Matthew 8:11,12 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And I say unto you— From this exalted pitch of faith found in a heathen, Jesus took occasion to declare the merciful purpose which God entertained towards the Gentiles, namely, that he would accept their faith as readily as the faith of the Jews, and seat them with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in heaven; while the children of the kingdom, that is to say, the members of the visible church under the Mosaic dispensation, who come short of living faith, should be shut out for ever. Though the phrase from the east and from the west is most probably proverbial, to express from all parts of the earth (see Luke 13:29.), yet it is remarkable, that the Gospel spread much more to the east and west of Judaea, than to the north and south of it. The words ανακλιθησονται μετα 'Αβρααμ, shall sit, or lie down with Abraham, whereby our Lord expresses the future happiness of the faithful Gentiles, signify properly, "to sit down at table with Abraham," &c. This is agreeable to the phraseology of Scripture, which represented the rewards of the righteous under the idea of a sumptuous entertainment; and though the joys of heaven be all of a spiritual kind, this metaphor needs not be thought strange; since, as Le Clerc observes, we can neither speak ourselves, nor understand others speaking, of our state in the life to come, unless phrases taken from the affairs of this life be made use of. Besides, the metaphor is not peculiar to the inspired writings. The Greeks represented divine pleasure under the notion of a feast. Empedocles, speaking of the felicity of virtuous men after death, says, "They live cheerfully at tables with the other immortals, free from the pains to which other men are subjected." Our Lord, by representing the Gentiles as lying down at the feast of heaven on the same couch withAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the founders of the Jewish nation, has disgraced the pride of the Israelites, who disdained to eat with Gentiles, though many of them, in point of morality, were far better than they. There is a great emphasis in the original of the 12th verse, where the punishment of those rejected from the kingdom is described. They shall not only be cast out,—that were very bad,—but they shall be cast out into darkness;—what can be worse? Behold, they shall be cast out into το σκοτος το εξωτερον, the very outer darkness: and how is this augmented by the next words, there shall be weeping, &c. The Greek word κλαυθμος signifies also the cries and holdings which sometimes accompany weeping; and the gnashing of teeth which is added here completes the description of rage and despair, See ch. Matthew 13:42; Matthew 13:50. Acts 7:54. It has been justly observed by many commentators, that this phrase of outer darkness, which is often used after comparing the kingdom of heaven to a banquet, contains a beautiful allusion to the lustre of those illuminated rooms in which such feasts were generally celebrated, as opposed to that darkness which surrounded those who by night were turned out; but it also sometimes goes yet farther, when the persons excluded are supposed to be thrown into a dark dungeon. Compare ch. Matthew 22:13 Matthew 25:30 and Jude, Matthew 8:13 and see Doddridge, Macknight, and Calmet.