Quotes & Notes on:     Matthew 21:31   

• John Wesley's Notes:
   (No comment on this verse).
   

• The Fourfold Gospel:

  They say, The first. They gave the true answer and did not perceive that in so doing they confirmed a parable which condemned themselves.
  
  That the publicans and the harlots. The very worst representatives of the common people.
  
  Go into the kingdom of God before you. Rather than you.
  
  A man had two sons. The two sons stand for the Jewish rulers and the Jewish common people.
   

• Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:

  * did. Mt 7:21; 12:50; Eze 33:11; Lu 15:10; Ac 17:30; 2Pe 3:9
  * The first. 2Sa 12:5-7; Job 15:6; Lu 7:40-42; 19:22; Ro 3:19
  * Verily. Mt 5:18; 6:5; 18:3
  * the publicans. Mt 9:9; 20:16; Lu 7:29,37-50; 15:1; 19:9,10; Ro 5:20; 9:30-33 1Ti 1:13-16
   

• Robertson's Word Pictures:
   Go before you (proagousin). "In front of you" (Weymouth). The publicans and harlots march ahead of the ecclesiastics into the kingdom of heaven. It is a powerful indictment of the complacency of the Jewish theological leaders.
   

• William Burkitt's Notes:

   (No comment on this verse).
   

• Family Bible Notes:

   Openly wicked men are sometimes brought to repentance and salvation sooner than those who have been externally moral and professed a high regard for sacred things. Thus, those who appeared for a time to be first, are in reality last; and those who appeared to be last, are first.
   

• 1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
  They hurry to the kingdom of God and you go slowly, so that you should at least have followed their example. Mark then that this word, "go into", is improperly taken in this place because none of them followed Christ.
   

• People's New Testament Commentary:

    (No comment on this verse).
   

• Albert Barnes' Commentary:

    (No comment on this verse).
  
   

• Jamieson-Faussett Brown:

  They say unto him, The first--Now comes the application.
  
  Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go--or, "are going"; even now entering, while ye hold back.
  
  into the kingdom of God before you--The publicans and the harlots were the first son, who, when told to work in the Lord's vineyard, said, I will not; but afterwards repented and went. Their early life was a flat and flagrant refusal to do what they were commanded; it was one continued rebellion against the authority of God. The chief priests and the elders of the people, with whom our Lord was now speaking, were the second son, who said, I go, sir, but went not. They were early called, and all their life long professed obedience to God, but never rendered it; their life was one of continued disobedience.
   

• Spurgeon Commentary on Matthew:

   Jesus made the hypocritical ecclesiastics judges in a case which was indeed their own. He asked them, "Whether of them twain did the will of his father?" Only one reply was possible: They say unto him, "The first." It was clear that the first son, despite his rough refusal when he first heard his father's command, was after all the doer of the father's will. Then Jesus pointed out that the publicans and the harlots were like the first son; while the chief priests and elders of the people, with all their pretty professions, were deceitful and disobedient like the second son. They had professed great reverence for the divine Word; but when it came by John, they did
  not repent that they might believe him.. Open sinners, who had seemed to refuse the voice of God, did actually believe him, and so, by heeding John's ministry of righteousness, went into the kingdom of God before the more likely classes. What must these self-satisfied priests and elders have thought when they heard publicans and harlots placed before them?  Gnashing a their teeth, they planned murder in their hearts.
   

• Spurgeon Devotional Commentary:

   (No comment on this verse).
   

• Adam Clarke's Commentary:

    The publicans and the harlots] In all their former conduct they had said NO. Now they yield to the voice of truth when they hear it, and enter into the kingdom, embracing the salvation brought to them in the Gospel. The others, who had been always professing the most ready and willing obedience, and who pretended to be waiting for the kingdom of God, did not receive it when it came, but rather chose, while making the best professions, to continue members of the synagogue of Satan.

   

• Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:

   (No comment on this verse).