Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 13:52

"And he said unto them, Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." — Matthew 13:52 (ASV)

Therefore every scribe who is instructed for the kingdom of heaven — This verse is interesting as one of the very few passages in which our Lord compares His own work, and that of the Apostles after Him, to the work of the scribes in the Jewish schools. It is clear that He was regarded this way during His ministry—that people thought of Him as a Rabbi, as much as a Prophet or the Christ. This is evident from several facts: He was called by that name (or its equivalent, Master or Teacher) by both His disciples and others; He assumed the office of a scribe by interpreting the Scriptures in the Sabbath services (Luke 4:16); and He questioned the scribes in their own manner, as one of their order, asking, “Have ye never read?” (Matthew 12:3, Matthew 19:4, Matthew 21:16, and elsewhere).

And now He was training the disciples, “unlearned” as they were, to be His successors in that office. They too were sitting at the feet of a Gamaliel—of One greater than Gamaliel. But His method of training was of a completely different kind than that of the Masters of the Schools. It consisted not in minute comments on the words of the Law, not in the subtleties of an intricate and often revolting casuistry, and not in childish and fantastic legends. Rather, it consisted in the eternal laws of His Father’s kingdom and the manifold parables of those laws in the visible universe. In this way, He was educating them to be scribes of the kingdom of heaven.

Things new and old — Our Lord’s own teaching was, of course, the highest example of this union. There were the old, eternal laws of righteousness and the proclamation of the true meaning of all that every true teacher had included in the idea of duty and religion. But there were also new truths, such as His own mission as the Head of the divine kingdom, the future Judge of all people, and the work of the Spirit in regenerating and sanctifying. As the years passed, new facts—such as the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension—supplied the groundwork for new doctrines, and these also took their place in the storehouse of the well-instructed scribe.

But the words applied also to the manner no less than to the substance of the teaching. Now the old, familiar words of Lawgiver and Psalmist; now the gracious words such as no one had ever heard until then; now illustrations freely drawn, in proverbs or parables, from the world of nature or of humanity—these too were part of the scribe's treasure. In that union, the scribe of later times—every true teacher of the minds and hearts of people—may find the secret of both reverence for the past and courage for the future. As long as they bring forth out of their treasures “things new and old,” we may hope that religious conservatism will be more than the obstinate retention of a custom or a formula, and religious progress more than a reckless love of novelty for its own sake.