Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2.pdf

<strong>Commentary</strong> on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2
32. Go, tell that fox It is certain, that the person here spoken of is Herod Antipas. Though he
had throughout the character of a fox, and was as remarkable for servility as for cunning, I do not
think that the term, fox, is intended to refer generally to the cunning of his whole life, but rather to
the insidious methods by which he labored to undermine the doctrine of the Gospel, when he did
not venture to attack it openly. Christ tells him that, with all his craftiness, he will gain nothing by
his schemes. “Whatever artifices he may devise,” says Christ, “today and tomorrow I will discharge
the office which God has enjoined upon me; and when I shall have reached the end of my course,
I shall then be offered in sacrifice.” That we may perceive more clearly the meaning of the words,
Christ acknowledges, in the former part of his message, that on the third day—that is, within a very
short time—he must die; and in this way shows, that he could not be deterred from his duty by any
fear of death, to which he advanced boldly, with fixed purpose of mind.
33. It does not usually happen, etc. He next adds, that it is an idle bugbear, which is held out
by false and hypocritical advisers; because there is no danger of death anywhere else than at
Jerusalem. In this second clause he sharply attacks the Pharisees. “Is it you, who — I foresee —
will be my executioners, that advise me to beware of Herod?” The reproof extends, indeed, much
farther; for he says, not only that preparations had been made for his own death in Jerusalem, but
that it might be said to have been, for a long period, a den of robbers, in which almost all the
prophets had been murdered. Many had, no doubt, been slain in other places, and particularly at
the time when that cruel fury, 282 Jezebel, (1 Kings 19:2,) raged against them; but because in no
other place had the prophets, at any time, been fiercely tormented, Christ justly brings this reproach
against the ungodly inhabitants of the holy city.
It usually happened that the prophets were slain there; because not only was it the source of all
the ungodliness which spread over the whole of Judea, but it was also the field on which God trained
his prophets. 283 We know that the more brightly the light of doctrine shines, so as to press more
closely on wicked men, they are driven to a greater pitch of madness. What a dreadful example
was it, that a place which had been chosen to be the sanctuary of divine worship, and the residence
of the Law and of heavenly wisdom, should be polluted not by one or another murder,, but by a
regular butchery of the prophets! It undoubtedly shows how obstinate is the rebellion of the world
in rejecting sound doctrine.
The exclamation which immediately follows in Luke, (13:34,) appears to be connected in such
a manner, as if Christ had taken occasion from the present occurrence to inveigh, at this time,
against Jerusalem But for my own part, I rather think, that Luke, having said that Jerusalem had
been formerly stained by the blood of the prophets, nay, had been, through an uninterrupted
succession of many ages, the slaughter-place, where the prophets were cruelly and wickedly put
to death, immediately inserts, according to his custom, a statement which harmonized with that
282 “Cette cruelle diablesse;” — “that cruel female devil.”
283 “Auquel Dieu a voulu que ses Prophetes ayent soustenu de grans combats et rudes alarmes;” — “on which God determined
that his Prophets should sustain powerful combats and fierce alarms.”
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John Calvin