Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 9:15
And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
15. the children of the bridechamber ] See note, Mat 9:6. “The children of the bridechamber” were the bridegroom’s friends or groomsmen who went to conduct the bride from her father’s house (see note, ch. Mat 25:1). The procession passed through the streets, gay with festive dress, and enlivened with music and joyous shouts, and with the brilliant light of lamps and flambeaux. With the same pomp and gladness the bride was conducted to her future home, where the marriage-supper was prepared.
the bridegroom ] The Jews symbolized the “congregation” or “church” by the image of a bride. Jesus sets himself forth as the Bridegroom of the Christian Church. See Herschell, Sketch of the Jews, pp. 92 97.
shall be taken from them ] For the first time Jesus alludes to His death.
then shall they fast ] Herschell (quoted in Scripture Manners and Customs) observes that many Jews who keep voluntary fasts, if invited to a marriage are specially exempted from the observance of them. Jesus first gives a special answer to the question about fasting. There is a time of sorrow in store for my disciples when fasting will have a real meaning, now in my presence they can but rejoice. Note that fasting and mourning are regarded as quite synonymous. This they are to the perfectly sincere only. The words of Jesus are true also of Christian experience. There are joyous times when the presence of Christ is felt to be near. Then fasting would be out of harmony. But there are also seasons of despondency and depression, when Christ seems to be taken away, when fasting is natural and appropriate.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mat 9:15
Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn?
The joy of the Jesus circle
The children of the bride-chamber, how much this name tells us as to the spirit that reigns in the Jesus circle. Like a wedding party. This bliss was not an accident, or an affair of temperament. It was the natural effulgence of the new life imparted to those who joined the society of Jesus. Christ was a man of joy. He had
(1) the joy of his vocation.
(2) The joy of one whose religion is an original thing, a fountain of fresh intuitions of truth. Sweet after the routine of religious mechanism. Into these joys of Jesus the twelve more or less entered.
1. They had the joy of fresh religious intuitions.
2. The joy of spiritual freedom. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
Right response to circumstances
Let there be liberty in God while there may; girding up in ourselves, by forced exercise and discipline, when there must; let the soul go by inspiration when the gale of the Spirit is in it, anti when it has any way stifled or lost the Spirit, let it put itself down upon duty by the will; when the Divine movement is upon it, let it have its festal day with the bridegroom, and when the better presence fades or vanishes, let it set itself to ways of self-compulsion, moving from its own human centre. (Horace Bushnell, D. D.)
Liberty and Discipline
We may figure in a certain coarse analogy, that we live in a city having two supplies of water for its aqueduct: one upon high ground back of it, whence the water runs down freely along the inclinations of the surfaces; and the other in some lake or river on its front; whence, in case that fails, or the ducts give way, a supply is to be received by forcing, or the dead lift of the pump. (Horace Bushnell, D. D.)
Spiritual espousals
With Messiah begins the holy union between the soul and God, so often declared by the prophets. The first hour of spiritual espousals must needs he one of joy. A sorrowful moment will soon come; there are sure tokens of it already in the malice of the rulers of the hierarchy, ready to break forth on every occasion. (E. de Pressense, D. D.)
Putting ourselves in position for God
The navigator of a ship does nothing for the voyage, save what he does by setting the ship to her courses, and her sails to the wind. A seed must have position, else it cannot grow; if it is laid on a rock, or buried in sand, or sunk in water, or frozen up in ice, it will be inert as a stone; but in good warm soil, and sun, and rain, and dew, it will quicken easily enough, because it is in position. A tree will die out of position, a clock will stop out of position, a plough wants holding, a saw wants guiding, a compass wants setting; nothing in the world works rightly that has not position given it. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. Can the children of the bride-chamber] . Or, , bridegroom, as the Cod. Bezae and several versions have it. These persons were the companions of the bridegroom, who accompanied him to the house of his father-in-law when he went to bring the bride to his own home. The marriage-feast among the Jews lasted seven days; but the new married woman was considered to be a bride for thirty days. Marriage feasts were times of extraordinary festivity, and even of riot, among several people of the east.
When the bridegroom shall be taken from them, c.] There was one annual fast observed in the primitive Church, called by our ancestors [Anglo-Saxon] the spring fast, and, by us, LENT by the Greeks , and by the Latins, Quadrigessima. This fast is pretended to be kept by many, in the present day, in commemoration of our Lord’s forty days’ fast in the wilderness; but it does not appear that, in the purest ages of the primitive Church, genuine Christians ever pretended that their quadrigessimal fast was kept for the above purpose. Their fast was kept merely to commemorate the time during which Jesus Christ lay under the power of death, which was about FORTY HOURS; and it was in this sense they understood the words of this text: the days will come, c. With them, the bridegroom meant Christ: the time in which he was taken away, his crucifixion, death, and the time he lay in the grave. Suppose him dying about twelve o’clock on what is called Friday, and that he rose about four on the morning of his own day, (St. John says, Early, while it was yet dark, Mt 20:1,) the interim makes forty hours, which was the true primitive Lent, or quadrigessimal fast. It is true that many in the primitive Church were not agreed on this subject, as Socrates, in his Church History, book v. chap. 22, says, “Some thought they should fast one day others two; others more.” Different Churches also were divided concerning the length of the time, some keeping it three, others five, and others seven weeks; and the historian himself is puzzled to know why they all agreed in calling these fasts, differing so much in their duration, by the name of Quadrigessima, or forty days’ fast: the plain obvious reason appears to me to have been simply this: They put DAYS in the place of HOURS; and this absurdity continues in some Christian Churches to the present day. For more on fasting, See Clarke on Mt 6:16.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And Jesus said unto them,…. To the disciples of John, the Pharisees being present, who both have here a full answer; though it seems to be especially directed to the former:
can the children of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom, is with them? By the “bridegroom” Christ means himself, who stands in such a relation to his church, and to all, believers; whom he secretly betrothed to himself from all eternity, in the covenant of grace; and openly espouses in the effectual calling; and will still do it in a more public manner at the last day John, the master of those men, who put the question to Christ, had acknowledged him under this character, Joh 3:29 and therefore they ought to own it as belonging to him; so that the argument upon it came with the greater force to them. By “the children of the bride chamber” are meant the disciples, who were the friends of the bridegroom, as John also says he was; and therefore rejoiced at hearing his voice, as these did, and ought to do; their present situation, having the presence of Christ the bridegroom with them, required mirth and not mourning, John, their master, being witness. The allusion is to a nuptial solemnity, which is a time of joy and feasting, and not of sorrow and fasting; when both bride and bridegroom have their friends attending them, who used to be called
, “the children of the bride chamber”. The bride had her maidens waiting on her; and it is said i,
“she did not go into the bridechamber but with them; and these are called, , “the children of the bride chamber”.”
So the young men that were the friends of the bridegroom, which attended him, were called by the same name; and, according to the Jewish canons, were free from many things they were otherwise obliged to: thus it is said k:
“the bridegroom, his friends, and all , “the children of the bride chamber”, are free from the booth all the seven days;”
that is, from dwelling in booths at the feast of tabernacles, which was too strait a place for such festival solemnities. And again,
“the bridegroom, his friends, and all , “the children of the bride chamber”, are free from prayer and the phylacteries;”
that is, from observing the stated times of attending to these things, and much more then were they excused from fasting and mourning; so that the Pharisees had an answer sufficient to silence them, agreeably to their own traditions. Give me leave to transcribe one passage more, for the illustration of this text l.
“When R. Lazar ben Arach opened, in the business of Mercava, (the visions in the beginning of Ezekiel,) Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai alighted from his ass; for he said it is not fit I should hear the glory of my Creator, and ride upon an ass: they went, and sat under a certain tree, and fire came down from heaven and surrounded them; and the ministering angels leaped before them, , “as the children of the bride chamber” rejoice before the bridegroom.”
The time of Christ’s being with his disciples, between his entrance on his public ministry, and his death, is the time here referred to, during which the disciples had very little care and trouble: this was their rejoicing time, and there was a great deal of reason for it; they had no occasion to fast and mourn; and indeed the Jews themselves say m, that
“all fasts shall cease in the days of the Messiah; and there shall be no more but good days, and days of joy and rejoicing, as it is said, Zec 8:19.”
But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; in a forcible manner, and put to death, as he was;
and then shall they fast and mourn, and be in great distress, as John’s disciples now were, on account of their master being in prison.
i Zohar in Gen. fol. 6. 4. k T. Bab. Succa, fol. 25. 2. & Hieros. Succa, fol. 53. 1. Maimon. Succa, c. 6. sect. 3. l T. Hieros. Chagiga, fol. 77. 1. m Maimon. Hilchot Taaniot, c. 5. sect. 19.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The sons of the bride-chamber ( ). It is a late Hebrew idiom for the wedding guests, “the friends of the bridegroom and all the sons of the bride-chamber” (Tos. Berak. ii. 10). Cf. Joh 2:29.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And Jesus said unto them,” (kai eipen autois ho lesous) “And Jesus said to them,” in a rhetorical manner, a manner that required they make a judgment or responsive decision on what he said.
2) “Can the children of the bride chamber mourn,” (me dunantai hoi huioi tou numphonos penthein) “The heirs of the bridechamber cannot mourn,” can they? The groom’s men, friends of the groom, waited in the bridechamber or room to aid or assist the groom for any need, as his wedding approached. The mourning is implied in fasting. And Jesus’ disciples did not linger in mourning while he was with them. His ministry with them was more like a continual wedding feast.
3) “As long as the bridegroom is with them?” (eph’ hoson met’ auton estin ho numogios) “So long as the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus was the bridegroom; John the Baptist had declared himself to be the friend of the bridegroom, and those John had prepared for the bridegroom, who followed His call, had already become His bride, His church, Joh 3:28-29; But some of John’s disciples had not joined the call of Jesus to serve.
4) “But the days will come,” (eleusontai de hemerai) “But days will come,” that day of fasting in mourning and waiting, for a little while for all, Joh 14:1-3; Php_1:23; Php_3:20; Col 3:4.
5) “When the bridegroom shall be taken from them,” (hoton aparthe ap’ auton ho numphios) “When the bridegroom is taken away from them,” in death, though His spiritual presence lingered still, Mat 28:20; 1Pe 1:8.
6) “And then shall they fast.” (kai tote nesteusousin) “And then, at that time, they will fast,” or linger in mourning, with deep sorrow, because of His death. Feasting and fasting are ancient customs and practice that reflect joy and sorrow.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15. Can the children of the bridegroom mourn? Christ apologizes for his disciples on the score of the season, alleging that God was still pleased to indulge them in joyous feelings, as if they were present at a marriage: for he compares himself to the bridegroom, who enlivens his friends by his presence. Chrysostom thinks that this comparison was taken from the testimony of John the Baptist, He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, (Joh 3:29.) I have no objection to that view, though I do not think that it rests on solid grounds. Let us be satisfied with Christ’s declaration, that he spares his disciples, and treats them with gentleness, so long as he is with them. That none may envy them advantages which are of short duration, he gives warning that they will very soon be treated with greater harshness and severity.
The apology rests on this consideration, that fasting and prayers are adapted to sorrow and adversity: extraordinary prayers I mean, such as are here mentioned. Christ certainly intended to accustom them, by degrees, to greater patience, and not to lay on them a heavy burden, till they gained more strength. Hence we ought to learn a twofold instruction. When the Lord sometimes endures the weakness of our brethren, and acts towards them with gentleness, while he treats us with greater severity, we have no right to murmur. Again, when we sometimes obtain relief from sorrow and from vexations, let us beware of giving ourselves up to enjoyments; but let us, on the contrary, remember that the nuptials will not always last. The children of the bridegroom, or of the nuptial bed, is a Hebrew phrase, which denotes the guests at a marriage. (524)
(524) “ Les fils de l’espoux, (comme il y a en tournant de mot a mot,) par une facon de parler des Hebrieux signifient ceux qui sont appelez au banquet des nopces.” — “ The children of the bridegroom, (as the words may be literally rendered,) by a mode of speaking among the Hebrews, denote those who were invited to the marriage banquet.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Can the children of the bridechamber mourn?The words were full of meaning in themselves, but they only gain their full significance when we connect them with the teaching of the Baptist recorded in Joh. 3:29. He had pointed to Jesus as the Bridegroom. He had taught them that the coming of that Bridegroom was the fulfilling of his joy. Would he have withdrawn from the outward expression of that joy?
The children of the bridechamberi.e., the guests invited to the wedding. The words implied, startling as that thought would be to them, that the feast in Matthews house was, in fact, a wedding-feast. His disciples were at once the guests of that feast individually; and collectively they were the new Israel, the new congregation or Ecclesia, which was, as our Lord taught in parable (Mat. 22:2), and St. Paul directly (Eph. 5:25-27), and St. John in apocalyptic vision (Rev. 19:7; Rev. 21:2), the bride whom He had come to make His own, to cleanse, and to purify.
The days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them.Noteworthy as the first recorded intimation in our Lords public teaching (that in Joh. 3:14 was less clear until interpreted by the event, and was addressed to Nicodemus, and perhaps to him only, or, at the furthest, to St. John) of His coming death. The joy of the wedding-feast would cease, and then would come the long night of expectation, till once again there should be the cry, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh (Mat. 25:6).
Then shall they fast.The words can hardly be looked on as a command imposing fasting as a formal obligation, but, beyond all doubt, they sanction the principle on which fasting rests. The time that was to follow the departure of the Bridegroom would be one of sorrow, conflict, discipline, and at such a time the self-conquest implied in abstinence was the natural and true expression of the feelings that belonged to it. So the Christian Church has always felt; so it was, as the New Testament records, in the lives of at least two great apostles, St. Peter (Act. 10:10) and St. Paul (2Co. 11:27). So far as it goes, however, the principle here asserted is in favour of fasts at special seasons of sorrow rather than of frequent and fixed fasts as a discipline, or meritorious act. In fixing her days of fasting, the Church of England, partly guided perhaps by earlier usage, has at least connected them with the seasons and days that call specially to meditation on the sterner, sadder side of truth.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Children of the bride-chamber These were the attendant young comrades of the bridegroom, who assisted in the festivities of the wedding. Bridegroom When the bridegroom should come to the house of the bride’s father the wedding would proceed, and the hilarity would begin.
See notes on Mat 25:1-13. Christ is the glorious bridegroom who has come. He who was just now the physician for the sick, and so the source of health, is now the bridegroom for the anxious waiters, and so the source of joy. His disciples are the bridegroom’s friends. Theirs is not the part of the Old Testament tarriers for his coming; they belong to a gladder dispensation; they proclaim a Saviour come. Bridegroom shall be taken The Saviour shall disappear. Then shall they fast Sorrow then shall be for his absence and for our distance from him, which shall sober the joy even of this dispensation; but never a stern sadness which forgets that the Saviour has come, and that in spirit he is here evermore. The sentiment, then, stripped of its symbols, is this: My disciples refuse to fast, in order to show that they belong to the new and joyous dispensation; yet after my departure Christians shall ever feel the sorrow of a distance from me temper the joy of my having come.
Mr. Roberts remarks, in his illustrations, that when a man is gloomy and stern in the midst of surrounding joy, or upon some occasion demanding hilarity, his neighbour in the East would be apt to say: “What, do people weep in the house of marriage? Is it a funeral or a marriage you are going to celebrate?” Does a person go to cheer his friend, he says, on entering the house, “I am come this day to the house of marriage.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Jesus said to them, “Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” ’
Jesus points out that such fasting would be inappropriate for His disciples, because for them this was a time of joy. The Bridegroom has come. The Kingly Rule of Heaven is at hand. Those therefore who are benefiting from it should not be fasting but rejoicing.
His first point is that fasting is reserved for times of mourning and unhappiness, mourning over failure and unhappiness about sin, and especially mourning because God had not yet acted in history and because the Messiah and the Holy Spirit’s outpouring had not yet come. And the implication of His words therefore is that the time of the Messiah, and of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring is now here, something which even outweighs the suffering of John.
He points out that those who are appointed at a wedding to be with the bridegroom to sustain him and enjoy his pleasure with him (the ‘sons of the bridechamber’) cannot fast, for they would then mar the celebrations. Rather must they eat and drink and be joyful. A Jewish wedding lasted for seven days, and they were days of feasting and merriment during which the bridegroom would be celebrating. And he would have with him his closest friends to share his joy with him. To seek to fast under such circumstances would be an insult. (Even the Rabbis excluded people at a wedding feast from the need to fast). Thus it was a unique occasion, and only a unique occasion, that exempted His disciples from fasting.
This in itself was a remarkable claim, that because He had come men need not fast. It was to claim divine prerogative. Moses could not have said it. Elijah could not have said it. John the Baptiser could not have said it. It required a greater than they.
But unquestionably Jesus was conveying a deeper message even than this, as the next verse brings out. He was pointing out that the Messiah had come. He was pointing to Himself as the great Bridegroom whose presence meant that men need not fast, the great Bridegroom promised in the Scriptures. In Isa 62:5 the prophet had said “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so will your God rejoice over you”. The picture there was one that was emphasised and poignant. Isaiah pointed out that they had previously been called Forsaken, and their land Desolate, but now would be renamed because God delighted in them and their land would be married to God. They would become God’s bride. He would be their Bridegroom. So there God is the Bridegroom, and His restored people are the Bride, and it is clearly pointing to the time of restoration. In the same way Jesus, by describing Himself as the Bridegroom of God’s restored people, shows that He is uniquely standing in the place of God and introducing the time of restoration.
A similar vivid picture is also brought out in Jer 2:2 where the Lord says of His people, “I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.” Here we have the Lord as the Bridegroom in waiting (compare Jer 2:32. Compare also Eze 16:8-14). It is thus very doubtful whether a discerning listener would fail to catch at least something of this implication.
Furthermore that Jesus emphatically saw Himself as the Bridegroom comes out elsewhere in the Gospel. Consider the marriage feast for the son (Mat 22:2-14) and the Bridegroom at the wedding where the foolish virgins were excluded (Mat 25:1-13), both clear pictures of Jesus. So His being the Bridegroom was a theme of His. And as we have seen John the Baptiser described Him in the same way (Joh 3:29). Thus Jesus was by this declaring in another way that the ‘the Kingly Rule of God has drawn near’, and that He was a unique figure come from God, the heavenly Bridegroom, God’s Messiah.
His point is therefore that if God has come on earth as the Bridegroom, how can there be fasting by those who have recognised Him and welcomed Him? It would not be seemly. The others only fast because the truth has not come home to them.
“But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then will they fast.” Then Jesus comes in with an ominous warning. The words He has spoken confirm that we are to see in the picture of the Bridegroom something significant concerning Jesus. And this is clear in that the Bridegroom, Who was now here, will one day be ‘taken away’ (Mark effectively adds ‘forcibly’) and then His disciples will have good cause to fast. Jesus knew already from the voice at His baptism that He was called on to fulfil the ministry of the suffering Servant, and this had been confirmed by John’s words, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (Joh 1:29). Thus we have here the first indication from Him of His awareness of the brutal end that awaits Him. He knew that He must face suffering on behalf of His people. And then indeed His disciples would fast.
Interestingly the words do not encourage regular fasting. The disciples would indeed sorrow but their sorrow would be turned into joy (Joh 16:20). Thus the need for fasting would quickly pass and would be no more. There is no real encouragement to fasting here. It is not, however forbidden. The point is that it is not required. Those who serve the King are not bound by petty regulations but are concerned with how they can please Him. If they fast it is in order to better serve Him by spending longer in prayer in a state of enhanced awareness, not because it is necessary for their own spiritual sustenance, for as regards that He is more than sufficient.
So we have here both Jesus’ testimony to the fact that He is God’s Sent One, over Whom men should rejoice, and with it an indication that He is aware of the future that awaits Him. The cross would not catch Him by surprise (compare Luk 2:35).
This declaration that Jesus has come as the heavenly Bridegroom and is inaugurating a new world is then brought out by two illustrations.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 9:15 . (Mat 8:12 ) ] ( of the bride chamber , Joe 2:16 ; Tob 6:16 ; Heliod. vii. 8) are the , the friends of the bridegroom, who amid singing and playing of instruments conducted the bride, accompanied by her companions, to the house of her parents-in-law and to the bride-chamber, and remained to take part in the wedding feast, which usually lasted seven days. Pollux, Onom . Mat 3:3 ; Hirt, de paranymph. ap. Hebr . 1748; on the Greek , consult Hermann, Privatalterth . 31, 18. Meaning of the figure: So long as my disciples have me with them, they are incapable of mourning (fasting being the expression of mourning): when once I am taken from them and that time will inevitably come then they will fast to express their sorrow . Christ, the bridegroom of His people until His coming, and then the marriage; see on Joh 3:29 . It is to be observed that this is the first occasion in Matthew on which Jesus alludes to His death , which from the very first He knew to be the divinely-appointed and prophetically-announced climax of His work on earth (Joh 1:29 ; Joh 2:19 ; Joh 3:14 ), and did not come to know it only by degrees, through the opposition which he experienced; while Hase, Wittichen, Weizscker, Keim, postpone the certainty of His having to suffer death the latter, till that day at Caesarea (chap. 16); Holsten even puts it off till immediately before the passion; see, on the other hand, Gess, op. cit. , p. 253 ff.
The , which has the tragic emphasis of a sorrowful future (Bremi, ad Lys. p. 248, Goth.), expresses only the particular time specified , and not all time following as well , and while probably not condemning fasting in the church, yet indicating it to be a matter in which one is to be regulated, not by legal prescriptions (Mat 9:16 f.), but by personal inclination and the spontaneous impulses of the mind. Comp. Mat 6:16 ff.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
Ver. 15. And Jesus said unto them ] He makes apology for his accused disciples; so doth he still at the right hand of his heavenly Father, nonsuiting all accusations brought against us, as our advocate, a 1Jn 2:1 , appearing for us as the lawyer doth for his client, Heb 9:24 , opening his case and pleading his cause. He helpeth us also to make apology for ourselves to God, 2Co 7:11 , and expecteth that, as occasion requires, we should make apology one for another, when maligned and misreported by the world.
Can the children of the bridechamber, &c. ] Our Saviour seeing them to sin by infirmity, and by the instigation of the Pharisees, who with their leaven had somewhat soured and seduced them in their master’s absence, deals gently with them; to teach us what to do in like case. A Venician glass must be otherwise handled than an earthen pitcher or goblet: some must be rebuked sharply, severely, cuttingly, b Tit 1:13 ; but of others we must have compassion, making a difference, Jdg 1:22 .
Mourn as long as the bridegroom, &c. ] Mourn as at funerals (so the word signifieth). This were incongruous, unseasonable, and unseemly at a feast. It was a peevishness in Samson’s wife that she wept at the wedding; since that is the day of the rejoicing of a man’s heart, as Solomon hath it,Son 3:11Son 3:11 . Now Christ is the Church’s spouse. He hath the bride, and is the bridegroom, as their master the Baptist had taught them, Joh 3:29 , and rejoiceth over every good soul, as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, Isa 62:5 . Should not the saints therefore reciprocate?
But the days will come ] Our Saviour suffered much, even many a little death, all his life long; and yet, till his passion, he accounts himself to be, as it were, in the bride chamber. Then it was especially that he alone trod the winepress, and was roasted alive in the fire of his Father’s wrath, &c.
When the bridegroom shall be taken from them ] As now your master the Baptist is from you; a just argument and occasion of your grief and fasting, if possibly you may beg him of God out of the hands of Herod. When the Duke of Bourbon’s captains had shut up Pope Clement VIII in the castle St Angelo, Cardinal Wolsey being shortly after sent ambassador beyond seas to make means for his release; as he came through Canterbury toward Dover, he commanded the monks and the choir to sing the litany after this sort, Sancta Maria, ora pro papa nostro Clemente. Himself also, being present, was seen to weep tenderly for the pope’s calamity. Shall superstition do that which religion cannot bring us to? Shall we not turn again unto the Lord with fasting, weeping, and mourning, if for nothing else, yet that our poor brethren may find compassion? which is Hezekiah’s motive to the people, 2Ch 30:9 .
And then shall they fast ] Note here, 1. That fasting is not abolished with the ceremonial law, but still to be used as a duty of the gospel. 2. That times of heaviness are times of humiliation. 3. That our halcyons here are but as marriage feasts, for continuance; they last not long; never look for it.
a , in full opposition to , the accuser of the brethren, Rev 12:10 .
b . Tremel., dure. Beza, praecise, rigide. Erasm, severe, et ad vivum, .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15. ] = Mark and Luke. The difference of these two words is curiously enough one of Greswell’s arguments for the non-identity of the narratives. Even if there were any force in such an argument, we might fairly set against it that is common to all three Evangelists, and occurs no where else in the N.T.
] This appellation of Himself had from our Lord peculiar appropriateness as addressed to the disciples of John. Their master had himself said ( Joh 3:29 ) , , . .
Our Lord in calling Himself the Bridegroom, announces the fulfilment in Him of a whole cycle of O.T. prophecies and figures: very probably with immediate reference to Hos 2:1-23 , that prophet having been cited just before: but also to many other passages, in which the Bride is the Church of God, the Bridegroom the God of Israel. See especially Isa 54:5-10 Heb. and E. V. As Stier (Reden Jesu, i. 320, edn. 2) observes, the article here must not be considered as merely introduced on account of the parable, as usual elsewhere, but the parable itself to have sprung out of the emphatic name, . The are more than the mere guests at the wedding: they are the bridegroom’s friends who go and fetch the bride.
. ] How sublime and peaceful is this early announcement by our Lord of the bitter passage before Him! Compare the words of our Christian poet: ‘measuring with calm presage the infinite descent.’ ( Wizenmann mag dabei wohl fragen:, Welcher Mensch hat je fo ruhig, so lieblich von einer solchen Hhe in eine solche Jiefe geschaut? ’ Stier, Reden Jesu, i. 322.)
. ] when the Bridegroom shall have been taken from them: when His departure shall have taken place.
. ] These words are not a declaration of a duty, or of an ordinance, as binding on the Church in the days of her Lord’s absence: the whole spirit of what follows is against such a Supposition: but they declare, in accordance with the parallel word , that in those days they shall have real occasion for fasting; sorrow enough; see Joh 16:20 : a fast of God’s own appointing in the solemn purpose of His will respecting them, not one of their own arbitrary laying on. This view is strikingly brought out in Luke, where the question is, Can ye the children, &c., i.e. by your rites and ordinances? but, &c. and : there is no constraint in this latter case: they shall (or better, they will) fast. And this furnishes us with an analogous rule for the fasting of the Christian life: that it should be the genuine offspring of inward and spiritual sorrow, of the sense of the absence of the Bridegroom in the soul, not the forced and stated fasts of the old covenant, now passed away. It is an instructive circumstance that in the Reformed Churches, while those stated fasts which were retained at their first emergence from Popery are in practice universally disregarded even by their best and holiest sons, nothing can be more affecting and genuine than the universal and solemn observance of any real occasion of fasting placed before them by God’s Providence. It is also remarkable how uniformly a strict attention to artificial and prescribed fasts accompanies a hankering after the hybrid ceremonial system of Rome.
Meyer remarks well that refers to a definite point of time, not to the whole subsequent period.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 9:15 . : The question drew from Jesus three pregnant parabolic sayings: bright, genial, felicitous impromptus; the first a happy apology for His disciples, the other two the statement of a general principle. . The mere suggestion of this name for the disciples explains all. Paranymphs, friends of the bridechamber, companions of the bridegroom, who act for him and in his interest, and bring the bride to him. How can they be sad ( )? The point to note is that the figure was apposite . The life of Jesus and His disciples was like a wedding feast they the principal actors. The disciples took their tone from the Master, so that the ultimate fact was the quality of the personal piety of Jesus. Therein lay the reason of the difference commented on. It was not irreligion, as in the case of the careless; it was a different type of religion, with a Father-God, a kingdom of grace open to all, hope for the worst, and spiritual spontaneity. . While the Bridegroom is with them life will be a wedding feast; when He is taken from them it will make a great difference; then ( ) they will grieve, and therefore fast: a hidden allusion to the tragic end foreseen by Jesus of this happy free life, the penalty of breaking with custom.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Can, &c. Figure of speech Paroemia.
the children, &c. A Hebraism. Used in various connections. Compare Mat 23:15. Deu 13:13. 1Sa 2:12 (margin); Mat 20:31. 2Sa 12:5 (margin) Joh 17:12. Act 3:25.
children = sons. Greek plural of huios.
shall = will.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] = Mark and Luke. The difference of these two words is curiously enough one of Greswells arguments for the non-identity of the narratives. Even if there were any force in such an argument, we might fairly set against it that is common to all three Evangelists, and occurs no where else in the N.T.
] This appellation of Himself had from our Lord peculiar appropriateness as addressed to the disciples of John. Their master had himself said (Joh 3:29) , , . .
Our Lord in calling Himself the Bridegroom, announces the fulfilment in Him of a whole cycle of O.T. prophecies and figures: very probably with immediate reference to Hos 2:1-23, that prophet having been cited just before: but also to many other passages, in which the Bride is the Church of God, the Bridegroom the God of Israel. See especially Isa 54:5-10 Heb. and E. V. As Stier (Reden Jesu, i. 320, edn. 2) observes, the article here must not be considered as merely introduced on account of the parable, as usual elsewhere, but the parable itself to have sprung out of the emphatic name, . The are more than the mere guests at the wedding: they are the bridegrooms friends who go and fetch the bride.
.] How sublime and peaceful is this early announcement by our Lord of the bitter passage before Him! Compare the words of our Christian poet: measuring with calm presage the infinite descent. (Wizenmann mag dabei wohl fragen:, Welcher Mensch hat je fo ruhig, so lieblich von einer solchen Hhe in eine solche Jiefe geschaut? Stier, Reden Jesu, i. 322.)
.] when the Bridegroom shall have been taken from them: when His departure shall have taken place.
.] These words are not a declaration of a duty, or of an ordinance, as binding on the Church in the days of her Lords absence: the whole spirit of what follows is against such a Supposition: but they declare, in accordance with the parallel word , that in those days they shall have real occasion for fasting; sorrow enough; see Joh 16:20 :-a fast of Gods own appointing in the solemn purpose of His will respecting them, not one of their own arbitrary laying on. This view is strikingly brought out in Luke, where the question is, Can ye the children, &c., i.e. by your rites and ordinances? but, &c. and : there is no constraint in this latter case: they shall (or better, they will) fast. And this furnishes us with an analogous rule for the fasting of the Christian life: that it should be the genuine offspring of inward and spiritual sorrow, of the sense of the absence of the Bridegroom in the soul,-not the forced and stated fasts of the old covenant, now passed away. It is an instructive circumstance that in the Reformed Churches, while those stated fasts which were retained at their first emergence from Popery are in practice universally disregarded even by their best and holiest sons,-nothing can be more affecting and genuine than the universal and solemn observance of any real occasion of fasting placed before them by Gods Providence. It is also remarkable how uniformly a strict attention to artificial and prescribed fasts accompanies a hankering after the hybrid ceremonial system of Rome.
Meyer remarks well that refers to a definite point of time, not to the whole subsequent period.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 9:15. , and) Our Lord replies calmly and cheerfully: He draws joyful parables from the garments and the wine (which were being employed in the Feast) to condemn the sadness of those who questioned Him.- , the children of the bridechamber) The companions of the bridegroom.[415] Parables and riddles are suited to feasts and nuptials, and are employed to illustrate this nuptial period.[416]-, to mourn) Mourning and fasting are joined together.-, shall come) He means His departure, which should take place at a future period.- , and then) Neither before nor after.[417]-, they shall fast) necessarily and willingly.[418]
[415] The Bridegroom Himself, if you except the forty days in the wilderness. is nowhere recorded as having fasted.-V. g.
[416] Bengel means to say, the period when our Lord was with His disciples.-(I. B.)
[417] Bengel means, neither whilst the Bridegroom was with the Church on earth, nor when the Church should be with the Bridegroom in heaven.-(I. B.)
[418] This is the very characteristic aspect of Christianity: At one time is the nuptial and festive season; at another time, the season for fasting and sorrow.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Can: Mat 25:1-10, Jdg 14:11-20, Psa 45:14, Psa 45:15, Joh 3:29, Rev 19:9, Rev 21:2
when: Luk 24:13-21, Joh 16:6, Joh 16:20-22, Act 1:9, Act 1:10
and then: Isa 22:12, Act 13:1-3, Act 14:23, 1Co 7:5, 2Co 11:27
Reciprocal: Job 29:5 – the Almighty Psa 35:13 – humbled Ecc 3:4 – time to weep Dan 10:2 – I Daniel Joe 2:16 – let Zec 7:3 – Should Mat 6:16 – when Mat 11:17 – piped Mat 22:1 – General Mar 16:10 – as Luk 17:22 – when Joh 16:4 – because Act 13:2 – fasted 2Co 6:5 – fastings
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
Mat 9:15
Observances must be secondary. So St. Paul tells the Galatians that he is afraid of them, because they observe days and months, and times and years. In his day and in his circumstances there was plainly something which made him throw his chief weight into the scale against all observances.
I. The reason of observances.Our Lord, in answering the question of the Pharisees, why His disciples did not fast, gives us the precise measure of all such observances. If we had the Bridegroom always with us, we should never need them. But the Bridegroom leaves us sometimes, and then we cannot do without them. He has left us, and the Church has found just what He predicted, that much which was needless while He stayed became needful when He was gone.
II. The Church needs them.The Church found that she must do what our Lord implied that she would have to do, provide for the needs of human nature in the ordinary fashion, and make rules to keep alive the warmth and power of faith, just as rules are made for the purposes of any ordinary human society. We are tempted to fancy that these observances must be a hindrance, not a help; that what is wanted are power, and life, and passion, not recurring seasons, and reminders of great events, and services in due order. But it is not so. Life and power are wanted; but they are not hindered by the rules of religious life; and meanwhile those very rules often aid them in their weakness.
III. Individuals need them.What is true of the Church is true of each one of us. Observances have two uses for every soul. If the Lord be absent, it is by them that we seek Him. If the Lord be present, it is by them that we meet Him.
Archbishop Temple.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
9:15
Jesus represents himself as a bridegroom who is still present with the children which is used in the sense of friends. These friends would have no occasion to fast or mourn for their bridegroom because he was still with them. Fasting under these circumstances would be inappropriate. Days will come refers to the time when he would be taken from them and when that time happens they will mourn (Mar 16:10).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
[The children of the bridechamber.] The sons of the bridechamber; an ordinary phrase. There is no need to relate their mirth in the time of the nuptials: I will relate that only, and it is enough, which is spoke by the Glosser, They were wont to break glass vessels in weddings. And that for this reason, that they might by this action set bounds to their mirth, lest they should run out into too much excess. The Gemara produceth one or two stories there: “Mar the son of Rabbena made wedding feasts for his son, and invited the Rabbins: and when he saw that their mirth exceeded its bounds, he brought forth a glass cup worth four hundred zuzees, and brake it before them; whereupon they became sad.” The like story is also related of Rabh Ishai. And the reason of this action is given; Because it is forbidden a man to fill his mouth with laughter in this world.
…the days of the bridechamber, to the sons of the bridechamber; that is, to the friends and acquaintance, were seven: hence there is frequent mention of “the seven days of the marriage-feast”: but to the bride, the days of the bridechamber were thirty. It is forbidden to eat, drink, wash or anoint oneself on the day of Expiation: But it is allowed a king and a bride to wash their faces “For the bride is to be made handsome (saith the Gloss upon the place), that she may be lovely to her husband. And all the thirty days of her bridechamber she is called The Bride.”
It is worth meditation, how the disciples, when Christ was with them, suffered no persecution at all; but when he was absent, all manner of persecution overtook them.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 9:15. Can the sons of the bridechamber. The companions of the bridegroom, as the bride was brought to his fathers house. The festive procession was usually in the evening, with torches, music, and dancing, and the marriage feast lasted seven days. The application is of course to the disciples of Christ; He Himself being the bridegroom. A common Old Testament figure. There may also be an allusion to the words of the Baptist (Joh 3:29) in which he represents himself as the friend of the bridegroom, Christ Mourn and fast are used interchangeably; genuine fasting springs from real sorrow.
But days will come, etc. How sublime and peaceful is this early announcement by our Lord of the bitter passage before Him (Alford).
Then they will fast. A simple prediction, not a command, hence will, instead of shall. Real fasting takes place where there is real occasion for it. History shows that prescribed fasts become formal; that formal fasting is closely linked with Pharisaical ritualism.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 15
The meaning is, that, as Jesus was yet with his disciples, expressions of mourning and sorrow would be inappropriate. Their days of mourning were to come.
Matthew 9:16,17. Christians should have proper reference, in all their arrangements, to the proprieties of time and place. It would be unsuitable for the disciples of the Savior to mourn while he was with them, just as it would be unsuitable for the guests at a wedding to be gloomy and sad. The other illustrations are are merely striking cases of incongruity.–New cloth is unfulled cloth, which would shrink on being accidentally wet, and thus produce a degree of tension in the surrounding parts which would soon cause a more extended rent than the one which it was intended to repair.–Bottles were made of leather, and, when old and rigid, were easily ruptured by the fermentation of new wine.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
9:15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the {f} children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
(f) A Hebrew idiom, for they that are admitted into the marriage chamber are as the bridegroom’s closest friends.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus responded with three illustrations. John the Baptist had described himself as the "best man" and Jesus as the "bridegroom" (Joh 3:29). Jesus extended John’s figure and described His disciples as the friends of the groom. They were so joyful that they could not fast because they were with Him. [Note: See Richard D. Patterson, "Metaphors of Marriage as Expressions of Divine-Human Relations," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 51:4 (December 2008):689-702.]
The Old Testament used the groom figure to describe God (Psalms 45; Isa 54:5-6; Isa 62:4-5; Hos 2:16-20). The Jews also used it of Messiah’s coming and the messianic banquet (Mat 22:2; Mat 25:1; 2Co 11:2; Eph 5:23-32; Rev 19:7; Rev 19:9; Rev 21:2). When Jesus applied this figure to Himself, He was claiming to be the Messiah, and He was claiming that the kingdom banquet was imminent.
"As the Physician, He came to bring spiritual health to sick sinners. As the Bridegroom, He came to give spiritual joy." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:35.]
When Jesus returned to heaven following His ascension, His friends did indeed fast (Act 13:3; Act 14:23; Act 27:9). This is the first hint that Jesus would be "taken away" (a violent and unwanted removal) from His disciples, but that theme will become more dominant soon (cf. Mat 16:21).