(51) And shall cut him asunder.--Here also, as in the case of the faithful servant, the words have more than one fulfilment. The form of punishment (one which, in its literal sense, belongs to the inventive cruelty of Eastern kings) would seem here to have been chosen for its figurative fitness. The man had been a hypocrite, double-minded, trying to serve two masters, and his Lord, with the sharp sword of judgment, smites through the false, apparent unity of his life, and reveals its duplicity. There shall be weeping.--As elsewhere, "the weeping and the gnashing." Verse 51. - Shall cut him asunder διχοτομήσει). This mode of death was inflicted in some cases (see 1 Samuel 15:33; 2 Samuel 12:31; Daniel 3:29; Hebrews 11:37; compare also the account of the execution of Mettius in Livy, 1:28; and Horace, 'Sat.,' I. 1:99). Thus in our own country "quartering," after hanging at least, was once a usual penalty for some offences, such as high treason. The term has been here interpreted to refer to the operation of the cruel scourge, which without metaphor might be said to cut a man to pieces; or "to dismiss from his employment," which seems to be hardly an adequate punishment. The difficulty is that the utter destruction of the malefactor implied in his literal cutting asunder is not consistent with his subsequent consignment to the lot of the hypocrites. Hence the Fathers have variously explained the term to signify separation from the company of saints, or from spiritual grace, or from all the blessings promised to the righteous. But we may take the Lord's words as applying first to temporal punishment - the unrighteous steward shall suffer death as horrible as dichotomy, a severance of body and soul, accompanied with unspeakable tortures; as in the History of Susanna, ver. 55, "The angel of God hath received the sentence of God to cut thee in two." Appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. The Lord drops the parable, and speaks of the terrible reality. The hypocrites are the faithless and deceitful, who, while pretending to do their lord's work, are mere eye servants, and really neglect and injure it. The remissful steward shares their punishment in the other world. There (ἐκεῖ) shall be, etc.; i.e. in the place where the hypocrites receive their punishment (Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30). The expression signifies measureless grief and despair. And elsewhere (d) it is said of a wicked man, that they put him upon a carpenter's block, and , "sawed him asunder"; and he cried out, woe, woe, woe, that I have provoked my Creator. This was also a punishment used among the Heathens, as Gataker (e), and others out of Heathen writers, have shown. It must not here be understood literally, that this wicked servant should be put to such a corporeal death; but that he should be punished in the severest manner, and should be the object of the fierce wrath and sore displeasure of God, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. Luke says, "with the unbelievers" Luke 12:46, very likely both phrases were used by Christ; intimating, that such as make a profession of him, and have only a form of godliness, without the power of it, and are wicked and hypocritical men, will share the same fate with those that believe not; and the portion of these is the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; see Revelation 21:8 or all such persons are intended, who put on the mask of religion, and do not answer to the character they bear: and are unfaithful to the trust reposed in them, and therefore will made examples of righteous judgment, and have their part in the lowest hell: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. See Gill on Matthew 13:42. (b) T. Hieros. Sanhedrin, fol. 28. 3. & T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 49. 2.((c) Targum in Esther 8.15. (d) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 65. fol. 58. 4. (e) Adversaria, p. 455. |