Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
14. blind leaders of the blind ] The proverb which follows is quoted in a different connection, Luk 6:39; cp. also ch. Mat 23:16.
fall into the ditch ] Palestine abounded in dangers of this kind, from unguarded wells, quarries, and pitfalls; it abounded also in persons afflicted with blindness. See note ch. Mat 9:27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mat 15:14
They be blind leaders of the blind.
Blind guides
The bankrupt who asks a bankrupt to set him up in business again, is only losing time. The pauper who travels off to a neighbouring pauper, and begs him to help him out of difficulties, is only troubling himself in vain. The prisoner does not beg his fellow-prisoner to set him free. The shipwrecked sailor does not call on his shipwrecked comrade to place him safe ashore. Help in all these cases must come from some other quarter. Relief in all these cases must be sought from some other hand. It is just the same in the matter of cleansing away your sins. So long as you seek it from man, you seek it where it cannot be found. (Bishop Ryle.)
Mutual ruin
The falling of both together will aggravate the fall of each; for they that have thus increased each others mutual sin will mutually exasperate each others ruin. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Let them alone] , give them up, or leave them. These words have been sadly misunderstood. Some have quoted them to prove that blind and deceitful teachers should not be pointed out to the people, nor the people warned against them; and that men should abide in the communion of a corrupt Church, because that Church had once been the Church of God, and in it they had been brought up; and to prove this they bring Scripture, for, in our present translation, the words are rendered, let them alone: but the whole connection of the place evidently proves that our blessed Lord meant, give them up, have no kind of religious connection with them, and the strong reason for which he immediately adds, because they are blind leaders. This passage does not at all mean that blind leaders should not be pointed out to the people, that they may avoid being deceived by them; for this our Lord does frequently, and warns his disciples, and the people in general, against all such false teachers as the scribes and Pharisees were; and though he bids men do that they heard those say, while they sat in the chair of Moses, yet he certainly meant no more than that they should be observant of the moral law when read to them out of the sacred book: yet neither does he tell them to do all these false teachers said; for he testifies in Mt 15:6, that they had put such false glosses on the law, that, if followed, would endanger the salvation of their souls. The Codex Bezae, for , has , give up these blind men. Amen! A literal attention to these words of our Lord produced the Reformation.
Probably the words may be understood as a sort of proverbial expression for – Don’t mind them: pay no regard to them. – “They are altogether unworthy of notice.”
And if the blind lead the blind] This was so self-evident a case that an apter parallel could nut be found – if the blind lead the blind, both must fall into the ditch. Alas, for the blind teachers, who not only destroy their own souls, but those also of their flocks! Like priest, like people. If the minister be ignorant, he cannot teach what he does not know; and the people cannot become wise unto salvation under such a ministry – he is ignorant and wicked, and they are profligate. They who even wish such God speed; are partakers of their evil deeds. But shall not the poor deceived people escape? No: both shall fall into the pit of perdition together; for they should have searched the Scriptures, and not trusted to the ignorant sayings of corrupt men, no matter of what sect or party. He who has the Bible in his hand, or within his reach, and can read it, has no excuse.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
14. Let them alone: they be blindleaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shallfall into the ditchStriking expression of the ruinous effectsof erroneous teaching!
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let them alone,…. Have nothing to say, or do with them; do not mind their anger and resentment, their reproaches and reflections, nor trouble yourselves at the offence they have taken; if they will go, let them go; they are a worthless generation of men, who are not to be regarded, hearkened to, nor to be pleased; it matters not what they say of me, and of my doctrine:
they be blind leaders of the blind; the people that hearken to them, and are followers of them, are “blind”, as to any true sense of themselves, their state, and condition by nature; as to any spiritual, saving knowledge of God; as to any acquaintance with the Messiah, and the method of salvation by him; as to the Spirit of God, and the work of grace, regeneration, and sanctification upon the soul; as to the Scriptures of truth, and doctrines of the Gospel; and the “leaders” of them were as “blind” as they: by whom are meant the Scribes and Pharisees, the learned doctors and rabbins of the Jewish nation; who thought themselves very wise and knowing, yet they were blind also; and none more than they. It was an old tradition g among the Jews,
“that there should be “blind teachers” at the time when God should have his tabernacle among them.”
This was predicted, in Isa 42:19 and all such leaders and teachers are blind, who, notwithstanding their natural abilities, and acquired parts, are in a state of unregeneracy; and have nothing more than what they have from nature, or have attained to at school; and as apparently all such are, who lead men from Christ, to mere morality, and to a dependence upon their own righteousness for justification, which was the darling principle of the blind leaders in the text.
And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch; of ignorance and error, immorality and profaneness, distress, if not despair, temporal ruin and destruction; which was notoriously verified in the Jewish people, and their guides: and of eternal damnation, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; what else can be expected?
g Midrash Tillim in Psal. cxlvi apud Grotium in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
They are blind guides ( ). Graphic picture. Once in Cincinnati a blind man introduced me to his blind friend. He said that he was showing him the city. Jesus is not afraid of the Pharisees. Let them alone to do their worst. Blind leaders and blind victims will land in the ditch. A proverbial expression in the O.T.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
14. Let them alone. He sets them aside as unworthy of notice, and concludes that the offense which they take ought not to give us much uneasiness. Hence has arisen the distinction, of which we hear so much, about avoiding offenses, that we ought to beware of offending the weak, but if any obstinate and malicious person take offense, we ought not to be uneasy; for, if we determined to satisfy all obstinate people, we must bury Christ, who is the stone of offense, (1Pe 2:8.) Weak persons, who are offended through ignorance, and afterwards return to just views, must be distinguished from haughty and disdainful men who are themselves the authors of offenses. It is of importance to attend to this distinction, in order that no one who is weak may be distressed through our fault. But when wicked men dash themselves through their obstinacy, let us walk on unmoved in the midst of offenses; for he who spares not weak brethren tramples, as it were, under foot those to whom we are commanded to stretch out the hand. It would be idle to attend to others, whom we cannot avoid offending, if we wish to keep the right path; and when, under the pretext of taking offense, they happen to fall off and revolt from Christ, we must let them alone, that they may not drag us along with them. (408)
They are blind leaders of the blind. Christ means that all who allow themselves to be driven hither and thither at the disposal of those men will miserably perish; for when they stumble on a plain road, it is evident that they are willfully blind. Why then should any one allow himself to be directed by them, except that he might fall into the same ditch? Now Christ, who has risen upon us as the Sun of righteousness, (Mal 4:2,) and not only points out the road to us by the torch of his Gospel, but desires that we should keep it before us, justly calls on his disciples to shake off that slothfulness, and not to wander, as it were, in the dark, for the sake of gratifying the blind. (409) Hence also we infer that all who, under the pretense of simplicity or modesty, give themselves up to be deceived or ensnared by errors, are without excuse.
(408) “ De peur qu’ils nous tirent en perdition avec eux;” — “lest they draw us to perdition along with them.”
(409) “ A bon droict retire ses disciples de ceste nonchalance et stupidite de suyvre les aveugles, et pour leur faire plaisir d’aller tastonnant en tenebres comme eux;” — “properly withdraws his disciples from that indifference and stupidity in following the blind, and—for the sake of gratifying them—in groping in the dark like them.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) They be blind leaders of the blind.It would appear from Rom. 2:19 that the phrase was one in common use to describe the ideal of the Rabbis calling. Now they heard it in a new form, which told them that their state was the very reverse of that ideal. And that which was worst in it was that their blindness was self-chosen (Mat. 13:15), and that they were yet all unconscious of it, and boasted that they saw (Joh. 9:41).
If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.The proverb was probably a familiar one (it is given in St. Luk. 6:39 as part of the Sermon on the Plain), but, as now spoken, it had the character of a prophecy. We have but to read the Jewish historians account of the years that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem to see what the ditch was towards which teachers and people were alike blindly hastening. Bitter sectarianism, and wild dreams, and baseless hopes, and maddened zeal, and rejection of the truth which alone had power to save them, this was the issue which both were preparing for themselves, and from which there was no escape.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Let them alone Leave them to their own inveterate folly. Their will is determined, and their purpose is fixed to ignore the truth and to deceive the people. Blind lead fall into the ditch A proverbial expression. Both seducer and seduced shall perish.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Let them alone. They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
In contrast the Pharisees must be left to themselves, for they are blind guides, and anyone who follows them will, with them, fall into a ditch. It would seem that the Pharisees did actually claim to be ‘guides to the blind’. But Jesus’ picture is vivid. There was a great deal of blindness in the ancient world, and very little help for the blind. The blind very often did lead the blind, for no one else would. And the consequence would often be disastrous for there were many unseen pits around. In the same way, says Jesus, these men who claimed that they could see, and who offered to lead those who were religiously blind, were in fact blind and would only lead men into a spiritual ditch. And that is why He was revealing their blindness. ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who see not might see, and that those who see may become (be revealed as) blind’ (see Joh 9:39-41). This idea of spiritual blindness is a constant theme of Jesus (Mat 13:15; Mat 23:16; Mat 23:24; Joh 9:39-41), as it was of the prophets.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 15:14. They be blind leaders, &c. “Teachers who foolishly think to lead their disciples to perfection by the observation of precepts wherein there is not the smallest degree of true piety; and who will not be convinced of the contrary: for which cause, both the guides and the guided, who prefer ignorance to knowledge, and superstition to religion, shall fall into the ditch of eternal perdition. Therefore let them alone; concern not yourselves about them.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 15:14 . ] Let them alone, dismiss them from your thoughts! Comp. Soph. Phil . 1043 (1054): , . “Indignos esse pronuntiat, quorum haberi debeat ratio,” Calvin.
In the application of the general saying: , etc., the falling into a ditch (cistern, or any other hole in the earth, as in Mat 12:17 ) is to be understood as a figurative expression for being cast into Gehenna. These blind teachers, whose minds are closed against the entrance of divine truth (comp. Mat 23:16 ; Rom 2:19 ), are with their blind followers hopelessly lost!
Observe what emphasis there is in the fourfold repetition of , etc. The very acme of Pharisaic blindness was their maintaining that they were not blind, Joh 9:40 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Ver. 14. Let them alone ] A dreadful doom; like that, Hos 4:14 ; “I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom,” &c. No so great punishment as not to be punished. And,Hos 4:17Hos 4:17 ; of that same chapter, “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone:” q.d. he hath made a match with mischief, he shall have his belly full of it. Never was Jerusalem’s condition so desperate as when God said unto her, “My fury shall depart from thee, I will be quiet, and no more angry,” Eze 16:42 . A man is ever and anon meddling with his fruit trees, paring and pruning, &c.; but for his oaks, and other trees of the forest, he lets them alone, till he comes, once for all, with his axe to fell them.
Both shall fall into the ditch ] Though the blind guides fall undermost, and have the worst of it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 15:14 . : the case hopeless, no reform possible; on the road to ruin. : the reading in [92] is very laconic = blind men are the leaders, the suggestion being: we know what happens in that case. The point is the inevitableness of ruin. What follows expresses what has been already hinted. . . .: if blind blind lead; , subjunctive, with as usual in a present general supposition. , both: Rabbis or scribes and their disciples. Christ despaired of the teachers, but He tried to rescue the people; hence Mat 15:10-11 .
[92] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
they be, &c. Figure of speech Paroemia. App-6.
if, &c.: i.e. experience will show it. App-118.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 15:14. , let them alone) Do not regard[690] them.-, guides) see Isa 9:16.[691]
[690] There is a verbal reference to in the original, nolite eos morari, which cannot be preserved in the translation-q. d., Let them go; do not detain them, or trouble yourselves about them.-(I. B.)
[691] , both) In the case of senseless men, it is better that the one should withdraw from the other.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Let: Hos 4:17, 1Ti 6:5
they: Mat 23:16-24, Isa 9:16, Isa 42:19, Isa 56:10, Mal 2:8, Luk 6:39
And if: Jer 5:31, Jer 6:15, Jer 8:12, Eze 14:9, Eze 14:10, Mic 3:6, Mic 3:7, 2Pe 2:1, 2Pe 2:17, Rev 19:20, Rev 22:15
Reciprocal: Deu 27:18 – General 2Ki 17:28 – taught them Psa 119:99 – than all Pro 4:19 – General Pro 9:8 – Reprove Pro 16:22 – the instruction Isa 3:12 – lead thee Isa 8:15 – stumble Isa 43:27 – and thy Isa 51:18 – none Isa 60:2 – the darkness Jer 14:16 – the people Jer 23:1 – pastors Jer 23:32 – therefore Jer 27:15 – ye Lam 4:14 – have wandered Hos 4:6 – for Hos 4:9 – like people Amo 4:5 – for Mic 3:5 – concerning Zep 1:17 – they shall Zec 11:3 – a voice Zec 11:9 – that that dieth Zec 11:15 – a foolish Mal 2:12 – the master and the scholar Mat 16:4 – And he Mat 21:27 – We cannot tell Mar 8:13 – General Mar 11:33 – We Luk 13:15 – Thou hypocrite Luk 20:8 – General Joh 3:10 – Art Joh 12:40 – hath Act 19:9 – he departed Rom 1:24 – God Rom 2:19 – art confident 1Co 12:2 – even 1Co 14:38 – General 1Ti 1:7 – understanding Rev 22:11 – that is unjust
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
UNCONSCIOUS BLINDNESS
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Mat 15:14
The pathos of the perverted conscience, of the misdirected sincerity, of disastrous loyalty! Here, in a vivid picture, we see and feel the misery of it all. It is the Pharisee who suggested the picture.
I. The blind leader.Our Lord is thinking, not of some poor, pitiful man shut up in his blindness, and humbly, tentatively feeling his way along with creeping bewildered steps; but of the man who has no notion that he is blind. On the contrary, he believes himself to be the one person who sees. This is the typesome man fitted apparently to show others the way, to direct their course, to point the goal. He is a man born to lead; only he is blind. He cannot take the true measure of things.
II. The Pharisee had so much in him to give him that amazing dominance over the popular imagination and conscience, which is so strikingly portrayed in our Gospels. He was relentlessly sincere in his adherence to the faith and the discipline of the fathers. He had no other object in life but to extend the sphere of the Holy Kingdom, and would compass sea and land to make one proselyte. So strong, so capable, so masterful was his Pharisaism. It carried all along with it.
III. Man must bend himself to this truth if he would live. The text hits an Englishman very hard. It passes criticism on that which he too often takes as his last word. I did what I thought right. That is the Englishmans ultimate position. I obeyed my conscience. I acted up to my own standard of duty. What more could I do? So he triumphantly asserts and retorts. But our Lord has a further question to ask. Why had you a conscience, which gave so false or poor a verdict? You followed your conscience. Yes, but your conscience was darkened; it had no hold on the light; it pronounced in ignorance of the realities; it never detected the true issue; it had no eyes for the vision. Why was that?
IV. The one vital question pressed home by our Lord upon each one of us is not: How do you stand to yourself? Do you satisfy your own standard? But, How do you stand to the realities of eternal life? Do you satisfy God? He drives the urgent question home again and again. That is why He loathes, with such a peculiar hatred, the self-complacency of the righteous. Be quite sure that you are blind! Our Lord never condemns us for being blind, but only for refusing to recognise it. Detect your own blindness, condemn it, confess it, and you are saved! The blindness which is your bane becomes your boon. It is your bane, for it withholds from you the sight of the glory which even now enwraps you. But it becomes your boon, because in discovering and recognising that you are blind, you are, by that very act, proved to be in true relation to the Eternal.
Canon H. Scott Holland.
Illustrations
(1) Religious persecutors, Roman or Puritan, did it always for the best. They obeyed rigidly the law of their highest conscience. Neither the Inquisition, nor Cromwell, doubted for a moment the voice that bade them slay. Rather, they were honest beyond their fellows. They went so far in crime, and cruelty, because they were more resolute in following up their own convictions than others. Yet the verdict against them is given out. Why did they arrive at convictions that were in such flagrant defiance of Gods will? Why had they got so far out of the right way?
(2) A philosopher at Florence could not be persuaded to look through one of Galileos telescopes, lest he should see something in the heavens that would disturb him in his belief of Aristotles philosophy. Thus it is with many who are afraid of examining Gods Word, lest they should find themselves condemned.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5:14
Let them alone is defined by Thayer, “c. to let go, let alone, let be; to disregard.” It means for the disciples not to lose any time or spend any efforts on them as it would be useless. A further reason for ignoring them was the danger involved in following or associating with them. They were blind leaders and those who would follow them are as blind as they. That would mean that all of them would share the same fate and fall into the ditch or go astray.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 15:14. Let them alone. His disciples are not to begin an attack upon the Pharisees. Error, if let alone, defeats and destroys itself. Let it work out its self-destructive results!
They are blind guides. They profess to be teachers, but have themselves no spiritual sight. If then the blind guide the blind, those who follow such are of course blind also.
Beth shall fall into the pit, which lies in their path; from the nature of the case a pit of destruction. Here the effect on the persons is spoken oil Discussions and controversies are to be instituted by Christians with the sole purpose of saving men, the defeat of false doctrine being left to its own self-destructive tendency.
As Luke (Luk 6:39) in his report of the Sermon on the Mount, gives the same figure in a different connection, we may infer that it became proverbial in our Lords teachings. The general principle is obvious, but it admitted of various applications. Here it is used to enforce a lesson of patience; in Luke it is connected with instruction about harsh judgments.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 15:14. Let them alone Do not trouble or concern yourselves about their censures: neither court their favour nor dread their displeasure, nor much care though they be offended. Seek not to please a generation of men that please not God, 1Th 2:15; and will be pleased with nothing less than absolute dominion over your consciences. They be blind leaders of the blind Teachers, who foolishly think to lead their disciples to heaven by the observation of precepts wherein there is not the smallest degree of true piety, and will not be convinced of the contrary, being grossly ignorant of divine things, and strangers to the spiritual nature of Gods law; and yet so proud, that they think they see better than any others, and therefore undertake to be leaders of others. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch The guides and the guided, the blind leaders and the blind followers, shall perish together. Both will be involved in the general desolation coming upon the Jews, and both will fall into the ditch of eternal destruction. We find, Rev 22:15, that hell is the portion of those that make a lie, and of those that love it when made. The sin and rain of the deceivers will be no security to those that are deceived by them. Though the leaders of the people cause them to err, yet they that are led of them are destroyed, Isa 9:16; because they shut their eyes against the light which would have rectified their mistake. Hence it follows, says Dr. Whitby, that sometimes the multitude neither ought, nor can, without their utmost peril, follow the guidance of their ecclesiastical superiors; or, as he expresses himself afterward, believe, or comply with their rules, because it is their duty never to follow them into the ditch. Learn here, says Burkit, 1st, that ignorant, erroneous, and unfaithful ministers are the heaviest judgment that can befall a people; 2d, 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: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 14
Let them alone; do not regard their displeasure.