Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Which of you, by taking thought ('anxious solicitude') can add one cubit unto his stature, х heelikian (G2244)]? "Stature" can hardly be the thing intended here: first, because the subject is the prolongation of life, by the supply of its necessaries of food and clothing; and next, because no one would dream of adding a cubit-or a foot and a half-to his stature, while in the corresponding passage in Luke (Luke 12:25-26), the thing intended is represented as "that thing which is least." But if we take the word in its primary sense of 'age' (for 'stature' is but a secondary sense) the idea will be this, 'Which of you, however anxiously you vex yourselves about it, can add so much as a step to the length of your life's journey?' To compare the length of life to measures of this nature is not foreign to the language of Scripture, (cf. Psalms 39:5; 2 Timothy 4:7, etc.) So understood, the meaning is clear and the connection natural. In this the best critics now agree.