Matthew 10:36

36 your worst enemies will be the members of your own family.

Matthew 10:36 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 10:36

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
] His children, and his servants, such that he has either begotten and brought up, or are daily fed at his table, and maintained by him. This, with the former instances, are borrowed from ( Micah 7:6 ) and the times of the Gospel are set forth in the same dismal and black characters, as those in which the prophet lived; and much such a description do the Jews themselves give, of the times of their expected Messiah; which agreeing in words, as well as things, I cannot forbear transcribing.

``The government shall be turned to heresy (Sadducism), and there will be no reproof; the synagogue shall become a brothel house, Galilee shall be destroyed, and Gablan shall be laid waste, and the men of the border shall wander from city to city, and shall obtain no mercy; the wisdom of the Scribes shall stink, and they that fear to sin shall be despised, and truth shall fail; young men shall turn pale, or put to shame, the faces of old men, and old men shall stand before young men; the "son" shall deal basely "with his father, the daughter shall rise up against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and the enemies of a man shall be they of his own house": the face of that generation shall be as the face of a dog, and the son shall not reverence his father F15.''

All which characters, how exactly they agree with the generation in which Christ lived, is easy to observe.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 15. T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 97. 1. Zohar in Num. fol. 102. 3. & Raya Mehimna in ib. in Lev. fol. 28. 2. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 11. 4. Derech Eretz Zuta, fol. 19. 4.

Matthew 10:36 In-Context

34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law;
36 your worst enemies will be the members of your own family.
37 "Those who love their father or mother more than me are not fit to be my disciples; those who love their son or daughter more than me are not fit to be my disciples.
38 Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.