That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
35. Psa 78:2. The quotation does not agree verbally with the LXX. It is a direct translation of the Hebrew. The psalm which follows these words is a review of the history of Israel from the Exodus to the reign of David. This indicates the somewhat wide sense given to “parables” and “dark sayings.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 35. By the prophet] As the quotation is taken from Ps 78:2, which is attributed to Asaph, he must be the prophet who is meant in the text; and, indeed, he is expressly called a prophet, 1Ch 25:2. Several MSS. have , Isaiah; but this is a manifest error. Jerome supposes that Asaph was first in the text, and that some ignorant transcriber, not knowing who this Asaph was, inserted the word Isaiah; and thus, by attempting to remove an imaginary error, made a real one.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
35. That it might be fulfilled whichwas spoken by the prophet, saying (Ps78:2, nearly as in the Septuagint).
I will open my mouth inparables, &c.Though the Psalm seems to contain only asummary of Israelitish history, the Psalmist himself calls it”a parable,” and “dark sayings from of old”ascontaining, underneath the history, truths for all time, notfully brought to light till the Gospel day.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,…. Not Isaiah, as some copies in the times of Jerom read, but Asaph, who is called Asaph the seer, 2Ch 29:30 which is all one as a prophet; vision is one sort of prophecy d; and there was such a thing as prophesying with harps, psalteries and cymbals, as well as in other ways, and with which Asaph and his sons are said to prophesy, 1Ch 25:1 so that he is very rightly called a prophet by the evangelist, who is cited, as
saying, Ps 78:2
I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world: which Psalm, though a history of the dealings of God with the people of Israel, and of the many deliverances wrought for them, yet as the e Jewish writers observe, contain many things in it, expressed in a parabolical and enigmatical way; such as God’s furnishing a table in the wilderness, kindling a fire against Jacob, opening the doors of heaven, giving the corn of heaven, and angels’ food, and delivering his strength into captivity; and besides, the very historical facts recorded of the people of Israel, were types of things future under the Gospel dispensation: now as Asaph, by divine inspiration, delivered these parables and dark sayings, so Christ expressed the Gospel, and the mysteries of it, in a parabolical way, which were hid in God, and under the shadows of the law; and so were kept secret from the beginning of the world, and from the multitude, though now made known to the apostles, and by them to others, according to the will of God.
d R. David Kimchi, Shorash. rad. . e Aben Ezra & Kirachi in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I will utter (). To cast forth like a river, to gurgle, to disgorge, the passion of a prophet. From Ps 19:2; Ps 78:2. The Psalmist claims to be able to utter “things hidden from the foundation of the world” and Matthew applies this language to the words of Jesus. Certain it is that the life and teaching of Jesus throw a flood of light on the purposes of God long kept hidden ().
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I will utter [] . The verb, in which the sound corresponds to the sense [] , means originally to belch, to disgorge. Homer uses it of the sea surging against the shore (” Iliad, “17 265). Pindar of the eruption of Aetna (” Pyth.,” 1 40). There seems to lie in the word a sense of full, impassioned utterance, as of a prophet.
From the foundation [ ] . “It is assumed by the Psalmist (Psa 78:2) that there was a hidden meaning in God ‘s ancient dealings with his people. A typical, archetypical, and prefigurative element ran through the whole. The history of the dealings is one long Old Testament parable. Things long kept secret, and that were hidden indeed in the depths of the divine mind from before the foundation of the world, were involved in these dealings. And hence the evangelist wisely sees, in the parabolic teaching of our Lord, a real culmination of the older parabolic teaching of the Psalmist. The culmination was divinely intended, and hence the expression that it might be fulfilled” (Morison on Matthew).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “That it might be fulfilled,” (hopos plerothe) “So that was fulfilled,” verified, or authenticated, as true from the beginning, Luk 24:44-45. All things predicted of Him, have been, or are being, or yet will be fulfilled, Psa 119:166, Luk 24:44-45.
2) “Which was spoken by the prophet, saying,” (to hrethen dia tou prophetou legnotos) “That which was spoken through the prophet who said,” the prophet Asaph as recounted Psa 78:2.
3) “I will open my mouth in parables;” (anoikso en parabolais to stoma mou) I will open my mouth in (speaking) parables;” Make known or disclose my New Covenant message of salvation and service by means of parables, Psa 78:1-4.
4) “I will utter things which have been kept secret,” (ereuksomai kekkrummona) I will utter formerly hidden things,” yet things existing in the purpose of God, that the gospel should, be preached to all men, the whole world, through the church (Kingdom of heaven), called or chosen in Galilee from among the Gentiles, as a people for His name sake, Act 15:14; Act 10:37; Mat 4:13-22; Joh 15:16; Joh 15:27; Act 1:8; Act 1:22; Eph 3:3-10; Eph 3:21; Rom 16:25-26.
5) “From the foundation of the world.” (apo kataboles) “Things having been concealed from the foundation, or down casting, of the world.” The establishment of the church as a New Covenant witnessing and service agency was foreknown and purposed of God from the foundation of the world. The church is not an after-thought of God, after Israel fell away. The Old Testament prophets alluded to it as, a) a handful of corn, b) a Kingdom established by the God of Heaven, and c) the flock of the Shepherd, Psa 72:16; Dan 2:44-45; Zec 13:7; Mat 26:31.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
35. That it might be fulfilled Matthew does not mean, that the psalm, which he quotes, is a prediction which relates peculiarly to Christ, but that, as the majesty of the Spirit was displayed in the discourse of the Prophet, in the same manner was his power manifested in the discourse of Christ. The Prophet, when he is about to speak of God’s covenant, by which he adopted the seed of Abraham, of the benefits which he continued to bestow upon his people, and of the whole government of the Church, introduces his subject in lofty terms, I will open my mouth in parables, ( Psa 78:2 🙂 that is, “I will not speak of trifling matters, but will handle with becoming gravity subjects of the highest importance.” When he adds, I will utter dark sayings, the meaning is the same; such repetitions being very frequent in the Psalms. The Hebrew word משלים, (Meshalim) signifies comparisons; and it came afterwards to be applied to “weighty sentences,” because comparisons generally impart beauty and energy to a discourse. The word חידות (Chidoth) sometimes denotes “riddles,” and at other times, “short sayings.”
Now though Matthew seems to allude to the word parable, he undoubtedly means, that Christ spoke figuratively, in order that his very style, being more brilliant than ordinary discourse, might carry more weight and dignity. In short, he says that what is contained in the psalm was fulfilled; because the use of allegories and figures tended to show, that Christ was treating of the hidden mysteries of God, and to prevent his doctrine from being despised. Hence, too, we infer, that there was no inconsistency in the various objects which Christ had in view, when he spoke to the people in a dark manner. Though he intended to conceal from the reprobate what he was saying, yet he labored to make them feel, even in the midst of their amazement, that there was something heavenly and divine in his language. (225)
(225) “ Car combien qu’il voulust parler en telle sorte que les reprouvez n’y entendissent rien, il a toutesfois tellement modere son style, qu’en leur stupidite ils ont senti que son parler avoit quelque vertu celeste et Divine;” — “for, though he intended to speak in such a manner, that the reprobate might understand nothing of it, yet he was so regulated in his style that, amidst their stupidity, they felt that his manner of speaking had some Divine and heavenly power.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(35) I will open my mouth in parables.The quotation illustrates, much in the same way as those in 8:17, 12:17, St. Matthews peculiar way of dealing with the prophetic language of the Old Testament. He found the word parable at the opening of a Psalm (Psa. 78:2). The Psalm itself was in no sense predictive, but simply an historical survey of Gods dealings with Israel from the days of the Exodus to those of David. But the occurrence of the word was enough for him. Here was One whose form of teaching answered to that which the Psalmist had described, who might claim the Psalmists words as His own; and excluding, as he did, the idea of chance from all such coincidences, he could use even here the familiar formula, that it might be fulfilled.
A remarkable various-reading gives, by Esaias the prophet. It is found in the Sinaitic MS., and had been used before the time of Jerome by a heathen writer (Porphyry) as a proof of St. Matthews ignorance. Old as it is, however, there is no reason for receiving it as the original reading. The mistake was probably that of a transcriber, misled by the word prophet, and writing the name after the precedent of Mat. 8:17; Mat. 12:17. If the mistake had been St. Matthews, it would stand on the same footing as the substitution of Jeremiah for Zechariah in Mat. 27:9. The Psalm is assigned by the superscription to the authorship of Asaph.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
35. Might be fulfilled by the prophet Psalms 78. That psalm is ascribed to Asaph, but the sentiment here expressed was fulfilled or exemplified by this mode of our Lord’s teachings. Kept secret Or unrevealed by God. From the foundation of the world That is, from the commencement of the creation, or the beginning of sublunary time.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘That it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from of old (or ‘the foundation of the world’).”
But to those whose hearts were opened the parables revealed wonderful truth. They revealed the things that had been hidden from of old, and made clear how they would come about thus fulfilling what the Psalmist had said.
Matthew now quotes Psa 78:2 as ‘through the prophet’. The Psalms were also seen as prophesying along with the rest of Scripture. Here a more positive slant is given to parables. Their purpose is in order to reveal what is hidden, even from of old (or from the foundation of the world), that God is active in the world, and rules over all, that He continually delivered His people as at the Exodus, and that He will finally deliver His people and establish His Rule through the son of David (Psa 78:69-70). The reference in the Psalm to the Exodus ties in with Mat 2:15, and that He will save through the son of David with Mat 1:1-17. Note that the purpose in the Psalm is enlightenment. ‘We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord’ (Psa 78:4). Thus the ‘parables’ in the Psalm indicated the revealing of the significance of saving history and of its final fulfilment in the Son of David to those who would receive it. And that is what Jesus is doing here. He is through parables revealing the triumph of Himself as the Son of David with authority over the Kingly Rule of Heaven, something which had only gradually been revealed. Note that from this point on Jesus is speaking to ‘the disciples’, talking to God’s sons. What ‘blinds’ the unbeliever, illuminates the disciple.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 13:35 . The circumstance that, on this occasion, Jesus spoke exclusively in parabolic language, was supposed, according to the divine order in history, to be a fulfilling [450] of, and so on.
] Asaph , who in 2Ch 29:30 is called (LXX. has ). The passage referred to is Psa 78:2 , the first half being according to the LXX., the second a free rendering of the Hebrew text,
] to give forth from the mouth , , employed by Alexandrian Jews in the sense of pronuntiare , Psa 18:2 ; Lobeck, ad Phryn . p. 63 f.
. . .] i.e . , Rom 16:25 .
[450] The passage, however, is not a prophecy so far as its historical meaning is concerned, but only according to the typical reference which the evangelist discerns in it. In the original Hebrew it is expressly said , not in parables, but in a song of proverbs, the contents of which, however, though historical from beginning to end, “latentes rerum Messiae figuras continebat” (Grotius), and a similar instance of which we meet with afterwards in the discourse of Stephen. Accordingly, the prophet, instructing and warning as he does by means of a typical use of history, is looked upon by the evangelist as the type of Christ speaking in parabolic narratives, and through this medium unfolding the mysteries of the completed theocracy. In Christ he finds realized what the prophet says with reference to himself: , etc., and , etc., the antitypical fulfillment, though it must be granted that in doing so it is undoubtedly the expression on which he makes the whole thing to turn, but that, availing himself of a freedom acknowledged to be legitimate in the use of types, he has employed that expression in a special sense, and one that is foreign to the original Hebrew.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Ver. 35. I will utter things, &c. ] I will freely and plentifully discuss with them, a as a fountain casteth out her waters constantly and without spare. Charity is no churl: true goodness is communicative, and accounts that it hath not that good thing that it doth not impart: b as that Bishop of Lincoln never thought he had that thing which he did not give. It is not pouring out, but want of pouring out, that dries up the streams of grace, as of that oil, 2Ki 4:6 ; “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself,” Pro 11:25 .
a Eructabo, vel palam proloquar.
b Paulum sepultae distat inertiae Celata virtus. Horat.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
35. . ] in order that &c., not ‘ so that thus ,’ or ‘ and in this way ’ (?) as Webst. and Wilk., here, or any where else. See note on ch. Mat 1:22 . The prophet , according to the superscription of Psa 78:1-72 , is Asaph, so called 2Ch 29:30 , LXX. The former clause of the citation is identical with the LXX; the latter = , LXX. When we find De Wette, &c. maintaining that the Psalm contains no parable , and that consequently these words can only be cited out of their context, we must remember that such a view is wholly inconsistent with any deep insight into the meaning of the Scripture record: for the whole Psalm consists of a recounting of events which St. Paul assures us , . 1Co 10:6 ; 1Co 10:11 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 13:35 . rophetic citation from Psa 78:2 , suggested by in Sept [83] , second clause, free translation from Hebrew. in Sept [84] for in Psa 19:2 , etc. (not in Psa 78:2 ), a poetic word in Ionic form, bearing strong, coarse meaning; used in softened sense in Hellenistic Greek. Chief value of this citation: a sign that the parabolic teaching of Jesus, like His healing ministry, was sufficiently outstanding to call for recognition in this way.
[83] Septuagint.
[84] Septuagint.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
That = So that.
fulfilled. Quoted from Psa 78:2. See App-107 and App-117.
by = by means of. Greek. dia. App-104. Mat 13:1.
utter = pour forth. Greek. ereugomai. Occurs only here.
from the foundation of the world. Note the seven occurrences of this expression (here; Mat 25:34. Luk 11:50. Heb 4:3; Heb 9:6. Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8). Contrast “before the overthrow”, &c. (Joh 17:24. Eph 1:4. 1Pe 1:20).
foundation = overthrow. See Gen 1:2. App-146.
world. Greek. kosmos. App-129.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
35. .] in order that &c., not so that thus, or and in this way (?) as Webst. and Wilk.,-here, or any where else. See note on ch. Mat 1:22. The prophet, according to the superscription of Psa 78:1-72, is Asaph, so called 2Ch 29:30, LXX. The former clause of the citation is identical with the LXX; the latter = , LXX. When we find De Wette, &c. maintaining that the Psalm contains no parable, and that consequently these words can only be cited out of their context, we must remember that such a view is wholly inconsistent with any deep insight into the meaning of the Scripture record: for the whole Psalm consists of a recounting of events which St. Paul assures us , . 1Co 10:6; 1Co 10:11.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 13:35. , which was spoken) viz. Psa 78:2- , , I will open my month in parables, I will utter [things which have been] problems from the beginning.-, prophet) who was the author of that psalm. The Spirit of Christ was in the prophets; therefore the prophets could, after their manner, predicate of themselves those things which were afterwards most richly fulfilled in Christ.-, I will open) which before had not been done.-, I will utter) in Hebrew , I will pour out, which the LXX. elsewhere render in Psa 19:3, and in Psa 119:171; Psa 145:7. Hesychius renders by , throws up, i.e. as a spring does water. He also renders by , roared, , was overflowing with; but is said of the noise of the floods, and the roaring of the lion. Therefore the verb denotes a gushing spring, which resounds by reason of the abundance and impetuosity of its waters; whence the LXX. put also for , to roar.-, foundation) It does not mean only the foundations, but also the building; see 2Ma 2:29.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
it: Mat 13:14, Mat 21:4, Mat 21:5
I will open: Psa 78:2
I will utter: Psa 49:4, Isa 42:9, Amo 3:7, Luk 10:14, Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26, 1Co 2:7, Eph 3:5, Eph 3:9, Col 1:25, Col 1:26, 2Ti 1:9, 2Ti 1:10, Tit 1:2, Tit 1:3, Heb 1:1, 1Pe 1:11, 1Pe 1:12
from: Mat 25:34, Joh 17:24, Act 15:18, 1Pe 1:20, 1Pe 1:21, Rev 13:8, Rev 17:8
Reciprocal: Num 12:8 – dark speeches Num 23:7 – he took Num 24:15 – General Deu 29:29 – secret 1Ki 4:32 – he spake 1Ki 10:1 – prove him 2Ch 9:1 – questions Job 11:6 – show thee Job 15:8 – the secret Job 28:21 – hid Pro 1:6 – dark Pro 8:6 – the opening Jer 33:3 – mighty Eze 17:2 – General Mat 1:22 – that Mat 5:2 – General Mat 10:27 – I tell Mat 12:17 – it Mat 13:3 – in Mat 27:9 – Jeremy Mar 4:2 – by parables Mar 4:33 – with Mar 12:1 – he began Joh 16:25 – proverbs Gal 4:24 – an allegory Heb 4:3 – from
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3:35
In speaking the parables Jesus fulfilled a prophecy spoken by David in Psa 78:2. World is from KOSMOS and means the people of the earth.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 13:35. That, i.e., in order that.
The prophet. From Psa 78:2, the author of which was Asaph, the seer (2Ch 29:30), or prophet. The Psalm is historical, but the events it mentions have a reference to Christ (comp. 1Co 10:6; 1Co 10:11, where the same events are spoken of).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The writer claimed that this portion of Jesus’ ministry fulfilled Asaph’s statement in Psa 78:2. Asaph wrote that he would explain to his readers aspects of Israel’s history that had been previously unknown. He then proceeded to use Israel’s history to teach the Israelites how consistently rebellious they had been toward God and how just and merciful God had been with them. He taught these lessons by using "parables," by comparing various things. By comparing various incidents in Israel’s history he revealed things previously unclear. Stephen used the same technique in Acts 7.
Jesus did the same thing when He taught the multitudes using parables. He revealed to the people some things that they had not previously understood. Jesus was not teaching entirely new things any more than Asaph was in Psalms 78. He put things together that taught the crowds new lessons. Jesus concealed some truth by using parables, but He also revealed some truth to the multitudes with them. This is the point of Matthew’s quotation of Asaph here. Jesus was bringing together pieces of previous revelation about the kingdom and by combining these was teaching the people new things about the kingdom. He was throwing new light on the kingdom with His comparisons (parables). Thus while these parables were mysteries, new revelations, they contained some elements that God has previously revealed.