Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 25:12
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
I know you not – You were not in the company of those who attended me to the marriage-feast, and are unknown to me. Applied to professing Christians, having only a profession of religion, but no real piety, it means, I do not know or acknowledge you as Christians. I do not approve of you, or delight in you, or admit that you are my friends. The word know is often used in the sense of approving, loving, acknowledging as real friends and followers. See Mat 7:23; Psa 1:6; 2Ti 2:19; 1Th 5:12.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. I know you not.] As if he had said, Ye are not of my company – ye were neither with the bride nor the bridegroom: ye slept while the others were in procession. I do not acknowledge you for my disciples – ye are not like him who is love – ye refused to receive his grace – ye sinned it away when ye had it; now you are necessarily excluded from that kingdom where nothing but love and purity can dwell.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
12. But he answered and said, VerilyI say unto you, I know you notThe attempt to establish adifference between “I know you not” here, and “I neverknew you” in Mt 7:23 asif this were gentler, and so implied a milder fate, reserved for “thefoolish” of this parableis to be resisted, though advocatedby such critics as OLSHAUSEN,STIER, and ALFORD.Besides being inconsistent with the general tenor of such language,and particularly the solemn moral of the whole (Mt25:13), it is a kind of criticism which tampers with someof the most awful warnings regarding the future. If it be asked whyunworthy guests were admitted to the marriage of the King’s Son, in aformer parable, and the foolish virgins are excluded in this one, wemay answer, in the admirable words of GERHARD,quoted by TRENCH, thatthose festivities are celebrated in this life, in the Churchmilitant; these at the last day, in the Church triumphant; to those,even they are admitted who are not adorned with the wedding garment;but to these, only they to whom it is granted to be arrayed in finelinen clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints (Re19:8); to those, men are called by the trumpet of the Gospel; tothese by the trumpet of the Archangel; to those, who enters may goout from them, or be cast out; who is once introduced to these nevergoes out, nor is cast out, from them any more: wherefore it is said,”The door is shut.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But he answered and said,…. The Lord and bridegroom from within, thought fit to give them an answer, but an unexpected and awful one to them:
verily I say unto you, I know you not; which must be understood in consistence with the omniscience of Christ: he knew their persons, conduct, and state; he knew they were foolish virgins, graceless professors, who had made no account of him and his righteousness; but had trusted to, and depended upon, their external profession of religion: they were none of the people whom he foreknew, or knew as his own, and loved with an everlasting love; he never knew them as his father’s choice in him, or as this father’s gift to him; he never knew them in the everlasting covenant, or as his sheep, for whom he died; he never knew them to believe in him, or love him; nor ever exalt his person, blood and sacrifice, at his table, nor do any good work with a single eye to his glory; he never approved of them, liked their persons, or their conduct; or ever owned them as the true companions, either of his bride, or of himself: which answer implies, that as the door was shut, so it should remain; there was no admittance for them, nor any to be hoped for; and it is all one as if he had said, begone, and depart hence. The Persic version adds such a clause, “begone from my door”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I know you not ( ). Hence there was no reason for special or unusual favours to be granted them. They must abide the consequences of their own negligence.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
(12) I know you not.The sentence of rejection is clothed in the same language as in Mat. 7:23. The Lord
are His (2Ti. 2:19), and their blessedness will be to know Him even as they are known (1Co. 13:12).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. I know you not You call me Lord as if you were my servants, when in fact we are strangers. You have never gained my acquaintance. I recognize you not, and forever dismiss you as pretenders.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But he answered and said, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.” ’
The reply of the Bridegroom came back firm and strong, ‘Truly I do not know you!’ Compare Mat 7:23, and note there that He had never known them. This is not a case of the saved being lost, it is a case of people who have wrong ideas and so do not take the trouble to be properly prepared. They are not His elect (Mat 24:31), and have never been so. For had they been so they would have had oil, and their lamps would have burned brightly. They would have been blessed by God in a life-transforming (Mat 5:16), mind-enlightening (Mat 11:25) way; they would have received the Holy Spirit (Mat 3:11); they would have looked to Him in faith and trust (Joh 10:26-28). But they had not. Thus when it counted most they found that He did not recognise them. The lesson is clear. If your torch does not shine out brightly you are in danger of Him saying, ‘I do not know you’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 25:12. VerilyI know you not This circumstance in the parable is perfectly consistent with the rest; for nothing intimated a personal acquaintance with them; and guests asking admittance with such a pretence, might have been multiplied beyond all reason and convenience: at least its significancy and application are very apparent and important. In this parable, by the kingdom of heaven is meant the Gospel kingdomthe kingdom of grace in its last dispensation, when it is about to be swallowed up in glory. By the tenvirgins are meant the complete and general number of all Christian professors; the visible church of God upon earth, mixed with good and bad. By their taking the lamps, and going forth to meet the bridegroom, is meant their taking upon them by baptism, and their leading their lives in, the outward profession of the Christian faith. By the bridegroom is meant the Lord Jesus, the divine and glorious bridegroom of his spouse, the church. By the foolish virgins are meant mere professors; Christians only in name, who have a lamp without oil, faith without love. By the wise virgins are meant real Christians, who to an outward profession join inward holiness; who have not only the form, but the power of godliness; faith which works by love; a life beautified by the fruits of the Holy Spirit, whose gifts and graces particularly are figured out to us by the oil. By the slumber and sleep of them all, wise as well as foolish, is meant death, the common lot of good and bad. By the midnight cry to go forth and meet the bridegroom, is meant the last aweful summons to judgment, the archangel’s trumpet, and the voice of God: by the solicitude of the foolish virgins, the discovery which nominal professors will make, too late, of their want of holiness. By the reproof of the wise isshewn, the impossibility of transferring good works from one to another; and of consequence the absurdity of the popish doctrine of supererogation; since no man at that day will be found to have more than enough for himself. By the admission of the wise to the marriage-feast, is meant the happy entrance of faithful Christians into bliss eternal with their all-glorious bridegroom; and by the exclusion of the foolish, the everlasting banishment of the strangers to true holiness from that bliss. And as the parable represents the suddenness of Christ’s coming, it shews both the folly and danger of delaying repentance to a death-bed, and powerfully enforces habitual watch-fulness, both in the acquisition and exercise of grace, upon all men in every age, from the uncertainty of life;for the day of death is to each of us as the day of judgment. Accordingly, the application of the parable is, watch therefore, &c. Mat 25:13.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 25:12 f. ] because ye were not amongst the bridesmaids who welcomed me, ye are to me as entire strangers whom I do not know, and who, therefore, can have no part in the marriage! The knowledge of experience arising out of the intercourse of life (Mat 7:23 ; 1Co 8:3 ; 1Co 13:12 ; Gal 4:9 ) is the point intended to be thus illustrated . Besides, Jesus might also have said (in opposition to Cremer): . (I have not known you).
] because the foolish virgins were shut out, and because something corresponding to this would happen to you unless you watch.
According to Mat 25:13 , the teaching of the parable is: that the moral preparedness that continues to maintain itself up till the moment of the advent, the day and hour of which do not admit of being determined, will lead to participation in the Messianic kingdom, whereas those in whom this preparedness has not been maintained till the end will, when surprised by the sudden appearing of the Lord, experience in themselves the irreparable consequences of their foolish neglect, and be shut out from, His kingdom . This latter is a negative expression of condemnation , not, as Olshausen supposes notwithstanding the , merely a way of designating such a salvation as is spoken of in 1Co 3:15 . More specific interpretations of the virgins, the lamps, the oil, the , etc. are to be found not only in Origen, Hilary, Cyrill, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Augustine, Jerome (see Cremer, p. 156 ff.), but also in Olshausen, von Meyer, Cremer, Lange, Auberlen. In those interpretations subjective opinion has, in most diverse and arbitrary fashion, exceeded the limits indicated by Jesus in Mat 25:13 . Calvin well remarks: “Multum se torquent quidam in lucernis, in vasis, in oleo. Atqui simplex et genuina summa est, non sufficere alacre exigui temporis studium, nisi infatigabilis constantia simul accedat.” Neither is the falling asleep of the virgins intended to be specially significant; for, as it happened in the case of the exemplary wise ones as well, it cannot represent any moral shortcoming.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Ver. 12. Verily I say unto you, I know you not ] i.e. With a knowledge of approbation or delight. Verba notitiae, apud Hebraeos secum trahunt affectum. See Trapp on “ Mat 7:23 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 25:12 . , I do not know you; in the natural sphere not a judicial penalty for arriving too late, but an inference from the late arrival that those without cannot belong to the bridal party. The solemn tone, however ( . .), shows that the spiritual here invades the natural. Pricaeus refers to Luk 11:7 as helping to understand the temper of the speech from within = do not trouble me, the door is shut.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Verily. See note on Mat 5:18.
I know you not. Greek. oida.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I know: Psa 1:6, Psa 5:5, Hab 1:13, Luk 13:26-30, Joh 9:31, Joh 10:27, 1Co 8:3, Gal 4:9, 2Ti 2:19
Reciprocal: Neh 7:64 – but it was Isa 55:6 – Seek Jer 24:5 – I acknowledge Eze 20:31 – and shall Hos 8:4 – set Zec 7:13 – so Mat 5:18 – verily Mat 7:21 – saith Mat 7:23 – I never Luk 12:9 – shall Luk 13:25 – Lord Luk 13:27 – I tell Heb 12:17 – he was
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:12
I know you not denotes he did not recognize them as being entitled to be present at the wedding. The approach of the bridegroom had been announced in no uncertain terms, and these people should have been already there if they were among the invited guests. Coming after the door was closed indicated to this master of ceremonies that they were would-be intruders who were coming out of a wrong motive.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 25:12. I know you not. Comp. chap. Mat 7:23. The refusal is definite and apparently final, and is the basis for the exhortation which follows. Some of the advocates of the pre-millenial view suppose that this refusal excludes only from the millenium, not from the ultimate kingdom of glory in heaven, finding a difference between the phrase here and in chap. Mat 7:23. They refer the parable, not to the final judgment, but to the coming of the Lord to His personal reign. On this view the lesson respects the blessedness of endurance unto the end, of keeping the light bright for the coming of the Bridegroom, however delayed. The ten virgins represent Gentile congregations accompanying the Bride, the Jewish Church. Nor are any of them hypocrites, but all faithful souls bearing their lamps; the foolish ones, however, making no provision for the supply of the oil of the Spirit, but trusting that the light once burning, would ever burn, neglecting watchfulness and prayer. As it was, their lamps were only going out (Mat 25:8), and their effort was too late for that time. At the general judgment, such will be judged in common with the rest of the dead. To all this it may be objected that the final judgment has already been spoken of in chap. Mat 24:51, and that the exhortation of Mat 25:13 loses its emphasis, if there is another day of grace for these.