Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 22:6
And the remnant took his servants, and entreated [them ]spitefully, and slew [them.]
And the remnant … – That is, a part made light of it; treated it with silent contempt, and coolly went about their business. The others were not satisfied with that, but showed positive malignity. Some sinners seem to be well satisfied by merely neglecting religion; others proceed against it with open violence and bitter malice.
Entreated them spitefully – Used harsh and opprobrious words. Reviled and abused them. This was done because they hated and despised the king. So sinners often abuse and calumniate ministers of religion because they themselves hate God, and can in no way else show their hatred so well.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
6. And the remnant took hisservants, and entreated them spitefullyinsulted them.
and slew themThese aretwo different classes of unbelievers: the one simply indifferent;the other absolutely hostilethe one, contemptuous scorners;the other, bitter persecutors.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the remnant took his servants,…. They that went to their several worldly callings and occupations of life, troubled themselves no further about the Messiah, his doctrines and ordinances; but others of them were more spiteful and injurious: they not only slighted the message, and took no notice of the invitation, but also abused the messengers; some of the servants they laid hold upon, and put them in the common prison, and detained them there a while; as they did the apostles quickly after our Lord’s ascension, particularly Peter and John:
and entreated them spitefully; gave them very hard words, and reproachful language; menacing and threatening them what they would do to them, if they did not forbear preaching in the name of Jesus; though they were not intimidated hereby, but rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame on such an account; and even their malice and wickedness proceeded so far, as to take away the lives of some of them:
and slew them: thus they stoned Stephen to death, the first martyr for Christ; and killed James, the brother of John, with the sword; which last, though he was put to death by Herod, yet with the consent and approval of the Jews.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) Entreated them spitefully.The Greek word implies the wanton infliction of outrage. The parable at this stage looks forward as well as backward, and seems to include the sufferings of Christian preachers and martyrs as well as those of the prophets who were sent to Israel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Remnant The persecutors are the comparative few and more violent. Strauss objects that it is unnatural to represent men as murdering those who merely come to invite them to a marriage. But he forgets that this is a king’s invitation; and the persons are in a state of rebellious hostility to their sovereign, and simply avail themselves of this chance of showing their hostility to him. They are therefore guilty of treason. Similar was the offence of Vashti in refusing to obey the invitation of the king. Est 1:12. And this is a significant picture of the madness of man’s rebellion against the mercy of God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them .
Ver. 6. Entreated them spitefully and slew them ] This is that sin which brings ruin without remedy,2Ch 36:162Ch 36:16 . Josiah’s humiliation could not expiate Manasseh’s bloodshed. Our Popish prelates in less than four years sacrificed the lives of eight hundred innocents to their idols here in Queen Mary’s days. That precious blood doth yet cry to heaven for vengeance against us. And it was a pious motion that one made in a sermon to this present parliament, that there might be a day of public humiliation, purposely set apart, and solemnly kept throughout the kingdom, for the innocent bloodshed here in those Marian days of most abhorred memory.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 22:6 . , the rest, as if were only a part, the greater part, of the invited, while the expression by itself naturally covers the whole. Weiss finds in a trace of patching: the parable originally referred to the people of Israel as a whole, but Mt. introduced a reference to the Sanhedrists and here has them specially in view as the . Koetsveld remarks on the improbability of the story at this point: men at a distance rulers of provinces could not be invited in the morning with the expectation of their being present at the palace by mid-day. So far this makes for the hypothesis of remodelling by a second hand. But even in Christ’s acknowledged parables improbabilities are sometimes introduced to meet the requirements of the case; e.g. , in Lk.’s version of the parable all refuse. . : acts of open rebellion inevitably leading to war. This feature, according to Weiss, lies outside the picture. Not so, if the marriage feast was to be the occasion for recognising the son as heir. Then refusal to come meant withholding homage, rebellion in the bud, and acts of violence were but the next step.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
entreated, &c. As in Act 4:1-3; Act 5:40, Act 5:41; Act 11:19. slew them. Act 7:64-60; Act 8:1; Act 12:2-5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 22:6. , and the remnant) Who did not wish to appear to have made light of it.[954]-, treated them with insult and injury) see 2Ch 30:10; 1Ti 1:13; Heb 10:29.
[954] And who did not attend either to farming or merchandise. To wit, those who have less of hinderances in their way not rarely sin the more grievously for that very reason, when they thrust themselves into sacred things, by their perverse mode of behaving with respect to them.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the remnant: Mat 5:10-12, Mat 10:12-18, Mat 10:22-25, Mat 21:35-39, Mat 23:34-37, Joh 15:19, Joh 15:20, Joh 16:2, Joh 16:3, Act 4:1-3, Act 5:40, Act 5:41, Act 7:51-57, Act 8:1, 1Th 2:14, 1Th 2:15
Reciprocal: Pro 1:24 – I have called Jer 11:21 – thou Jer 26:8 – the priests Mat 7:6 – turn Mat 21:41 – He will Mat 23:37 – thou Mat 24:9 – shall they Mar 12:5 – and him Luk 3:20 – General Luk 11:49 – and some Luk 12:45 – to beat Luk 13:34 – killest Luk 14:18 – all Luk 21:12 – before Act 13:46 – seeing 1Th 2:16 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
22:6
Others were more active in their opposition to the work of the King and persecuted the servants. They went so far as to put to death the most prominent ones which included John the Baptist, the apostles and even the son (Jesus).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 22:6. But the rest. Representing the fanatical rulers of the Jews, the Pharisees.
Treated them shamefully and slew them. Literally fulfilled, in case of the Apostles and Evangelists. Indifference often passes into hostility, as the more consistent attitude.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 22:6. And the remnant Or the rest of them, who did not go to farms or merchandise, who were neither husbandmen nor tradesmen, but ecclesiastics; namely, the scribes and Pharisees, and chief priests; took [Gr. , laying hold on] his servants, entreated them spitefully [or rather, shamefully,] and slew them If it be objected that these circumstances of the parable are improbable, as it was never known in the world that subjects refused the invitation of their sovereign to the marriage of his son; and much less that any persons were ever so rude and barbarous as to treat with ignominy and slay the servants of a king, or of any superior, who came to invite them to a feast, it must be observed that, allowing this to be so, it only places the crime of the Jews in a more aggravated point of view, with respect to whom all this was literally true. They whose feet should have been beautiful, because they brought glad tidings of peace and salvation, were treated as the offscouring of all things, 1Co 4:13. The prophets, and John the Baptist, had been thus abused already, and the apostles and other ministers of Christ were to lay their account with being treated in the same manner. The Jews were, either directly or indirectly, agents in most of the persecutions of the first preachers of the gospel: witness the history of the Acts, and the Epistles of the apostles.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Some of those invited not only refused the gracious invitation but abused and even murdered the king’s servants. Enraged at their conduct the king sent his army, destroyed the murderers, and burned down their city (cf. Mat 21:38-41). Burning down an enemy’s city was a common fate of rebels in the ancient East (cf. 2Ch 36:19; Nah 3:14-15). Here Jesus implied it would happen to Jerusalem again. It did happen in A.D. 70 when the Roman emperor Titus finally overcame the Jewish rebels and scattered them from Palestine. This was Jesus’ first prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem.