Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 16:3
And in the morning, [It will be] foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O [ye] hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not [discern] the signs of the times?
3. the face of the sky ] Perhaps Jesus and his questioners were looking across the lake towards the cliffs of Gergesa, with the sky red from the reflected sunset. In Luke the signs are “a cloud rising in the west” and the blowing of the “south wind.”
the signs of the times ] Which point in many ways to the fulfilment of prophecy, and to the presence of Christ among men.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 3. The sky is red and lowering.] The signs of fair and foul weather were observed in a similar manner among the Romans, and indeed among most other people. Many treatises have been written on the subject: thus a poet: –
Caeruleus pluviam denunciant, IGNEUS euros.
Sin MACULAE incipient RUTILO immiscerier IGNI,
Omnia tunc pariter VENTO NIMBISQUE videbis
Fervere VIRG. Geor. i. l. 453.
“If fiery red his glowing globe descends,
High winds and furious tempests he portends:
But if his cheeks are swoll’n with livid blue,
He bodes wet weather, by his watery hue
If dusky spots are varied on his brow,
And streak’d with red a troubled colour show,
That sullen mixture shall at once declare,
Wind, rain, and storms, and elemental war.”
Dryden.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And in the morning, it will be foul weather today,…. When you rise in the morning, and take a survey of the heavens, it is a very usual thing with you to say, it is like to be windy or rainy weather today,
for the sky is red and lowring; which shows, that the clouds are so thick that the sun cannot pierce through them, and its face is not seen; so that it may be reasonably concluded they will issue in rain, or wind, or both.
O ye hypocrites. The Vulgate Latin, and Munster’s Hebrew Gospel, leave out this appellation; but all other versions, as well as copies, have it: and it is an usual epithet, bestowed very justly by Christ, on these men; who pretended to be the guides of the people, took upon them to teach and instruct them in divine things, and set up themselves as men of great holiness, piety and knowledge; and yet, instead of searching the Scriptures, and comparing the characters of the times of the Messiah therein fixed, with the present ones, spent their time in making such low and useless observations, and which fall within the compass of everyone’s knowledge and reach.
Ye can discern the face of the sky; very distinctly, and make some very probable guesses, if not certain conclusions, what will follow, good weather or bad:
but can ye not discern the signs of the times? or, as the Syriac reads it, “the time”, the present time: if they had not been blind, they might easily have discerned, that the signs of the time of the Messiah’s coming were upon them, and that Jesus was the Messiah; as the departure of the sceptre from Judah, the ending of Daniel’s weeks, the various miracles wrought by Christ, the wickedness of the age in which they lived, the ministry of John the Baptist, and of Christ, the great flockings of the people, both to one and to the other, with divers other things which were easy to be observed by them: but they pretend this to be a very great secret.
“The secret of the day of death, they say y, and the secret of the day when the king Messiah comes, who by his wisdom can find out?”
y Targum in Eccl. vii. 24.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Lowring (). A sky covered with clouds. Used also of a gloomy countenance as of the rich young ruler in Mr 10:22. Nowhere else in the New Testament. This very sign of a rainy day we use today. The word for “foul weather” () is the common one for winter and a storm.
The signs of the times ( ). How little the Pharisees and Sadducees understood the situation. Soon Jerusalem would be destroyed and the Jewish state overturned. It is not always easy to discern (, discriminate) the signs of our own time. Men are numerous with patent keys to it all. But we ought not to be blind when others are gullible.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Lowering [] . The verb means to have a gloomy look. Dr. Morison compares the Scotch gloaming or glooming. Cranmer, the sky is glooming red. The word is used only here and at Mr 10:22, of the young ruler, turning from Christ with his face overshadowed with gloom. A. V., he was sad. Rev., his countenance fell.
9, 10. Note the accurate employment of the two words for basket. See on 14 20.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
3. Hypocrites, you can judge. He calls them hypocrites, because they pretend to ask that which, if it were exhibited to them, they are resolved not to observe. The same reproof applies nearly to the whole world; for men direct their ingenuity, and apply their senses, to immediate advantage; and therefore there is scarcely any man who is not sufficiently well qualified in this respect, or at least who is not tolerably acquainted with the means of gaining his object. How comes it then that we feel no concern about the signs by which God invites us to himself? Is it not because every man gives himself up to willing indifference, and extinguishes the light which is offered to him? The calling of Christ, and the immediate exhibition of eternal salvation, were exhibited to the scribes both by the Law and the Prophets, and by his own doctrine, to which miracles were added.
There are many persons of the same description in the present day, who plead that on intricate subjects they have a good right to suspend their judgment, because they must wait till the matter is fully ascertained. They go farther, and believe that it is a mark of prudence purposely to avoid all inquiry into the truth; as if it were not an instance of shameful sloth that, while they are so eagerly solicitous about the objects of the flesh and of the earth, they neglect the eternal salvation of their souls, and at the same time contrive vain excuses for gross and stupid ignorance.
A very absurd inference is drawn by some ignorant persons from this passage, that we are not at liberty to predict from the aspect of the sky whether we shall have fair or stormy weather. It is rather an argument which Christ founds on the regular course of nature, that those men deserve to perish for their ingratitude, who, while they are sufficiently acute in matters of the present life, yet knowingly and willfully quench the heavenly light by their stupidity.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
3. Red The evening and the morning redness betokened opposite things, fair weather and foul. The visible sky has signs they can read. Hypocrites Who pretend that it is only for want of proper evidence that you do not believe my mission, when one half the sagacity you use in regard to the weather would, with an honest heart, convince you that a greater than Jonah is here. There would be less skepticism if men’s hearts were as pure as the evidences of religion are clear. Signs of the times The evident approaches of the fulfilment of prophecy, and the tokens that society is going to destruction without a moral reformation, were the sad signs of these times. Were not Daniel’s seventy weeks of years drawing to a close, at which time the Messiah was to appear? Was not the sceptre departing from Judah, at which time their predicted Shiloh was to come? Had not the harbinger of the Messiah appeared and awakened them all with his warnings? Were there no recollections how Herod, alarmed by a sign from the sky, summoned the Sanhedrim to inform him of the place of Messiah’s birth? Was there not a general presentiment prevalent, through the East that the great One was about to appear? Was there not now One who was, by their recorded pedigrees, of the line of David, proving by miracles that he was the Messiah of prophecy? Had they not themselves confessed that his miracles were such as no power less than the highest spiritual agent could perform?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Ver. 3. Can you not discern the sign of the times? ] The men of Issachar were in great account with David, because “they had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do,” 1Ch 12:32 ; “A prudent man foreseeth an evil, and hideth himself,” Pro 22:3 . He foreseeth it; not by divination, or star gazing, but by a judicious collection and connection of causes and consequences: as, if God be the same that ever, as holy, just, powerful, &c.; if sin be the same that ever, as foul, loathsome, pernicious, &c.; then such and such events will follow upon such and such courses. As God hath given us signs, and fore tokens of a tempest, so he hath also of an ensuing judgment, and blames those that take not notice thereof; sending them to school to the stork and swallow, Jer 8:7 . If Elias see but a cloud as a hand arising from Carmel, he can tell that great store of rain will follow, that the whole heaven will anon be covered. Finer tempers are sooner sensible of change of weather. Moses, as more acquainted with God, spies his wrath at first setting out: so might we have done ere it came to this, and have redeemed a great part of our present sorrows, had we had our eyes in our heads, Ecc 2:14 , had we not been of those wilful ones, who seek straws to put out their eyes also, as Bernard hath it, or that wink for the filty talk, saith Justin Martyr, that they may not see, when some unsavoury potion is ministered unto them. a
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3. ] Polybius iv. 21. 1, speaks of the (of the Arcadians) ( ) .
‘Si circa occidentem rubescunt nubes, serenitatem futur diei spondent; concavus oriens pluvias prdicit; idem ventos cum ante exorientem eum nubes rubescunt: quod si et nigr rubentibus intervenerint ( ) et pluvias.’ Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 35.
, because and are properly used of sadness and obscurity in the visage of man.
, of times, generally. The Jews had been, and were, most blind to the signs of the times, at all the great crises of their history; and also particularly to the times in which they were then living. The sceptre had departed from Judah, the lawgiver no longer came forth from between his feet, the prophetic weeks of Daniel were just at their end; yet they discerned none of these things.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 16:3 . , a storm to-day; sign the same, a ruddy sky in the morning . , late but expressive = triste coelum . No special meteorological skill indicated thereby, only the average power of observation based on experience, which is common to man kind. Lightfoot credits the Jews with special interest in such observations, and Christ was willing to give them full credit for skill in that sphere. His complaint was that they showed no such skill in the ethical sphere; they could not discern the signs of the times ( : the reference being, of course, chiefly to their own time). Neither Pharisees nor Sadducees had any idea that the end of the Jewish state was so near. They said when they should have said . They mistook the time of day; thought it was the eve of a good time corning when it was the morning of the judgment day. For a historical parallel, vide Carlyle’s French Revolution , book ii., chap. i., Astraea Redux .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
foul weather = a storm.
can = get to know by experience. App-132.
discern. Greek. diakrino. App-122.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3.] Polybius iv. 21. 1, speaks of the (of the Arcadians) () .
Si circa occidentem rubescunt nubes, serenitatem futur diei spondent; concavus oriens pluvias prdicit; idem ventos cum ante exorientem eum nubes rubescunt: quod si et nigr rubentibus intervenerint ( ) et pluvias. Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 35.
, because and are properly used of sadness and obscurity in the visage of man.
, of times, generally. The Jews had been, and were, most blind to the signs of the times, at all the great crises of their history;-and also particularly to the times in which they were then living. The sceptre had departed from Judah, the lawgiver no longer came forth from between his feet, the prophetic weeks of Daniel were just at their end; yet they discerned none of these things.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 16:3. ,[710] hypocrites) The hypocrisy was their greater skill in natural than in spiritual things; for they who have the former have much less excuse than dull men for being wanting in the latter, although they are often wanting in it. For an example of both united, see ch. Mat 2:2.- , the countenance of the sky) not face. A mans countenance varies, his face is always the same. An instance of Prosopopia,[711] as just before in the word , lowering.- , the signs of the times) i, e., those which are suitable to (congruentia) each time. Our Lord indicates, that not only are times to be distinguished by their signs, but also signs by the character of the times, and signs and the kinds of them from each other. For the mode of Gods dealing with man[712] is various-by various doctrines, persons, signs, times-all of which correspond among themselves: wherefore different signs suit different times. Those signs, less splendid indeed, but such as were altogether beneficial to man on earth (see ch. Mat 9:6), were suitable to the Messiah then being on earth; see ch. Mat 8:17, Luk 9:54. Wherefore it was incumbent upon them to obtain proofs, not from heaven, but from themselves: see Luk 12:57. For the same reason, after His ascension our Lord did not exhibit signs on earth, as He had previously done.[713]- ; are ye not able?) sc. to distinguish sign from sign:-said with astonishment. If you wished it, you could do so most fully: as it is, you are prevented from doing so by a voluntary blindness.
[710] The larger Ed. gave more weight to the reading of this word than the margin of the second Edition: however, the Ver. Germ. has not rejected it.-E. B.
[711] i.e. Personification. See explanation of technical terms in Appendix.-(I. B.)
[712] Influxus Dei in homines, the influx of the Deity into and among men.-ED.
[713] Nor will hereafter signs be wanting from heaven.-B. G. V.
Rec. Text has with b. But CDL ac Vulg. omit it. It is plainly an interpolation through the harmonies from Luk 12:56. Lachm. reads before with C. But Tischend. omits it, with DL ac Vulg.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
O ye: Mat 7:5, Mat 15:7, Mat 22:18, Mat 23:13, Luk 11:44, Luk 13:15
the signs: Mat 4:23, Mat 11:5, 1Ch 12:32
Reciprocal: Gen 1:14 – and let Est 1:13 – knew Ecc 3:1 – every thing Isa 9:17 – for every Mat 6:2 – as Mat 21:27 – We cannot tell Luk 12:56 – ye can Rom 13:11 – knowing
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
16:3
The signs of the times were as clearly portrayed in the Scriptures as were the weather signs, yet they pretended there was nothing on record to indicate the work and purpose of Jesus. Since this was only a pretended necessity for additional evidence Jesus called them hypocrites.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
[Can ye not discern the signs of the times?] the Jews were very curious in observing the seasons of the heavens, and the temper of the air.
“In the going out of the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, all observed the rising of the smoke. If the smoke bended northward, the poor rejoiced, but the rich were troubled; because there would be much rain the following year, and the fruits would be corrupted: if it bended southward, the poor grieved, and the rich rejoiced; for then there would be fewer rains that year, and the fruit would be sound: if eastward, all rejoiced: if westward, all were troubled.” The Gloss is, “They observed this the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, because the day before, the decree of their judgment concerning the rains of that year was signed, as the tradition is, In the feast of Tabernacles they judged concerning the rains.”
“R. Acha said, If any wise man had been at Zippor when the first rain fell, he might foretell the moistness of the year by the very smell of the dust,” etc.
But they were dim-sighted at the signs of times; that is, at those eminent signs, which plainly pointed, as with the finger and by a visible mark, that now those times that were so much foretold and expected, even the days of the Messias, were at hand. As if he had said, “Can ye not distinguish that the times of the Messias are come, by those signs which plainly declare it? Do ye not observe Daniel’s weeks now expiring? Are ye not under a yoke, the shaking off of which ye have neither any hope at all nor expectation to do? Do ye not see how the nation is sunk into all manner of wickedness? Are not miracles done by me, such as were neither seen nor heard before? Do ye not consider an infinite multitude flowing in, even to a miracle, to the profession of the gospel? and that the minds of all men are raised into a present expectation of the Messias? Strange blindness, voluntary, and yet sent upon you from heaven: your sin and your punishment too! They see all things which may demonstrate and declare a Messias, but they will not see.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 16:3. Symbolical meaning (not to be pressed):
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. (Langes Comm.)
Ye can not. Not a question, but an assertion.
The signs of the times, i.e., the fulfilment of prophecy; the miracles performed before them, showing that the Messiah had come. The Jews, with the promise of the Messiah, ought to have been as quick in discerning the signs of His coming, as those of the weather. Proverbially so keen to discern the signs of the times as affecting trade, etc., they have always shown lack of spiritual discernment. But all men are naturally slow in discovering the spiritual significance of passing events.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 3
The idea is, that, if they would pay the same careful and candid attention to the predictions of the prophets, compared with the character and ministry of Christ, which it had been necessary to exercise in regard to the weather, in order to learn that redness of the sky in the evening indicated serenity, while in the morning it portended rain, they would have easily been satisfied.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
16:3 And in the morning, [It will be] foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O [ye] hypocrites, ye can discern the {b} face of the sky; but can ye not [discern] the signs of the times?
(b) The outward show and countenance, as it were, of all things, is called in the Hebrew language, a face.