Matthew 15:14 - Exposition

Let them alone. Do not trouble yourselves about them; let them be offended, if they will. Blind leaders of the blind. Both teachers and taught are alike ignorant of the truth. The people had no spiritual light, and, applying to their appointed pastors, they learned nothing profitable from them; for these were as much in the dark as themselves. It was evident, then, that the rabbis ought not to be followed unreservedly. If the blind. A proverbial saying. Comp. Horat., 'Epp.,' I, Matthew 17:3 —

"... ut si

Caecus iter monstrare velit ."

And the Greek adage, ΄ήτε τυφλὸν ὁδηγόν , μήτε ἐκνόητον σύμβουλον . Nosgen calls attention to the order of the words, τυφλὸς δὲ τυφλὸν ἐὰν ὁδηγῇ , "Blind blind if he lead," which, while it substantiates the advice, "Let them alone," forcibly expresses the fatal result of this guidance. The ditch ( βόθυνον ); a pitfall . The "ditch" in one sense is unbelief in Christ, to which rabbinical teaching undoubtedly led. In another sense it adumbrates the ruin in which these false principles would involve the Jewish polity and people. It is obvious that the rejection of the Messiah drew down the punishment which has made the Hebrew nation an astonishment to all the world.