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

<strong>Commentary</strong> on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2
be added, it proceeds from the man himself, and therefore must be regarded not as external, but
internal. 410
19. For out of the heart proceed wicked thoughts Hence we infer that the word mouth, as I have
mentioned, was used by Christ in a former verse by way of allusion to the context; for now he
makes no mention of the mouth, but merely says that out of the heart of man proceeds all that is
sinful and that corrupts by its pollution. Mark differs from Matthew in this respect, that he gives a
larger catalogue of sins, such as lusts, or irregular desires. The Greek word (πλεονεξίαι) is by
some rendered covetousness; but I have preferred to take it in a general acceptation. Next come
fraud and intemperance, and those which immediately follow. Though the mode of expression be
figurative, it is enough to understand Christ’s meaning to be, that all sins proceed from the wicked
and corrupt affections of the heart. To say that an evil eye proceeds from the heart is not strictly
accurate, but it involves nothing that is absurd or ambiguous; for it means, that an unholy heart
pollutes the eyes by making them the ministers, or organs, of wicked desires. And yet Christ does
not speak as if every thing that is evil in man were confined to open sins; but, in order to show
more clearly that the heart of man is the abode of all evils, 411 he says that the proofs and results
appear in the sins themselves.
And pollute the man. Instead of the verb pollute, the Greek term is κοινοῖ, make common; as
Mark, a little before, (7:2,) used the phrase, κοιναῖς χερσὶ, with common hands, for with unclean
hands. 412 It is a Hebrew phrase; 413 for, since God had set apart the Jews on the condition that they
should separate themselves from all the pollutions of the Gentiles, everything that was inconsistent
with this holiness was called common, that is, profane.
MATTHEW 15:21-28; MARK 7:24-30
Matthew 15:21-28
Mark 7:24-30
21. And Jesus departing thence withdrew into 24. And he arose and departed thence into
the territories of Tyre and Sidon. 22. And, lo, a the borders of Tyre and Sidon; and, entering into
woman of Canaan, who had come from those a house, he wished that no man should know it,
territories, cried saying, Have compassion on me, but he could not be concealed. 25. For a woman,
O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is whose daughter had an unclean spirit, no sooner
grievously afflicted by a devil. 23. But he made heard of him than she came and fell at his feet,
410 “Et pourtant le vice est tousiours interieur, et ne vient point d’ailleurs;” — “and therefore sin is always internal, and does
not come from without.”
411 “Que le coeur de l’homme est le siege et la source de tous maux;” — “that the heart of man is the seat and the source of all
evils.”
412 “Les mains communes pour souillees et non lavees;” — “common hands for polluted and not washed.”
413 “C’est une facon de parler propre aux Hebrieux;” — “it is a mode of speaking peculiar to the Hebrews.”
181
John Calvin