Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 5:18
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
18. verily ] The Hebr. Amen is retained in the Greek text. This particle is used ( a) to confirm the truth of what has been said. ( b) To affirm the truth of what is about to be said. The second ( b) is a Syriac use, and therefore more usual in the N.T. than in the O.T. where the use is nearly limited to ( a).
one jot ] “ yod ” ( ) the smallest of the Hebr. characters, generally a silent letter, rather the adjunct of a letter than an independent letter. Still a critical interpretation might turn on the presence or absence of yod in a word. The controversy as to the meaning of Shiloh, Gen 49:10, is an instance of this. The letter yod makes the difference between Sarai and Sarah. It is the first letter in Jehovah and in the Hebrew form of Jesus or Joshua.
tittle ] The English word means a “point,” from Anglo-Saxon thyd-an to prick, connected with “thistle.” The Greek word means lit. a horn. Here the extremity of a letter, a little point, in which one letter differs from another.
fulfilled ] The Greek word is different from that which has the same rendering in Mat 5:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verily – Truly, certainly. A word of strong affirmation.
Till heaven and earth pass – This expression denotes that the law never would be destroyed until it should be all fulfilled. It is the same as saying everything else may change; the very earth and heaven may pass away, but the law of God shall not be destroyed until its whole design has been accomplished.
One jot – The word jot, or yod ( y), is the name of the Hebrew letter I, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
One tittle – The word used here, in the Greek, means literally a little horn, then a point, an extremity. Several of the Hebrew letters were written with small points or apices, as in the Hebrew letter, shin ( sh), or the Hebrew letter, sin ( s), which serve to distinguish one letter from another. To change a small point of one letter, therefore, might vary the meaning of a word, and destroy the sense. The name little horn was given to these points probably from the manner in which they were written, resembling a little horn. Professor Hackett says of a manuscript which he saw a Jew transcribing: One peculiarity, that struck me at once as I cast my eye over the parchment, was the horn-like appearance attached to some of the letters. I had seen the same mark, before this, in Hebrew manuscripts, but never where it was so prominent as here. The sign in question, as connected with the Hebrew Letter Lamedh ( L) in particular, had almost the appearance of an intentional imitation of a rams head. It was to that appendage of the Hebrew letters that the Saviour referred when he said, Not one jot or little horn (as the Greek term signifies, which our version renders tittle,) shall pass from the law until all be fulfilled. – Illustrations of Scripture, p. 234. Hence, the Jews were exceedingly cautious in writing these letters, and considered the smallest change or omission a reason for destroying the whole manuscript when they were transcribing the Old Testament. The expression, one jot or tittle, became proverbial, and means that the smallest part of the law should not be destroyed.
The laws of the Jews are commonly divided into moral, ceremonial, and judicial. The moral laws are such as grow out of the nature of things, and which cannot, therefore, be changed – such as the duty of loving God and his creatures. These cannot be abolished, as it can never be made right to hate God, or to hate our fellow-men. Of this kind are the ten commandments, and these our Saviour has neither abolished nor superseded. The ceremonial laws are such as are appointed to meet certain states of society, or to regulate the religious rites and ceremonies of a people. These can be changed when circumstances are changed, and yet the moral law be untouched. A general in an army may command his soldiers to appear sometimes in a red coat and sometimes in blue or in yellow. This would be a ceremonial law, and might be changed as he pleased. The duty of obeying him, and of being faithful to his country, could not be changed.
This is a moral law. A parent might permit his children to have 50 different dresses at different times, and love them equally in all. The dress is a mere matter of ceremony, and may be changed. The child, in all these garments, is bound to love and obey his father. This is a moral law, and cannot be changed. So the laws of the Jews. Those designed to regulate mere matters of ceremony and rites of worship might be changed. Those requiring love and obedience to God and love to people could not be changed, and Christ did not attempt it, Mat 19:19; Mat 22:37-39; Luk 10:27; Rom 13:9. A third species of law was the judicial, or those laws regulating courts of justice which are contained in the Old Testament. These were of the nature of the ceremonial law, and might also be changed at pleasure. The judicial law of the Hebrews was adapted to their own civil society. When the form of their polity was changed this was of course no longer binding. The ceremonial law was fulfilled by the coming of Christ: the shadow was lost in the substance, and ceased to be binding. The moral law was confirmed and unchanged.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 18. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven] In the very commencement of his ministry, Jesus Christ teaches the instability of all visible things. “The heaven which you see, and which is so glorious, and the earth which you inhabit and love, shall pass away; for the things which are seen are temporal, , are for a time; but the things which are not seen are eternal , ever-during,” 2Co 4:18. And the WORD of the Lord endureth for ever.
One jot or one tittle] One yod, (), the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. One tittle or point, , either meaning those points which serve for vowels in this language, if they then existed; or the seraphs, or points of certain letters, such as resh, or daleth, he, or cheth (as the change of any of these into the other would make a most essential alteration in the sense, or, as the rabbins say, destroy the world.) Or our Lord may refer to the little ornaments which certain letters assume on their tops, which cause them to appear like small branches. The following letters only can assume coronal apices, tsaddi – gimel – zain – nun – teth – ayin – shin. These, with the coronal apices, often appear in MSS.
That this saying, one jot or one tittle, is a proverbial mode of expression among the Jews, and that it expressed the meaning given to it above, is amply proved by the extracts in Lightfoot and Schoettgen. The reader will not be displeased to find a few of them here, if he can bear with the allegorical and strongly figurative language of the rabbins.
“The book of Deuteronomy came and prostrated itself before the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord of the world, thou hast written in me thy law; but now, a Testament defective in some parts is defective in all. Behold, Solomon endeavours to root the letter yod out of me.’ (In this text, De 17:5. lo yirbeh, nashim, he shall not multiply wives.) The holy blessed God answered, ‘Solomon and a thousand such as he shall perish, but the least word shall not perish out of thee.'”
In Shir Hashirim Rabba, are these words: “Should all the inhabitants of the earth gather together, in order to whiten one feather of a crow, they could not succeed: so, if all the inhabitants of the earth should unite to abolish one yod, which is the smallest letter in the whole law, they should not be able to effect it.”
In Vayikra Rabba, s. 19, it is said: “Should any person in the words of De 6:4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is achad, ONE Lord, change the daleth into a resh, he would ruin the world.” [Because, in that case, the word achar, would signify a strange or false God.]
“Should any one, in the words of Ex 34:14, Thou shalt worship no OTHER, achar, God, change resh into daleth, he would ruin the world.” [Because the command would then run, Thou shalt not worship the ONLY or true God.]
“Should any one in the words of Le 22:32, Neither shall ye PROFANE techelelu, my holy name, change cheth into he, he would ruin the world.” [Because the sense of the commandment would then be, Neither shall ye PRAISE my holy name.]
“Should any one, in the words of Ps 150:6, Let every thing that hath breath PRAISE, tehalel, the Lord, change he into cheth, he would ruin the world.” [Because the command would then run, Let every thing that hath breath PROFANE the Lord.]
“Should any one, in the words of Jer 5:10, They lied AGAINST the Lord, beihovah, change beth into caph, he would ruin the world.” [For then the words would run, They lied LIKE the Lord.]
“Should any one, in the words of Hosea, Ho 5:7, They have dealt treacherously, beihovah, AGAINST the Lord, change beth into caph, he would ruin the world.” [For then the words would run, They have dealt treacherously LIKE the Lord.]
“Should any one, in the words of 1Sa 2:2, There is none holy AS the Lord, change caph into beth, he would ruin the world.” [For then the words would mean, There is no holiness IN the Lord.]
These examples fully prove that the of our Lord, refers to the apices, points, or corners, that distinguish beth from caph; cheth from he; and resh from daleth. For the reader will at once perceive, how easily a caph may be turned into a beth; a he into a cheth; and a resh into a daleth: and he will also see of what infinite consequence it is to write and print such letters correctly.
Till all be fulfilled.] Or, accomplished. Though all earth and hell should join together to hinder the accomplishment of the great designs of the Most High, yet it shall all be in vain – even the sense of a single letter shall not be lost. The words of God, which point out his designs, are as unchangeable as his nature itself. Every sinner, who perseveres in his iniquity, shall surely be punished with separation from God and the glory of his power; and every soul that turns to God, through Christ, shall as surely be saved, as that Jesus himself hath died.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Amen I say unto you, so it is in the Greek, a phrase, as some observe never used but by God and Christ himself; who is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, Rev 3:14, though the servants of God have sometimes used it, as an adverb of wishing. It is by most concluded a form of an oath, God by it swearing by his truth and faithfulness.
Till heaven and earth pass, & c.; that is, the law is the certain and unchangeable will of God concerning reasonable creatures, and it shall never be altered in the least tittle, nor ever be abolished; you may therefore be secure that I come into the world upon no such errand.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. For verily I say unto youHere,for the first time, does that august expression occur in our Lord’srecorded teaching, with which we have grown so familiar as hardly toreflect on its full import. It is the expression manifestly, ofsupreme legislative authority; and as the subject inconnection with which it is uttered is the Moral Law, no higher claimto an authority strictly divine could be advanced. For when weobserve how jealously Jehovah asserts it as His exclusive prerogativeto give law to men (Lev 18:1-5;Lev 19:37; Lev 26:1-4;Lev 26:13-16, c.), suchlanguage as this of our Lord will appear totally unsuitable, andindeed abhorrent, from any creature lips. When the Baptist’s words”Isay unto you” (Mt 3:9) arecompared with those of his Master here, the difference of the twocases will be at once apparent.
Till heaven and earthpassThough even the Old Testament announces the ultimate”perdition of the heavens and the earth,” in contrast withthe immutability of Jehovah (Ps102:24-27), the prevalent representation of the heavens and theearth in Scripture, when employed as a popular figure, is that oftheir stability (Psa 119:89-91Ecc 1:4; Jer 33:25;Jer 33:26). It is the enduringstability, then, of the great truths and principles, moral andspiritual, of the Old Testament revelation which our Lord thusexpresses.
one jotthe smallest ofthe Hebrew letters.
one tittleone of thoselittle strokes by which alone some of the Hebrew letters aredistinguished from others like them.
shall in no wise pass fromthe law, till all be fulfilledThe meaning is that “not somuch as the smallest loss of authority or vitality shall ever comeover the law.” The expression, “till all be fulfilled,”is much the same in meaning as “it shall be had inundiminished and enduring honor, from its greatest to its leastrequirements.” Again, this general way of viewing our Lord’swords here seems far preferable to that doctrinalunderstanding of them which would require us to determine thedifferent kinds of “fulfilment” which the moral andthe ceremonial parts of it were to have.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For verily I say unto you,…. Or “I Amen say unto you”, which is one of the names of Christ; see Re 3:14 or the word “Amen” is only used by Christ as an asseveration of what he was about to say; and which, for greater confirmation, is usually doubled in the Evangelist John, “Amen, Amen”, or “verily, verily”. The word is used by the Jews w for an oath; they swore by it; and it is a rule with them, that whoever answers “Amen” after an oath, it is all one as if he had pronounced the oath itself. The thing so strongly affirmed in this solemn manner is,
till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. The “or jot”, in the Greek language, answers to “jod” in the Hebrew, the least of all the letters in the alphabet; hence a little city is called by this name, and this reason is given for it, x , “because that jod is the least among letters”. We read also of Rabbi Jod y, perhaps so called because , he was little, as the author of Juchasin observes z. This shows in what language the law was written; not in the Samaritan language, for the jod in that is a large letter, but in the Hebrew, in which it is very small; and particularly is written in a very diminutive character, in De 32:18 “by one tittle” some think is meant one of those ducts, dashes, or corners of letters, which distinguish one letter from another, that are much alike; others have thought that one of the pricks or vowel points is intended; others, one of those little strokes in the tops of letters, which the Jews call a “crowns” and “spikes”, is here meant, in which they imagined great mysteries were contained; and there were some persons among them, who made it their business to search into the meaning of every letter, and of everyone of these little horns, or pricks, that were upon the top of them. So says R. Meir b,
“in the time of the prophets there were such who very diligently searched every letter in the law, and explained every letter by itself; and do not wonder at this that they should expound every letter by itself, for they commented
, upon everyone of the tops of each letter.”
Such an expounder was Akiba ben Joseph c. To which custom Christ is here supposed to have respect: however, certain it is that he speaks very much in the language, and agreeably to the mind of the Jewish doctors; and some things in their writings will serve to illustrate this passage,
“If, (say they d,) all the nations of the world were gathered together, “to root one word out of the law”, they could not do it; which you may learn from Solomon, who sought to root “one letter out of the law”, the letter “jod”, in De 17:16 but the holy blessed God said, Solomon shall cease, and an hundred such as he (in the Talmud e it is a thousand such as he)
, “but, jod shall not cease from thee (the law) for ever”.”
And elsewhere the same expression is used f, and it is added,
“ljbm ynya Kmm huwqw, “but a tittle from thee shall not perish.””
The design of Christ, in conformity to the language of the Jews, is to declare, that no part of the law, not one of the least commandments in it, as he explains himself in the next verse, should be unaccomplished; but all should be fulfilled before “heaven and earth pass” away, as they will, with a great noise and fervent heat, as to their present form and condition; or sooner shall they pass away, than the least part of the law shall: which expresses the perpetuity of the law, and the impossibility of its passing away, and the superior excellency of it to the heavens and the earth. It is a saying of one of the Jewish doctors g, that
“the whole world is not equal even to one word out of the law,”
in which it is said, there is not one letter deficient or superfluous.
w T. Hieros. Kiddushin, fol. 60. 4. Misn. Bava Kama, c. 9. sect. 7, 8. T. Bab. Shebuot, fol. 36. 1. Debarim Rabba, fol. 242. 2. Maimon Hilch. Shebuot, c. 2. sect. 1. x T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 21. 2. & Gloss. in ib. y T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 22. 2. z Fol. 93. 2. a T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 29. 2. b In Semitis fidei, fol. 104. 4. & 105. 1. apud Capell. in loc. c T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 29. 2. d Vajikra Rabba, fol. 160. 3. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol 20. 2. e T. Hieros. Sanhedrim, fol. 20. 3. f Shemot Rabba, fol. 96. 1. g T. Hieros. Peah, fol. 15. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
One jot or one tittle ( ). “Not an iota, not a comma” (Moffatt), “not the smallest letter, not a particle” (Weymouth). The iota is the smallest Greek vowel, which Matthew here uses to represent the Hebrew yod (jot), the smallest Hebrew letter. “Tittle” is from the Latin titulus which came to mean the stroke above an abbreviated word, then any small mark. It is not certain here whether means a little horn, the mere point which distinguishes some Hebrew letters from others or the “hook” letter Vav. Sometimes yod and vav were hardly distinguishable. “In Vay. R. 19 the guilt of altering one of them is pronounced so great that if it were done the world would be destroyed” (McNeile).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Jot, tittle [, ] . Jot is for jod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Tittle is the little bend or point which serves to distinguish certain Hebrew letters of similar appearance. Jewish tradition mentions the letter jod as being irremovable; adding that, if all men in the world were gathered to abolish the least letter in the law, they would not succeed. The guilt of changing those little hooks which distinguish between certain Hebrew letters is declared to be so great that, if such a thing were done, the world would be destroyed.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For verily I say unto you,” (amen gar lego humin) “For truly, absolutely I say to you all,” as a new covenant, a new-called and chosen people, as a church, to be a witness of and for Him from the beginning in Galilee, Mat 4:18-24; Joh 15:16; Joh 15:27; Act 1:22; Act 10:37; Act 15:13-15.
2) “Till heaven and earth pass,” (heos on parelthe ho ouranos kai he ge) “Until the heaven and the earth pass away,” as it is affirmed they shall, Mat 24:35; Isa 51:6; Heb 1:10-12.
3) “One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,” (iota an e mia kerala ou me parelthe apo tou nomou) “Not even one iota or even one point shall by any means pass away from the law;” The whole of its elements were to stay in unified affinity for a program of worship and. service until all was fulfilled, Psa 119:160.
4) “Till all be fulfilled.” (heos an panta genetai) “Until all things (for which it was given) come to pass,” or come to be fulfilled, for it is settled in heaven, Psa 119:89, If was not taken out of the way until the death of Christ upon the cross, Col 2:20; 2Co 3:7-11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
18. Till heaven and earth pass Luke expresses it a little differently, but to the same import, that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one point of the law to fail The design of Christ, in both passages, was to teach, that the truth of the law and of every part of it, is secure, and that nothing so durable is to be found in the whole frame of the world. Some persons indulge in ingenious refinements on the word till, ( ἓως ἂ ν ,) as if the passing away of the heaven and earth, which will take place on the last day, the day of judgment, were to put an end to the law and the prophets And certainly, as
“
tongues shall then cease, and prophecies shall be abolished,” (1Co 13:8,)
I think that the written law, as well as the exposition of it, will come to an end; but, as I am of opinion that Christ spoke more simply, I do not choose to feed the ears of readers with such amusements. Let it suffice for us to hold, that sooner shall heaven fall to pieces, and the whole frame of the world become a mass of confusion, than the stability of the law shall give way. But what does it mean, that every part of the law shall be fulfilled down to the smallest point? for we see, that even those, who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, are very far from keeping the law of God in a perfect manner. I answer, the expression, shall not pass away, must be viewed as referring, not to the life of men, but to the perfect truth of the doctrine. “ There is nothing in the law that is unimportant, nothing that was put there at, random; and so it is impossible that a single letter shall perish.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Verily.The first occurrence in the Gospel of the word so common in our Lords teaching seems the right place for dwelling on its meaning. It is the familiar Amen of the Churchs worshipthe word which had been used in the same way in that of the wilderness (Num. 5:22; Deu. 27:15) and of the Temple (Psa. 41:13; Psa. 72:19, et al). Coming from the Hebrew root for fixed, steadfast, true, it was used for solemn affirmation or solemn prayer. So is it, or so be it. For the most part, the Greek LXX. translates it; but in 1Ch. 16:36, and Neh. 5:13, it appears in its Hebrew form. From the worship of the synagogue it passed into that of the Christian Church, and by the time the Gospels were written had become so familiar that it was used without hesitation by all the Evangelists, sometimes singly, sometimes (uniformly in St. John) with the emphasis of reduplication.
Till heaven and earth pass.The formula was probably one in common use by our Lord to express the unchangeableness of the divine word. It was afterwards used, we must remember, by our Lord, with even augmented force, in reference to His own words (Mat. 24:35; Mar. 13:31; Luk. 21:33).
One jot or one tittle.The jot is the Greek iota (0, the Hebrew yod (), the smallest of all the letters of the alphabet. The tittle was one of the smaller strokes, or twists of other letters, such, e.g., as distinguished (D) from (R), or (K) from (B). Jewish Rabbis used to caution their scholars against so writing as to cause one letter to be mistaken for another, and to give examples of passages from the Law in which such a mistake would turn a divine truth into nonsense or blasphemy. The yod in its turn was equally important. It distinguished Joshua from Hoshea, Sarai from Sarah. The Jews had indeed a strange legend that its insertion in the former name was given as a compensation for its exclusion from the latter. The meaning is obvious enough, Nothing truly belonging to the Law, however seemingly trivial, shall drift away and be forgotten until it has done all that it was meant to do.
Till all be fulfilled.Literally, Till all things have come to pass. The words in the English version suggest an identity with the fulfil of Mat. 5:17, which is not found in the Greek. The same formula is used in the Greek of Mat. 24:34. The all things in both cases are the great facts of our Lords life, death, resurrection, and the establishment of the kingdom of God. So taken, we find that the words do not assert, as at first they seem to do, the perpetual obligation even of the details of the Law, but the limit up to which the obligation was to last; and they are therefore not inconsistent with the words which speak of the system of the Law as a whole as decaying and waxing old, and ready to vanish away (Heb. 8:13). The two untils have each of them their significance. Each jot or tittle must first complete its work; then, and not till then, will it pass away.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. For verily Very emphatic is our Lord in removing all thought that he annuls, instead of fulfilling, the law. He repeats his I am come; he adds a verily I say unto you, and asserts the infinite value of every point of the law. Verily is the same in the original as our word Amen, and it was a solemn so let it be. As the Hebrews used it for a solemn confirmatory close, the Christian Church has retained it for the same purpose.
Heaven and earth As Stier remarks, the heaven here is not the heavens of Mat 5:12; as the earth here is not the earth promised in Mat 5:5. Heaven and earth as they now are, are transitory. They shall pass away.
One jot or one tittle
“In Vayikra Rabba, s. 19, it is said: Should any person, in the words of Deu 6:4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is achad, ONE Lord, change the daleth into a resh, he would ruin the world.” [Because, in that case, the word achar, would signify a strange or false God.] “ ‘Should any one, in the words of Exo 34:14, Thou shalt worship no OTHER, achar, God, change resh into daleth, he would ruin the world.’ [Because the command would then run, Thou shalt not worship the ONLY or true God. ] “ ‘Should any one, in the words of Lev 22:32, Neither shall ye PROFANE, techalelu, my holy name, change cheth into he, he would ruin the world.’ [Because the sense of the commandment would then be, Neither shall ye PRAISE my holy name. ]”
Our Lord here, of course, uses the names of the Jewish characters figuratively, to indicate the smallest point in the moral force of the law. Till all be fulfilled There is twice a till in this verse, rendering the meaning slightly obscure. The sense briefly is, Not the slightest principle of the law shall fail of accomplishment while the world stands.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
One jot or one tittle shall in no way pass away from the law,
Until all things be accomplished.”
Jesus then makes the strongest possible assertion of the permanence and almost divine status of ‘the Law’ and all that it promised. He emphatically declares (‘truly I say to you’) that rather than being destroyed it will certainly continue as authoritative until the destroying of the present Heaven and earth (2Pe 3:7; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 20:11) and its replacement with the new Heaven and the new earth (2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1 to Rev 22:5, an extension of the idea in Isa 65:17-25), and will last to such an extent that not even the smallest part of it will ‘pass away’, that is be removed from having authority. And in the end all of it will be accomplished, that is brought to its full realisation, to the last jot and tittle (to the smallest letter and the smallest symbol).
‘One jot’ is, in the Greek, ‘one iota’, the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet. This therefore represents the equivalent of either the yod or the waw in Hebrew, the one the smallest letter, the other looking very similar to an iota, either of which can often be removed from a Hebrew word without changing the sense. The point being made therefore is that even these semi-redundant letters are to be seen as a necessary part of the whole. God has caused them to be there and therefore they were permanent. A ‘tittle’ is literally ‘a horn’. It is referring to either the small stroke added to some Hebrew letters in order to differentiate them from others, or even to some kind of mark placed in the text for added, but relatively unimportant, significance. Thus Jesus is affirming the infallibility of the written Law, as originally given, as it stood. He is declaring that it must be accomplished because it is part of God’s word to man.
One distinction, however, that Jesus does make about the Law and the Prophets elsewhere, is that they continued to prophesy until John, that is until the coming of the Kingly Rule of Heaven began to bring about their fulfilment (Mat 11:13-14; Luk 16:16). The assumption is that they then ceased because something better had come. But that does not mean that their fulfilment ceased, or that they ceased to have effect, only that more prophecy would be unnecessary because the fulfilment of what had been given had already commenced. He thus sees the Law and the Prophets as complete, and His own coming as beginning the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets rather than as part of the build up towards it. The build up had ended with John. The ‘last days’ were to be seen as here. What happens from that time on is therefore to be seen as the outworking of all that has been promised, the beginning of its fulfilment.
‘The Law.’ This possibly indicates ‘the Law of Moses’ as found in the Pentateuch, although it is more probablye that it covers both that and the prophets, on the basis of the recognised and stereotyped phrase ‘the Law and the Prophets’ (Mat 7:12; Mat 22:40, compare Mat 11:13). Indeed ‘the Law’ in Jesus’ eyes can also include the Psalms (Joh 10:34, compare Luk 24:44), thus having in mind the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures.
It is true that ‘until heaven and earth pass away’ might theoretically be seen as simply indicating what was seen as impossible, and thus as emphasising that the Law is everlasting, (and its intrinsic significance can hardly be anything other than everlasting, for eternity will be the fullest revelation of the perfection for which the Law was striving). But there are clear enough indications that that is not so, for Jesus could say that at the resurrection men and women are to be as the angels (Mat 22:30) so that the reproductive activity of creation will be no more, while He makes clear references to the fact that the future, and therefore the eternal future, will be ‘not of this world’ (Mat 7:21; Mat 8:11-12; Luk 16:19-31; Joh 14:2-3). This therefore confirms that Jesus did in fact believe that Heaven (the material heavens) and earth would themselves one day pass away, as Peter confirms (2Pe 3:10-13).
‘Truly (Amen) I say to you.’ The use of the Hebrew/Aramaic ‘Amen’, transliterated into Greek, and signifying a firm assurance, occurs over thirty times in Matthew, while ‘I say to you’, signifying a unique authority, occurs over fifty times. His is thus the voice of certainty and authority. By this Jesus was declaring that He spoke with an authority shared by no other, that guaranteed what was spoken.
The word ‘amen’ used in this way is found elsewhere only in a Jewish work of the late 1st century AD called the Testament of Abraham. There it is found in Mat 8:7 (where God sends a message to Abraham saying ‘Amen I say to you that blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed, and I will give you all that you ask from me, for I am the Lord your God, and besides me there is no other’) and in Mat 20:2, (where Death says in response to a question from Abraham, ‘Amen, amen, I tell you in the truth of God that there are seventy-two deaths’). It will be noted that both are seen as affirmations from ‘another world’. The Testament of Abraham is a Jewish writing written probably in the late 1st century AD, but it may reflect previous usage. On the other hand the author may have picked up the idea from Christian usage, and thus ultimately from the teaching of Jesus. So the evidence either suggests that Jesus is using a term which would be seen by all as indicating His own ‘other-worldly’ uniqueness, or has actually being introduced for the first time by Him for a similar reason. Either way it represents unique authority.
‘Amen.’ This transliteration of the Hebrew occurs four times in LXX (1Ch 16:36; Neh 5:13; Neh 8:6 (twice)) and also in the Apocrypha, but never as used here except as mentioned above.
Short Note on the Authority of the Bible.
Jesus’ emphasis here was, of course, on the permanence and completeness of the whole Law (at least of the whole Pentateuch) as such, as something concerning which every word was valid and indisputable. But while that is so it also has wider implications. For if what Jesus says here is true it indicates that He put His authority behind every word in the original text of the Pentateuch as originally given (and saw the current text as giving a reasonable representation of it), declaring it to be indisputable and permanently valid. Those therefore who on the basis of this statement speak of the Pentateuch as ‘verbally inspired so that every word is seen as God-given’, rate Jesus among their number. This is really indisputable.
The question of the full verbal authority of Scripture then boils down to the question of how we view Jesus. If we consider that Jesus brought us the whole truth from God without error, and that we enjoy the benefit of that truth in His words in Scripture (a value judgment we can make by considering and weighing up His words for ourselves) then we have no alternative but to believe that at least the Pentateuch as originally given is inerrant (every jot and tittle). If we do not believe that then we have to say ‘Goodbye’ to an inerrant Jesus, and the Jesus of the Bible. We are simply left with a Jesus formed according to our own imaginations. Our faith ceases to be in Jesus but in ourselves, and in what we decide to accept. That is why belief in the inerrancy of Scripture finally comes, not from examining Scripture, although we have to do that, but from examining Jesus Christ, and making up our minds about Him, whether He really is the Son of God or not. Once we are sure of that everything else falls into place, for He constantly asserted the absolute reliability of Scripture. And we then recognise that any problems we have with inerrancy are due not to the Bible but to our own lack of knowledge, or our own lack of faith in Him. We can then be confident that if only we had full knowledge we would have the answer to every problem. Meanwhile we can trust Him and look to the Bible in confidence, even if we cannot ourselves find an answer to every difficulty that it raises. The ‘only’ problem then is the interpretation of it. But that is another question.
End of note.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Note the emphasis of His assertion:
v. 18. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and. earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. With a solemn oath Christ here affirms that the Law shall be retained also in the Church of the New Testament in the unabridged exercise of its strength. The whole Old Testament is a divine revelation, and so its minutest precept has religious significance which should find recognition and proper understanding in the New. So long as the earth shall stand, the sacredness of the Scripture of olden times shall remain so absolutely unimpaired that not even an iota, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, nor a tittle, the slight projecting point on some of its letters, shall fall to the ground. There is here a gleam of Gospel glory in the midst of the proclamation of the Law, implying a fulfillment which was to be made, and was in fact made, in and through the person of Jesus Christ.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 5:18 . ] for verily ( = , Luk 9:27 ), that is, agreeably to the truth, do I tell you. What He now says serves as a confirmation of what preceded. This form of assurance, so frequently in the mouth of Christ , the bearer of divine truth, is not found in any apostle .
, . . .] until heaven and earth shall have passed away . These words of Jesus do not indicate a terminus, after which the law shall no longer exist (Paulus, Meander, Lechler, Schleiermacher, Planck, Weizscker, and others), but He says: onwards to the destruction of the world the law will not lose its validity in the slightest point , by which popular expression (Luk 16:17 ; Job 14:12 ) the duration of the law after the final catastrophe of the world is neither taught nor excluded. That the law, however, fulfilled as to its ideal nature, will endure in the new world, is clear from 1Co 13:3 ( ); 1Pe 1:25 ; 2Pe 3:3 ( ). The unending authority of the law is also taught by Bar 4:1 ; Tob 1:6 ; Philo, vit. Mos . 2. p. 656; Joseph, c. Ap . ii. 38, and the Rabbins. See Bereschith R . x. 1, “omni rei suus finis, coelo et terrae suus finis, una excepta re, cui non suus finis, haec est lex.” Schemoth R . vi., “nulla litera aboletur a lege in aeternum.” Midrash Cohel . f. 71, 4, (lex) “perpetuo manebit in secula seculorum.” The passage in 1Co 15:28 is not opposed to our explanation; for if God is all in all, the fulfilled law of God yet stands in its absolute authority .
] not: until all the prophecies are fulfilled, that would then be down to the Parousia (Wetstein, J. E. Meyer, comp. Ewald); nor even till all is carried out theocratically which I have to perform (Paulus), or what lies shut up in the divine decree (Kstlin), or even until the event shall occur by means of which the observance of the law becomes impossible, and it falls away of itself (Schleiermacher); but, in keeping with the context, until all which the law requires shall he accomplished (Mat 6:10 ), nothing any longer left unobserved. This sentence is not co-ordinate to the first , but subordinate (Khner, ad Xen. Mem . i. 2. 36): “So long as the world stands shall no iota [401] of the law pass away till all its prescriptions shall be realized.” All the requirements of the law shall be fulfilled; but before this fulfilment of all shall have begun, [402] not a single iota of the law shall fall till the end of the world. Fritzsche: till all (only in thought) is accomplished . He assumes, accordingly, agreeably to the analogous use of conditional sentences (Heindorf and Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phaed . p. 67 E; Khner, II. 2, p. 988 f.), a double protasis: (1) , . . ., and (2) . But the parallel passages, Mat 24:34 , Luk 21:32 , are already opposed to this; and after the concrete and lively . , this general and indefinite would be only a vague and lumbering addition. As correlative to and , can only mean all portions of the law , without, however, any definite point of time requiring to be thought of, in which all the commands of the law will be carried out, according to which, then, the duration of the present condition of the world would be conformed. This thought is rendered impossible by the nearness of the Parousia, according to Mat 24:29 ; Mat 24:34 , as well as by the growth of the tares until the Parousia, according to Mat 13:30 . The thought is rather, the law will not lose its binding obligation, which reaches on to the final realization of all its prescriptions, so long as heaven and earth remain .
Observe, moreover, that the expression in our passage is different from Mat 24:35 , where the permanency of the of Christ after the end of the world is directly and definitely affirmed, but that in this continued duration of the of Christ the duration of the law also is implied, i.e. according to its complete meaning (in answer to Lechler, p. 797); comp. on Luk 16:17 . “The of the new heavens and of the new earth will be no other than what is here taught,” Delitzsch. So completely one with the idea of the law does Jesus in His spiritual greatness know His moral task to be, not severed from the latter, but placed in its midst.
[401] , the smallest letter, and , horn , a little stroke of writing (Plut. Mor . p. 1100 A, 1011 D), especially also in single letters (Origen, ad Psa 33 ), by which, for example, the following letters are distinguished, and , and , and . See Lightfoot, Schoettgen, and Wetstein. Both expressions denote the smallest portions of the law; see ver. 19.
[402] In this is contained the perpetually abiding obligation of the law; for that condition of things, in which no part of the law remains unfulfilled, in which, consequently, all is accomplished, will never occur until the end of the world. Of the , moreover, nothing is to be excluded which the law Contains, not even the ritualistic portions, which are to be morally fulfilled in their ideal meaning, as e.g. the Levitical prescription regarding purification by moral purification, the sacrificial laws by moral self-sacrifice (comp. Rom 12:1 ), and so on, so that in the connection of the whole, in accordance with the idea of , not even the smallest element will perish, but retains its importance and its integral moral connection with the whole. Comp. Tholuck; Gess, Christi Pers. und Werk , I. p. 292; and before him, Calvin on ver. 17.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
In this passage, we meet with the word Amen, or Verily, for the first time, and therefore, once for all, I beg to observe upon it, that it is of the highest import when used by CHRIST. It is indeed one of his precious names. JESUS therefore, in the use of it, puts his name to what he delivers. See Isa 65:16 ; Rev 3:14 . I must refer the Reader, for the sake of shortness, to my Poor Man’s Concordance for the full explanation of it; he will find it under the article Amen in that little work.
Reader! do not fail to remark what the Lord Jesus here saith of the law, for most blessed it is to behold him as our law-surety, and our law-fulfiller. For as such he becomes the Lord our Righteousness, and is the end, of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Rom 10:4 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Ver. 18. For verily I say unto you ] This is his ordinary asseveration, which he useth in matters of weight only. For a vain protestation comes to as much, for aught I know, saith a worthy divine, as a vain oath. (Capel on Temptation.)
Till heaven and earth pass ] And pass they must. The visible heavens being defiled with our sins that are even glued unto them ( . Quasi bitumine ferruminata ), as Babylon’s sins are said to be, Rev 18:5 , shall be purged with the fire of the last day, as the vessels of the sanctuary were that held the sin offering. “The earth also, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up,” 2Pe 3:10 . And this the heathens had heard of, and hammered at, that the world should at length be consumed with fire, as Ovid hath it ( Esse quoque in fatis meminit, &c., Metam., lib. i.), and Lucretius disputeth it according to the natural causes. But Ludolfus of the life of Christ doth better, when he tells us that of those two destructions of the world, the former was by water, for the heat of their lust, and the latter shall be by fire, for the coldness of their love. Aqua, propter ardorem libidihis; igni, propter teporem charitatis, ii. 87.
One jot ] Which is the least letter in the alphabet. Irenaeus calls it a half-letter; and Luther rendereth this text, Ne minima quidem litera, not so much as the least letter. The Jews fain that jod was added to the beginning of a masculine name, as in Jacob, Israel, &c., because it was taken from the end of a feminine, Sarai; solicitous lest the law shouldt lose one iota. ( Nescit Scripturae vel breve iota sacrae. Prov.) But what meant the Popish glossator to say, that the writings of the Fathers are authentic, et tenenda omnia usque ad ultimum iota? Shall the Fathers be put in equal balance with the Holy Scriptures?
Or one tittle ] Not a hair-stroke, an accent on the top of a Hebrew letter, the bending or bowing thereof, as a little bit on the top of a horn. The Masorites have summed up all the letters in the Bible, to show that one hair of that sacred head is not perished.
Shall in no wise pass from the law ] The ceremonial law was “a shadow of good things to come,” saith the apostle, Heb 10:1 . This good thing was Christ. When the sun is behind, the shadow is before; when the sun is before, the shadow is behind. So was it in Christ to them of old (saith one). This sun was behind, and therefore the law or shadow was before. To us under the gospel, the sun is before, and so now the ceremonies of the law (those shadows) are behind, yea, vanished away. Before the passion of Christ (wherein they all determined) the ceremonies of the law were neither dead nor deadly: nec mortiferae, nec mortuae, saith Aquinas. After the passion, till such time as the gospel was preached up and down by the apostles, though dead, yet (for the time) they were not deadly. Non mortiferae, utcunque mortuae. But since that they are not only dead, but deadly to them that use them, as the Jews to this day Et mortuae, et mortiferae. As for the moral law, it is eternal, and abideth for ever in heaven. saith David, Psa 119:89 . And albeit some special duties of certain commandments shall cease when we come to heaven, yet the substance of every one remaineth. We live by the same law (in effect) as the saints above do; and do God’s will on earth as they in heaven. God himself cannot dispense with the breach of those laws that be moral in themselves (because he hateth sin by nature, not by precept only); such are all the ten commandments but the fourth. The fourth commandment (say divines) is moral by precept, not by nature; and so, the Lord of the saboath may dispense with the literal breach of the sabbath. Of all the moral law, it is the opinion of some of our best divines (Zanchius, Prideaux), that since the coming of Christ it bindeth us not, out of any foregoing institution, as delivered to Moses in the mount; but as it is agreeable to the law of nature, which is common to Jews and Gentiles; and as it was explained and confirmed by our Saviour Christ in the Gospel. To conclude, the ministerials of this law shall pass away together with this life; the substantials shall pass into our glorified natures and shine therein, as in a mirror for ever.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18. ] = in St. Luke, Luk 9:27 ; Luk 12:44 ; Luk 21:3 . See reff. The double renders the dependence of the members of the sentence rather difficult. The two expressions seem to be strictly parallel: . . . , and . According to this view these latter words will mean, ‘ till the end of all things .’ But the other interpretation, ‘ till all (that is written in the law) shall have been fulfilled ’ (as in the English version), is no doubt admissible, in which case the sense will stand thus: While heaven and earth last ( , Euthym [45] ) one jot or one tittle shall not pass away from the law without all being fulfilled. Tholuck remarks on , “It denotes, as , , , ‘to pass by,’ ‘to pass out of view’ (see Wets [46] . in loc.): cf. Aristid. i. 216: , and the phrase , ‘something escapes my memory.’ Cf. in the Heb., Psa 37:36 ; Nah 1:12 ; Job 34:20 . Cf. the passing away of the heaven, ch. Mat 24:39 : 2Pe 3:10 ; Rev 21:1 ; , 1Jn 2:17 ; the intrans. , 1Co 7:31 .”
[45] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
[46] Wetstein.
is the Hebrew ( ) Jod, the smallest letter in the alphabet: are the little turns of the strokes by which one letter differs from another similar to it. Origen on Psa 33:1-22 (cited by Wetstein) says , ( and ) , . The Rabbinical writings have many sayings similar in sentiment to this, but spoken of the literal written law. (See Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in loc.)
It is important to observe in these days how the Lord here includes the O.T. and all its unfolding of the divine purposes regarding Himself, in His teaching of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. I say this, because it is always in contempt and setting aside of the O.T. that rationalism has begun. First, its historical truth then its theocratic dispensation and the types and prophecies connected with it, are swept away; so that Christ came to fulfil nothing, and becomes only a teacher or a martyr: and thus the way is paved for a similar rejection of the N.T.; beginning with the narratives of the birth and infancy, as theocratic myths advancing to the denial of His miracles then attacking the truthfulness of His own sayings which are grounded on the O.T. as a revelation from God and so finally leaving us nothing in the Scriptures but, as a German writer of this school has expressed it, ‘a mythology not so attractive as that of Greece.’ That this is the course which unbelief has run in Germany, should be a pregnant warning to the decriers of the O.T. among ourselves. It should be a maxim for every expositor and every student, that Scripture is a whole , and stands or falls together. That this is now beginning to be deeply felt in Germany, we have cheering testimonies in the later editions of their best Commentators, and in the valuable work of Stier on the discourses of our Lord. (Since however these words were first written, we have had lamentable proof in England, that their warnings were not unneeded. The course of unbelief which induced the publication of the volume entitled “Essays and Reviews,” was, in character and progress, exactly that above described: and owing to the injudicious treatment which multiplied tenfold the circulation of that otherwise contemptible work, its fallacies are now in the hands and mouths of thousands, who, from the low standard of intelligent Scriptural knowledge among us, will never have the means of answering them.)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 5:18-19 . These verses wear on first view a Judaistic look, and have been regarded as an interpolation, or set down to the credit of an over-conservative evangelist. But they may be reconciled with Mat 5:17 , as above interpreted. Jesus expresses here in the strongest manner His conviction that the whole O. T. is a Divine revelation, and that therefore every minutest precept has religious significance which must be recognised in the ideal fulfilment. , formula of solemn asseveration, often used by Jesus, never by apostles, found doubled only in fourth Gospel. , etc.: not intended to fix a period after which the law will pass away, but a strong way of saying never (so Tholuck and Weiss). , the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. , the little projecting point in some of the letters, e.g. , of the base line in Beth ; both representing the minutiae in the Mosaic legislation. Christ, though totally opposed to the spirit of the scribes, would not allow them to have a monopoly of zeal for the commandments great and small. It was important in a polemical interest to make this clear. ., elliptical = do not fear lest. Vide Khner, Gram., 516, 9; also Goodwin’s Syntax, Appendix ii. . ., a second protasis introduced with explanatory of the first ; vide Goodwin, 510; not saying the same thing, but a kindred: eternal, lasting, till adequately fulfilled; the latter the more exact statement of Christ’s thought.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
verily. Greek. amen. Used only by the Lord. Same as Hebrew. ‘amen, preserved in all languages. Should be so given at the beginning of sentences. Always (except once) double in John; twenty-five times. with the earth. (See notes on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.)
earth = the earth. App-129.
jot = yod. Greek. iota. Occurs only here. The smallest Hebrew letter (= Y). The Massorites numbered 66,420.
tittle = the merest ornament. Not the difference between two similar Hebrew letters, e.g. (Resh = R) and (Daleth = D), or (Beth = B) and (Kaph – K), as alleged, but a small ornament placed over certain letters in the Hebrew text. See App-93. The Eng. “tittle” is diminutive of title (Latin. titulus) = a small mark placed over a word for any purpose: e.g. to mark an abbreviation.
in no wise. Greek. ou me.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
18. ] = in St. Luke, Luk 9:27; Luk 12:44; Luk 21:3. See reff. The double renders the dependence of the members of the sentence rather difficult. The two expressions seem to be strictly parallel: . . . , and . According to this view these latter words will mean, till the end of all things. But the other interpretation, till all (that is written in the law) shall have been fulfilled (as in the English version), is no doubt admissible, in which case the sense will stand thus:-While heaven and earth last ( , Euthym[45]) one jot or one tittle shall not pass away from the law without all being fulfilled. Tholuck remarks on , It denotes, as , , , to pass by, to pass out of view (see Wets[46]. in loc.): cf. Aristid. i. 216: , and the phrase , something escapes my memory. Cf. in the Heb., Psa 37:36; Nah 1:12; Job 34:20. Cf. the passing away of the heaven, ch. Mat 24:39 : 2Pe 3:10; Rev 21:1;-, 1Jn 2:17;-the intrans. , 1Co 7:31.
[45] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
[46] Wetstein.
is the Hebrew () Jod, the smallest letter in the alphabet: are the little turns of the strokes by which one letter differs from another similar to it. Origen on Psa 33:1-22 (cited by Wetstein) says- , ( and ) , . The Rabbinical writings have many sayings similar in sentiment to this, but spoken of the literal written law. (See Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in loc.)
It is important to observe in these days how the Lord here includes the O.T. and all its unfolding of the divine purposes regarding Himself, in His teaching of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. I say this, because it is always in contempt and setting aside of the O.T. that rationalism has begun. First, its historical truth-then its theocratic dispensation and the types and prophecies connected with it, are swept away; so that Christ came to fulfil nothing, and becomes only a teacher or a martyr: and thus the way is paved for a similar rejection of the N.T.;-beginning with the narratives of the birth and infancy, as theocratic myths-advancing to the denial of His miracles-then attacking the truthfulness of His own sayings which are grounded on the O.T. as a revelation from God-and so finally leaving us nothing in the Scriptures but, as a German writer of this school has expressed it, a mythology not so attractive as that of Greece. That this is the course which unbelief has run in Germany, should be a pregnant warning to the decriers of the O.T. among ourselves. It should be a maxim for every expositor and every student, that Scripture is a whole, and stands or falls together. That this is now beginning to be deeply felt in Germany, we have cheering testimonies in the later editions of their best Commentators, and in the valuable work of Stier on the discourses of our Lord. (Since however these words were first written, we have had lamentable proof in England, that their warnings were not unneeded. The course of unbelief which induced the publication of the volume entitled Essays and Reviews, was, in character and progress, exactly that above described: and owing to the injudicious treatment which multiplied tenfold the circulation of that otherwise contemptible work, its fallacies are now in the hands and mouths of thousands, who, from the low standard of intelligent Scriptural knowledge among us, will never have the means of answering them.)
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 5:18. , Amen, verily) Jesus alone employed this word at the commencement of His addresses, to give them greater force and solemnity. No apostle did so. Wagenseil,[185] in his Sota, p. 379, says, that this word had sometimes with the Jews the force of an oath. And wherever (I, living) occurs in the Hebrew, the Chaldee Paraphrast has , I, constant: and , to confirm, etc., is found there passim for , to swear. See Louis le Dieu on this passage; and Kimchi interprets , amen, itself by , stability.[186]
[185] John Christopher Wagenseil was born at Nuremberg in 1633, and educated at the University of Altdorf, where he was appointed Professor of History in 1667, and of Oriental Languages about 1675. He died in 1705. The full title of the work referred to in the text is, Sota, hoc est liber Mixlenicus de uxore adulterii suspecta, una cum libri ex Jacob excerptis Gemar, versione Latina et commentario perpetuo, in quo multa sacrarum literarum ac Hebrorum Scriptorum loca explicantur.-(I. B.)
[186] Firmitas, stabilitas, duratio.-BUXTORF.-(I. B.)
In the New Testament, however, it is not, strictly speaking, an oath: for it corresponds with , yea, and , truly; cf. Luk 11:51; Luk 21:3, with Mat 23:36, and Mar 12:43. It is, however, a most grave asseveration, exclusively suitable to Him who asseverates by Himself and His own truth, and from the dignity of the Speaker, is equivalent to an oath, especially when it is uttered twice, sc. verily, verily: see note to Joh 1:51. The Hebrew word is preserved in all languages.[187]- , I say unto you) This formula, frequent and peculiar to the Lord, possesses the highest authority, and denotes frequently a matter declared by Him, which, for special reasons, is neither written expressly in the Old Testament, nor can be clearly proved from any other source, but is first produced by Himself from the secret treasuries of wisdom and knowledge, so that the assent of the hearers may rest on His sole affirmation, and the dull in heart may be deprived of all excuse for the future. The prophets were wont to say in the third person, ,[188] saith the Lord; the apostles, It is written; but Christ, in the first person, I say unto you; see Mat 5:20; Mat 5:22; Mat 5:26; Mat 5:28; Mat 5:32; Mat 5:34; Mat 5:39; Mat 5:44, ch. Mat 6:2; Joh 3:3; Joh 14:12; Joh 14:25, etc. Cf. notes on Joh 4:21; Joh 14:25. St Paul, when again and again compelled to speak in the first person, takes especial care not to trench on the Divine prerogative. See Rom 12:3; 1Co 7:6. Faith is the correlative of this, I say unto you and by this formula is, suitably to that time (pro modo illius temporis), placed, as it were, as the foundation on the very threshold of the New Testament. Christ seldom quotes passages of Scripture, and not except for some special reason: He befittingly rests on His own authority.- , until pass away) The verb, , leaves undetermined the manner of the end of the world.- , Heaven and earth) The whole system of nature.-, jot) iota, yod. Yod, the smallest and most elementary letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and one in which Keri and Kethib[189] very frequently differ, so that it almost appears to be indiscriminately absent or redundant. In the course of the Hebrew Scriptures, 66,420 yods are numbered. The Greeks frequently write the iota below, or omit it altogether.-, a tittle) An appendage to a portion of a letter, a mark by which one letter is distinguished from another, as , Beth (B), from , Kaph (K), or , Resh (R), from , Daleth (D), or one sound from another, as a vowel point or an accent; in short, anything which in any way belongs to the signification of the Divine will, or assists to declare that signification as revealed in the law.- , a double negative) always has a subjunctive, and its emphasis ought not to be stretched too far; cf. Mat 5:20; Mat 5:26.- , shall not pass away) From hence may be inferred the entireness of Scripture; for, unless the Scripture were entire, it could not be entirely fulfilled.- , from the law) Understand and supply, or from the prophets. The smallest portion of the law is contrasted with the whole world.- , …, until, etc.) For righteousness shall dwell in new Heavens and a new Earth. See 2Pe 3:13.-, all particulars) sc. of the law. Observe the contrast between this and , one, in the next verse.[190]-, be fulfilled) They have been fulfilled, and they are being fulfilled by Jesus Christ, [not only in Himself, but] even in Christians: they had not been fulfilled before His coming.
[187] And it (the Hebr. amen) ought to be retained in translation, as in the end, so also in the beginning of sentences. The same principle holds good of other Hebrew words.-Not. Crit.
[188] to mutter, to murmur, to speak in a low voice; specially used of the voice of God, by which oracles were revealed to the prophets. By far the most frequent use is of the part. pass. constr. in this phrase, , . The voice of Jehovah (is); or (so) hath Jehovah revealed. This the prophets themselves were accustomed either to insert in the discourse, like the Lat. ait, inquit Dominus, Amo 6:8; Amo 6:14; Amo 9:12-13, or to add at the end of a sentence.-Gesenius.-(I. B.)
[189] QERI AND KETHIBH.
[190] In the original, Antitheton, unum, in v. seq. I have endeavoured in this, as in other instances, to give such a rendering as shall convey Bengels meaning to the general reader.-(I. B.)
The margin of the Hebrew Bible exhibits a number of various readings of an early date, called (to be read), because, in the view of the Jewish critics, they are to be preferred to the reading of the text, called (written). Those critics have therefore attached the vowel signs, appropriate to the marginal reading, to the consonants of the corresponding word in the text; e.g. in Jer 42:6, the text exhibits , the margin . Here the vowels in the text belong to the word in the margin, which is to be pronounced ; but in reading the text , the proper vowels must be supplied, making . A small circle or asterisk over the word in the text always directs to the marginal reading.-Gesenius, Heb. Gr. Sect. 17.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
verily: Mat 5:26, Mat 6:2, Mat 6:16, Mat 8:10, Mat 10:15, Mat 10:23, Mat 10:42, Mat 11:11, Mat 13:17, Mat 16:28, Mat 17:20, Mat 18:3, Mat 18:18, Mat 19:23, Mat 19:28, Mat 21:21, Mat 21:31, Mat 23:36, Mat 24:2, Mat 24:34, Mat 24:47, Mat 25:12, Mat 25:40, Mat 25:45, Mat 26:13, Mat 26:14, Mar 3:28, Mar 6:11, Mar 8:12, Mar 9:1, Mar 9:41, Mar 10:15, Mar 10:29, Mar 11:23, Mar 12:43, Mar 13:30, Mar 14:9, Mar 14:18, Mar 14:25, Mar 14:30, Luk 4:24, Luk 11:51, Luk 12:37, Luk 13:35, Luk 18:17, Luk 18:29, Luk 21:32, Luk 23:43, Joh 1:51, Joh 3:3, Joh 3:5, Joh 3:11, Joh 5:19, Joh 5:24, Joh 5:25, Joh 6:26, Joh 6:32, Joh 6:47, Joh 6:53, Joh 8:34, Joh 8:51, Joh 8:58, Joh 10:1, Joh 10:7, Joh 12:24, Joh 13:16, Joh 13:20, Joh 13:21, Joh 13:38, Joh 14:12, Joh 16:20, Joh 16:23, Joh 21:18
Till: Mat 24:35, Psa 102:26, Isa 51:6, Luk 16:17, Luk 21:33, Heb 1:11, Heb 1:12, 2Pe 3:10-13, Rev 20:11
pass: Psa 119:89, Psa 119:90, Psa 119:152, Isa 40:8, 1Pe 1:25
Reciprocal: Deu 4:2 – General Psa 111:8 – They Psa 119:96 – I have seen Psa 119:144 – righteousness Psa 119:160 – and every one Psa 138:2 – for thou hast Isa 34:16 – Seek Isa 54:10 – the mountains Dan 9:12 – confirmed Mat 11:13 – General Mar 13:31 – Heaven Joh 10:35 – the scripture Rom 10:4 – Christ Gal 3:24 – the law Jam 2:10 – whosoever
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:18
Verily is from the Greek word AMEN which occurs 150 times in the New Testament. In the Authorized Version it is rendered “amen” 50 times and “verily” 100 times. Thayer defines the word as follows: “surely, of a truth, truly; most assuredly; so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled.” These various phrases define the word according to the connection in which it is used, whether at the beginning or ending of a passage, etc. Till heaven and earth pass is a phrase denoting the certainty of the fulfillment of the law of God. The material universe will pass away, but not until it has served the purpose of the Creator. Likewise, the law will not pass away until it has all been fulfilled. Jot is from IOTA which is the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet and was originally written as a subscript’ under the regular line. Tittle is one of the diacritical marks used by the Greeks in their writings. The two terms are used to illustrate the importance that Jesus attached to the law. Even such apparently small points of the law as these will not be dropped until they have been fulfilled.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
[Verily, I say unto you.] I. Such an asseveration was usual to the nation, though the syllables were something changed, “A certain matron said to R. Judah Bar Allai, Thy face is like to a swineherd or a usurer. To whom he answered, In truth, both are forbidden me.” The Gloss there, “In truth is a manner of speech used in swearing.”
II. But our Saviour useth this phrase by the highest divine right. 1. Because he is “Amen, the faithful witness,” Rev 3:14; 2Co 1:20; see also Isa 65:16; and Kimchi there. 2. Because he published the gospel, the highest truth, Joh 18:37; etc. 3. By this asseveration he doth well oppose his divine oracles against the insolent madness of the traditional doctors, who did often vent their blasphemous and frivolous tales under this seal, They speak in truth; and “wheresoever this is said (say they), it is a tradition of Moses from Sinai.”
[One jot.] The Jerusalem Gemarists speak almost to the same sense: “The Book of Deuteronomy came and prostrated itself before God, and said, ‘O Lord of the universe, thou hast written in me thy law, but now a testament defective in some part is defective in all. Behold, Solomon endeavours to root the letter Jod out of me’ [to wit, in this text, He shall not multiply wives; Deu 17:17]. The holy blessed God answered, ‘Solomon and a thousand such as he shall perish, but the least word shall not perish out of thee.’ R. Honna said in the name of R. Acha, The letter Jod which God took out of the name of Sarai our mother, was given half to Sara and half to Abraham. A tradition of R. Hoshaia: The letter Jod came and prostrated itself before God, and said, ‘O eternal Lord, thou hast rooted me out of the name of that holy woman.’ The blessed God answered, ‘Hitherto thou hast been in the name of a woman, and that in the end [viz. in Sarai]; but henceforward thou shalt be in the name of a man, and that in the beginning.’ Hence is that which is written, ‘And Moses called the name of Hoshea, Jehoshua.’ ” The Babylonians also do relate this translation of the letter Jod out of the name of Sarai to the name of Joshua, after this manner: “The letter Jod, saith God, which I took out of the name of Sarai, stood and cried to me for very many years, How long will it be ere Joshua arise? To whose name I have added it”…
There is a certain little city mentioned by name Derokreth; which, by reason of the smallness of it, was called Jod in the Gloss. And there was a rabbin named Rabh Jod. Of the letter Jod, see Midrash Tillin upon the hundred and fourteenth Psalm.
[One tittle.] It seems to denote the little heads or dashes of letters, whereby the difference is made between letters of a form almost alike. The matter may be illustrated by these examples, If it were Daleth, and a man should have formed it into Resh [on the sabbath], or should have formed Resh into Daleth, he is guilty.
“It is written [Lev 22:32] Ye shall not profane my holy name; whosoever shall change Cheth into He, destroys the world…It is written [Psa 150:6], Let every spirit praise the Lord; whosoever changeth He into Cheth, destroys the world. It is written [Jer 5:12]}, They lied against the Lord; whosoever changeth Beth into Caph, destroys the world. It is written [1Sa 2:2] There is none holy as the Lord; whosoever changeth Caph into Beth, destroys the world. It is written [Deu 6:4], The Lord our God is one Lord; he that changeth Daleth into Resh, destroys the world.”
But that our Saviour, by jot and tittle; did not only understand the bare letters, or the little marks that distinguished them, appears sufficiently from Mat 5:19, where he renders it, one of “these least commands”: in which sense is that also in the Jerusalem Gemara of Solomon’s rooting out Jod, that is, evacuating that precept He shall not multiply wives. And yet it appears enough hence, that our Saviour also so far asserts the uncorrupt immortality and purity of the holy text, that no particle of the sacred sense should perish, from the beginning of the law to the end of it.
To him that diligently considers these words of our Saviour, their opinion offers itself, who suppose that the whole alphabet of the law, or rather the original character of it is perished; namely, the Samaritan, in which they think the law was first given and written; and that that Hebrew wherein we now read the Bible was substituted in its stead. We shall not expatiate in the question; but let me, with the reader’s good leave, produce and consider some passages of the Talmud, whence, if I be not mistaken, Christians seem first to have taken up this opinion.
The Jerusalem Talmud treats of this matter in these words: “R. Jochanan de Beth Gubrin saith, There are four noble tongues which the world useth: the mother-tongue, for singing; the Roman, for war; the Syriac, for mourning; the Hebrew, for elocution: and there are some which add the Assyrian, for writing. The Assyrian hath writing [that is, letters or characters], but a language it hath not. The Hebrew hath a language, but writing it hath not. They chose to themselves the Hebrew language in the Assyrian character. But why is it called the Assyrian? Because it is blessed (or direct) in its writing. R. Levi saith, Because it came up into their hands out of Assyria.”
“A tradition. R. Josi saith, Ezra was fit, by whose hands the law might have been given, but that the age of Moses prevented. But although the law was not given by his hand, yet writing [that is, the forms of the letters] and the language were given by his hand. ‘And the writing of the epistle was writ in Syriac, and rendered in Syriac,’ Ezr 4:7. ‘And they could not read the writing,’ Dan 5:8. From whence is shown that the writing [that is, the form of the characters and letters] was given that very same day. R. Nathan saith: The law was given in breaking [that is, in letters more rude and more disjoined]: and the matter is as R. Josi saith. Rabbi [Judah Haccodesh] saith, The law was given in the Assyrian language; and when they sinned it was turned into breaking. And when they were worthy in the days of Ezra, it was turned for them again into the Assyrian. I show to-day, that I will render to you Mishneh, the doubled; or, as if he should say the seconded (Zec 9:12). And he shall write for himself the Mishneh (the doubled) of this law in a book (Deu 17:18), namely, in a writing that was to be changed. R. Simeon Ben Eleazar saith, in the name of R. Eleazar Ben Parta, and he in the name of R. Lazar the Hammodean, The law was given in Assyrian writing…” So the Jerusalem Talmudists.
Discourse is had of the same business in the Babylonian Talmud, and almost in the same words, these being added over: The law was given to Israel in Hebrew writing, and in the holy language. And it was given to them again in the days of Ezra, in Assyrian writing, and the Syriac language. The Israelites chose to themselves the Assyrian writing, and the holy language; and left the Hebrew writing and the Syriac language to ignorant persons. But who are those idiots (or ignorant persons )? R. Chasda saith, The Samaritans. And what is the Hebrew writing? R. Chasda saith…according to the Gloss, “Great letters, such as those are which are writ in charms and upon doorposts.”
That we may a little apprehend the meaning of the Rabbins, let it be observed,
I. That by ‘the mother-tongue’ (the Hebrew, Syriac, Roman, being named particularly) no other certainly can be understood than the Greek, we have shown at the three-and-twentieth verse of the first chapter…
Many nations were united into one language, that is, the old Syriac, — namely, the Chaldeans, the Mesopotamians, the Assyrians, the Syrians. Of these some were the sons of Sem and some of Ham. Though all had the same language, it is no wonder if all had not the same letters. The Assyrians and Israelites refer their original to Sem; these had the Assyrian writing: the sons of Ham that inhabited beyond Euphrates had another; perhaps that which is now called by us the Samaritan, which it may be the sons of Ham the Canaanites used.
III. That the law was given by Moses in Assyrian letters, is the opinion (as you see) of some Talmudists; and that, indeed, the sounder by much. For to think that the divine law was writ in characters proper to the cursed seed of Ham, is agreeable neither to the dignity of the law, nor indeed to reason itself. They that assert the mother-writing was Assyrian, do indeed confess that the characters of the law were changed; but this was done by reason of the sin of the people, and through negligence. For when under the first Temple the Israelites degenerated into Canaanitish manners, perhaps they used the letters of the Canaanites, which were the same with those of the inhabitants beyond Euphrates. These words of theirs put the matter out of doubt: “The law was given to Israel in the Assyrian writing in the days of Moses: but when they sinned under the first Temple and contemned the law, it was changed into breaking to them.”
Therefore, according to these men’s opinion, the Assyrian writing was the original of the law, and endured and obtained unto the degenerate age under the first Temple. Then they think it was changed into the writing used beyond Euphrates or the Samaritan; or, if you will, the Canaanitish (if so be these were not one and the same); but by Ezra it was at last restored into the original Assyrian.
Truly, I wonder that learned men should attribute so much to this tradition (for whence else they have received their opinion, I do not understand), that they should think that the primitive writing of the law was in Samaritan: seeing that which the Gemarists assert concerning the changing of the characters rests upon so brittle and tottering a foundation, that it is much more probable that there was no change at all (but that the law was first writ in Assyrian by Moses, and in the Assyrian also by Ezra), because the change cannot be built and established upon stronger arguments.
A second question might follow concerning Keri and Kethib: and a suspicion might also arise, that the test of the law was not preserved perfect to one jot and one tittle; when so many various readings do so frequently occur. Concerning this business we will offer these few things only, that so we may return to our task: —
I. These things are delivered by tradition; “They found three books in the court, the book Meoni, the book Zaatuti, and the book Hi. In one they found written, ‘The eternal God is thy refuge’: but in the two other they found it written, (Deu 33:27); They approved [or confirmed] those two, but rejected that one”…
I do much suspect that these three books laid up in the court answered to the threefold congregation of the Jews, namely, in Judea, Babylon, and Egypt, whence these copies might be particularly taken. For, however that nation was scattered abroad almost throughout the whole world, yet, by number and companies scarcely to be numbered, it more plentifully increased in these three countries than any where else: in Judea, by those that returned from Babylon; in Babylon, by those that returned not; and in Egypt, by the temple of Onias. The two copies that agreed, I judge to be out of Judea and Babylon; that that differed to be out of Egypt: and this last I suspect by this, that the word Zaatuti smells of the Seventy interpreters, whom the Jews of Egypt might be judged, for the very sake of the place, to favour more than any elsewhere. For it is asserted by the Jewish writers that Zaatuti was one of those changes which the Septuagint brought into the sacred text.
II. It is therefore very probable, that the Keri and Kethib were compacted from the comparing of the two copies of the greatest authority, that is, the Jewish and the Babylonian: which when they differed from one another in so many places in certain little dashes of writing, but little or nothing at all as to the sense, by very sound counsel they provided that both should be reserved, so that both copies might have their worth preserved, and the sacred text its purity and fulness, whilst not one jot nor one title of it perished.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 5:18. Verily, lit., Amen, I say unto you. The Evangelist John generally repeats the first word. The whole phrase is used by Christ alone, the absolute, personal Truth.
Till heaven, etc. Paraphrase: While heaven and earth last, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law without all these, declared, promised, or typified, being done. A strong assertion of the permanent character of the law.
Jot means the smallest letter of the (Hebrew) alphabet, while tittle, i.e., little horns, refers to the small turns by which one letter was distinguished from another. A warning against contempt for the Old Testament, which leads at last to a denial of Christ. He has Himself fulfilled the ceremonial law; He teaches the true, higher, spiritual significance of the whole law.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Another reason is here given by our Saviour why he had no intention to abrogate or abolish the law; and that is drawn from the duration and perpetuity, the unchangeableness and immutability of the law: sooner shall heaven and earth be abolished, than the authority and obligation of the moral law be dissolved.
Learn, 1. That the law of God is an eternal and unchangeable rule of life and manners, and is to stand in force as long as the world stands, and the frame of heaven and earth endures.
Learn, 2. That Christianity is not contrary to the laws by which mankind had formerly been obliged. Christ commands nothing which they had commanded, but has perfected the law, and set it higher than any of the most studied doctors did think themselves formerly obliged by it.
To suppose that Christ has added to the moral precepts of the first table, is to suppose that he has added to perfection; for that required the Jew to love God with all his heart, soul, and strength: which is the same that Christ required of us Christians here.
Nor has Christ added to the duties of the second table, since that requires us to love our neighbours as ourselves, which St. Paul tells us, Rom 13:9 is the fulfilling of the law.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 5:18. For verily I say unto you This expression, whereby our Lord often prefaces what he is about to say, always imports the great importance, as well as certain truth of it. Till heaven and earth pass away Till the whole visible frame of nature be disjointed and dissolved, one jot or one tittle The word , which we render jot, undoubtedly answers to the Hebrew letter , jod, whence the English word here seems to be derived, and which, being the least letter of the alphabet, might properly be used proverbially on this occasion. , which we render tittle, properly signifies one of those little ornamental curvatures or flourishes, which, when Hebrew is elegantly written, are generally used at the beginning and end of a letter, and sometimes at the corners too. I think it might well have been rendered, not the least letter, or stroke, &c., and so much the rather, as jot and tittle, in English, signify the same. Doddridge. Shall in no wise pass from, the law Or, from the prophets, till all be fulfilled Till all things which the law requires, or the prophets foretel, shall be effected. This seems to be the literal translation of the original words, : for the law has its effect when its sanctions are executed, as well as when its precepts are obeyed. And the predictions of the prophets have their proper effect and confirmation, when they are accomplished. Some, however, understand the words as meaning, till the end, or, consummation of all things shall come, or, till the heavens and the earth shall pass away, or be destroyed. The meaning of our Lords words, according to this interpretation, is, that there is nothing in the universe so stable as the truths contained in the moral law, and nothing so certain as the fulfilment of the predictions of the prophets: the heavens may fall, and the whole frame of nature be unhinged, nay, every part of it may be dissolved; but the rules of righteousness, and the declarations of the divine word, with their sanctions, shall remain immutable and eternal: for the word of the Lord endureth for ever, 1Pe 1:25. Our Lord therefore proceeds, in the two next verses, to command his disciples, on the severest penalties, to enforce, both by their doctrine and example, the strict observation of all the moral precepts contained in the sacred writings, and that in their utmost extent.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 18
Jot; the name of the smallest Hebrew letter.–Tittle; point or corner of a letter. The idea is, not the smallest part.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
The phrase "truly I say to you" (NASB) or "I tell you the truth" (NIV) indicates that what follows is extremely important. This is the first occurrence in Matthew of this phrase, which appears 30 times in this Gospel, 13 times in Mark, six times in Luke, and 25 times in John. It always conveys the personal authority of the person who utters it. [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 184.] "Until heaven and earth pass away" is a vivid way of saying as long as this world lasts. The AV "jot," also translated "smallest letter" (NASB, NIV), refers to yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The "tittle" (AV) or "smallest stroke" (NASB) or "least stroke" (NIV) is not as easy to identify. The best possibility seems to be that it refers to a small stroke on one Hebrew letter (a serif) that distinguished it from a similarly shaped letter. [Note: See Carson, "Matthew," p. 145, for other less likely possibilities.] In any case Jesus meant that He upheld the entire Old Testament down to the smallest features of the Hebrew letters that the writers used as they composed the original documents.
This verse is a strong testimony to the verbal inspiration of Scripture. That is, divine inspiration extends to the words, even the letters, in the original texts. Mat 5:17-19 also argue for the plenary inspiration of Scripture, the view that inspiration extends to all parts of the Old Testament. God inspired all of it down to the very words the writers used. In Mat 5:18 "the Law" refers to the whole Old Testament, not just the Mosaic Law or the Pentateuch (cf. Mat 5:17). This is clear from the context.
God will preserve His Law until everything in it has happened as prophesied. It is as permanent as heaven and earth (cf. Mat 24:35).