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Bible Dictionaries
Proverbs
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or PROVERBS (Jesus’ use of).—It is a saying of the Rabbis that ‘the Law spoke in the tongue of the children of men.’ And so did our Blessed Lord. He did not use the jargon of the schools, but expressed His heavenly teaching, albeit profounder than either Jewish theology or Greek philosophy, in language which the simplest could understand. The Oriental mind delights in proverbs, and Jesus, in His gracious desire to reach the hearts of His hearers, did not disdain to weave into His discourse the homely and often humorous sayings which were current in His day.
1. ‘It is yet four months, and the harvest cometh’ (John 4:35). It is usual to find here a note of chronology (cf. Meyer). The harvest began in April, early enough sometimes for the unleavened bread of the Passover to be baked with new flour (Orig. in Joan. xiii. § 39); and since, it is argued, the harvest was four months distant, it was in December that Jesus visited Sychar in the course of His journey from Jerusalem to Galilee. There are, however, insuperable objections to this view.
(1) December is the rainy season, and with every wayside brook running full, Jesus would not have needed to crave a drink from the woman’s pitcher to slake His thirst (cf. Psalms 110:7). (2) It is incredible that, when after the Passover He retired with His disciples from Jerusalem ‘into the land of Judaea’ (John 3:22), in order doubtless to collect His thoughts and brace Himself for the commencement of His ministry, He should have protracted that season of repose for eight months. (3) Moreover, as Origen remarks, the Evangelist’s explanation of the enthusiasm wherewith the Galilaeans received Him on His arrival (John 4:45), implies that His miracles in the capital during the Passover season were fresh in their memories.
In truth there is here no chronological datum. The logion is a husbandman’s proverb, like the other which follows immediately (John 4:37). The seed was sown towards the end of December, and four months elapsed ere it was ripe (see Wetstein); and the proverb conveyed the practical lesson that results mature slowly (cf. James 5:7). Jesus was prepared to sow the good seed of the Kingdom and have long patience until it should ripen, and it filled His heart with surprise and gladness when He beheld His seed ripening in an hour. He spied the woman returning in haste from the town accompanied by an eager throng (John 4:28-30), and He broke out, ‘Ye have a saying (λέγετε, cf. λόγος in John 4:37), It is yet four months, and the harvest cometh. Lo, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and behold the fields, that they are white for harvest!’
2. ‘A prophet hath no honour in his own country, and among his own kinsfolk, and in his own house.’ Jesus is reported to have quoted this proverb on two occasions (John 4:44, Matthew 13:57 = Mark 6:4 = Luke 4:24), and it was constantly exemplified in His experience. He was rejected by His townsfolk of Nazareth; He was pronounced mad by His kinsfolk; His brethren did not believe in Him.
Origen (in Joan. xiii. § 54) thinks that the proverb originated in the dishonour which the prophets of Israel had always suffered at the hands of their contemporaries (cf. Hebrews 11:36-38); but in truth it was not peculiarly Jewish. ‘Few of the most sagacious and wise,’ says Plutarch (de Exil. § 13), ‘would you find cherished in their own countries.’ ‘Quidquid enim domi est,’ says Seneca (de Benef. iii. 3), ‘vile est.’ ‘Sordebat [Protogenes] suis,’ says Pliny (HN xxxv. § 36), ‘ut plerumque domestica,’ Pericles would never dine abroad, lest he should be cheapened in the estimation of the company by the familiarity of social intercourse (Plut. Pericl. § 7; cf. de Imit. Chr. i. 10, § 1: ‘Vellem me pluries tacuisse et inter homines non fuisse’). Cf. the ancient proverb still in vogue: ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’ (Chrys. in Joan, xxxiv.: ἡ γὰρ συνήθεια εὐκαταφρονήτους ποιεῖν εἴωθεν; Bernard. Flores: ‘Vulgare proverbium est, quod nunia familiaritas parit contemptum’); and the saying of the witty Frenchman that ‘no man is a hero to his valet de chambre.’
3. In the course of His dispute with the people of Nazareth, Jesus quoted another proverb, ‘Physician, heal thyself’ (Luke 4:23). The Talmud has: ‘Medice, sana claudicationem tuam’ (cf. Eurip. fragm.: ἄλλων ἰατρὸς αὐτὸς ἔλκεσι βρύων (ed. Witzschel, iv. p. 302); Cic. Ep. iv. 5: ‘Malos medicos qui in alienis morbis profitentur se tenere medicinae scientiam, ipsi se curare non possunt’ (see Wetstein)).
4. There is no saying of Jesus more astonishing than His answer to the disciple who sought permission to go and bury his father ere casting in his lot with Him: ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead’ (Matthew 8:21-22 = Luke 9:59-60). It seems as though He were speaking here after the manner of the Rabbis, who forbade that even the burial of the dead should be allowed to interrupt the study of the Law (Wetstein on Matthew 8:21), and required that a disciple should put his teacher’s claims before those of his father; ‘for his father indeed brought him into this world; but his teacher, who has taught him wisdom, has introduced him into the world to come’ (Taylor, Say. of Fath. iv. 17, n. [Note: note.] 21; Schürer, HJP [Note: JP History of the Jewish People.] ii. i. p. 317). Is it credible that Jesus should have rivalled the Rabbis in heartless arrogance? The difficulty disappears when it is understood that the disciple’s request was merely a pretext for delay. He was quoting a flippant phrase which is current in the East to this day.
A missionary in Syria once counselled a youth to complete his education by travelling in Europe. ‘I must first bury my father,’ was the answer. The old gentleman was neither dead nor dying; he was in good health, and the youth meant merely that his home had the first claim upon him (Wendt, Teach. of Jesus, ii. 70, n. [Note: note.] 1).
5. Jesus was quoting another proverb when, in answer to the man who volunteered to follow Him but craved leave first to bid his household farewell, He said: ‘No one, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9:62). The OT story of Elisha’s call from the plough (1 Kings 19:19-21) seems to have leapt into His mind and suggested His reply, which is an adaptation of a common saying: ‘A ploughman must bend to his work, or he will draw a crooked furrow’ (Plin. HN xviii. § 49: ‘Arator nisi incurvus praevaricatur’; cf. Verg. Ecl. iii. 42: ‘curvus arator’). ‘Conveniet,’ says Erasmus, ‘in negocium quod absque magnis sudoribus peragi non potest.’
6. The Sermon on the Mount abounds in proverbial phrases. ‘A single iota or a single tip’ (Matthew 5:18) is like our phrase, ‘The dot of an i or the stroke of a t.’ It is frequent in the Talmud (cf. Lightfoot and Wetstein). ‘Sound not a trumpet before thee’ (Matthew 6:2) is a proverbial metaphor, though Calvin takes it literally, supposing that the Pharisees, those ‘play-actors’ (ὑποκριταί) in religion, actually blew a trumpet to summon the beggars (cf. the Greek proverb αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν αὐλεῖ, ‘play one’s own pipe,’ like our ‘blow one’s own trumpet’; Achill. Tat. viii. 10: αὕτη δὲ οὐχ ὑπὸ σάλπιγγι μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ κήρυκι μοιχεύεται).
‘I have observed,’ says old Thomas Fuller, ‘some at the church door cast in sixpence with such ostentation that it rebounded from the bottom and rang against both sides of the bason (so that the same piece of silver was the alms and the giver’s trumpet), whilst others have dropped down silent five shillings without any noise.’
‘With what measure ye measure, it shall be measured to you again’ (Matthew 7:2) is very common in the Talmud (see Wetstein; Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 225).—‘Why seest thou the chip that is in thy brother’s eye, but the log that is in thine own considerest not? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the chip out of thine eye, and, behold, the log is in thine own eye?’ (Matthew 7:3-4). This proverb is characteristically Oriental in its grotesque exaggeration, and there is no need to explain it away by supposing that ‘eye’ represents עֵיִן ‘a well’: a chip in your neighbour’s well, a log in your own (see Bruce in EGT [Note: GT Expositor’s Greek Testanent.] ). It is a carpenter’s proverb, and has a special fitness on the lips of the Carpenter of Nazareth.
It is found in the Talmud (see Lightfoot). Cf. Baba Bathra, 15. 2: ‘Cum diceret quis alicui: “Ejice festucam ex oculo tuo,” respondit ille: “Ejice et tu trabem ex oculo tuo.” ’ The proverb is Jewish, but the fault which it satirizes is universal. ‘Many,’ says St. Chrysostom, ‘now do this. If they see a monk wearing a superfluous garment, they cast up to him the Lord’s law, though themselves practising boundless extortion and covetousness every day. If they see him enjoying a somewhat plenteous meal, they fall to bitter accusing, though themselves indulging daily in drunkenness and excess.’
‘Give not what is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine’ (Matthew 7:6). Cf. 2 Peter 2:22 (Proverbs 26:11), Proverbs 11:22, and see Wetstein. ‘What man is there of you who, if his son shall ask of him a loaf, will give him a serpent; or if he shall ask an egg, will give him a scorpion?’ (Matthew 7:10). There was a Greek proverb, ‘For a perch a scorpion’ (ἀντὶ πέρκης σκορπἰον); ‘ubi quis optima captans pessima eapit’ (Erasm. Adag.). ‘For a fish,’ Wetstein explains, ‘a fisherman sometimes catches a water-snake.—‘Build on the sand’ (εἰς ψάμμον οἰκοδομεῖς; cf. εἰς ψάμμον σπείρεις); see Erasm. Adag. under ‘Inanis Opera’) was a proverb signifying vain and unenduring labour, and it seems as though Jesus had it in His mind in His similitude of the Two Builders (Matthew 7:24-27 = Luke 6:47-49).
7. ‘If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom is unable to stand; and if a house be divided against itself, that house shall be unable to stand’ (Mark 3:24-25 = Matthew 12:25). A maxim of state-craft. Cf. Soph. Ant. 672–674:
ἀναρχὶας δὲ μεῖζον οὐκ ἔστιν κακόν.
αὕτη πόλεις ὄλλυσιν, ἥδʼ ἀναστάτους
οἴκους τἰθησιν.
Xen. Mem. iv. 4. § 16: ἄνευ δὲ ὁμονοίας οὔτʼ ἂν πόλις εὖ πολιτευθείη οὔτε οἶκος καλῶς οἰκηθείη.
8. ‘Prudent as the serpents and simple as the doves’ (Matthew 10:16). The serpent was a symbol of sharp-sightedness, and the dove, like the sheep, of simplicity and gentleness. Erasmus (Adagia) quotes the proverbs ὄφεως ὄμμα and πραότερος περιστερᾶς (cf. Rabbinical comment on Song of Solomon 2:14 ‘Deus dixit Israelitis: “Erga me sunt integri sicut columbae, sed erga gentes astuti sunt sicut serpentes” ’; see Wetstein).
9. ‘He that hath found his life shall lose it, and he that hath lost his life for my sake shall find it’ (Matthew 10:39). ‘Proverbium est militare’ (Wetstein). Jesus here addresses the Twelve like a general exhorting his troops on the eve of battle.
Cf. Xenophon to the Ten Thousand: ‘I have observed that as many as yearn to live by every means in warfare, these, for the most part, die evilly and shamefully; but as many as have recognized that death is common to all and necessary for men, and strive to die nobly, these I see rather arriving at old age, and, while they live, passing their days more blessedly’ (Anab. iii. i. 43). Epict. iv. 1. § 165 (of Socrates): τοῦτον οὐκ ἔστι σῶσαι αἰσχρῶς, ἀλλὰ ἀτοθνήσκων σώζεται, οὐ φεύγων Juv. viii. 83. 84:
‘Summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori
Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas.’
10. ‘If a blind man guide a blind, both shall fall into a ditch’ (Matthew 15:14; cf. Matthew 23:24). Cf. Hor. Epp. i. 17. 3–4: ‘Ut si caecus iter monstrare velit.’ Wetstein quotes Sext. Empir. Hyp. Pyrrh. iii. 29: οὐδὲ τυφλὸν ὁδηγεῖν δύναται τυφλός.
11. One misses the spirit of the conversation between Jesus and the Syrophœnician woman (Matthew 15:21-28 = Mark 7:24-30) unless one observes that it is a bandying of proverbs. The scene was evidently the lodging of Jesus and the Twelve. The woman had followed them indoors [in Mark 7:25 Tischendorf, after אLD, reads εἰσελθοῦσα], and she pressed her suit as they reclined at table. Perhaps a dog was in the apartment begging scraps. ‘It is not right,’ says Jesus, quoting an apt proverb, ‘to take the children’s bread and cast it to the whelps.’ Cf. the Greek adage: ‘You feed dogs, and do not feed yourself’ (αὐτὸν οὐ τρέφων κύνας τρἐφεις), which Erasmus (Adag. under ‘Absurda’) thus explains:
‘It was said of one who, while too poor to procure the necessaries of life, endeavoured to maintain an establishment of horses or servants. It will be appropriately employed against those who, by reason of the narrowness of their means, have scarce enough to maintain life, yet ambitiously endeavour to emulate the powerful and wealthy in fineness of dress and general ostentation. In short, it will be suitable to all who regard the things which belong to pleasure or magnificence, neglecting the things which are more necessary.’
There was another proverb: ‘Never be kind to a neighbour’s dog’ (μήποτʼ εὖ ἔρδειν γείτονος κύνα), otherwise put: ‘One who feeds a strange dog gets nothing but the rope to keep’ (ὃς κύνα τρέφει ξένον, τούτῳ μόνον λίνος μένει).
‘The proverb warns you against uselessly wasting kindness in a quarter whence no profit will accrue to you in return. A neighbour’s dog, after being well fed, goes back to his former master’ (ib. under ‘Ingratitudo’).
It was some such proverb that shaped our Lord’s speech to the woman. He was not speaking after the heartless and insolent manner of the Rabbis, who branded the Gentiles as ‘dogs’ (cf. Megill. Exodus 12:6 : “An holy convocation to you”: to you, not to dogs; to you, not to strangers.’ Pirk. Eliez. 29: ‘He who eats with an idolater is like one that eats with a dog: for, as a dog is uncircumcised, so also is an idolater’). And the woman replied in like terms: ‘Yea, Lord, for even the whelps cat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.’ Here also, it would appear, there is a proverb. Damis of Nineveh, the Boswell of Apollonius of Tyana, was once sneered at for the diligence wherewith he recorded his master’s sayings and doings, taking note of every trifle. ‘If,’ he replied, ‘there be feasts of gods and gods eat, certainly they have also attendants who see to it that even the scraps of ambrosia are not lost’ (Philostr. Apoll. i. 19). It may be added that there is an Arabic proverb: ‘It is better to feed a dog than a man,’ the reason alleged being that the dog will not forget the kindness, but the man may (PEFQSt, July 1904, p. 271).
12. ‘The gates of Hades’ (Matthew 16:18). Cf. Isaiah 38:10, Job 38:17, Psalms 9:13; Psalms 107:18; Hom. Il. ix. 312–313:
ἐχθρὸς γάρ μοι κεῖνος ὁμῶς Ἀΐδαο πύλῃσιν,
δς χʼ ἔτερον μὲν κεὐθῃ ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἄλλο δὲ εἴπῃ.
13. ‘It is better if a heavy millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were flung into the sea’ (Matthew 18:6 = Mark 9:42 = Luke 17:2). Cf. Kidd. 29. 2: ‘Dicit Samuel, Traditio est ut ducat quis uxorem et postea applicet se ad discendam Legem. At R. Jochanan dicit: Non molâ collo ejus appensâ addicet se ad studium Legis.’ The proverb was derived from the punishment of drowning. At Athens criminals were flung, with stones about their necks, into the Barathrum, a dark, well-like chasm (Aristoph. Equit. 1359–60; Schol. on Plut. 431). In b.c. 38 the Galilaeans rose against Herod, and drowned his adherents in the Lake (Josephus Ant. xiv. xv. 10).
14. The narrow gate and the two ways (Matthew 7:13-14 = Luke 13:24). There is here an allusion to a favourite image of the ancient moralists which had passed into a proverb. ‘Vice,’ says Hesiod (b.c. 850–800), ‘even in troops may be chosen easily; smooth is the way, and it lieth very nigh. But in front of Virtue the immortal gods have put sweat. Long and steep is the way to her, and rough at first; but when one cometh to the summit, then it is easy, hard as it was’ (Works and Days, 287–292). Pythagoras of Samos (b.c. 570–504) adopted the image and elaborated it. He employed as a symbol of the two ways the letter Ϥ, the archaic form of Υ, hence called ‘the Samian letter’ (Pers. [Note: Persian.] iii. 56–57, v. 34–35). The upright stem represented the innocent period of childhood, and the divergent branches the after-course of youth and man-hood, pursuing the straight path of virtue or the crooked track of vice. The image is found also in the Tablet of Kebes, an allegory in the style of a Platonic dialogue, a sort of Greek Pilgrim’s Progress, purporting to be a description of a tablet which hung in the temple of Kronos, and emblematically depicted the course of human life.
‘ “What is the way that leads to the true Instruction?” said I. “You see above,” said he, “yonder place where no one dwells, but it seems to be desert?” “I do.” “And a little door, and a way before the door, which is not much thronged, but very few go there; so impassable does the way seem, so rough and rocky?” “Yes, indeed,” said I. “And there seems to be a lofty mound and a very steep ascent with deep precipices on this side and on that?” “I see it.” “This, then, is the way,” said he, “that leads to the true Instruction” ’ (Tab. § 15).
15. ‘A grain of mustard-seed’ (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6)—a proverbial instance of extreme littleness (cf. Matthew 13:31-32 = Mark 4:31-32 = Luke 13:19). Uprooting trees (cf. Matthew 21:21 = Mark 11:23) or mountains,—an expression used of wonderful feats (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:2). Some of the greater Rabbis were called ‘uprooters of mountains’ (see Lightfoot and Wetstein).
16. ‘Easier for a camel to pass through the needle’s eye’ (Matthew 19:24 = Mark 10:25 = Luke 18:25)—a proverb denoting an impossibility. The Talmud has ‘an elephant passing through the needle’s eye’ (see Lightfoot). The absurd exaggeration is characteristically Oriental, and should not be toned down either by substituting κάμιλος, ‘cable,’ for κάμηλος, ‘camel,’ or by supposing ‘needle’s eye’ to mean postern-gate; cf. Shak. K. Rich. ii. v. v.:
‘It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a needle’s eye.’
The proverb is found in Koran, ch. vii.: ‘Verily they who shall charge our signs with falsehood and shall proudly reject them, the gates of Heaven shall not be opened unto them, neither shall they enter into Paradise, until a camel pass through the eye of a needle.’ Did Mohammed quote from the Gospels, or was the proverb current throughout the East in his day?
17. ‘Straining out the gnat and gulping down the camel’ (Matthew 23:24). Cf. Jerus. [Note: Jerusalem.] Shabb. 107. 3: ‘One who kills a flea on the Sabbath is as guilty as one who should kill a camel on the Sabbath.’ Erasmus (Adag. under ‘Absurda’) quotes a Latin adage: ‘Transmisso camelo, culex in cribro deprehensus haesit,’ and refers to the bantering remark of Anacharsis the Scythian when he found Solon busy drawing up his laws. ‘They are exactly like spiders’ webs: they will hold back the weak and insignificant and be broken through by the powerful and rich’ (Plut. Song of Solomon 5:2). The proverb satirizes those who atone for laxity in important matters by scrupulosity in matters of no moment.
18. ‘To every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly; and from him that hath not, even what he hath shall be taken away from him’ (Matthew 25:29). Cf. R. Hillel: ‘He who increases not, decreases,’ which means that one who does not improve his knowledge, loses it (Taylor, Sayings of the Fathers, i. 14). Jesus employs the saying in this sense in Matthew 13:12, Mark 4:25 = Luke 8:18.
It raises an interesting question that several of these proverbs not only have heathen parallels but are heathen proverbs. How comes it that Greek and Latin sayings were current among the Jews? The Jewish attitude toward pagan culture was one of bitter hostility. It is true that the liberal school of R. Hillel had a more tolerant spirit. Its most distinguished adherent was R. Gamaliel, who advocated the study of the hokhmath Javanith. The prevailing sentiment, however, was that of the school of Shammai, which pronounced a common malediction on one who reared swine and one who taught his son Greek (Otho, Hist. Doct. Mishn. pp. 68–70).
The general sentiment is well illustrated by Origen’s sneer at Celsus’ imaginary Jew who quoted Euripides, that Jews were not wont to be so well versed in Greek literature (c. [Note: circa, about.] Cels. ii. 34). A Jew with Greek quotations at his finger ends was an absurd fiction. And it is certain that Jesus had no acquaintance with Greek literature. Celsus charged Him with borrowing from Plato His saying about the difficulty of a rich man entering into the kingdom of heaven, and spoiling it in the process (ib. vi. 16. The Platonic passage is Legg. v. 743: ἀγκθὸν δὲ ὀντα διαφερόντως καὶ πλούσιον εἱναι διαφερόντως ἀδύνατον); and Origen’s reply is most just: ‘Who that is even moderately able to handle the subject would not laugh at Celsus, whether a believer in Jesus or one of the rest of mankind, hearing that Jesus, who had been born and bred among Jews, and was supposed to be the son of Joseph the carpenter, and had studied no literature, neither Greek nor even Hebrew, according to the testimony of the veracious scriptures that tell his story, read Plato?’
Nevertheless, despite their exclusiveness, it was impossible for the Jews to escape the leaven of external influences. (1) They carried on a very considerable commerce. They had several industries of world-wide fame. The Lake of Galilee abounded in fish, which were pickled and exported far and wide. Galilee was celebrated for its linen manufacture, and the flocks which pastured on the wilderness of Judaea furnished material for a thriving trade in woollen goods. Jerusalem had a sheep-market and a wool-market. There was also an extensive import traffic. Trade involves an interchange of ideas. The merchants imported words as well as wares, and one meets many an alien vocable, uncouthly transliterated, on the pages of the Talmud. What wonder if the Jews caught up also some of the foreign merchantmen’s proverbs?
(2) The traders were not the only strangers who visited the Holy Land. There were Roman soldiers and Herod’s mercenaries, the latter including Thracians, Germans, and Galatians (Josephus Ant. xvii. viii. 3). King Herod the Great had built a magnificent theatre at Jerusalem and an equally magnificent amphitheatre, and had instituted athletic contests every four years after the pattern of the Greek games. From every land (ἀπὸ πάσης γῆς) came competitors and spectators (ib. xv. viii. 1). Still more numerous, however, was the concourse of worshippers who frequented the Holy City at the festal seasons. They came from all quarters (Acts 2:8-11). They were, indeed, devout and patriotic Jews, but they had settled in foreign countries, and had acquired the languages and manners of the strangers among whom they dwelt and traded. Is it not reasonable to suppose that they would introduce into the Holy Land many a pithy saying which they had learned in the countries of their adoption?
David Smith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Proverbs'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/p/proverbs.html. 1906-1918.
