Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 8:12
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
12. outer darkness ] i. e. the darkness outside the house in which the banquet is going on.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The children of the kingdom – That is, the children, or the people, who expected the kingdom, or to whom it properly belonged; or, in other words, the Jews. they supposed themselves to be the special favorites of heaven. They thought that the Messiah would enlarge their nation and spread the triumphs of their kingdom. They called themselves, therefore, the children or the members of the kingdom of God, to the exclusion of the Gentiles. Our Saviour used the manner of speech to which they were accustomed, and said that many of the pagans would be saved, and many Jews lost.
Shall be cast out into outer darkness … – This is an image of future punishment. It is not improbable that the image was taken from Roman dungeons or prisons. They were commonly constructed under ground. They were shut out from the light of the sun. They were, of course, damp, dark, and unhealthy, and probably most filthy. Masters were in the habit of constructing such prisons for their slaves, where the unhappy prisoner, without light, or company, or comfort, spent his days and nights in weeping from grief, and in vainly gnashing his teeth from indignation. The image expresses the fact that the wicked who are lost will be shut out from the light of heaven, and from peace, and joy, and hope; will weep in hopeless grief, and will gnash their teeth in indignation against God, and complain against his justice. What a striking image of future woe! Go to a damp, dark, solitary, and squalid dungeon; see a miserable and enraged victim; add to his sufferings the idea of eternity, and then remember that this, after all, is but an image, a faint image, of hell! Compare the notes at Mat 22:13.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. Shall be cast out into outer darkness] As the enjoyment of that salvation which Jesus Christ calls the kingdom of heaven is here represented under the notion of a nuptial festival, at which the guests sat down in a reclining posture, with the master of the feast; so the state of those who were excluded from the banquet is represented as deep darkness; because the nuptial solemnities took place at night. Hence, at those suppers, the house of reception was filled with lights called , torches, lamps, candles, and lanthorns, by Athenaeus and Plutarch: so they who were admitted to the banquet had the benefit of the light; but they who were shut out were in darkness, called here outer darkness, i.e. the darkness on the outside of the house in which the guests were; which must appear more abundantly gloomy, when compared with the profusion of light within the guest-chamber. And because they who were shut out were not only exposed to shame, but also to hunger and cold; therefore it is added, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. As these feasts are often alluded to by the evangelists, I would observe, once for all:-that they who were invited to them entered by a gate designed to receive them; whence Christ, by whom we enter into the marriage feast, compares himself to a gate, Joh 10:1-2; Joh 10:7; Joh 10:9. This gate, at the time the guests were to come, was made narrow, the wicket only being left open, and the porter standing there, that they who were not bidden to the marriage might not rush into it. Hence Christ exhorts the Jews to enter in at the strait gate, Mt 7:13, c. When all that were invited were once come, the door was presently shut, and was not to be opened to any who came too late, and stood knocking without so after the wise virgins had entered with the bridegroom, the gate was shut, and was not opened to the foolish virgins, who stood knocking without, Mt 25:11. And in this sense we are to understand the words of Christ, Lu 13:24-25. Many shall seek to enter in, but shall not be able. Why? because the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door; they would not come to him when they might, and now the day of probation is ended, and they must be judged according to the deeds done in the body. See Whitby on the place. How many of those who are called Christians suffer the kingdom, the graces, and the salvation which they had in their hands, to be lost; while West-India negroes, American Indians, Hindoo polytheists, and atheistic Hottentots obtain salvation! An eternity of darkness, fears, and pains, for comparatively a moment of sensual gratification, how terrible the thought! What outer darkness, or , that darkness, that which is outermost, may refer to, in eternal damnation, is hard to say: what it alludes to I have already mentioned: but as the words , gnashing or CHATTERING of teeth, convey the idea, not only of extreme anguish, but of extreme cold; some have imagined that the punishment of the damned consists in sudden transitions from extreme heat to extreme cold; the extremes of both I have found to produce exactly the same sensation.
MILTON happily describes this in the following inimitable verses, which a man can scarcely read, even at midsummer, without shivering.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, heat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail——–
——– the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.
Thither by harpy-footed furies haled,
At certain revolutions all the damn’d
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice,
——– and there to pine
Immovable, infix’d, and frozen round
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
Parad. Lost, book ii. line 586.
There is a passage in the Vulgate, Job 24:19, that might have helped Milton to this idea. Ad nimium calorem transeat ab aquis nivium. “Let him pass to excessive heat, from waters of snow.” This reading, which is found only in this form in the Vulgate, is vastly expressive. Every body knows that snow water feels colder than snow itself, even when both are of the same temperature, viz. 32, because the human body, when in contact with snow water, cools quicker than when in contact with snow. Another of our poets has given us a most terrible description of perdition on the same ground.
The once pamper’d spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison’d in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
This pendant world; or to be worse than worst
Of those that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine——–
Similar to this is that dreadful description of the torments of the wicked given in the Institutes of Menu: “The wicked shall have a sensation of agony in Tamisra, or utter darkness, and in other seats of horror; in Asipatrauana, or the sword-leaved forest, and in different places of binding fast, and of rending: multifarious tortures await them: they shall be mangled by ravens and owls, and shall swallow cakes boiling hot, and shall walk over inflamed sands, and shall feel the pangs of being baked like the vessels of a potter: they shall assume the forms of beasts continually miserable, and suffer alternate afflictions from extremities of cold and heat; surrounded with terrors of various kinds. They shall have old age without resource; diseases attended with anguish; pangs of innumerable sorts, and, lastly, unconquerable death.”
Institutes of MENU, chap. 12. Inst. 75-80.
In the Zend Avesta, the place of wicked spirits is termed, “The places of darkness, the germs of the thickest darkness.” An uncommonly significant expression: Darkness has its birth there: there are its seeds and buds, there it vegetates everlastingly, and its eternal fruit is – darkness!
See Zend Avesta, vol. i. Vendidad sadi, Fargard. xviii. p. 412.
And is this, or, any thing as bad as this, HELL? Yes, and worse than the worst of all that has already been mentioned. Hear Christ himself. There their worm dieth not, and the fire is NOT QUENCHED! Great God! save the reader from this damnation!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But the children of the kingdom,…. The Jews, who were subjects of the kingdom, and commonwealth of Israel, from which the Gentiles were aliens; and who were also in the church of God, which is his kingdom on earth; and besides, had the promise of the Gospel dispensation, sometimes called the kingdom of heaven, and by them, often the world to come; and were by their own profession, and in their apprehension and expectation, children, and heirs of the kingdom of glory. These phrases, , “a son of the world to come”, and , “children of the world to come” o, are frequent in their writings: these, Christ says,
shall be cast out; out of the land of Israel, as they were in a few years after, and out of the church of God: these branches were broken off, and the Gentiles grafted in, in their room; and will be excluded from the kingdom of heaven, where they hoped to have a place,
and cast into outer darkness: into the Gentile world, and into judicial blindness, and darkness of mind, and into the blackness of darkness in hell,
where shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Phrases expressive of the miserable state and condition of persons out of the kingdom of heaven; who are weeping for what they have lost, and gnashing their teeth with the pain of what they endure. The Jews say p,
“he that studies not in the law in this world, but is defiled with the pollutions of the world, he is taken
, “and cast without”: this is hell itself, to which such are condemned, who do not study the law.”
The allusion in the text is, to the customs of the ancients at their feasts and entertainments; which were commonly made in the evening, when the hall or dining room, in which they sat down, was very much illuminated with lamps and torches; but without in the streets, were entire darkness: and where were heard nothing but the cries of the poor, for something to be given them, and of the persons that were turned out as unworthy guests; and the gnashing of their teeth, either with cold in winter nights, or with indignation at their being kept out. Christ may also be thought to speak in the language, and according to the notions of the Jews, who ascribe gnashing of teeth to the devils in hell; for they say q, that
“for the flattery with which they flattered Korah, in the business of rioting, “the prince of hell , gnashed his teeth at them”.”
The whole of this may be what they call , “the indignation”, or “tumult of hell” r.
o T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 4. 2. Taanith, fol. 22. 1. Megilla, fol. 28. 2. Yoma, fol. 88. 1. & Sanhedrim, fol. 88. 2. Raziel, fol. 37. 1. & 38. 1. Caphtor, fol. 15. 1. & 18. 2. & 60. 1. & 84. 2. Raya Mehimna, in Zohar in Lev. fol. 34. 2. p Zohar in Gen. fol. 104. 3. q T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 52. 1. r Targum in Job, iii 17.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The sons of the kingdom ( ). A favourite Hebrew idiom like “son of hell” (Mt 23:15), “sons of this age” (Lu 16:8). The Jews felt that they had a natural right to the privileges of the kingdom because of descent from Abraham (Mt 3:9). But mere natural birth did not bring spiritual sonship as the Baptist had taught before Jesus did.
Into the outer darkness ( ). Comparative adjective like our “further out,” the darkness outside the limits of the lighted palace, one of the figures for hell or punishment (Matt 23:13; Matt 25:30). The repeated article makes it bolder and more impressive, “the darkness the outside,” there where the wailing and gnashing of teeth is heard in the thick blackness of night.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The outer [ ] . The Greek order of words is very forcible. ” They shall be cast forth into the darkness, the outer (darkness). The picture is of an illuminated banqueting chamber, outside of which is the thick darkness of night.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But the children of the kingdom,” (hoi de huioi tes basilejas) “Yet, the heirs of the kingdom,” the natural heirs of Abraham – those who never received Jesus Christ as Savior or became spiritual heirs of Abraham, such as Jesus attributed to many of those in His days, whom He called children of the Devil, though they claimed to be Abraham’s seed, Joh 8:3; Joh 8:13; Joh 8:19; Joh 8:21; Joh 8:24; Joh 8:33-34.
2) “Shall be cast out into outer darkness:” (ekbiethesontai eis to skotos to eksoteron) “Will be cast out into the outer darkness,” a place of abandonment from fellowship with the redeemed of the ages then on earth, Mat 25:10.
3) “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (ekei estai ho klauthmos kai ho brugmos ton odonton) “There will be (become, come to exist) weeping and gnashing of teeth,” for them, Mat 13:41-42; Mat 25:11-13. Because of their own loss and their envy of those who received and followed the Lord in His church by faith; See also Rev 19:5-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
12. But the children of the kingdom Why does he call those persons children of the kingdom, who were nothing less than children of Abraham? for those who are aliens from the faith have no right to be considered a part of God’s flock. I answer: Though they did not actually belong to the Church of God, yet, as they occupied a place in the Church, he allows them this designation. Besides, it ought to be observed that, so long as the covenant of God remained in the family of Abraham, there was such force in it, that the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom belonged peculiarly to them. With respect to God himself, at least, they were holy branches from a holy root, (Rom 11:16) and the rejection of them, which afterwards followed, shows plainly enough, that they belonged, at that time, to the family of God. Secondly, it ought to be observed, that Christ does not now speak of individuals, but of the whole nation. This was still harder to endure than the calling of the Gentiles. That the Gentiles should be admitted, by a free adoption, into the same body with the posterity of Abraham, could scarcely be endured: but that the Jews themselves should be driven out, to make way for their being succeeded by the Gentiles, appeared to them altogether monstrous. Yet Christ declares that both will happen: that God will admit strangers into the bosom of Abraham, and that he will exclude the children There is an implied contrast in the phrase, the darkness that is without It means that out of the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of light, nothing but darkness reigns. By darkness Scripture points out that dreadful anguish, which can neither be expressed nor conceived in this life. (505)
(505) “ Laquelle la bouche de l’homme ne sauroit exprimer, ni ses sens comprendre en ce monde;” — “which the mouth of man cannot express, nor his senses comprehend, in this world.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) The children of the kingdom.The form of the phrase is a Hebraism, indicating, as in the children of the bride-chamber, those who belonged to the kingdom, i.e., in this case, the Israelites, to whom the kingdom of heaven had, in the first instance, been promised, the natural heirs who had forfeited their inheritance.
Into outer darkness.Strictly, the outer darkness. The words continue the imagery of the previous clause, the darkness outside the kings palace being contrasted with the interior, blazing with lamps and torches.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.Both words in the Greek have the emphasis of the article, the weeping par excellence. The two words are found in combination six times in St. Matthew, and once in St. Luke (Luk. 13:28). In their literal meaning they express that intensest form of human anguish in which it ceases to be articulate. The latter word, or rather the cognate verb, is used also to express rage (Act. 7:54). Their spiritual meaning we naturally connect with the misery of those who are excluded from the joy and blessedness of the completed kingdom, and that is, doubtless, what they ultimately point to. We must remember, however, that the kingdom of heaven was a term of very varying significance, and that our Lord had proclaimed that that kingdom was at hand, and taught men, by parable and otherwise, that it included more than the life after death. We may accordingly rightly look for like springing and germinant accomplishments of the words now before us. Men came from the east and west, when the Gentiles were admitted into the Church of Christ. The children of the kingdom were left in the outer darkness when they were self-excluded from fellowship with that Church and its work among the nations. The outbursts of envy and rage recorded in the Acts (Act. 5:33; Act. 13:45) illustrate this aspect of the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Children of the kingdom Natural Jews. The kingdom of heaven, that is, the Gospel dispensation, including the kingdom of glory as well as of grace, is represented as a divine banquet, in which, while the Jews, the natural children of the kingdom, are excluded, the repentant Gentiles take their couches with Abraham and the other ancestral patriarchs. The heirship by faith is substituted for the heirship by birth, and the spiritual guests are the true children of Abraham.
Outer darkness The figure of a banquet is carried out. The splendour, the joy, the society, the feast within, are an emblem of God’s kingdom below and above. The darkness of the streets without is an emblem of deep horror. The streets of Eastern cities are narrow and filthy; all the outdoor comfort being reserved for the court or square yard enclosed within the area of the building. At night they are totally dark, being unillumined even by rays from a window. Robbers and ferocious dogs render them dangerous. We have thence a strong image of that utter despair, darkness, and death of a soul excluded from God, and left to weeping and gnashing of teeth.
“But the sons of the Kingly Rule will be cast forth into the outer darkness. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”
This contrast confirms that Gentiles were in mind in the previous verses. For here the ‘sons of the Kingly Rule’, that is those who outwardly appeared to have a right to the enjoyment of that Kingly Rule and indeed laid a claim to it, signifies the Jews. (Compare ‘sons of Belial’ which meant those who connected themselves with Belial, ‘sons of the bridechamber’ which indicated those who connected themselves with the bridegroom). Outer darkness signifies being away from the inner circle of the light of God, having been cast from His presence into the outer darkness. (Compare Psa 88:6; Isa 47:5; Isa 60:2). Darkness was regularly a picture of the Lord’s judgments (Isa 47:5; Joe 2:31; Amo 5:18; Amo 5:20; Nah 1:8; Zep 1:15). It was from the darkness that Jesus had come to deliver His people (Mat 4:16). But now He informs them that while many Gentiles will come to His light (compare Isa 42:6; Isa 49:6), many Jews who thought themselves secure will be cast from it. The weeping and gnashing of teeth indicates the shock, horror and anguish that they will suffer as a result. It is a picture of despair, anger, incredulity and hopelessness all rolled into one (compare Mat 13:42; Mat 13:50; Mat 22:13; Mat 24:51; Mat 25:30; Psa 112:10). For it will be the opposite of what in their view was supposed to happen (Isa 60:2). Darkness was intended for the Gentiles, not for the Jews (Wisdom of Solomon Mat 17:17; Mat 17:21). But now being children of Abraham will have done them no good as John had warned them (Mat 3:9), because they had turned from their Messiah. A similar idea is found in Joh 3:18-21.
Note the threefold, ‘cast into outer darkness’, ‘weeping’, ‘gnashing of teeth’ and compare it with ‘lies in the house’, ‘sick of the palsy’, ‘grievously tormented’. The one is delivered by the powerful word of Jesus from misery, the others are sentenced by that same word to misery (Joh 12:48).
Some see the picture as illustrating their being kept out of the brilliantly lit banqueting hall of the Messianic Banquet, and thrown out into the darkness outside. But that is probably to limit too much its deliberately universal and eschatological scope.
Mat 8:12 . The sons of the kingdom: the Jews , in so far as, according to the divine promise, they have the right, as the theocratic people, to the Messiah’s kingdom (Joh 4:22 ; Rom 9:4-5 ; Rom 11:16 f.), and are, in consequence, its potential subjects. The article describes them, summarily , in a body , , , as denoting physical or moral relationship, Winer, p. 223 [E. T. 298]. The true . ., who are so in point of fact, see Mat 13:38 .
] which is outside the (illuminated) Messianic banqueting hall. Wetstein on this passage, comp. on , LXX. Exo 26:4 ; Exo 36:10 ; Eze 10:5 ; not found in Greek authors. For the thing, see Mat 22:13 , Mat 25:30 . It is not some special degree of infernal punishment that is represented to us (Grotius), but the punishments themselves, and that as poena damni et sensus at once.
] indicating the wail of suffering, and the gnashing of teeth that accompanies despair. The article points to the well-known ( ) misery reigning in hell (Mat 13:42 ; Mat 13:50 , Mat 22:13 , Mat 24:51 , Mat 25:30 ). Found in Luke only at Mat 13:28 , where the same expression occurs on a different occasion, a circumstance which is not in Luke’s favour (de Wette, Gfrrer), but is to be explained from the fact that Jesus made frequent use of the figure of the Messianic reclining at table, and of the expression regarding the infernal , etc.
12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Ver. 12. But the children of the kingdom ] Those that had made a covenant with God by sacrifice,Psa 50:5Psa 50:5 ; and therefore held their heads on high, as already destined to the diadem. Lo, these, in the height of their hopes and expectancies, shall be excluded; a foul and fearful disappointment. Surely the tears of hell cannot sufficiently bewail the loss of heaven. John of Valois was son, brother, uncle, father to a king, yet himself never was a king; so here.
Into outer darkness ] Into a darkness beyond a darkness; into a dungeon beyond and beneath the prison. In tenebras ex tenebris, infeliciter exclusi, infelicius excludendi, saith Augustine. God shall surely say to these unhappy children of the kingdom, when he casts them into condemnation, as Aulus Fulvius said to his traitorous son when he slew him with his own hands, Non Catiline te genui sed patriae. I begat you not to be a Catiline but a patriot. I called you not but to glory and virtue, neither to glory but by virtue, 2Pe 1:3 . As you liked not the latter, so never look for the former. Every man is either a king or a captive; and shall either reign with Christ, or rue it for ever with the devil. a Aut Caesar aut nullus, Either Caesar or nothing, as he said to his mother: and as those in the Turk’s court, that are born of the blood royal, but come not to the kingdom; they must die either by the sword or halter; so here.
a Omnis homo aut est cum Christo regnaturus, aut cum diabolo cruciandus. Aug.
12. ] the natural heirs, but disinherited by rebellion.
. . the darkness outside, i.e. outside the lighted chamber of the feast, see ch. Mat 22:13 , and Eph 5:7-8 . These verses are wanting in St. Luke, and occur when our Lord repeated them on a wholly different occasion, ch. Mat 13:28-29 .
. . . ] The articles here are not possessive, as Middleton supposes, for that would give a sense the most frigid possible, and would be a rendering inadmissible after , which generalizes the assertion; they rather import the notoriety and eminence of the . . . ‘Articulus insignis: in hac vita dolor nondum est dolor.’ Bengel.
children = sons. Greek. huios. App-108. (and heirs). A Hebraism, denoting those who were related by any ties of friendship: e.g. followers, learners, inhabitants, &c.
outer = the outer. Gr. exoteros. Occ only in Matthew (here, and in Mat 22:13, and Mat 25:30). Outside the place where the feast was going on in Mat 8:11.
weeping and gnashing = the weeping and the grinding. The Articles denoting not a state but a definite occasion and time when this event shall take place. Used by the Lord seven times (Mat 8:12; Mat 13:42; Mat 13:50; Mat 22:13; Mat 24:51; Mat 25:30. Luk 13:28). A study of these will show that the occasion is “the end of the age”, when “the Lord and His servants shall have come”, and when He will deal with the “wicked” and “unprofitable” servants, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in His kingdom.
12. ] the natural heirs, but disinherited by rebellion.
. . the darkness outside, i.e. outside the lighted chamber of the feast, see ch. Mat 22:13, and Eph 5:7-8. These verses are wanting in St. Luke, and occur when our Lord repeated them on a wholly different occasion, ch. Mat 13:28-29.
. . .] The articles here are not possessive, as Middleton supposes, for that would give a sense the most frigid possible, and would be a rendering inadmissible after , which generalizes the assertion; they rather import the notoriety and eminence of the . . . Articulus insignis: in hac vita dolor nondum est dolor. Bengel.
Mat 8:12. , but the children of the kingdom) i.e. nearest heirs to the kingdom. The same title is employed with another meaning in ch. Mat 13:38.-, darkness) Whatever is without the kingdom of God is outer: for the kingdom of God is light, and the kingdom of light. That darkness will envelope not only the eye, but also the mind, with the grossest obscurity.-, outer) the unbeliever has internal darkness in himself already, and obtains, therefore, external darkness also as his fitting home. And the nearer that any one might have approached [to the Divine presence], so much the further will he be cast forth into the depths of darkness.-, there) at length [even though not here and now]. Without the brilliant scene of the feast [the marriage supper so often mentioned].-) a remarkable article, used emphatically.[367] In this life, grief is not yet really grief.-, weeping) Then will weep heroes now ashamed to weep, from grief at the good they have lost, and the evil they have incurred. Oh horrible sound of so many wretched beings! how far more blessed to hear the sounds of heaven!-See Revelation 14 etc.- , gnashing of teeth) from impatience and bitterest remorse, and indignation against themselves, as being the authors of their own damnation.[368] Self-love, indulged on earth, will then be transformed into self-hate, nor will the sufferer be ever able to depart from himself. Nor is this weeping and gnashing of teeth combined with darkness only, but also with fire, etc.; see ch. Mat 13:42; Mat 13:50; Luk 13:28. Another exposition is, the soft will weep, the stern will rage. The same phrase occurs in Act 7:54.[369]
[367] As though this were the true ideal of sorrow-the normal standard of suffering-the archetypal reality of agony.-(I. B.)
[368] As also from a spiteful and malignant feeling against others, to whom they enviously grudge the salvation which those others have obtained. Comp. Psa 112:10.-V. g.
[369] Sc. they gnashed upon him [Stephen] with their teeth.-(I. B.)
the children: Mat 3:9, Mat 3:10, Mat 7:22, Mat 7:23, Mat 21:43, Act 3:25, Rom 9:4
be cast: Mat 13:42, Mat 13:50, Mat 22:12, Mat 22:13, Mat 24:51, Mat 25:30, Luk 13:28, 2Pe 2:4, 2Pe 2:17, Jud 1:13
Reciprocal: Gen 21:10 – Cast out Num 14:39 – mourned greatly Jdg 6:39 – dry 1Sa 2:9 – be silent Job 15:30 – depart Job 20:26 – darkness Job 22:11 – darkness Psa 49:19 – never Psa 88:12 – dark Pro 24:20 – candle Isa 8:22 – look Isa 17:11 – a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow Isa 38:18 – they that Isa 50:11 – ye shall Isa 65:14 – ye shall Jer 38:7 – Ethiopian Nah 1:8 – darkness Mat 19:30 – General Mat 20:16 – the last Mat 21:21 – Be thou removed Mar 9:18 – gnasheth Mar 10:31 – General Luk 3:8 – of these Luk 13:30 – General Luk 16:23 – seeth Luk 17:18 – save Joh 4:30 – General Act 7:54 – they gnashed Rom 2:17 – thou art Rom 2:26 – General Rom 11:17 – some Rev 16:10 – full
8:12
Children is from Hums and Thayer’s definition at this place is, “those for whom a thing is destined.” It does not necessarily mean those who had actually become members of the kingdom, but those who would logically have been expected to be foremost in entering it as were the Jews. The fathers of that nation, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, had lived faithfully under the system that was in force over them (the Patriarchal Dispensation), but their descendants of the later centuries in the time of Christ rejected the teaching of their great seed and will be rejected in the day of judgment. Paul set forth this same thought in his speech at Antioch (Act 13:46).
Mat 8:12. But the sons of the kingdom. The Jews, who, by hereditary right and according to the ordinary law of gracious influences, might be expected to enter, shall be cast out, expelled from the feast or home of their patriarchal ancestors, into the outer darkness. The figure is that of darkness outside the house of feasting or the house of comfort.
There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, the sorrow and the rage consequent upon such expulsion. Also a hint at the wretchedness of a future state of punishment. The figures are fearful: black night, grief and rage.
Verse 12
The children of the kingdom, the Jews themselves, the actual children of Abraham, whom God had chosen as the founder and head of his kingdom.–Cast into utter darkness. The scene of the suffering here described is plainly the future world; for it is to be inflicted at the time when true believers are to be united in happiness, with patriarchs long since departed from this stage of being. The expression in the latter part of the verse implies not only the extreme of human anguish and woe, but also an angry and desperate resentment on the part of the sufferers.–Gnashing of teeth. Men sometimes attempt to make the threatened judgments of God against the wicked appear unjust, by representing the eternal sufferings which they incur, as inflicted solely for the sins of this life. But the Scripture view of the subject is, that they who persist in sin through this season of probation, will persist in it forever. They will become forever irreconcilable in their hostility, and so, necessarily forever miserable.
8:12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into {b} outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
(b) Who are outside the kingdom: For in the kingdom is light, and outside the kingdom is darkness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes