Matthew 12:38-42 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 38-42

Matthew 12:38-Luke : . The Request for a Sign Refused ( Luke 11:29-Jonah :. From Q. Cf. Mark 8:11 f.*= Matthew 16:1-Exodus : a, Matthew 16:4).— Mt. uses the incident here as an additional illustration of the hostility between the Pharisees and Jesus. They ask for some more authentic and unique attestation of His claim than a miracle of healing or an everyday exorcism. But to a people that has been God’ s unfaithful bride no sign shall be given but that of Jonah. As he, coming from a foreign land, appeared in Nineveh preaching doom, so has the Son of Man arrived in Israel proclaiming judgment. Luke 11:30 is much to be preferred to Matthew 12:40, which is an obvious gloss ( cf. its omission in Matthew 16:4), and one that enshrines an inaccurate prediction. “ The heart of the earth” is Hades. In Matthew 12:41 f. read “ shall stand up in judgment” (omitting “ the” ), i.e. “ shall accuse.” Jonah was a prophet, Jesus the consummation of prophecy; Solomon a wise man, Jesus Wisdom itself ( Matthew 11:19 b, Matthew 11:27).

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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