But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
Parallel Translations
-
But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
-
other what wet ye out for to se? A man clothed in soofte raymet:? Beholde they that weare soofte clothing are in kynges howses.
-
But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that weare soft clothing, are in Kings houses.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Matthew 11:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 3:4 Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
- 2 Kings 1:8 They answered him, “He was a hairy man, and wearing a leather belt around his waist.” He said, “It’s Elijah the Tishbite.”
- Isaiah 20:2 at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
- Zechariah 13:4 It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive:
- 2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
- 1 Corinthians 4:11 Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.
- Revelation 11:3 I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 8 But what went ye out for to see?…
8 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
Ver. 8. A man clothed in softs?] ειματα ανηρ Which most men gaze at, go after, fawn upon. Hunc homines decorant, quem vestimenta decorant. Herein they resemble those dogs that kept Vulcan’s temple; of which Hospinian tells us that if any came to the temple with brave clothes, they would fawn upon them; but if in ragged, they would tear them in pieces. Such a vanity as this was crept into the Church, Jas 2:2. Fulgent fere monilibus, sordent moribus. Cato could say, Cultus magnam curam, magnam virtutis esse incuriam. The Baptist was not a man of that make. His heart and his habit were equally plain, simple. Buchanan seldom cared for a better outside than a rug gown girt close about him.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But what went ye out for to see?.... Since…
But what went ye out for to see?.... Since it was not any thing so mean as a shaking reed, or so grand as a man in gay clothing, pray what was it you went out to see?
A prophet? This was the truth of the matter, they expected to see a prophet, and they believed he was one; this was the common voice of the people; all held John to be a prophet. This made Herod afraid to put him to death, and the Pharisees to speak against his baptism: now, though this was giving him a great character, to believe and own him to be a prophet, yet it did not come up to his full character.
Read full note →
Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet; when they saw him, they saw not only a prophet, but one that was greater, and more excellent than any of the prophets that went before him: they prophesied of the Messiah at a distance, and in words not so clear, and easy to be understood; they spoke of him as to come, but he pointed him out with his finger, and declared that he was come; he saw him himself, and showed him to others; he saw the Spirit of God descending on him, and he himself baptized him; his office, as the harbinger of Christ, and the administrator of the ordinance of baptism to him, gave him a preference to all the prophets; and was such an one, as never any man was vested with but himself.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A man clothed in soft, delicate raiment - An…
A man clothed in soft, delicate raiment - An effeminate courtier, accustomed to fawning and flattery? You may expect to find persons of such a character in palaces; not in a wilderness.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. A man clothed in soft raiment?] A…
Verse 8. A man clothed in soft raiment?] A second excellency in John was, his sober and mortified life. A preacher of the Gospel should have nothing about him which savours of effeminacy and worldly pomp: he is awfully mistaken who thinks to prevail on the world to hear him and receive the truth, by conforming himself to its fashions and manners. Excepting the mere colour of his clothes, we can scarcely now distinguish a preacher of the Gospel, whether in the establishment of the country, or out of it, from the merest worldly man. Ruffles, powder, and fribble seem universally to prevail. Thus the Church and the world begin to shake hands, the latter still retaining its enmity to God. How can those who profess to preach the doctrine of the cross act in this way? Is not a worldly-minded preacher, in the most peculiar sense, an abomination in the eyes of the Lord?
Are in kings' houses.] A third excellency in John was, he did not affect high things. He was contented to live in the desert, and to announce the solemn and severe truths of his doctrine to the simple inhabitants of the country. Let it be well observed, that the preacher who conforms to the world in his clothing, is never in his element but when he is frequenting the houses and tables of the rich and great.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Clothed in soft raiment - The kind of raiment…
Clothed in soft raiment - The kind of raiment here denoted was the light, thin clothing worn by effeminate persons. It was made commonly of fine linen, and was worn chiefly for ornament. Christ asks them whether they were attracted by anything like that. He says that the desert was not the place to expect it. In the palaces of kings, in the court of Herod, it might be expected, but not in the place where John was. This kind of clothing was an emblem of riches, splendor, effeminacy, feebleness of character. He meant to say that John was a man of a different stamp - coarse in his exterior, hardy in his character, firm in his virtue, suited to endure trials and privations, and thus qualified to be the forerunner of the toiling and suffering Messiah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Clothed in soft, &c. That the Baptist was not…
Clothed in soft, &c. That the Baptist was not like the reeds, changeable by nature, the respect that the whole Jewish people paid him sufficiently evince. Our Redeemer, therefore, proceeds to shew that St. John was not changeable by his manner of life. Delicacies and effeminacy (the ordinary sources of fickleness of behaviour,) being found in the houses of kings, and the great ones of this earth, were far from being desired by the precursor. This he shewed to the world by his garments of camels’ hair, his habitation in the wilderness, his slender and insipid food of wild honey and locusts, and the prisons to which his constancy brought him. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxviii).
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Man clothed in soft raiment — Were you…
8. Man clothed in soft raiment — Were you attracted into the wilderness of Judea to see an effeminate courtier, who could not bear the severities of a desert or of a prison, as John now perhaps appears? Certainly not. The very direction you took shows the reverse. You would not have gone to the wilderness, but to the palace, perhaps of Herod, to find a soft dressed gentleman.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. A man clothed in soft raiment] Mr Plumptre…
8. A man clothed in soft raiment] Mr Plumptre (Smith’s Bib. Dic. i. 1166) suggests that there may be a historical allusion in these words. A certain Menahem, who had been a colleague of the great teacher Hillel, “was tempted by the growing power of Herod, and with a large number of his followers entered the king’s service … they appeared publicly in gorgeous apparel, glittering with gold.” (See Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr., on Mat_22:16.)
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) A man clothed in soft raiment?-Had they seen,…
(8) A man clothed in soft raiment?-Had they seen, then, one who shared in the luxury, and courted the favour of princes? No, not so, again. They that wear soft clothing, or, as in St. Luke’s report, “they that are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately,” are in kings’ houses. The words had a more pointed reference than at first sight appears. Jewish historians (Jost, Gesch. Jud. I. 259.) record how in the early days of Herod the Great a section of the scribes had attached themselves to his policy and party, and in doing so had laid aside the sombre garments of their order, and had appeared in the gorgeous raiment worn by Herod’s other courtiers. The Herodians of the Gospel history were obviously the successors of these men in policy, and probably also in habits and demeanour; and the reference to “kings’ houses” admits of no other application than to the palace of Antipas. We may trace, with very little hesitation, a vindictive retaliation for these very words in the “gorgeous robe” with which Herod arrayed Him in mockery when the Tetrarch and the Christ stood for one brief hour face to face with each other (Luk_23:11).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings"…
Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings" houses. Menahem the Essene was by the wish of Herod the Great made deputy to Hillel in the Sanhedrin, but afterwards left his office. "Whither did he go out? Abai said. He went out to destruction. Rabba said, He went out for the service of the king. There is also a Baraitha i.e. an "uncanonical" Mishna to this effect, that Menahem went out for the service of the king, and there went out with him eighty pairs of disciples clothed in Syrian robes" (Talm. Bab., "Chagigah," 16b, edit. Streane). It has been conjectured, though hardly on sufficient evidence, that our Lord was thinking of this ease; but the Talmudic passage at least illustrates the gorgeousness of the apparel of the courtiers, and suggests the luxury of living that St. Luke speaks of ("They which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings" courts"). It is, however, only fair to Menahem to say that Gratz ("Geschichte der Judaer," 3. p. 230, edit. 1877) is able to suppose that he merely went back again to his solitude.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 8. A man clothed in soft raiment? Were you…
8. A man clothed in soft raiment? Were you attracted into the wilderness of Judea to see an effeminate courtier? Had he been a pliant courtier he would have flattered Herod, and would not have been thrown into prison for his rebuke of sin in high places.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.