Matthew 12:33-37

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 12:34-35

Everywhere else in Matthew where the "brood of vipers" figure occurs it refers to the Pharisees and other religious leaders (Matthew 3:7; Matthew 23:33). That is undoubtedly whom Jesus addressed here too. The figure pictures deadly antagonists. Jesus’ point was that a person’s character determines what he or she says and does. The mouth usually reveals what is in the heart. The Pharisees’ extreme slander of Jesus revealed their rejection of Him. They needed a change of attitude toward Him, not... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 12:36-37

Jesus did not want His critics to gain any satisfaction from what He had just said. Their externally righteous appearance did not excuse them from speaking as they did. Rather people’s words are what God will use to judge them eventually. The "careless" word is the word spoken without deliberation. One might think it insignificant except that it reveals character. Every word spoken reflects the heart’s overflow, and God knows about it. Therefore words are very important (cf. Ephesians 5:3-4;... read more

John Darby

Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - Matthew 12:35

12:35 forth (a-10) See Note, ver. 20. read more

John Darby

Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - Matthew 12:36

12:36 of (b-19) See Note d, 1 Peter 3:15 . read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 12:1-50

Plucking Corn on the Sabbath. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost1-8. Plucking the corn on the sabbath (Mark 2:23; Luke 6:1). This chapter begins the period of active conflict with the Pharisees. It is characteristic of the pedantry of the Pharisees that their opposition turned more upon minute points of legal observance than upon broad principles. The Fourth Gospel agrees with the synoptists in making the sabbath controversy of leading importance in the development of hostility to Christ (John... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:33

(33) Either make the tree good.—Like most proverbs and parables, the words present different phases, and admit of various applications. As spoken to men of neutral, half-hearted character, they might seem a call, not without a touch of indignant rebuke, to consistency. “At least be thorough; lot principles and actions harmonise. Do not think you can produce the fruit of good works from the tree of a corrupt heart.” This, however, is not their meaning here. The men to whom our Lord spoke were... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:34

(34) O generation of vipers.—Better, as in Matthew 3:7, brood of vipers. Here the law which had been pressed in its logical bearing in the preceding verse, is brought in to explain the bitter and evil words of the Pharisees. As long as they were what they were, nothing else was to be looked for. Nothing but the serpent’s hiss could come from the brood of vipers, nothing but bitter words from hearts so full of bitterness. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:35

(35) A good man out of the good treasure.—A whole parable is wrapt up in this last word. Every thought and desire of a man is added to the ever accumulating store of such desires or thoughts in the inner chamber of his heart, and thence passes out into word or deed. In the ideal division of the context, which excludes neutrality, the treasure is either simply good or simply evil. Practically, it might seem as if the character of most men implied a treasure of good and evil mingled in... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:36

(36) Every idle word that men shall speak.—The teaching, though general in form, still looks back to the hard, bitter words of the Pharisees which had been the starting-point of the discourse. Our Lord does not speak, as we might have expected, of “every evil word,” but of “every idle—i.e., useless and purposeless—word,” the random utterances which, as being more spontaneous, betray character more than deliberate speech. Such an “idle word” had been the passing taunt, “He casteth out devils by... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:37

(37) By thy words thou shalt be justified.—Stripped of the after-thoughts which have gathered round it in the later controversies of theologians, the word “justified” means, as its position here shows, the opposite of “condemned,” the being “acquitted” either on a special charge or on a general trial of character. In this sense we are able to understand (without entering into the labyrinth of logomachies in which commentators on the Epistles have too often entangled themselves) how it is that... read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 12:34-35

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 12:36-37

Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - Matthew 12:35

Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - Matthew 12:36

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 12:1-50

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:33

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:34

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:35

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:36

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 12:37

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