Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 4:16
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
16. the people which sat in darkness ] The invasion of Tiglathpileser, whom Ahaz called in to assist him against Rezin and Pekah, fell with great severity on the Northern tribes (2Ki 15:29). Yet even they are promised a great deliverance [“there shall not hereafter be darkness in the land that was distressed,” Isa 9:1 ], in the first instance, by the destruction of Sennacherib, from temporal distress (cp. Is. chs. 10 and 11 with ch. Mat 9:1-6); secondly, by the advent of the Messiah, from spiritual darkness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mat 4:16
Sat in darkness.
Darkness and light
I. The deep darkness which envelops the world without the gospel. Darkness and the region of the shadow of death, striking emblems of error, ignorance, sin, guilt, misery, danger.
1. The heathen world is in this darkness (Rom 1:18-32).
2. In the very midst of Christendom there is this darkness. Home heathenism, etc. The condition of all unregenerate men.
II. The uprising of a glorious light for the transformation of the darkness. There is no redeeming principle in mans apostate nature. But for the prospects opened by the gospel, there must be the darkness of final and absolute despair. Materialism, etc., are as powerless as the ancient systems to reach the conscience and renew the heart (Isa 38:17; Isa 45:8, and others). But glorious is the view in the text, etc. Concerning this light, observe-
1. Its source. The gospel is light, and this marks its divinity. God who commanded, etc.
2. Its adaptation: To every stage of human society; to the common wants of man-instruction, comfort, etc.; to every order of mind; to every possible condition, etc. The gospel offers pardon for the guilty, etc.
3. Its diffusiveness. A great light-penetrating. Progress of the gospel in apostolic times, etc. In how many dark places has light sprung up, etc.
4. Its efficacy. Not a dead letter, but the power of God, etc.
It will finally prevail-All the ends of the earth shall see, etc.
1. Has the Sight arisen upon your soul?
2. Are you manifesting it in your life, etc.?
3. Are you doing what you can to communicate it to others? (A. Tucker.)
Light for those who sit in darkness
I. Some souls are in greater darkness than others.
1. The darkness of ignorance.
2. The darkness of error.
3. The gloom of discomfort and sorrow, attended with fear.
4. Hopelessness, sat in darkness.
5. In the region of death.
II. For those who are in a worse condition than others there is hope and light.
1. In barbarous nations Christ has won great victories.
2. In the worst hearts Christ has dawned.
3. When these have beheld the light, they frequently become eminently useful to others.
4. The conversion of the deplorably dark brings the highest degree of glory to God.
III. The true light for a soul in darkness is all in Christ.
1. There is light in Christs name for a troubled sinner.
2. In His person and nature.
3. In His offices.
4. In His character.
IV. The poor soul in darkness need not despair, for light is all around you. It has already sprung up. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. The people which sat in darkness] This is quoted from Isa 9:2, where, instead of sitting, the prophet used the word walked. The evangelist might on purpose change the term, to point out the increased misery of the state of these persons. Sitting in darkness expresses a greater degree of intellectual blindness, than walking in darkness does. In the time of Christ’s appearing, the people were in a much worse state than in the time of the prophet, which was nearly 700 years before; as, during all this period, they were growing more ignorant and sinful.
The region and shadow of death] These words are amazingly descriptive. A region of death – DEATH’S country, where, in a peculiar manner, Death lived, reigned, and triumphed, subjecting all the people to his sway.
Shadow of death] , used only here and in Lu 1:79, but often in the Old Covenant, where the Hebrew is tsal maveth, It is not easy to enter fully into the ideal meaning of this term. As in the former clause, death is personified, so here. A shadow is that darkness cast upon a place by a body raised between it and the light or sun. Death is here represented as standing between the land above mentioned, and the light of life, or Sun of righteousness; in consequence of which, all the inhabitants were, involved in a continual cloud of intellectual darkness, misery, and sin. The heavenly sun was continually eclipsed to them, till this glorious time, when Jesus Christ, the true light, shone forth in the beauty of holiness and truth. Christ began his ministry in Galilee, and frequented this uncultivated place more than he did Jerusalem and other parts of Judea: here his preaching was peculiarly needful; and by this was the prophecy fulfilled.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
16. The people which sat in darknesssaw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow ofdeath light is sprung upThe prophetic strain to which thesewords belong commences with the seventh chapter of Isaiah, to whichthe sixth chapter is introductory, and goes down to the end of thetwelfth chapter, which hymns the spirit of that whole strain ofprophecy. It belongs to the reign of Ahaz and turns upon the combinedefforts of the two neighboring kingdoms of Syria and Israel to crushJudah. In these critical circumstances Judah and her king were, bytheir ungodliness, provoking the Lord to sell them into the hands oftheir enemies. What, then, is the burden of this prophetic strain, onto the passage here quoted? First, Judah shall not, cannot perish,because IMMANUEL, theVirgin’s Son, is to come forth from his loins. Next, one of theinvaders shall soon perish, and the kingdoms of neither be enlarged.Further, while the Lord will be the Sanctuary of such as confide inthese promises and await their fulfilment, He will drive toconfusion, darkness, and despair the vast multitude of the nation whodespised His oracles, and, in their anxiety and distress, betookthemselves to the lying oracles of the heathen. This carries us downto the end of the eighth chapter. At the opening of the ninth chaptera sudden light is seen breaking in upon one particular part of thecountry, the part which was to suffer most in these wars anddevastations”the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali,the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee and the Gentiles.”The rest of the prophecy stretches over both the Assyrian and theChaldean captivities and terminates in the glorious Messianicprophecy of the eleventh chapter and the choral hymn of the twelfthchapter. Well, this is the point seized on by our Evangelist. ByMessiah’s taking up His abode in those very regions of Galilee, andshedding His glorious light upon them, this prediction, He says, ofthe Evangelical prophet was now fulfilled; and if it was not thusfulfilled, we may confidently affirm it was not fulfilled in any ageof the Jewish ceremony, and has received no fulfilment at all. Eventhe most rationalistic critics have difficulty in explaining it inany other way.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The people which sat in darkness,…. The inhabitants of Galilee, who sat or “walked”, as in Isaiah; that is, continued in spiritual darkness, in ignorance, blindness, error, and infidelity, “saw great light”; Christ himself, who came a light into the world; he conversed with them, preached unto them, and opened the eyes of their understandings to behold his glory, and to know him, and salvation by him.
And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death: the same persons who sit in darkness, sit also in the region of death; for such are dead in trespasses and sins: where there is no spiritual light, there is no spiritual life, and such are in danger of the second death; but the happiness of these people was, that to them “light is sprung up”, like the rising sun, and this without their asking or seeking for: Christ, the sun of righteousness, arose upon them, without any desert, desire, or expectation of theirs, with healing in his wings; and cured them of their darkness and deadness, turned them from darkness to light, and caused them to pass from death to life. “Light” is not only a character under which Christ frequently goes in the New Testament, see Joh 1:4 but is one of the names by which the Messiah was known under the Old Testament; see Da 2:22 and which the Jews give unto him: says R, Aba a Serungia, “and the light dwelleth with him”; this is the king Messiah. The note of R. Sol. Jarchi on these words, “send forth thy light”, is, the king Messiah; who is compared to light, according to Ps 132:17 the days of the Messiah are by them said to b be “days of light”; and so these Galilaeans found them to be; as all do, to whom the Gospel of Christ comes with power and demonstration of the Spirit. And these days of light first begun in the land of Zabulon which, according to Philo the Jew c, was
“sumbolon fwtov, “a symbol of light”; since (adds he) its name signifies the nature of night; but, the night removing, and departing, light necessarily arises.”
As did, in a spiritual sense, here, when Christ the light arose.
a Bereshith Rabba, fol. 1. 3. & Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 2. b Baal Hatturim in Gen. fol. 2. 2. c De Somniis, p. 1113.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Saw a great light ( ). Matthew quotes Isa 9:1f., and applies the words about the deliverer from Assyria to the Messiah. “The same district lay in spiritual darkness and death and the new era dawned when Christ went thither” (McNeile). Light sprang up from those who were sitting in the region and shadow of death ( ). Death is personified.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The people which sat [ ] ; Wyc., dwelt. The article with the participle (lit., the people, the one sitting) signifying something characteristic or habitual : the people whose characteristic it was to sit in darkness. This thought is emphasized by repetition in a stronger form; sitting in the region and shadow of Death. Death is personified. This land, whose inhabitants are spiritually dead, belongs to Death as the realm of his government.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “The people which sat in darkness,” (ho laos ho kathemenos en skotia) “The people continually sitting or residing in darkness;” Darkness is a figure of sin, sorrow, ignorance, and blindness, 2Co 4:3-4; Eph 3:18.
2) “Saw great light;” (phos eipen mega) “Perceived or recognized a great light;” Light is a figure of life, gladness, knowledge, and holiness. Jesus was that “Light of the world” whom they beheld, Joh 8:12; Isa 9:18-20; Isa 42:6-7; 2Ti 1:10.
3) “And to them which sat,” (kai tois kathemenois) “And to those continually sitting or residing,” to the mixed races of Nephthalim, Zebulun, and Galilee, Jew and Gentile, Syrian and Samaritans, Greeks and Phoenicians, etc.
4) “In the region and shadow of death,” (en chora kai sjia thanatou) “In a community territory (an inhabited region) and shadow of death,” alluded to by Isa 9:1-2. To those who all their life time were subjects, slaves, or vassals of sin and death, He came to liberate them, Luk 4:18-21; Joh 8:32; Joh 8:36; Heb 2:9; Heb 2:15.
5) “Light is sprung up.” (phos aneteilen autois) “A light sprung up (suddenly arose) to them,” to offer them hope of light and eternal life; It was He to whom John the Baptist pointed as the Son of light and righteousness and Star of hope who came out of Israel, Joh 1:4-5; Joh 8:12; Isa 49:6; Num 24:17. This light and hope that began in Galilee of the Gentiles, Act 10:37, coming out of the King of Israel with a wonderful, Golden-era of reign over the earth, Isa 9:6-7; Luk 1:30-34.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
16. The people That is, the people of the land of Zebulun and Naphthali.
Sat in darkness The prophet says, “Walked in darkness.” Sat in darkness embraces the same idea, but an intenser meaning. He who walks in darkness may be looking for light; but he who sits in darkness is settled in his condition. Saw great light The prophet describes the future as past. Before his eye the scene transpires. The people are described as sitting in hopeless midnight, when a sudden noonday breaks upon them.
Shadow of death Physically we conceive there to be a darkness of night, and also a deeper darkness of death. Spiritually, too, as here, there is to the souls of men a darkness of moral night; and when this becomes hopeless it deepens to the shades of spiritual and eternal death. In this condition of hopeless spiritual darkness of death, were these Galileans when the Messianic light, Jesus, the Redeemer, sprung up upon them.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
His Light Having Shone On Them (4:16) His Disciples Are To Be The Light Of The World.
In Mat 4:16 a great light was seen as having come into the world in Jesus Christ, and as having shone on Galilee, revealing God and Himself to the people. Now the disciples are to recognise that they have a similar function, to be a light to the world (note the oneness implied by the singular noun). And they must ensure that that light shines for one purpose only, to bring glory to God in Heaven. It is not accidental that Matthew spoke of the coming light, before describing Jesus’ teaching about them as the light of the world. We may reasonably assume from what Matthew said that Jesus had also prepared them for this by speaking in a similar way.
Analysis.
a
b A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
c Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel measure, but on the stand.
d And it shines to all who are in the house.
c Even so let your light shine before men,
b That they may see your good works,
a And glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Note that in ‘a’ they are the ‘light’ of the ‘world’, and in the parallel they ‘glorify’ their Father in ‘Heaven’. By their actions on earth they are to bring Heaven to earth. In ‘b’ they are like a city on a hill visible to all, and in the parallel their good works are to be visible to all (for the right reasons, not in the same way as the Pharisees). In ‘c’ men light a lamp, and in the parallel the disciples are to let their light shine before men. Centrally in ‘d’ it is to shine to all who are in the house.
But note also that there is the prime statement followed by the progression. They are the light of the world. They cannot therefore be hidden. Nor should any attempt be made to hide it. Rather it should be allowed to shine out. Then men will glorify God in Heaven. (The twofold pattern continues).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 4:16 . , . . .] In opposition to , whose inhabitants are characterized as darkened , that is, devoid of divine truth, and sunk in ignorance and sin. The great light, however, which these darkened ones saw is Jesus.
, . . .] repeats the same thought, with the climactic designation of darkness: . , in the land and darkness, which belong to death. Death , that is, spiritual death (Mat 8:22 , see on Luk 15:24 ), the negation of that living activity which recognises the truth and is morally determined, is personified; the land, whose inhabitants are spiritually dead, belongs to it as the realm of its government, and darkness surrounds it . The common interpretation of it as : “ in regione et in spissis quidem tenebris = in regione spissis tenebris obducta ” (Fritzsche), is, indeed, admissible (see Fritzsche, Exc . IV. p. 856; Ngelsbach on Hom. Il . iii. 100), but unnecessary, and takes away from the poetic description, which is certainly stronger and more vivid if is connected not merely with ( , infernalis obscuritas, i.e. crassissima), but also with . On the significant , comp. Lam. l.c. Pind. Ol. i. 133: . “Sedendi verbum aptum notandae solitudini inerti” (Bengel). Comp. especially, Jacobs, ad Anthol. VI. p. 397; Bremi, ad Dem. Phil. I. p. 119. Ngelsbach on Hom. Il. i. 134.
] see Winer, p. 139 f. [E. T. 265]; Buttmann, p. 125 [E. T. 381].
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
Ver. 16. The people which sat in darkness saw a great light ] For the day-spring from on high visited them, the bright Sun of righteousness (which had all Palestine for his zodiac, the twelve tribes for his signs) stayed longest in Zabulon and Nephthalim, Luk 1:2 ; Mal 4:2 ; and (St Jerome observeth) as these two tribes were first carried into captivity, and seemed farthest from heaven, as bordering on the Gentiles, and in many things symbolizing with them, having learned their manners; so redemption was first preached in these countries. Physicians are of most use where diseases abound. The prophets in Elisha’s days planted at Bethel. There was at once the golden calf of Jeroboam and the school of God.
Sat in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death ] Note here that a state of darkness is a state of death. This is condemnation, this is hell above ground and beforehand, that “light is come into the world, and men love darkness better than light,” Joh 3:36 . Ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant. (Bernard.) Now surely they shall one day have enough of their so much desired darkness, Pro 14:14 . They know not the light, saith Job. Job 24:13 They hate it, saith our Saviour, Joh 3:20 . They spurn and scorn at it, saith Solomon,Pro 1:22Pro 1:22 ; therefore shall they be filled in their own ways, while they are cast into utter darkness, a darkness beyond a darkness ( ), as it were a dungeon beyond a prison, where they shall never see light again, till they be enlightened with that universal fire of the last day to their everlasting amazement, 2Th 1:8 .
Light is sprung up ] He brought them “out of darkness into his marvellous light.” So he did the Samaritans by Philip’s preaching and miracles, whereupon there was great joy in that city, 1Pe 2:9 ; Act 8:8 . So by the ministry of Farel, Viret, Calvin, and others, he drew the Genevans out of the dark midnight of damned Popery; in a thankful remembrance whereof they coined new money, with this inscription on the one side, Post tenebras lux, After darkness light. (Their posy then had been, Post tenebras spero lucem, taken out of Job.) And on the other side, Deus noster pugnat pro nobis, Our God fighteth for us. (Scultet. Annal.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 4:16 . : the darkness referred to, in the view of the evangelist, is possibly that caused by the imprisonment of the Baptist (Fritzsche). The consolation comes in the form of a greater light, , great, even the greatest. The thought is emphasised by repetition and by enhanced description of the benighted situation of those on whom the light arises: “in the very home and shadow of death”; highly graphic and poetic, not applicable, however, to the land of Galilee more than to other parts of the land; descriptive of misery rather than of sin.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
sat = was sitting.
saw. App-133.:1.
light. App-130.
the region and shadow, &c. Figure of speech Hendiadys (App-6) = “darkness, [yea] the dark shadow of death”, or death’s darkness.
sprung up = risen for them.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 4:16. , that walketh) There is here a threefold ascending climax.[153]
[153] i.e. The three experssions used in the latter clause of this sentence are respectively stronger than those used in the former clause.-(I. B)
First Clause.
Second Clause.
The people that Walketh And on those sitting
In Darkness In the Region and Shadow of Death,
Hath seen a Great Light. A Light hath arisen.
It is worse to sit, detained, in darkness, than to walk in it.[154]-, hath seen-, a Light[155]) No one is saved except he be illuminated [by that Light]. See Act 13:47.- , …, and to those sitting, etc.) The LXX. in Psalms 107(106):10, have , sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. The verb to sit aptly denotes a sluggish solitude.- , region and shadow) one thing expressed by two words.[156] The natural situation of the country was low, and such was also its spiritual condition.- , hath risen upon them) In the original Hebrew it is , shines, upon them. This increased force of expression corresponds with the epithet , great, in the preceding clause.
[154] Unfortunately for this remark, there is no very ancient authority for . All the oldest MSS. and versions, Vulg., etc., read . Lachm. and Tischend. do not even notice the former reading.-ED.
[155] Which illumines the whole world.-B. G. V.
[156] In the original, . See Explanation of Technical Terms.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
which sat in darkness: Psa 107:10-14, Isa 42:6, Isa 42:7, Isa 60:1-3, Mic 7:8, Luk 1:78, Luk 1:79, Luk 2:32
shadow: Job 3:5, Job 10:22, Job 34:22, Psa 44:19, Jer 13:16, Amo 5:8
Reciprocal: Gen 49:21 – General Exo 27:21 – Aaron Lev 24:2 – the lamps Deu 33:23 – O 2Ki 15:29 – Galilee Job 38:17 – the shadow Psa 18:28 – my God Isa 9:2 – walked Jer 2:6 – the shadow Mal 4:2 – the Sun Luk 4:18 – and Joh 1:4 – the life Joh 7:52 – Search Joh 9:5 – long Joh 12:46 – am Act 26:18 – and to Rom 2:19 – a light Eph 5:8 – ye were 1Pe 2:9 – who 2Pe 1:19 – a light 1Jo 2:8 – the darkness
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4:16
Heathen darkness had brooded over the communities around Capernaum, but the presence and teaching of Jesus penetrated that gloom and gave the people the benefit of spiritual light which fulfilled an important prophecy of the scriptures.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 4:16. The people; of the region just described.
Sitting in darkness. Dwelling contentedly. Isaiah says: walking, but Matthew indicates that the condition was worse. Darkness is the usual Scriptural figure for a state of depravity, including more than ignorance.
Saw a great light. The past tense in prophecy indicates certain fulfilment. This region had seen Christ, the light of men, bringing to them truth, knowledge, moral purity, and happiness! The article brings this out more fully.
The region and shadow of death. Poetic parallelism, a stronger expression for darkness, meaning either the region where death resides and the shadow he produces, or simply the region of the shadow of death. Darkness is spiritual death.
Did light spring up, as a star or the sun arises, the persons being passive. The Galileans, though probably not more barbarous and depraved than the inhabitants of Judea, were despised. Here the light arose; to those in the shadow of death the light came. Among the despised, those furthest from the temple, the work began and met with best success. This prophecy was not understood by the official interpreters. (Joh 7:52.)
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 4:16. The people who sat in darkness They whose predecessors were afflicted by the Assyrians, and who, before Christ visited them, were captives of Satan, and had lived in gross ignorance of God and religion, being far from Jerusalem, the place of worship, and intermixed with the Tyrians, Sidonians, and other wicked heathen: saw a great light This is spoken by Isaiah in the prophetic style, which represents things future as already accomplished, because certainly to be accomplished. This whole country had been overspread with spiritual darkness, but, by the example and preaching of Christ, the day-spring from on high visited it, diffusing among its inhabitants knowledge and holiness, and guiding their feet into the way of peace. There were several reasons, says Dr. Macknight, which might determine Jesus to be so much about the sea of Galilee. 1st, The countries which surrounded this sea were large, fertile, and populous, especially the two Galilees. For, according to Josephus, Bell., Mat 3:2, they alone had many towns, and a multitude of villages, the least of which contained above 15,000 souls. On the east side of the lake were Chorazin, Gadara, and Hippon; on the west, Capernaum, Tiberias, Bethsaida, and Tarrichea, with other places of inferior note. Wherefore, as it was agreeable to the end of Christs coming that his doctrine should be spread extensively, and his miracles wrought publicly, no country could be a fitter scene for his ministry than this. Besides its numerous inhabitants, there were at all times many strangers resorting to the trading towns on the lake, who, after hearing Jesus preach, could carry home with them the glad tidings of salvation which were the subjects of his sermons. Capernaum, chosen by Christ as the place of his residence, was a town of this kind, and much frequented. 2d, The countries round the lake were remote from Jerusalem, the seat of the scribes and Pharisees, who would not have borne with patience the presence of a teacher held in such estimation as Jesus deservedly was. We know this by what happened in the beginning of his ministry, when he made and baptized many disciples in Judea. They took such offence at it, that he was obliged to leave the country. Wherefore, as it was necessary that he should spend a considerable time in preaching and working miracles, both for the confirmation of his mission, and for the instruction of his disciples in the doctrines they were afterward to preach, these countries were, of all others, the most proper for him to reside in, or rather, they were the only places where he could be with safety for any time.