Matthew NIGNT on 5:36

[Emanuel Cardona]

I do not own the Matthew NIGNT volume and I would really like to see what it says on Matt. 5:36, if someone can post on here. Thank you!

[Ken Simpson]

Do you mean NICNT or NIGTC?

 

Assuming you mean NICNT (France)

 

34b–36 The general principle that disciples should not take oaths is now illustrated by series of examples of specific oaths which are inappropriate. Cf. 23:16–22 for a similar discussion of oaths. Oaths normally invoked God as the guarantor of the person’s word, and it was this which made it so serious a matter to break them: it was a misuse of God’s name (Exod 20:7), a profanation (Lev 19:12). In response some Jews had already developed the habit, which underlies much of our “social swearing” today, of finding more innocuous substitutes for the actual name of God; here Jesus lists oaths by heaven, earth, Jerusalem and one’s own head, while in 23:16–22 he will add a further list (the temple, the gold of the temple, the altar and the gift on the altar). Such casuistry, of which the Mishnah provides numerous examples,125 receives very short shrift, since heaven, earth and Jerusalem are inseparably linked with God as his dwelling and possession; the point is made by allusions to Is 66:1 (“Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool”) and Ps 48:2 (“Mount Zion, the city of the great King”). The oath by one’s head126 might have been given parallel treatment, since the head too is God’s creation, but the point is made more obliquely by pointing out that you have no power over your own head; the implication is that it is God, not you, who determines the color of your hair (some early patristic interpreters took this verse as a ruling against the use of hair-dye!), since he is its creator and sustainer. All such surrogate oaths display not reverence but theological superficiality.

R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT; Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 215.

[Emanuel Cardona]

Do you mean NICNT or NIGTC?

 

Assuming you mean NICNT (France)

 

34b–36 The general principle that disciples should not take oaths is now illustrated by series of examples of specific oaths which are inappropriate. Cf. 23:16–22 for a similar discussion of oaths. Oaths normally invoked God as the guarantor of the person’s word, and it was this which made it so serious a matter to break them: it was a misuse of God’s name (Exod 20:7), a profanation (Lev 19:12). In response some Jews had already developed the habit, which underlies much of our “social swearing” today, of finding more innocuous substitutes for the actual name of God; here Jesus lists oaths by heaven, earth, Jerusalem and one’s own head, while in 23:16–22 he will add a further list (the temple, the gold of the temple, the altar and the gift on the altar). Such casuistry, of which the Mishnah provides numerous examples,125 receives very short shrift, since heaven, earth and Jerusalem are inseparably linked with God as his dwelling and possession; the point is made by allusions to Is 66:1 (“Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool”) and Ps 48:2 (“Mount Zion, the city of the great King”). The oath by one’s head126 might have been given parallel treatment, since the head too is God’s creation, but the point is made more obliquely by pointing out that you have no power over your own head; the implication is that it is God, not you, who determines the color of your hair (some early patristic interpreters took this verse as a ruling against the use of hair-dye!), since he is its creator and sustainer. All such surrogate oaths display not reverence but theological superficiality.

R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT; Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 215.

So sorry, I meant NIGTC.

[Ken Simpson]

OK - attempt 2 then 

 

5:36. The final alternative falls in a class apart.213 If all the other things pertain to the realm of God, surely one’s own head is within reach!214 How does the comment about inability to change the colour of one’s hair represent a response to this possibility? This is not only not literally true today with modern dyes; it was not true already in the first century. Ancient medicine had developed ways of colouring hair, and hair dying was practised in Egypt.215 Perhaps the reference to ‘white’ is the key. The hair of one’s head becomes white in old age. And in the ancient world one’s honour increased with one’s age (Pr. 16:31; 20:29). One cannot give or take from oneself the honour of old age; it is finally up to God to honour or dishonour one’s head (in this way or in any other way). So not even one’s own head turns out to be within one’s own power of disposition. There remains only one’s bare word of truthful assertion.

John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC; Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 251-252.

[Emanuel Cardona]

Thank you, Ken! I greatly appreciate your help.

 

I am curious to see what the footnotes 213-215 say.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Emanuel Cardona

[Paul Meiklejohn]

Emmanual,

 

213. However, the fresh introduction of the verb ‘to swear’ is less likely to mark separation than the completion of the list, with Mt. 5:37 to follow as a restatement in positive terms of the general principle set out in v. 34a.

214. ‘Vow to me by the life of thy head’, from m. Sanh. 3:2, is generally cited as a parallel. In this case the oath is probably implicitly or perhaps even formally of the conditional curse kind (‘may God take my life if . . .’). The oath in Matthew is not as severe, but the relationship does suggest that there may at times be little difference between swearing by something and swearing in terms of a conditional curse on something. The validity of the oath by the life of the head was disputed. The MT of 1 Ch. 12:20 (ET 19) contains the phrase brʾšynw, which has been taken as an abbreviated oath formula: ‘[we swear] by our heads’. But it is probably better to correct the text in the light of 1 Sa. 29:4b (‘by means of their heads’) or to translate like the NRSV (‘at the cost of our heads’).

215. For details and references see Betz, Sermon, 270 nn. 588, 589.

 

John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC; Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 346.

accord://read/NIGTC#5269  

Edited January 27, 2017 by Paul Meiklejohn

[Emanuel Cardona]

Thank you so much, Paul!