NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TEN

Part I

Verse 1: Jesus called His twelve followers together. Then He gave them power over evil spirits and power to heal every kind of disease and sickness.

It’s at this point we find all twelve disciples are now part of Jesus’ entourage. It is also the first mention of their being anointed by Jesus to go do the same works and miracles that He has performed. It is also noteworthy that they were first given authority over evil spirits, which then gave them power to heal all diseases. It was already a major belief among many non-Jewish societies that all diseases were caused by evil spirits that were unleashed by angry gods. This is not too far out of line, since it was only after Adam and Eve sinned that the death sentence was announced and death was to be brought on by the body slowly decaying, whether by disease or old age. So sin was definitely at the root of all disease. This is why Jesus often combined the forgiveness of sin with healing.

While it does not say here that Jesus verbally made this point, it might be that Matthew was following the verbal tradition of his day by putting them in this order. The more these disciples walked, talked and listened to the Master, the clearer this would become to them. This method used by Jesus in authorizing His disciples was similar to the way the Jews trained and sent out their messengers. In Jewish verbal tradition we read about such a calling. Those who served the High Priest once said to him: “My master the High Priest we are messengers of the court and you are our messenger.”¹

We read where messengers were sent out by the court to inform distant communities on which day Rosh Chodesh (New Moon to begin the month) would fall, so they could calculate the date for Rosh HaShana (Jewish New Year).² In fact, it says that messengers were sent out six months ahead of the Passover Feast. Even though it is not mentioned here, our Lord knew that His time here on earth would end shortly after Passover. So He was sending out His messengers not only to share the good news of the Kingdom of God, but also to make them ready for what would happen once the Lamb of God was slain.

Jerome has some interesting things to say about our Lord’s empowerment of the apostles. He writes: “The kind and merciful Lord and Master does not begrudge His followers and disciples their powers. Even as He had healed every disease and every infirmity, He empowered His apostles to heal every disease and every infirmity. But there is a great gap between having and granting, between giving and receiving. Whatever He does, He does in the power of the Lord. Whatever they do, they display their own weakness and the power of the Lord, saying, ‘In the name of Jesus, arise and walk.’ It must be noted, further, that the power to work miracles is granted to the apostles even to the twelfth man.”³

We can clearly see that over time the church in general, and ministers in particular, have taken the commission to go and preach the Gospel and baptize believers, but seem to have forgotten the power to pray for the sick that they be healed, and power over demons that they will be exorcised. Did God sever this power cord? Did Jesus pull the plug on the church so they became unable to function in this area? Did the Holy Spirit short-circuit the power line so that divine force no longer flows through to those who do these things in His name? I doubt it. If so the apostle Paul would have never written on the gifts and fruit of the Spirit after many of the original apostles were gone. Any short-out has come because many ministers no longer plug in to this power given through the Holy Spirit.

Chrysostom notes that the disciples were given access to some of the power of Christ before they were given the Holy Spirit. This was possible because by Christ being physically present with them, all they had to do was say they came by His authority. But after He ascended, the Master wanted to keep His power available, so that’s why He asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit who would provide the same present source of power as He did while He was here.

Chrysostom says: “Note the careful timing of their mission. They were not sent out at the beginning of their walk with Him. They were not sent out until they had sufficiently benefited by following Him daily. It was only after they had seen the dead raised, the sea rebuked, devils expelled, the legs of a paralytic brought to life, sins remitted, lepers cleansed, and had received a sufficient proof of His power both by deeds and words—only then did He send them out. And He did not send them out unprepared to do dangerous deeds, for as yet there was no danger in Palestine. They had only to stand against verbal abuse. However, Jesus still warned them of larger perils to come, preparing them for what was future.”⁴

Verse 2: These are the names of the twelve apostles: Simon (who is called Peter) Andrew his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

In the oldest Hebrew version of Matthew it reads: “Simon, called Petros.”⁵ We will see later on that Jesus refers to Peter as Simon bar Jonah, or, son of Jonah, and then goes on to say, “you will be called Cephas.”⁶ So we have his first name Simon established, but his surname is more complicated. First let’s look at the Hebrew. He was known as Simon son of Jonah. But Jesus said he would be known as “Cephas,” which in Hebrew means “large stone.” In fact, his nephew, Mark, tells us that Jesus was the one who gave him this surname.⁷ So we could say, he became known as Simon the Stone.

He is called “Cephas” by the apostle Paul five times in the New Testament.⁸ Here in Matthew’s Gospel, it is stipulated that he was referred to as “Simon, who is called Cephas,” three times.⁹ It isn’t until the middle part of Matthew to the end that he is called “Cephas.” However, this is not seen in the English Bible, because the translators chose to use the Greek term for “large stone” which is “Petros”, which was anglicized into “Peter,” an English term Jesus never used. We know that Cephas was from the village of Bethsaida in Galilee,¹⁰ very near to the city of Capernaum.

Then comes Andrew, Simon’s brother, only mentioned once outside the Four Gospels.¹¹ Being Peter’s brother, it is obvious that Andrew was also from the village of Bethsaida on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. He was also bar Jonah, or son of Jonah. Some scholars that their mother’s name was Joanna. Also, that the father Jonah was of the tribe of Reuben. And when you look at a map of how the Israelites settled the Promised Land, Capernaum was definitely in the portion given to Reuben.

James the son of Zebedee is not mentioned in his brother John’s Gospel, but is included by Matthew, Mark and Luke, as well as by Paul in Galatians. Since he fished in the Sea of Galilee with his father and brother, he was either from Bethsaida or Capernaum.

John the son of Zebedee is also mentioned by the Synoptic Gospels, in Acts and by Paul in Galatians. Being the brother of James, he was most likely also from the same town.

In listing the disciples, Matthew seems to follow a verbal tradition where all those appointed to the holy sanctuary as officers were listed. In that case there were fifteen, and believe it or not, the third officer’s name was Matthew ben Samuel. But the one that struck me with the most awe was number four, a man named Mordecai. We are told he was able to take questions and expound on them because he was fluent in 70 languages.¹²

Verse 3: Philip: Philip is mentioned in the Four Gospels and quite extensively in the Acts of the Apostles, but nowhere else. We know that he was from the same village of Bethsaida in northern Galilee as Peter and Andrew.¹³

Bartholomew: Bartholomew, is not mentioned in John’s Gospel, but is included in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts. There is a Rabbi listed in Babylonian Talmud with a similar name to Bartholomew, which actually means “son of Tholomew.” This Rabbi’s name was Jonathan bar Abtolemos. As anyone knows who has dealt with languages, spellings can be numerous for the same name. But this one comes very close.¹⁴ Many scholars believe that this son of Tholomew was none other than Nathanael who is mentioned by John, the one that Philip went and got in order to introduce him to Jesus,¹⁵ and later John mentions Nathaniel being together with Peter, Thomas, James and John and two other disciples.¹⁶

Thomas who was also referred to in John as Didymus, which means “twin.”¹⁷ We know that after the resurrection of Jesus and some of the disciples went back to fishing in the Sea of Galilee, Thomas was with them.¹⁸ So it is obvious that Thomas was from this same area.

Matthew the tax collector. As far as Matthew is concerned, he is listed eighth both here and Acts 1:13, which suggests that Luke followed Matthew’s listing, because Mark lists him in seventh place. It appears that because of Matthew’s prior work as a tax collector, he was acquainted with the political side of life. He is one of the few mentioned in Jewish literature.¹⁹ Since Matthew worked as a tax collector in Capernaum and had a house there, it is most likely that this is where he was from. However, Mark also refers to a Levi the son of Alphaeus, a tax collector, as the one who Jesus called to be a disciple.²⁰ This leads many scholars to believe this was none other than Matthew. Most scholars believe this was a different Alphaeus than the one spoken of as the father of James the Less and Joses.²¹

James, the son of Alphaeus, is referred to as such in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts of the Apostles.²² He is also referred to as James “the Lesser” or “the younger.”²³ In the writings of Papias of Hierapolis who lived sometime between 70-163 AD, when John and some of the other apostles may still have been alive, in a surviving fragment it says: “Mary, mother of James the Less and Joseph, wife of Alphaeus was the sister of Mary the mother of the Lord, whom John names of Cleophas, either from her father or from the family of the clan, or for some other reason.”²⁴ As such it is highly probable that James the son of Alphaeus is the same as James the Younger to delineate him from James the brother of John who no doubt was older. And since he was the nephew of Mary the mother of Jesus, there is every likelihood that he was also from Nazareth or in that area.

Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus the son of James. He was a man of many names. Some say he was also called Jude the brother of James,²⁵ Jude Thaddaeus, Judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus.²⁶ There is no reason to believe that Thaddaeus was from anywhere else than the same area in northern Galilee as Peter, James, John, Andrew and the others.

There is an interesting story told by Eusebius in his History of the Church about Thaddeus and King Abgarus that is too long to repeat here, but it involves him being sent by Thomas to this king in order to pray for his healing in Jesus’ name.²⁷

Verse 4: Simon, the Zealot: In the KJV, he is called “a Canaanite.” Strong’s Concordance notes that this word means “Zealot,” but that is not made clear in the text.

NOTE: ZEALOTS: (Hebrew, Ḳanna’im): Zealous defenders of the Law and of the national life of the Jewish people; name of a party opposing with relentless rigor any attempt to bring Judea under the dominion of idolatrous Rome, and especially of the aggressive and fanatical war party from the time of Herod until the fall of Jerusalem and Masada. They were equivalent to a “Jewish Liberation Front.” Their provocations led to open rebellion in 66 AD, which was crushed by the Romans with enormous loss of life, and led to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. The last holdouts fled to Matzada in 73 AD. The members of this party bore also the name Sicarii, from their custom of going about with daggers (“sicæ”) hidden beneath their cloaks, with which they would stab any one found committing a sacrilegious act or anything provoking anti-Jewish feeling. Among the disciples of Jesus there is mentioned of Simon the Zealot (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13); for the same person Matthew 10:4 and Mark 3:18 have “the Canaanite,” obviously a corruption of (ha-Ḳanna’i = “the Zealot”. However, the time frame for the Zealots would almost certainly mitigate against this Simon being one of their number.

Simon, the Zealot is not mentioned by Luke or John but is included in Acts.²⁸ The Aramaic Version calls him “Simon the Canaanite.” Scholars are divided on what difference this would make as to who Simon really was. Some say the appellation was given to distinguish him from Simon Peter. Others believe that the term “zealot” is correct because of extra biblical writings.²⁹ But others say: “It is thought by some that he was a member of that very fierce and fanatical political sect of the Jews, called the Zealots, by whose means the siege of Jerusalem was rendered so much more bloody than it would have been; but this does not seem very probable, for the sect of the Zealots had scarcely arisen in the time of the Savior, and therefore, we are inclined to think with Hackett³⁰ in his exposition of the Acts, that he was so called because of his zealous attachment to his religion as a Jew, for there were some in the different classes of Jewish society who were so excessively full of zeal as to gain the name of Zealot. ”.³¹ They are spoken of by different Jewish writers as being mostly against Roman rule.³²

Then finally, Judas Iscariot. Some think this is because he belonged to the tribe of Issachar.³³ Others believe he may have come from a village named “Caryot”, some eighteen miles from Jerusalem near Jericho, which abounded in palm trees from which a specific date called “karyotis” or “kuirate”, was harvested.³⁴ As a matter of fact, this fruit was considered a date-palm from a good palm, and was sold only to Jews,³⁵ which was the most sacred of all trees to the Semitic peoples. Furthermore, another theory is that “Iscariot” identifies Judas as a member of the sicarii. These were a core group of assassins among Jewish rebels intent on driving the Romans out of Judea. However, some historians maintain the sicarii arose in AD 40 or 50 of the 1st century, in which case Judas could not have been a member.

But we must also take into consideration that there were a number of followers of Jesus named Jude or Judas, so the term “Iscariot” was added to distinguish Judas from the others. But there is a curious play on words found in many Jewish writings, for example: “All of them died a cruel death. What was it? Rabbi Nahman replied: Croup”.³⁶ Croup is a synonym for “choking”, “strangling”, “stop breathing”. It was considered the worst type of death or punishment. Finally, such characterization could be associated with the manner of Judas’ death, i.e., hanging. This would mean Iscariot derives from a kind of Greek-Aramaic hybrid: Iskarioutha, “chokingess” or “constriction.” This might indicate that the depiction was applied posthumously by the remaining disciples, and thus found its way into the Gospels. As such, Judas Iscariot could actually be “Judas, the one who choked.”

Whatever the case, all of these names became very familiar around the world in their various spellings. After our Lord’s ascension, some of them grew into brighter lights while others faded from the scene. But when we look at how far Christianity has come, it sure does indicate the heavy burden that fell on their shoulders to be the ambassadors of the new Kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish. It also should remind us that we are Christ’s ambassadors as well, and the future of the Church lies squarely on our shoulders.