¹ W. C. Allen, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to S. Matthew (New York, 1913), 164.

² B. W. Bacon, Studies in Matthew (New York, 1930), 299.

³ G. E. P. Cox, The Gospel According to St. Matthew (London, c1952), 106.

⁴ F. V. Filson, A Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew (New York, c1960), 175–177.

⁵ G. A. McLaughlin, Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew (Chicago, 1909), 209.

⁶ W. F. Slater, St. Matthew (Edinburgh, n.d.), 223.

⁷ R. G. Bratcher and E. A. Nida, A Translator's Handbook on the Gospel of Mark (Leiden, 1961), 228.

⁸ A. M. Hunter, The Gospel According to St. Mark (London, c1953), 78.

⁹ V. Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark (London, 1952), 341–342.

¹⁰ Loc. cit.

¹¹ Op. cit., 78–79.

¹² A. H. MʼNeile, The Gospel According to St. Matthew (London, 1952), 223.

¹³ Loc. cit.

¹⁴ M. Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospel and Acts (Oxford, 1954), 101.

¹⁵ J. Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, new ed. by R. Gandell (Oxford, 1859). II, 227–228; cf. 297–298.

¹⁶ Loc. cit.

¹⁷ Op. cit., 78–79.

¹⁸ MʼNeile, 224.

¹⁹ Danby rendered Sheb. III.4: “Konam be the use I have of my wife if I have eaten to-day.” He says of Konam: “A word substituted for Korban (lit. ‘an offering,’ i.e. sacred as an offering dedicated to the temple), the usual term introducing a vow to abstain from anything, or to deny another person the use of anything” (H. Danby, The Mishnah [Oxford, c1958], 794). Although Danby recognized Konam as the usual term for introducing a vow, he did not recognize it as the sacred object on which the vow was taken. If the money the oath-taker had was as “sacred as an offering dedicated to the temple,” he would have been duty-bound and oath-bound either to give it to his parents or to leave it in the temple. In either case he would gain nothing by withholding it from his parents.

Sheb. III.4 is one of the few examples of an oath or vow that is nearly complete. Except for the omission of the negative, which was understood, this formula is not minced.

²⁰ Without the negative the consequences accepted would not be evil. I. Epstein, ed., The Babylonian Talmud (London, 1935), Sheb. 24a, rendered Sheb. III.4 freely thus: “I vow that my wife shall not benefit from me, if I have eaten today.” S. H. Blank, “Curse, Blasphemy, Spell and Oath,” Hebrew Union College Annual 23¹ (1950–51), 90–92, said that oath formulas in the Bible have been truncated for fear of the curse. Although oaths were usually minced more than Sheb. III.4, the omission of the negative probably reflects the same terror.

²¹ Danby, op. cit. 794.

²² ח.אלבק, ששה סךךי משנה, סדד נשים (Jerusalem, 1955), 149, has chosen the variant reading, שאיני, rather than שאני. He made no comment on his preferred reading, but interpreted the reading Danby accepted as follows: J. N. Epstein, Introduction to Tannaitic Literature (Jerusalem, 1957), 377, accepted שאבי as the reading of the oldest texts, rejecting שאיבי. He interpreted the reading he accepted, however, in much the same way Albeck and Danby did. His translation of Mt. 15:5 and Mk. 7:11 is: (p. 376. See further 377).

²³ Ned. II.1, 2; III.1, 2; IV.6; V.3; VI.1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10; VII.6; VIII.1, 6, 7; IX.2, 7, 8, 10; XI.3, 4, 6.

²⁴ For the use of ἄν after relatives and with the subjunctive, see W. Bauer (W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Chicago, c1957), 48, 211.

There are numerous examples of δ ἐάν in the LXX as translations of אשר. In Genesis alone, see 2:19; 34:11; 41:55. For other numbers, genders, or cases, see Gen. 15:14; 20:13; 21:22; 28:22; 42:38; 48:6. Other possibilities are οὖ ἐάν for (20:15), δς … ἄν for כל (Gen. 21:6), οὖ ἐάν for (28:15), and δ ἐάν for (30:33). See further E. Hatch and H. A. Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint (Graz, Austria, 1954), I, 360–361. ὅσα or ὅσα ἐάν are also frequent translations for אשד or כל אשד. See Hatch and Redpath, II, 1019–1021. These translations support the use of δ ἐάν to mean “whatever” as in Mt. 16:19; 20:4; Mk. 7:11; 10:35; Jn. 15:7; Gal. 6:7; Eph. 6:8; Col. 3:23; I Jn. 3:22; 5:15.

²⁵ This study supports the thesis of S. H. Blank, op. cit., pp. 73–95. Some OT passages Blank has examined are: Deut. 1:34–35; Ruth 1:17; I Sam. 3:17; 14:44; 20:13; 25:22; II Sam. 3:9, 35; 19:14; I Kings 2:23; 20:10; II Kings 6:31; Neh. 13:25; Job 22:40; 31:3, 10; Ps. 7:3–5; 95:11; 132:1–5; 137:5–6; Isa. 14:24; Jer. 22:26; Ezek. 35:6. Other important studies are: H. C. Brichto, The Problem of ‘Curse’ in the Hebrew Bible (Philadelphia, 1963); Greenberg, M., “The Hebrew Oath Particle Ḥay/Ḥē,” Journal of Biblical Literature, 76(1957), 34–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Murtonen, A., “The Use and Meaning of the Words Lebarek and Berakah in the Old Testament,” Vetus Testamentum 9(1959), 171Google Scholar; Reventlow, H. G., “Sein Blut Komme über Sein Haupt,” Vetus Testamentum, 10(1960), 311–327CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Rogers, V. M., “The Use of דאש in an Oath,” Journal of Biblical Literature, 74(1955), 272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁶ See “The Role of Purity in the Structure of the Essene Sect,” Revue de Qumran, 4(1963), 397–398.

²⁷ A more realistic example of the type of curse that might have been intended here is reported in Mak. 5b: “May I [never] see the comfort [of Israel],” i.e. “May I never see Israel liberated from Roman rule.” Later rabbis decreed that one could not take an oath that would break a commandment (Ned. II.2).

²⁸ λέγω ὑμῖν is not recorded in P⁴⁵W. Probably added to smooth out the rough Greek somewhat.

²⁹ See Blank, op. cit. 89, fn. 53.

³⁰ Passive was used in the original to avoid the use of the Divine name.

³¹ τοῦ προφήτου found only in 12:39.