Matthew Chapter 9 verse 3 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - And certain of the scribes. From St. Luke's account (ver. 17) we learn that the miracle took place before a large assembly of "Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who had come out of every village of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem." 'Yet even among these there was a division (τινές). Said within themselves. So Mark, "reasoning in their hearts." This man (οῦτος). The word seems to convey a notion of contempt and of vindictive joy that they have caught him (cf. Mark, τί οῦτος οὕτως λαλεῖ; and perhaps Matthew 12:24). Blasphemeth (βλασφημεῖ). In its fullest meaning; through assumption of Divine authority (so also Matthew 26:65; John 10:33, 36). "No passage of the Old Testament affirms that the Messiah himself will forgive sins. Thus Jesus ascribes to himself what even the highest Old Testament prophecies of the Messianic time had reserved to God; e.g. Jeremiah 31:34; Isaiah 43:25" (Kubel). Observe that Mark lays more stress upon the process of their thoughts, Matthew and Luke on the conclusion at which they arrived, Luke also indicating that the supposed sin had many parts (λαλεῖ βλασφημίας) - they thought, "Every word he has uttered is blasphemy."

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) This man blasphemeth.--The words were but an echo of the charge that had been brought at Jerusalem, that "He made Himself equal with God" (John 5:18), and may well have come from some of the same objectors. St. Mark and St. Luke give the grounds of their accusation: "What is this that this Man thus speaks? Who can forgive sins but One, that is, God?" Speaking abstractedly, they were affirming one of the first principles of all true religious belief. All sins are offences against God, and therefore, though men may forgive trespasses as far as they themselves are concerned, the ultimate act of forgiveness belongs to God only; and for a mere man, as such, to claim the right of forgiving thus absolutely, was to claim a divine attribute, and therefore to blaspheme--i.e., to utter words as disparaging as open profaneness to the majesty of God. What they forgot to take into account was the possibility (1) that God might so far delegate His power to His chosen servants that they, on sufficient evidence of that delegation, might rightly declare sins to be forgiven; or (2) that the Teacher might Himself be one with God, and so share in His perfections and prerogatives. On either of these suppositions the charge of blasphemy was fully answered, and the sin of the scribes lay in their ignoring the fact that He had given sufficient proof of the former, if not of the latter also.