But whereunto shall I liken this generation?
It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their
fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have
mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor
drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and
drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of
publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. (Matt 11:16-19)
Commenting
on the relationship between “Wisdom” and Jesus, David L. Turner wrote the
following in (correctly) rejecting “Wisdom Christology” (i.e., that Jesus is
the embodiment of OT Wisdom):
The statement that wisdom (cf. 12:42; 13:54)
is vindicated by actions (11:19) probably refers to the righteous activities of
both John and Jesus, and perhaps their disciples also. Their actions prove
their wisdom. This wisdom language describing Jesus’ mission does not justify
the identification of Jesus as the metaphysical hypostasis of wisdom. Wisdom is
not used ontically but as a metaphor for Jesus’ and John’s respective
ministries. Wisdom is also portrayed as one of the chief virtues of Jesus’
disciples (cf. Matt. 7:24; 10:16; 11:25; 12:42; 13:54; 24:45; 25:1-13). (David
L. Turner, Israel’s Last Prophet: Jesus
and the Jewish Leaders in Matthew 23 [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015], 136)
Turner has an interesting note on the term ἐδικαιώθη
("justified") in v. 19:
N. Turner is probably
correct that ἐδικαιώθη should be understood as a gnomic aorist expressing
timeless truth. See his Syntax, vol.
3 of A Grammar of New Testament Greek,
ed. J. Moulton and W. Howard (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1963), 73. Luke’s
version of this logion has wisdom vindicated “by all its children,” not by its
deeds as in Matt. 11:19. Luke’s expression (cf. Sir. 4:11; Prov. 8:32-33)
likely refers to followers of Jesus, and Matthew’s to their actions. (Ibid.,
136 n. 25)
Some Protestant apologists tend to abuse Matt 11:19 (cf. Luke 7:35) to
support the concept that δικαιοω has a declarative meaning and use it to
downplay instances where it appears to support Latter-day Saint and other
soteriologies. On this, see:
