Matthew Chapter 17 verse 17 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 17. - Jesus answered. Jesus did not directly respond to the father's appeal, nor repel the Pharisees' scoffs. In sorrow and indignation he goes at once to the root of the evil. O faithless and perverse generation! He seems to include in this denunciation all who were present - the father, scribes, people, apostles, especially the nine. Want of faith appertained to all. He often refers to the general body of his bearers by the term generation (comp. Matthew 11:16; Matthew 12:29, etc.). Perverse. The word is used by Moses in his great song (Deuteronomy 32:5, Septuagint) in reference to those who dealt corruptly; here it applies to persons who took a distorted view of Christ's work and teaching, and against light and knowledge obstinately persisted in their infidelity. How long shall I be with you?... suffer you? The sad question is not that of one who wants his work finished and his time of departure hastened; rather, it shows his sorrow and regret at the slowness of faith, the hardness of heart, which yet, notwithstanding all his teaching and his miracles, had not been overcome. How much longer was this to continue? Was this forgetfulness of the past, this dulness of comprehension, to last forever? Did they wish to wear out his long suffering, to exhaust his condescension? With Divine impatience at man's obduracy, he makes this mournful inquiry. Bring (φέρετε, bring ye) him hither to me. He speaks to the attendants or the crowd, and bids them bring the boy to him, not to the disciples. The prophet's staff in Gehazi's hand could not awake the dead; Elisha himself must undertake the work (2 Kings 4:31); so if the desired miracle had to he performed, Christ himself must do it. In spite of his grief and disappointment, he does not withhold relief, in the midst of wrath he remembers mercy.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(17) O faithless and perverse generation.--The words were obviously addressed both to the scribes and the disciples. Both had shown their want of the faith which utters itself in prayer to the Father; both were alike "perverse," in finding in the misery brought before them only an occasion of wrangling and debate. This was not the way to obtain the power to heal, and the formulae of exorcism were but as an idle charm, without the faith of which they were meant to be the expression.How long shall I suffer you?--The words are significant as suggesting the thought that our Lord's whole life was one long tolerance of the waywardness and perversity of men.Bring him hither to me.--St. Mark, whose record is here by far the fullest, relates that at this moment "the spirit tare him," and that he "wallowed foaming," in the paroxysm of a fresh convulsion; that our Lord then asked, "How long is it ago since this came unto him?" and was told that he had suffered from his childhood; that the father appealed, half-despairing, to our Lord's pity, "If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us;" and was told that it depended on his own faith, "If thou canst believe; all things are possible to him that believeth;" and then burst out into the cry of a faith struggling with his despair, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief;" and that that faith, weak as it was, was accepted as sufficient.