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Selected Verse: Matthew 23:33 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Mt 23:33 |
King James |
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?--In thus, at the end of His ministry, recalling the words of the Baptist at the outset of his, our Lord would seem to intimate that the only difference between their condemnation now and then was, that now they were ripe for their doom, which they were not then. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Ye serpents - This name is given to them on account of their pretending to be pious, and very much devoted to God, but being secretly evil, At the heart, with all their pretensions, they were filled with evil designs, as the serpent was, Gen 3:1-5
Generation of vipers - See the notes at Mat 12:34.
Damnation of hell - This refers, beyond all question, to future punishment. So great was their wickedness and hypocrisy, that, if they persevered in this course, it was impossible to escape the damnation that should come on the guilty. This is the sternest language that Jesus ever used to wicked people. But it by no means authorizes ministers to use such language to sinners now. Christ knew that this was true of them. He had an authority which none now have. It is not the province of ministers to denounce judgment, or to use severe names, least of all to do it on pretence of imitating Christ. He knew the hearts of people. We know them not. He had authority to declare certainly that those whom he addressed would be lost. We have no such authority. He addressed persons; we address characters. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Ye serpents - Our Lord having now lost all hope of reclaiming these, speaks so as to affright others from the like sins. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers - What a terrible stroke! - Ye are serpents, and the offspring of serpents. This refers to Mat 23:31 : they confessed that they were the children of those who murdered the prophets; and they are now going to murder Christ and his followers, to show that they have not degenerated - an accursed seed, of an accursed breed. My old MS. translates this passage oddly - Gee serpentis, fruytis of burrownyngis of eddris that sleen her modris. There seems to be here an allusion to a common opinion, that the young of the adder or viper which are brought forth alive eat their way through the womb of their mothers. Hence that ancient enigma attributed to Lactantius: -
Non possum nasci, si non occidero matrem
Occidi matrem: sed me manet exitus idem
Id mea mors faciet, quod jam mea fecit origo
Cael. Firm. Symposium, N. xv
I never can be born, nor see the day,
Till through my parent's womb I eat my way
Her I have slain; like her must yield my breath;
For that which gave me life, shall cause my death
Every person must see with what propriety this was applied to the Jews, who were about to murder the very person who gave them their being and all their blessings. |
34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.