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

<strong>Commentary</strong> on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2
by threatening that he will be their Prophet after his resurrection, since they do not receive him
while clothed with mortal flesh.
Luke 11:30. As Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites. He declares that he will be a sign to them,
as Jonah was to the inhabitants of Nineveh. But the word sign is not taken in its ordinary sense, as
pointing out something, but as denoting what is widely removed from the ordinary course of nature.
In this sense Jonah’s mission was miraculous, when he was brought out of the belly of the fish, as
if from the grave, to call the Ninevites to repentance. Three days and three nights This is in
accordance with a well-known figure of speech. 166 As the night is an appendage to the day, or
rather, as the day consists of two parts, light and darkness, he expresses a day by a day and a night,
and where there was half a day, he puts down a whole day.
Matthew 12:41. The men of Nineveh will rise in judgment. Having spoken of the Ninevites,
Christ takes occasion to show that the scribes and others, by whom his doctrine is rejected, are
worse than the Ninevites were. “Ungodly men,” he says, “who never had heard a word of the true
God, repented at the voice of an unknown and foreign person who came to them; while this country,
which is the sanctuary of heavenly doctrine, hears not the Son of God, and the promised Redeemer.”
Here lies the contrast which is implied in the comparison. We know who the Ninevites were, men
altogether unaccustomed to hear prophets, and destitute of the true doctrine. Jonah had no rank to
secure their respect, but was likely to be rejected as a foreigner. The Jews, on the other hand, boasted
that among them the Word of God had its seat and habitation. If they had beheld Christ with pure
eyes, 167 they must have acknowledged, not only that he was a teacher sent from heaven, but that
he was the Messiah, and the promised Author of Salvation. But if that nation was convicted of
desperate ungodliness, for despising Christ while he spoke to them on earth, we are worse than all
the unbelievers that ever existed, if the Son of God, now that he inhabits his sanctuary in heaven,
and addresses us with a heavenly voice, does not bring us to obey him. Whether the men of Nineveh
were truly and perfectly turned to God I judge it unnecessary to inquire. It is enough for the present
purpose that they were so deeply affected by the teaching of Jonah, as to have their minds directed
to repentance.
42. The queen of the south. As Ethiopia lies in a southerly direction from Judea, I willingly
concur with Josephus and other writers, who assert that she was the queen of Ethiopia. In sacred
history she is called the queen of Sheba, (2 Chronicles 9:1.) We must not suppose this Sheba to be
the country of Saba, which rather lay toward the east, but a town situated in Meroe, an island on
the Nile, which was the metropolis of the kingdom. Here, too, we must attend to the points of
contrast. A woman who had not been at all educated in the school of God, was induced, by the
desire of instruction, to come from a distant region to Solomon, an earthly king; while the Jews,
who had been instructed in the divine law, reject their highest and only teacher, the Prince of all
166 “Quant aux trois nuits, il y a ici (cornme on scait bien) une figure que les Grecs et Latins appellent Synecdoche;” — “as to
the three nights, there is here (as is well known) a figure which the Greek and Latin writers call Synecdoche.”
167 “D’un oeil pur, et sans mauvaise affection;” — “with a pure eye, and without evil disposition.”
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John Calvin