I say unto which have followed me in the regenerathat you, ye tion, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or breth- 29 his house. But whatever it was, it was their all." Alford. 28. in the regeneration] As the kingdom of Heaven is used to express the condition of a Christian individual, of the Christian commonwealth, and of the redeemed above (xvi. 27, 28), so regeneration, being born again, refers to the act by which the individual soul, or the Christian community, are born into the kingdom of Heaven. Among the Stoics this word expressed the periodic renovation of the earth when in the spring it revived from its winter death. Josephus (Antiq. XI. 3. 9) speaks of the restoration of the Jews after the Captivity as "the regaining and regeneration of the country. The word is used only twice in the New Testament. In Titus iii. 5, it plainly refers to the new birth of the individual, when it is awakened to the higher thought and life of the Gospel. In the passage before us it refers to the same newness of life in its more extended influence among men, whether on earth or in heaven. "The first seat of the regeneration is the soul of man; but, beginning there, and establishing its centre there, it extends in ever wi dening circles." "Man is the present subject of the regeneration, and of the wondrous transformation which it implies; but in that day it will have included within its limits the whole world of which man is the central figure; and here is the reconciliation of the two passages, in one of which it is spoken of as pertaining to the single soul, in the other to the whole redeemed creation.' Trench's Synonymes of the New Testament. In the regeneration is certainly to be joined with the second, and not, as in our Bibles, with the first, clause of the sentence. when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel] The religion of Jesus is the kingdom of Heaven; where it comes, the Son of man comes in his kingdom; where it prevails, as it does in the thorough regeneration of the soul or of the race, there he, as the head of the new dispensation, is said to come in his glory, to reign or to sit upon the throne of his glory, and there, he now declares, the Apostles shall be associated with him, sitting on twelve thrones, and thus under him sharing the regal influence and authority which he is exercising over the souls of men, whether in this world or the world to come. Dr. Palfrey, in his Relation between Judaism and Christianity, pp. 98, 99, has well explained this passage: " As, adopting the phraseology in Daniel (vii. 13, 14), Jesus calls his establishment in a moral dominion, a sitting upon the throne of his glory,' so he tells his Apostles, who were to be the agents and representatives of his spiritual administration, that they too shall sit on thrones. And the figure is still further carried out. There were as many Apostles as there had been Jewish tribes; and this coincidence is brought to view in the language in which they are told that they are to have spiritual rule over God's people. The word judge here, as often in Scripture (comp. 1 Sam. viii. 5, Isa. xl. 23), means simply to govern, to exercise sway; not to administer law, but to give, to promulgate it, which latter function belonged strictly to the Apostolic office. The twelve Apostles together were to give law to collective Israel. Nothing is said of any such distribution of power as that each Apostle should have a tribe for his separate jurisdiction. One name of Israel regarded collectively was the twelve tribes, or the twelve-tribed nation. (Comp. Acts xxvi. 7.)" The twelve tribes of Israel mean here the ren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and But many that are first shall 30 shall inherit everlasting life. be last; and the last shall be first. people of God. When the Son of man shall sit (active voice) on his throne (genitive case), ye shall sit (middle voice) on twelve thrones (accusative). Greek scholars who are curious about such things have supposed that they saw in these nice distinctions of language an intimation of the different kinds or degrees of power which Jesus and the Apostles were respectively to exercise. When the Son of man shall sit, the active form expressing the act absolutely, united with the genitive, on his glorious throne, as the case denoting source or cause, the whole expression may seem to represent him as sitting independently on his throne, while the middle voice with something of a passive signification and the accusative case, the case of direct limitation, give in respect to the Apostles the idea of a more limited and dependent authority. This distinction is indicated by Stier and Alford. But it will not do to lay any stress on these nice distinctions of language, for such delicate shadings of expression may be turned in almost any direction by a fanciful or ingenious mind. The distinction here suggested may have been in the writer's mind. But in Luke xxii. 30, ye shall sit on thrones, thrones is in the genitive, and in Rev. iv. 2, where God is represented as sitting on his throne, sitting is put in the middle voice, and throne in the accusative case. While the preposition remains the same, the genitive, dative, and accusative cases are used indiscriminately (Rev. iv. 9, 10; v. 13; vi. 16; vii. 10; xi. 16). ye shall sit on twelve thrones] Figures of speech in the oriental languages are carried out more mi Where we nutely than with us. should say, "I am exposed to death among those who are like enraged lions," David in a far more picturesque and expressive way says: "My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spear and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword." (Ps. Ivii. 44.) No one thinks of construing this literally. Where we might describe the great and terrible calamities impending over a nation as a dark and tempestuous night overwhelming the land and shutting out the light of heaven, our Saviour in accordance with modes of expression natural to the East, and perfectly well understood as figurative, says: Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." (Matt. xxiv. 29.) So in the passage before us, where we might say, In the new order of things they shall be united with him in his reign over the saints in glory, Jesus, in language far more impressive and august, but not literal, says, "In the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the In this twelve tribes of Israel." way he sets before them their future condition of honor and greatness connected with the thought of the more than regal influence which they, as his representatives and Apostles, are to exercise in advancing and establishing his kingdom among men, and thus ruling over them. CHAPTER XX. 1–16. — THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 1-16. THIS has seemed to us the most difficult of all the parables. Its precise relation to what goes before it is obscure, and it is quite impossible to show the precise bearing of all the incidents, whatever explanation may be adopted. It is much easier to overthrow any one of the many interpretations which have been given, than to supply its place by another which is altogether satisfactory. Some, according to Trench, regarding the equal penny to all as the key to the parable, say that the lesson here taught is the equality of rewards in the kingdom of God. Others make, not the equal penny, but the successive hours at which the laborers are called, the prominent lesson of the parable. Some of these, as Origen and Hilary, suppose the different hours apply to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and lastly to the Apostles; others, that they apply first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles; while others suppose that they apply to the different periods of life at which the laborers enter on the work of the Lord. Luther, as quoted by Stier, says, "If we would interpret strictly, we must understand the penny of the temporal good, and the favor of the householder of the eternal good," and he sees quite clearly that the murmuring laborers trot away with their penny and are damned." Stier assents to this, and asserts that "the penny is certainly a temporal good, different from eternal life, only not of a mere outward and earthly nature," "the promise (1 Tim. iv. 8) of the life that now is." Alford thinks the salient point of the parable to be, that "the kingdom of God is of grace, and not of debt; that they who were called first and have labored longest have no more claim upon God than those who were called last." Its primary application, he thinks, is to the Apostles who had asked the question; and its secondary applications "to all those to whom such a comparison of first or last called, will apply," nationally to the Jews, individually to those whose call has been in early life, as well as to those who are first in point of talents, labor," &c. Mr. Livermore, in a few clear and truthful words, gives the immediate application of the parable. "Peter,” he says, "had inquired respecting the rewards of discipleship. The Saviour replies, that the Apostles would attain the highest honors, next to himself, and that all other disciples would receive abundant rewards, both in this life, and in that which is to come. But, he adds, do not suppose that the earlier converts under the Gospel dispensation will on that account be any more meritorious, or better rewarded, than those, who, being called later, manifest an equal fidelity and zeal." "The first as to time and privileges, may become inferior to the last, and the last become first.' In order to understand the parable, we must consider carefully its surroundings and the relation in which it stands to them. The words (xix. 30, and xx. 16) with which it is introduced and ended are so closely connected with it, that it plainly must be interpreted so as to be an illustration of them. Peter (xix. 27) asks, “What shall we have?” Jesus in the two following verses answers the question, and then answers the state of mind which had prompted the question, and which he evidently intended to rebuke. “Ye, and all who have made such sacrifices for me, shall indeed be rewarded. But while you seem to yourselves thus worthy of honor and reward, it is well for you to remember that many who are first shall be last, if in looking too much to their reward they allow in themselves a wrong disposition and temper of mind." To illustrate this characteristic of his kingdom, by which the first are often made last, and the last first, he relates a story of a householder, who in the morning engaged laborers for a specific sum, and afterwards at different hours of the day engaged also other laborers to go into his vineyard without any agreement as to the exact sum which they were to receive. When the day was ended, the laborers were called together, and those who came last received each one a penny, which was all that had been promised to those who came first. The selfish feelings of those who had labored all the day were excited; they expected for themselves a larger reward than had been agreed upon; and began to murmur because it was not given to them. Because of the envious, complaining spirit which they thus showed, they were rebuked and sent away with their penny, while the master evidently looked with more favor on those who had modestly received his bounty. "So," Jesus adds, repeating emphatically under a different form the expression with which the parable had been introduced, "so the last shall be first and the first last." The outward distinctions which come from time, birth, talent, or labors, and which are most apparent among men, must in the reckoning at the end give way to the higher distinctions which rest on the condition of the mind and character; so that often they who are first in time, office, gifts, accomplishments, or even the length and apparent usefulness of their labors, shall in the disclosures of that hour be found worthy only of a subordinate place, while others who were the least thought of here and who thought the least of their own merits, shall then be found among the first. But what construction is to be put upon the equal penny which every one received? It will not do to insist upon pressing every minor circumstance of a parable into the interpretation. But in this case the equality of the wages is brought forward so prominently that it can hardly be overlooked. All who were sent into the vineyard, were, as faithful laborers, the representatives of those who, through |