Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
12. the Pharisees were offended ] A proof of the influence of the Pharisees. The disciples believed that Christ would be concerned to have offended those who stood so high in popular favour.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 12. The Pharisees were offended] None so liable to take offence as formalists and hypocrites, when you attempt to take away the false props from the one, and question the sincerity of the other. Besides, a Pharisee must never be suspected of ignorance, for they are the men, and wisdom must die with them!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Pharisees offence was, without question, at his making so light a matter at their washings; not that they understood our Saviour as speaking against the distinction of meats, which was established by the ceremonial law, not as yet abrogated. There is nothing doth more offend hypocrites than pressing spiritual worship and homage to God, and the slighting of all external rites and actions, not attended with a suitable inward homage and devotion of heart.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Then came his disciples, andsaid unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, afterthey heard this saying?They had given vent to theirirritation, and perhaps threats, not to our Lord Himself, from whomthey seem to have slunk away, but to some of the disciples, whoreport it to their Master.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then came his disciples, and said unto him,…. That is, after he had dismissed the people, and was come into a private house; see Mr 7:17 his disciples came to him, being alone, full of concern, for what he had said to the Pharisees, and before all the people; and not so well understanding it themselves.
Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?, that they set aside the commandments of God, by observing the traditions of the elders; or that they were hypocrites; and that the prophecy of Isaiah, which describes such persons, belonging to them; or that not what goes into, but what comes out of a man, defiles him: whichever it was they have respect unto, or it may be to the whole, they seem to wish Christ had not said it; because the Pharisees were, as they thought, grieved and troubled at it, as being contrary to true religion and piety; and lest they should be so stumbled, as no more to attend, and so all hopes of bringing them over to the faith of Christ be lost; and chiefly, because they perceived they were made exceeding angry, and were highly provoked; so that they might fear that both Christ, and they themselves, would feel the effects of their wrath and rage; and perhaps it was with some such view, that he would take some prudential step that he might not fall into their hands, that they acquaint him with it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Were offended (). First aorist passive. “Were caused to stumble,” “have taken offence” (Moffatt), “have turned against you” (Weymouth), “were shocked” (Goodspeed), “War ill-pleased” (Braid Scots). They took umbrage at the public rebuke and at such a scorpion sting in it all. It cut to the quick because it was true. It showed in the glowering countenances of the Pharisees so plainly that the disciples were uneasy. See on 5:29.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
(12) Then came his disciples.The sequence of events appears in Mar. 7:17. The Pharisees drew back as in holy horror at the boldness with which the new Teacher set Himself, not only above their traditions, but above laws which they looked on as divine, and therefore permanent. The multitude heard in silence a teaching so unlike that with which they had been familiar from their youth. Even the disciples were half perplexed at the teaching itself, half afraid of what might be its immediate consequences. They came with their question, Knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended? Had their Master calculated the consequences of thus attacking, not individual members or individual traditions of the party, but its fundamental principle, that which was, so to speak, its very raison dtre?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Then came his disciples Both the doctors and the multitude are now gone, and the talk is with the disciples. Knowest thou The disciples meantime have been where they had chance to learn that the Pharisees were offended. They have been perhaps talking with the Pharisees themselves. They will bring intelligence of it to their Master. How liable the disciples’ minds were to be influenced by converse with Christ’s opposers!
Pharisees were offended Very likely; they came to beat, not to be beaten. They were going to strike the disciples, and thereby hit their Lord with the traditions of the elders. Our Lord beat them down with a piece of the decalogue . This saying Both the saying to the Pharisees and its explanation to the multitude.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Then the disciples came, and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended, when they heard this saying?” ’
The disciples then approached Jesus and explained to Him that He had ‘offended’ the Pharisees. They had clearly not dared to face Him with it, for they could not confute what He said, and they were afraid that He might say more. But they spoke loudly enough behind His back. His words had, as it were, ‘tripped them up’ and ‘made them stumble’ (skandalizo), with the result that they were furiously angry. The disciples were concerned because they had still not fully lost their awe of the Pharisees and the Scribes, for from earliest days they had been brought up to respect and admire them as godly men. Thus they possibly felt that Jesus was offending them unnecessarily. But Jesus knew that what was now in the balance was the whole of what He had come to do. There was no question of compromise here.
The Pharisees and Scribes were at this stage taking Judaism up a side road of ritualistic practise that could only lead to a dead end of total sterility, something that they were partly saved from by the destruction of Jerusalem which brought about a total rethink of their position, and probably, although they would have hated to admit it, partly by the influence of Jesus, for some would certainly have taken note of His strictures and recognised the truth in them sufficiently to partly revise their views, even if not wholly. Thus while ritual still retained great importance, they did not in the end lose sight of the importance of moral behaviour towards non-Jews.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Pharisees take offense:
v. 12. Then came His disciples and said unto Him, Knowest Thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?
v. 13. But He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
v. 14. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. The disciples reported to the Lord the impression which His parable to the people had made on the Pharisees. The latter were highly scandalized and horrified, partly by the direct appeal to the multitude, partly by the point of the story, which they felt was directed against them. Jesus feels little concern about the state of their mind. All plants which God Himself has not planted, which are not growing in accordance with His will, with their roots in Him and living by faith in Him, are superfluous. They sink from the rank of cultivated plants to that of weeds that must be eradicated. God is most closely associated with them that are His own, but with them only. Every doctrine invented by man will not stand in His judgment. And every promoter of false doctrine will share in the uprooting and destroying of his false production. There is no compromise. Stay away from them, therefore, from the Pharisees and elders that attempt to force their man-made doctrines upon their hearers. They themselves are blind in spiritual matters. And they have blinded the majority of the people and will cause spiritual blindness in the case of all that follow their teaching. Thus the end of both will be destruction, moral, spiritual death.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 15:12 . .] Matthew does not say where? According to Mar 7:17 , this took place in the house.
] Fritzsche and many more take this as referring to Mat 15:3-9 . It is to understand it, with Euth. Zigabenus, as pointing to the saying in Mat 15:11 (Paulus, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bleek). For this, addressed as it was to the multitude, must have been peculiarly displeasing to the Pharisees; and would, on any other supposition than the above, be deprived of its significance as stating the ground of offence.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
Ver. 12. Knowest thou that the Pharisees, &c. ] q.d. Why dost thou then thus call the people to thee, and exclude them? It was a commendable charity in the disciples, to desire the better information of those that had cautiously accused them,Mat 15:2Mat 15:2 , and to tender their salvation. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Speciosius aliquanto iniuriae beneficiis vincuntur quam mutui odii pertinacia pensantur, saith a heathen, Val. Max. iv. 2.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12. ] This took place after our Lord had entered the house and was apart from the multitude: see Mar 7:17 .
] the saying addressed to the multitude in Mat 15:11 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 15:12-14 . Disciples report impression made on Pharisees by the word spoken to the people . Not in Mark.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 15:12 . : double offence (1) appealing to the people at all; (2) uttering such a word, revolutionary in character.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 15:12-14
12Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?” 13But He answered and said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
Mat 15:12 “the Pharisees were offended” The disciples were shocked at Jesus’ treatment of these religious leaders, His statement about the oral traditions, and by implication, His negation of the food laws of Leviticus 11.
Mat 15:13 “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted” This referred either to the Pharisees’teachings or to the Pharisees themselves. It showed that they were not of God (cf. Mat 5:20; Mat 16:6; Mat 16:11). Religiosity can be a dangerous thing (cf. Rom 2:17-29). Peace at any price was not Jesus’ way!
It is possible that Jesus is drawing this plant imagery from Isa 60:21; Isa 61:3. Israel was described in agricultural terms (cf. Isaiah 5; John 15). Israel was YHWH’s chosen vine, chosen to reveal Himself to the nations! AS Israel failed, so too Pharisaic theology. The greatest sin besides unbelief is self-righteousness!
Mat 15:14 This is a third class conditional sentence, which refers to potential action.
“blind” This is used metaphorically to describe the spiritual understanding of the Pharisees and their disciples (cf. Matthew 23, especially Mat 15:16; Mat 15:24).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
His disciples. See note on “scribes”, Mat 15:1.
offended = stumbled.
saying. Greek. logos. See note on Mar 9:32.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12.] This took place after our Lord had entered the house and was apart from the multitude: see Mar 7:17.
] the saying addressed to the multitude in Mat 15:11.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 15:12. , knowest thou[688]) They perceived the omniscience of Jesus.-, were offended[689]) Having taken, or rather laid in wait, for offence.
[688] Rather Thou knowst; for the comment, which follows, shows that Beng. did not read these words with an interrogation.-ED.
[689] And regard Thee with aversion in consequence.-V. g
He does so, however, both in his Greek New Testament and German Version.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Knowest: Mat 17:27, 1Ki 22:13, 1Ki 22:14, 1Co 10:32, 1Co 10:33, 2Co 6:3, Gal 2:5, Jam 3:17
Reciprocal: Pro 29:25 – fear Mat 3:7 – the Pharisees Mat 11:6 – whosoever Mat 24:3 – the disciples Mar 10:2 – the Pharisees Luk 14:21 – and showed Joh 9:40 – Are
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:12
Were offended denotes that they stumbled at the saying of Jesus, and because of it they were unwilling to recognize him as having the wisdom or authority to make a declaration upon the conduct of others.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 15:12. Then came the disciples. After He went into the house (Mar 7:17).
The Pharisees when they heard the saying, took offence. Probably the saying in Mat 15:11, which seemed to be in opposition to the Levitical law. They were ready to take offence from the effect of the previous discourse (Mat 15:3-9). The disciples, hearing their disparaging and hostile remarks in the crowd, warn their Master, as their opponents were important personages.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. How the disciples wonder that our Saviour did so little regard the displeasure of the Pharisees: Knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended? Although nothing vexed the Pharisees more than the discovery of their false doctrine before the multitude, yet our Saviour did not stick to detect their errors, and to declare the truth, let the effects of their displeasure be what they would: sinful man-pleasing is fruitless and endless.
2. Observe, our Lord’s answer, which shews a double reason why he thus slighted the offence taken by the Pharisees.
1. He compares the Pharisees’ doctrine and tradition to noisome weeds in the church, planted there, not by God, but themselves; and consequently shall certainly be rooted up. In matters of religion, if men will act according to the dictates of their own fancies, and not walk by the rule of God’s word, they may please themselves, perhaps, but they can never please their Maker. Divine institution is the only sure rule of religious worship.
2. Christ compares the Pharisees themselves to blind guides; They are blind leaders of the blind; leaders and followers both blind, who will certainly and suddenly fall into the ditch of temporal and eternal destruction.
Learn, 1. That ignorant, erroneous and unfaithful ministers, are the heaviest judgments that can befall a people.
2. That the following of such teachers and blind guides will be no excuse to people another day, much less free them from the danger of eternal destruction.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 15:12-13. Then came his disciples Namely, when he was come into the house, apart from the multitude; and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, &c. The apostles, it seems, would gladly have conciliated the good-will of the Pharisees, thinking it might be of service to their cause; and thought it strange that their Master should say that which he knew would give them so much offence. Surely, they thought, if he had considered how provoking such a saying would be, he would not have uttered it. But he knew what he said, and to whom he said it, and what would be the effect of it; and he hereby teaches us, that though in indifferent things, we must be tender of giving offence, yet we must not, for fear of that, neglect to declare any truth, or enforce any duty. Truth must be owned, and duty must be done; and if any be offended, it is their own fault. Offence is not given, but taken. But he said, Every plant Or rather, plantation, as is more properly rendered. As if he had said, Be they as angry as they will, you need not be afraid of them, for they and their doctrine shall perish together, being neither of them from God. Not only the corrupt opinions and superstitious practices of the Pharisees, but their sect, and way, and constitution were plants not of Gods planting: the rules of their profession were not his institutions, but owed their original to pride and formality. And the people of the Jews in general, though planted a noble vine, were now become the degenerate plant of a strange vine. God disowned them as not of his planting.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mark recorded that this interchange between the disciples and Jesus happened in a house after they had retired there from the public confrontation that preceded (Mar 7:17). Jesus’ disciples, as all the Jews, held the Pharisees and teachers of the law in high regard. Since Jesus’ words had offended His critics, the disciples wanted to know why He had said them. Jesus proceeded to disillusion His disciples regarding the reliability of His critics’ spiritual leadership. If there was any doubt in the reader’s mind that the religious leaders had turned against Jesus, the disciples’ statement in Mat 15:12 should end it.
First, Jesus compared the non-elect, including the unbelieving Pharisees and scribes, to plants that God had not planted (cf. Mat 13:24-30; Mat 13:36-43). There are several passages in the Old Testament that compare Israel to a plant that God had planted (e.g., Psa 1:3; Isa 60:21). Isaiah also described God uprooting rebellious Israel as a farmer pulls up a worthless plant (Isa 5:1-7). Jesus meant God would uproot the Pharisees and scribes and other unbelievers because they were not people that He had planted. Furthermore, they were worthless as leaders. This would have been a shocking revelation to the disciples. Jesus had previously hinted at this (Mat 3:9; Mat 8:11-12), but now since they had definitely rejected Him He made the point clear.
Jesus told the disciples to leave the critics alone even as He said God would leave the weeds the enemy had planted in the field alone (Mat 13:28-29). Some of the Jews considered themselves guides of the spiritually blind (cf. Rom 2:19). These Pharisees and scribes apparently did since they knew the law and understood its traditional interpretations. However, Jesus disputed their claim. To Him they were blind guides of the blind. They failed to comprehend the real meaning of the Scriptures they took so much pride in understanding. A tragic end awaits the blind guides as well as those whom they guide. The critics’ rejection of Jesus was only one indication of their spiritual blindness.