Matthew 10:8

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Raise the dead.—The words are omitted by the best MSS., and their absence is more in accordance with the facts of the Gospel history, which records no instance of that highest form of miracle as wrought by the disciples during our Lord’s ministry. That was reserved for His own immediate act. The insertion of the words was probably due to a wish to make the command cover such instances of power as that shown in the instances of Dorcas (Acts 9:40) and Eutychus (Acts 20:9-12).

Freely ye have received.—The English hardly suggests more than giving liberally. The Greek is much stronger, “Give as a free gift—give gratis” They had paid Him nothing. They were not in this their first mission to require payment from others. When the kingdom had been established, the necessities of the case might require the application of the principle that “the labourer is worthy of his hire” in an organised system of stipend and the like (1Timothy 5:18); but the principle of “giving freely” in this sense is always applicable in proportion as the work of the ministers of Christ has the character of a mission. They must proclaim the kingdom till the sense of the blessing it has brought shows itself in the thank-offerings of gratitude. The like principle of gratuitous teaching had been asserted before by some of the nobler of the Jewish Rabbis.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:5-15 The Gentiles must not have the gospel brought them, till the Jews have refused it. This restraint on the apostles was only in their first mission. Wherever they went they must proclaim, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. They preached, to establish the faith; the kingdom, to animate the hope; of heaven, to inspire the love of heavenly things, and the contempt of earthly; which is at hand, that men may prepare for it without delay. Christ gave power to work miracles for the confirming of their doctrine. This is not necessary now that the kingdom of God is come. It showed that the intent of the doctrine they preached, was to heal sick souls, and to raise those that were dead in sin. In proclaiming the gospel of free grace for the healing and saving of men's souls, we must above all avoid the appearance of the spirit of an hireling. They are directed what to do in strange towns and cities. The servant of Christ is the ambassador of peace to whatever place he is sent. His message is even to the vilest sinners, yet it behoves him to find out the best persons in every place. It becomes us to pray heartily for all, and to conduct ourselves courteously to all. They are directed how to act as to those that refused them. The whole counsel of God must be declared, and those who will not attend to the gracious message, must be shown that their state is dangerous. This should be seriously laid to heart by all that hear the gospel, lest their privileges only serve to increase their condemnation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Freely ye have received, freely give - That is, they were not to sell their favors of healing, preaching, etc. They were not to make a money-making business of it, to bargain specifically to heal for so much, and to cast out devils for so much. This, however, neither then nor afterward precluded them from receiving a competent support. See Luke 10:7; 1 Corinthians 9:8-14; 1 Timothy 5:18.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils—(The italicized clause—"raise the dead"—is wanting in many manuscripts). Here we have the first communication of supernatural power by Christ Himself to His followers—thus anticipating the gifts of Pentecost. And right royally does He dispense it.

freely ye have received, freely give—Divine saying, divinely said! (Compare De 15:10, 11; Ac 3:6)—an apple of gold in a setting of silver (Pr 25:11). It reminds us of that other golden saying of our Lord, rescued from oblivion by Paul, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Ac 20:35). Who can estimate what the world owes to such sayings, and with what beautiful foliage and rich fruit such seeds have covered, and will yet cover, this earth!

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 7,8. In these words he gives them power,

1. To preach the gospel.

2. To confirm the doctrine they preached to be of God by miraculous operations, healing the sick, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, casting out devils.

He bids them

go preach, Khrussete, Cry like heralds; something like Isaiah’s commission, Isaiah 58:1, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet. He teacheth them what should be the sum of their sermons,

The kingdom of heaven is at hand; the same thing which John Baptist preached, Matthew 3:2, which Christ preached, Mark 1:15, and which he directed the seventy to preach, Luke 10:9: not that they were to use no other words, but that all the words they used were to have this tendency, to declare that the time was now come, when God had fulfilled his promise of the Messiah, who was setting up his kingdom in the world, and to whose laws they were to be obedient. This doctrine they were to confirm by miracles, which he gives them a charge they should work freely, without receiving any reward for them, that the miracles being used to their private profit, might not lose their end, which was the confirmation of their doctrine.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Heal the sick,.... For so he had given them power to do, and this both for the confirmation of their doctrine, and the recommendation of them to men; for nothing could more evidently prove their mission to be divine, and their doctrine from heaven, or be more acceptable to men, than to "heal" their "sick" friends and relations, who were given up by physicians, and incurable by the art of man; and to do this without the use of medicines, either by a word speaking, or by laying on of their hands, or by anointing with oil, joined with prayer; and particularly to

cleanse the lepers, of which there were many in Israel, who otherwise could not get rid of that disorder, and by the law were deprived of many privileges, and advantages, which others enjoyed: and especially to

raise the dead, which had never been done before the times of Christ, since the days of Elijah and Elisha; and which must be allowed by all men to be more than human, and to require the arm of almighty power: and lastly, to

cast out devils, the sworn enemies of mankind, and who had taken possession of the bodies, as well as souls of multitudes in the Jewish nation; all which they are ordered to do, without taking any thing of the people, for so doing:

freely ye have received, freely give; which refers both to the working of miracles, and preaching of the Gospel. As they had these miraculous gifts freely imparted to them by Christ, they had them not of themselves, nor did they procure them at any charge, or expense of their's, or purchase them with their money, as Simon Magus impiously proposed to the apostles; so they were freely to make use of these wonderful powers, they were possessed of, for the relief of the distressed, without insisting upon, or receiving any thing for the same; a practice which was formerly disapproved and condemned in Gehazi, the servant of Elisha: and with respect to the Gospel, as the knowledge of it was freely communicated to them by Christ, and gifts qualifying them for the preaching of it, were of his mere grace and goodness bestowed upon them, so they were to dispense it without making a gain of godliness, or discovering in the least an avaricious disposition. Our Lord seems to have respect to a rule frequently inculcated by the Jews concerning teaching their oral law (g); which is this;

"in the place where they teach the written law for a reward, it is lawful to teach it for a reward; but it is forbidden to teach the oral law for a reward, as it is said, "behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me", &c. Deuteronomy 4:5. As I have "freely" learned, and ye have also "freely" learnt of me; so when ye learn posterity, , "teach them freely, as ye have learnt of me".''

Now what the Jews say of their traditions, Christ applies to the Gospel: in dispensing of which he would not have his disciples come behind them; but as they had freely received the Gospel from his lips; so they would as freely, as well as faithfully, make it known to others; and which no ways contradicts the maintenance of the Gospel ministers by the people; only forbids amassing wealth and riches by it, or preaching for sordid gain, or filthy lucre's sake: for otherwise it is Christ's own ordinance, that the preachers of the Gospel should live by it; and which is confirmed in the following verses.

(g) Maimon. Talmud Tora, c. 1. sect. 7. T. Bab. Nedarim, fol. 36. 2. & 37. 1. & Becorat, fol. 29. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Nedarim, c. 4. sect. 3. & in Pirke Abot. c. 4. sect. 5.

Geneva Study Bible

{3} Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

(3) Miracles are signs verifying the word.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 10:8-9. Δωρεὰν … δότε] with reference to the miraculous gifts just mentioned, not to the teaching, for which, as a matter of course, nothing was to be asked in return except the bare necessaries of life, Matthew 10:10 (1 Corinthians 9:4 ff.).

ἐλάβετε] refers back to Matthew 10:1.

μὴ κτήσησθε] you must not provide for yourselves.

The girdle, which holds together the loose upper robe, served the double purpose of keeping money as well, the different kinds of which are, in the order of their value, denoted by χρυσόν, ἄργυρον, χαλκόν. Rosenmüller, Morgenl. V. p. 53 f. Therefore εἰς τ. ζ. ὑ.: in your girdles, is depending on κτής.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 10:8. νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε. This clause is wanting in several Codd., including L[58], so often associated with [59] [60] in good readings. It is, however, too well attested to be omitted. It must either have found a place in the autograph, or it must have crept in as a gloss at a very early period. The evangelist’s aim seems to be to represent Christ as empowering the disciples to do the works He is reported to have done Himself in chaps. 8, 9. That purpose demands the inclusion of raising the dead as the crowning miracle of the group (raising of daughter of Jairus). Yet it is hard to believe that Jesus would give power to the disciples to do, as an ordinary part of their mission, what He Himself did only on one or two exceptional occasions. The alternatives seem to be either an early gloss introduced into the text, or an inaccuracy on the part of the evangelist. Meyer takes the former view, Weiss apparently the latter. We cannot take the phrase in a spiritual sense, the other clauses all pointing to physical miracles. This clause is not in the accounts of Mark and Luke. The seventy on their return (Luke 10:17) make no mention of raising the dead.

[58]Codex Regius--eighth century, represents an ancient text, and is often in agreement with א and B.

[59] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[60] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. cleanse the lepers] Leprosy is not classed with the other diseases. As especially symbolical of a sin-stricken man, the leper requires cleansing or purification.

raise the dead] These words are omitted in a large number of important MSS. but not in the two most ancient Codices.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 10:8. Ἀσθενοῦντας—δαιμόνια, sick—devils) An ascending gradation: cf. Matthew 10:1, where the highest grade is put first.—δωρεὰν, gratuitously) This is not inconsistent with the conclusion of Matthew 10:10. Hire is due for labour, but miracles and gifts of grace ought not to be sold.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - We have here the details of the orders summarized in ver. 1. The details are not given in Luke 9:1, 2 or Luke 10:9. Heal the sick, etc. According to the true order of these commands, solely physical ills are mentioned first in their partial (sick) and in their final effect (dead); then physical and ceremonial pollution (lepers), which forms a transition to the mention of ills primarily spiritual, even though they ultimately affect the body (devils). On the good that might be expected from their performing these miracles, cf. Thomas Scott (in Ford), "Men will never believe that we really intend the good of their souls, if they do not find that we endeavour to do them good, disinterestedly, in temporal things (John 4:15)." Freely (vide infra) ye have (omit "have," with Revised Version) received. Blessings of the kingdom, but especially authority and power for this work (ver. 1). Freely give. All that is needed to carry that authority into effect - whatever toil and energy in soul and body the occasion may demand. The clause comes in Matthew only, but comp. Acts 20:35. Observe, Christ's recognition of the tendency of human nature to traffic in the holiest things. Did Judas take the warning at all to heart? (For the thought, cf. Wisd. 7:13; Leviticus 25:37, 38.) Freely. Gratuitously (δωρεάν); comp. Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17; Romans 3:24 (on God's side); 2 Corinthians 11:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:8 (on man's side). Matthew 10:8