And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man : for thou regardest not the person of men.
Ver. 16. With the Herodians] i.e. Such as were of Herod's religion, as the Melchites, a kind of mongrel Christians in the East: so called of Melech, as one would say, of the king's religion, because they followed the decrees and examples of the emperors. Some think these Herodians were the same with the publicans, or toll collecters (so Origen and Cyril), whom the Pharisees took with them to our Saviour, as if the one exacted tribute, the other refused to pay, and both came to our Saviour, as to an impartial judge, to end the quarrel, and decide the controversy.
Master, we know that thou art true, &c.] Here is a fair glove, drawn upon a foul hand. "Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross," Proverbs 26:23. There are those that will smile in your face, and at the same time cut your throat. Squier, sent from Spain to poison Queen Elizabeth, anointed the pummel of the queen's saddle with poison covertly, and, as it were, doing something else, praying with a loud voice, God save the Queen.
That thou art true, and teachest the way of God] These all are high commendations and necessary qualifications of a teacher and instructor of others. These cony catchers tell the truth of Christ (for he was all this that they say of him and more), and yet they tell a lie, because they thought him not so, but spoke against their consciences. They thought, belike, to have tickled and taken our Saviour with their flatteries (as every wind will blow up a bubble), and so to have had what they would of him; but Christ was not for their turn. He was inadulabilis, unflatterable, and might better say than Politian did, Assentatiunculis quorundam, aut etiam obtrectationibus, non magis attollor aut deprimor, quam umbra mei corporis. I am no more lifted up, nor cast down with men's flatteries or slanders than with the shadow of mine own body. For I think not myself either longer or shorter at morning or at noon, because my shadow is so.