of it) It was great indeed, for it was entire. We see, from the present example, that it is not necessary for all sermons to end in a consolatory strain.

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

Mat 7:27 . καὶ … ἄνεμοι : exactly the same phrases as in Mat 7:25 , to describe the oncome of the storm. προσέκοψαν : a different word for the assault on the house struck upon it with immediate fatal effect. It was not built to stand such rough handling. The builder had not thought of such an eventuality. ἔπεσεν , καὶ ἦν ἡ πτῶσις αὐτῆς μεγάλη : not necessarily implying that it was a large building, or that the disaster was of large dimensions, like the collapse of a great castle, but that the ruin was complete. The fool’s house went down like a house of cards, not one stone or brick left on another.

Allegorising interpretation of the rain, rivers and winds, and of the foundations, is to be avoided, but it is pertinent to ask, what defects of character in the sphere of religion are pointed at in this impressive parabolic logion ? What kind of religion is it that deserves to be so characterised? The foolish type is a religion of imitation and without forethought. Children play at building houses, because they have seen their seniors doing it. There are people who play at religion, not realising what religion is for, but following fashion, doing as others do, and to be seen of others (Mat 6:1 ). Children build houses on the sea sand below high-tide mark, not thinking of the tide which will in a few hours roll in and sweep away their houselet. There are men who have religion for to-day, and think not of the trial to-morrow may bring.

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

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house--struck against that house;

and it fell: and great was the fall of it--terrible the ruin! How lively must this imagery have been to an audience accustomed to the fierceness of an Eastern tempest, and the suddenness and completeness with which it sweeps everything unsteady before it!

Effect of the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 7:28-29).

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. And the rain descended, and the floods came, c.] A fine illustration of this may be seen in the case of the fishermen in Bengal, who, in the dry season, build their huts on the beds of sand from which the rivers had retired: but when the rain sets in suddenly as it often does, accompanied with violent northwest winds, and the waters pour down in torrents from the mountains; in one night, multitudes of these buildings are swept away, and the place where they stood is on the next morning indiscoverable.

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

27. the rain descended, &c.] In the original both the tense and the position of the verbs give great vivacity to the description.

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.

27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Ver. 27. And the rain descended, &c.] The old heart cannot possibly hold out the hardship of holiness, nor bear the brunt of persecution for well doing. Like a chestnut cast into the fire, if not broken first on the top, it leaps out again; or like a false jade in a team, which being put to a stress, turns tail and tramples. When the godly hearer holds on his way to heaven, through all disasters; as those two kine of the Philistines that bore home the ark, held on their way, though they had calves at home, that might have made them turn back.

And it fell] The wise man’s and fool’s house come under a double difference. 1. In the foundation; this to see to, and above ground, is little discerned. The temple is said to be as low underground as it was high above. 2. In the building itself. The unprofitable hearer is not cemented to Christ by faith, but laid loose, as it were, upon a sandy foundation, and so slips beside the ground work in foul weather. He is not set into the stock as a scion, but only stuck into the ground as a stake, and is therefore easily pulled up. Whereas the true Christian is knit fast to Christ the rock by the ligament of a lively faith; and as a lively stone, is built up in a spiritual house, 1Pe 2:5, growing up in the mystical body with so much sweetness and evenness, as if the whole temple (like that of Solomon) were but one entire stone. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit," 1Co 6:17. So that although, 1. Shakings and waverings in the very purpose of holy walking may befall a saint by violent temptations, Psa 73:2; Psa 73:13; yea, 2. Intermissions of the exercise of grace, as of life in a palsy or epilepsy; 3. Particular falls we are not exempted from, -Peter himself, though a pillar, fell from his former steadfastness, in part; -yet from intercision, prolapsion, from utter and irrecoverable falling away, they are freed, because founded upon a Rock, which can never be removed, he is both the "author and finisher of their faith," Heb 12:2; He hath prayed and procured that it utterly fail not Luk 22:32.

And the fall thereof was great] Great and grievous, because irreparable, irrebuildable, as Jericho and the temple at Jerusalem. God lays them aside like broken vessels, of which there is no further use; and since they will needs wallow again, as swine, in the filth of their former pollutions, he pronounceth upon them that fearful sentence, "Let him that is filthy be filthy still;" that unclean spirit entereth him again, and his dispositions to evil are seven times more inflamed than ever. He hath despised and despited the Spirit of Grace, and is in the ready road to the unpardonable sin, Heb 10:26. The apostate cannot lightly choose unto himself a worse condition, Heb 10:26. He casts himself into hell’s mouth, Heb 10:39, where "the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways," Pro 14:14, and have the greater torment by how much he fell from greater hopes and possibilities of better; as Nebuchadnezzar from his monarchy, and as Cranmer from his high preferment to so low a condition, as that there was left him neither hope of better nor place of worse.

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.

Such again shall be the end of all false prophets. Their death shall be in the same proportion, ignominious and miserable, as their life had been glorious and attractive. They shall be punished with so much greater severity, than others, as their sins have proceeded from greater knowledge and greater malice. (Haydock)

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).

27. Our Lord gives a vivid contrast in the pictures of the rock-founded and sand-founded house, drawn from the natural scenes of Palestine. It is the foundation that is the main thing. The house built upon the rock could not be undermined; but the light structure erected upon the beach, when the windy storms poured down and swelled the floods around it, soon found its base gliding from under it. Great was the fall — ”The fishermen of Bengal,” says Mr. Ward, in his View of the Hindoos, “build their huts in the dry season on the bed of sand from which the river has retired. When the rains set in, which they do often very suddenly, accompanied with violent northwest winds, the water pours down in torrents from the mountains. In one night multitudes of these huts are frequently swept away, and the place where they stood is the next morning undiscoverable.”

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

27. Great was the fall of it. The Lord describes the thoughtfulness of the builder on the sand, the storm and the utter destruction. There is an awful solemnity about this close to the wonderful sermon.

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. κατέβη … ἦλθον … ἔπνευσαν. Both the tense and the emphatic position of the verbs give great vivacity to the description.

οἱ ποταμοί. ‘Streams,’ rather than ‘floods,’ A.V. ἦλθαν, ‘came,’ because before there had been only a dry channel.

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. μεγάλη] All the greater, because such an one as here supposed is a professed disciple—ἀκούων τοὺς λόγους—and therefore would have the further to fall in case of apostasy.

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

27. And the rain came down, and the streams came, and the winds blew, and fell upon that house; and it fell: and its fall was great.] Lk. has: “Upon which the stream beat, and straightway it fell: and the destruction of that house was great.”

(E M)

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

Great was the fall of it. The conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. "Thus," remarks Bengel, "it is not necessary for every sermon to end with consolation."

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