37 Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he would go out and spend the night on the mountain that is called Olivet.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
See the notes at Matthew 21:17.
Came early in the morning - He returned early from the Mount of Olives, and taught in the temple. Our Saviour did not waste his mornings in idleness or sleep. He rose early and repaired to the temple. The people, also, flocked to the sanctuary to hear him. This example is at once an encouragement to early rising and to the early worship of God. It is a reproof of those who spend the part of the day best fitted for devotion in unnecessary sleep; and it shows the propriety, where it can be done, of assembling early in the morning for prayer and the worship of God. Early prayer-meetings have the countenance of the Saviour, and will be found to be eminently conducive to the promotion of religion. The whole example of Jesus goes to show the importance of beginning the day with God, and of lifting up the heart to him for direction, for the supply of our wants, and for preservation from temptation, before the mind is engrossed by the cares, and distracted by the perplexities, and led away by the temptations of this life. Commencing the day with God is like arresting evil at the fountain; prayer at any other time, without this, is an attempt to arrest it when it has swollen to a stream and rolls on like a torrent. Let the day be begun with God, and the work of piety is easy. Let the world have the ascendency in the morning, and it will be likely to have it also at noonday and at evening.
And in the day time - Or, every day - τας ἡμερας. This probably relates to the four last days of his life already mentioned.
Abode in the mount - He taught all day in the temple, and withdrew every evening, and lodged in Bethany; a town at the foot, or on the declivity of the mount of Olives. See the note on Matthew 21:17.
And in the day time he was teaching in the temple,.... That is, Jesus, as the Persic version expresses it; his constant method every day, till the feast of passover came, was to go up to the temple, and there openly and freely preach the Gospel to the people, who resorted thither in great numbers, for that purpose:
and at night he went out; of the temple, and out of the city:
and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives; very likely to pray, both for himself and for his disciples, his time with them being short.
in the daytime--of this His last week.
abode in the mount--that is, at Bethany (Matthew 21:17).
Lodged in the mount . . . of Olives. At Bethany, I suppose, on the eastern slope, until the night he was betrayed. See Matthew 21:17.
Now by day - In the day time, he was teaching in the temple - This shows how our Lord employed his time after coming to Jerusalem: but it is not said, he was this day in the temple, and next morning the people came. It does not therefore by any means imply, that he came any more after this into the temple.
*More commentary available at chapter level.