Matthew 23:8-11 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But be not ye called Rabbi— The Apostles of Christ were to be very different, both in temper and conduct, from the Jewish teachers. They were to decline being called Rabbi, because the thing signified by it belonged solely to their Master, in whom all the treasuries of knowledge and wisdom are hid; and who for that reason is the only infallible director of men's consciences; also because they owed none of their knowledge to themselves, but derived it entirely from him; in which respect they were all brethren, and on a level. Further the Jewish doctors were accustomed to inculcate on their disciples, that existence, except it was improved and ripened by knowledge, was in a mannerno existence at all; and boasted that they who formed men's minds by erudition, gave them a real being; and for that reason were to be considered as their true parents. Hence they arrogantly assumed to themselves the name of fathers, to intimate the peculiar obligations which their disciples, but especially the proselytes from idolatry, wereunder to them for their existence, and for the advantages which accompanied it: the title of father in this sense our Lord absolutely prohibited his Apostles either from taking or giving, because it belongs only to God; for one is your Father who is in heaven. Life, with all its blessings, comes from God; and men wholly depend upon him: for which cause, all praise and thanksgiving should ultimately be referred to him. So that if any one teaches rightly, not the teacher, but the wisdom of God is to be praised, which exerts and communicates itself by him: and with respect to the title of master or leader, καθηγητης, which the Jewish doctors courted, the Apostles of Christ were not to accept, far less to solicit it; because in point of commission and inspiration they were all upon an equality. Neither had they any title to rule the consciences of men, except by virtue of the inspiration which they received from their Master, to whom alone the prerogativeofinfallibility originally belonged. Nevertheless, our Lord did not mean to say, that it is sinful to name men by the stations which they hold, or the relations that they bear in the world. He only designed to reprove the simplicity of the people, who offered high praises to their teachers, as if they owed all to them, and nothing to God; and toroot out of the minds of the Apostles the pharisaical vanity, which decked itself with honours properly belonging to God; but especially to keep them all on a level among themselves, that the whole glory of the Christian scheme might redound to him whose right it was. Withal he shewed them what that greatness was, whereof they were capable, and after which only they should aspire: it was a greatness arising from love and humility; a greatness diametrically opposite to that of the Scribes, Matthew 23:11. He that is greatest, or desires to be greatest, μειζων, alludes to the signification of the word rabbi. See Macknight, Heylin, and Wetstein.