22 Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
They shall separate you - Meaning, They will excommunicate you, αφορισωσιν ὑμας, or separate you from their communion. Luke having spoken of their separating or excommunicating them, continues the same idea, in saying that they would cast out their name likewise, as a thing evil in itself. By your name is meant their name as his disciples. As such, they were sometimes called Nazarenes, and sometimes Christians; and both these names were matter of reproach in the mouths of their enemies. So James (James 2:7) says to the converts, Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called? So when St. Paul (in Acts 24:5) is called a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, the character of a pestilent fellow, and, that of a mover of sedition, is joined to it; and, in Acts 28:22, the Jews say to Paul, As concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against; and this is implied in 1-Peter 4:14, when he says, If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, i.e. as Christians; agreeably to what follows there in 1-Peter 4:16, If any man suffer as a Christian, etc. In after times we find Pliny, Epist. x. 97, consulting the Emperor Trajan, whether or no he should Punish the Name Itself, (of Christian), though no evil should be found in it. Nomen Ipsum, etiam si flagitiis careat, Puniatur. See Pearce.
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall (d) separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
(d) Cast you out of their synagogues, as John expounds in (John 16:2), which is the severest punishment the Church has, if the elders judge rightfully, and by the word of God.
Blessed are ye when men shall hate you,.... For the sake of Christ, and his Gospel:
and when they shall separate you from their company; either from civil conversation with them, as if they were Gentiles and uncircumcised persons; or from their religious assemblies, and so may have respect to that sort of excommunication in use, among the Jews, called or "separation": by which persons were not only excluded from the congregation, but from all civil society and commerce: such a person might not sit nearer to another than four cubits, and this continued for thirty days; and if not discharged then, he continued thirty more (t):
and shall reproach you: as heretics, apostates, and enemies to the law of Moses, as the Jews did reproach the Christians;
and cast out your name as evil; or "as of evil men": as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it: this may have respect to the greater sorts of excommunication, used among them, called "Shammatha" and "Cherem", by which a person was accursed, and devoted to destruction; so that our Lord's meaning is, that the should be esteemed and treated as the worst of men, and stigmatized in the vilest manner they were capable of:
for the son of man's sake; not for any immorality committed by them, but only for professing and, preaching that the Messiah was come in the flesh, and that Jesus of Nazareth was he; and that he who was the son of man, according to his human nature, was, the Son of God according to his divine nature.
(t) Vid. Maimon. Talmud Tora, c. 7. sect. 4, 5, 6.
separate you--whether from their Church, by excommunication, or from their society; both hard to flesh and blood.
for the Son of man's sake--Compare Matthew 5:11, "for MY SAKE"; and immediately before, "for righteousness' sake" (Luke 6:10). Christ thus binds up the cause of righteousness in the world with the reception of Himself.
*More commentary available at chapter level.