Matthew 5:18

18. For verily Very emphatic is our Lord in removing all thought that he annuls, instead of fulfilling, the law. He repeats his I am come; he adds a verily I say unto you, and asserts the infinite value of every point of the law. Verily is the same in the original as our word Amen, and it was a solemn so let it be. As the Hebrews used it for a solemn confirmatory close, the Christian Church has retained it for the same purpose.

Heaven and earth As Stier remarks, the heaven here is not the heavens of Matthew 5:12; as the earth here is not the earth promised in Matthew 5:5. Heaven and earth as they now are, are transitory. They shall pass away.

One jot or one tittle Our Lord proceeds to show that, so far from destroying or dishonouring the law, he would magnify it even beyond their Pharisaic teachers, who divided its precepts into the weightier and lighter classes, the former of which must be kept, while the latter might be slighted. He taught, on the contrary, that the slightest point of God’s law is of limitless obligation and imperishable completion. The jot was the yod, ( י ,) the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The tittle was the term for the point by which very similar Hebrew letters (as for instance, Resh ר and Daleth ד ) were distinguished from each other. As many Hebrew words and letters were very similar, a slight change would often very greatly vary the sense. So the Jewish writers had many curious remarks; such as the following, which we quote from Clarke on the passage:

“In Vayikra Rabba, s. 19, it is said: Should any person, in the words of Deuteronomy 6:4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is אחד achad, ONE Lord, change the ד daleth into a ר resh, he would ruin the world.” [Because, in that case, the word אחר achar, would signify a strange or false God.] “ ‘Should any one, in the words of Exodus 34:14, Thou shalt worship no OTHER, אחר achar, God, change ר resh into ד daleth, he would ruin the world.’ [Because the command would then run, Thou shalt not worship the ONLY or true God. ] “ ‘Should any one, in the words of Leviticus 22:32, Neither shall ye PROFANE, תחללו techalelu, my holy name, change ח cheth into ה he, he would ruin the world.’ [Because the sense of the commandment would then be, Neither shall ye PRAISE my holy name. ]”

Our Lord here, of course, uses the names of the Jewish characters figuratively, to indicate the smallest point in the moral force of the law. Till all be fulfilled There is twice a till in this verse, rendering the meaning slightly obscure. The sense briefly is, Not the slightest principle of the law shall fail of accomplishment while the world stands.