Matthieu 11:18

18 Car Jean est venu, ne mangeant ni ne buvant, et ils disent: Il a un démon.

Matthieu 11:18 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 11:18

For John came neither eating nor drinking
This and the following verse are an explanation of the foregoing "parable"; and this shows, that John and his disciples are the persons that mourned, of which his austere life was a proof: for when he "came", being sent of God, and appeared as a public preacher, he was "neither eating nor drinking"; not that he did not eat or drink at all, otherwise he could not have lived, and discharged his office: but he ate sparingly, very little; and what he did eat and drink, was not the common food and drink of men; he neither ate bread nor drank wine, but lived upon locusts and wild honey; he excused all invitations to people's houses, and shunned all feasts and entertainments; he abstained from all free and sociable conversation with men, in eating and drinking: and though the Scribes and Pharisees pretended to much abstinence and frequent fastings, yet they did not care to follow his very severe way of living, and lament, in answer to his mournful ditty; but in a calumniating way,

they say he hath a devil;
is a demoniac, a madman, one that is unsociable and melancholy; under a delusion of Satan, and influenced by him to abstain from proper food and company of men, under a pretence of religion.

Matthieu 11:18 In-Context

16 A qui comparerai-je cette génération? Elle ressemble à des enfants assis dans des places publiques, et qui, s'adressant à d'autres enfants,

17 disent: Nous vous avons joué de la flûte, et vous n'avez pas dansé; nous avons chanté des complaintes, et vous ne vous êtes pas lamentés.

18 Car Jean est venu, ne mangeant ni ne buvant, et ils disent: Il a un démon.

19 Le Fils de l'homme est venu, mangeant et buvant, et ils disent: C'est un mangeur et un buveur, un ami des publicains et des gens de mauvaise vie. Mais la sagesse a été justifiée par ses oeuvres.

20 Alors il se mit à faire des reproches aux villes dans lesquelles avaient eu lieu la plupart de ses miracles, parce qu'elles ne s'étaient pas repenties.